After thinking for a moment, Zhang Shi told Zhao Feng about Wu Qing's situation. Zhao Feng's expression went from surprise to confusion and finally to anger.

"Stone, this is a matter of life and death, how could you two keep it from me?"

Zhang Shi knew he had handled the matter poorly, and scratched his head in frustration. Zhao Feng sighed and then asked again.

"Make sure you see it clearly. Don't let it turn out to be a hallucination or a problem with the mirror, and cause another misunderstanding."

Zhang Shi clenched his fist; he hoped everything would turn out as Zhao Feng had said.

Ge Dalong patted the two men on the shoulders.

"Don't think about that now. The most important thing is to find the person and then figure out a way to get them out of here. Several hours have passed since we got into trouble, and everyone has been digging non-stop. If we keep trying, I estimate we'll be back on the surface soon."

After saying that, the three of them diligently became diggers. Although they knew that finding a person in this unknown underground was more difficult than finding a needle in a haystack, they had no choice but to continue.

After an unknown amount of time, Zhao Feng accidentally broke through the hole above with a hoe. He peered out and then excitedly shouted, "Stone, it's light! There's light! We're out!"

Zhang Shi and Ge Dalong, who were working hard in other directions, rushed over upon hearing the news.

Zhao Feng worked hard to enlarge the hole above his head, and sure enough, rays of light shone in, and a cool breeze dissipated the stuffiness in the cave.

"It's air, that's for sure, this is the ground!"

The three widened the opening and then climbed out one by one.

Upon returning to the ground, before the three could even process what they saw, the scene before them left them speechless.

The familiar courtyard wall, the dilapidated dry well, the dark red wooden door, and a gloomy wooden plaque with couplets next to it.

Zhang Shi swallowed hard, feeling both angry and somewhat flustered.

"Damn it, this is really weird. Isn't this Huo Family Village? How did we end up digging here out of nowhere?"

Ge Dalong opened the system and tried to find a way to evacuate, but found that this time the system did not even have an evacuation option, and communication with the outside world was still blocked.

"This is troublesome. There's no way out this time. We need to be more careful."

Zhang Shi nodded, then took out the Soul-Releasing Bell from his backpack.

"Old Deng, come out and see, you're home."

An Ye's golden figure flashed out from the bell. Upon seeing the scene before him, his cheerful expression froze instantly. He then stroked his chin in a gloomy tone and said in a low voice.

“Young man, I’ll stay here quietly in the bell and won’t do you any harm. I can even give you some pointers from time to time. There’s no need to be so heartless.”

Zhang Shi sneered, ignoring his words, and then said in an unquestionable tone.

"You're familiar with this place, so think about whether there are any teleportation portals or spatial nodes or something like that."

Grandpa An frowned, realizing that Zhang Shi was trapped and not deliberately targeting him. He then relaxed and revealed a harmless smile.

"Haha, it was a misunderstanding. Young friend Zhang, what brings you back to Huo Family Village?"

Zhao Feng got angry when he saw Master An's face and retorted fiercely.

“Old Biden, don’t be so smug. If you piss us off, we’ll throw you back into your broken urn and see if you’re still happy then.”

Zhang Shi stopped Zhao Feng, but he was secretly calculating that if they could leave safely, he would have to find an opportunity to abandon Master An and completely eliminate this unstable factor.

Uncle An ignored Zhao Feng and instead answered Zhang Shi's question.

“Young friend Zhang, you’re putting me in a difficult position. If the village really had a similar method of teleportation, we would have all found a way to leave long ago, and things wouldn’t be like this now.”

Zhang Shi knew that it was unlikely that the village had similar methods, but now they didn't even have a system prompt and had no target at all, so they could only bump around like headless flies.

Zhang Shi looked at Ge Dalong and asked.

"Old Ge, what do you say? Should we go back into the village and take another look?"

Ge Dalong had already weighed the matter in his mind and nodded decisively.

“We have no choice but to go into the village to look for clues. Besides, we are much stronger than last time. Even if we encounter Black Tiger and Soul Spirit again, we will be able to fight them. We don’t need to be afraid of them.”

Zhang Shi nodded, then put the bell back into his backpack. Old Man An was skilled in illusion magic; if he did something malicious at a crucial moment, it could put the three of them in danger. Zhang Shi felt more at ease putting him in his system backpack.

The three walked slowly into the village, proceeding cautiously and constantly aware of their surroundings. The village was incredibly eerie, teeming with spirits and zombies, making it dangerous at every turn. Zhang Shi preferred to spend more time there rather than encounter any more ghosts or monsters.

The village remained silent and dilapidated. Following his memory, Zhang Shi headed towards the ancestral hall. The reason was simple: the black tiger in the village was one of the few creatures he could communicate with, and Zhang Shi planned to try his luck there. If negotiations failed, he could always fight and then run away.

On the way, Zhao Feng spoke quietly with Zhang Shige and Dalong.

"I've always had a question. Have you noticed that the earth beasts and black-robed men in the City of Mist are somewhat similar to the Black Tiger, especially their amazing self-healing abilities? They're practically identical. Do you think there's some kind of connection between them?"

In fact, Zhang Shi had noticed it long ago, but he had never had the chance to find out the truth. Now that he had returned here, he had the opportunity to investigate and see what kind of shady dealings were going on between them.

As Zhang Shi approached the ancestral hall, he sniffed out a strong, pungent stench emanating from it.

Zhang Shi's heart tightened, and he quickly quickened his pace. Ge Dalong and Zhao Feng also realized that something was wrong and hurriedly followed.

Zhang Shi pushed open the tightly closed courtyard gate and looked into the courtyard.

It was afternoon, and although Huo Family Village was shrouded in thick fog, it didn't obstruct anyone's view. In the center of the courtyard stood a thick wooden stake, with the village's Black Tiger nailed to it in a "T" shape. Half of its jet-black skin had been peeled off, the other half still attached to the flesh. Below it lay a pool of black liquid, now solidified into a tar-like state. The granulation tissue at its wound was frozen in place, solidified like a sculpture, emitting a strong stench of decay, indicating that Black Tiger had been dead for some time.

Zhang Shi used his Dingzhen tool to confirm that the black tiger was dead. He then went forward to examine it closely and found that all four of the black tiger's legs had been pierced by golden steel needles. No granulation tissue appeared at the pierced sites to repair the wounds, which seemed to have some kind of limiting effect on its self-healing ability. This immediately reminded him of the Holy Silver Crossbow that Wu Qing had taken out. Now that he thought about it, there were also many suspicious points.