Gongshan Mountain serves as the dividing line between the developed and undeveloped areas of Fengcheng. Its terrain is rugged, with the mountain range spanning half of Fengcheng. As far as the eye can see, there are only mountains and water.
The satellite location of Sangzi and his group disappeared at Gongshan Monkey Ridge, which has been two full days since then.
Just yesterday, when Xu Qian received the call from Fifth Master, he also sent a bounty to Sang Zi in his friend list, but unexpectedly, the bounty failed.
Xu Qian looked at his friend list again. Sang Zi was online, and his avatar was lit up, proving that he was still alive. But he couldn't send out the bounty.
Why? Is it a bug?
But Xu Qian then issued a bounty to Meng Ziqiu. No problem, he's doing fine, he's got 1000 gold coins on him!
Completely baffled, Xu Qian packed his things and rushed to Fengcheng with Meng Ziqiu that very night to meet up with Fifth Master and his group. Because of the suddenness of the incident, he had to put his work on hold temporarily. Fortunately, apart from the documentary about Sheng Huai, he had finished filming everything he had promised, and he had turned down the ones he hadn't promised.
Before the two arrived, Fifth Master had already sent the first group of people up the mountain to set up camp.
Xu Qian and Meng Ziqiu went up the mountain with the second group of people early the next morning, while Fifth Master stayed at the small inn at the foot of the mountain.
Ever since returning from the desert, Fifth Master's health has deteriorated significantly; after all, birth, aging, sickness, and death are beyond human control. Following that, Fifth Master handed over all the affairs of the guild, large and small, to Sangzi, a proper 'passing of the torch.' However, unexpectedly, Sangzi ran into trouble on their very first mission, and they haven't even been found yet!
On the way up the mountain, Xu Qian tried to find the names of the fellow travelers he had asked from others. He couldn't find the bounty on Sangzi's name, but surely he could find the names of the other travelers too? But... there were just too many people named 'Li Wei'! How long was it going to take him to find them?
Xu Qian actually asked for the names of six people, but among these six, only 'Li Wei' was someone they recognized and could describe his appearance. Helpless, he had to find 'Li Wei' with the scar on his brow bone one by one.
Faced with the hundredth 'Li Wei', Xu Qian resolutely gave up. He really couldn't find them one by one; he simply couldn't!
The "cheat code" was clearly a lie, so Xu Qian had no choice but to pull himself together and honestly start looking for clues.
Uncle Zhang, who was leading the team, said that Sangzi and his team had taken on a job to find some college students who had nothing better to do than go hiking in Monkey Ridge. The students had gone missing in Gongshan two weeks ago. Their parents had asked the local police to search for them in the mountains, but unfortunately, the police had mobilized most of their forces and still hadn't found any of them. The six students had simply vanished into thin air.
So, the parents, unwilling to give up, found Sangzi through other connections.
That's how Sangzi got her first order.
But now, Sangzi is gone too.
Xu Qian also considered a roundabout way to achieve his goal. He deliberately entered the names of those six college students, but unfortunately... the first one did not exist, and the following five names did as well. In other words, those six college students were already dead.
Xu Qian opened the small map of Yongshan. Ignoring the developed villages in Yongshan, he saw a small village called 'Nanbin Village' on the other side of the mountain. However, the road leading to this village was cut off for some reason.
"By the way," Xu Qian asked Uncle Zhang, who was standing next to him, "didn't those college students say where they were going on an adventure?"
Uncle Zhang shook his head. "They didn't say that. They only said they were going to Gongshan, to some deserted village."
"The parents of those college students don't know either?" he asked again.
Uncle Zhang sighed, "How would they know? If the school hadn't notified them, they wouldn't have known their child was missing."
"..." Xu Qian fell silent as he thought of today's college students and their parents who basically let them grow up unsupervised.
...
The journey up the mountain was relatively smooth. With the first group of people leading the way, the second group avoided many detours.
Around 1 p.m., the two groups successfully met at Monkey Ridge.
“Uncle Zhang, we’ve checked all around here, but it rained the night before last, so the footprints are all blurry,” said one of the team members.
"Didn't you say there was another path? Take me to see it."
"here."
Meng Ziqiu was about to follow when he noticed that Xu Qian was still standing there. Before he could speak, he saw Xu Qian squat down and rummage through the bushes with a small knife.
"What are you looking for?" he asked as he walked over.
Xu Qian put away the knife, stood up and said, "It's nothing, just animal blood, probably monkey blood."
The group of about ten people walked along the muddy path for nearly ten minutes. Along the way, including the ascent up the mountain, Xu Qian felt something was off, as if something was missing.
"What's wrong?" Meng Ziqiu noticed that he had stopped again and thought he had discovered something.
Xu Qian asked, "Isn't this... Monkey Ridge? Why haven't we seen a single monkey?"
Meng Ziqiu blinked, "Hey, that does seem to be true."
"That was in the past; there are no monkeys anymore." The speaker was a fellow villager whom Fifth Master had found locally. Everyone called him Zhang Liuzhi because he had six fingers on his right hand.
"It used to be there, but not anymore? Why is that?" Xu Qian asked curiously.
Zhang Liuzhi revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth, "What else could it be? They just disappeared while we were catching them."
Seeing his curiosity, Zhang Liuzhi continued to explain: "I've heard a little about it. It's said that a few years ago, a lot of outsiders came here to buy monkeys. They said they were there to perform acrobatics, but later they said that the group of people actually wanted to eat monkey brains. The price for buying monkeys was very high, so a large group of people came to this mountain to catch monkeys. Then, I don't know when it started, there were gradually no monkeys left on this mountain."
"Ugh, who is this person who eats monkey brains..." Meng Ziqiu felt nauseous at the thought.
"Anyway, that's what they say, but I don't know either." Zhang Liuzhi chuckled.
Xu Qian frowned, but didn't ask any more questions.
The group walked along the path for another half hour when the person in front suddenly stopped.
"The road ahead is blocked."
Zhang Liuzhi said, "If you keep going, you'll reach Nanbin Village. There aren't many people there. Are you sure you want to go? The road ahead is going to be difficult."
Uncle Zhang looked at the signal before Sangzi disappeared, which was on the other side of the road, and said, "Go on, since you're already here, everyone be careful."
The road, half-hidden by the mountain, can only accommodate three people at a time; any more would be dangerous.
The deeper they went, the denser the surrounding trees became, and the temperature seemed to drop a few degrees.
"Caw—caw—" The cawing of crows echoed through the mountains and forests.
Xu Qian saw a village in the distance, shrouded in a thick mist, and a path leading to the village could be vaguely seen in the fog.
——Nanbin Village
That's Nanbin Village.
"Let's go take a look."
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