Disease, traps, people

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"": ""Let's go." Luo Feng called out.

Gu Ya rose to go inside, while Luo Bin set down his bowl and chopsticks.

"Come with us, dear. I'm afraid they won't play by the rules," Luo Feng added.

"All right." Gu Ya nodded.

The family of three left the Resting Place.

Luo Bin said nothing about which direction to take. He could only infer that the village lay beyond the detour area, that this Resting Place stood at its edge, and that heading inward should keep them within the village.

Every few steps, Luo Feng would inspect a nearby tree or crouch down to examine the road.

Insects chirped and birds called here. Noisy as they were, they brought a sense of life that made the place feel less dead and oppressive. After roughly fifteen minutes, there were still no houses in sight.

"Dad, did we go the wrong way?" Luo Bin asked uneasily.

If this whole area was the village, how could they have gone so long without seeing a house? They must have taken the wrong direction.

"Shh..." Gu Ya raised a finger to hush him.

Luo Feng crouched more frequently, picked up soil more frequently, and scanned their surroundings more frequently too.

Soon, he stopped somewhere the road grew uneven. Numerous earthen ridges rose from the ground, with a ditch between each pair.

The ditches were shallow enough to step across.

Luo Feng cut down a roadside sapling two fingers thick, stripped its branches, and probed the ditches with it.

After a moment's thought, he said, "Follow me. Walk in the ditches, not on the ridges."

Luo Bin pondered this. Traps?

Were they meant for people, or for hunting?

Luo Feng had already started forward, and Luo Bin and Gu Ya followed.

After they passed a dozen or so ridges, a relatively flat stretch appeared before them. Fine gravel covered the ground, clearly laid by human hands.

Numerous frames stood along the clearing's edge. Some held animal hides with tangled fur; others were poles topped with stark white sheep skulls!

They were sheep skulls, not human ones, but the bare bones were still unsettling.

"They killed so many sheep..." Gu Ya trembled slightly.

"Yes." Luo Feng nodded.

What was Gu Ya afraid of?

What was so frightening about slaughtered sheep?

Luo Bin found it strange.

Luo Feng continued toward the far side of the clearing. Suddenly, he quickened his pace. When he finally stopped, Luo Bin still hadn't noticed anything.

Crouching, Luo Feng scraped aside a patch of gravel, revealing an iron plate!

Rust covered the plate, with yellowish-brown corrosion encrusting its edges.

Gripping a ring on the plate, Luo Feng grunted and pulled hard!

With a dull sound, the iron plate opened.

A strange, musty odor crept into their noses.

The smell was so strong...

And familiar!

An image flashed through Luo Bin's mind.

Gu Yiren had taken him into a place like this in the Mountain God Temple!

Inside the pedestal beneath the mountain god's statue!

The same square opening, the same darkness. But beneath the statue, they had entered straight through a door. Here, there was a passage.

"We haven't stayed in places like this since the Village Chief found the Lamp Oil. I'm out of practice." Luo Feng sighed softly.

Another piece of information.

Suddenly, Luo Bin understood.

That's right. The Lamp Oil had come from Village Chief Zhong Zhicheng.

Before they had the Lamp Oil, how had the villagers lived? How had they hidden from evil spirits?

The concealed stone chamber beneath the Mountain God Temple and the tunnel in this clearing explained everything!

Luo Feng climbed into the passage.

Gu Ya followed, with Luo Bin bringing up the rear.

The passage descended about ten meters. When Luo Bin crawled out of the narrow tunnel into a somewhat larger space, there was light.

Luo Feng was using a match to light a candle on a blackened wooden table to one side.

An even glow filled the underground chamber.

A scream suddenly burst from Gu Ya's mouth!

She grabbed Luo Feng's shoulder, terrified out of her wits, and stared fixedly to the right.

Luo Bin whipped his head around to look too, and his scalp instantly prickled!

Eight skeletons lay against the wall!

Hollow eye sockets, pointed nasal bones-some belonged to adults, others to children.

Clothes covered most of their bones, leaving their heads, necks, hands, and feet exposed as they normally would have been.

Gu Ya kept patting her chest, shaking like a leaf.

"It's all right." Luo Feng held her shoulder and moved her behind him.

Sweat trickled down Luo Bin's temples. Horror filled his eyes as he murmured hoarsely, "So many dead people..."

Luo Feng didn't answer. For a moment, the underground chamber fell utterly silent except for Gu Ya's panting.

Then Luo Feng took two steps forward, crouched in front of the row of skeletons, and reached out to feel their clothes.

"They weren't killed by evil spirits," Luo Feng said.

Luo Bin nodded inwardly. True. If evil spirits had killed them, their bodies couldn't have remained so intact. Their bones would have been scattered everywhere, let alone their clothes still being on them.

"Did something else kill them?" Luo Bin asked.

"No, not that either." Luo Feng shook his head. "They had defenses. Those things couldn't get in."

For a moment, Luo Bin was speechless.

Luo Feng turned and searched the chamber again.

Soon, he found several bowls beside the bodies. He scraped the bottom of one with his finger, leaving some brown powder beneath his nail.

"Dear... we need to go. They died of illness... heavens, don't let us catch it too," Gu Ya said shakily.

Luo Bin's heart tightened.

Died of illness?

Wasn't that a little hasty?

Perhaps people had only died in this chamber, while other places held different clues?

"Guishan Village at least sits at the foot of a mountain, so we can gather medicinal herbs. This place is mostly shrubs, and even the grass has been eaten bare. They couldn't find any herbs and had even less access to medicine than we do. These bones have been weathering for years. They won't still be contagious," Luo Feng reassured Gu Ya.

Yet Luo Bin gleaned even more information from this.

Little access to medicine?

That did seem right. The ointment applied to his injuries, the herbal medicine Zhang Lingyun had brought, and before that, when he'd been beaten, Chen Xianxian had asked whether he wanted to see a spirit medium-not a doctor.

He still remembered how, in his previous life, numerous flu strains and viruses could sweep through an entire city despite such advanced medicine. If the people here had contracted a serious infectious disease, wasn't it only natural that they'd all died?

For a moment, Luo Bin felt miserable.

All those years of Drawing Lots to scout routes in Guishan Village had been wasted. They had entered another village and found another road that led nowhere.

They had hoped these villagers had gotten away, but in truth, they had only left the world forever-not escaped this place...

"Let's go, Xiao Shan," Luo Feng called.

He covered his mouth and nose and headed out.

Gu Ya did the same.

Coming back to his senses, Luo Bin followed their example.

They crawled out of the opening and returned to the clearing. The sunlight seemed especially dazzling now.

"No need to look anywhere else. If we set off now, we should still make it back to the second Resting Place," Luo Feng said hoarsely.

Luo Bin scanned their surroundings. He was reluctant to give up, but didn't insist.

As for contagious viruses, he was even more

convinced they couldn't be taken lightly. After all, the space below was enclosed and unventilated. What if it was still contagious?

"Yes, yes. Once we tell the Village Chief, he can keep Drawing Lots and send people here with proper protection. That'll be much safer." Gu Ya let out a relieved breath as she spoke.

Luo Feng headed back the way they had come.

The family of three soon returned to the stretch of earthen ridges.

Luo Feng's expression darkened.

Gu Ya clutched his arm, looking uneasy.

Luo Bin's heart tightened too.

A person lay sprawled across the outermost ridge, half his body hanging into the ditch. Wire bound his legs tightly! Thornlike barbs on it hooked deep into his flesh.

The man kept moaning in a trembling voice.

"Help me... please help me..."

White and brown patches marked his face, a mixture of vitiligo and age spots.

His hair was completely white, without a single black strand. He was an old man nearing the end of his life!

"Help me... it hurts..." the old man pleaded, looking at Luo Feng.

"Xiao Shan, you go ahead. Let's go." Luo Feng spoke to Luo Bin as though he hadn't seen the man.

Luo Bin picked up the stick they had discarded after crossing the ridges earlier.

"Don't look..." A faint voice reached his ears. Gu Ya was speaking very softly.

Luo Bin didn't look at the old man.

Despite the strong sunlight, he felt cold all over.

An old man caught in a trap, calling for help deep in the mountain forest.

Red Boy tricking the Tang Monk?

Even an idiot could tell something was wrong!

He stepped over a ridge into a ditch, then continued forward, with Gu Ya and Luo Feng following behind.

"Help me... please help me... I'm begging you... my wife's ill, and my son and daughter-in-law are waiting for me at home... I'm bleeding... please help me..."

The old man stared straight at Luo Bin, his voice growing ever more pleading.

Fuck... Luo Bin cursed inwardly, trying his hardest not to look.

People had a sixth sense. When someone stared at them, they could feel something amiss even with their backs turned and would look around.

Much less now, when they were practically face-to-face, only at an angle.

That feeling of being watched made Luo Bin's skin crawl.

Once that creeping dread took hold, he felt not the slightest pity.

Although he didn't deliberately look at the old man, he could still see him out of the corner of his eye.

The old man's eyes were particularly sly, constantly rolling as he stared at him.

His pleading did nothing to diminish his cunning.

Who the hell would fall for a trick like this?

In another moment, Luo Bin was about to step past the final ridge.

But suddenly, a crowd of fifteen or twenty people emerged from the shrubs on either side and from behind the trees. Men and women alike all stared fixedly at him.

Luo Bin abruptly stiffened.

What the hell?! So many people!?

"Xiao Shan... if you see people, pretend you haven't seen them. Let's go." Gu Ya's whisper reached Luo Bin's ears.

Sweat trickled down Luo Bin's temples again.

He stepped over the ridge onto ordinary ground, and Gu Ya came out too.

Only then did Luo Bin realize that Luo Feng had vanished...

At that moment, only he and Gu Ya stood almost shoulder to shoulder.

"Hey, are you deaf? I told you to help him! He's been calling out to you this whole time! Can't you see him?!"

The crowd surged forward, blocking Luo Bin's path.

Another person spoke with bitter indignation. "Damn you, how can you be so cruel? He's an old man, with a wife and children waiting at home, and you're just going to watch him die? Are you blind?"

Every pair of eyes stared fixedly at Luo Bin alone!

The pressure was overwhelming!

And not just the pressure-the bone-chilling dread was overwhelming too!

Without exception, whatever their expressions, their eyes rolled slyly in their sockets. Their malicious intentions were written all over their faces!

"Go help him, boy! Or don't even think about leaving!"

A man pushed through the crowd. He stood a full head taller than Luo Bin and looked down at him disdainfully!

At some point, Gu Ya had grabbed Luo Bin's wrist and was squeezing it hard!

Luo Bin was drenched in sweat, Gu Ya's earlier words echoing in his ears.

"If you see people, pretend you haven't seen them. Let's go."

He stepped forward, passing beside the man, with Gu Ya close behind.

As the two walked, the crowd surrounded them. Not merely surrounding them, but staring; not merely staring, but muttering incessantly!

This was terrifying. People frightening people could scare them to death.