The peaceful mountain village welcomes visitors at noon.
The temperament is very much like that of a young lady from an upper-class family; her expression is serious, and she should be the woman serving this lady personally. There are also two women who look very martial at first sight, and they can be seen through their clothes that they are strong and strong. A male bodyguard who has built up his muscles over time.
This is the visiting team composed of Shu Xingruo, Cheng Wuling, Chu Jianting and Zhu Hongye.
The second group, led by Ning Yeyi, Su Zhilan, Yin Mai, Ye Tisi and others, led Deng Wei to search for hunter cabins in the mountains. Mo Xiren didn’t know whether the “five” information was true or false. Also check it out.
The third group, Lu Ning, Mo Lianren, Tu Men and Zhao Chenshuang went to the areas where the pig-faced people were infested to investigate. This group was completely for aggression. Since the pig-faced people would attack them directly, then the tourists They also have to use force to greet them first - you can kill them if necessary. Anyway, there is no shortage of people to extract information from the corpses.
There is one thing that Lu Ning is very clear about - that is, this day is almost the best opportunity since the time reset. The personnel are basically in full order, but the price has not yet appeared. During this time, he must find out as many things as possible. The secrets of the power include the village's external channels, the traces of the hunters, and the identity of the pig-faced man.
She quickly led the three of them to the woods where they were attacked by the pig-faced man.
"But time has been reset, and all the traces they left have disappeared, otherwise I can still trace their whereabouts."
This is also Lu Ning's current limit.
Her ability to analyze and find traces benefits from her own observation skills, and her ability to track and investigate is also extremely powerful, but this is limited to "what happened."
Pig-faced people who haven't passed here yet will leave no footprints or bloodstains.
"That's why we came here."
Zhao Chenshuang walked to the slightly hard road, took a deep breath, and began to look around.
"The so-called tracking technology does not only include the message just left. Any living thing's survival and actions in life will leave fixed traces due to habit. These traces have been integrated with nature over the years, but they will not be affected by it. And disappear."
She quickly locked onto a direction.
“The trees are cut down to make it easier to walk, squatting downwind in order to hunt smoothly makes it difficult for vegetation to grow, the prey is often transported and smells a bit rotten, and the light and shadow between the branches and leaves of the trees are created for visibility. The passage..."
Such Zhao Chenshuang gave Lu Ning the illusion of being like a hunting dog.
This is not a derogatory meaning, but Zhao Chenshuang did not read some research books on behavioral habits just out of necessity like Lu Ning. Instead, she enjoyed the feeling of tracing people's whereabouts in this aspect.
From here on, Zhao Chenshuang became the leader of the team, and she slowly found more and more clues.
"Water source... If you want to survive in the mountains and achieve scale, there must be water nearby, over here!"
"The soil here exudes a fishy smell, the smell of which is soaked in blood. This is a place where some people are used to handling prey."
"There are many tree stumps in this forest, all of which are more than ten years old - I think we are almost there!"
"Broken branches, traces of the humus soil being turned over, and..."
Zhao Chenshuang squatted down under a large tree that was as thick as two people's arms. She pushed aside the rotten soil where fallen leaves had accumulated for countless years, and pulled out some white lumps from underneath.
"Artificially carved jewelry, made of wild beast teeth, probably used for burials... In that case..."
As soon as her eyes lit up, she climbed up the tree in three or two steps, stepped on a branch five or six meters high, and built an arbor with her hands to look into the distance.
A slit in the valley was already in view.
After receiving Zhao Chenshuang's gesture, the three people below got ready. Lu Ning rechecked the loading of the hand crossbow. Mo Lianren held the dagger presented by the hunter, while Tu Men held on to the logging ax that came out of the village.
"To reiterate, they have incredible strength, at least to the extent that their bows and arrows are sure to hit the target. In addition, they also raise wolves as hunting aids, so be careful to cover up the scent. Finally, we don't have to hunt, Especially a sneak attack on a settlement is not advisable, and secret investigation must be given priority." Lu Ning reiterated the purpose of this time to several people.
"Leave it to you." Mo Lianren smiled at her.
"Um?"
Before Lu Ning could react, she had already rushed out and quickly passed through the forest area to the entrance of the valley. Instead of entering through the slit, she started climbing up from the nearby rock wall.
"It's better to leave this kind of work to professional soldiers."
Zhao Chenshuang had already climbed down and jumped from a height of more than two meters to land in front of Lu Ning. She didn't use weapons very much, but just put a few rocks in her pocket. She patted Lu Ning on the shoulder and said, "Non-combat long-range unit. Let’s wait for the signal outside, Tumen?”
"Ready."
"Let's go ahead and create some noise for them."
The two of them walked around towards the mouth of the slit valley in a tacit understanding.
Soon, Mo Lianren had climbed over the cliff and sneaked into the valley. Zhao Chenshuang and Tu Men also arrived at the entrance of the valley. The two of them looked inside, and then rushed in quickly.
However, there are always surprises. Just when Lu Ning thought a battle was about to break out inside, Zhao Chenshuang suddenly came out of the valley entrance again, and then waved vigorously to Lu Ning to let her pass.
Confused, she walked over. After approaching, Zhao Chenshuang didn't wait for her to ask, and said directly: "There is no one inside."
"No one there?"
"Two gatekeepers, a wolf, and three or four old ones inside, they're gone."
"Impossible! There are more than just these people who appear on the mountain at night!"
"Anyway...come in first."
Zhao Chenshuang dragged Lu Ning closer to the valley.
The body of a wolf lay dead at the end of the entrance. Its throat to the abdomen was opened with a sharp instrument, and its internal organs flowed out. And walking further inside, you can see the true appearance of this settlement.
This is a rather primitive place in terms of architecture. The houses are just simple houses built with wooden frames and covered with animal skins and plants. They don't even have doors and can only keep out the rain. There are several small caves in the valley, and the outside is blocked by tree stumps wrapped with vines. In addition, there are totems and some stone polishing tools, and some wooden racks used to dry the meat and skins of wild beasts - of course, human parts are also seen in them.
In the center of this small settlement was a large open space, where five tall people were tied up and thrown tightly. Mo Lianren was holding a dagger to the side of the cheek of a person with a pig mask on his face and slowly peeling off the layer of pig skin. Among the other four people, the three old ones did not have pig face masks on their faces.
Lu Ning walked around, ignoring the angry and wild gazes of several people, and looked at their faces and bodies.
These people all have bronze skin, their faces are painted, their hair is not grown long, and a circle of scars can be seen from their already wrinkled faces, which is exactly the same as the fitting part of the pig face mask. Their muscles are still well developed, their joints are thick, and there are even some shiny things on the surface of their skin.
"How effective are they in fighting?"
"No matter what kind of creature, aging is inevitable." Mo Lianren carefully peeled off the mask, blood flowed from the cut part, and behind the mask was a young bronze face.
"The strength is very strong, and this alone can even make up for the rough fighting skills. We didn't give them the chance to use their special strength, otherwise we wouldn't know the outcome." Tumen added.
Lu Ning took out another curved dagger from her backpack and cut all the sleeves and trouser legs of an old man. While doing this, she also saw the soles of these people's feet.
It was not a human foot - it had the shape of a human foot, but there were several thick pads on the soles of the feet, and the nails dug deep into the toes. It looked very similar to the soles of feline feet.
And the shiny things on their skin are actually tiny scales.
"That's it..."
Lu Ning turned around and cut open the clothes of another young pig-faced man, took out everything he carried, and placed them in a row on the ground.
A water bag made of unknown biological organs, a piece of smoked and dried meat, a stone carved with circular symbols using a crude technique, a package of crystal powder wrapped in leaves, and two wooden boards with unknown words written on them. A heart-shaped iron ring.
"Did you find that thing?"
"I don't know which one it is. And based on what I saw that day, it seems that it requires a process of praying and chanting to activate it."
Lu Ning picked up two wooden boards and looked at the words on them helplessly. This was not what she was good at...
"Do we need a translator?" Tu Men asked.
"To be precise, we need Ye Tisi." Lu Ning threw everything into her bag and walked around the village. However, she didn't know much about this primitive way of life. Even if she looked at it like this, she couldn't see it. What comes out.
"This pig mask..."
Mo Lianren suddenly made a surprised sound, attracting the attention of three people.
"What happened to the mask?"
"It...it seems alive."
"Hiss." Zhao Chenshuang scratched her arm. She wasn't afraid, but it sounded disgusting.
"Alive? What alive?" Lu Ning hurried over and Mo Lianren raised her hand. She did not grab the mask, but one side of the mask was already on her hand.
"When I just grabbed the edge and looked inside the mask, I found that it had grown together with my hand - just like it was on these people's faces before. Now I can feel it like a part of my body, and even There is a strong vitality in it..."
"Get it off first! I don't know if this thing is good or bad!"
Lu Ning shouted softly, and Mo Lianren immediately swung the knife and cut off the place where it was connected to her hand. Blood flowed out from the wound, and she was even more surprised: "You feel pain, is it really growing?"
"Take the mask off that person's face and find something to put it in. We have to go back to Ye Tisi to identify the meaning of the words and totems here." Lu Ning reached out and took the mask. She was not afraid of wearing gloves. Although it was touched, the fingers holding the mask could feel the opening and relaxing of the heart as if it were beating.
"How many weird things are there in this place?" She also disliked this thing very much.
