The platoon leaders twisted their bodies like evil ghosts that had regained their freedom.
The twisted arms are firmly supported on the ground, and the reversely bent legs are trembling slightly, seeming quite excited.
The slender body, set off by the equally slender limbs, is not abrupt, but inexplicably harmonious.
Under the tattered clothes, you can see the sharp edges of the spine, almost breaking the skin.
The elongated face had a strange smile, and the severely deformed skull swayed slightly along with the body.
The ring emits a blazing white light, illuminating these hideous-looking creatures.
Just now, these guys were huddled in the corner, and nothing unusual could be seen.
In fact, they wrapped their limbs around their bodies and buried their heads.
Wang Jin stood aside, tapping his fingers lightly on the handle of the gun, ready to attack at any time.
It has been a total of five years since I first fell into a ghost story scene when I was twelve years old.
Wang Jin has never seen strange things.
But this is indeed the first time I have seen something like Da Paitou.
This kind of thing that looks very similar to humans, but is obviously not the same species, will make people feel deeply disgusted from the bottom of their hearts.
The uncanny valley effect.
Of course, Wang Jin would not do anything to others just because of disgust in his heart.
He was on guard because he was just worried that these guys would suddenly attack him.
"Don't worry, we just look scary."
As if knowing that he would scare Wang Jin, Liu Shu quickly turned his head and spoke to comfort him.
In addition to Da Paotou who was killed by Wang Jin, there was also an outsider named Wei Shanhe.
The third row leader should be the strongest among the prisoners and has become the backbone of these people.
At this moment, he was staring at Wang Jin and speaking softly.
"We mean no harm."
Despite the severely deformed face, one can still see full sincerity in his eyes.
"Tsk...it's hard to say."
The young man shrugged, his hand still not taking off the shotgun.
"You didn't treat me lightly, that time in the ancestral hall."
"To deal such a heavy blow to an ordinary person..."
Wang Jin's words stopped abruptly, but the meaning was self-evident.
He still remembered the crack of mist that was torn in the middle of the tablet.
They cursed each other as soon as they met, and then started taking action without saying anything.
If he didn't know that the people at the head of the queue were good people who volunteered to sacrifice their lives, Wang Jin would have taken action long ago.
"Ordinary people?"
Liu Shu was stunned for a moment, then put his head in front of Wang Jin and twitched his nose slightly.
Like a wild animal recognizing the scent of its cubs.
The other platoon leaders also looked shocked and tried to follow suit.
Wang Jin's complexion became darker and darker.
Before Alice could hit her head, Willow wisely stepped back.
"I'm really...sorry."
"I thought it was the immortal family who had the ability to reach this point, not such a young child."
Willow crawled back a few steps and lowered his head.
The other platoon leaders also joined him in saluting Wang Jin.
"Worth admiration."
"cough."
Wang Jin couldn't get angry after being praised for no reason. He sighed and motioned to Liu Shu to continue.
The latter shook his head up and down and spoke again.
"As you can see, we are the meanest prisoners."
"Only Wei Shanhe can open the crack. Sometimes it's him on the other side of the crack, and sometimes it's the villagers."
"We sometimes forget about this, I'm really sorry."
The willow tree slowly lowered its head again.
Unlike their scary appearance, these people are surprisingly polite.
"Weishanhe..."
Wang Jin muttered the name.
He noticed that every time he mentioned this person, the leaders would become uncomfortable.
"He is a traitor."
Willow gritted his teeth, his voice filled with anger.
"Disgusting, a villain even more disgusting than Peng Hai."
"That's not a human being! It's disgusting, it's so fucking disgusting."
"Bah! Saying his name makes you dirty."
When Wei Shanhe was mentioned, the leaders of the group immediately became excited, as if such a large underground prison could not contain them.
"Elaborate."
Wang Jin didn't show any expression on his face, as if he had some guesses about the result.
He knew that Wei Shanhe's purpose of coming here was not simple, and most likely it was for rare objects.
But Wei Shanhe's status in the village is not low, even above all others.
Such a person is so unbearable in the eyes of other leaders.
The reason...is hard to say.
Wang Jin sat down slowly and looked at Liu Shu's increasingly distorted face.
"call."
Willow took a breath and her expression softened a bit.
"The traitors we mentioned at the beginning were not only Peng Hai, but also Wei Shanhe."
"Although there is no clear evidence, we all know it."
"What we are today is all because of him, an outsider."
Willow's elongated mandible slowly closed, and the teeth creaked from the bite.
Wang Jin reached out and patted the willow tree, signaling the other person to calm down.
Maybe because he stayed in this kind of place all year round, maybe because he was too excited, the third row leader didn't speak coherently.
Although Wang Jin has plenty of time, he still doesn't want to waste it here.
"I'll tell you my reasoning first, and you can add to it later."
After thinking for a moment, Wang Jin slowly spoke and talked about the clues he had collected along the way.
"Peng Hai was the first leader and the strongest, but he lost his life in a confrontation with the Mud Dragon King."
"This is the first contradiction."
"Judging from the current situation, he faked his death in order to cooperate with the group of people behind the Mud Dragon King."
"Looking at it this way, the Mud Dragon King was created by a Nanyang mage."
Wang Jin clenched his fists, trying to warm his cold palms.
"When I entered the ancestral hall, I saw that the names on the second row of heads had been dug out with their fingers."
"Obviously, you are very angry."
When Wang Jin said this sentence, he did not use a question, but an affirmative sentence.
The platoon leaders nodded and gave a thumbs up with their long, dusty palms.
Their eyes were filled with admiration.
For these honest people who have been fishing all their lives, it is remarkable that Wang Jin can say this based on mere speculation.
Liu Shu opened her mouth, intending to take over Wang Jin's conversation.
Unfortunately, he didn't say anything at all.
"call…"
The young man took a breath and prepared to continue.
Details can often explain a lot. From that moment on, Wang Jin had some guesses in his mind.
"After the death of the first platoon leader, the second platoon leader came here and took the initiative to help deal with the Mud Dragon King, and lost his life."
"And every position starting from the third platoon leader has not replaced Wei Shanhe who is above his head."
"It means there are some things that you don't understand until you get here."
"This shows that he is related to the Nanyang Master, but I didn't see him on the road."
"Wei Shanhe is missing."
Wang Jin stretched out his hand and gestured.
"Every leader since then has never made the same achievements as Wei Shanhe, and Huajiang Village has declined because of this."
The leaders nodded with complicated expressions.
Wang Jin, who had only been here for a day or two, knew more about what had happened in the village than the leaders.
Something seems to be wrong.
Snapped!
Wang Jin clapped his hands.
"The time has been pushed to now."
"Song He's father disappeared, and I came here to save Song He."
"This is what happens in the village."
Wang Jin's eyes flickered, and his calm eyes seemed to span time, reflecting the past more than ten years ago.
"Let's turn our attention to the underground river and look at the timeline of the Nanyang Master."
"Since the beginning of the Nanyang Fight, this group of people have been here and secretly conducted experiments for some reasons."
"With the help of the baby-headed and belly-corpse god, people can be turned into monsters."
Looking at the platoon leaders who were gnashing their teeth, Wang Jin nodded secretly.
These people were probably transported here directly. Even if they saw the suffering villagers on the road, they couldn't do anything.
For this group of good people who voluntarily sacrificed their lives for others, it was a rather terrifying punishment.
After patting Liu Shu's shoulder, Wang Jin spoke again.
"I almost killed all these monsters along the way."
"Think carefully about their species... spiders, fish, snakes."
"These things all lay eggs."
Wang Jin pointed at the distance.
The leaders of the platoon, who had been listening carefully, turned their heads, but were disappointed in the narrow terrain.
They didn't notice that they, who were supposed to be sharing information, unknowingly became Wang Jin's audience.
"The red ball on the mural occupies such a large area and should be the key information."
"Looking at it now, it should also mean 'egg'."
"The girl wants to remind me."
Wang Jin narrowed his eyes when he thought of the snake-body girl whose head was decapitated by his sword.
"Those Nanyang wizards want to create some kind of creature from scratch."
"Something... egg-laying."
Wang Jin knocked his head and glanced at the leader of the queue who was looking at him with admiration.
"When I get here and see these successful 'samples' of yours, I probably understand."
"The reason why it was successful is that...the leaders of the queue were all victims of the Mud Dragon King."
The young man held up his hands and breathed a sigh of relief.
"From the moment I saw the Tangled Dragon, I wondered how it was possible for a human body to have scales."
"Looking at it now, this phenomenon is exactly what Master Nanyang wants to see."
"Maybe spiders are a distraction, but..."
"Fish, snake, scales, you guys."
"There's something else I'm looking for."
Wang Jin took a deep breath.
"I know this answer is outrageous, but it keeps lingering in my mind."
"Eliminate all false options, and whatever remains is the truth, no matter how bizarre it is."
"so."
Wang Jin sighed, faced the astonished eyes of the people in the queue, and spoke slowly.
"These Nanyang lunatics want to create a dragon."
"…Ah? Ah???
"This...how is this possible..."
The leaders' eyes widened.
Weren't you still talking about the little red ball one second? Why did you jump to the dragon the next second?
When they first heard Wang Jin's reasoning, they felt that this young man was really smart.
After hearing what happened, they felt that this kid was extremely smart and could be called the reincarnation of Zhuge Liang.
But the further they go, the more they think Wang Jin is crazy.
"No, it's very possible."
Willow narrowed his eyes and whispered softly.
"With that thing nearby, it's not surprising that they would have such thoughts."
"Yeah...Willow."
Wang Jin smiled and added an accent to the word "Liu".
Liu Shu was stunned for a moment, and an inexplicable expression flashed across his twisted face.
Wang Jin shrugged, ignored it, and spoke again.
"For some reason, the Nanyang Master wanted to make a dragon."
"But the Mud Dragon King only floats up from the downstream once a year, and it doesn't become more frequent because of the ideas of these crazy people."
"That is to say, the Mud Dragon King does not completely listen to them."
"This is a third-party force."
Wang Jin snapped his fingers.
"I just said that Wei Shanhe disappeared because he was looking for the person behind the Mud Dragon King."
"And I didn't find him here, so..."
"Yes, he is in Chenjiaweizi."
Willow nodded, her voice even trembling.
The same was true for the other leaders. There were even one or two who looked at Wang Jin more like they were looking at some evil god.
Accepting so much information at once is a challenge for any of them.
The essential…
Is this relationship reversed?
The person who received too much information and then stood there blankly should be Wang Jin, right?
"Huh...I finally figured it out."
Wang Jin nodded slowly.
The three water sources correspond to the three forces.
He knew that his reasoning was correct.
Rainwater, well water, muddy water.
Village, Mud Dragon King, Nanyang Master.
What Wang Jin has to do now is to match these things one by one.
So the young man sighed and glanced at the front rowers with stupid faces.
"Is the well water yours?"
"Yes, the ancestral hall exists to protect the well water."
The leaders responded quickly without any hesitation.
Protecting the villagers' last source of clean water is one of the few things they can do.
"oh?"
Wang Jin raised his eyebrows.
Only Weishanhe can open the mist crack.
In other words, if you want to defend the well, you need the help of this traitor.
Although he couldn't understand it, Wang Jin still nodded.
"River water and rainwater...these two things seem to be related."
"The Nanyang Master and the Mud Dragon King should have a cooperative relationship, right?"
Wang Jin asked again.
He wasn't just talking randomly.
The liquid that flows out when Long Hand dies is a mixture of dark red blood and muddy water.
Mud water is river water, Wang Jin knew this from the beginning.
That blood...
Wang Jin gritted his teeth, seeming to think of some bad memories.
He remembered that Song He collected a lot of rainwater in the coffin, and that the thing would turn into dark red blood after being left for a day.
The smell is extremely fishy and doesn't make people feel good.
"We don't know much about this...but the river water at the door used to be very clear. It only became like this more than ten years ago."
"That's when we started fishing."
Willow thought and spoke.
He was the only one who could barely follow the train of thought and understand what Wang Jin wanted to ask.
Others have completely given up thinking and just follow "yes, yes, yes" no matter what Wang Jin says.
They even began to regret why they had not met Wang Jin a few years earlier.
With this kid here, let alone escaping from the hands of the Mud Dragon King.
Even if you want to know whether the Mud Dragon King likes to eat coriander, Wang Jin can reason it out for you.
"Um."
Wang Jin ignored what others were thinking and nodded slowly.
The Nanyang Master's stronghold is here, but they also need drinking water, so they don't use the well water.
This group of people live underground all year round and are unlikely to affect rainwater.
In other words, they correspond to river water.
"Master Nanyang has polluted the river water into muddy water..."
Wang Jin calculated the time briefly and found that he could just match it.
"At the end, the rain corresponds to the Mud Dragon King."
"It also corresponds to Wei Shanhe, maybe there is something else."
"After all, it is a liquid with two faces, so it is normal for it to be special."
After thinking about this, the young man patted his forehead, as if he suddenly remembered something, and looked at the stunned leaders.
"I remember that there was something wrong with the soul seats in the second row. The names corresponded one to one, but the number was one off."
"Do you have any idea?"
"Well...Xiao Yao."
Willow turned her head.
"I was fine when I left."
A slightly thinner figure spoke.
He was a villager elected last year, Song He's predecessor.
"Well...it just became like this recently."
Wang Jin rubbed his hands gently.
"last question."
"We didn't even answer a few questions..."
The people in the queue were muttering and holding their breath, as if they were participating in an interview seriously.
"How did the Mud Dragon King kill people?"
"call..."
"Oh my god..."
After Wang Jin finished these words, the leaders of the queue took a breath and felt relieved.
Their current mood is like taking online classes for a semester and suddenly being taken to the final exam.
When I was almost going crazy after being tortured by the perverted questions in the past, I suddenly found the last big twenty-point question, which asked what one plus one equals.
"Finally we have a meeting."
"I thought I was stupid."
"Finally he encountered something he couldn't reason about...The sky has eyes, the sky has eyes!"
The leaders of the platoon murmured softly, almost crying.
Wang Jin smiled.
He knew that the leaders wanted to use clues to repay the kindness of regaining their freedom.
And having figured out most of the things myself, these overly kind guys felt a little guilty.
"First, it's the haunting dragon. This thing really hurts."
"In the end, if you can climb directly to the top of your head, you will be useless."
One of them pointed to the scars on his body, and then pointed to the person beside him.
"This kid was tortured for nearly ten days."
"I was lucky. The Mud Dragon King entered the house directly and left in one day."
"Let me tell you!"
The person being pointed at snorted coldly.
"The Mud Dragon King will slowly approach when he enters the house. At this time, the person has been tortured to death and cannot run away."
"Why else would the haunting dragon have lost its legs in the first place? It's just because of this."
"cough."
Willow coughed lightly.
The man just now reluctantly shut up and walked aside.
"The haunting dragon loses its ability to move, and the mud dragon king takes the person away."
"take away?"
Wang Jin raised his eyebrows.
"That's right."
Willow gestured to himself.
"When the Mud Dragon King approaches the front of the queue, it will break into pieces and then cover the body dragon, wrapping the whole person."
"Like an...egg."
"This is why it will hurt you to death after you break the Mud Dragon King... The Haunting Dragon will think you are on your last day."
"After everyone is covered, the Mud Dragon King will disappear that night."
"Some said it disappeared after being exposed to the rain, while others said it was moved away by black air."
"We don't know much about these things, after all..."
Willow shrugged and said no more.
"I have a guess."
"Don't listen to him, listen to me!"
The leaders of the queue were chattering away, and the originally silent underground prison became noisy.
——
"Um?"
The courtyard of the terraced house.
Song He leaned on a crutch and poked his head out of the house.
Maybe because Wang Jin stopped the Mud Dragon King forcefully in the yard, his Haunting Dragon became much better.
The wound that was about to reach his chin no longer worsened, which made Song He feel a lot more energetic.
"Why do you always hear noises in the yard...Shui Sheng? Are you awake?"
Song He hesitated to speak.
There was silence.
"That's weird... I may have heard wrong."
Song He patted his bald head and turned back to the house.
Bang, bang, bang.
Just a moment after he left, the Mud Dragon King in the yard shook again.