61: Chapter 61: The Festival of Sacrifice (Part Six)

"Blech..."

"Gag... ugh..."

"Quick, someone come quickly..."

Linlin called out weakly.

"What's going on? What's all this noise so early in the morning!" A room on the first floor opened, and it was that short man again, his face full of impatience.

Dammit, he opened his eyes first thing in the morning only to find the surroundings weren't right.

The whole room was covered in cobwebs, and there was a musty smell, seemingly mixed with the scent of decay.

The room door opened again, and the figure of the Boss appeared.

"Boss!"

The man nodded.

At a glance, the furniture was all dilapidated and crooked. Not far from the door, Linlin was crouched over, retching.

The man's face was grim; he hadn't expected to be caught off guard like this. They had spent the night in this dilapidated place.

At this time, another door opened, revealing Zhang Yan and another woman, both of their faces tense.

None of them had expected to see this upon waking up.

Looking at the whole room, it seemed as if no one had lived there for a long time.

Zhang Yan instantly remembered the Old Woman's voice from last night.

This place used to be the Village Chief's house.

Then where was the Village Chief?

Why had the house fallen into such a state of ruin now?

"What happened at the door?" Zhang Yan's voice asked.

"Look at the floor!"

Zhang Yan followed his hand and looked at the floor; there were bloodstains everywhere, extending all the way to the door.

"It looks like there's a corpse on the ground over there," the short man said in a low voice.

—

At the door, the two girls, Xie Hong and Linlin, were huddled tightly together, their faces pale, their backs to the corpse outside the door.

Song Hao and Jiang Meimei had not yet appeared, and at this moment, no one was paying attention to them.

The two boys nearby were also deathly pale.

Trench Coat Boss and Zhang Yan stepped forward to examine the corpse on the ground.

The corpse was covered in bite marks, with no part of her body left intact; the exposed skin was mangled and bloody.

"Her internal organs have also been completely devoured." Zhang Yan crouched down to carefully observe the marks on the corpse.

"There are bite marks and scratches on the neck." Zhang Yan looked up at Trench Coat Boss.

Seeing him nod, Zhang Yan stood up and said to the young people, "...She, she might have encountered a wild beast when she went out."

"The marks on her body look very much like she was mauled by a wild beast. She was bitten right through the carotid artery..."

Zhang Yan looked at their pale faces, a flash of contempt passing through her eyes.

"So young, and fearless in their ignorance."

They hadn't even bothered to investigate what kind of place this was before they dared to enter so easily.

"You, you're saying Wang Yue was killed by a beast..."

Xie Hong suppressed the nausea in her chest.

"Yes."

Instantly, Xie Hong and Linlin's faces grew even paler as they recalled the events of last night. They exchanged a look.

So close, so close...

If either of them had gone out with her last night, there would be more than one corpse lying on the ground now.

"I, I want to go back."

Xie Hong's face was ashen, her legs so weak she could barely stand straight.

She regretted it.

"Pfft."

"Go back? Don't even think about leaving until a week has passed," Zhang Yan sneered.

"You know nothing, yet you dared to come here!"

"What, what do you mean?"

A boy nearby stared at Zhang Yan.

"Go outside and see if you can still find the entrance to the village."

"Changsheng Village only appears for a week around the fourth day of the fourth month; only then can you truly find it from the outside."

"But if you want to leave, you have to wait until a week has passed."

"You actually stumbled in here without knowing anything at all."

"I don't know whether to call you naive or stupid. This isn't a place just anyone can enter."

"Once you're in... you have to be prepared never to leave..."

When Zhang Yan finished speaking, a hint of gloating was visible on her face.

"Xie Hong, speak up! Where did you get that travel guide?"

"It's all your fault!"

"No, it wasn't me, it was Song Hao!"

"It was him. He recommended this place to me. He said the scenery here is beautiful, the village is mysterious, and there's the secret of immortality. I... I thought it sounded very interesting."

Xie Hong sobbed breathlessly as she spoke.

"What! Song Hao!"

"He never mentioned that he was the one who recommended this place!"

"Why didn't you say anything at the beginning?"

"I, I thought you all knew!"

"Wait, Song Hao is Jiang Meimei's boyfriend. Why would he tell you all this?"

"I..."

"What right do you have to question me?"

"Heh, Xie Hong, you'd better pray we can leave this place safely!"

In an instant, another argument was about to break out.

Zhang Yan just wanted to laugh as she watched. Were they really friends?

"Where's Song Hao? Why hasn't he come out?"

"And Jiang Meimei. What time is it? Is she still sleeping? In a dump like this, has she really not noticed anything wrong yet?"

"Hey, who's going to go call them?"

The several young people looked at each other, none moving, until finally the boy named Liu Bing went upstairs to knock on the door.

He knocked for a long time without any response.

"Hey, Song Hao! Jiang Meimei, are you guys in there?"

*Bang bang bang*

No matter how Liu Bing knocked, there was no sound from inside.

"Hey, someone come up here. I've been knocking for a while and there's no response."

"Could it be... could it be that something happened to them too?"

Because of what happened to Wang Yue, they were all a bit distracted now and couldn't help but think the worst.

With a "thud," the door was kicked open.

A huge cloud of dust made everyone present cough.

Inside, there was only a dilapidated bed frame; there was nothing else.

"What's going on?"

"Where are they? How did they disappear?"

"Did we go to the wrong room?"

"Impossible, it was definitely this room."

"Mei Mei! Mei Mei!"

"Mei Mei!"

"Song Hao!"

"Song Hao!"

Several people shouted loudly inside, but no one appeared.

"What should we do? Mei Mei and the other one are gone."

The remaining four people didn't know what to do.

Xie Hong and Linlin looked at the two boys; they could only rely on them now.

Instantly, Xie Hong deeply regretted not staying with that Qian Yes assumed NPC identity.

She wondered how things were on her end.

Qian Ye's figure flashed through Xie Hong's mind.

Liu Bing's eyes darted around, finally landing on Trench Coat Boss.

"Bo... Boss, could you..." Liu Bing glanced at him guiltily.

—

The group gathered themselves and left the place, with the few young people giving Wang Yue a simple burial.

They looked at the dilapidated house before them with complex expressions; it clearly hadn't looked like this last night.

The more they thought about it, the more frightened they became.

Trench Coat Boss led his men, with the three or four young people following behind, retracing the route they took last night to head deeper into the village.

They encountered some people on the way and wanted to go up and ask for directions. One villager was smiling one moment, but the next moment, upon hearing the direction they had come from, his face changed and he stayed far away from them.

"Monsters, monsters!"

He suddenly became incoherent: "Offended the Mountain Spirit, offended the Mountain Spirit!"

"Mountain Spirit, have mercy! Mountain Spirit, have mercy!"

As he spoke, the villager knelt down on the spot and kept kowtowing.

"Uh, hello, we..."

Suddenly, the villager's gaze became sharp as he looked directly at them, "Leave!"

"Leave!"

Before long, numerous villagers appeared from all around, forcing them to retreat.

"Wha... what's going on?" Xie Hong and Linlin supported each other.

"Inauspicious ones!"

"Inauspicious ones!"