Chapter 71 (1)
Chapter 71 (1)
"Be careful."
Qian Wanyu's palm lightly pushed the other party's shoulder away from her. A long arrow weaved through the middle and nailed to the wall of a house.
Dongfang Minghui was really shocked, she thought there were undead people in the village.
"Seventh sister."
Qian Wanyu pulled off the long arrow embedded in the wall very easily, the arrowhead tip was shallow and the arrow itself was roughly made and rather blunt, the body of the arrow was even using a slightly thicker branch, if it's for killing people, this sort of shoddy arrow was not good enough at all.
There must still be living people in this village.
Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu thought in their minds at the same time.
"Come on, let's go into the house and take a look."
The door of the house was not locked, they gently pushed, the door opened automatically, but the inside was an unexpected mess, simple furniture and supplies were swept on the floor, the lone table had broken legs and the whole house gave the impression of being searched before them.
They felt with their spiritual sense that no one was in the house.
So they went to the next house, some small traps were laid on the road, long arrows and slingshotted marbles would always appear from time to time. Wanyu coped with it with ease, she threw aside all the marbles, spears, and arrows then helplessly said, "It seems to be a group of children."
This kind of trap could only have been made by eight or nine year olds.
"But where did all the adults in the village go?"
After going through five or six houses in a row, they were all empty and there was no one inside. Dongfang Minghui felt that the matter was more serious than they had expected. Qian Wanyu stood by and kept watch. The weeds outside the houses indicated that they have been left unattended for a long time.
"Someone's there."
At the end of her sentence, she saw Seventh sister leap, and with the help a tree trunk landed and shot her water thunder whip to catch a figure in the grass.
"Ah."
"It's a child."
The child was thrown heavily on the ground but did not cry or scream. His small body curled up on the ground and they could only make out a dirty face but there was a pair of black eyes with a hateful gaze.
Being looked at with such eyes from a child, Dongfang Minghui was numb to it after awhile, she saw Seventh sister coldly watching him with no intention to speak, after hesitating for a moment, she squatted down, trying to look into the eyes of the child then moved her body closer, "Little child your village, where did all the people in your village go?"
"Can you tell me what your name is?"
"I'm a pharmacist, are there any sick people here?"
She asked several questions but the child did not say a word, just looked at her with that same gaze.
"Seventh sister?" Dongfang Minghui turned back and shook her head, indicating that there was nothing she could do.
"Watch out!"
Just as she turned her head, the child who had not said a word suddenly stretched out his black fingers which almost touched her neck. The other end of the water thunder whip was tied firmly to the child's arm in a death grip.
Dongfang Minghui's pupils shrank when she felt it. Those black fingers and long nails were less than two centimeters away from her, if not for seventh sister this sneak attack might have injured her and even penetrate her veins
Qian Wanyu's face sunk, with a little force, the child was heavily thrown about with one end of the water thunder whip still tied to his arm.
"In the future, even if you want to talk, don't get too close to strangers."
Dongfang Minghui nodded her head, she patted her chest in fear, even a village child had such strong killing intent.
"You also caught a child?"
The small village had probably only about eighty families, the three groups of people did not take too long to stroll through the whole village. Li Yunan's team was the first to come over and saw that Wanyu's whip had tied up a restless child.
Subsequently, he also showed that behind him there were three children in a row strung together with their hands frozen. Bai Rou stood domineeringly at the back with a large sword as if to supervise them.
The three children's faces and clothing was dirty. Their clothes were torn with holes but their pair of eyes were bright, yet there was a deep hatred inside them making all of them puzzled.
"Can the three of them talk?" Dongfang Minghui asked curiously.
"It seems that they can't." Li Yunan was attacked by them continuously before he could ask them any questions and the other party didn't seem to want to give up so he could only catch all of them in one go.
"Seventh sister, could they be dumb?"
Qian Wanyu walked over and forcefully pinched open the mouth of the child who had previously attacked Dongfang Minghui then casually said, "They made a little sound when they fell before, they are not mute, they are just not willing to talk to us."
Four people surrounded the four children, slightly releasing some of their spiritual power, the four of them were a bit overwhelmed, plus three of them had their hands frozen by Bai Rou's ice spiritual power. It was suffering to the point where one of them fell to the ground and curled up yet continued to clench his lips to not make the slightest sound, even if his eyes teared up he wouldn't make a sound.
"This is rare."
They have met four tough people apparently.
If it were four adults, she wouldn't have hesitated to just use her soul searching skills, but, four children eh, Qian Wanyu gave up.
Dongfang Minghui as well couldn't bear to hurt them too much, she originally wanted to take a softer stance and gain the trust of that child to get the information they needed but who expected that the children here were so ferocious and wanted to attack!
"I'll try." Li Yunan smiled faintly and carried the smallest of them to the side like a chicken.
Dongfang Minghui was curious and wanted to follow him, but Qian Wanyu grabbed her hand, "Don't go, let him try, if it doesn't work, we'll think of another way."
While they were waiting, Situ Hao and Mu Sheng hurried over, "Did you find anything? Huh, why are there little kids, and four of them?"
"They should be from this village, something probably happened before us, and they hate outsiders as a result." Dongfang Minghui could not help but sigh, after working for most of the day, they still had no clues.
She simply took out a handkerchief, and a little clean water then used her handkerchief to wipe the small face of the child wrapped up by Seventh sister water thunder whip, she carefully wiped the small face, at first the other party tried to avoid her, obviously unwilling to be touched by her.
"Don't move."
Dongfang Minghui's tone was quite a bit fierce, she used her hand to pinch the other chin and make it not move so she could wipe it clean, she did the same for the other two children as well.
Qian Wanyu stood by and watched her do this, but did not stop her, her eyes were always on alert especially to the child who just tried to attack Dongfang Minghui before.
"Look, isn't it cleaner."
A slightly pale face, although immature had some maturity in his eyes. After washing their faces, they seemed to look more human and easier to look at.
"They still seem to have injuries on them."
Mu Sheng pulled up one of the kids' arms which were covered in scrapes and bruises everywhere, their feet not to mention, since they all wore nos hoes their toes were all scarred.
"Forget it, since you guys are so pitiful, I will help you a little." Situ Hao released his spiritual power and gave them a light based healing, the three children felt warm all over, and the previous wounds disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Dongfang Minghui stood aside watching in amazement, it was the first time she'd seen light-based healing, she did not expect it to be so quick and effective, no wonder the fat old man said before to let Situ Hao do some work for her. With this sort of skill he could definitely be a great help.
Li Yunan carried the youngest child over, "A tough nut to crack, what do we do now?"
"Ninth Sister, help check them to see if they have been infected."
Everyone looked grave, the adults of the village were gone with only these small kids left, the worst that could happen was all of them turning into undead but the strange thing was how a few children were left alone.
Dongfang Minghui examined the youngest child, "There's no signs of bites or scratches, they were all in good spirits as well so they must not be infected."
The others didn't even need to be examined, their wounds had been healed by Situ Hao's light-based treatment.
"Since this village is empty, let's set off towards return town." Qian Wanyu suddenly said.
The people looked at each other, Dongfang Minghui opened her mouth but said nothing, then finally pointed to the four small kids, "Seventh sister, what about them?"
"Taking them away is also a burden, how about" Qian Wanyu meaningfully looked at the rest, "We just let them go, what do you think?"
Bai Ruo nodded, without saying a word, the three children whose hands were frozen were released and Qian Wanyu also smoothly jerked away the wrapped up child in her water thunder whip, "Before I change my mind, immediately disappear from my eyes."
The four little kids immediately darted away in different directions disappearing in front of them in a matter of moments.
"Wow, what a speed."
"Seventh sister, just let them go like that?"
Qian Wanyu watched where the four of them disappeared then chuckled, "Naturally no."
The other people also smiled, only Dongfang Minghui and Mu Sheng had a head full of fog, what exactly is the meaning of this ah.
The four little kids then bent down in the grass and watched them fly away in their flying beasts, then one of them sent out a secret signal to regroup. They reset the traps that had been destroyed before, and because of the lessons learned this time, they added a few extra procedures and a few more traps, including some unexpected traps in some of the villagers' homes.
At night, Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu snuck back into the village again. She realized afterwards that letting the kids go and riding away on the flying beasts were all ploys by Seventh sister and the rest to cover their ears, the real purpose was to find out what happened in this small village.
The six divided into three groups, but this time it was Li Yunan and Situ Hao, Bai Rou and Mu Sheng, she was still following behind Seventh sister of course.
"Seventh sister, I can't see anything."
The village was so dark that the whole world in front of them seemed to be in darkness, it was hard for Dongfang Minghui to identify where people were and where they weren't. Plus the group of little kids were so good at hiding that they could stay hidden for ages in these overgrown places.
"Little grass, little grass, tell me, is there someone else here?"
She tried to communicate with the plants with her mind, but the weeds seemed to be new plants that had just grown, each one was confused and did not know what she was talking about. It turns out that they were mostly plants with no higher intelligence, Little Colour and the rest were a rare breed.
"Shh."
Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu waited quietly, until the moon was on the highest point surrounded by the eerie quiet, they suddenly some rustling sounds. A black shadow shuttled quickly through the grass, her eyes widened when she saw.
After spending time in the dark, she could probably distinguish certain things.
Qian Wanyu took her hand, and the two approached the object little by little in the grass.
The two of them smelled a bloody smell at the same time, and the closer they got to the black object, the stronger the smell. Dongfang Minghui immediately had memories of a murder case she knew about, when the night was dark and windy, a grown man and another had met up for a private meeting, but for some reason they must've gotten into an argument and the man used a knife to directly chop the other person up.
In this case however it was a kid and the object being killed was a beast.
They were squatting not too far from that person, they clearly heard the sound of someone smacking their lips, Dongfang Minghui skin hair rose all the way up. It was so creepy, the other side couldn't cut up the body properly and ate it raw? How can there be so many strange things in this village?!
Qian Wanyu understandably squeezed her palm to soothe her.
By the time the kid had finished, Dongfang Minghui witnessed him carrying a huge object cutting through the grass and going in another direction.
"Go."
They followed along, and with a little faint light, she finally discerned a small fellow ahead, not very tall, probably up to her chest, but the object on his shoulder was quite large, directly concealing his figure.
The more they walked, the more remote they went, until soon they were about to leave the village, these kids were really something.
Dongfang Minghui was worried about being discovered and simply used her little thumb to draw characters on the palm of Qian Wanyu's hand, who shook her hand back but didn't stop moving forward.
At the same time, Situ Hao and Li Yunan also unexpectedly found that the kid they were watching left the village carrying a magical beast's carcass, they looked at each other, such an insignificant little kid could kill a magical beast?
Outside the village, about a few hundred miles away there was a strange sense of foreboding, this place was usually no mans land. The terrain's relatively dangerous, if one was not careful they'd fall in and if they can't climb out or no one passes by, they'd just have to wait for death.
Villagers often advised their children not to play in this type of place to prevent any accidents.
Dongfang Minghui and Qian Wanyu followed all the way, lying on a high place looking down at the mountain ravine, they found that the kid had opened a cover somewhere and first threw in the monster he was carrying on his shoulders, and soon followed by jumping in.
They were just about to follow, when they found another kid darting to the same location from a distance performing almost the same action as the kid just now, but they opened the cover in a different place.
Situ Hao and Li Yunan also popped their heads up.
"Shhh shhh"
Dongfang Minghui made a little sound towards them, which soon caught the attention of the two.
"So you guys found this place too."
Situ Hao's was surprised then felt deflated after seeing the Qian Family sisters, he thought they were the first to find the secret base but soon got excited again by the little kids, didn't think this place actually had secret tunnels.
"Shhh."
Qian Wanyu whispered, soon, they found two more small kids, they opened the lids with familiarity and threw the corpse in before jumping in as well.
Everyone was silent and waited for a moment before thinking out loud.
"Hey, you guys we should also go in?"
Bai Rou had found them as well, when the six of them converged and told them all what they had seen, it was roughly the same without majot differences.
"Seventh sister, how did you know they were coming out for food at night?" Dongfang Minghui asked with a dumbfounded face, she felt as if her IQ was too bad compared to these people
Qian Wanyu couldn't help but pinch her nose, "The kid we met before told me."
Dongfang Minghui felt even more confused, the kid clearly did not say anything?
Qian Wanyu stretched out her hand and moved her fingers. When that little kid attacked Ninth Sister, his sharp nails, fierce eyes and swift and fierce movements told her that he had hunted and killed animals before. On top of that his unafraid look as well, she ventured to guess that he had hunted and killed many magical beasts, which is why he was able to attack Ninth Sister's neck so easily.
In addition, they have broken into many villagers' houses, and although the houses were all destroyed, some of the main necessities like food, clothing and so on were missing.
Even if the whole village had turned undead there should be some things like food left behind.
"I paid extra attention when I helped them heal before, and found that their hidden wounds were very heavy." Situ Hao touched his nose, he used his spiritual energy so he could probe what parts of their bodies were injured, including the condition of the injuries, and some of their injuries could only be caused by large beasts, so he guessed that these kids had more than meets the eye.
"I don't really like those hands of theirs." When Bai Rou first encountered them, she directly froze their hands with her ice spiritual energy, the reason being because their fingers were black and had scrapes of flesh and dried blood, whether they were used for killing or eating, she couldn't stand it.
"I knocked the youngest one out earlier and found that the other one did not say a word, to be able to achieve such unity and consistency, I think there should be someone behind them who is teaching them, otherwise these four brats being naturally like this would be too insane."
So when Qian Wanyu said to let them go, they guessed there was a backstory.
Everyone looked at her wondering why she couldn't figure it out and Dongfang Minghui secretly moved next to Mu Sheng, she felt that her IQ could only match Mu Sheng, she knew something was wrong with the village but was not as observant as they were.
"Well, we still divide into three groups, jumping respectively into the place where they just jumped, if there is any emergency everyone run first and we'll gather at the entrance of the village thirty miles away."
Qian Wanyu barked a few words and then pulled Dongfang Minghui away.
They walked to the place where the first little kids went and according to their memory felt around for the entrance.
"Ninth Sister, stand behind me."
Dongfang Minghui obediently grabbed the hem of the other party's coat and clung to the other party.
Qian Wanyu used a little effort to open the door, and was greeted by an unpleasant smell, she immediately held her breath to avoid being smothered by the smell, but Dongfang Minghui took a sniff and almost vomited out the contents of her stomach.
"What the hell is in here, it actually stinks so much!" She complained as she took out a porcelain bottle from her space ring and pinched open a jasmine scented pill to get the smell out of her nose but it only improved a little.
Qian Wanyu confiscated her porcelain bottle directly, "You can't use this after going down, if it really stinks, try using spiritual energy instead."
Dongfang Minghui covered her nose with her clothes and stared widely, "Is there that method as well?
As it turns out, Seventh sister did it without moving, and she jumped down to explore the way first.
"Come on down."
Dongfang Minghui heard the sound coming from below before assuredly jumping down where a pair of strong arms caught her in a full embrace.
Qian Wanyu carrying the fragrant jade in her arms didn't want to let go so she just held on to her and walked around with Minghui in her arms.
"Seventh sister, quickly let go!"
Dongfang Minghui pushed her, she was about to faint, did she still want to play now?!
"Finee."
Qian Wanyu reluctantly released her, holding her hand and walking inside, then whispered a reminder, "There are a lot of bones down there, don't trip over them."
Along the way, she tried to change her breathing and use her spiritual energy to filter the smell. She felt that the whole space was filled with a foul smell, that sort of smell that could not be removed, after walking for a long time, she even felt that she was tainted by this foul stench.
Thanks to all donators, ad clickers, readers and commentors. I hope you enjoyed another creepy chapter of MIWW!