Chapter 219: Inhuman (27) (1st update + 2nd update + 0.5 update) [VIP]

Xiao Tang was caught off guard by the slide track, and Xiao Fei and Huang Mao next to him both sprained their waists.

"Uh..." Xiao Fei took a long time to organize his words and said pitifully, "Then... that big monster is You Gaohan. Can't he deal with it by himself? Does he have to let us follow him to slaughter the village together?"

"Look at what nonsense you are talking about, kid," Xiao Tang smiled and pinched Xiao Fei's palm, "Big Monster... No, this respected Big Monster is our teammate now. Since we are a team, we are a family. How can we let our family solve the problem by themselves?"

Xiao Fei: "Ah...? But I think if we leave early, the big ghost will not die. Can't he kill the ghost directly?"

Xiao Tang rolled his eyes: "You are stupid, guess why You Gaohan needs the whole house to burn down before he can leave?"

Xiao Fei opened his eyes blankly: "Why... why?"

Xiao Tang: ...

"That must be because his identity is related to these eight houses," she gritted her teeth and typed a line on her phone, "Don't you think this thing is the same as a seal? Zhoufu Village sealed You Gaohan."

It was not normal for the fire in that house to be so big. The flame was completely columnar, shooting straight up to the sky. This shape of flame is not uncommon. Many gas stoves or windproof lighters are like this.

The fire seemed to be rushing out from the ground impatiently. There must be something under the house that was providing fuel for the flames.

"Rather than saying that the air or solar radiation in this mountain village is much higher than the outside world, it's better to say that the ground temperature in this mountain village is much higher than outside, right?" Xiao Tang squatted down and touched the ground. Even under the shade of the trees, the ground in Zhoufu Village was slightly hot. It was okay to stand on it with shoes on, but once the skin came into direct contact with it, you would still feel the heat.

"Could it be that... besides the sun, the ground is also causing the high temperature?" She looked at everyone.

"It's possible..." Bai Jinshu frowned slightly, "But this doesn't explain why the temperature in the mountain village drops synchronously after the sun sets."

"Charging!" Xiao Tang made a downward gesture. "Assuming that what Fourth Uncle said at the beginning was true, then Zhoufu Village is actually a large-scale charging machine. However, during the manufacturing process, an energy storage gap was artificially created. Therefore, a few years after its completion, this charging machine was actually unable to store energy. The energy it charged was leaked out through this gap, which is Touzhou Village."

It was like a classic math problem, a pool that was draining water and leaking at the same time, except that in Zhoufu Village, the speed of draining and leaking water was the same at the beginning, so they could not store the energy, and all the stored heat went to Touzhou Village.

"Then one day... the other pool that this gap led to suddenly exploded," Bai Jinshu held up his chin. "The leak was effective, but the drain was still draining water, so Zhoufu Village would become hotter and hotter."

"According to this line of thinking..." Bai Jinshu frowned slightly, "The meaning of the eight houses must be related to releasing or storing water. The disaster in Touzhou Village that year was a big fire. These eight houses caught fire one after another, just like the process of the explosion of the Touzhou Village pool that year. After the eight houses were burned down..."

"I'm afraid Zhoufu Village is about to catch fire..." Xiao Tang whispered.

It's like a pool with a safe water level. Eight drainage holes are set up above the safe water level. When the water is full, water is added into it. Then these eight holes will leak water outward from low to high in order of height. When the last drainage hole overflows, the pool will not be far from overflowing.

The villagers may not have known that things would turn out like this, but the success of the ritual must have sent them a wrong signal, that is, what Mr. Huang did was actually using these eight houses to create a new leak to drain the water from the pool that was about to overflow.

"The eight houses are a kind of seal. As the seal is lifted, the sealed You Gaohan will become stronger and stronger, while Xiaochuan will become weaker and weaker. Is it because Xiaochuan is the seal itself?" Bai Jinshu asked tentatively while watching the barrage in the live broadcast.

Many viewers on the barrage were willing to provide information to the anchor, and soon someone came out to answer:

[About the same.]

[All of you are one. If Xiaochuan dies, everyone except You Gaohan will die.]

"If one prospers, all prosper; if one suffers, all suffer?" Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes slightly, "Are all the people in these eight houses one?"

The four people present were all from Yuan Shanming's team. Without the eight people from other teams, everyone spoke more bluntly.

"So if we want to live, we have to protect you, Erge. If Erge dies, everyone will die, but if we die, Erge will not be affected." Xiao Fei scratched his head. "Suppose You Gaohan wants to kill everyone, then he will kill Xiaochuan first, because this is the most efficient way."

Everyone nodded.

Huang Mao was even more direct: "Isn't this Er Si our crystal?"

This is much easier to understand.

"Wait until the eight defense towers and eight houses in front are all burned down, and then the crystal's health will be forced to 1," Xiao Tang put his arm around Huangmao's shoulder. "At the same time, all the monsters will go into berserk mode, so either you leave before the crystal's health returns to 1, or you can only kill all the berserk monsters."

“Kill, kill, kill!” She raised her fist and cast an eager gaze towards the village. “Hey, why don’t we kill some now before the monsters go berserk!”

"Sister Xiao Tang..." Xiao Fei shrank his neck, "Be more normal. I'm scared."

"Tsk..." Xiao Tang rolled his eyes, and Huang Mao answered sincerely, "Then what else can we do? There aren't many capable fighters in the team, and Er Si has been beaten to a pulp. It would be too much to expect Xiao Tang to lead the eleven of us out of the encirclement by herself, right?"

Huang Mao said sincerely: "Isn't there still a big monster?"

"Yes, we also have the extremely respected Great Ghost Talker Ben Tan here," Xiao Tang nodded servilely, looked at Bai Jinshu, and his voice became weaker and weaker, "So your life safety will be handed over to him at that time. I dare not put everyone's life in my hands. I think he is much safer in protecting you than me..."

"Thank you," Bai Jinshu twitched his lips, "I still feel most at ease when my life is in my own hands."

"Let's not talk about this for now." He looked towards the grain field, "The fire seems to be out."

As soon as he said this, the three people under the shade of the tree also looked towards the threshing ground.

Sure enough, the flames that shot up into the sky seemed to have disappeared.

"Let me see," Xiao Tang squinted his eyes and looked towards the village, "Xiao He's fire seems to have gone out..."

The two fires occurred at the same time. The two houses that burned down a few days ago burned all night before they were extinguished. However, this time, the fire in Xiao He's house only burned for a few dozen minutes before it was extinguished. The spontaneously combusting young chicken seemed to have taken away some of the firepower of Xiao He's house.

"What did the gentleman say before..." Xiao Fei thought for a moment, "He seemed to say that he would deal with the chicken after the fire was extinguished."

Among all of them, everyone in Shi Pang's team went to help Xiao He treat his wounds, so only the four of them were left to deal with the chicken.

Everyone looked at each other, then stepped out of the shade of the trees and back into the sun.

"Such a big fire..." Xiao Tang found a longer wooden stick under the tree and muttered, "The chicken has probably turned into charcoal. How can we collect the body? Should we use the colorful paper we bought to wrap up the ashes?"

"Sister Tang, I'll come later!" Xiao Fei said enthusiastically.

"Okay, then you come." Xiao Tang was more than happy to do so.

Several people walked to the edge of the valley, and Bai Jinshu, who was walking in front, stopped and asked, "Hmm?"

"What's wrong?" The people behind him also stopped.

"Gone?" Bai Jinshu looked towards the middle of the field, "It seems that the chicken is missing?"

"Ah? Burned up? Not really?" Xiao Tang took a few steps forward with the stick in his hand. "No, it's only been a short time. It takes at least an hour and a half to burn a person in the high-temperature incinerator at the crematorium. It only took a few dozen minutes to burn up?"

"It doesn't look like it's gone..." Bai Jinshu walked forward a few steps. There was an obvious white mark on the ground in the middle of the field. It should be left by the chicken burning in the flames. "It should have been taken away after the fire was extinguished."

"Took it away? The villagers must have dealt with it." The yellow-haired man answered subconsciously.

"Which villager is willing to deal with this... Look around, there are no people here," Xiao Tang pointed around, "Some of them are going to look for the big monster, some are going to put out the fire, and some are going to look for Mr. Huang. The group of people act as if they don't care about the lives of all the young people participating in the ceremony. How could anyone take the initiative to do the work of the young people?"

That’s true.

"Was it taken away by someone from Shi Pang's team?" Xiao Fei guessed.

"Maybe..." Xiao Tang scratched his head, "Why don't you tell us? If they had dealt with it earlier, why would we have to wait under the tree outside the grain field for the fire to burn out? Wouldn't it be better for us to just go get some sleep in the air-conditioned room?"

"No, let's go find them," Bai Jinshu lowered his eyes and thought for a few seconds, then raised his head and said, "If it was someone from Shi Pang's team who came back, then they would definitely come to find us. When they took Xiao He to treat the wound, it was equivalent to acquiescing that the four of us would handle the chicken. In this case, why didn't they come to tell us when they came back and took the chicken away?"

"Then... someone else took it?" Xiao Fei was surprised. "No way? Aren't the people in this village superstitious? Who would touch this ritual item? And we didn't see anyone go in or out?"

Their shaded area was between the threshing floor and the village, so if anyone passed by carrying something, they would definitely see it.

"Maybe someone disposed of it. What did the gentleman say?" Xiao Tang thought for a moment. "He said to wrap it in colorful paper and throw it into the river, right? Then let's go look for it in the river first. Xiao He and the others are also there treating burns."

Anyway, there is only one river near Zhoufu Village, so it is easy to find.

There was no one around the threshing ground, and they couldn't find anyone to ask. They had been at the pass between the threshing ground and the village, but they didn't see anyone carrying anything out. If someone had taken something to deal with, then the fire had just been extinguished not long ago, and they would definitely meet that person on their way to the river.

It was already around 4 or 5 in the afternoon, and the sun was about to set and the next day would come. As soon as they were told, they headed towards the river. Fuzhou Village itself was located in a valley halfway up the mountain, and the river was outside the valley, which was a little outside the village.

As they reached the river, they heard voices not far away.

The people in Shi Pang's team did not go far, but stayed here to treat Xiao He's wounds.

"I'm going to pick the blister for you, don't move," it was Shi Xiuzhu's voice. "I just borrowed the needle from the village. I burned it with a lighter to disinfect it. There's not much burn ointment in the village, so picking it will heal faster."

It looks like Xiao He's wound hasn't been treated yet.

"Shi Xiuzhu," Xiao Tang stepped forward, "Did anyone of you touch the chicken in the grain field before?"

"What chicken?" Shi Xiuzhu was picking at the blisters on Xiao He's neck with a needle. He was at a loss for a moment when he heard the question. "Didn't you four handle the spontaneously combusting rooster?"

"You didn't take it..." Bai Jinshu raised his eyebrows, "Then who took it? It's impossible that they took it by themselves, right?"

When they left the threshing ground, all the villagers outside the fence had already left. They did not see anyone walking towards the threshing ground from the village, so it could only be that the people in the threshing ground took the chickens and left in other directions.

At that time, in the entire valley, besides them, the only people left were the few peers who were performing the ritual with them...

"They took away the big rivers and small lakes? That makes sense," Xiao Tang glanced at the direction of the river, "We split up into two sides? You go downstream and I go upstream. If they took it away, we would bump into each other right now."

"You certainly didn't see anything coming down the river just now, did you?" she confirmed.

"I really didn't see anything in the river... What's going on?" Shi Xiulan asked, "The fire is out, and the chickens we were supposed to deal with are gone?"

Xiao Fei gave a brief explanation on the side.

"Oh, let's send a few people over here too. It will be easier to find the chicken with more people," Shi Xiuzhu thought for a moment. "Just leave one person behind to help me bandage Xiao He later. The others can go look for the chicken first."

No one else had any objection.

The young chicken in the ritual caught fire in full view of everyone, and the fire grew to more than three meters high. It was a bit too bizarre to say that it ran away after the fire was extinguished, and there were no traces of chicken footprints on the ground, so it must have been taken away by someone during the time when Bai Jinshu and his companions discovered that the fire was extinguished and were walking from the shade of the trees to the grain field.

Since this person didn't bring it into the village, he could only have taken it outside the village.

There is only one river outside Zhoufu Village. If this person thought that Bai Jinshu and the others had left and came to help them out of kindness, then they would eventually meet.

Everyone divided into two teams and searched along the river. The temperature in the forest was a little lower than in the village without any shelter. Although the water was still a little warm under the scorching sun, it was better than nothing.

As everyone walked, they all involuntarily walked from the shore into the water, treading water while looking for the chicken in the direction of the river.

According to Mr. Huang's instructions, after the fire was extinguished, the chicken had to be wrapped in colored paper. The flow of the river was not fast, and if the chicken had not been burned into charcoal or ash and became extremely light, it would most likely not have been swept down by the current, but would have sunk to the bottom.

"Pay attention to places where there are a lot of fish later. That might be where someone threw chickens in." Bai Jinshu reminded as he walked behind.

Ogawa was in poor health. He was originally walking in front, but his physical condition determined that he was destined to walk slowly, and gradually he became the last one in the team.

When walking in the water, you can't see the road conditions clearly under your feet, and you still have to be careful of sharp stones or mud pits. Except for him, the others took turns to explore the way in front. After walking for more than ten minutes, Shi Xiulan, who was leading the way, suddenly sighed.

"Hey," she pointed ahead, "isn't there a person squatting there?"

There was a person squatting by the river in the distance, and he looked like a man.

The man had his back to them, so they couldn't see what he was doing, but they could vaguely see some burn marks on his clothes on his back.

This is because the red cloth became hot and burned the clothes.

"Is this a big river or a small lake?" Xiao Fei scratched his head and shouted in a raised voice, "Big river? Small lake!"

The man didn't respond.

"Didn't you hear it?" Shi Xiulan asked curiously, and she also shouted: "Da Jiang! Xiao Hu!"

If he was here to deal with the chicken, why didn't he just put it down and leave? Why was he squatting there?

This is by the river, so it is unlikely that he had heatstroke. If he had heatstroke, he would not be squatting there, but falling into the water.

“Go and have a look,” one of the three brothers said after two people called out but got no response. “That ritual is so strange… maybe something has happened.”

What he says is what everyone thinks.

Although the distance was not close, it was not so close that I could not hear them talking. There seemed to be something wrong with this person.

Several triggerers spontaneously picked up a few sharp stones from the river beach and approached carefully holding them in their hands.

Bai Jinshu was following at the end. Due to physical strength issues, he was a little behind everyone else, so he just became more vigilant and did not pick up stones from the river.

Walking in the front were the three brothers.

The three of them walked while cautiously shouting: "Da Jiang! Xiao Hu! If you're okay, just say something!"

The figure still didn't move.

The closer they got, the more alert everyone became. When they were only one meter away from him, the three people walking in front suddenly heard a strange sound.

This sound had been covered up by the water flow before, but now that it was close, I could roughly hear it.

Like...

Like the sound of chewing.

The three of them looked at each other, and the brave one of them held the sharp stone in one hand, walked forward carefully with the other hand, and patted him on the shoulder gently.

"Big river... small lake?" He took a few steps back quickly after taking the photo, and then he dared to speak, "What are you doing?"

This time, this person finally took action.

He slowly turned his head, revealing a face covered in charcoal and blood.

Shi Xiulan screamed.

"He, he, he!" She subconsciously stepped back, forgetting that this was a riverbank. She was tripped by a stone behind her and sat directly in the water.

"He ate that chicken!"

The man who turned around had black carbon marks all over his face, bloodstains on the corners of his mouth and chin, and his hands were holding a piece of black charcoal wrapped in paper.

As soon as Shi Xiulan said this, everyone could see clearly that what the man was holding was a chicken.

The chicken was burnt into charcoal.

It can't be called charcoal.

Because everyone saw through the hole he bit in the chicken that only the outer hair and skin of the chicken were burnt into charcoal. The fire that was three meters high for dozens of minutes couldn't even cook it. Looking inside through the carbon shell, the very center part was still raw.

That part of flesh was oozing with blood as he tore it off with his teeth. Blood splattered everywhere, splashing onto his face and clothes.

Everyone was stunned.

For a moment, countless complicated thoughts went back and forth in everyone's mind. No one expected that the chicken had been burned in a fire more than three meters high for dozens of minutes, but suddenly it was still raw inside. And just when Bai Jinshu and others were about to deal with it, someone actually ate it.

And this person...

Shi Xiuzhu's voice asked the question on everyone's mind: "Who... who is this person?"

This doesn’t look like a big river or a small lake!

"This is... the sea." Bai Jinshu frowned.

On the first day of this strange story, it was this person who went to the field with him.

Dahai's presence was not strong. When the red cloth suddenly became hot, he did not make any other moves. This is why Shi Xiulan and the others had no impression of this person.

only……

Why did the sea become like this?

Seeing that there were people behind him, Dahai was not surprised or frightened at all. Instead, he picked up the chicken again, twisted half of his body, and took another bite in front of everyone.

Now I can see more clearly and hear more clearly.

There was the tearing sound when his teeth touched the raw meat, the sound of the blood and water in the raw meat being squeezed out, the "crackling" sound when the outer carbon shell was pressed hard by him, and an extremely obvious swallowing sound.

"Gulp."

The sea stared at them and then gnawed at the chicken.

The three people in the front shuddered: "What...what should we do?"

They didn't expect this to happen before they came!

Everyone thought that the chicken had been burned to charcoal and ashes, and floated down the river and could not be found, but they did not expect that it would be taken away and eaten raw by someone.

"Don't look at it, go first," Bai Jinshu lowered his voice, "Back off little by little, back off slowly, don't turn your back to him."

Something is wrong with the ocean.

Regardless of whether something went wrong and turned out like this, or whether this result was caused by Xiao Tang giving Mr. Huang wrong information, in this situation, it would be best to pretend nothing happened and leave quickly.

Otherwise, no one knows what the sea will become. He can eat chicken alive now, but what’s the next step? Should he catch a person and eat him alive?

Dahai held the chicken in his hand and stared at everyone while biting it. The three brothers walking in the front were regretting it so much that their intestines turned green.

The people behind could still avoid the sight of the sea, but the three of them were facing the sea directly, and they had to endure the mental pressure of being suddenly attacked and killed by him in the next second.

The crowd retreated little by little. After they had retreated several dozen meters, the sound of the flowing water covered up the increasingly louder and more violent chewing sound of the sea.

But he still stared at everyone.

Xiao Fei swallowed hard: "Er Ge...can you run?"

We are so far away now, he won’t be able to catch up even if he runs, right?

"Run." Bai Jinshu shouted in a low voice.

As soon as the voice came out, the people in front turned around quickly and rushed forward.

Xiao Fei is a boy who still has a conscience. Even though he was so scared, he still cared about Bai Jinshu's weak body and lack of strength, so he said in a trembling voice that he wanted to stay and accompany him.

"No need..." Bai Jinshu narrowed his eyes and observed the sea several dozen meters away, "He shouldn't... catch up with us."

Although it won't catch up, the chicken was not properly handled and was eaten by someone instead. No one knows what consequences this will cause.

This ritual went wrong from the very beginning, with errors in its positioning, and then there were loopholes in the subsequent handling. Can it still be called a smooth process?

The sun in the sky has slowly begun to set.

No one got any rest time from morning to night today, and I'm afraid tomorrow will be difficult.

Xiao He had already treated his wounds by the river. When he heard the three brothers vividly describing their discoveries downstream, he was so scared that his face turned pale and he hurriedly urged everyone to go back quickly.

Something must have gone wrong with the ritual now. The sun is about to set and no one knows what chain reaction will occur tomorrow. Take some time to rest if you can.

Everyone agrees with this statement.

It's the chicken and the sea...

Shi Xiulan was silent for a moment: "Mr. Huang is definitely not on the side of Zhoufu Village. He came here to open other seals for You Gaohan. Do we still need to tell him about the chicken?"

No one knows whether he had anticipated the emergence of this situation, or whether telling him about it would only lead to bigger problems.

"Let's not talk about it," Bai Jinshu pondered for a moment, "There were loopholes in this ritual from the beginning, and it was doomed to fail at the end. If I don't tell him, he will just follow the normal process of the ritual, but if I tell him, he might end up causing more trouble if he tries to remedy the situation."

What he said made sense, Shi Xiulan nodded: "Then let's...wait a moment."

She stopped and asked: "What is that sound?"

There were strange noises coming from the village.

Moreover, the sound came one after another, as if there were many sources.

And the sound sounded very strange, it seemed to be a "ho ho" sound.

"What is this?" After what happened in the ocean, everyone was a little nervous.

"The sound of sharpening a knife!" Bai Jinshu and Xiao Tang said in unison.

"This is the sound of a grindstone sharpening a knife," Xiao Tang's expression suddenly changed. "The sound is usually not loud, but it can be heard here, and at this scale. Could it be that the whole village is sharpening knives?!"

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's hair stood on end.

"The knife I received during the ritual this afternoon was already sharpened..." Bai Jinshu looked towards the village, "Everyone in the village is sharpening their knives."

"What do they want to do?" Xiao Tang was alerted instantly, "We need more knives for tomorrow's ritual?!"

"I don't know... but..." Bai Jinshu was silent for a moment, looking at the setting sun in the sky, "But I suggest that you don't rest. The whole village is sharpening knives. This is too wrong. We'd better sharpen a knife before the dark curtain comes. Just in case."

Too many things happened today. If they don’t rest now, their bodies will definitely not be able to hold on by the afternoon tomorrow.

But if they take a rest now without sharpening their knives, they will be in danger as soon as the darkness passes by tomorrow afternoon.

Everyone will still choose this simple choice. No one dares to delay any longer and has to go home to sharpen their knives.

The whole village was eerily quiet except for the "whooshing" sound.

Everyone I saw was sitting in front of the door with a kitchen knife, sharpening the knife carefully and attentively.

The kitchen knives flashed cold light in their hands.

Everyone was very serious and focused, no one paid any attention to the triggerers walking on the road. Everyone stared at the knives of their hands, one, two, three times.

Even Bai Jinshu, the Xiaochuan who was abnormally popular among the crowd, did not attract their attention.

It seems that the only thing in their eyes is this knife, a kitchen knife that is getting sharper and more intimidating.

Xiao Fei shuddered.

This village seems to have changed since Mr. Huang came.

The author has something to say:

I have never sharpened a knife, but the poem "Sharpening the knife towards pigs and sheep" should indicate that the sound of sharpening a knife is this onomatopeia (scratching my head)

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