The villagers are used to taking a midday nap. When the sun is high in the sky, the whole village falls silent, and even the barking of dogs becomes much less frequent.

Du Jun took Cheng Shuang directly to the ancestral halls he had found. There were only three, and the secrets of the walls of two of them were deciphered and taken away.

After finding the diary, he returned directly to Xiao Zhu Jun's courtyard, just in time.

The little girl sat on her older brother's shoulders, holding a rubbing of the sun and moon grooves, comparing them to the size of the bronze sun and moon hanging above the courtyard gate to see if they were real mechanisms.

Unfortunately, none of these three ancestral halls met the standards.

The last ancestral hall was in the back village, so the two decided to go around to the back of the village to see the stream that runs through the green hills and the village.

Although the stream here is not as clear as it was originally, the scenery is truly beautiful, as if you have entered a fairy tale kingdom. The stream is babbling, the trees are swaying, and even the scattered white flowers on the ground are exceptionally delicate and lovely. You can easily imagine how beautiful this place will be when the flowers are in full bloom in the height of summer.

"Still missing clues." Du Jun wasn't disappointed. He thought carefully, "Shuangshuang, did you say that Xiao Zhu Jun told you about how they retained their memories after the dungeon refreshed?"

“Yes, the bride in the wedding dress once pointed out with her eyes that there was something on the walls on both sides of the ancestral hall, but I didn’t realize it at first.” Cheng Shuang nodded, rubbing her slender fingers in thought. “Wearing this card with the red cloak can increase my approachability, but it can also occasionally attract the BOSS’s attention.”

“I don’t think it’s the card’s influence.” Du Jun pulled her to a spot where the flowers were in full bloom, with a relatively open view around them. “It feels like they’re hoping to find a way to completely break the curse from outsiders.”

Cheng Shuang paused for a moment. Unless they had already found a way to break the curse in reality, their lives in the instance would never change.

"Look how beautifully these flowers are blooming, little brother!" In the dead of winter, apart from a few pine trees frozen gray-green, everything else is bare and leafless. How did these flowers survive?

Du Jun carefully put on gloves for isolation, found a dead branch, and began to squat down to dig up flowers.

He stopped digging halfway through and filled the hole back in, saying, "It's a real flower, it has no roots, it won't live for more than a few days."

If a woman dies without a complete body, then does the so-called "no remains" of a man mean he nourished a flower field?

"One, two, three..." The little girl began to count the number of flowers, and counted again at the end to confirm.

"Eight flowers."

Sixteen so-called players, eight so-called brides in mourning, and eight small flowers with five stems blooming in winter.

This is no coincidence.

"So one of the twins, whose remains were never found, turned into a small white flower, and when it withers, it becomes fertilizer for the next batch of flowers?"

Cheng Shuang heard Du Jun muttering to himself. She followed the boy's gaze and saw the setting sun hanging high on the green hills, its orange rays falling on the white flowers and adding a touch of allure to them.

The little girl paused slightly, took out her notebook, and drew crooked arcs. The eight little flowers seemed to be loosely arranged, but they actually formed a circle. After she finished drawing, she drew a ripple through the center of the circle and put a dot at the two large commas on the left and right.

"Gossip?" Du Jun asked in surprise.

"There are no flowers at the two points." After Cheng Shuang finished speaking, the two immediately split up and ran towards the two eyes of the Bagua.

Cheng Shuang used the ballpoint pen in her hand to dig out a hole about 20 centimeters deep in the drawing, roughly where one of the dots should be.

Du Jun was faster than her; he called out softly, "Xiao He, come here."

Cheng Shuang got up and ran over. At a glance, she saw half a skeleton in the pit. The skeleton was wrapped in a tattered Taoist robe, which was rotten beyond recognition. The soles of the feet and the kneecaps were deeply embedded in the ground by a dagger.

The dagger's outer layer is a strange and mottled rust-red color, indicating that it has been buried in the soil for too long. The non-red metal parts show signs of oxidation.

Du Jun and Cheng Shuang started digging on her side together. They worked quickly and soon dug up the upper body skeleton. It was the same half of a Taoist robe, with daggers piercing through the center of her forehead, chest, and dantian.

Du Jun adjusted his gloves, squatted down, and gently lifted the skull slightly, his movements very gentle to prevent the dagger from falling out.

Cheng Shuang quickly pulled out the gray package that was resting under her head.

The package contained only half a tattered book—'Tianxuan Zhi'.

She carefully opened it and found that it was a book of talismans and formations. She didn't know if it was because the preservation method was not proper or the book itself was very old and worn out, but there were many torn pages, and the formations were even only one chapter.

Without instruction, it's difficult to distinguish the specific uses of talismans, a high-level and mysterious Taoist tradition. However, Cheng Shuang saw two types of talismans that Zhang Bao had taught her.

The principle remains the same despite all the variations. Zhang Bao taught the simplest version. She had only skimmed through a few of the more complex talismans in the "Tianxuan Zhi," all of which evolved from the most basic ones. The young girl planned to explore slowly, and she could always find learning materials to refer to in Uncle Sun's study. When she had mastered them, everyone would have an extra means of survival.

The only formation recorded in the book is the Seven Stars Converging at the Top, where seven daggers, each stained with the blood of the master's closest and dearest loved ones, seal the seven stars to prevent the soul from dissipating. With the nourishment of the silver soul, one day the soul will awaken and seek the body that has already been prepared.

This formation can preserve a person's memories from their previous life but not their skills. The Taoist priest placed this most important secret technique under the corpse.

He believed that anyone who knew the history of the stream would not want to come here, and with the villagers' help, the secret was not well kept.

Of course, it could also be a watery area by a stream, where there are always times of drought and flood, and the surrounding soil changes over time.

The highlands become valleys, and the valleys rise above the ground.

Cheng Shuang didn't intend to delve into the story and carefully put away the tattered copy. Turning around, she noticed Du Jun holding the gray cloth covering the scroll, examining it closely.

“There are words on this cloth!” Du Jun stared intently at the gray cloth.

Cheng Shuang looked down and immediately pursed her lips. It turned out that Zhu Jun was the vessel prepared to hold the Taoist's soul as he returned to the mortal world.

The question of whether they match or not is secondary; with so many options, surely one of them will suit you!

The little girl was embarrassed.

No wonder the Zhu Juns are all so clueless; their cultivation methods are probably a way to slowly weaken the original soul.

Perhaps having them personally select one of the twins whose life needs to be sacrificed is also a way to wear down their souls.

When they lose all compassion for humanity, lose the most basic human emotions of joy and sorrow, and become mere puppets with empty shells, do they become the most qualified vessels?

Du Jun had already heard what Xiao Zhu Jun and the others had said and done from Cheng Shuang. He couldn't say he sympathized with them, but he did feel sorry for them.

Being manipulated your whole life is bad enough, but in the end you can't even keep your body.

What difference is there between Zhu Jun and the twins who were chosen by the curse?

The sins of the ancestors must be borne by the descendants generation after generation, and this leads to more killings. Fengluanshan Village went astray from the very beginning and could not be undone.