Chapter 364: Hallucination?

"The bedding hasn't been torn up, and there are no marks on the beam from a hanging..." Wei Chengye said suspiciously, "Did that Wang family daughter-in-law really hang herself to death in the end?"

The feeling of being watched from the shadows suddenly intensified. Wei Chengye turned his head abruptly, but saw nothing; unable to find a source, his mind couldn't help but conjure up those paranoid suspicions, making him increasingly confused and uneasy.

Not wanting to be immersed in this atmosphere surrounded by weirdness and gloom, Wei Chengye walked quickly out of the main room and ran to the nearby woods to gather firewood.

Although he wasn't a child who grew up in the countryside, Wei Chengye knew that wet wood wasn't easy to light, and he knew the hazards of wood that couldn't burn completely, so when he wandered through the woods picking up wood, he specifically chose dry, withered branches.

If one specifically picks dry wood, firewood is actually not that easy to find, because it had rained three days ago. Although it had been clear for three days now, the woods of Sanxi Village were well-preserved, with lush branches and leaves blocking most of the sunlight, making it difficult for the damp parts of the ground to dry out.

Before he knew it, Wei Chengye had walked far away. It wasn't until he weighed the bundle of branches in his hand and felt it was enough to start a fire several times that he thought about turning back. But when he looked up, he found that the surrounding environment was so unfamiliar that he couldn't recognize the direction he had come from.

"Where is this again?" After a brief moment of panic, Wei Chengye regained his composure. He looked up to find the sun, vaguely remembering the position of the sun he had seen when he set out, and formed a rough judgment of where he needed to return to, so he chose a direction and walked that way.

As he walked, Wei Chengye noticed that the sky was gradually darkening, and the chill in the mountain forest quietly intensified. The air he inhaled into his lungs felt freezing and stinging; every deep breath made his respiratory tract tremble and ache, and he couldn't help but cough wildly. When he heard a crow's cry ring out in the environment, the sound pierced his eardrums like a suddenly thrust sword, and he couldn't help but cover his ears, his heart and gallbladder pounding violently inside his body.

"No, where exactly is this?" Wei Chengye's breathing was rapid. He looked around, only to see a sky so strange he had never seen it before—a sheet of blood red, the reflecting setting sun... no, that was a high-hanging Blood Moon far off in the sky, casting that bright red light over the entire earth, devouring the vitality of this mountain forest.

The ground became ink-black and mushy, no different from thick, black oil sludge. His shoes were slowly sinking into it due to his weight. The originally tall, thick, and lush forest was withering and turning yellow at a speed visible to the naked eye. Leaves fell in succession, green leaves drifting powerlessly in the cold wind, drying into ash, and then with a *poof*, bursting into powder and scattering on the ground.

Seeing such an Abnormal scene, how could Wei Chengye not know he had run into something evil? He could only lower his head and bite the bullet to continue walking straight ahead.

Caw—caw—caw—

The crow's cry, carrying an inexplicable sense of mockery, circled endlessly in his ears. In the mountain forest where a rain of withered leaves was falling, things were constantly moving rapidly within it. The strange, piercing sounds made by moving quickly through the dense falling leaves were like continuous, dense explosions, and those sounds were getting closer and closer as time passed.

He felt it—that crow hidden in the dark, huge and venomous, drooling over the human child who had accidentally wandered into its territory. Those wide, bloodshot eyes were staring fixedly at him from that darkness.

Where was there a flock of crows... there was clearly only one. And it was a vicious, evil, and strange giant bird. It would emit sounds similar to a crow, move rapidly through the mountain forest at a speed unimaginable to ordinary people, teasing the prey it had surrounded alone, enjoying the fear the prey showed it. It was like sprinkling salt and black pepper on a steak, which would make the food even more delicious.

"Don't come over... don't come over..." Wei Chengye hugged the branches, letting out a low, nasal plea, praying that the predator teasing him would show some mercy.

"Don't come over... don't come over..." Wei Chengye hugged the branches, letting out a low, nasal plea, praying that the predator teasing him would show some mercy.

"Barbarian!"

Just when Wei Chengye was at a loss, he felt his whole body being pulled back from the water. He let out a violent gasp like someone who had just stopped drowning, suddenly coming to his senses and breaking free from that Abnormal and strange world. Only then did he discover he was already in the calmly flowing Sanxi River, his knees submerged in the river water. His feet were uncontrollably trying to keep moving forward; if it weren't for his two arms being held by Yumi and Suotou, he would likely have walked deeper and deeper.

Wei Chengye slowly regained control of his body and, in a panic, hurriedly retreated from the river.

"Are you out of your mind? Why are you walking into the river like a lunatic? Do you want to die?" Shougou roared at the survivor, Wei Chengye.

Wei Chengye was rendered speechless by the shouting, his face pale and his mind in chaos. He didn't know how to explain his recent experience, so he just said dryly: "I don't know either. I was just picking firewood, then I suddenly got lost. When I was walking back, my consciousness suddenly became unclear. I saw a strange bird, a red moon... and when I woke up, I found myself standing here."

"Were you dreaming?" Sanmao was not convinced by Wei Chengye's explanation. He waved his hand in front of Wei Chengye's eyes, only to find that Wei Chengye's vision was a beat slow. Intending to tease him, he couldn't help but ask with some worry, "You didn't eat anything weird and get poisoned, did you? You can't just eat those mushrooms in the mountains."

"I didn't eat anything." Wei Chengye felt his words lacked conviction, pale and weak, so he had to say helplessly, "Just pretend I suddenly went crazy. It's fine now, and why are you all here?"

"Don't you need to fetch some water to boil the eggs?" Shougou shook his head. To him, as long as Wei Chengye was fine, he didn't want to argue with him about so much. He just asked with concern, "How about we go back first? Let's put the sweet potatoes in the Old Crow House and come back to roast them tomorrow. We'll split the bird eggs and take them back to eat."

Wei Chengye was indeed feeling quite uncomfortable, but seeing how disappointed Suotou and Yumi looked, he didn't want to ruin everyone's mood, so he forced a smile: "It's fine, I just had hallucinations because I was hungry. Alright, alright, let's hurry back to the Old Crow House and cook the sweet potatoes and bird eggs. Once I'm full, I won't feel bad anymore."

At this, Shougou wavered instantly, lowering his head to wipe the drool from the corner of his mouth, "Alright, alright, then let's hurry back and roast the sweet potatoes."

"Wait a while and you can eat more bird eggs." Sanmao patted Wei Chengye on the shoulder; this buddy was still very loyal and brotherly, "I'll give you all my quail eggs, I'll just keep two for myself."

The other three also expressed that they would give up their share to him, but Wei Chengye hurriedly refused: "Hey, no, no, no, even if I could eat a lot, I couldn't eat that many eggs. I'll choke if I eat too much."

The five youths turned back and walked toward the Old Crow House, little knowing that this was the beginning of their tragedy.