On their way down the mountain, the two whispered among themselves about all the techniques in the Divine Wood Canon, and Jiang Yuan also told Ning Yanlan about the plan for cultivating the Divine Wood Body.
However, Ning Yanlan was completely confused because those things were too strange and unusual. Most of the spiritual herbs or minerals were unheard of, and even if she wrote them down, she wouldn't be able to find them.
"It's alright, I'll make another copy when I collect the materials!"
While Ning Yanlan was complaining about the abnormal demands of the Divine Wood Canon, Jiang Yuan spoke up to comfort her.
"Jiang Yuan, I think I can see smoke from the chimneys!" Ning Yanlan suddenly exclaimed excitedly.
Jiang Yuan looked in the direction she pointed, and sure enough, a medium-sized village came into view. "There really is one!"
"I thought we'd have to spend the night in the mountains!" Ning Yanlan said, looking aggrieved. It was already 5 p.m. when they arrived, and if it got any darker, they would have to pitch a tent and spend the night in the mountains. Although she wasn't too opposed to it, she was still a little uncomfortable in the deep mountains.
“It’s alright. If someone lives here, it means they’re communicating with the outside world. Let’s go ask them, and then go find Zhu Penghai and the others.” After saying that, Jiang Yuan started looking for a way to go to a village.
Not long after they left, Ning Yanlan whispered in Jiang Yuan's ear, "Jiang Yuan, do you feel like something's off?"
"What's wrong?" Jiang Yuan didn't notice, because he had been rushing on his way and had no time to look at anything else.
"I thought that village was quite far away, how come we arrived so quickly?" Ning Yanlan's expression revealed her confusion. "And, did you notice? The path we were walking on seemed a bit strange!"
"It's probably a visual illusion caused by the unfamiliar environment after it got dark!" Jiang Yuan said, looking around.
“That’s not right. Why don’t you look back at the path we’ve taken?” Ning Yanlan trusted her intuition; this place just felt very strange.
Just as Jiang Yuan was about to turn around, an aged voice rang out, "Whatever you do, don't turn around!"
The two were startled and looked closely to see an old woman with a cane, looking like she was about to die, standing in the middle of the road.
"Old man?" Ning Yanlan saw the person and jumped off Jiang Yuan's back.
"This is our local custom: the living should not turn back!" The old woman gave a rather unpleasant smile, but one could still discern goodwill in it.
"A stranger?" Jiang Yuan muttered softly, but at this moment he also felt the same strange feeling as Ning Yanlan.
"Come with me!" The old woman turned around, leaning on her cane, and instructed as she did so, "Our village is rather strange. Don't look at people or talk to anyone along the way, and try to keep your head down as you walk!"
"Sir, we'd like to ask if there's a way out of Tieling Mountain?" Ning Yanlan felt unwell, so she decided to ask for directions and leave immediately.
"It's already evening, and there will be heavy fog blocking the Tieling Mountains. We can only leave during the day!" The old woman's voice sounded weak and listless.
"The people in the village..."
"You can't survive in the mountains at night. Come with me into the village. As long as you don't say anything out of line, you'll find a way out by tomorrow morning!" The old woman interrupted Ning Yanlan in a sinister tone.
"Hold on until tomorrow morning!" Ning Yanlan didn't quite understand the old woman's tone; it seemed that here it was like...
Jiang Yuan used his Heavenly Eye to look over, then communicated through his Soul Ring, saying, "It's like hell!"
"Ah!" Ning Yanlan was so frightened by the news that she took two steps back.
The old woman wasn't surprised. She simply took out a candle, lit it, and murmured, "The living come, do not look back. The candlelight guides the way!"
The rhythmic tapping of the canes seemed to pound on their hearts as well.
"Jiang Yuan, I'm a little scared!" Ning Yanlan's expression changed slightly.
"Heavenly Eye!" Jiang Yuan used deep detection on the old woman and said strangely, "This old woman is an ordinary person, not one of those things!"
Both of them were afraid of encountering a ghost.
“But she…” Ning Yanlan had an indescribable feeling in her heart.
"Why don't we still go? It's too hot to walk in the mountains now. Maybe the customs here are a bit strange and the atmosphere is a bit cold!" Jiang Yuan said something he didn't even believe himself. This wasn't strange customs at all; it was clearly ghosts. But in order to keep Ning Yanlan calm, he naturally had to be a little bolder.
Ning Yanlan nodded and continued walking forward, but she gripped Jiang Yuan's arm even tighter, as if this gave her a greater sense of security.
The two followed the old woman into the village, and only then did the entire panorama of the village come into view.
The low houses were very backward mud-brick houses, and there were no electric lights inside, only a few candles flickering inside.
Jiang Yuan's eyes stung. The candlelight and the house created an illusory illusion for him, as if the candlelight were huge and the house was tiny, or even...
"A grave!" Jiang Yuan's heart skipped a beat. He didn't know why he had this feeling, but he suppressed the strangeness in his heart and continued to follow the old woman.
"Jiang Yuan, look at that person!" Ning Yanlan said in a very low voice.
Jiang Yuan looked over and saw a woman with lifeless eyes brush past Ning Yanlan. She didn't greet her warmly, but instead exuded a sinister aura that sent chills down one's spine. Jiang Yuan immediately cast a detection spell.
But the detection yielded no results; it was as if the woman was just a wisp of air.
And then people with lifeless eyes began to come into their view: a sallow-faced child, a robust but listless young adult, a silent old man, and so on.
No one seemed to notice Jiang Yuan and Ning Yanlan; everyone was busy with their own tasks.
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