The Punished One
After about an hour of walking, fog started to set in. The mountains were covered in thick fog, and the air was filled with thick moisture, making the road increasingly difficult to walk on.
"It's so foggy. I've noticed you're a bad-mouthed person. Whatever you say comes true." Qiu Zimu patted Ye Jing'an. "Last time you said you'd go to jail, you really did."
"Tsk, can you speak? I'm smart!" Ye Jing'an said.
Liu Muzhe raised his eyebrows and looked at him. He really didn't realize that this kid had any talent, but he did have a bad mouth.
"This road is too difficult to walk on. Fortunately, my shoes are non-slip, otherwise my butt would be bruised." Ye Jing'an had not seen the so-called village yet, and he was getting a little impatient and chatted with them intermittently.
"Hey!" Qiu Zimu slipped and fell backwards on the mossy ground, kicking Ye Jingan on the butt.
Liu Muze and Ye Jing'an were not far apart, and they fell to the ground together. It happened so suddenly that Ye Jing'an froze, and kept saying sorry.
"Get up!" Liu Muzhe stood up and frowned as he looked at the mud on his clothes that couldn't be wiped off.
Brother Liu's white clothes exploded as soon as they got dirty. Ye Jing'an now had only two words in his mind: It's over!
Qiu Zimu stammered and apologized, but Liu Muzhe said nothing and continued walking forward, moving a little further away from them.
Ye Jingan followed and asked, "Brother Liu, are you angry?"
Liu Muze: "No."
"You're afraid of getting dirty, yet you still wear white clothes." Ye Jing'an asked again, "Is it because of him?"
"Are you done yet? What does he have to do with you? You've been asking this for several days!" Liu Muzhe said in an unhappy tone.
"You have a relationship with me, of course he has one too." Ye Jing'an said stubbornly in a low voice.
Liu Muze glared at him and walked forward quickly. The road behind was even steeper and more slippery. Apart from Liu Muze, the others fell several times in a row. They probably needed to change their clothes and pants.
After stumbling around for an hour, a cliff appeared before them. A narrow path slid down the center, wide enough for only one person to pass through. If one wasn't careful, they'd fall off the cliff. The ground was rubble-filled, and small stones kept falling down the cliff, making a crashing sound.
Lu Yu told everyone that after walking this distance, the village would be at the bottom.
Below the cliff was an abyss shrouded in fog, and the village could not be seen at all.
"Is this road really passable?" Qiu Zimu stopped, his shoes slipping, and he was not very willing to go this way. If he accidentally slipped, he would go straight to the underworld.
"This section of the road is not slippery. Just walk carefully and don't step on the gravel and you'll be fine." Lu Yu said.
Several people held onto the rock wall and moved forward carefully on this path. Liu Muze walked between Qiu Zimu and Ye Jingan to keep an eye on them and make sure they didn't slip.
"No wonder we chose to take shelter here, it's so suitable." Ye Jing'an was glad that he didn't have acrophobia, otherwise he really wouldn't be able to walk this road.
Not daring to joke with their lives, they stared at the ground, stepping firmly on the ground with every step, without slipping.
"We finally got through it." Qiu Zimu and Ye Jing'an sighed.
The dilapidated village appeared not far away, looming in the fog, and looked a bit weird from a distance.
The wooden door, battered by rain for so long, had become rotten and dilapidated, creaking when opened. Entering the room, the furniture and household items were still there, covered in a thick layer of dust. Due to the damp environment, mushrooms and mold had grown on the floor and the quilt, creating a rather pungent smell.
"Brother Liu, there seems to be no clues here." Ye Jing'an looked around all the houses. All the bones had been taken away, leaving only dilapidated furniture.
"Well, keep going." Liu Muzhe said lightly.
"Officer Lu, where is the approximate location where they disappeared?" Ye Jingan was a little tired from walking, mainly because his butt hurt from slipping and falling.
"I don't know, otherwise we would have gone to search and rescue a long time ago," said Lu Yu.
“…”
After passing Misty Village, the fog thickened, reducing visibility to less than five meters. Even the smallest slope made him slippery, and Qiu Zimu fell to the ground again, crying, "I can't take it anymore! My butt hurts so much! If I fall any further, I'll be crippled!"
"Brother Liu, I can't stand this road either." Ye Jing'an helped Qiu Zimu up.
"You go to Misty Village to rest, I'll go look for it." Liu Muzhe handed Ye Jing'an several talismans.
"I can't let you go alone!" Ye Jing'an said firmly.
Liu Muzhe talked for a long time and made various guarantees before Ye Jingan reluctantly agreed to let him go.
"Why hasn't Brother Liu come back yet?" Ye Jing'an glanced at the timer. An hour and a half had already passed. He had almost rested his feet and planned to look for clues in the Misty Village.
"This thing is interesting. Why didn't I see it just now?" Ye Jing'an picked up the ghost-faced Bodhi tree hanging on the window and examined it carefully. He had one at home, but it looked a little different from these ghost-faced Bodhi trees. Almost every window in this family had a ghost-faced Bodhi tree hanging on it.
Ye Jingan felt strange. Why was it hung on the window? He raised his head and glanced out the window, wondering if it was related to the cause of their death.
Suddenly, he saw a man standing by a tree in the distance. He was wearing black clothes and was facing him. Although he couldn't see his eyes, Ye Jing'an felt that the man in black was staring at him. What Officer Lu had said that morning popped into his mind.
Ye Jing'an ran out, but in less than ten seconds from the time he ran from the window to the door, the man in black disappeared.
Ye Jingan ran to find Lu Yu: "Officer Lu! I saw the man in black you mentioned, but he ran away."
"Where?" Lu Yu asked.
Ye Jingan brought him to the place where he had just seen the man in black. Lu Yu scanned the area around the tree with the telescope but couldn't find the man in black. The three of them discussed and decided to go look for him.
"No, the grass on the ground has not been trampled. Did you see it wrong?" Qiu Zimu questioned.
"Maybe." He just caught a glimpse of it by chance. It was far away and there was heavy fog, so it was very likely that he was seeing things wrong.
As they walked back, Ye Jingan felt like he was being watched, perhaps because it was a psychological effect. He glanced back, but there was no one there. He unconsciously glanced up, took a few steps back, and shouted, "Fuck! He's up there!"
The man in black stood in the tree, grinning sinisterly at him. His cloak hid his eyes, and only his pale mouth was visible.
Qiu Zimu and Lu Yu looked up, their hairs standing on end. If this guy suddenly jumped down, the three of them would definitely be doomed.
Ye Jingan picked up the talisman and shouted, "Who are you?"
The man in black laughed and said coldly, "Those who are punished by heaven shall die!"
"A person punished by heaven?" Ye Jing'an frowned.
Even if Qiu Zimu released the poisonous insect, it was useless against the man in black. He came close to Ye Jingan and whispered, "The poisonous insect can't enter his body. He's not human."
When Ye Jingan heard that it was not a human, he was secretly happy. Brother Liu gave him a large number of offensive talismans, enough to kill this damn thing. He picked one out at random and hit it.
"Huh? Why is it useless!" Ye Jing'an widened his eyes and changed another one, but it still didn't work. He wondered if he didn't know how to use Brother Liu's talisman, or if Brother Liu's talisman recognized the master?
Ye Jingan drew out the Soul-Burning Fire Talisman he had drawn and threw it out, with the same result. Ye Jingan was now certain that it wasn't the talisman that was causing the problem, but that this thing wasn't a ghost at all, and the talisman had no effect on it.
The man in black jumped down from the tree and walked over with a sneer.
"He is not a ghost!" Ye Jing'an put away the talisman and rushed forward with his sword.
"What?" Qiu Zimu was confused. What category does it belong to?
During the fight, Ye Jing'an discovered that this thing wasn't very flexible, but its body was like iron. The sword chopped it down and made a clanging sound, shaking his hand. Ye Jing'an threw the sword away, rolled up his sleeves, and said, "This thing isn't very powerful, but it's tough. Let's capture it!"
"Okay." Catching people is Officer Lu's forte, so without saying anything, he took a big step forward and put his hands and arms together, trying to push him to the ground, but he couldn't even bend his arms.
“…” Lu Yu thought that maybe he really needed to go back to the police academy to repeat his studies.
The man in black ignored him and waved him aside.
Qiu Zimu and Ye Jingan attacked him together, but before they could reach him, he was kicked to the ground.
"Is this what you said about not being very powerful?" Qiu Zimu held his stomach and stood up.
"..." Ye Jing'an took out the jade button and said, "Little bastard, it's time to eat! Suck the blood out of that dead thing!"
The corpse-baby was more eager than anyone else when it came to eating. With a wicked grin, it lunged at the man in black and bit his shoulder. It didn't get any blood, and a tooth broke. Covering its mouth, it cursed and returned to the jade buckle.
Ye Jing'an was panicking at the moment. Even the corpse baby couldn't bite him. How should he deal with this?
The man in black continued to walk slowly towards Ye Jingan, his tone full of disdain: "I thought you still had some skills left, but now it seems that I overestimated you."
"What do you mean? Do you know me?" Ye Jing'an frowned.
"I know him. You even saved my life before." The man in black sneered.
"Who are you?" Ye Jing'an roared.
The man in black ignored him and listened to what was going on. Ye Jingan kicked him and started fighting with him again.
"Little boy, I don't want to play with you anymore." The man in black flew away quickly from the depths of the woods.
"Damn, no wonder there are no footprints, he can fly!" Qiu Zimu was stunned.
The man in black was indeed fast, disappearing in a flash. Ye Jingan chased after him and saw Liu Muze coming from the other direction. He asked him anxiously if he was okay.
"Something happened! I'm so angry!" Ye Jing'an ran out of breath.
"What happened?" Liu Muzhe asked.
Ye Jingan told him what the man in black had said.
"A person who is punished by heaven..." Liu Muzhe frowned, wondering why he said that Ye Jingan had saved his life?
"Brother Liu, every generation in our Ye family has experienced heavenly tribulations, but they stopped a long time ago. How could he know?" Ye Jing'an asked.
Liu Muzhe stared at him without saying anything.
Lu Yu suggested going back and asked the police to send more people to search.
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