Chapter 713: Red Butterflies in the Forest

Returning to the shore, Xia De put on his shoes and socks, and the black-dressed girl also sat on the stone by the shore and put on white long stockings and those small black leather shoes.

Xia De washed his hands by the stream before picking up the Night Watcher again and carrying the 【God's Gift Box】 on his back.

The black-dressed girl did not introduce her name, but asked curiously with her hands behind her back:

"Sir, may I ask what you are doing coming into the mountain?"

Her blue eyes looked at Xia De with a smile.

"I made an appointment with a friend to go to the mountaintop lake to see the scenery."

"But for the past two weeks, the Five God Sects have blocked the road to the mountaintop; it is impossible to go up there now."

The mountaintop was also an important site for the large-scale divine ritual prepared to re-seal the gap between life and death. Regardless of what considerations the church had, they would not let ordinary people enter there in the near future. However, Grandma Cassandra must have considered this, so Xia De was not worried that he couldn't climb up:

"Then, miss, may I ask what you are doing coming into the mountain alone? Although the Mid-Hill Castle serial murder case was solved by a captain some time ago, a girl of your age should not come into the mountain alone."

"I am investigating the old villages in the Xikar Mountain area before, preparing for my graduation thesis."

The black-dressed girl raised the notebook in her hand, and the old villages in the Xikar Mountains referred to the isolated small villages scattered in the mountains before the city was built. But with the arrival of the steam age and the increasing prosperity of Mid-Hill Castle, most of the young people in the mountain villages walked to the city at the foot of the mountain, so in just a few decades, the villages in the Xikar Mountains were mostly abandoned:

"Are there small mountain villages nearby?"

Xia De asked curiously.

"Yes, sir, over there."

The black-dressed girl pointed to the other side of the stream, but one couldn't see if there were mountain village settlements in the distance in the dense forest at all:

"I plan to go and take a look. Sir, are you willing to accept my employment and protect me for a while?"

She said to Xia De with a smile again, her blue eyes looking somewhat transparent in the sunlight.

"You trust me so much?"

"When you were carrying me just now, I noticed you were carrying a gun, and it was two. If I'm not mistaken, the item you are holding wrapped in cloth should be a long sword inserted into a scabbard. More importantly, you don't look like a bad person; bad people wouldn't look as handsome as you."

"Why?"

Xia De asked curiously, and the smile on the black-dressed girl's face became even brighter:

"If one has this appearance, wanting to make money is a very easy thing; where is the need to do bad things? Sir, I bet you are a detective."

"Yes, Xia De Su Lun Hamilton."

Xia De did not say "John Watson," but reported his real name... actually, his real name was Xia De:

"Miss, are you really a student of the History Department, not the Folklore Department?"

"Folklore and history, sometimes they can't be distinguished at all."

As she turned, the red butterfly pendant on her waist swayed; that butterfly looked like it was alive for a moment, but after just blinking, it returned to its normal state.

"Sir, please follow me; there is a wooden bridge across this stream over there."

Xia De did not refuse and just followed behind the black-dressed girl, passing through the wooden bridge upstream, which was actually just a rotten wooden board, and came to the other side of the stream, further away from the main road up the mountain.

Walking into the jungle again, the midday sun in late autumn was completely blocked by the tree shade, and the temperature seemed to drop accordingly. The black-dressed girl was a talkative person, leading the way in front while asking Xia De various questions.

His identity, his family, his life, the difference between Mid-Hill Castle and Tobesk, and even asked about the box Xia De was carrying, and Xia De still explained it as "sealing an evil beast here."

As for the black-dressed girl's own affairs, she didn't say much. She only admitted that she had a twin sister and that she was waiting for a long time, looking forward to her sister's return.

"Your relationship is very good?"

"Yes, very good... we once swore that we would be together forever."

Walking for a full half hour, but still couldn't see the trace of the small mountain village in front. The black-dressed girl stopped in an open space in the forest, and Xia De looked at the surroundings suspiciously, still not seeing the trace of the village.

"Look."

The black-dressed girl suddenly extended her finger and pointed to the front right of the two. Xia De looked up and saw a fire-red butterfly swaying in the forest. Its body looked transparent, and it could leave red light spots in the surroundings as it moved.

As Xia De focused on that red butterfly, it flew toward the deeper part of the forest, as if attracting the two to walk over.

"It's this; there are often such red butterflies near that small mountain village!"

The black-dressed girl said, grabbed Xia De's hand, and chased after it quickly. Xia De tried to break free a few times but couldn't, so he simply followed the black-dressed girl and chased the red butterfly toward the deeper part of the forest.

This kind of reckless behavior is generally the beginning of a horror story.

The dense trees made the forest dimmer and even somewhat eerie. At the same time, more and more red butterflies gathered from all directions and appeared around them. Those red butterflies flew among the leaves and grass, becoming the brightest light source nearby, adding some hazy colors to the eerie scene.

The concentration of whisper elements was becoming more and more terrifying as the two continued to move forward. The light dimmed, whispers murmured, and eerie winds swept by. But surrounded by red butterflies, Xia De did not feel the slightest influence brought by the relic.

"Look, it's here."

When the two finally stopped, the surroundings were already as dark as night, but swarms of red butterflies still surrounded them, shielding them from the eerie winds and blocking the invasion of whisper elements.

In front was an old village located in the mountain forest. It looked like it had been abandoned for a long time. Most of the buildings that could be seen were built of straw and mud. The two houses at the entrance of the village had completely collapsed. The road into the village was almost covered by wild grass, and looking at the whole village, except for the tower in the center, there were not even buildings with more than two floors.

Not only that, Xia De could even see the black mist covering the village and the figures vaguely visible wandering in the village; this kind of scene would probably only appear in horror stories. And for a Ringed Shushi, this was clearly a location-type relic, a location-type relic attracted by the chaos of the four elements in the Mid-Hill Castle area, just like 【Sin Mansion】.

"There is actually such a place in the mountains; finding this place is truly not easy."

Xia De looked at the black-dressed girl, who was still smiling:

"Sir, my goal is here."

She held Xia De's hand and refused to let go, and when she turned to look at him, her blue eyes seemed to be glowing under the illumination of the red butterflies around.

"Miss, are you sure you want to enter this place?"

Xia De asked hesitantly:

"Usually in the stories people tell, the beginnings of those tragedies are often the situation we are facing now. An abandoned village shrouded in black mist in the mountains, a man and a woman who broke in by accident, stories and tragedies hidden for a hundred years, and secrets and horrors buried in the abandoned village... If my writer friend knew this story, maybe he could publish a good detective novel immediately." ===== CHAPTER 714 =====