Back on the shore, Shad put on his shoes and socks, while the girl in the black dress also sat on the rocks on the shore and put on her white stockings and black leather shoes.
Shad squatted by the stream and washed his hands before picking up the night watchman again and carrying the gift box from God on his back.
The girl in the black dress did not introduce her name, but put her hands behind her back and asked curiously:
"Sir, may I ask what you are doing in the mountains?"
The blue eyes looked at Shade with a smile.
"My friend and I made an appointment to go to the mountaintop lake to see the scenery."
"But in the past two weeks, the Church of the Five Gods has blocked the road leading to the top of the mountain. Now it is impossible to go up there."
The top of the mountain is also an important site for a large-scale divine ritual to reseal the narrow space between life and death. No matter what the church considers, it will not allow ordinary people to enter there in the near future. However, Grandma Cassandra must have considered this, so Shade is not worried about not being able to climb up:
"Well, ma'am, may I ask what you are doing going into the mountains alone? Although the Middleburg serial murder case has been solved by a captain some time ago, a girl of your age should not go into the mountains alone."
"I am visiting old villages in the Sikar Mountains to prepare for my graduation thesis."
The girl in the black dress raised the notebook in her hand. The old villages in the Xikar Mountains refer to the secluded small villages scattered in the mountains before the city was built. But with the advent of the steam age and the growing prosperity of Midhill Castle, most of the young people in the mountain villages went to the city at the foot of the mountain. So in just a few decades, most of the villages in the Xikar Mountains were abandoned:
“Is there a small mountain village nearby?”
Shad was very curious.
"Yes, sir, over there."
The girl in the black skirt pointed to the other side of the stream, but it was impossible to see whether there was a mountain village in the distance in the dense forest:
"I'm going to take a look, sir. Would you be willing to accept my employment and protect me temporarily?"
She smiled again and spoke to Shad, her blue eyes looking somewhat transparent in the sunlight.
"You trust me so much?"
"When you were carrying me on your back just now, I noticed that you were carrying two guns. If I'm not mistaken, you were holding an object wrapped in cloth, which should be a long sword in a scabbard. More importantly, you don't look like a bad guy. Bad guys don't look as handsome as you."
"Why?"
Xia De asked curiously, and the smile on the black-dressed girl's face became even brighter:
"With this kind of looks, it's easy to make money. Why would you need to do bad things? Sir, I bet you are a detective."
"Yes, Shad Suellen Hamilton."
Instead of saying "John Watson," Shad gave his real name... ... Actually, his real name is Shad:
"Ma'am, are you really a student of the history department, not the folklore department?"
“Sometimes, it’s hard to tell folklore from history.”
As she turned around, the red butterfly pendant on her waist swayed, and for a moment, the butterfly seemed to be alive, but it just blinked and returned to normal.
"Sir, please follow me. There is a wooden bridge over the stream over there."
Xia De did not refuse and followed the girl in the black dress. After crossing the wooden bridge upstream of the stream, which was actually just a rotten wooden board, they came to the other side of the stream, farther away from the main road up the mountain.
Walking into the jungle again, the late autumn afternoon sunlight was completely blocked by the shade of the trees, and the temperature seemed to drop. The girl in the black dress was a talkative person. While leading the way, she asked Shade various questions.
He talked about his identity, his family, his life, the differences between Midhill Castle and Tobesk, and even asked about the box that Shad was carrying, and Shad still explained it as "an evil beast is sealed here."
As for the girl in the black dress, she didn't say much. She just admitted that she had a twin sister and she was waiting for her sister to come back.
"You have a good relationship?"
"Yes, it's great... We swore to be together forever."
After walking for half an hour, they still saw no trace of the village in the forest. The girl in the black skirt stopped in the clearing in the forest. Xia De looked around in confusion, but still saw no trace of the village.
"Look."
The girl in the black dress suddenly stretched out her finger and pointed to the right front of the two of them. Xia De looked up and saw a fiery red butterfly swaying in the woods. Its body seemed transparent, and it could leave red spots of light around it as it moved.
As Xia De noticed the red butterfly, it flew deeper into the forest, as if attracting the two of them to come over.
"That's it. There are often red butterflies like this near that small mountain village!"
The girl in the black dress said, grabbing Shade's hand and quickly chasing after her. Shade tried to break free a few times but failed, so he simply followed the girl in the black dress and chased the red butterfly deeper into the forest.
This kind of reckless behavior is usually the beginning of horror stories.
The densely packed trees made the forest darker and even a little eerie. At the same time, more and more red butterflies gathered from all directions and appeared around them. Those red butterflies fluttered among the leaves and grass, becoming the brightest light source nearby, adding some hazy colors to the gloomy scene.
The concentration of the whispering element was becoming more and more terrifying as the two continued to move forward. The light dimmed, whispers murmured, and a cold wind swept past. But surrounded by red butterflies, Xia De did not feel the slightest impact of the relics.
"Look, here it is."
When the two finally stopped, the surroundings were as dark as night, but swarms of red butterflies still surrounded them, shielding them from the cold wind and resisting the invasion of whispering elements.
In front of me was an old village nestled in the mountains, which looked to have been abandoned for a long time. Most of the buildings that could be seen were made of straw and mud, and the two houses at the entrance of the village had completely collapsed. The road leading into the village was almost covered by weeds, and looking around the entire village, apart from the tower in the center, there were no buildings higher than two stories.
Not only that, Shade could even see the black fog surrounding the village, and vaguely visible figures wandering in the village, probably only in horror stories. And for the ring sorcerer, this was obviously a location-type relic, a location-type relic attracted by the chaos of the four elements in the Midhill Castle area, just like the Sin Mansion.
"There really is such a place in the mountains. It's really not easy to find it."
Xia De looked at the girl in the black dress, who was still smiling:
"Sir, this is my goal."
She held onto Shade's hand and refused to let go. When she turned to look at him, her blue eyes seemed to be glowing under the reflection of the red butterflies around them.
"Ma'am, are you sure you want to enter this place?"
Xia De asked hesitantly:
"In the stories people usually tell, the beginning of those tragedies is often the situation we are facing now. A deserted village shrouded in black fog in the mountains, a man and a woman who accidentally broke in, a story and tragedy hidden for a hundred years, and the secrets and horrors buried in the deserted village... If my writer friend knew this story, he might be able to publish a good detective novel right away."
Chapter 728: Red Butterfly in the Forest