Chapter 35
Chapter 35
The bus jolted along the road for hours. When it finally stopped at the entrance to Five Dragons Village, everyone felt an overwhelming sense of relief.
“We’re finally here!”
“Wow, it’s beautiful!”
The teachers climbed off the bus and grew excited at the scenery before them.
The village nestled between mountains and water. Its orderly homes, fertile fields, and clear ponds formed a picturesque landscape. Chickens clucked and dogs barked from within, making the place feel like an isolated paradise.
They could even hear children laughing and playing inside the village.
To a group of teachers who had spent far too long in the city and suffered from every occupational ailment imaginable, the place seemed truly wonderful.
Qin Shiyu, however, stared at the village with a grave expression. There was even a hint of shock in her beautiful eyes.
“No… This place has come back to life?”
Her expression darkened.
She had visited Five Dragons Mountain twice while pursuing the Water God’s Authority and knew this village well.
On both previous visits, it had been utterly lifeless, with spirit-summoning banners hanging before every house.
Yet now, the sounds of chickens, dogs, and children were coming from a dead village?
Something was wrong.
She glanced toward Shi Xuan and the others at the rear of the crowd.
Shi Xuan looked equally grave. As an S-class anomaly wielder, he had naturally sensed that something… was not right.
“Director Shi, shall we go in?” Wang Zhong asked softly.
“No… I don’t think we should enter.”
Zuo Qingting frowned and adopted a wary expression. “There’s an anomaly in this village. Director Shi, I suggest we investigate the surrounding area first.”
Shi Xuan was no ordinary opponent. If he entered the village, he might cause trouble during the ritual that night and ruin everything.
There was already a Qin Shiyu among the group. Dealing with her first and handling Shi Xuan afterward would be much easier.
Shi Xuan pretended to consider the proposal, then nodded.
“Very well. We’ll follow Qingting’s suggestion and investigate the surrounding area first.”
After all, Shi Xuan understood his role perfectly: he was the bait.
They had to draw out the fish before an angler like Li Que could set the hook.
The group quietly separated from the teachers.
“Teachers, this is Five Dragons Village. It’s a model village for traditional culture, and we’ll be staying inside…”
Meanwhile, Deputy Director Gao Shen weakly lifted a megaphone and began his introduction.
He had never suffered from motion sickness before, yet today he had nearly emptied his stomach of bile.
“Let’s head into the village and find our accommodations first.”
With that, he led the teachers forward.
A massive stone marker stood at the village entrance. Three forceful characters in seal script were carved across it: Five Dragons Village.
Beyond the marker ran a main street paved with flagstones. Stone houses covered the slopes to either side, and the fruit trees before many doors hung heavy with ripe produce.
In front of one stone house, an old woman in plain blue clothing sat doing needlework. When she saw the outsiders, she looked up and gave them a kindly smile.
Several children at the crossroads studied them for a moment, then suddenly ran away laughing with innocent delight.
“Look at yourself! You’re ugly, and you never make an effort. Look how pretty those women from outside are. They’re like fairies!”
A man’s unabashed voice rang out from a small building. A shrill female voice immediately answered,
“Fine! Since you like them so much, I’ll turn into one of them and keep you company tonight. Happy?”
The teachers found the exchange awkward, but they could not help laughing.
Qin Shiyu alone could not laugh. Her expression had grown tense.
Her anomalous entity had been screaming warnings at her the entire time!
An old woman doing needlework? No. Qin Shiyu saw only a corpse that had been rotting for untold years.
Playful children? They were clearly monsters wearing human skin!
And it was not only them. She could sense… countless anomalies throughout the village, all of which had come alive!
Even as an S-class anomaly wielder, escaping now would probably be difficult.
“What is the Eclipse Organization planning to do here?”
She gritted her teeth softly and looked at Li Que.
Yet nothing seemed unusual to him. Instead, he was studying the village with interest as he asked Lin Xiaoyu,
“So this is your hometown?”
Lin Xiaoyu’s expression grew complicated. She looked at the children running away and the old woman with her needlework, then nodded.
“Yes… Sir, it wasn’t like this before.”
Li Que smiled. “You’ve been away from home for a long time. It’s only natural for things to change.”
“It’s beautiful here. Very nice.”
Lin Xiaoyu had been worried and faintly ashamed, afraid that Li Que might dislike this place. The moment she heard his praise, she relaxed.
As long as Sir liked it… that was enough.
“Xiaoyu, where is your home?” Li Que asked.
Lin Xiaoyu looked toward the far end of the flagstone road. “At the very end of this street.”
Li Que nodded. “All right. Once we’ve checked in, I’ll go home with you.”
Lin Xiaoyu nodded obediently.
“The village office is just ahead.”
Gao Shen was nearly exhausted when a somewhat modern building finally appeared before them. A paved courtyard lay in front of it, where everyone stopped to rest.
Gao Shen entered the building. Before long, he emerged with an elderly man in his sixties. The man wore a broad smile and looked exceptionally kind.
“We have room! The village office can accommodate all of you!”
“Troops stayed here during the war. A group this size is nothing!”
He was the chief of Five Dragons Village. As he spoke, he pulled a large ring of iron keys from his pocket.
Gao Shen had everyone line up to receive their keys. Because space was limited, each room would accommodate two people. With the exception of married couples, men and women were assigned separately.
“We have one extra person… Dean Qin, you’re in luck. You’ll have a room to yourself.”
Only one key remained, but Qin Shiyu and Li Que were still waiting.
Qin Shiyu looked surprised. “What about Teacher Li?”
“For safety, I need another male teacher to stand watch with me tonight,” Gao Shen said. “Teacher Li can share my room.”
He had already planned everything. He would make Li Que handle the night watch alone. As the leader of the trip, Gao Shen could naturally slip away and visit Qin Shiyu.
Qin Shiyu looked at Li Que, who remained perfectly calm.
“That’s fine.”
Once everyone had their keys, they eagerly set out to find their rooms.
The village office was old, but its rooms were clean, with two beds in each.
Li Que and Gao Shen had night-watch duty, so their room was on the ground floor.
Li Que told Gao Shen he was taking his student home first. Gao Shen was delighted to have him out of the way and readily agreed.
Li Que stepped outside and soon found Lin Xiaoyu standing before a stone wall beside the village office.
He walked up behind her. The wall was ancient and mottled, but the carvings across its surface remained clearly visible.
Five enormous dragons flew in from five directions around the mountain and converged here. As they breathed, they transformed into five great rivers that nourished all living things.
Li Que had read this legend before coming. Five Dragons Become Water was the story behind the village’s origins.
The five dragons had also become the villagers’ spiritual faith.
The village had continued worshiping and offering sacrifices to them throughout the generations. It was precisely the preservation of such folk traditions that had earned Five Dragons Village its designation as a renowned village of traditional culture.
“What’s wrong?” Li Que asked softly.
He had noticed tears glimmering in Lin Xiaoyu’s clear eyes. She seemed deeply moved.
“They’re all dead. Every one of them,” Lin Xiaoyu murmured.
Li Que comforted her. “It’s all right. As long as you remember them, their spirit will live on through you. They won’t truly be dead.”
Lin Xiaoyu looked up, nervous and full of self-doubt. “Sir, can I really do that?”
Li Que smiled. “Of course.”
Lin Xiaoyu nodded firmly.
“Go! Hurry and leave! You can’t stay here!”
Just then, a ragged, crazed man with a limp began shouting outside the village office.
He used a wooden stick as a crutch and waved it wildly. He stared at the building as though it were a monster and cried out in terror,
“Humans build the stage and ghosts perform the play! Don’t listen, don’t look! It swallows your years and devours your flesh, feeding a black mist that will consume heaven and earth! The dragons are dead, the people are gone… Leave! Hurry and leave!”
Many of the teachers were playing badminton nearby. They looked over in confusion.
“He’s a madman. Pay him no attention.”
The old village chief emerged and cast an icy look at the man outside.
“Aah!”
The man turned and fled, vanishing in moments.
Li Que noticed Lin Xiaoyu staring after him in a daze.
“Xiaoyu, do you know him?”
“He’s the Village Guardian. He… wasn’t mad before,” Lin Xiaoyu said.
“Xiaoyu, he mentioned… black mist. What is it?”
Qin Shiyu had also left her room. Her gaze was extraordinarily grave, and her face had turned slightly pale. The words clearly mattered a great deal to her.
“I don’t know. I haven’t been home in a long time.”
Lin Xiaoyu shook her head.
Li Que remained perfectly calm. “There’s no need to worry, Ms. Qin. It’s only a madman’s rambling.”
Qin Shiyu studied him again. Li Que had dismissed the warning as though it meant nothing.
She could not help wondering. Was Li Que… capable of dealing with something like that?
“Ms. Qin, Xiaoyu and I will be going now.”
With that, Li Que left with Lin Xiaoyu.
Qin Shiyu wanted to ask more, but ultimately sighed.
She understood Li Que fairly well by now. If he did not want to explain something, no amount of questioning would help.
All she could do now was wait.
“I hope it really was only a madman’s rambling. If something from the Black Mist Calamity is truly here… that would be terrifying.”
She murmured to herself.
…
Meanwhile, dusk was falling, and Shi Xuan, Xu Changjiang, and the others were still circling the outskirts of the village.
“Fog is coming in.”
Xu Changjiang frowned. The temperature in the mountains had barely changed, yet gray mist was now closing in from every direction as though it meant to drown Five Dragons Village.
“There’s an anomaly in this mist!”
He took out a device that measured anomaly readings. It was already displaying 999+!
Above A-class?!
“Hardly surprising,” Shi Xuan said steadily. Nothing that appeared in a place like this would surprise him now.
“Director Shi, I found something!”
Zuo Qingting’s voice suddenly rang out.
Shi Xuan and the others went over. Zuo Qingting pulled a red cord from a thicket.
It was faded with age and appeared to be bleeding. The sight was deeply unnatural.
“It’s a pathfinding cord, used to counter a ghost maze.”
Shi Xuan frowned. “Someone else must have left it here.”
Zuo Qingting continued, “No one besides the Eclipse Organization would come to this place.”
“Director Shi, if we follow this cord, we’ll certainly find them.”
Shi Xuan considered the proposal briefly, then nodded.
“Very well. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Let’s see what the Eclipse Organization is planning.”
The group immediately followed the red cord into the mountains.
An almost imperceptible smile appeared on Zuo Qingting’s face.
He looked back at Five Dragons Village. By now, the village had been swallowed by heavy fog, as though it had vanished from the world completely.
…