Early the next morning, before Lin Yi had logged into the Heavenly Initiate World, he received a WeChat message from Dragon Prince saying that Gu Liehai and the others had returned to the village.
Without hesitation, Lin Yi had a quick breakfast and went to Ancient Pool Village.
As he walked through the village, the members of the First Squad of the Militia seemed to be in high spirits, apparently celebrating their captain's return.
Entering the Temple's meeting room, Lin Yi found the Three Village Elders and all four Militia Captains, including Gu Liehai, present.
"You're here? Come, sit down and hear what Liehai encountered in those ruins."
Gu He beckoned to him and even arranged a new seat for him just below the Three Village Elders.
Apparently, Gu Liehai had already heard from the others that Lin Yi had become Deputy Village Chief. Although surprised by this development, he still smiled and nodded at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi took his seat and listened as Gu Liehai continued.
"...The Ancient Ruins lay underground beneath a sprawling range of barren mountains. The place was desolate. Not only ordinary living creatures, but even monsters and Strange Spirits were extremely scarce. Following the map of the ruins, we searched the mountains for three days before finding the underground entrance..."
"These ruins had once been a civilized village, with many dilapidated buildings. Since we hadn't encountered any danger along the way, we grew a little careless. That night, we didn't light any Spirit Fire Candles to conserve resources. We never expected that when we woke the next morning, Gu Cai and Gu Erli from our First Squad would have died horribly in their sleep..."
Old Fourth Gu could not help asking, "Died horribly? How did they die?"
"They probably died of fright in a