The six people regrouped, packed plenty of food and water, and returned to the foot of Cangyun Mountain.
It was exactly noon, and the sun was warm, making everyone feel hot all over.
At the foot of Cangyun Mountain, the faint red light barrier remained in place. It looked much the same as it had two days ago, and when touched, it was still incredibly resilient.
"Nine Refinements Jade Sky Tower, Offering Sacrifice—"
A small, golden pagoda flew out from between Yue Qi's eyebrows, its tip striking the red light shield precisely, creating a small hole.
"Run!"
Yue Qi was the first to run inside, followed by the others one after another.
The moment she entered, Wen Jiajia immediately uttered a phrase from the national quintessence of Chinese culture.
"Damn it, here we go again!"
The faint, distant children's voices rang out once more, still that same chilling lullaby that sent shivers down their spines—
"Sing a folk song to awaken the spirit of the cave."
Do you have a spirit or not?
A spirit will be with you.
The spirits, having departed, each turned back on their journey.
Turning around to look at the others, I saw that they were all in similar condition, their faces turning pale as if by unspoken agreement.
Wen Jiajia didn't know why, but she always felt uncontrollably irritated whenever she heard this folk song. So she repeatedly urged Yue Qi...
"Hey Yue, aren't you a top talent in the Xuanmen sect? Do you have any way to stop this damned song from following us?"
Yue Qi rolled his eyes at her, reached out and pulled out a stack of yellow talismans, giving two to each of them.
"This is a new isolation talisman I made yesterday. Just put it in your ear."
As if they had met a savior, everyone eagerly clutched the talisman and stuffed it into their ears.
"Hey, he really can't hear anymore!" Guo Hu gave him a thumbs up with a look of surprise and praised, "Yue Qi is really reliable!"
The remaining people nodded in agreement.
At this moment, a discordant voice rang out; Su Su quietly voiced her objection.
"Brother Yue, I... I tried stuffing it in, but it's not working!"
Sun Ning was right next to her, and moved closer to her. "Let me see—it's true, this shouldn't be happening. Why don't you try two different ones?"
He handed over two more talismans, intending to personally place them for Su Su.
Just then, Wen Jiajia's dejected voice came from not far away; seven or eight talismans were already scattered at her feet.
"It's no use, I've tried it, this talisman doesn't seem to have any effect. —Hey Yue, did you cut corners?"
Yue Qi also thought it was unlikely, so he picked up the two talismans that she had thrown away from the ground and stuffed them into his ears.
"Isn't this great? There's nothing wrong with it!"
At this point, Sun Ning also tried it himself and finally had to admit that Yue Qi's talisman paper seemed to only work on boys, and was useless on girls.
Faced with everyone's questions, Yue Qi was also a little confused, "My talismans do not restrict girls from using them."
Suddenly, he remembered the nursery rhyme, so he quickly called out to everyone.
"Everyone, hold on a second, listen carefully, isn't this singing voice a woman's voice?"
Because of his immense prestige, no one doubted him; they all took off their talismans and began to listen carefully.
A few minutes later.
“It really does seem to be a woman!” Guo Hu was the first to speak.
"Wait, why does this sound neither male nor female to me?" This is Su Su.
"No, it's clearly a little boy's voice, isn't it?" This is Yan Che.
However, others were less certain; the singing voice could only be identified as a child's. Children's voices are the most difficult to distinguish, as the differences between boys' and girls' voices are not significant before puberty.
Many boys can sing even more melodiously and beautifully than girls.
Therefore, everyone was indeed unable to make a decision immediately.
However, this voice seemed to favor girls. They tried several methods, from physical soundproofing to mystical approaches, but ultimately had to admit that girls simply couldn't block out the singing.
“In that case—” Yue Qi thought of another possibility, “The singing couldn’t have been like this for no reason. This at least proves one thing: the girl must have played an unexpected role. So, Wen Jiajia, listen carefully, and if the singing changes, let us know immediately.”
Wen Jiajia protested, "Why me? Isn't Su Su a girl too?"
Yue Qi rolled his eyes at her, then insincerely praised her, "Because you're quite capable."
"That's more like it." Miss Wen was finally satisfied.
After that was settled, everyone continued their ascent up the mountain.
Whether it was his imagination or not, Yue Qi felt that the mountain didn't seem as vibrant as it had been a couple of days ago.
This should be the peak growing season for plants, right? Why does it look like all the grass along the way looks listless?
Apart from that, the entire mountain was as silent as a graveyard. Not a single animal or wild beast could be heard.
The group walked to a spot not far from the dense forest covered with vines, and Yue Qi finally reacted.
"stop--"
Directly in front of him, at the entrance to the dense forest, the ground was covered with countless animal carcasses.
There were common wild rabbits and wild dogs, as well as huge wild boars and deer. In the middle, he even saw a huge South China tiger, which is an endangered national treasure-level wild animal! Now they were all dead, lying haphazardly on the ground, looking particularly shocking.
These corpses all had one thing in common: they had been brutally dismembered by an unknown creature. The group observed for a long time but couldn't find a single intact body.
Su Su covered her mouth, desperately trying to control her urge to vomit, and asked with lingering fear,
"Could it be that some of those man-eating vines in this forest are still alive?"
Her words were immediately met with opposition from Sun Ning, who had been observing the overall environment. He stated with absolute certainty,
"Absolutely impossible. The vines here should be dead beyond any doubt. Besides, look at these animal carcasses; they don't look like they were killed by the vines—"
He pointed to a shriveled, withered animal carcass under a large tree and said,
"Look, this is how vines kill. After killing an animal, the vines will suck all the flesh and blood from its body, leaving only a dry skin. But the animals on the ground now are clearly different."
“That’s right.” Yue Qi agreed. “Judging from the way those animals died, it seems they had fought with something. Look, these animal carcasses seem to have been cut by some sharp tool.”
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