"Drinking the blood of living people? What's the story behind that?" Could it be that Zhang Xinxin is also a strange person?

Xiao Lian looked even more terrified than her. She grabbed Yan Qing's arm and said in a trembling voice,

"Second Miss, you've always grown up in the city, so you don't really know much about some things here—I suspect that the Eldest Miss isn't human."

Under Yan Qing's incredulous gaze, Xiao Lian revealed the secret she had witnessed recently.

"Actually, the young lady has been like this for a while now. She has to drink human blood every day, otherwise her face will immediately be covered with many bluish-black spots. Only drinking fresh blood can alleviate the problem—I heard from Grandma that it has to be the blood of a virgin."

Yan Qing strongly suspected that Zhang Xinxin was not a living person. Mainly because her behavior was far too eerie.

Furthermore, given such a good opportunity, she naturally couldn't resist taking the chance to inquire about news from the village.

"I remember when the wedding ended this morning, a lot of people were running back. Why were they so scared?"

Xiao Lian seemed to have anticipated her question. "It's just that you, Second Miss, didn't grow up in the village and haven't heard of some of the village's open secrets—actually, this has to do with the selection of the girls in our Falling Flower Cave."

According to Xiao Lian, the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden must be personally chosen by the Cave God to be effective. Once a Fallen Flower Cave Maiden appears in a village, the entire village will be blessed by the Cave God, and all disasters, diseases, and misfortunes will stay away from them.

So initially, everyone admired and longed for the girl from Luohua Cave. Although the girl ultimately chosen would still choose to die, it was actually a good thing for the village.

For thousands of years, this has been the case throughout western Hunan. Although the Fallen Flower Cave Girl is quite mysterious to outsiders, she is the greatest blessing to the villagers in the village.

As for the reputation of the three great evil arts among outsiders, it was just a legend deliberately spread to protect the Fallen Flower Cave Girl.

But their peaceful days were disrupted one day a hundred years ago.

"That day, a man came to the village, a very tall and handsome man."

As Xiao Lian spoke, her eyes filled with longing. "The grandmothers said that none of them had ever seen such a handsome man in their lives. He looked like a Han Chinese and said he had come to the village to visit a friend."

"A handsome man?" Yan Qing asked curiously. "What is this man's relationship with the woman from the Falling Flower Cave?"

"The man who came to visit was the owner of the Zhang family's old house. At that time, the Zhang family's old house had been built for less than ten years. It is said that the clan leader's son made a fortune outside and returned to his hometown to build the ancestral home. The entire hill where we live now belongs to the Zhang family's old house area."

"My God, is it this big?" No wonder the guards are so tight; this is their ancestral property!

"But what about that man?" Yan Qing was even more curious about this.

Xiao Lian's next words puzzled her: "It's strange, the day that man came was the day the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden married the Cave God. The ceremony was only halfway through when the man suddenly appeared."

"Then what?"

Xiao Lian trembled, as if she had thought of something terrifying.

"That day, when that man appeared, for some reason, the woman from Luohua Cave, who was kneeling on the stone slabs to perform the ceremony, suddenly turned around and glanced at him. Then, the ceremony could no longer continue."

Yan Qing was puzzled. "Why can't it proceed? Did that man stop us?"

"Of course not!" Xiao Lian quickly denied. "I'm just here to visit a friend, and I have no interest in the Falling Flower Cave Girl!"

The ceremony couldn't continue, which was related to the woman from the Fallen Flower Cave.

This is quite a strange story. In just one glance, the woman from Luohua Cave, who was kneeling on the stone slab, suddenly stepped down from the stone slab and reached out to tear off her bridal attire.

"I'm not getting married!" This was the only sentence the woman from Luohua Cave ever said. Then, she parted the crowd and ran away.

"I heard from the elders that everyone was terrified at the time and there was no time to stop her. For thousands of years, the Fallen Flower Cave Maiden has always been in a daze before the ceremony, but she was an exception and ran away halfway through the ceremony. — Of course, that's not the end of the story."

"When the woman from Luohua Cave ran past the man, she said something that was overheard by people nearby."

Yan Qing's scalp began to tingle again. "What did she say?"

“I—was—for—you!” Xiao Lian said, word by word. “That’s what many people heard back then.”

"And then?" Yan Qing remained calm and made no comment.

"The Maiden of Fallen Flowers Cave has disappeared; no one knows where she went. At noon that day, just as everyone was preparing to leave, the Cave God suddenly became enraged—"

Xiao Lian still feels lingering fear when she recalls it. "Although I have never seen it, the elders in the village said that a huge long howl suddenly came from the cave. The sound was so loud that even the other villages down the mountain could hear it clearly."

"The whistling sound lasted for a full ten minutes before it gradually subsided."

That doesn't sound like anything!

Xiao Lian could tell what she meant from her expression. "Second Miss, the truly terrifying things only officially began that night."

Xiao Lian still feels lingering fear when she recalls this incident.

"According to the surviving elders, everyone was sound asleep that night when the guards on the front mountain suddenly felt a huge tremor, as if a giant earth dragon had overturned the entire mountain, and it didn't stop for a long time. All he could see was billowing dust, and he couldn't see the village at all."

"Because they were too scared, neither of the two lookouts dared to risk returning. It wasn't until dawn that all the tremors gradually stopped. When they finally mustered the courage to return, they found that they could no longer find their way home—the entire Wuyun Mountain, including the Zhang family's old house, had vanished without a trace."

Yan Qing could hardly believe her ears. "The entire Wuyun Mountain has disappeared? How is that possible? — And isn't the place we're in right now the Zhang family's old residence?"

There were indeed some parts of Xiao Lian's story that she couldn't explain. Most importantly, where did that man go?

This person seems to have been erased from the entire story.