The unfolded scroll depicts five gods riding on clouds and mist, and beneath their feet are mountains shrouded in light mist.
Many villagers had also been to the village chief's home and had seen this painting. When they saw Yan Guangyao specially displaying it, they looked at each other in confusion, wondering what the mystery in the painting he was talking about was.
"What should we do? He found out." An Xingyu said in a low voice.
Lu Yanli shook his head: "Let's wait and see." So what if they discovered something? These villagers could help them find the way.
Xie Ziqing was confused and had no idea what they were talking about, but seeing that their expressions were serious, he couldn't help but stare at the painting intently.
However, no matter how he looked at it, it was just a relatively ordinary landscape painting, with five gods, the landscape below, and what else
An Xingyu reminded him: "Look at it the other way around."
in turn
Xie Ziqing didn't understand what "reverse" meant, but An Xingyu had already pointed it out to this extent, so it would be stupid for him to say that he didn't understand. He nodded seriously, turned around, spread his legs, and looked down from between his legs.
An Xingyu: "Ahem... it's not the other way around." He gestured, "Try it, turn the left and right sides of the painting around."
Xie Ziqing stood up, looking confused.
Reverse left and right
He tried to construct a picture in his mind, but failed. The other villagers were just like Xie Ziqing, unable to understand what Yan Guangyao was trying to say.
Only Lu Yanli and An Xingyu knew.
In their eyes, the painting turned left and right, and the flying hems of the five gods, the clouds and mountains under their feet, clearly formed a map. And this map was the topographic map of the entire Shangxian Village.
With the forbidden area as the center, the red shawl of the fox fairy in the middle extends out to become a blood-red river surrounding the village. On the left and right, two green-clad snake fairies and a hedgehog fairy are shaped like two fish, with floating shawls connected end to end.
The image of the Yellow Fairy Weasel on the far left is an old man with white hair and a youthful face, holding a cane, but the cane is held upside down, with the bent handle pointing somewhere in the mountains and waters below.
The rightmost gray fairy mouse image is a thin young man in gray. If you flip his image left and right, his eyes are fixed on the tail of the fox fairy in the center.
The white fairy hedgehog lowered his eyes, turned over, and lengthened his sight to the tail exposed by the fox fairy's skirt at his side.
The rest of them also turned around, and after their gazes became a solid straight line, they all fell on the fox fairy's tail. The fox fairy's sight was stretched out as a direction, and the intersection with the direction indicated by the tail fell on a certain place in the forbidden area.
For some reason, a word popped up in An Xingyu's mind.
This word was also spoken loudly by Yan Guangyao.
"I think everyone has seen it before, but didn't notice the secret inside." Yan Guangyao turned the scroll over to face the sunlight. The paper, which was not particularly thick, showed the flipped image.
Now all the villagers recognized him.
"Isn't this a forbidden area?"
“Why does this look a bit like a map?”
…
Yan Guangyao held up the scroll and said loudly, "Yes, this is the map. The previous village chief had it hanging in his room and looked at it every day. He didn't hide it because he hoped someone could find out the secret. But no one has ever proposed it. I just discovered it by accident."
"It turns out that the portrait hanging in the village chief's room is a treasure map!"
The word immediately caused a stir.
Treasure map
Where is the treasure? What is it
The villagers were talking about it and all looked at Yan Guangyao with hope.
At this moment, no one questioned Yan Guangyao's young age anymore, and everyone wanted to know what he was going to say next.
Xie Ziqing asked quietly: "Is it really a treasure map?"
Lu Yanli shook his head: "Who knows?"
He originally wanted to trick Luo Ying into giving it a try, but now it seems that having so many villages is not a bad idea.
Even if there is a treasure... Haha, my life is at risk, so why would I care about the treasure
The same goes for Xie Ziqing. It is difficult to bring things from this world to another world, and he cannot take them away even if he takes them.
Yan Guangyao was still talking: "Of course, now is not the time to talk about treasure. The village is facing a huge crisis, and the location shown on this treasure map happens to be in the forbidden area. So I suggest that everyone enter the forbidden area in advance!"
The villagers looked at each other, and one of them hesitated and said, "But, Lao Qian said that we can't go in early."
Lao Qian is the previous village chief.
"That's because he hasn't discovered the secret of the treasure map yet. Without the map, the forbidden area would of course be a dangerous place for us. Now that we have the map, what are we afraid of?" Yan Guangyao said loudly.
"But… "
"There is no but. Do you think the village is safe now?" Yan Guangyao said, "Lili doesn't want to protect us anymore. Even if we call Mrs. Li's granddaughter back now, it will take several days. Can you guarantee that nothing will happen?"
"But the curse of the village..."
"The curse has its source. Are you willing to bear it for the rest of your life? As long as we don't solve the source of the curse, we won't be able to live a peaceful life!"
What he said was not without reason. The younger generation had basically never faced the horror of the forbidden land. In comparison, the chaos in the village in the past few days was more terrifying. In the past few days, almost all the people who died in the village were from the older generation. There were very few people over the age of fifty. They almost didn't say anything, but just stared at Yan Guangyao coldly.
"How stupid! If you rush over now you will die!" The oldest man in the village survived by chance. He was hard of hearing and could not hear clearly. He had to rely on his wife to explain every word to him. As soon as she finished listening, he could not help but curse with his crutches.
“You don’t know what price we paid... to let you go...” The old man was so angry that he trembled and fainted.
“Uncle Zhang!” The middle-aged man next to him exclaimed and rushed over to support him. His wife also burst into tears: “I can’t control you young people anymore, but you can’t take the whole village to death... I still have a few years to live...”
The group of young people who had just been encouraged by Yan Guangyao could not help but retreat. Yan Guangyao's eyes darkened, and he almost squeezed out the words from between his teeth: "Aunt Zhang, you should know the secret of ancestor worship better than us, right? Don't you know the truth about this year's ancestor worship?"
Aunt Zhang's expression changed drastically, and her lips trembled: "You, what did you say?"
Yan Guangyao said: "Do you dare to tell the truth about ancestor worship?"
A young villager was puzzled: "Isn't it just burning some incense and praying?" Why did Yan Guangyao make it sound so serious
Yan Guangyao shook his head: "Of course it's like this for ordinary ancestor worship. But now, sixty years have passed, and sixty years is a cycle, so this year's chaos is much more serious than in the past, and this year's ancestor worship..." He didn't finish his words, but Aunt Zhang had already understood the meaning in his eyes. Her legs went weak and she almost fell to the ground.
"How do you know?" She asked this question, but before she got an answer, she fainted.
Sixty years, a cycle... Lu Yanli took a deep breath.
According to the calendar system of Heavenly Stems and Earthly Branches, sixty years is indeed a cycle.
So, what will be offered in this year's ancestor worship? What happened sixty years ago
This feeling of being kept in the dark made him very uncomfortable, but what made him even more curious was why Yan Guangyao discovered the secret in the portrait
Yan Guangyao stood on the high platform, holding up the portrait, with a desperate and crazy look on his face: "We can't stay in the village now! Is there anyone who wants to go to the forbidden area with us this afternoon?"
A young man slowly raised his hand.
Then, another one.
One after another.
Almost all the young people who had only heard the curse from the older generation raised their hands.
An Xingyu asked: "Are you going?"
"Go, of course we have to go." Lu Yanli also raised his hand, "If they don't go, we have to go too."
Seeing this, An Xingyu and Xie Ziqing also raised their hands.
Suddenly, one of the men's raised right hand flew out, and blood splattered.
He himself did not seem to react. After a long while, a scream broke out in the crowd: "Ah—"
People rushed to flee.
Unexpectedly, a little girl in a red dress slowly walked in from the other end of the square.
"Li..." A man opened his eyes wide, and before he could say a word, his head flew high into the air.
The scarlet blood splashed on the person next to him. The person was so scared that he didn't move. He watched a head fly to the ground and roll around for a few times.
A paper figure ran over and picked up the head to play with it. A small smile appeared on his pale face.
The whole square was silent for a few seconds.
Although everyone kept saying that Lili no longer protected the village, the scene that actually happened before their eyes still caught them off guard.
This, is this Lili
Why did she become like this
The little girl had no white in her eyes and her face was hideous, but she was still laughing, looking childish and adorable. She walked slowly in, staring at everyone with her pair of pupilless eyes, which made people feel cold.
Every step forward, the villagers take a step back.
Yan Guangyao shouted, "Run!"
The villagers finally came to their senses and hurriedly fled in the other direction, pushing and shoving each other, with occasional cries of despair.
As soon as the little girl appeared, Lu Yanli had already realized something was wrong, and dragged An Xingyu along and ran away. Sure enough, the screams of the villagers rang out behind him.
"Why did Lili suddenly become like this?" An Xingyu said as he ran.
How could Lu Yanli know? He had a feeling that something was wrong with the little girl who had just walked over, but he couldn't put his finger on it, so he could only keep running away.
The wailing behind me became louder and louder.
Compared to Lu Yanli and An Xingyu who have been exercising for many years, Xie Ziqing's running speed is slower. The only advantage is that he has seen a lot of strange things and is much faster than the villagers. He kept running after the two people in front of him. As he was running, a bloody head suddenly fell in front of him, almost tripping him.
Xie Ziqing subconsciously turned his head and was immediately frightened out of his wits.
Not far behind the fleeing villagers, there were pieces of flesh and limbs hanging everywhere, and the blood on the ground seemed to have life and was rushing towards them. An older man stepped into the blood plasma, and the next second, he was completely submerged in a large amount of thick blood plasma.
The originally bright sky gradually darkened, and in the end, the thick dark clouds completely blocked the sun, making it almost the same as night. A cold and fierce wind howled past, bringing with it waves of foul smells.
Lu Yanli didn't look back, he just ran forward side by side with An Xingyu, returned to the village from another exit of the square, and then ran to the forbidden area. The number of villagers behind him was getting smaller and smaller, but he still insisted on running away.
Their crying could still be heard faintly.
Xie Ziqing looked back again.
The little girl was still walking slowly. She was very small and didn't walk very fast, but the distance between her and the villagers who were running wildly was getting closer and closer.
“Hehehe…”
In the silent night, there were only the wails of the villager before his unfortunate death and the silver bell-like laughter of the little girl.
Many white paper dolls jumped out along the way, jumping and playing in the pool of blood.
Limb stumps, organs, soaked sticky black hair, skin... all became their playthings.
Xie Ziqing felt a chill and didn't dare to look any further. He immediately lowered his head and ran away.
In front, Lu Yanli had already run to the village entrance and took big steps forward.
But what made him feel cold all over was that when he took a step forward, the world spun before his eyes, and when he came to his senses, he found that everything around him was dark and quiet, and in front of him was... a familiar broken bridge.
A more pungent smell of decay than before surged towards me from under the bridge.
"Catch some fish for me...quickly...hehehe..."
The little girl's clear voice rang out from all directions.
The next second, he found himself standing on the edge of the broken bridge, with a fishing rod in his hand and a small bucket at his feet.
Everything was pitch black, except for the corpses under the broken bridge that were rising up like waves, with their pale and swollen limbs entangled, still visible even in the dark water.
No... the river is not dark...
Lu Yanli tried hard to suppress his rational discomfort.
This river... is a river of blood.
He was focused and skillfully hooked the "bait", swung the fishing rod, and the fishing line fell into the river of blood.
The moment the bait fell, the corpses below rushed up like crazy. Even though they were dead, they were still fighting for it and tearing each other apart. Meat scraps flew everywhere, huge waves surged on the water surface, and the stench became stronger and stronger.
The same is true in other parts of the village.
Yan Guangyao ran desperately with the scroll.
As long as he ran to the forbidden area, as long as he reached the forbidden area... he would be safe...
He ran with almost all his strength. As soon as he ran out of the village, the three people in front of him disappeared. Yan Guangyao had no time to be afraid. He just ran as fast as he could. He finally turned into the forest. The next second, his eyes went dark and he was back at the village chief's house.
On the shrine, the statue of Grandma Hu Santa had been knocked over.
The wind blew and the door closed.
Yan Guangyao felt somewhat relieved in the last second before he fell into darkness.
He did not bring the scroll back.
At the moment when everything in front of his eyes went dark, he threw the scroll away.
Someone will find it.
Lu Yanli didn't know the situation of the others, and thought that they were not much better than himself. The next second, there was another person beside him.
It’s An Xingyu.
He was also brought to this place.
“Let’s catch fish together… hehehehe… hurry up…”
An Xingyu was stunned for only a moment, then he sat down with Lu Yanli, and after some simple preparations, he threw the fishing line into the water.
Even more violent waves surged up, almost overwhelming the bridge.
The two couldn't help but worry.
If this continues, if another person comes, the waves created by the corpses below will sweep them under.
What made them uneasy was that half a minute later, Xie Ziqing, still with a look of fear on his face, also appeared on the bridge.
"What should we do? We can't escape..." Xie Ziqing was so frightened the moment he saw the surrounding scenery clearly that his face turned pale. He held the fishing rod in his hand and looked at the other two for help.
The fishing rod in Lu Yanli's hand moved.
A fish has taken the bait.
He didn't know why, but he didn't feel lucky. Some strong intuition from the bottom of his heart made him not to hook the fish, but to wait quietly.
After a while, the fish swam away.
At the same time, the three of them heard the roar of wild beasts coming from the forest.
It was hard to describe the roar that reached his ears. It was completely out of the range of wild beasts. Xie Ziqing looked blankly at the source of the sound. Soon he was pulled aside by Lu Yanli, who frowned and said, "You go first, hurry up!"
Xie Ziqing looked at him gratefully, and without thinking much, he immediately squatted beside An Xingyu to fish.
An Xingyu seemed to understand something.
After a while, the fishing rod in his hand also floated. He gently pulled it up, and when the fish floated to the surface, his pupils suddenly shrank and his hand loosened.
His "fish" also swam away.
A dog as tall as two people, half of its body covered with bones and half with rotten flesh, slowly walked out of the forest.
The reason why it is called a dog is that you can still barely see some trace of a dog. It walked out of the forest little by little, and its black eye sockets with fallen eyeballs stared straight at the three people.
"What should we do? Did you catch it?" Xie Ziqing was so scared that he asked An Xingyu hurriedly.
An Xingyu gritted his teeth: "No."
As he spoke, Xie Ziqing's fishing rod moved.
He was overjoyed: "If you don't have it, come and help me, I have caught it!" After saying that, he pulled it up with all his strength.
An Xingyu reached out to help him, and Lu Yanli did the same. As soon as the latter took over, the first two felt relieved, and the three of them exerted their strength together, and a pale, swollen human body leaped out of the river and landed on the bridge.
Xie Ziqing hadn't noticed anything was wrong yet. He panted and wiped the sweat from his forehead. Lu Yanli took out a jade pendant from his pocket and placed it next to the corpse.
The dog came closer.
"Hey? Brother Lu, what are you doing?" Xie Ziqing didn't notice anything wrong and planned to continue fishing by the river. "It seems that I have good luck today. You guys help me later. Otherwise, we will be doomed sooner or later when facing that dog."
As he spoke, his eyes suddenly widened.
A scene appeared before his eyes that Xie Ziqing could not understand no matter what.
The body on the bridge... turned into two
Why? How could this happen
An Xingyu also widened his eyes.
Lu Yanli didn't intend to explain, and soon he reproduced the third corpse.
It was not until now that Xie Ziqing realized something was wrong.
"Look at these corpses." He asked hesitantly, his voice dry, "Don't you feel that it seems... it seems..."
The dog had come close and lowered its head.
Lu Yanli pushed hard, pushing one of the clones out, and it rolled under the beast's smelly and hot breath.
It sniffed and began to eat.
When it took the first bite, Xie Ziqing screamed in pain. His thigh was bitten off by something invisible and blood splattered everywhere.
He finally knew why the body looked wrong.
Because, that is himself.
Another scream, and half of the body was bitten off.
He was completely soundless and could no longer scream.
An Xingyu closed his eyes, not wanting to watch any longer. But the dog was clearly not satisfied with just eating a corpse. While chewing, he asked Lu Yanli, "What should we do now?"
Lu Yanli said: "We can only feed it first, and then find a way to escape." He turned his head to look at An Xingyu, there was something in his eyes that the latter could not understand. He thought Lu Yanli was going to say something, but the other party still said nothing.
"As soon as possible."
"Okay." An Xingyu nodded.
He really wanted to ask Lu Yanli what he was holding, but this was not the time to explain, so he had to stand aside and look around vigilantly. Then, he dragged the other copied corpses a little further away to delay time as much as possible.
Lu Yanli moved quickly, estimating the time it took the dog to eat and quickly replicating one corpse after another.
No one knows where the Pisces Jade Pendant came from, and the reason for its special function is also unknown. But Lu Yanli has tested it and found that a large number of copies in a short period of time will temporarily consume some of its energy. When the energy is exhausted, it needs to be placed for a while before it can be used.
Several people had died near the reservoir before, and An Xingyu dragged their bodies over. When there were finally three bodies on the bridge, Lu Yanli pulled An Xingyu, the two looked at each other, and immediately ran out.
The village was now a scene of hell.
A bloody wind was raging, and countless pale paper figurines were jumping and playing. Screams and wails of human beings could be heard from almost every household.
Lu Yanli didn't even look at him, he just ran as fast as he could. What surprised An Xingyu was that he was still talking on the phone while running, but he didn't know who he was calling.
"Who are you talking to?" An Xingyu kicked away a paper man that was biting his trouser leg, sweat beads on his forehead.
Lu Yanli said: "Lin Chu."
"What?! Lin Chu?" An Xingyu was shocked.
"She's not dead." This was the only explanation Lu Yanli gave.
As expected and disturbing as it was, the call was not answered.
He called again, and the same thing happened. He didn't know which party was responsible. He then called Luo Ying.
"Listen, An Xingyu, that painting is very important. Without it, we may never be able to get rid of the curse." Lu Yanli smiled bitterly, "We have to find the painting and then go to the forbidden area."
Although An Xingyu guessed this result, the lack of some clues prevented him from fully deducing the entire logic line. He murmured, "Why?"
"Haven't you noticed? In ordinary villages, there is usually a big family name, and everyone is related by blood. But this village is not like that. Almost every household has no relationship at all. They have different surnames and look nothing in common except that they look like foxes."
Lu Yanli walked around a piece of bloody human intestine that fell from a branch in front of him without changing his expression and continued, "There is no ancestral hall or family tree in the village. I have asked many families in the past few days, and they are all outsiders."
"They are all... outsiders like us. After participating in the ancestor worship, they become the villagers of Shangxian Village and will bear part of the curse."
Therefore, no village expressed rejection of outsiders. They were warm and hospitable and hoped to keep these outsiders.
But everyone in An Xingyu must participate in ancestor worship, and after the worship, he will inevitably bear the curse.
As for the specific content of the curse, he was not clear.
"It happens every sixty years, and I still haven't figured out what happened. Now the only villagers who know the inside story are probably all dead. It's hard to say it wasn't intentional." The more urgent the moment, the faster Lu Yanli's mind turned. "What happened sixty years ago, I don't know if there is any record in the village, but now... Let's go to the forbidden area first and check those tombstones. Who knows what we can find."
Although there are many tombstones, he believes that with his, An Xingyu's and Lin Chu's memories, they can quickly find some clues.
An Xingyu recited the name of the omniscient god in his heart and nodded repeatedly: "Okay! Let's escape as soon as possible."
I don’t know if it was because Lili was slaughtering other people in the village, but in any case, they escaped to the village entrance smoothly.
Luo Ying rushed over from a distance.
She had already witnessed the chaos in the village. Just now, one of the calls made by Lu Yanli happened to be connected. Although it was cut off after just a few seconds, combined with the change in the weather outside, it was enough for her to understand that a huge change had taken place in the village.
"Hurry! Come out!" Luo Ying screamed.
Lu Yanli had already seen the scroll that fell outside the village entrance.
"Scroll!" he cried.
Luo Ying followed his gaze and instantly realized that the scroll seemed to be something important, so she turned around and picked it up.
At the same time, a pale little hand came from behind Lu Yanli and pierced through his chest.
Suddenly, Lu Yanli felt a pain in his heart. He looked down and saw a small hole in his chest.
Blood dripped down, Lu Yanli opened his eyes wide, unable to take another step, he slowly fell forward.
Behind him, the girl in red stood quietly, holding a still beating red heart in her hand, with blood dripping.
An Xingyu had already stepped out of the village entrance. He subconsciously turned around and stared blankly at the scene in front of him.
Lu Yanli... dead
This jade pendant...
Just now, taking advantage of the moment when Luo Ying turned around, Lu Yanli threw the Pisces jade pendant to him.
He used the last few seconds to say a few words to him silently.
An Xingyu's usually calm mind was a little confused. He subconsciously clenched the jade pendant and put it in his pocket without telling Luo Ying.
Luo Ying picked up the scroll and hurried over. Her eyes swept over the young man in front of her and immediately fixed on his calf.