"Didn't Wang Fugui and the others go back?"

Li Huai asked, his voice trembling.

"Heh, go back. That's their way of doing things," Uncle Seven sneered.

"Stop having those unrealistic fantasies! Even during the day it's not safe! The whole village is now a giant cage!"

I felt a chill run down my spine. We were like insects caught in a spider's web, and no matter how much we struggled, we probably couldn't escape the fate of being swallowed up.

"Seventh Uncle, what should we do now? We can't just sit here and wait to die!"

Luo Tianhe gritted his teeth and said unwillingly.

Uncle Qi was silent for a moment, his gaze slowly sweeping over us, finally landing on me with a somewhat complicated expression.

“I’ve never seen anything like this in the village before. If it were just about refining souls, it wouldn’t be this exaggerated. Are you carrying something you shouldn’t be carrying?”

"Something I shouldn't have brought?" I was taken aback.

"Is it these Five Emperors' Coins, or cinnabar?"

Luo Tianhe subconsciously reached for the talismans in his arms, since in his opinion, these were the only things that ghosts feared.

"No, not those things. I have plenty of those things here. If it were, they would have been after me long ago!"

Uncle Qi waved his hand impatiently, as if shooing away flies, and then continued speaking to me.

"Is it something else? Did you touch the soil on the grave, or did you steal the offerings from the ancestral hall?"

We looked at each other, not knowing what he was talking about.

What kind of joke is this old man making?

Who would steal the offerings?!

I stared at him for a long time and realized that he wasn't joking at all, so I immediately blushed.

"Seventh Uncle, how could we possibly steal the offerings? I am a cobbler, and I hold the deceased in high esteem. We would never do something like what you described!"

"That's right, all we did was hide and run; we didn't dare touch anything else."

Li Huai also felt that the old man had wronged them for no reason, and cried out in grievance.

Uncle Qi looked us over suspiciously, his nose twitching as if he were sniffing something.

I stared at him with some suspicion. Why was Uncle Seven acting so strangely today?

"That's really strange. It clearly has a marked smell. But never mind, it's a bit late to talk about this now."

mark?

I couldn't help but feel doubtful.

Suddenly, a bold idea popped into my head, and I immediately realized that it might be the truth!

That is, the person who was marked was actually Li Huai!

His destiny is somewhat special, similar to Bai Yang's.

And Chen Hua, who risked everything to attack Bai Yang in the city, could it be that the Blood Elves they were refining desperately needed people with the destiny of Li Huai and Bai Yang?

If that's the case, then it's normal for Li Huai to be marked.

I stroked my chin, still deep in thought.

However, I did not tell my seventh uncle about my thoughts.

Firstly, this matter is somewhat complicated and troublesome to explain, and I'm too lazy to waste my breath on it.

Secondly, I don't completely trust Seventh Uncle. If Master Zhang Qingxiao were here, I would definitely tell him the truth.

Uncle Qi didn't dwell on it anymore and peeked through the window crack for a while longer.

Then he shrank back, lowering his voice mysteriously:

"The old locust tree area is eerily gloomy. I bet they're all lying in wait there. Going back would be like jumping into a fire pit."

"Seventh Uncle, you must have a way! Just tell us where to go! We can't just wait here to die!"

Luo Tianhe finally caught his breath and asked.

I looked at Uncle Qi. He had actually pulled the three of us into this house. He must have wanted to help us solve the problem, otherwise there would have been no need for him to go to such lengths.

Instead of answering directly, Uncle Qi walked quickly to the corner of the room, where some rotten firewood and broken pottery jars were piled up.

He was muttering to himself at a very fast pace, and I couldn't understand what he was saying at all.

He moved with exceptional speed and efficiency, quickly and neatly removing the debris to reveal a dark opening.

Instantly, a smell mixed with musty and earthy odors filled the entire room.

“Look, from here, you can go directly to the cemetery in the west of the village.”

He said in a serious tone:

"That area is a circle of graves, with heavy yin energy that can interfere with their sense of smell. If we're lucky, we should be able to hide until the next sunrise."

A cemetery?

Upon hearing this, our faces turned pale.

"Seventh Uncle, is it safe in that cemetery?"

Luo Tianhe glanced at the dark tunnel, swallowed hard, and asked.

"Safety?"

Seventh Uncle seemed to have heard a joke, and he twitched the corners of his mouth, revealing his somewhat yellowed teeth.

"Heh, there's no safe place in Blackwater Village. But the graveyard is mostly full of mindless ghosts, which is still easier to deal with than these refined blood foes and walking corpses."

We were speechless at what he said.

It's not that feelings are safe there, but rather that the level of danger is lower and it's easier to hide them.

"By the way, Old Chen, he..."

I suddenly thought of Lao Chen. Although I only met him once, I felt that he was exceptionally reliable and didn't like to be a riddle-maker. He just said what he meant.

"Are you still worried about that kid?"

A smile actually appeared in Uncle Qi's cloudy eyes.

"He's shrewd. He's managed to stay true to himself in Blackwater Village for so many years. He's got a lot more tricks up his sleeve than you guys. He might already be waiting for you in the cemetery at the west end of the village."

At this point, Uncle Xi rummaged in his pocket for a while and pulled out a dirty thing wrapped in oilcloth, which he then threw to me.

When I opened the oilcloth, I saw a large piece of multigrain cake inside. I squeezed it, and it was as hard as a brick. I guessed the texture would be similar to that of a compressed biscuit.

In addition, there was a small amount of black powder wrapped in red paper, which had a somewhat pungent smell.

“You haven’t eaten all day, this should last you for a while.”

The old man put his hands behind his back and said confidently.

Upon seeing that thing, Luo Tianhe, Li Huai, and I all showed expressions of gratitude.

This stuff was the real lifesaver, since all three of us were so hungry we were practically vomiting.

"As for the powder, you can use a little when you encounter unclean spirits in the graveyard that are entangled in your feet. It won't be very effective and can only deal with ordinary wandering ghosts. But it can ensure that you can remain silent and not attract the attention of those spirits by drawing talismans or engaging in magical battles."

After finishing his sentence, Uncle Qi ignored our grateful looks, turned around and went back to peer through the window crack, intently watching the outside world.

I carefully put away the hard biscuit and the medicine powder, and whispered to Seventh Uncle's retreating figure:

"Thank you very much, Seventh Uncle. We will definitely repay this kindness if we have the chance!"