Chapter 286 Speedrun to Guyue Village
The villagers slowly gathered around, and the young man in his twenties seemed to have grown bolder, approaching the location where Ma Zao and I, two strangers, were.
He might be the young passenger mentioned in the winter train's narrative, and I also retrieved information about the appearance of the corpse I had seen before from my own memory.
It can be concluded that the young man's height and build are roughly the same as the corpse. The reason it can only be described as "roughly the same" is because the latter had decomposed, exhibiting signs of decay such as gigantism. However, even more convenient for comparison than the physical similarities is their clothing. The black and green windbreaker he was wearing was exactly the same as the clothes worn by the corpse.
The young traveler, who should have died in the ravine, has somehow appeared alive in this place.
Moreover, like Dongche, he gave me an inhuman impression. Not only him, but the villagers also had an inhuman feeling that was extremely similar to Dongche's. My previous action of stopping Dongche from getting close to them was just a conditioned reflex; in fact, Dongche and they were the same kind of people.
If it were just Dongche, the only person with inhuman qualities, appearing in front of me, I would at most be wary. But now, seeing so many seemingly human yet inhuman beings gathering in such a large group, it immediately broke through a certain threshold in my mind, triggering the uncanny valley effect.
Why not just massacre the whole village...? That thought popped into my head.
"Winter train, where were you before?" a young passenger complained.
"Where did I go... I went to find you," Dongche said, confused. "You were the one who went. Where did you go before?"
"I didn't go anywhere!" the young traveler said in surprise. "I heard from the villagers that you suddenly went into the fog for some reason, leaving me alone here. I was even thinking of going back into the fog to look for you, but thankfully, you came back so quickly..."
A villager nearby said to Dongche, "Little friend, where did you go before? It's very dangerous in the mountains. If you want to leave this place, we can help you find your way."
“That’s right,” another villager agreed.
Everyone started talking at once.
"how so……"
Dongche frowned first, then turned to look at me.
In his earlier account, the villagers said the young traveler left first, and then the winter train entered the fog outside the village. The villagers' testimonies in both accounts don't match, as if the villagers deliberately told different lies to the two men. However, I know very well that's not the case. The young traveler's body was indeed found in the forest, indicating that he truly did leave the village on his own initiative.
It seems that, without anyone noticing, the "fait accompli" has once again been altered by a mysterious force. Even the villagers are likely within the scope of this alteration. The manager and regular customers of the Moonlit Mountain Inn have also experienced situations where the narratives don't match up, yet they were completely unaware of it, so I can easily accept this situation.
That being said, seeing these people, who vaguely exude an inhuman aura, behaving so abnormally before my eyes, I only felt an indescribable sense of eeriness.
It's as if a giant hand exists in the darkness, manipulating puppets with twisted joints, controlling all those who seem to be alive, those who should be dead, and those whose life or death is unknown, to perform a bizarre drama of illogical collapse.
Perhaps, like Dongche, these villagers are unaware that they are not human.
"Young man, are you here to climb the mountain too?"
Among the dozen or so villagers, there was an elderly man who looked at Ma Zao and me for a while before saying, "You don't look like you're going hiking, and you both look so young... Where are your parents? Did they also get lost in the mountains?"
This old man gave the impression of being the person in charge of the village.
"I am a folklore enthusiast."
As I habitually do when investigating strange events across the country, I adopted this self-identification and continued: "I want to study the folk traditions of Moonshadow Mountain City. On my way, I heard about the Ancient Moon Village in Moonshadow Mountain and wanted to visit your village. I wasn't prepared for the climb because it was a spur-of-the-moment decision. If possible, please help us leave this mountain. I will be very grateful afterward."
"A folk custom enthusiast, and you'll be richly rewarded afterward... at your age?" the old man questioned.
After all, I'm currently dressed as a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy, so it's not right for me to complain about others looking down on me. Before entering the village, I did consider whether I should change back first, but I didn't want to break the promise I made to Asaha. So I can only continue with this appearance for now and force myself to say, "I just look young, but I'm actually an adult."
The old man frowned and looked at me for a while, then said, "You just mentioned Guyue Village... Let's just call this place Hujia Village. The name 'Guyue Village' sounds unlucky."
"Okay, Hu Family Village," I changed my mind.
"Since you're leaving, you'd better leave quickly." The old man showed his attitude of getting rid of the guests. "Anyway, I'll see you all off together."
"Thank you," I said. "However, to leave empty-handed like this is still a bit hard to accept. As I said before, I came here to research the history of Guyue Village and the Guyue God. Sir, could you tell us about the Guyue God before we leave?"
Upon hearing this, the old man immediately became alert, his eyes scrutinizing him, and said, "—You want to inquire about the Ancient Moon God?"
The other villagers stopped talking and all looked at me at the same time.
"Is this a topic that's inconvenient to talk about?" I was also observing the other person.
Judging from the information gathered previously, the villagers of Guyue Village chose to leave Moonshadow Mountain out of fear of the Ancient Moon God—Silver Moon. While it's unknown what Silver Moon did to cause such dread, considering Silver Moon's cruel nature, it would be strange if she could peacefully coexist with humans. It's understandable that the villagers wanted to flee. The question remains—what kind of people made up the villagers who chose to stay?
The people of Moonlit Mountain City seem to regard the Ancient Moon God as an obscure folk myth and legend that no one outside their hometown knows about and is not worth believing, so they probably don't think about it in depth. But I know very well that the Ancient Moon God's true identity is most likely the real Silver Moon, and the Silver Moon is a monster that eats people, just as the name suggests.
Are the villagers who stayed behind people who don't care about living under the control of man-eating monsters? Or do they have an extremely fanatical faith in the Ancient Moon God, which even overrides the most basic moral judgment?
Given this context, perhaps these villagers don't intend to obediently escort us down the mountain.
They might use the pretense of taking us down the mountain to lead us into a dangerous area shrouded in mist.
"It's inconvenient, please go back. We'll send someone to take you down the mountain. Once you leave, don't even think about coming back," the old man said coldly. "The Ancient Moon God doesn't exist; that's just an ancient myth. I think you're from the city, right? Do city people still believe in this stuff these days? You're so young, don't get involved in so much superstition."
“It’s not necessarily just superstition,” I said. “Take this fog surrounding Hujia Village for example; it seems to conceal some incredible phenomenon. Before I entered the mountains, I clearly saw that it was just turning to night, but after encountering the fog, it immediately turned into daytime… I’ve heard that the Ancient Moon God has a legend that he can make the daytime on the mountain last forever. Could this be what he’s referring to?”
"Stop asking so many questions." The old man's tone turned gruff. "Are you leaving or not? If you keep nagging, I won't help you get down the mountain."
Upon hearing this, the young passenger became nervous and quickly said, "Let's hurry back and not ask so many questions..."
I also started to consider whether I should go along with the other person first.
So far, we haven't encountered any real danger within the mist. If they were to lead us to a dangerous area, I'd actually welcome it. This would help us better understand the strange phenomenon occurring on Moonshadow Mountain, and might even lead us to further clues related to the Silver Moon.
Xenophobic mountain villages, inhuman villagers, cannibalistic gods, taboos that cannot be touched... all these elements combined together make it impossible not to be interested in them.
I regret once again that I'm not acting alone. And given our current circumstances, even if we wanted to figure out the details of Guyue Village, there's no need to play along with their "mountain village horror story." If only Dongche and the young travelers were there, things might have turned out that way, but we have a much more convenient approach. I have no interest in setting aside practical methods to deliberately make things more difficult for myself.
"Mama, let's get started," I said.
"Huh?" The old man was stunned.
Asaha, understanding perfectly, produced a fake moon reflected in the water.
Immediately, a surge of magical power that manipulates the mind swept through the entire mountain village.
Including the young traveler, all the villagers became listless. Even the old man standing in front of us suddenly relaxed, and his eyes no longer contained xenophobia and indifference.
At this moment, Guyue Village fell under our control.
Wintercart also seemed to be affected to some extent, but being a high-level Witcher, the impact was likely just due to being caught off guard.
In just a moment, his eyes returned to normal, and then he said in surprise, "Um... why am I also within the target range?"
"It was an accident," Mazao said seriously.
"Sir, may I ask you now?" I asked the old man.
The old man seemed to have been transformed, and said with unusual cooperation, "No problem."
(End of this chapter)
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