It was almost dusk when Ouyang Xiaoleng and Ouyang Hongye arrived outside Miancheng. A few clouds in the purple sky surrounded the red sun and slowly set in the west, making the whole city seem to be shrouded in a light rouge. Since they didn't know much about the situation in the virgin forest, it would be too dangerous to go in at night, so the two planned to go into the city and find an inn to stay overnight, and then set off to the depths of the jungle early the next morning.
Although it was already at this time, the streets of Miancheng were still very lively. The vendors on the streets kept shouting, hoping to make another fortune at the last moment of the day. Ever since Qianqi and Lingyu exposed the true face of the black fish spirit pretending to be Yaksha, and broke the black market of slaves in the mountain weasel, the city seemed more vibrant than before.
Although this place is not as prosperous as Wangcheng or Dongyao, every resident in the city is filled with an indescribable happiness and joy. Ouyang Hongye felt this almost as soon as he entered the city. But Ouyang Xiaoleng didn't care about this. All he wanted to do was find a place to stay and fall asleep. When he opened his eyes again, he could go to the place where Qingyun might imprison Xia Qiu.
Not long after they entered the city, they found a medium-sized inn. The inn had a total of two floors. Downstairs was a restaurant where you could eat and drink, and upstairs were guest rooms. After Ouyang Xiaoleng had something to eat downstairs, he returned to the room upstairs and went to bed early. Ouyang Hongye stayed to drink alone. When the guests were almost gone, he called the innkeeper to sit with him and took the opportunity to inquire about the recent situation in Miancheng.
In fact, this is not the first time that the owner of this inn has shown off what he knows to guests coming to Miancheng from outside. Seeing that Ouyang Hongye was also interested in the recent legendary event in Miancheng, he pretended to be mysterious. He said to him: "Speaking of which, a big and strange thing happened in Miancheng recently!"
"Oh? Tell me!" Ouyang Hongye poured the boss a glass of the wine he just bought and handed it over to ask.
"The big thing that happened recently is that before you guys came, a black fish spirit suddenly appeared in this city pretending to be a yaksha and was running rampant, and there was also the mountain guy who appeared earlier than him who specialized in loan sharking and forced people to a desperate situation and had to sell themselves into slavery. Itachi, these two villains have caused great harm to the residents of Mian City! As a result, two young heroes suddenly came a few days ago. Not only did they expose the true identity of the black fish spirit, they also subdued the mountain weasel and his men! "At this point, the boss's eyes shone with admiration.
"Then what is the strange thing?" Ouyang Xueye thought that his choice to stay and inquire about the situation was indeed the right one.
"Two hundred miles west of Miancheng is a virgin forest. Do you know that?" the innkeeper asked.
"Yeah, my brother and I wanted to go hunting in that forest." Ouyang Xueye lied casually.
"Young man, I see that you are well-dressed and well-spoken. You must not be a prince or noble, but also a son of a wealthy businessman. I advise you and your brother not to take risks in that forest if it is not for your own survival!" the innkeeper finished. He drank all the contents of the cup in one gulp to hide his nervousness when he mentioned the virgin forest.
"How do you say this?" Ouyang Xueye asked.
"There is a camp outside that forest. The camp is inhabited by hunters who make a living by hunting. Their leader is called Lao Yi. This group of hunters has been living there for ten years. They always act in groups when hunting. , and protected by the God of the Earth Temple in the forest, so in the past there have never been accidents such as companions being killed by wild beasts or missing. But recently, many hunters have disappeared into the dense forest for no reason, not to mention corpses. Not even a single clue was left, and everyone said there was a monster in the forest." The innkeeper's hand holding the cup started to tremble.
"Is it really so evil?!" Ouyang Hongye poured him another glass of wine and said.
"Isn't it? Why did I lie to you?!" The innkeeper looked at him, his eyes full of fear.
After listening to the innkeeper's words, Ouyang Xueye thought of what Ouyang Yong said. There is still a way to make the Earth Temple appear when tribute cannot be obtained, and that is to inject enough blood into the altar to cause Source Sin. The resonance of the blood pool thus forces the Earth Temple to rise. If this is the case, those hunters may have become the victims of Qingyun's attempt to open the Earth Temple.
On the other hand, he also became interested in the two legendary teenagers mentioned by the boss, so he changed the topic back and asked the boss: "Where did those two teenagers come from?"
"They seem to be from Dongyao. I don't know the details. After they solved the two bullies in Miancheng, they started fighting each other very quickly. They didn't even give everyone a chance to thank them. Alas..." The innkeeper said a little. He said with a regretful sigh.
"Dong Yao?" Ouyang Hongye was stunned after hearing this, thinking that those two young men were most likely Qian Qi and Ling Yu, but why did they suddenly come to Miancheng? Could it be that they also knew about the Origin Sin Blood Pool and came here for Xia Qiu? If that was the case, why didn't they notify Wang Cheng? They weren't still angry with Ouyang Xiaoleng. He bid farewell to his boss with these questions, returned to the room and saw Ouyang Xiaoleng lying on the bed in the back with his back to the door. He was sleeping on the bed near the door with his clothes on.
In the early morning, Ouyang Xiaoleng was the first to wake up and woke up Ouyang Hongye. She smelled the smell of alcohol all over his body and frowned. The two of them headed straight out of the primeval forest, and indeed they saw the hunter's camp that the innkeeper had mentioned. The early morning light hit the white tents as if they had been ironed with a layer of gold.
At this time in the past, the hunters had already set off to hunt in the dense forest, but now they were all sitting in the open space in the middle of the tent chatting. When they saw someone coming, they all raised their heads and looked at Ouyang Hongye and Ouyang Xiaoleng who were riding on their backs.
"What do you do?" A tall and sturdy hunter stood up and asked.
"We came from the Royal City and planned to go hunting in the woods." Ouyang Hongye answered first.
"Looking at your attire, you don't look like a hunter." Another hunter who was sitting there with most of his face covered by a cloak also stood up and said.
"Qianqi!" Ouyang Hongye and Ouyang Xiaoleng recognized Qianqi's voice almost immediately.
Qian Qi lifted the hat on his cloak and asked, "Why are you here?!"
Another man in black cloak also lifted his hat and stood up. Ouyang Hongye and Ouyang Xiaoleng saw that it was Lingyu. He waved to the surprised hunters beside him and said: "These two are our friends!" Then he pointed to the tall hunter who stood up first and said, "This is the leader of the hunters, called Lao Yi!"
"Hello!" Ouyang Xueye greeted Lao Yi first, and then continued: "We are here for the Origin Sin Blood Pool. I heard that Xia Qiu was taken there by Qingyun to perform the soul-changing technique."
"What? Soul-changing technique?!" Qian Qi was frightened by these words.
"Yes, exactly!" Ouyang Xiaoleng nodded and responded, no longer feeling embarrassed to see Qianqi again.
"We heard that Yaksha had appeared near Miancheng before, so we chased him to Miancheng, and found that it was just an impostor. Even so, the impostor told us that the real Yaksha had indeed appeared outside the city. Later, etc. After the two of us solved some problems in the city, we were just about to return to Dongyao, but we heard about hunters disappearing in the virgin forest outside the city, so we ran directly here to investigate the clues." Meeting Ouyang Xiaoleng again, Qian Qiye had long since lost his anger and responded calmly.
"Tell me what you have investigated." Ouyang Hongye asked again.
"Lao Yi told us that just a while ago, the number of beasts in the forest suddenly increased sharply, and there were also many tree people guarding them, so it was not easy to enter the depths of the dense forest." Ling Yu responded, taking up the topic.
"We have been hunting in this forest for nearly ten years, and we have never seen so many cats, jackals and tree people. In the past, they were controlled by the Lord of the Earth Temple and would not attack us hunters at all, but recently they have It's like they lost control. I suspect they were the ones who captured our companions." Lao Yi, the leader of the Orion hunters, said angrily while clenching his fists.
"How many people are missing?" Ouyang Hongye asked.
"Originally there were more than thirty men in this camp, but now there are only about ten left!" Lao Yi replied.
"The two of us tried several times to forcefully break through the defenses of the Tree Man and the Cat Jackal, but failed to get close to the Earth Temple. We originally planned to send a letter to my father and you to call for some help, but I didn't expect that you came at the right time. !" Qian Qi stretched out a hand to Ouyang Xiaoleng.
"Qingyun plans to use the source sin blood pools sealed in the three temples to perform the soul-changing technique on Xia Qiu. The Earth Temple is the first of them. The entire soul-changing technique takes forty-nine days, so we must hurry up at this time. Rescue her!" Ouyang Xiaoleng held her tightly and said to him without hesitation. At this moment, his determination to save Xia Qiu had brought the two teenagers' hearts together again.
"That thief Qingyun actually came up with such a vicious trick!" Qian Qi was so angry that he felt the blood all over his body rushing to the top of his head.
"I heard that there is no possibility of reversal if you use this method to exchange souls, right?!" Lingyu felt that his whole body was trembling.
"Well... So we must rescue her body before that. Her soul is now with my father in the infinite heaven. With the help of the little hacker, we conducted a channeling." Ouyang Xiaoleng turned his gaze Ling Yu said.
"Oh, it would be great if I were here. I also want to hear her voice!" Qian Qi said with some regret.
"That's right, I must rescue Sister Xia no matter what!" Ling Yu responded with a firm look.
"Although our abilities are limited, we can still help you. We still have some experience in dealing with cat jackals. The cat jackals here are different from other places. They are larger in size and have more powerful attack power!" Lao Yi, the leader of the Orions, intervened.
"Thank you very much. There is no need for you to take risks with us!" Ouyang Hongye said with some regret.
"We rely on hunting for a living. If you can really deal with those cats, jackals and tree people, and find out what happened to the Lord of the Earth Temple, we can also regain our way of life. Otherwise, we have to hug each other and wait to die. ." Lao Yi lowered his head and looked at the other hunters.
The other hunters followed suit and said:
"Boss is right!"
"Yes, we can also look for those missing brothers!"
"Oh, yes!"
"I've never seen what a tree-man looks like." This was the first time Ouyang Xiaoleng heard about the existence of tree-men, and he was inevitably a little curious.
"They were originally tree monsters that protected the Earth Temple, and should be regarded as the subordinates of the God Lord. They look half human and half tree. Each tree monster is about five meters tall. They use countless tree vines as arms to attack the enemy. The explosive fruits growing on the tree crown are their weapons. The power of the explosive fruits is very huge. If they are blown up by them, ordinary people will definitely be killed. Even those with powerful demon power will have their skin and flesh ripped apart." Lao Yi said with a serious expression. Opening his right sleeve, there was a dark scar on his arm, "This was left before. Although it was only damaged a little by the sparks splashed when the explosion hit the ground, it still left a big scar." .”