Chapter 242: The Strange Village
Unknowingly, the three had walked to a relatively high mountain slope. Standing here and overlooking the area, a mortal village with curling kitchen smoke was surprisingly situated in the distant valley!
The village was situated by the mountain and near the water, with dozens of thatched cottages scattered randomly but orderly among the lush green fields.
Peach and plum fruit trees were planted in front of and behind the houses. It was currently the blossoming season, and pink and white petals drifted down with the wind, resembling a gentle snow.
At the entrance of the village, a clear small stream wound past. Beside the stream, several women were washing clothes, and the splashing water sprays refracted crystal-clear radiance under the sunlight.
Further away, several farmers wearing conical bamboo hats were bending over to work in the rice paddies. Occasionally, they straightened up to wipe their sweat, presenting a scene of leisure and contentment.
The afterglow of the setting sun sprinkled upon the village, dyeing the thatched roofs golden. The curling kitchen smoke rose and blended with the thin mist in the distant mountains, resembling an ink wash painting.
"This..." Han Yu muttered, "It really is a peach blossom spring outside the world."
The three stood on the mountain slope, and for a moment, they actually watched somewhat entranced.
However, the three quickly perceived something strange.
There were no farming cattle in the fields. There was only a lean man pulling three plows alone, walking as if flying to till the land, as if those heavy farm tools were as light as nothing.
In another place, a woman held a heavy bundle of thatch with one hand and leaped onto the roof with a light jump. Her movements were so light they did not resemble a mortal.
"These people..." Jiang Che locked his brows tight, "Their strength is ridiculously great, yet I cannot feel the slightest fluctuation of spiritual power."
"Could it be that they are all cultivators living in seclusion here?"
"No..." Han Yu narrowed his eyes: "If they are cultivators, they are a bit too weak; if they are mortals, they are abnormally strong."
The three exchanged a glance and decided to enter the village to investigate exactly what was happening.
Very soon, the few people stepped into the village. The passing villagers cast curious gazes one after another.
Identical happy smiles hung on their faces. Their eyes were gentle yet hollow, as if the expressions were carved out uniformly by some kind of power.
An old man sat in front of a door weaving a bamboo basket, the corners of his mouth holding a smile; a woman squatted by the stream washing clothes, humming a little tune; everyone was immersed in "satisfaction," yet not a single person actively came forward to greet them, or was even wary of the appearance of three strangers.
If it were one or two people, one might feel this was a warm place. But with everyone being like this, a trace of chill could not help but rise in the hearts of the three.
At this moment, an old farmer carrying a hoe walked over from the front.
"Old uncle, may I ask..." Chen Xingcai had just raised a smiling face and lifted her hand to greet him, but the old farmer brushed past her straight away as if he had not heard. His turbid eyeballs stared straight ahead, and a stiff smile hung on the corners of his mouth; even his eyelashes did not tremble once.
Han Yu frowned and took two quick steps to block a woman carrying a vegetable basket on her arm: "This big sister..."
"Pa!"
The vegetable basket crashed into his arm. The woman acted as if she had crashed into a mass of air, her footsteps not pausing in the slightest.
The radishes in the bamboo basket rolled onto the ground, but she actually did not even look at them. She still maintained that hollow expression of happiness and walked forward slowly.
The "swish swish" sounds made by straw sandals stepping on the dirt road were actually uniform, as if directed by an invisible hand.
Their necks tilted forward at the same angle, and the amplitude of their shoulder movements did not differ by a hair. Even the sounds of their breathing were wonderfully synchronized.
A burst of chill rushed up Han Yu's back.
He suddenly took a few quick steps and grabbed the wrist of the old man from the beginning. The skin he touched was cold as a corpse.
Only then did the old man slowly turn his head. The corners of his mouth rose mechanically: "Guests... hel... lo..."
Every character dragged out a thick long tone, like a broken puppet imitating a human voice.
The turbid eyeballs finally focused on his face, but no human figure was reflected in the pupils. There were only two masses of pale mist slowly rotating.
The three retreated half a step in unison.
The surrounding villagers suddenly all stopped their steps and turned their heads to look over in unison.
Several smiling faces cracked open with the same arc under the sunlight. Even the wrinkles raised at the corners of their mouths were exactly the same.
"Wel... come..."
Hoarse sound waves surged from all directions, startling a tree full of crows.
When the mass of black wings swept across the sky, the villagers resumed their slow movements and continued their strange daily lives.
Only the three were left standing in the middle of the road, cold sweat soaking the clothes on their backs.
Just at this moment, an icy voice suddenly came from behind: "Are you outsiders?"
...
The three turned their heads abruptly, only to see a little girl of about fourteen or fifteen staring coldly at them.
Unlike those villagers with stiff smiles, her face held not a hint of a smile, and her eyes were alert and sharp. In this strange atmosphere, this cold expression actually made the three feel a trace of warmth.
Chen Xingcai stepped forward and spoke softly:
"Yes, little sister, where is this place? Why does everyone ignore us?"
The little girl did not answer immediately but stared straight at Chen Xingcai, her gaze containing scrutiny.
After a long silence, she suddenly looked up at the sky. The setting sun was sinking in the west, and the remaining golden light was being swallowed by the distant mountains.
"The sun is about to set," the little girl said in a stiff tone. "Outsiders, follow me first."
Without waiting for the three to respond, she turned and walked toward a secluded thatched cottage at the edge of the village.
The three hesitated slightly but still followed her.
The room was simple but tidy, containing a wooden table, a few bamboo chairs, and some dry firewood piled in the corner.
The little girl closed the doors and windows tightly and lit an oil lamp; in the dim yellow halo, her expression became increasingly grave.
...
"Where is this place?" Chen Xingcai could not help asking in a low voice.
The little girl abruptly pressed a finger to her lips, her eyes sharp as knives. Although the three did not understand why, intuition told them that this girl might be the only normal person in the village.
Silence spread within the narrow room.
The skylight leaking in through the window cracks gradually dimmed, as if swallowed bit by bit by some invisible power. The night color dyed everything like ink, and the outdoors strangely fell into a dead silence—no insect chirps, no dog barks; even the sound of the wind vanished.
Just as Chen Xingcai could not resist wanting to ask again—
"Thump, thump, thump..."
Abrupt footsteps approached from far to near, and the wooden boards emitted groans of being overburdened. The little girl's body tensed instantly, her knuckles turning white from force.
Subsequently—
"Bang, bang, bang."
The knocking sound was like a blunt object smashing against the chests of the three.
"Xiao Luo," a slightly hoarse voice seeped in through the crack of the door, like a rusted saw pulling at eardrums. "Outsiders came to the village during the day; did you see them?"
The flame of the oil lamp suddenly shook violently, casting twisted shadows on the little girl's face.
She took a deep breath, her voice deliberately kept light:
"I saw them. They wandered around the village for a lap, then left."
"Why didn't you stop them?" The voice outside had no fluctuation.
"They walked very fast," the little girl's fingernails unconsciously pinched her own thigh. "I just chased them to the village entrance, but they had already disappeared."
Silence.
Suffocating silence.
The three could clearly hear each other's heartbeats.
Jiang Che's fingertip quietly condensed a wisp of azure light, Chen Xingcai's sleeve sword had already slid out half an inch, and Han Yu's back was pressed tight against the mottled earthen wall.
"Which direction did they go?" The voice squeezing in through the door crack carried a sticky moisture.
"E-East..."
The voice outside asked a few more sentences, and the little girl responded to them all calmly.
Very soon, footsteps came from outside the door again, and the sound grew further and further away.
Standing by the window, Han Yu slowly turned sideways and could not resist pulling the window crack open a line—
Under the pale moonlight, a hunched figure had its back to the window.
Beneath the clothes, green-gray skin was revealed, and the neck was covered in spiderweb-like black patterns.
Suddenly, that figure paused.
The moment Han Yu retreated like lightning, the person outside the window turned abruptly—
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