There are thirty-two households in Yanmiao Village. The ancestral hall is built in the northernmost part of the village. The thatched house closest to the ancestral hall is the village chief's residence. There is a deep well outside the house.
When Hua Ruxue returned to the yard after her investigation, Su Yi and Snake Vulture had also returned.
The snake vulture held its head high and was full of confidence. It looked like it had gained a lot. To find out the information, it still had to rely on the bird tribe. On the other hand, Su Yi looked a little solemn after some investigation, wondering what he had discovered.
When Ning Shuyan saw them coming back, she served the brewed spiritual tea, and then placed pens, inks, paper and inkstones.
"Sister Ning, what is this?" Hua Ruxue saw Ning Shuyan starting to polish her ink, and was not sure what Ning Shuyan wanted to do. Could it be that she had just discovered something in the yard?
When she was still in Qingyang Mountain, Hua Ruxue would receive gifts from Ning Shuyan every year, and from time to time she would also receive greetings and concerns from the snake vulture. Therefore, although Hua Ruxue had only met Ning Shuyan once in Siguo Cliff, she was no stranger to her.
Ning Shuyan could not be said to have a delicate mind, but she was definitely not a careless person. She acted like a cunning rabbit and beamed with joy in front of her senior brothers and sisters. In front of her junior brothers and sisters, she was steady and decisive, acted resolutely, and was upright and reliable.
Snake Vulture often said good things about his master to Hua Ruxue in his letters.
"You tell me, I'll record it." Ning Shuyan dipped her pen in ink and wrote "A trip to Yanmiao Village" on the cover of the book.
When Hua Ruxue saw the seal of "Dongyang Ning Sect" printed on the corner of the book, she remembered that they, disciples of aristocratic families who were away from home, needed to write a summary of their experience and then circulate it to each other to increase each other's knowledge.
She still has the experience notes of Su He and others in her storage bag, which she originally said was meant to give her a long experience. Later, I was busy with other things and forgot about it. I only remembered that Su He had been writing his experience notes as a storybook, which was very popular among his disciples.
Hua Ruxue shook her head and told herself not to think about those things again. She took the lead in speaking out her findings in a deep voice.
"First of all, there are thirty-two families in this village, all of whom are middle-aged couples. Their highest cultivation level is the seventh level of Qi training. As the village chief said, they are very repulsive to outsiders. Whenever I want to get close to them, they will Get away, and then go about your work. We can't communicate normally with people other than the village chief."
"Secondly, the two women on the east side of the village are making new quilts, cotton shoes, cotton socks, and cotton clothes, while the men are chopping firewood, repairing houses, and reinforcing doors and windows. From their actions, it can be seen that they are Get ready for winter."
It is clearly spring outside, but winter has not yet passed here.
Everything here is so weird.
"Sister, I know this. I heard from my little brother that there are only two seasons in this place: autumn and winter. After autumn, there will be winter, and after winter, there will be autumn."
"Only in autumn and winter? This seems to explain the strange behavior of the villagers." Hua Ruxue looked at the high-spirited snake vulture and felt that something was wrong. The snake vulture was a little too excited.
Su Yi also noticed this, and he asked Snake Vulture: "Is there any other news?"
The snake vulture cleared his throat. His handsome appearance matched his loud and rough voice wonderfully.
"My little brother said that this forest is called the Forest of Death, and this village is also called the Village of Death. All humans and animals that stray into this forest will be trapped here and never be able to get out!"
"Since you can't get out, why do you look so happy?" Hua Ruxue looked at the ripples of tea on the table, her tone was calm, she seemed to know where the sense of dissonance came from.
"That's because I haven't been here before, but I am the first bird to fly out of here!" The snake vulture spread its wings slightly, telling of its wisdom and prowess.
Hearing this, Hua Ruxue and Su Yi looked into the eyes of the snake vulture at the same time. As soon as they entered the forest, there were no wild birds or wild beasts around. The marks left by them when they came had long since disappeared without a trace. The outside of the village was filled with smoke. Did the snake vulture really come out of this misty village?
Ning Shuyan's hand holding the pen paused. She suddenly couldn't hear Snake Vulture's voice. Snake Vulture had been away for so long and never told her that he had left the village!
The atmosphere in the room gradually became dull, but the snake vulture seemed not to have heard of it.
"Ah Jiu is the most powerful. What else have you heard about?" Hua Ruxue suppressed the confusion in her heart.
, continued to ask, is the snake vulture in front of me really a snake vulture?
"I heard from them that a long time ago, a pair of grandparents and grandchildren who depended on each other lived in Yanmiao Village. The people in the village welcomed their arrival very warmly. But the good times did not last long. One day, the people who had been chasing them suddenly came to the door. The villagers They fought hard, but were defeated, and most of the people in the village died.
On that day, the villagers held a secret meeting in order to find the traitor. Except for the grandfather and grandson, everyone else was present.
The next day, calm returned to the village, and the remaining people did not mention the traitor again, as if that day had never happened. Soon after, the only child in the village disappeared mysteriously. Everyone except his grandfather seemed to have forgotten the child. "
When the snake vulture said this, his loud voice suddenly became hoarse, like a crow's cry.
"They are not worthy of being human. I curse them to never see spring and summer, and to have eternal winter!"
The strong wind swirled outwards from the house, the doors and windows cracked, and the snake vulture disappeared, leaving only a feather.
"Ajiu!" Ning Shuyan was in a state of confusion. She stood up and looked outside the courtyard. The connection between her and the contracted beast was completely broken at this moment.
"Sister Ning, don't worry, his target is not Ah Jiu, Ah Jiu is safe now."
Hua Ruxue picked up the feather that was slowly falling on the table. The scent of the snake vulture still lingered on the feather. She was actually deceived by a small feather.
Ning Shuyan quickly calmed down. From the moment they walked into the forest, everything was so weird, whether it was the seasons that were different from other places or the completely missing spiritual energy, as well as the villagers who regarded them as nothing.
"The road into the village has disappeared." Su Yi just walked back along the mark left when he came, and found that the outside of the village was filled with fog, and the forest he passed when he came had completely disappeared.
If the snake vulture leaves the village and finds that it cannot find its way, it will definitely tell Ning Shuyan first, but Ning Shuyan now behaves as if she does not know the situation outside the village, so Su Yi guessed: "Ajiu is still in the village. "
"What should we do now?" Ning Shuyan firmly believed in Su Yi's words. It was a good thing that Ajiu's life was not in danger.
She looked in the direction of the other two courtyards and hesitated whether to call the other people over, "Should I tell them?"
"No, there is no need to tell them until we find the key clues to solve the problem."
It wasn't that Hua Ruxue didn't trust them, it was just that she was afraid that they would run out one after another and disappear into the village like snake vultures.
Those few people seemed to be talkative and indifferent to everything, but in fact each one was more enthusiastic than the last. If they knew that the snake vulture had disappeared in the village, they would probably dig deep to find it.
"Did Miss Ning remember what Ah Jiu said just now?"
"Write it down." Ning Shuyan put away her pen and ink, and put the book in front of Su Yi. What happened was far beyond her expectation.
Hua Ruxue also leaned over and took a look, "The village now only has autumn and winter, which has fulfilled the last curse. After the child disappeared, what else happened in the village? Who was the person who cast the curse? Who was the person who kidnapped the snake vulture? The same person?"
Su Yi did not fully believe the message left by the snake vulture, "There is no curse in this world. There is another reason for the abnormal season in the village."
"This abnormality may have something to do with the disappearing forest outside the village. It's like a missing circle. We need to take another look before we can make a conclusion." Ning Shuyan's first reaction was when Su Yi said that the road into the village had disappeared. This is where the missing formation is located: "Not long after Ah Jiu left, he told me that there were many wells in the village, and I wanted to see those wells."
A large formation that can cover an entire village requires a large amount of spiritual energy, either supported by spiritual treasures or directly absorbing spiritual energy within a hundred miles radius.
The situation in Yanmiao Village is closer to the latter, and Ning Shuyan needs to find the formation to verify her guess.
The three of them left the yard and went straight to the place where there was a well. There were a total of sixteen wells in the village, and the well outside the village chief's house was the last one.
After repeated identifications by Ning Shuyan, it was confirmed that a mysterious array was deployed here: "It is indeed a mysterious array. This large-scale mysterious array requires a lot of spiritual energy, and the spiritual energy inside and outside the village is absorbed by the array."
After saying that, Ning Shuyan couldn't help but become worried, "If you want to break the formation, you must destroy sixteen formation eyes at the same time, otherwise
These formations will be moved outside the village. "
The Lost Array has always been used only to prevent outsiders from entering, so the array eyes are inside, but the situation is exactly the opposite now. They are trapped in the village by the Lost Array. If the array is attacked, they will be immediately transferred outside the village. By then, they will never be able to escape.
Hua Ruxue touched the stone at the mouth of the well. It was extremely hard and the material seemed to come from Broken Star Mountain Range. The stones in the Broken Star Mountain Range are harder than other rocks. There are many poor monks who take a few stones from the mountains to use as self-defense weapons.
If you are lucky and take away the ore, the spiritual weapon will be found.
Among the sixteen wells, some of the stones were cut in half with sharp tools and arranged neatly and very beautifully, while others were piled with gravel, which was horrible to look at.
"These wells were not made by the same person. I don't know if this mysterious formation was planned before digging the well, or who suggested setting it up after the well was dug?" Hua Ruxue asked slowly, and she suddenly thought of Lin Xi. The traitor of Guanyun City in his mouth.
Ning Shuyan replied affirmatively: "Before digging the well. Once the positions of these sixteen formation eyes are determined, they cannot be changed."
"The people who set up the formation are the first batch of villagers. They have enemies outside and need the tracking formation to hide." Su Yi said, knowing that there are enemies outside, it is impossible for the villagers not to make any preparations.
Ning Shuyan: "Once the Mysterious Array is activated, there is only one way into the village from the outside, and the array master who can directly pass through the Mysterious Array is at least a seventh-level array master. Therefore, one of the grandparents and grandchildren is a seventh-level array mage. "
The Lost Array has continued to this day, and there must be a high-level array mage in the village now.
"These speculations are based on the premise that Snake Vulture has nothing to hide. Maybe the original villagers have no enemies, but the grandparents and grandchildren who have enemies." Hua Ruxue did not deny their speculations, but the truth of Snake Vulture's words was still unclear. It needs to be verified, "What the facts are, what we say doesn't count."
Hua Ruxue looked at the thatched hut on the side, then at the ancestral hall, and finally decided to meet the village chief again.
"I'm thirsty, so I just went to ask the village chief for a cup of tea!"
Hua Ruxue knocked on the rickety wooden door. There was dust on the door, as if no one had lived there for a long time.
The wooden door opened, and when the village chief saw Hua Ruxue and the others, he sighed: "What are you doing? I would have let you go quietly after nightfall, but that monster annoyed my family..."
"It seems that the village chief doesn't want to say more." Ning Shuyan frowned, her eyes were cold, and she drew her sword and pointed it at the village chief. The village chief was startled by the sword around his neck and quickly begged for mercy.
"Girl, please spare your life! I'm still trapped here at this young age, but I just don't want to live my life. Girl, put down your sword quickly and tell me what you have to say! You can't enter that ancestral hall!"
"In that case, I'll ask the village chief to take the three of us into the ancestral hall." Su Yi said.
Hua Ruxue: "..."
Before they even said why they were looking for him, the village chief first mentioned that "the ancestral hall is not accessible." Is this because he was afraid that they would not go to the ancestral hall?
When the village chief opened his mouth, he first stated that he did not want to hurt anyone, and then said that he knew that the snake vulture was taken away, so as to create an image of himself as a last resort.
One moment, he used the adults of his family as a shield to distance himself, the next moment, he sincerely begged for mercy without any concern, and the next moment, he told them to go to the ancestral hall quickly, but did not mention a word about the news about Yanmiao Village.
Hua Ruxue glanced around the house and found that the surroundings were very plain. There was only a gray cloth on the clean table. It was hard to tell that the village chief cared about anything. Since I can't find anything that can threaten him, there is no benefit in continuing to ask. I first go to the ancestral hall to see if there is a genealogy and a record of important events over the years.
"Since the village chief doesn't want to tell us about Yanmiao Village, please do it for your convenience and take us on a tour."
