Chapter 204
The village where the second password point appeared was actually not very big, and each household was scattered far apart.
But without exception, they all live around rivers and obviously make a living by fishing.
Although Yitu and his companions had no idea what had happened here, they could still imagine the horrific scene.
The old woman who asked them to kill the fish lived at the easternmost end of the village. Two hundred meters west of the old woman's house, there was a strange willow tree with an extremely terrifying shape.
Its branches and leaves have long since withered and fallen, leaving only sparse twigs reflecting the dilapidated houses not far away, presenting a particularly depressing picture.
Besides being oppressive, this strange willow tree also makes people feel more of the breath of death.
The dark brown trunks, cracked bark, and long white strips of bark hanging from the branches all make people feel creepy.
Looking closely at the flower umbrella, I found that the white, nearly transparent skin-like substance was very long and large, with a certain degree of ductility and toughness.
If you take it down and spread it out carefully on the ground, it's not hard to see that it's actually the shape of a person.
However, these horrifying-looking human skins actually covered the entire willow tree, forming an extremely strange yet unusually harmonious picture of human skin willows.
They hung down gently along the branches, and the human skin on their limbs fluttered in the wind, like white willow branches.
From a distance, the willow tree seemed to come back to life.
“So fishy.”
Xu Heng stopped five meters away and did not come any closer.
However, the strong fishy smell was so strong that it could almost drown people.
Yitu nodded, covered his nose and said, "This willow tree is not a poplar."
Upon hearing this, Huasan turned around and looked at him, and they both thought of the same thing.
Most willow trees are shrubs and are usually planted near rivers.
It just so happened that there was a wide river not far from this place, which was suitable for its growth.
It is obvious that this almost withered willow tree was transplanted into the village artificially.
As for the reason why that person did this, as well as the strange things such as the inexplicable appearance of human skin and fishy smell on the willow tree, Yitu and the others are still unable to find out.
After passing this strange willow tree, there are several old houses not far away.
Without exception, the gates of every house are open to the outside.
It seemed as if their owner had just left for a short while due to an urgent matter and forgot to close the door.
The layouts of each house in these empty houses are different, but without exception, there is a disgusting fishy smell in every house.
The fishy and rotten smell almost condensed in the room, attracting more and more disgusting green-headed flies.
Black spots the size of half a fingernail are lying on the bed, walls, tables and chairs.
The food was rotting on the table, and in the large bowl of white porridge were rice-sized larvae, wriggling and twisting back and forth. They were thick and plump, and looked like a patch of white at a glance.
Xu Heng ran out the door and vomited bile. Even Yi Tu, who was used to seeing this, turned pale. He held on for three minutes and had to go out to take a breath.
Only Huasan seemed to have lost his sense of smell. He stayed in the house for a full fifteen minutes before coming out with a grim face.
The first thing he said was, "Smell me, am I smelling?"
Yitu was amused by him. Xu Heng leaned forward to smell it, then immediately distanced himself and said sincerely:
"Brother, this is no longer just a matter of being stained with flavor, it's been marinated into the flavor."
Upon hearing this, Huasan's face darkened even more. He resisted the urge to take off his clothes and looked at Yitu and said:
"There was a lot of dried brown mucus on the floor and walls of the house, as well as claw marks that looked like webbed toes, but these were not important..."
At this point, Huasan paused, "The important thing is that they seem to have undergone a serious molting."
A trace of surprise flashed across Xu Heng's face. "Shedding skin? What does that mean?"
Huasan shook his head without explaining, but pointed to the room on the far left with a very subtle expression.
"That should be the master bedroom of this family. The mattress and the floor are scattered with pieces of long, thin fish scales. They are blue-gray and very fishy."
The roots of each fish scale were stained with a little scarlet, most likely blood from being pulled out of the body by humans.
At first, these fish scales were small and round, the largest was only half the size of a fingernail, and had a soft texture.
Rather than scales, it is more like a newly grown alternative skin, densely attached to the human epidermis, and can be removed with a gentle rub.
As time goes by, these scales become denser and harder.
As a result, the body's original defense mechanism almost collapses completely, which is what Huasan calls shedding.
The blue-gray, slender scales slowly push out from the inside to the outside, forcing the epidermis to peel off until it is completely covered with fine scales.
In order to verify Huasan's guess, the three of them went in again, not intending to miss any details.
It turns out that the idea of the flower umbrella is very likely true.
Most of these disappeared villagers really turned into unknown creatures in the river, and no one knew who collected their shed skins and hung them on the strange willow tree.
"Could the killing of fish that the old woman was talking about refer to the mutated villagers?" Xu Heng frowned and guessed.
Yitu shook his head and sighed softly:
"I'm afraid it's not that simple."
So far, the amount of information they have obtained from the second code point is too little compared to the first.
The guiding NPC is reluctant to guide the plot, so the players can only fall into passive anxiety.
The three of them carefully checked most of the village, and the conditions of every household were almost the same, and there were no more clues.
At this moment, the sunless sky darkened inexplicably, and a cold wind blew, making the already lingering feeling of chill even stronger.
Yitu and his companions did not dare to stay any longer. Firstly, there was something wrong with the flow of time in this card game, and secondly, the old woman's warning could not have been unfounded.
When the three of them returned to the house, the old woman was already waiting at the door.
"Have you entered the village?" she asked, her tone very certain.
Xu Heng and Yi Tu looked at each other and laughed awkwardly:
"We didn't have anything to do, so we went to the back and wandered around."
"Grandma, why is the whole village empty? Where did all the villagers go?"
As soon as he asked this question, Yitu and Huasan looked at the old woman together, hoping to get some useful information from her.
However, to their disappointment, the old woman did not answer Xu Heng's question, but said in a somewhat heavy tone:
"Don't waste time, you're back too late."
After she said this, she turned and went into the house. Seeing this, the three of them had no choice but to follow her.
There were some subtle changes in the house compared to what they had first seen.
Not only were all the previously closed doors opened, but in every dark room, one could vaguely glimpse a tall and thin shadow hanging in the air. At first glance, it was extremely terrifying.
After looking carefully, I found that it was not a real dead person or a ghost, but a slightly crudely made rag doll.
I don't know what's wrapped in their heads, which appear small and round, wet and oozing dark liquid, which looks especially like their tear marks.
The long cloth that serves as their body is more than one meter long and is only five or six centimeters away from the ground. The overall appearance is very much like a person being hanged alive.
But in fact, these rag dolls have nothing to do with hanged men. They are hung in the air with their heads hooked by long curved hooks tied to ropes.
Most of the curved hook was covered by the rag doll's head, with only a small part of the sharp spike exposed.
Yitu looked at it for a long time before looking away.
The house was eerily quiet, no one spoke, a cold wind blew through the hall, blowing rag dolls and making ghostly shadows appear.
It was at this time that Yitu discovered that the old woman had actually put away all the lighting tools in the house.
The kerosene lamp on the table disappeared, and the candle on the windowsill also went out. They could only see a vague outline of each other in the darkness.
"Mother-in-law, what are you going to do?" Xu Heng couldn't help but ask.
The old woman glanced at him and then spoke:
"Kill fish. The only thing you have to do tonight is kill fish."
After saying this, she stretched out her wrinkled hand and pointed at the rag dolls in the room:
"The hooks are ready for you. There cannot be any light in the house, not even a little bit."
Perhaps it was because Guangliang's message was too important, the old woman repeated it twice to them, then said seriously:
"You cannot see the faces of those things, you cannot look them in the eye, and you cannot respond to their calls."
"The only thing you can do is stay quietly in your room, don't make any noise, and don't try to close the door!"
At this point, the old woman raised her voice:
"If... I mean if they come into the room you're in, hold your breath. Hold your breath until they leave."
Huasan frowned and asked:
"What if they don't leave?"
You should know that a normal person can only hold their breath for about two minutes, and even professionally trained athletes can only hold their breath for five or six minutes at most.
It was impossible for them to hold their breath without the help of any props and when those things lingered and refused to leave.
The old woman glanced at him, a slightly complicated look flashing across her face.
"You will die." The old woman paused for a moment, then said:
"Anyone who is discovered by them will die."
Hearing this, Yitu couldn't help but ask:
"Grandma, what exactly do you mean by 'them'?"
The old woman was about to answer him when she suddenly heard a child's weak sobbing sound from the inner room. It sounded like a cat's meow, soft and powerless.
The old woman who heard the voice hurried to the door, then remembered that she had not answered Yi Tu's question yet, so she stopped and uttered a name without looking back.
"Shark fish."
The author has something to say:
I write slowly, so I'll post it first. You guys should stock up as much as you can (cover your face)
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