Chapter 184: The Village in the Valley

"The energy decayed after reaching a peak." Du Zhengyi looked Luo Qi over once more, no longer mentioning that he looked just like an icicle.

Luo Qi frowned in thought, "It was that peak that caused the Night Howl."

"Correct," Du Zhengyi said. He began walking forward again, and this time he quickened his pace; Luo Qi had to almost jog to keep up with him.

"You said the Night Howl often happens in military camps temporarily stationed during a march?" Luo Qi asked in a low voice.

"That's why it's also called a Camp Howl. Soldiers in war are under much greater mental strain than ordinary people. When a Camp Howl occurs, a few over-strained nerves can trigger a chaotic melee throughout the entire camp. This is a very ancient way of defending against humans. If a human army threatens a mage settlement, and the number of mages is far smaller than the human army, or the mages left behind lack sufficient energy, this method of stimulating the human brain at night to make them fear until they lose their reason is very useful," Du Zhengyi said.

"Do you think Guan Yushan did it?" Luo Qi asked.

"You saw the Jingtu Temple's mode of operation; Guan Yushan must have also uncovered quite a few things. In his final moments, he must have been primarily guarding against humans. However, this kind of weapon can hardly be considered a top-tier weapon for a Great Mage's self-preservation; it's more like Guan Yushan lit an ancient beacon tower," Du Zhengyi said as he walked. He gazed into the darkness in the distance; his eyesight was excellent, and the slightest bit of light allowed him to see the path ahead. "Mages have better choices for self-preservation, but a disturbance like tonight's will certainly be classified as a serious unnatural phenomenon. This is equivalent to a death beacon Guan Yushan prepared for himself; the Execution Mages of Qionglin will arrive by tomorrow morning at the latest. Yet, in the end, his actual death might have been very sudden, and the process of death very gentle. He didn't even realize he needed to trigger the beacon; the police discovered his death even earlier than Qionglin. That is my intuition, but there are still parts of this that don't make sense."

"I'm a bit confused too," Luo Qi said, trembling. He was already numb with exhaustion, and his trembling now was entirely from the cold. "Is Guan Yushan the type of person who toys with the living dead? Look at the child he raised, look at Guan Xinyue—I don't think he's that kind of person."

Du Zhengyi did not answer. He led the way in front, nimbly weaving through the forest, bypassing the sections where the small path had been cut off. "Separated by only one mountain, yet few people come to this place."

This remark stirred Luo Qi's heart, plunging him into deep thought, making him even forget the cold for a moment. They hurried along for a while, and Luo Qi suddenly gasped.

"They said the demonic beast and the evil ghosts appeared at the same time," Luo Qi murmured suddenly from behind him.

Du Zhengyi turned his head to look at Luo Qi, asking with some surprise, "What did you say?"

Luo Qi raised his head to look at him in the darkness. "I'm talking about what Wen Lin said. She said that time when Qiongqi appeared—the demonic beast and the evil ghosts were together—this is clearly a human description. So, 'evil ghosts' doesn't refer to the mage driving Qiongqi. How would humans see a mage communing with Qiongqi? That must be the living dead; only the living dead would be mistaken for evil ghosts!"

"The fact that there is a legend of Kongsang Mountain in this world is already bizarre enough; could it be that humans have a Kongsang Mountain in every province?" Du Zhengyi said, reaching out to stop Luo Qi when he saw those terrified eyes widen even further. "We have arrived. The village is right at our feet. We will see everything once we look."

Luo Qi froze for a moment, swallowed with difficulty, and nodded silently.

"Below is indeed a village; your feeling is quite accurate," Du Zhengyi said, softening his tone. "If you turn out to be right again that this is also a Kongsang Mountain, then this trip tonight will be a major task. If I get a bad feeling and tell you to leave..."

Luo Qi didn't wait for him to finish before nodding. "I'll run immediately, without caring whether you live or die. Don't worry, buddy."

Du Zhengyi couldn't help but smile. He turned his head to gaze intently at the darkness before him, gradually becoming serious. The valley was like a giant bowl, and the village sat silently at the bottom of the bowl, without a single light.

Luo Qi didn't know how Du Zhengyi could see clearly, but he guessed Du Zhengyi wasn't using his eyes to see; he was using Magic Measurement. Luo Qi could also avoid using his eyes now, but as soon as he thought of that ancient, cold Yajian inside the High-Energy Crystal, his stomach acid felt like it was about to freeze.

Du Zhengyi suddenly walked quickly downward, and Luo Qi hurried to follow, keeping a distance of one step behind him. The mage's flames burned around the perimeter of the village, tongues of fire licking the withered grass, sparks flying like fireflies. Luo Qi's ears were filled with the crisp sound of burning dry branches. A figure flashed past in the village streets, and Luo Qi's heart tightened.

Du Zhengyi walked slowly through a gap in the flames. Luo Qi watched him anxiously, his intuition telling him something was about to happen, and it was at this moment that Du Zhengyi's footsteps halted.

"What's wrong?" Luo Qi asked in a low voice, stepping forward to get closer to Du Zhengyi. To his surprise, Du Zhengyi stretched out an arm to block him, shielding him behind his back.

"I have been here before," Du Zhengyi said in a low voice.

Luo Qi was startled, looking at this deserted village from behind him in astonishment. Half of the courtyard walls had already collapsed, grass grew on the fallen earthen walls, and piles of rubble lay in the courtyards. The houses had long since lost their doors and windows, perhaps dismantled when the people here left. This place must have been uninhabited for a long time. At a glance, Luo Qi could also see that it had the distinct style of a Chinese rural village from the nineties, which was quite different from today's villages, so it was highly recognizable.

Luo Qi didn't think such a deserted village was rare; people who played off-road would occasionally discover such places. Over the past twenty years, with changes in production plans—for example, the end of mining operations or the conversion of farmland back to forests—it was possible for such deserted villages to be left behind after the production teams departed. He even hoped a little that Du Zhengyi was mistaken, and that perhaps he had been to some other deserted village similar to this one. After all, when China was building up over the past few decades, it didn't seek uniqueness; houses were built more or less the same everywhere in the country, with only slight differences between the north and south. If Du Zhengyi had walked a thousand kilometers to the west, the villages he encountered wouldn't have been much different from this one.

This was the first time he had seen Du Zhengyi act as if facing a formidable enemy, and the eeriness of this place took on a sinister quality.

"Be careful," Du Zhengyi said. "Stand behind me, don't touch anything. If things go bad, we will retreat at any time and leave this place for Qionglin to solve itself."

"Okay," Luo Qi said honestly. His vision blurred for a moment; he wasn't sure if a figure had really flashed past behind the courtyard wall.