Chapter 714: Abandoned Village

"Abandoned village horror story? I quite like this theme, but don't worry, these red butterflies will protect us."

The black-dressed girl pointed to the red butterflies filling the sky around them; those flying translucent butterflies seemed to be responding to her, one after another wanting to land on her fingertips:

"As long as you don't leave the red butterflies, you, I mean we, won't be in danger."

Xia De looked at her and nodded after a long time:

"Okay, I'll go into the village with you, but I have things to do at the mountaintop later, so let's be quick."

"No problem, I can go to the destination with you later. I know there is a shortcut in this village that can go directly to the mountaintop."

She smiled and held Xia De's hand, walked out of the eerie jungle, stepped into the black mist, and officially entered the village wrapped in black mist, as if located in an eternal night.

【Outsider, you have entered the interior of a location-type relic again.】

"I know."

The whisper elements were becoming more and more intense, and the terrible black mist with strong curses swept toward the two; one could even see ferocious faces in the mist. But under the protection of the swarms of red butterflies, not a single bit of the black mist could see them. On the contrary, the mist seemed to fear the red butterflies and actually gradually became sparse around Xia De and the black-dressed girl.

"What a powerful curse."

Xia De looked at the surroundings with lingering fear; if it were just him, he certainly wouldn't have come in.

"Sir, do you also have research on curses? Yes, this is a curse bred by resentment, hatred, regret, and the disaster deep underground; we had better not touch them too much."

The black-dressed girl said, and she knew this place very well.

Countless undead wandered in the dilapidated mountain village. These souls inside the relic were invaded by whisper elements and turned into twisted monsters even more terrifying than evil spirits. Walking in the abandoned village, it seemed there were no enemies around, but Xia De's keen intuition could feel that the evil souls hiding in the surroundings, almost integrated with the environment, were watching them.

But under the protection of the red butterflies, no enemy dared to appear actively. So when Xia De and the black-dressed girl strolled in the village, all they saw were those buildings that had been abandoned for who knows how many years.

It could be seen that this place had also been prosperous. Although it was an old village in the mountains, except for the few conspicuous houses at the entrance of the village, most of the other buildings had been renovated before being abandoned. The ground in the village was also very flat, and the few buildings in the center of the village were even like mansions that only a town mayor or a sheriff could live in.

Perhaps, this village had extra income.

The black-dressed girl, who claimed to be a student of the Mid-Hill Castle Mechanical Academy, knew a lot about the affairs of this village. While the two were strolling on the only village road in the dilapidated mountain village, she told Xia De the story that had once happened here.

This was a story from a long time ago. The small mountain village was located in the remote mountains, and the villagers in the village had stayed for generations, rarely going out to make a living or marrying far away. And the peaceful days disappeared with an earthquake.

The earthquake did not cause too much damage to the existence, but after the earthquake, people discovered gold mines under the village well that had been cracked by the earthquake. The villagers unanimously decided to keep this a secret and used the excuse of "building a tower in the village" to deceive the villagers of nearby villages and the nobles in the town at the foot of the mountain, secretly excavating under the tower.

"So, what did they dig up?"

Xia De asked, looking at those houses standing in the darkness. Most of these houses were locked, and probably one had to find the key to open them.

"No one knows what it was; perhaps it was the entrance to the so-called hell, perhaps it was the nest of some sleeping ancient being.

In short, when the desire out of control prompted the villagers to strike the last blow at the deepest part of the mine, black mist continuously seeped out from the irreparable ground cracks. It corroded the earth, summoned the undead, and prevented the villagers from leaving the local area. Only by sacrificing two children under the age of ten to the ground cracks every ten years could the invasion of the black mist on this place be slowed down."

The black-dressed girl said, and Xia De looked up from the gaps in the red butterflies at the surroundings:

"Judging from the situation, they failed."

The black-dressed girl nodded and took Xia De to the bottom of the tower in the village. The village was very small, so they didn't actually walk for long.

"Look, this is the tower. This kind of small mountain village actually didn't need this kind of building, so there was no planned use at the beginning of construction, just claiming it was to be built as a bell tower."

Xia De looked up at this gray stone bell tower; it had been completed, but the height was only about four stories. It looked like other buildings in the village, also abandoned for a long time, but the main door of the bell tower was tightly closed.

"Should we look for the key everywhere?"

Xia De asked, looking at the buildings next to it:

"The key might be in the village mayor's house, or in the sheriff's house in the village. We might have to solve some puzzles of the past, or encounter some terrifying undead, defeat them and listen to their pasts, before we can get the key here from strange corners or the mountain village cemetery."

"It sounds indeed interesting."

The black-dressed girl laughed:

"But there is no need to be so troublesome. Mr. Hamilton, since you are a detective, opening this door should be no problem."

Two translucent red butterflies landed on her shoulders, and after the black coat was illuminated, it was still only black.

Xia De nodded:

"Yes, of course I can pick locks; this is my specialty, but please let go of my hand first."

He tried to pull out the hand that had been grabbed all along.

"Of course."

The black-dressed girl let go of her hand and then teased:

"Then sir, can your lock-picking skills open all the locks?"

"Of course not; for example, the heart locks of girls cannot be opened just like that."

As he spoke, he extended his right hand to touch the rusty black iron door, and when he tried to rotate his wrist, he felt a huge force rush from the direction of the door.

That huge force almost sent Xia De flying with his feet off the ground, but fortunately, the swarm of dancing red butterflies spontaneously came behind Xia De, gently catching Xia De like a giant red net.

Clearly, this door was the key to the core of the relic, and the power of the relic was preventing Xia De from using methods other than the key to open the door.

"It seems we still need to find the key."

Xia De shrugged, but the black-dressed girl shook her head:

"Detective, come, I'll help you."

She took a step back and moved behind Xia De, then almost hugged Xia De from behind. Her right arm passed through Xia De's armpit, and her soft arm circled and came to Xia De's arm, then her fair hand pressed on the back of Xia De's right hand, and five fingers were inserted into the finger gaps one by one... Miss Aurora had also done similar actions to Xia De.

The girl behind him seemed to be inhaling deeply, but the voice was very soft. She was completely pressed against Xia De, standing on tiptoe, resting her head lightly on Xia De's shoulder, and whispering in his ear:

"Move quickly, detective; I think you are also curious about what is inside the tower."

"Yes."

This very unrefined posture made Xia De very uncomfortable, but he also knew that the black-dressed girl behind him would definitely not be pushed away by him.

Two hands pressed on the door and rotated together. With the effect of the spell 【Key of the Gate】, the red butterflies flapped their wings to provide power for the bottom. Whisper elements fought against whisper elements, and the power of the abandoned village was clearly no match for this group of red butterflies.

Thus, the iron door of the bell tower was opened without a sound.

The iron door opened a crack, and a strong corpse smell blew out from the crack, even more severe than the corpse smell permeating this mountain village.

"Let's continue the story just now; sacrificing two children under 10 every ten years to suppress the black mist in the gold mine, how did this fail?"

Xia De asked, hesitating for a moment:

"The two children who were sacrifices escaped?"

"This is only one aspect; the other aspect is that outsiders came here, and because they couldn't bear the cruel things that kept happening here, they took action to stop the sacrifice that year, making this place look like this."

The black-dressed girl behind him said, then walked to the side and stood side by side with Xia De.

Xia De nodded; that was reasonable. Although it is not said that there are supernatural beings everywhere in this world, whether it is the Fifth Era or the Sixth Era, the number of witches or Ringed Shushi is generally not small. This is a relic, so when an accident occurred, it must have been the Fifth Era, so it is not impossible for a kind witch to pass by locally.

"The one who passed by back then was..."

"A pair of black and white twins, who came with red butterflies. Because they bumped into the two children who escaped that year, the 9-year-old twin sisters, they agreed to end all this. The church called that pair of black and white twins 【Red Butterfly Twins】; they are girls of unknown origin wandering in the material world, and although their age changes with time, they always follow a 22-year cycle. Although they are twins, they rarely appear at the same time."

Xia De looked at the red butterflies filling the sky, not knowing what to say for a while:

"That pair of twins must be very powerful, right?"

A slight smile appeared on the black-dressed girl's face:

"Before coming into the mountain, I obtained some information through the channels of church friends. 【Red Butterfly Twins】 are called angel-level relics, suspected of possessing part of the power of the ancient god 【Twin God】. Every time they appear, there are always twins born in the surroundings. The black dress brings the curse of fate to the twins, the white dress brings the blessing of the relic to the twins, and appearing together definitely brings disaster. Therefore, they are also called disaster twins, the incarnation of disaster."

"Is that so..."

Xia De pursed his lips, looking at the iron door in front:

"Then, did the church's records write... over these years, how have they been doing?"

The expression in those blue eyes seemed to become even softer for a moment:

"It doesn't matter whether it's good or not; life is a void dream. Perhaps, they just haven't woken up from the dream yet."

That last sentence was almost a whisper.

Xia De's mood suddenly became terrible. He turned his head slightly to look at the girl beside him, only to find that she had been looking at him all along. Under the flickering of the red butterflies and the falling red light spots, she truly became somewhat unreal.

"I..."

"Sir..." ===== CHAPTER 715 =====

"It doesn't matter if it's good or bad; life is but a hollow dream. Perhaps they just haven't woken up from the dream yet."

The final sentence was almost a whisper.

Xia De's mood suddenly turned sour. He turned his head slightly to look at the young lady beside him, only to find that she had been watching him all along. With the sky full of red butterflies circling her, and the flickering of their wings and the falling red light spots, she truly seemed to have become somewhat unreal.

"I..."

"Mr..."