A strange village

"I am Zhou Congping, the village chief here. You gentlemen are here to Soul Hunting in the vicinity, right?"

As they spoke, at the middle-aged man's signal, the villagers put down their Long Spear one after another.

The area is surrounded by forests, making it a good excuse to Soul Hunting.

Sun Buyu, a teacher, stepped forward and said, "Hello, I'm the Leading Teacher."

"We don't have enough supplies, and this place is quite far from the Spirit Beast Town, so we thought we'd come to the village to beg for some food. Don't worry, we'll pay you."

Zhou Congping smiled and nodded, reminding them, "Gentlemen, our village is relatively new, and there are no spare rooms. After you finish eating, please hurry to the Spirit Beast Town to avoid missing the appointed time."

"Thank you for your hospitality, Village Chief Zhou. We will leave after a short rest."

Led by several villagers, the group arrived at a house.

Sun Buyu took the money, the family took out a piece of meat leg from the ice cellar and used it to start a fire for cooking.

Wu Qi had been observing the situation in the village, and he always felt that the people in the village seemed very strange.

Seeing him deep in thought, everyone assumed that he was just unwilling to give up because his expectations had not come true.

About One Incense Stick later, the Master of the house came over with a smile, carrying hot soup. "My friends, it's cold, have some meat soup to warm yourselves up."

Wu Qi stared intently at the meat soup in the other person's hand, his gaze blank, as if he had gone mad from hunger.

The Master didn't pay much attention, put down the broth, and then brought out several bowls of white rice.

Wu Qi snapped out of his daze and urged, "Hurry up and eat, or we won't make it to Spirit Beast Town before dark."

At the same time, he smeared his right hand with rice and meat broth and quietly slipped it into the Ruyi Treasure Pouch in his bosom.

Only after confirming that the food was not poisonous did they enjoy their meal.

After One Incense Stick and the meat soup had just been finished, Wu Qi urged everyone to set off.

Once outside the village, everyone couldn't help but feel curious. "Team Captain, why are you in such a hurry? Why not stay a little longer?"

Wu Qi didn't speak, and walked a distance further until Dugu Bo and the others met up.

"These people are all Soul Master! That village chief is a Soul Emperor, and the others are all at the Soul Elder or Soul Ancestor."

Only then did everyone understand why Wu Qi had left that village.

"So, that's a bandit hideout? Could we be being watched?" Qiangu Changkong asked warily.

Wu Qi shook his head. "If it were a bandit stronghold, they would definitely treat us warmly if we offered ourselves up, and might even poison our food, instead of driving us away."

"The people in this village clearly don't want any trouble."

"Although I've never lived in the village, I've heard that people there must do manual labor to make a living, so it's impossible for their hands to be without calluses."

Feng Xiaotian and Huo Wushuang also noticed this.

The woman serving them the dishes had very well-maintained hands; she didn't look like a laborer at all.

"Also, there are too many young and middle-aged people in the village. In a normal village, these young and middle-aged people would definitely go out to earn money, instead of staying in the village every day."

This is not hard to see if you put yourself in their shoes.

Sun Buyu asked doubtfully, "They are all Soul Master. Is it possible that they were once disciples of a certain family, but later their family met with misfortune, and they built a village here to escape their enemies?"

This explanation can clarify the above statement.

To avoid their enemies, the villagers naturally wouldn't go out casually.

In these self-sufficient villages, if the men do more work, the women's lives become much easier.

The presence or absence of calluses alone cannot reveal the problem.

The Qiangu Changkong remained puzzled. "Wu Ge, isn't this perfectly reasonable? Aren't you being overly sensitive?"

Wu Qi certainly knew all this; he hadn't finished speaking, otherwise he wouldn't have been so arbitrary.

"I saw that there are elderly people and women in the village. Moreover, the village chief said that the village has only been established for a few years. Judging from the degree of decay of the tree stump, it can be roughly determined that the village was established six years ago, and houses were built by cutting down nearby trees."

The problem is obvious.

Dugu Bo said in a deep voice, "There are no children here!"

Wu Qi chuckled and continued, "If they've come here to temporarily retreat from the world in order to escape their enemies..."

"Even if the young people don't have any ideas, the village elders will definitely urge them to have children. You see, once a child with Innate Full Soul Power is born, they will have a chance to take revenge!"

"Do you think you could resist seeking revenge if you were in that situation?"

Knowing their own limitations, they will definitely find ways to raise offspring, rather than having no children at all.

"The people in this village behaved quite reasonably, but there were always flaws in their deliberate attempts to appear reasonable."

"Unless all those young men are Ninja Turtles, who can guarantee they won't have sex after marriage? Even if the man can't, can the woman resist?"

Everyone gasped.

However, this only shows that the village is unreasonable, and cannot prove their motives.

The reason these people don't have children could be that they were once in the palace and their bodies were castrated in some way; or they simply don't want children and have taken some precautions during intercourse.

In short, without motive, these speculations are meaningless.

In Wu Qi's mind, he recalled the old version of the tomb raiding TV series he had watched in his previous life.

Compared to the people in that village, the motive becomes obvious.

"This precisely proves that the Ruins are located there!"

"Let me ask you this: if you knew of the existence of the Ruins beforehand, didn't want outsiders to discover them, and wanted to keep the treasures for yourselves, what would you do?"

Feng Xiaotian replied, "Hide it."

"Intentionally covering it with Stone or similar materials will only pique the curiosity of passersby!"

Huo Wu chimed in, "If we want to hide it properly, let's turn this place into a village, with our own people guarding it 24/7."

Huo Wushuang said, "In this way, even if someone notices something amiss, those who are unaware of the Ruins here won't be able to guess their motives and therefore won't care too much."

Ning Rongrong said in a deep voice, "These people are too cunning and treacherous."

"Then let's..." Sun Buyu was somewhat tempted.

Since these people have been waiting here for several years, they must be able to guess when the Ruins will open.

Who wouldn't be tempted by such a treasure?

If we can obtain a treasure that enhances our strength, this trip will be incredibly profitable.

Dugu Bo cautioned, "The Soul Emperor alone, leading a group of Soul Elder and Soul Ancestor, wouldn't dare to be so bold."

"Furthermore, in order to guard the Ruins at all times, these people cannot go out casually. Where do they get their food?"

"There must be someone behind this. If we don't find them, taking rash action will inevitably result in heavy losses!"

Wu Qi chuckled lightly, "The thing I have plenty of is time. This trip was all about training. Old man, you've worked hard these past few days scouting the area. Let's continue our training."

They can't go too far, so they can only move around within the Spirit Beast Town.

Chen Ping suggested, "Why don't we form a Soul Hunting Team? Helping others Soul Hunting is a form of training. If the Ruins open, we can just rush there as soon as possible."