Chapter 61

Chapter 61

"Are all the people in a village car bandits and road bullies?"

Tan Wenbin found this somewhat hard to believe. Although his family had been police officers for generations, Tan Yunlong rarely discussed work at home, and the policing problems faced in different regions were not the same.

Xue Liangliang explained, "It's not common for a village to act as a unit for collective crime, but it's not unheard of either. For example, the villages in these mountains, they have little contact with the outside world, and the villagers' living and production activities are limited. With kinship ties binding them, it's quite understandable how they could develop into a small-scale criminal group."

"But, no one reported it?"

Xue Liangliang looked at Tan Wenbin and countered, "Would you report your deskmate for cheating on an exam?"

"That's different. Cheating on an exam and illegal killing are not the same."

"That's because you can realize that point. But smoking is clearly harmful, why do you still try it? You see your father smoking and people your age around you smoking, and subconsciously you feel that smoking isn't a big deal. When people in a village are engaged in large-scale criminal activities, the people within that village will also have similar ideas and think it's not a serious matter."

Tan Wenbin nodded thoughtfully, then turned his head to look at Zhu Yang in front and said regretfully, "He has a wife and child at home..."

Zhu Yang was their fellow villager, but that was secondary. The main thing was that this person was genuinely decent, quite enthusiastic, and honest. In his free time, he liked to read novels and would occasionally interject with a few pretentious literary jokes when speaking. He said he didn't like the truck driver profession, but for his family, he could only confine himself to the cab. Now, he was trapped here again.

Xue Liangliang then discussed another matter with Li Zhuoyuan, "Xiao Yuan, if it weren't for that little girl, wouldn't we also have met with disaster now?"

Runsheng knocked the steel pipe against his chest, emitting a few muffled sounds. The meaning was, he was still there.

Xue Liangliang shrugged, "Runsheng, I know you can fight, but what if they have guns?"

Runsheng frowned, unable to refute. So, he now preferred watching martial arts films on TV rather than police films because the latter had guns.

Li Zhuoyuan opened his mouth, "You can associate it in that way, but it's meaningless. That little girl didn't want to come and save us. You three had a genuinely heavy deathly aura on your faces. She just wanted to come and take yang essence. It just so happened that several bad things came together and produced a negative-negative-makes-positive effect."

Xue Liangliang, "That repair shop boss was also pretending to be honest, saying the road robbers in front had guns. His purpose was just to trick us into coming to this village."

"Maybe he also had the intention of testing us. If we weren't afraid of guns and continued driving forward, they would suspect that we also had powerful individuals with us."

"Would the routine be so deep?"

"Yes, because I didn't see him lying."

"Xiao Yuan, you don't need to take this kind of responsibility on yourself. None of us saw it."

Li Zhuoyuan shook his head. Since he had finished researching "Essentials of Yin Yang Interaction," he could basically see through normal people lying in front of him. However, that repair shop boss had no micro-expressions or actions, which meant the other party not only had extremely strong psychological resilience but was also highly experienced.

"Brother Liangliang, maybe that repair shop boss is the head here." Li Zhuoyuan waved his hand, "Let's go around and look inside the ancestral hall."

The water level wasn't very deep; even Li Zhuoyuan could easily wade through it. However, they had to pass through the dense cluster of corpses, and this atmosphere was truly oppressive. Fortunately, the dead people in the pond didn't show any abnormalities, and the four of them were able to pass safely.

Arriving below the main hall of the ancestral hall, Li Zhuoyuan suddenly had a feeling. He looked up and saw many copper coins and copper swords hanging under the eaves. There were new ones and old ones, likely due to regular repairs. Li Zhuoyuan then pressed his palm against the front pillar and felt that it wasn't cold, but instead faintly radiated a warmth. He scanned the other corners outside the hall, comparing the details one by one, and the young man's gaze became serious.

"What's wrong, Xiao Yuan?"

"Brother Liangliang, the person who built this ancestral hall was a true expert. Although the building is small and the scale is small, it has created a small closed loop of dragon sucking water, combined with the earth spirit and feng shui of this place. It's equivalent to opening a small blessing within a blessed land."

"Does that mean the ancestors of this village were quite influential?"

"Well, not just generally influential. This kind of technique was generally used for imperial tombs in ancient times."

"That's truly powerful. I remember during my internship, I listened to a lecture by an old professor from another school. In ancient times, the craftsmen who could design and build imperial tombs had far higher wealth and status than the most prestigious community developers in Beijing today."

"A very wonderful metaphor."

Xue Liangliang sighed, "But their descendants eventually declined and became corrupt to this extent."

Walking into the hall, there were spirit tablets placed on the offering table, all bearing the surname 'Wang'.

"Brother Liangliang, haven't you noticed that there seem to be a bit too few spirit tablets?"

"Huh?"

"Compared to the construction year of this ancestral hall and the building techniques used, the spirit tablets enshrined here shouldn't be so few."

"In some family ancestral halls, the requirements for spirit tablets are relatively high. My old village is just like that."

Li Zhuoyuan walked to the edge of the offering platform, jumped up, and took down the topmost spirit tablet at the edge, examining it up and down.

"Brother Liangliang, that's not right. Even the spirit tablet with the oldest seniority here doesn't seem to be from too long ago."

"Is that so?" Xue Liangliang took the spirit tablet and also looked at it, "I can't understand this. How did you see it?"

"I've been researching spirit tablets a bit recently."

"Xiao Yuan, what are you suspecting?"

"It's still not good to say. Anyway, I feel that even if this kind of family declined and their descendants were unfilial, they wouldn't be so absurd as to ask a Taoist or monk of that level at the village entrance to perform a ritual."

Li Zhuoyuan turned around and started to walk along the inner wall of the hall. This wasn't a brick wall but a stone wall. The stones were uneven in color and size, yet they were polished flat, and the arrangement was very reasonable and comfortable.

Xue Liangliang casually threw the spirit tablet in his hand onto the ground. The ancestors of this kind of village were indeed not worthy of respect. Immediately, he bent down and ducked under the curtain covering the offering table to search inside and see if he could find an exit.

Runsheng and Tan Wenbin weren't assigned specific tasks, but they weren't idle either. They knocked here and stamped there, hoping to stumble upon something.

After walking a circle around the three walls, Li Zhuoyuan stopped, closed his eyes, thought for a moment, then opened his eyes and walked it again. In fact, the first time he had already detected the clue. The stones of different colors and sizes on this wall were actually a huge puzzle that had been deliberately disrupted on three sides. Ordinary people really couldn't notice it; they would only feel that the arrangement was quite solemn and aesthetically pleasing. The previous Li Zhuoyuan also couldn't have noticed it. Fortunately, he had practiced playing blind chess with Ah Li when he was blind. It was also a coincidence that simultaneously opening three games of blind chess happened to correspond to these three walls at this time.

After looking again, Li Zhuoyuan stood in place, closed his eyes, and began to piece together the puzzle in his mind. The puzzle was made of characters. Soon, the first row of characters was deciphered by Li Zhuoyuan.

"Qi family ancestral teachings?"

But the spirit tablets here all had the surname 'Wang'.

Li Zhuoyuan considered a possibility, which was that this village was originally a branch of the Qi family, but in modern times, a group with the surname Wang had taken it over, like a sparrow nesting in a dove's nest. It wasn't about decline or unfilial descendants; this was a complete change of blood and surname. The plaque in front of the ancestral hall wasn't displayed, not only because the ancestors were ashamed to see it, but also because there were no descendants left. If this Qi family had truly inherited to the present day, even if their inheritance was lost again, they wouldn't be so absurd as to not even have a slightly competent feng shui master.

Li Zhuoyuan continued to piece together and decipher the puzzle in his mind. The next long section was the content of the ancestral teachings. Apart from different wording and phrasing, it basically conformed to conventions, talking about benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. Li Zhuoyuan quickly skimmed over it.

Continuing to piece together, the characters that appeared were meaningful. No, not only meaningful, but they clearly pointed out a direction. Li Zhuoyuan opened his eyes and looked outside the hall. The target direction was outside, which was the central position currently surrounded by dead people. The four of them had come around the edge earlier and had missed the exit.

"What have you found, Xiao Yuan?" Xue Liangliang asked while patting the dust off his hands.

"Brother Liangliang, this village was previously surnamed Qi. This group with the surname Wang are outsiders who occupied this place later."

Xue Liangliang was stunned for a moment, then immediately said, "That truly fits the behavior style of the people in this village. Indeed, the ancestors of this bunch weren't good people either."

"The exit is within the pile of dead people. We have to dig them open and go in, Brother Runsheng."

"Understood!"

Runsheng was the first to walk out of the hall and into the water pond. He reached out and pushed aside the dead people in front. Tan Wenbin also ran up to help. These dead people were like roly-poly toys; they could be pushed aside, but after a moment of shaking, they would still maintain an upright posture and wouldn't fall. Moreover, after continuously pushing away several waves of dead people, the dead people in front actually moved aside one after another, actively clearing a path. This confused both Runsheng and Tan Wenbin. For a moment, they didn't know whether they should continue forward and could only turn their heads to look at Li Zhuoyuan.

Li Zhuoyuan, "Let's go."

The four of them walked along the small path created by the moving dead people. As they walked, the dead people who were originally facing the ancestral hall door all slowly turned and changed to face the four of them. And, they would also constantly adjust their postures and directions according to the walking of the four people. The atmosphere when they went around the edge of the pile of dead people earlier was already very oppressive. Seeing this scene now made people's scalps tingle even more.

Tan Wenbin softly muttered, "They won't suddenly pounce on us collectively, will they?"

Runsheng, who was walking in front, said, "If that happens, I'll block them, and you all run out first."

Xue Liangliang guessed, "They don't seem to want to attack us; it's more like they're showing goodwill."

Tan Wenbin, "Showing goodwill?"

Xue Liangliang, "Well, you could also say they're making a request."

"Brother Runsheng, you can stop now, right here."

Li Zhuoyuan called out. Runsheng stopped walking. In front of him was a Taijitu pattern paved with stones. This place was the true Gate of Life.

"Xiao Yuan, is it here?"

"Mm."

"Then I'll try first." Runsheng twisted his neck and was about to walk inside when he saw an acquaintance, Zhu Yang, emerge from the pile of dead people in front. He couldn't speak, had no expression, and was even less able to move. However, he was now here from his original position in the first row at the very front. He wasn't standing inside the Taijitu pattern but outside, clearly not intending to prevent the four of them from leaving.

Li Zhuoyuan looked at Zhu Yang and said, "Rest assured, after we get out, I will report to the police and get justice for all of you."

Zhu Yang didn't move. Around them, a yin wind suddenly blew, not violent, but carrying an extremely oppressive emotion: sadness, unwillingness, anger. Li Zhuoyuan knew what they meant, but he could only raise his hand to explain, "I understand your intentions, but I cannot promise because the four of us alone cannot solve the problem. Rest assured, the police will eradicate the evil here."

Tan Wenbin also spoke up at this time, "Yes, I guarantee it."

Unfortunately, the dense dead people around showed no reaction. The yin wind was getting colder and colder.

Tan Wenbin said with some doubt, "How does it feel like what we said is useless?"

Xue Liangliang softly said, "Maybe because this isn't your dad's jurisdiction."

Li Zhuoyuan didn't plan to get entangled further. He pushed Runsheng from behind. Runsheng understood and stepped onto the Taijitu pattern. Nothing happened. Runsheng still looked at himself and asked, "Xiao Yuan, what else do I need to do?"

Li Zhuoyuan shook his head, "Brother Runsheng, you come out, I'll go in."

"Okay."

Runsheng walked out, and Li Zhuoyuan stepped in. Then, Li Zhuoyuan also walked out and signaled Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin to do the same successively. After all four of them had stepped over the Taijitu pattern, still nothing happened.

"Brother Xiao Yuan, what should we do next?" Tan Wenbin asked somewhat nervously. He noticed that the bodies of the surrounding dead people were already emitting white smoke. The water in the pond was also getting colder and colder, gradually reaching a bone-chilling point. To this, Li Zhuoyuan only gave a one-word answer: "Wait."

The temperature became lower and lower. The parts of everyone's legs submerged in the water were already frozen red. Runsheng bent down, and Li Zhuoyuan held him up. Li Zhuoyuan didn't refuse and climbed onto Runsheng's back. He scanned around. The bodies of these dead people were all starting to freeze. And the breath of himself and others also brought out white smoke. Tan Wenbin and Xue Liangliang were already starting to shiver.

Li Zhuoyuan comforted them, "Just hold on a little longer."

Tan Wenbin hugged his arms and said with a trembling voice, "Can we get out like this?"

Xue Liangliang said with chattering teeth, "Xiao Yuan shouldn't be wrong. Even if this door is found, it takes a little time to get out. Do you still remember that after we entered and left the village, the truck disappeared?"

Tan Wenbin, "My brain is completely frozen stiff now, I can't think. Just tell me directly."

Xue Liangliang, "It's just that entering and leaving this space interlayer is not instantaneous; it's more like squeezing toothpaste."

At this moment, all the dead people around were completely covered by ice crystals, like a large ice sculpture. And the endurance of the four people was also nearing its limit. Even Li Zhuoyuan on Runsheng's back felt somewhat unbearable.

Tan Wenbin, "Is it because we didn't promise to help them get revenge, so they want to freeze us in this way and bury us with them?" Having experienced the little girl on the train's vengeful behavior, Tan Wenbin no longer held any hope for humanity from these kinds of "dirty things."

Xue Liangliang, "Xiao Yuan, or should we still promise them? Promise them that after we get out, we will first report to the police and then also find a way to get revenge for them." The four of them were incapable of helping them get revenge. Reporting to the police first and then getting revenge was actually a bit redundant, but at this moment, they could only use this method to appease them.

Tan Wenbin's lips were frozen purple, but he still couldn't help but say, "Brother Liang... you really... cheat ghosts ah."

Xue Liangliang couldn't help but glare at him, "You... brain frozen bad... don't be so straightforward... say it out ah."

Li Zhuoyuan with difficulty raised his hand and said, "You two have the energy to talk... why not hug together to keep warm."

Xue Liangliang and Tan Wenbin immediately realized and huddled together like penguins. Although this warming effect was better than nothing, at least it played some psychological role.

Li Zhuoyuan said again, "This... and them... is not related... it is us... who want to get out."

As soon as the words fell, Li Zhuoyuan felt a blackness all around him. As the cold dissipated, he himself also started to fall.

"Thump!"

Below was water, very cold water. But compared to the previous freezing environment, this water could be called warm, just a bit sticky and greasy. And because the fall was too sudden, Li Zhuoyuan was originally lying on Runsheng's back, so when he fell into the water, he was face down and hit the water surface with a straight body. Although it was the water surface, it still hurt. This caused him to lose consciousness for a moment after falling into the water, and his body started to continue sinking. When Li Zhuoyuan's consciousness recovered, he was suddenly pulled from behind by something. His body was therefore unavoidably moving in the direction of the force. But soon, a hand grabbed his clothes, then an arm hugged his waist, and a strong force appeared, driving him to quickly float up.

After reaching the water surface, Li Zhuoyuan started to cough violently.

"Xiao Yuan, are you okay?"

Although it was completely dark around, Li Zhuoyuan still heard that it was Runsheng who was hugging him in the water at this time. Runsheng should have dived down to find him earlier. Because there was no light, he could only constantly swing his arms and legs to try to expand the contact area. The earlier pull he felt was probably Runsheng's hand or leg sweeping him. Fortunately, Runsheng immediately detected it and fished him up.

"Cough cough cough..." This was Tan Wenbin's coughing sound, not far away.

"Xiao Yuan, Xiao Yuan, Binbin and I are here." Xue Liangliang's voice came. It should be Xue Liangliang who pulled up Tan Wenbin, because Xue Liangliang's swimming skills were very good. After all, he dated people along the Yangtze River. Both sides gradually approached each other by the sound and finally gathered together. Xue Liangliang, "Is this a pool? It's quite deep. Since there is no light, the top should be a rock cave. We should have come out from inside the space interlayer."

Li Zhuoyuan, "The problem now is how we get out of here and ashore. We can't see anything, and we don't know exactly how big this pool is."

Runsheng, "Xiao Yuan, you all wait here. I'll swim in one direction to see how long it takes to reach the shore. If it's a rock wall, I'll swim back, then change direction and swim. After swimming a few times, I can definitely find land."

"Okay, Brother Runsheng, but don't swim too far. We'll call back and forth. When you feel like you can hardly hear our voices, you must come back. Otherwise, we might get separated here." Runsheng had matches and flint on him, but after being frozen earlier and now falling into the water, they were definitely useless.

Xue Liangliang lamented, "Next time I go out, I must bring a waterproof flashlight."

"Brother Liangliang, even if you bring it, it's useless. Our luggage is all in the truck."

"Oh, right."

Just as Runsheng was about to start swimming, Tan Wenbin, who had choked on several mouthfuls of water earlier, suddenly shouted, "There are things below, touching my feet!"

Everyone was shocked upon hearing this. Runsheng didn't swim out but dived down instead.

Tan Wenbin continued to shout, "It's hands! I kicked to hands, not just one pair."

Xue Liangliang also said, "Right, my feet also touched them. It just seemed like I stepped on a person's head."

Li Zhuoyuan was short and didn't go as deep into the water as they did, but this time he also felt it. Not only did he feel it, but when he reached out forward, in the black darkness, he touched a bloated, greasy thing. This thing had a nose and eyes. Li Zhuoyuan immediately retracted his hand. It was a human face, just a few inches in front of him.

Xue Liangliang, "Binbin, is this your arm?"

Tan Wenbin, "I'm hugging you."

Xue Liangliang, "You're not hugging me now."

Tan Wenbin, "..."

Runsheng surfaced at this moment, shook his head, and said, "Xiao Yuan, there are corpses floating up below."

"Gurgle..."

"Gurgle..."

Nearby, the sound of bubbles constantly came. Runsheng said, "This is the corpse gas overflowing after the corpses swell and float to the surface. It's releasing gas."

Li Zhuoyuan raised his head and looked towards the completely invisible top: "We should be in the crack in the mountainside below the ancestral hall now. These corpses are the victims we saw in the ancestral hall earlier when we didn't come out."

Things seen in the space interlayer and in reality would have some differences, but there would also be a connection. The people in the village might be rampant, but they weren't stupid enough to neatly place all the corpses of the people they killed inside the ancestral hall. Since those corpses were all in the central position of the ancestral hall earlier, it meant their positional coordinates were just on this vertical line. It has to be said, this was indeed a good place to destroy corpses. Kill people, throw the corpses here, and it would truly be known only to gods and ghosts.

Tan Wenbin softly opened his mouth, "They... they won't turn into zombies, will they?"

If these corpses all turned into zombies at this moment, the four of them would definitely be finished. Even if only two or three turned into zombies, Runsheng alone could only deal with one. The rest could chew the three of them to death.

"No."

"Brother Xiao Yuan, it's okay, you don't need to comfort me, I can face it bravely."

"In the ancestral hall above, it's a very clever pattern of blessing within a blessing. Blessing contains peace, naturally having the effect of suppressing evil things. These corpses are theoretically impossible to turn into zombies. Unless someone above goes crazy at this moment and smashes and demolishes the ancestral hall, even pushing down the pillars, it's possible for the area below to lose suppression, but at most one or two corpses can turn into zombies. To make them all turn into zombies, you have to change the feng shui inside the ancestral hall. Neutral and slightly benevolent feng shui patterns are not easy to change, but this extreme pattern of blessing within a blessing is relatively easy to change from one extreme to another."

Tan Wenbin, "Brother Xiao Yuan, you only need to say the first sentence. You don't need to say the several sentences after that."

Li Zhuoyuan, "Sorry, I'm used to this kind of problem-solving thinking." He seemed to always have this kind of thinking inertia, that is, whenever he saw an array, his brain's first reaction was how to make it worse and more ferocious. It's all Wei Zhengdao's fault! Of course, it's not too strange for him to have this idea now. Almost every corpse here died unjustly, and their resentment was originally not small. And the terrible cold experienced in the space interlayer earlier was actually the substantialized manifestation of these corpses' resentment. Although the ancestral hall's array could prevent them from turning into zombies, it was not specifically for suppressing evil things, so the resentment would only constantly accumulate, and the corpses would then be constantly soaked in this pool below. It could be said that this was just a terrible "sewage tank." As long as a professional technician went up and lit a fire, it could thoroughly explode!

At this moment, Li Zhuoyuan heard dense water flow sounds, not from animals or fish, very slight. He began to determine the position based on the sound in his mind. Then, he soon realized that these corpses, after floating to the surface, slowly started to move.

Tan Wenbin, "Eh, where did the corpses next to me drift to? Just now there were still several leaning on me, and now they're all gone."

Xue Liangliang, "I can only touch one corpse here."

Li Zhuoyuan immediately said, "Brother Liangliang, feel around the front and back of that corpse next to you and see if you can touch other corpses."

"Okay, wait a moment." After a string of close water flow sounds, Xue Liangliang's answer came, "Xiao Yuan, there are corpses at both ends. They seem to be lined up."

Tan Wenbin, "Lined up, doing what?"

Li Zhuoyuan breathed a sigh of relief and said, "They are building a bridge for us and guiding us ashore."

Xue Liangliang was startled upon hearing this, then immediately realized something was wrong: "Damn, thank you!" Xue Liangliang asked, "Xiao Yuan, is the direction to walk along the direction the heads are facing?"

"Right, follow this direction first."

"Then you all follow, holding onto these corpses to move past. Don't fall behind. I'll go first, Binbin second, and you and Xiao Yuan behind, Runsheng."

Next, the four of them advanced in the pool, holding onto the corpses like railings. These corpses were generally somewhat bloated, and some were thin. Those were the people who had just been killed and thrown in recently and hadn't had time to swell up yet. Especially when passing a very normal corpse, Li Zhuoyuan's left hand brushed past, and he didn't know if it was a coincidence or what, but it just happened to get stuck in the other's hand. For a moment, he couldn't pull it out.

"Xiao Yuan?" Runsheng, who was behind, saw the young man stop and quickly asked.

"I'm okay." Li Zhuoyuan used his other hand to touch the face of this corpse. He didn't know how to feel bones like a blind person, but he either had or had had these two elements. Through touching, Li Zhuoyuan's mind saw the face of this corpse. Although not very clear, he could recognize that it was Zhu Yang. Li Zhuoyuan's hand retracted from Zhu Yang's face, wanting to pat his chest to tell him to "节哀" (grieve moderately). Although advising a dead person to grieve moderately was a bit strange. But at this moment, he could only treat it as dying with grievance. However, when he patted like that, his hand got stuck and actually slid into the other's chest. He... had been opened up. Li Zhuoyuan really couldn't understand why the people in the village weren't satisfied with killing people and robbing things, and still had to treat the corpses in this way. No, a more reasonable explanation should be that they weren't insulting the corpse after death, but were tortured to death.

Connecting this to the earlier incident of "playing ghost" and kicking open the door of the 民居 (residential building), seeing the corpse water in the bed and cabinet, and the bacon brought by Tan Wenbin. It's hard to imagine that in this current era, such dense evil still exists in the world.

The hand that reached into Zhu Yang's chest was still touching hard, thick things inside. When he grabbed two pieces, they could be rubbed broken and scattered. It was books. It was the kind of thick, oil-printed pirated novels that Zhu Yang kept in his car to read in his spare time. They had stuffed these books into Zhu Yang's body.

"I understand."

Li Zhuoyuan's originally stuck hand loosened. The young man's hand withdrew, no longer stopping, and continued forward, catching up with the two people in front.

The area of this pool was truly terribly large. Even with the corpses providing support and leverage, everyone was gradually losing their physical strength. And without these corpses as "landmarks," trying to find the shore in complete darkness was almost a pipe dream. Even if Runsheng swam in one direction with full concentration, he would deviate from a straight line.

Finally, the sound of water came from the front, the shore. Runsheng, who was in the back, lifted Li Zhuoyuan a bit, letting Li Zhuoyuan get onto the rock. The four of them all lay exhausted on the ground, gasping for breath.

Li Zhuoyuan, "The time rate inside the space interlayer is probably consistent with the outside. It should still be dark outside now. Let's not delay and take advantage of the darkness to get out." The four of them all stood up. Except for Runsheng, the other three just stood up and then swayed again. This was because they had been soaked in the water for too long and were somewhat unaccustomed to the sense of gravity on land.

Xue Liangliang, "The last corpse is pointing diagonally towards here. We walk in this direction."

The four of them advanced along the small section of the rock wall outside the bulge. They could feel that it was winding here, but the more they walked, the more they could detect the echo of the wind. Faintly, they could also see a bit of light; it was moonlight. And the pool of water next to everyone's body was also shrinking here, becoming like a stream. They thought that when the people in the village threw the corpses, they didn't walk that far inside; they just threw them down from outside, letting the water current carry the corpses into the deepest part of the pool.

Continuing to walk outwards, they finally suddenly opened up and saw the moon above their heads. This place should be located on the hillside below the village, and the small path leading to the main road was on the other side of the village. Li Zhuoyuan and Xue Liangliang simultaneously pointed in one direction: walking into the mountains. It was obviously impossible to pass through the main road behind the village again. If they were discovered, it would be courting death. The only option was to go around the mountain.

This time, Li Zhuoyuan walked at the front of the team. He hadn't walked far up the slope when the young man heard movement in his ears. He immediately raised his hand and made a downward pressing motion. Everyone squatted down and remained still. Li Zhuoyuan slowly moved forward. His hearing was good, and soon he heard the sound of conversation coming from under the trees and in the grass bushes on the slope above. It was a man and a woman:

"What are you so anxious about, monkey? Don't tear my pants!"

"Then hurry up and take them off. I'm dying of anxiety."

"Am I not taking them off? Let go, if you don't let go, I won't let you do it."

"My aunt, don't waste time. Your man drank wine tonight, but his alcohol tolerance is good. He said he won't wake up until after midnight. What if he wakes up and finds you're not in bed?"

"What are you afraid of? He won't wake up until after midnight at the earliest. Isn't that enough for you to do it once?"

"After I do it once, I want to rest, and then do it again."

"Look at your pathetic state."

Soon, muffled sounds of a man and a woman came from that side. Li Zhuoyuan turned sideways and made gestures to Runsheng behind him, signaling that there were two people under the trees above and to directly subdue them in a moment. Worried that Runsheng would have scruples and cause movement after an accident, Li Zhuoyuan still made a gesture of wiping his neck, meaning that Runsheng could assess the situation and choose a more extreme method of dealing with it. Runsheng nodded vigorously.

But just as Li Zhuoyuan made the gesture, the muffled sounds from that side ended with the man's long sigh. Li Zhuoyuan and Runsheng froze in their original positions. The young man felt that his gesturing speed was already very fast, but he didn't expect the other party's speed to be faster.

"How was it, comfortable?"

"You were comfortable, but you left me hanging."

"It's okay, wait for the second time, it will be long."

"Did the village chief get a fat one this time?"

"Fat what? The truck was loaded with steel cables."

"How is that possible? I heard steel cables are valuable."

"Valuable is valuable, but not easy to sell. Selling them in the town down the mountain is too conspicuous. That car can only be dismantled and processed for scrap iron, and it has to be sold bit by bit."

"What about cash?"

"There was some cash, but the village chief said that the four fattest young ones disappeared. They were wearing very good clothes, and you could tell they had a lot of money in their pockets."

"Where could they have gone?"

"Who knows. Originally, the village chief planned to organize everyone to search the roads and ground, but didn't something strange happen in the village? We can only invite people to do a ritual today, so it's all delayed."

"This matter is indeed strange enough. There were fundamentally no people, but the two doors just broke open by themselves, and the cabinets inside were also opened. Several bundles of dried corn cobs from my house are also missing, and the bacon in the house was also stolen. It's very evil. You say, could it be the vengeful souls coming out to cause trouble?"

"What are you afraid of? Just like the village chief told us, no matter how fierce a ghost is, it's afraid of a butcher. What's more, in our village, from old to young, whose hands aren't stained with blood. In the eyes of ghosts, our village is the true living Yan Wang (King of Hell), ha ha ha!"

"Who is such a fast living Yan Wang?"

"The first time doesn't count. You wait for me to rest for a while, and I guarantee you'll be satisfied."

"So this time, is there not much profit?"

"It's okay. The village chief found the driver's home address and village phone number. He also found the love letter the guy wrote to his wife and the letter to his daughter in the car. We'll just call later and trick his wife into thinking her man had an accident and was hospitalized, and tell her and her daughter to bring money from home and come over quickly. His wife isn't old, she can still give birth, and his daughter isn't young either. They can all be sold for a good price."

"Or why don't you just buy them?"

"What are you talking about? I can't afford two."

"You really dare to think!"

"I'm teasing you. Don't you know? You're the only one in my heart."

"Not good, the light in my house is on. That thing is awake. I have to hurry back."

"Damn! Find a chance someday, knock him on the back of the head, and throw him into that pool too. That way we don't have to be stealthy anymore."

"Even if he dies, it's not your turn. I have to ask the village chief first if he wants him."

"It's okay, stealing is more fragrant."

"Don't just worry about farting, help me think about how to explain when I get back."

"Just say you saw a fox stealing bacon, and you went out to chase the fox."

The two quickly packed up their clothes, then hurried back from the slope, which was above the heads of Li Zhuoyuan and the others. After they left, the four of them stood up again and walked towards the slope. As they walked, everyone was especially careful, afraid of stepping into a trap. Fortunately, they had no danger all the way. Perhaps, compared to traps, the people in this village preferred to hunt people.

With great difficulty, they went around a big circle and finally reached the mountain. This piece of terrain, because it had a smooth mountainside surface, was easy to go down but difficult to go up. From here, they could overlook the entire village. Because the ancestral hall was located at the highest point of the entire village nearest the mountainside, sliding down from here would land them right behind the ancestral hall.

"Okay, let's stop here. Brother Liangliang, Brother Binbin, you just need to continue walking forward. Going down this mountain will lead you to the main road. Remember, don't walk on the main road; walk along the side of the road to the town and report to the police. If you see trucks with foreign license plates, you can try to stop them and ask for help."

Xue Liangliang said doubtfully, "Xiao Yuan, what about you? Aren't you coming down with us?"

Tan Wenbin forcefully licked his lips, "Brother Xiao Yuan, I think it's enough to let Brother Liang report to the police alone."

Li Zhuoyuan shook his head, "No, it's easy for one person to have an accident. The mountain road is not easy to walk."

"That's good." Tan Wenbin looked lost.

Xue Liangliang looked at Tan Wenbin, then looked at the calm-faced Runsheng, and finally, his gaze fell on Li Zhuoyuan. He asked very seriously, "Xiao Yuan, tell me the truth, what exactly are you leaving to do?"

A shy smile appeared on the young man's face. He turned around and looked at the quiet and peaceful village in the night below, and answered with a clear child's voice:

"This village is too quiet. I want to make it, lively."