I walked over and looked at those orbs of light with great interest.

Upon closer inspection, these orbs of light were filled with energy, probably all the energy from the headless owl's body.

I put my hand in, and in the next instant, all that energy surged into my body.

I instinctively tried to drive them away, but to my surprise, I found that these energies did not resist at all.

These energies are very gentle, and they feel to me like they are a natural part of my body.

It took me about fifteen minutes to completely absorb all the energy from the ball of light. The Thunder Strike Sword was probably a little nervous earlier, so it didn't try to take any of it from me.

After cleaning up the scene, I checked on Song Chao's condition again.

Song Chao was scratched by a hand that reached out from underground, but fortunately I dealt with that guy in time, and the wound didn't spread completely.

I took out some medical gauze from my backpack and bandaged Song Chao's wound. After that, we set off.

The courtyard remained remarkably quiet; you could hear a pin drop.

After the silence comes the intermittent, noisy sound of insects and grass.

This mountain village gave me the feeling that the whole village was alive, including every blade of grass, every tree, every flower.

The guide is gone; if we want to get in, we can only rely on our own strength.

I took a deep breath, first asked Luo Tianhe to take out the flashlight, and then opened the booklet myself.

Sure enough, the booklet contained a lot of information, especially a map of the mountain resort, which was already drawn.

Moreover, several black and red dots appeared in front of us.

"Brother Chen, what do these black and red dots represent?"

Old Dao moved closer to me and, seeing the black and red dots on the screen, also expressed his confusion.

These black and red dots are moving rapidly toward us.

As they get closer to us, the size of these black and red dots also increases rapidly.

"Be careful, this courtyard is full of eeriness!"

I stood in front of them, constantly giving them instructions.

We continued walking and soon came face to face with those black and red dots.

Unfortunately, there seemed to be nothing in the entire courtyard, but I could sense something passing by us.

Just then, I used my Heavenly Eye. When I scanned through the Heavenly Eye, I was surprised to find that there were several more figures in the courtyard.

Normally, the Heavenly Eye can only see energy, not real people, but this time I saw people through it.

Each of them is a living, breathing human being, and from any perspective, they are no different from ordinary humans.

When I saw this, I broke out in a cold sweat. Just as I thought, this courtyard was quite complicated.

I shouldn't have rushed in here like that.

"Master, these people are not simple. We'd better be careful!"

After I gripped the Thunderstrike Sword tightly, it transmitted a message to me again. I rolled my eyes and said, "Do you need to tell me that?"

Suddenly my heart started pounding again, and the space around me seemed to freeze, making every movement extremely difficult.

Not only me, but Luo Tianhe and Ji Xinglan are the same.

Only Old Knife Ant and Song Chao seem to have not undergone similar changes.

I quickly tried to communicate with them, but the three of them just looked at each other blankly, not knowing what had happened either.

They just felt that the few of us had become very strange.

Suddenly I realized the reason: it was those pieces of iron in our hands.

After I said it, Lao Dao tossed me the piece of iron he was holding without saying a word, and Ant did the same.

I clenched the metal sheet in my hand and then took a step back.

I quietly poured the energy I had just obtained from the owl into the iron plate.

At the very moment of injection, the surrounding light and shadow changed, and the hidden figures emerged one by one.

"You must be Master Chen. We've been waiting for you for a long time!"

The six people shown were exactly the same as the black dots on the booklet to prevent the number from being identical.

The three people are wearing black cloaks, which should correspond to three black dots, while the three people are wearing red cloaks, which should correspond to three red dots.

"I never imagined that the master could reach the village without a guide!"

The middle-aged man in the black cloak who was leading the group walked up to me and gave me a smile that seemed fairly warm.

He bowed to me to express his politeness, and then said those rather strange things again.

After hearing this, I slightly raised my eyebrows.

"A guide? Didn't you already send him out? His name is Huang Yiyi!"

I found a loophole in the middle-aged man's words.

The middle-aged man said we came up here without a guide, but the problem is that we clearly had a guide when we came up.

"What? Huang Yiyi? Master Chen, you must be joking. You were invited by Huang Yiyi!"

The middle-aged man was taken aback for a moment, then quickly replied to me.

I was even more confused after hearing that!

Wasn't I invited by Sister Huang? But suddenly I seemed to realize something. Could it be that Sister Huang's name is Huang Yiyi?

I turned around and debated with Song Chao for a while. Song Chao looked at me with a wronged expression and said that he didn't know the shop owner's name, only that her surname was Huang.

I gave a wry smile, feeling somewhat helpless. It was all my fault; I hadn't properly asked for the person's name before coming to help them, which led to this blunder.

So I briefly told this middle-aged man what I had seen and heard on the way.

This includes Huang Yiyi, whom we encountered, as well as the headless owls we met.

The middle-aged man's expression grew increasingly serious as he listened, and he almost exploded with anger.

"You mean! You encountered a corpse-guarding bird on the way here?"

The middle-aged man touched his neck and swallowed hard; I could tell he was terrified of the thing.

"Yeah, it took several of us holding hands to get up here, it was terrifying!"

Old Dao stepped forward, still a little shaken as he recounted the story.

The middle-aged man's eyes kept rolling around, like bearings spinning.

Their appearance and expressions were completely unlike those of normal people, and I also noticed that their joint movements were very abnormal.

"Oh right, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Huang Hao, and I'm your guide!"

Huang Hao bowed to me, a gesture more akin to Western etiquette. After doing so, his eyeballs practically popped out.