"My name is Lan Ying!"
The woman waved her hands to Lu Ning and others enthusiastically and said hello loudly.
"Are you Xiaoling's teammates? You actually have priority over me! It's really jealous. You have to perform well. If I find that you are not as good as me, you might as well die!"
No one paid attention to her, but she was still talking to herself and shouting happily.
"Xiao Ling! We will go out to find you when we regain our strength! Don't worry, even if you don't like me, I still like you! It's been a long time since I met someone so happy to work with! So I'll give up some first-order I have to chase you to come and upgrade for fun!"
However, Lu Ning and others had already turned their attention to the cell opposite.
There were two bodies inside.
Their bodies are curled up, their hair is completely white, their faces and skin are covered with dark brown age spots and deeper death spots. Their expressions range from pain to distortion, and you can even imagine how much pain they experienced before death.
Lu Ning knelt down and reached out to pull a corpse that was closer to the railing.
"Cold to the core, rigor mortis... The time of death was more than twenty-four hours, but the specifics cannot be determined. The cause of death appears to be the failure of various organs caused by aging, but..."
She rummaged in the body's pocket and pulled out an ID.
"Zhang Ziling, a reporter from Shenghua Daily, was born in 1926. His certificate was issued in 1947 and is valid for eight years. He cannot be more than thirty years old."
"The result of the dirty blood ritual." Ning Yeyi said with certainty.
"Yes, there are extremely dense and neat blood bruising spots on the arm, much more than what we have on our hands."
Lu Ning turned over the corpse's wrist, and the plaques there could still be clearly distinguished.
"About three times the amount..." Zhao Chenshuang touched her chin lightly, "That is to say, this is the final outcome after being subjected to three bloody rituals, and we are now in the state after the first time."
"It seems that it is indeed necessary to leave early." Ning Yeyi took out a pair of rubber gloves, put them on, and opened the mouth of the corpse.
"The teeth are indeed those of young people." Lu Ning glanced at them and said with certainty.
"Well, do you still want to examine the other body?"
"No, time is of the essence. Didn't you say that we have to escape before the next Red Moon Ceremony? We lack too much information." Lu Ning raised her head and glanced at Cheng Wulin, and she nodded in agreement.
With the same opinion, the four people immediately headed for the exit. Lan Ying, who had witnessed the whole process, also stopped shouting, covered his face and kept shaking his body, as if he was overly excited.
"Take control."
The little old man finally spoke, his voice was sticky and sharp, and it had a very uncomfortable feeling.
"Haha, haha, okay, okay..."
=====================
The four people here walked up the stairs and soon saw the exit blocked by two wooden boards. This time the lock was obviously outside, there was no railing, and it was too dark to see clearly because it was so far away from the light bulb.
"It can only be opened from the outside. It seems that no one is here to guard us and we can't escape."
Zhao Chenshuang looked out through the gap between the wooden boards and roughly scanned the scenery that could be seen.
"It's night now, there's a starry sky outside, and the moonlight is quite bright. We should be in the cellar, somewhere underground. I didn't see anyone or hear anyone's voice."
"How is your strength recovering? Can you break the door?"
"This door is tilted upward, so it's difficult to use force." Zhao Chenshuang pressed the wooden door slightly, and the padlock outside made a creaking sound.
"Back off."
Lu Ning quickly took two steps down the steps. Zhao Chenshuang took a deep breath, adjusted her position, twisted her body suddenly, exerted force on her waist and abdomen, and at the same time used one hand to push towards the steps, and kicked the middle of the board with a sharp upper body kick. There was only a "click", and the wooden lock used to fasten the padlock collapsed instantly, and the wooden door opened to the left and right, making two sounds of hitting the stone.
"Done." Zhao Chenshuang patted the dirt on her hands, grabbed the edge of the wooden door and was the first to walk outside. Cheng Wuling, Lu Ning and Ning Yeyi followed closely behind and walked outside together.
The air is filled with mountain moisture, which seems very fresh compared to the stuffy feeling underground. In the sky is a bright moon hanging in the middle of the sky and stars all over the sky, not even a cloud. Along the mountains, you can see a series of houses scattered in the distance, mostly two-story brick houses. It is already late at night, there are no lights, and you can occasionally hear a dog barking or two.
In addition, there are farmland all over the mountains. Although it is not a harvest, you can still see various crops planted. The night wind will slowly sway and bring a natural fragrance of flowers.
The nearest house to them was less than twenty meters away. They probably heard the noise here. The lights on the second floor of the house soon turned on, and people could be vaguely seen passing by the window.
"Should we kill them or leave first?"
Zhao Chenshuang asked for the opinions of his teammates.
"Everything is unclear. Let's leave here first and run along the mountain road. This place is bigger than imagined." Cheng Wuling quickly made a judgment.
Now the strength of the four people has recovered a lot, at least half of the usual level, and running away along the mountain road is not a big problem. It's just that the size of this village far exceeded Lu Ning's imagination. Just the amount of reclaimed land he saw along the way was countless. There were houses located on the mountains every few dozen or one hundred meters. If If she had entered this village from the very beginning instead of starting from the underground cell, she probably wouldn't have found anything wrong here. She would have just been surprised by the size and affluence of the place.
The sound of gongs was heard in the distance.
"Into the woods."
Cheng Wuling said a word, and the four people immediately ran into the dense forest beside the road, and soon disappeared.
At this time, several households on the mountain had begun to light up their lamps, and rapid gong sounds were heard everywhere. Many people walked out of their houses, wearing the linen shirts they wore when working in farming, and carrying hoes, sickles and kitchen knives in their hands. On the mountain road.
"escaped!"
"There are so many people running away tonight!"
"We cannot lose them, clean blood must be recovered!"
"Get everyone up!"
The shouts everywhere are getting louder and louder, and more and more people are coming out holding torches and carrying farm tools. It even makes people wonder how many people live in that house. There is always a team of more than a dozen people like a parade. Just come out of there.
"Help, help!!"
Someone screamed in the distance. When he ran across the bridge of a creek, he desperately found several villagers holding torches walking in front of him.
"I'll fight with you!"
With pursuers behind him and interceptors in front, the runaway had no choice but to rush towards the person at the front and punch him in the face.
However, the man in front of him jumped back quickly, and then raised the logging ax in his hand and swung it down at a speed that could not be distinguished by the naked eye.
"Ahhhhh!"
The fugitive screamed. After one arm was cut off, he immediately lost all fighting spirit and knelt on the ground.
"Don't kill, this is clean blood."
An old woman holding an iron drill behind her grinned, stretched out the torch in her hand, and placed it on the section of the arm she had just chopped off!
More violent screams sounded, making people shudder.
Then, the fainted fugitive was picked up by a strong villager and moved away.
I don’t know how many people saw this scene.
The four people hiding in the forest only heard the heart-rending screams. Their footsteps did not stop. There were more and more search teams on the road. It was definitely not just the four of them, but there were more firsts. The reaction is to run away!
"I don't know how many people escaped..." Ning Yeyi couldn't help but say.
"Take care of yourself first. Something is wrong here. Try not to fight with the villagers here. I suspect there is something wrong with them." Cheng Wuling said.
Of course, this problem is not something that can be seen on the surface. Of course, Lu Ning and the others understand it.
"Then let's consider the mission first." Ning Yeyi suggested.
The recovery of physical strength is accompanied by the recovery of physical condition. Although it is not the best, it also gives them enough time to consider the situation of the mission.
It can be said that the difficulty of the upgrade test is worthy of it. Just nine mission options are enough to make some people unable to react, not to mention that many of the things involved have no information reference at all.
"There are three locations, Changshou Village, Moon Lake, and Mountaintop Castle." Zhao Chenshuang spoke first, "Among them, the Mountaintop Castle is an optional survey item and should be a more difficult one, so it is not mandatory. In fact, I think The options are the hard parts to complete.”
"But that means there will be a very high score bonus after completion. Don't forget that we have no upper limit on scores. I don't know how much we can get if we complete all nine tasks. Tens of thousands is fine, right?" Ning Yeyi said .
"Ignoring these... there are also three rituals. We have already experienced the dirty blood. The details of the other two rituals, Red Moon and Mengru, also need to be investigated. They may be the same as the dirty blood. The ritual we use to exert negative effects may also be a means of purifying dirty blood." Lu Ning added, "But judging from the eighth item of maintaining sanity and executing the dream, this ritual is probably not a good thing."
"Then there is 'abnormality', which should be related to why such a situation occurred in this village. It's just evidence... I don't know what is enough proof." Ning Yeyi whispered.
At this time, they discovered that a certain person had been silent all this time.
"Cheng Wuling, what do you think?"
"You've almost said it." Cheng Wuling's voice came from the front.
"Stop talking nonsense! We are allies now, right? Is it insincere if you don't tell me what you are hiding?" Zhao Chenshuang raised her voice dissatisfied.
"There is sincerity. But I'm not sure now..."
Lu Ning quickly interrupted her.
"It's the same thing if you're not sure. We can judge for ourselves. If you have any ideas, please tell us quickly."
"Well."
Cheng Wuling thought for a moment, and then began to express his guess in a low voice.
