To the west of Yuhua Town, there is a road leading to the mountains.
The weather was slightly cold, and Wen Qingzhu felt a little cold even wearing an autumn sweater.
Xi'er followed behind and took out her cloak: "Madam, why don't you put this on?"
Wen Qingzhu shook his head: "No, just wait a little longer and your body will warm up. We have to walk faster, otherwise we won't be able to catch up with them."
Hu Sen, who was leading the way, looked back and then said something to the tall man beside him.
Their speed slowed down.
The mountain road became more and more rugged. Even if Hu Sen and the others slowed down, Wen Qingzhu's speed became slower and slower.
Half an hour later, Hu Sen and the others finally stopped.
Wen Qingzhu came to them panting and looked down, seeing a cloud of mist.
Hu Sen pointed to the valley in front and said: "This ravine is past the place where the Wu tribe has lived for generations. It was also the place where the war was most intense."
Wen Qingzhu asked Xi'er to hand her the monocular and carefully observed the terrain here.
Although not very obvious, traces of human activity can be seen everywhere.
"It seems that Mr. Hou and the others have already arrived." Wen Qingzhu handed the monocular back.
Hu Sen pointed to a mountain road on the right and said, "There is a secret passage going over there. Only Grandpa Ha knows about it."
"Then let's go." Wen Qingzhu said nothing and turned around to leave.
"Yes." Hu Sen originally thought that Wen Qingzhu would take a rest. After all, she had been walking for so long and she looked very tired.
There were about twenty people in their group, ten on Wen Qingzhu's side and ten on Hu Sen's side.
Jiang Yuanhan led people to Cangzhou to investigate, Lu Tao stayed at the inn to guard Old Man Ha, and Wen Qingzhu and Hu Sen led people to the hinterland of the Wu clan.
The sky slowly darkened, and Hu Sen asked the tall man next to him: "Brother Qi, how long will it take?"
Brother Qi pointed in front and made a three sign.
Hu Sen finally felt relieved, it should be soon.
Not long after it got dark, they finally reached the bottom.
It was too humid in the mountains and the torches couldn't light, so Wen Qingzhu took the luminous pearls and asked Xi'er to distribute them to them.
The surroundings suddenly brightened up. Brother Qi put on the mask he had prepared before and pointed at himself.
Wen Qingzhu and others understood and put on the masks they had prepared before.
Immediately afterwards, Brother Seven led them to the entrance of a cave.
Everyone walked in, and Wen Qingzhu observed the cave with the faint light.
Compared with the humidity outside, the inside of the cave is actually much drier and not so cold.
After many twists and turns, Brother Qi led him to a cave with no way forward.
He gestured to Hu Sen.
After Hu Sen understood, he turned to them and said: "Seventh brother said that there are many insects and beasts at night. Let's rest here for the night and set off tomorrow."
Wen Qingzhu nodded, and Xi'er went to prepare sleeping bags and set up a tent as suggested.
After she entered, Wen Qingzhu found that the man Hu Sen called Qi Ge took out a cloth bag and sprinkled a layer of black powder at the entrance.
A smell of medicine suddenly came over.
Wen Qingzhu waved Hu Sen over and asked him, "Seventh brother can't speak?"
"Well, Seventh Brother couldn't speak before and was very thin. After Grandpa Ha's sons died, he adopted him." Speaking of Seventh Brother's life experience, Hu Sen had compassion in his eyes.
Wen Qingzhu asked again: "Why does Grandpa Ha hate the Long family so much?"
When they were at the inn, one of the conditions for Old Man Ha's compromise was to let him personally kill Long Dai, Princess Runan of Cangzhou.
"Madam, what happened to the Ha family is actually no different from what happened to the Teng family. The Teng family has the ability to resist and the courage to leave Jinzhou, but the Ha family does not."
Hu Sen obviously didn't want to say more, so Wen Qingzhu didn't ask any more questions.
Late at night, the surroundings were quiet except for the sound of shallow breathing.
Wen Qingzhu has always been a light sleeper and has a keen sense of smell.
When the ground shook slightly, she immediately woke up. Xi'er was already squatting on the ground.
Under the dim light of the night pearl, Wen Qingzhu exchanged a look with her.
Wen Qingzhu hid Ye Mingzhu while Xi'er quietly opened the tent curtain.
Looking towards the entrance of the cave, I saw a dense crowd of creatures, large and small, gathered at the entrance.
Those vague and vague shadows made Xi'er's scalp numb.
After she closed the tent, Wen Qingzhu took out the Night Pearl.
Xi'er told her the situation outside in sign language.
Wen Qingzhu thought for a moment and realized that the black powder should have played a role.
But the tremors on the ground are definitely not caused by the insect beasts in the mountains.
Just when she was hesitating whether to wake everyone up, Hu Sen suddenly shouted.
Then there was a flash of fire outside, and Xi'er immediately opened the curtain.
When she saw the situation outside, she gasped instantly!
Wen Qingzhu was holding a small medicine bottle in his hand, the lid had been opened, and she followed closely and walked out.
I was instantly stunned by the scene in front of me!
Except for Brother Qi, everyone had a few black bugs lying on their faces, only as big as a fingernail.
People with bugs, their faces were black and blue, they tried to stand up, but they seemed to have no strength.
Brother Seven was roughly plucking the bugs off Hu Sen's face. When he pulled out one, Hu Sen couldn't help but scream.
After a while, the bug was pulled out, and some color returned to Hu Sen's face.
Wen Qingzhu immediately took out his dagger, walked up to the secret guards, and helped cut off the bugs on their faces with Xi'er.
She also took the pulse and found that they were not poisoned. They looked more like they were drugged.
Wen Qingzhu took out Xingnao Pills and gave each of them one pill.
By the time the bugs were removed from everyone's faces, it was already half an hour later.
At this time, although Hu Sen had recovered, his face was pale and he was obviously very frightened.
Walking up to Wen Qingzhu, he pointed at Brother Qi and said, "Brother Qi asked me to ask you, why didn't you and Xi'er fall into the trap?"
"This!" Wen Qingzhu took out a purse and opened it, revealing a white stone.
After Brother Seven saw clearly what was in her hand, his eyes trembled and he knelt down almost subconsciously.
All the Wu clan members who came with Brother Seven also knelt down.
After putting away the stone, Wen Qingzhu breathed a sigh of relief.
It seems that it is right to bring this thing.
At the same time, the tremors on the ground became more and more obvious.
Brother Seven stood up, waved his hand, and took the lead in putting on a mask.
Hu Sen immediately said: "Everyone, get ready, the night watchman of the Wu clan is coming soon!"
Under Wen Qingzhu's command, all traces of the cave were cleared.
Taking advantage of the darkness, they followed Brother Seven and began to move towards the hinterland of the Wu clan.
About half an hour later, a group of people wearing black cloaks appeared at the entrance of the cave.
The leader of the group held a silver plate on his withered and blackened palm, and the light of the torch shone with a penetrating light.
"The Holy Stone once appeared here." A toneless voice came from under the cloak holding the silver plate.
There was an obvious commotion among the people around.
Not long after, the man holding the silver plate pointed in the direction of Wen Qingzhu and the others and said, "Over there!"
A group of people began to chase Wen Qingzhu's direction.
Wen Qingzhu and his party had just left the cave and saw the moon in the sky.
Brother Qi led them forward, and soon they came to a river.
There were three or four small boats docked on the shore. Under the command of Brother Qi, everyone boarded the boat at once.
As the water flowed downward, the cloaked man who was still in the cave suddenly stopped.
"No response!"
"What should we do?" someone else asked.
The man holding the silver plate raised his head and revealed a dark face: "Keep chasing! The Holy Stone has not appeared for almost fifty years. This appearance must be an instruction from a god!"
Follow the river all the way down until the sky slowly gets brighter.
Only then did Wen Qingzhu see the surrounding scenery clearly. Weeds were overgrown, trees blocked the sky, and birds suddenly flew up from time to time.
Deep in the mountains, the water vapor was heavy. Wen Qingzhu tightly wrapped his cloak and observed the surroundings carefully.
But no matter how hard she looked, she couldn't remember the way.
There are no human traces here, and it changes appearance every few days. People who have not lived here since childhood cannot tell the direction at all.
"We're here!" Hu Sen looked forward excitedly and said excitedly.
Wen Qingzhu looked up and saw a quiet village under the morning light.
The water flow has also become slower, and ships are docking one after another.
Wen Qingzhu got off the boat and looked at the unusually quiet village in front of him, feeling inexplicably uneasy.
She had read a lot of books. People who lived in the mountains followed this rule of sunrise and sunset.
The morning light has appeared now, and the sun will appear in less than two quarters of an hour. How can the village still be quiet
According to Old Man Ha, he has not been back for two years.
Because he had to support the Teng family, Old Man Ha took away all the elites in the village. The first time they came back to the village was half a year ago.
However, the blood sacrifice had already begun half a year ago.
Except for Wen Qingzhu's group and Hu Sen, the rest of the people's faces were more or less filled with the joy of going home.
After all, this is their home, and it is necessary to come back and take a look.
Except for Brother Qi, the others in front couldn't help chatting.
Although Wen Qingzhu didn't quite understand what they were saying, judging from their expressions, they were very happy.
Wen Qingzhu and his party were strangely silent.
The people she brought lived a life of licking blood on the tip of a knife, and they were more sensitive to danger.
Their silence quickly attracted Hu Sen's attention.
Hu Sen deliberately lagged a few steps behind and walked beside Wen Qingzhu. He looked at her serious expression and asked, "Does Madam think something is wrong?"
"Don't you think the village in front is too quiet?" Wen Qingzhu looked in front of them. The village was getting closer and closer, but they still saw no trace of human activity.
Not to mention hearing anything.
Hu Sen looked over and frowned slightly: "I asked just now. They said that after the Ha family was targeted by the Long family, everyone became more accustomed to being quiet."
"No, this is different." Wen Qingzhu still firmly believed that there was no living person in this village.
She believes in her own consciousness.
Seeing the village getting closer and closer, the voices in front also became quieter.
They seemed to realize something was wrong and unconsciously accelerated their pace.
About two-quarters of an hour later, they crossed the valley and arrived at the entrance of the village.
A withered corpse was placed in front of everyone.
At this moment, everyone was silent.
A young man of medium height walked forward, knelt in front of the corpse, and stretched out his trembling hand to touch the necklace around the corpse's neck.
"Dad...Dad! Wake up!" The young man threw himself on his body and began to cry loudly.
Wen Qingzhu walked over and helped the young man get up: "Let me take a look."
After some inspection, Wen Qingzhu stood up and said to Hu Sen: "He was killed in one blow. There is a poisonous needle in his neck. According to the pulse, it is the heart-eating poison of the Wu clan."
"Heart-eating poison..." the young man murmured, "This kind of poison is only available to the Teng family and the Long family. The last members of the Teng family are all in Jinzhou, so..."
Wen Qingzhu took over his words: "It was the Long family who killed him, and if nothing else happens, there shouldn't be anyone alive in the village."
The rest of the Wu tribe hurried towards the village, where their families were!
As we walked along, there were corpses along the way.
After Wen Qingzhu checked them one by one, he found that except for a small number of people who were fatally injured by weapons, the rest were poisoned to death.