In the Central Mountains, 600 kilometers east of Red Mountain, two young men wrapped in thick fur coats and carrying backpacks were walking through the dense forest.
"Brother, tell me what we can get this time." A young man who looked about fourteen or fifteen years old, his face shining with excitement, ran back and forth among the rugged rocks and slippery tree roots.
"Stop running around and save some energy. We can buy some mushrooms, dried fruits and the like here. Sometimes there are also medicinal materials. If we catch up with them and pick up some good things and sell them, we will have a better life this year."
"His brother Suikoni is not very old, but his weather-beaten face already has wrinkles. In his heavy backpack is a small clay pot with a note with the word salt attached on it. There is also a
A few hatchets and a little cloth were the capital he used to trade. In this self-sufficient place, mountain villagers prefer these things.
The elder brother and his younger brother walked easily on this road that he walked several times every year. It was close to the edge of the mountainous area and there were no large monsters that would threaten people. It would be very dangerous if he went further into the mountains.
There are no people living in those precarious places. As I walked, my brother felt that there seemed to be something different in this forest. He looked carefully but found nothing.
"Come back! Something's not right here." The elder brother called back his younger brother who was still running happily with a serious expression. He took off his backpack, took a hatchet in his hand, and he and his younger brother each took one. The younger brother picked up the hatchet and then
Realizing that what his brother said was true, he also became serious.
"Brother, should we continue to move forward or withdraw now?"
The elder brother hesitated for a moment: "After climbing this slope, we will reach Kas Village. We'd better go and have a look first."
The two of them held their knives and advanced slowly and cautiously. They were now much more tired than before. After a while, sweat appeared on their heads. When they crossed the pass between the two mountains, they could vaguely see Cass on the mountainside.
When they reached the village, they breathed a sigh of relief. A cool mountain breeze blew on them, making them both shiver.
"Let's go down quickly. You'll get sick if you stay here for too long."
The two walked down the pass along an obviously renovated road and came to the south-facing hillside.
Kas Village is not a very big village. It has about 100 people and about 20 houses built on the mountain, hidden among the trees and farmland. A shallow stream runs through the village, or in other words, the village is leaning on this stream.
Is it more appropriate to exist instead of a stream?
The two of them walked across a single-plank bridge. "Hey, why didn't Erhuang call out today?"
"Who is Erhuang?"
"Oh, it's the dog at the entrance of the village."
While talking, the two of them turned the corner of the room, and suddenly, a collapsed fence appeared in front of them.
"Hierro! Hierro!" There was silence, no one answered. Listen carefully, there is no sound in the whole village. Looking to both sides, there is no one and no smoke from the stove. This strange silence envelopes this area.
, the village was like a dead beast, lying so quietly. The hairs on both of them stood up, and cold sweat could not stop breaking out. The elder brother turned back and whispered: "Follow me, don't get separated.
What the hell is going on this time?" My brother's face looked as if he was about to cry in the next second. He gritted his teeth and nodded desperately.
The elder brother held the knife in front of him and led his younger brother around to the main door. The main door no longer existed. The torn door panels fell to the ground. He walked into the dark door and searched nervously.
After going around, he didn't see the scene he was most afraid of. There was no body in the house. Before going out, he raised his head and looked at the beams. "Hey, why is Hierro's bacon gone?"
Now was not the time to worry about bacon. He and his brother hurried into the village. The hens that used to wander on the road, the big dog lying at the door and yawning, the villagers chopping firewood, and the women washing clothes were all gone.
The thing that was moving was the creek flowing along the center of the village. The walls of each house were smashed open, the broken doors, the windows that turned into black holes, and the collapsed fences reminded him of what happened to this place.
An attack. Although he didn’t know what it was, he was attacked. But the traces were conclusive. After looking at several houses in a row, he still found nothing. It seemed that when something passed by this place, all the living creatures were taken away.
It's like eating it all.
There was a fear in his heart, and he did not dare to stay overnight. He picked up the torch he saw on the roadside and handed another one to his brother: "We can't stay here, let's leave quickly."
The two people hurriedly returned the same way. It was getting dark, and a silence that was more terrifying and eerie than the roar of wild beasts appeared. In such an environment, he felt that his hearing had become very keen, and he felt that
He heard the whistling of the wind, the crackling of burning torches, the crunching of dead branches, the breathing of himself and his brother, and he even felt that he heard the sound of a heartbeat, but there was no sound of any living thing. For a long time
The tension made the two of them exhausted. The younger brother couldn't hold it in anymore: "Brother, let's take a break."
He looked at his brother's tired and pale face and had no choice but to nod.
Suddenly, there was a gust of wind. Before he could turn around, he was knocked backwards by a huge force. The salt in the jar on his back flew out and sprinkled all over his face. When he raised his head, he saw
A strange living creature that he had never seen or heard of jumped towards the younger brother. The younger brother was frightened, and it was not until the monster bit his shoulder that he let out a shrill scream.
He threw off the backpack, stood up, and used all his strength to swing the hatchet in his hand and hit the strange monster on the head. With a click, the monster struggled for a while, and the brother was thrown out by the huge force and had no time to pull it out.
The knife was stuck on its head.
"It's over, this one hasn't even been hacked to death, he's dead!"
The monster rushed towards him, and he closed his eyes, preparing to welcome death.
The smell of blood rushed to his face. It was wet.
It took him a while to realize: "Hey, why am I not dead?"
He opened his eyes and saw a strange man standing in front of him. Behind him was a monster that had been broken from the neck.
"Ah! I'm saved. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" My brother was already excited and incoherent.
"Go and see your brother first. There should be hope." After saying this, the man picked up the torch that fell on the ground and walked over.
The elder brother hurriedly got up and ran towards his younger brother. The weird man wearing a hooded cloak had already squatted down. He suddenly spoke and said in a clear and clear voice like an oriole: "It's not hurt. Bandage it and go back to find your human body."
Just let the priest treat it and it will be fine."
The elder brother stretched out his hand to cover his younger brother's bleeding wound, and smiled bitterly: "How can a priest be seen by ordinary people like us?"
"It shouldn't be. The priests I've met before are quite easy-going. By the way, it hasn't been many years? What are you doing here?"
"I'm going to Kas Village ahead to exchange for some mushrooms, dried fruits or something."
"Then why don't you live somewhere and have to travel all night?"
"Kas Village is gone. We don't know what happened. No one is there, and there are no living creatures. We were so scared that we came out all night."
"Kas Village is gone? That's really bad. Then do you know where to find your human high officials?" The weirdo raised a strange question.
"I, I don't know. Ah! By the way, when I went to Hongshan to buy hatchets, I saw a lot of knights there."
"Where is Hongshan?" This question made my brother completely stunned. The farthest place a villager born in the eastern plateau has ever been is Hongshan, which is three days away from his village. Let alone places farther away,
I haven't even heard of it. I can't give correct guidance at all.
"Forget it," the weirdo sighed: "You will be my guide and take me there, and the reward will be that I cure him."
"Okay, okay, I agree!" My brother nodded quickly.
The weirdo went around with a torch and collected some strange things and came back: "Crush this and apply it on the wound, it will stop the bleeding immediately. We can't stay here for long, let's leave quickly."