If that's the case, then it would have been better to take Gao Dongxing out from the beginning.
He deliberately found an opportunity, brought a few of his companions from the village, and used reverse psychology to get him to sign up on the spot. When he wanted to back out, he and his group sneered at him.
Driven by a desire to prove himself, Gao Dongxing reluctantly joined the team.
Gao Liang simply stood in the crowd and waved to Si Cheng and the others from afar. At this moment, he didn't want to bring his father and Gao Dongxing to his cousin's place and cause him trouble.
Along the way, Gao Zian tried to find Sicheng several times but failed because Sicheng was leading the way, and each village forbade them from wandering around, otherwise they would not be able to count the number of people.
The leaders of several villages reported the number of people to Sicheng when they arrived. Sicheng waited until everyone had arrived and then had them draw lots.
The order of the teams was arranged according to the number of lots drawn. Each village sent ten people to lead the way each day. Of course, on the day they led the way, their luggage was distributed among the villagers.
And so, more than a thousand people from several villages set off early the next morning.
Following the advice given to Yun Zhixin and his team last night, we proceeded along the route they had previously scouted. Because the troops had already explored the surrounding area and marked out any dangerous spots, our progress had been relatively fast for the first few days.
However, once we left the city, we had to figure out the rest of the journey on our own. Coupled with the uncertainty of our location, our speed gradually slowed down. There were some minor conflicts among the teammates, but they were all calmed down by the village leaders.
Perhaps due to tectonic activity, many roads have disappeared. To avoid getting lost, people would climb over mountains and ford rivers whenever they saw them. If they were lucky, they would encounter villages to help them find their way. However, sometimes they would walk for days without encountering any signs of human habitation, making them wonder if they had entered a no-man's-land.
"There seems to be a village ahead?" The person who was scouting ahead seemed to see smoke rising from chimneys in the distance. After hearing this, Si Cheng found a spot, took out his binoculars, and began to observe carefully.
"This village seems a bit strange. At this hour, only one house has smoke coming from its chimney, while the other houses are completely silent." Although Si Cheng was referring to the houses, they were all just crooked wooden sheds.
"Could they all have gone to work in the fields?"
"I didn't see anyone in the fields, not even any crops." Si Cheng looked around with his binoculars again but found nothing. He then handed the binoculars to the monkey next to him so he could take a look.
During this time, Si Cheng and Yun Qi led a small team, always walking at the front of the group and constantly observing the situation ahead. Originally, the other villages thought that Yun Qi standing at the front of the group was a hindrance, so they gossiped. Yun Qi directly called out the two people who were gossiping and challenged them to a duel. He defeated them in just a few moves, which stopped everyone from talking.
He always felt that something was wrong with the village across the way. He scratched Yunqi's palm to alert her.
"It really is true. There's definitely something going on in this village. So many fields are lying there abandoned, and only one house in the entire village is smoking. Brother Cheng, should we go check it out first?" Monkey also noticed the suspicious points, but they had to cross the road ahead and keep moving forward.
"Check if there are any hidden spies around here."
The monkey picked up the binoculars again and carefully observed the surrounding area, but "found nothing."
"Let the main force rest here for a while, and we'll go take a look," Big Bear suggested.
"I'll take a few men over to check things out. You and Monkey stay here and keep watch. If anything happens, I'll feel more at ease with you around. I'm worried there might be an ambush nearby." Si Cheng pointed to a few young men who would lead the way and follow him to scout the area.
Yun Qi also hung the black bag that Yun Zhi had given him earlier on his body and told him to be careful.
The deeper you go into the village, the stranger the atmosphere becomes. Such a large village is eerily quiet.
"Everyone be on guard. This village might be a bit strange." Si Cheng had encountered many villages before, especially ghost villages. Some villages were completely wiped out, or mostly wiped out. If anyone was lucky enough to survive, their personalities were often extremely eccentric, and some even harbored a vengeful mentality, setting traps to confuse and harm passersby.
Every house they passed was quiet. Si Cheng went up and pushed open the door of one of the wooden houses. It was empty. He looked at a few more houses and found that they were all the same.
The young men who followed couldn't help but rub the goosebumps on their bodies, and gritted their teeth and kept walking forward.
Si Cheng led everyone directly to a house with smoke coming from its chimney. This house looked more tidy than the others.
"Is anyone home? We're just passing by and would like to ask for directions. Is it convenient?" Si Cheng shouted directly into the house from outside.
But the people inside didn't seem to want to pay attention to them, and didn't even respond.
"Brother Cheng, is everyone in the house out? I haven't seen anyone make a sound."
"There must be someone inside, otherwise there wouldn't be any smoke or fire. Otherwise, this kind of wooden house is easy to catch fire if you're not careful."
"Could someone inside please open the door? We're just passing through," Si Cheng called out again.
"Brother Cheng, if all else fails, let's push the door open and go in." Ma Donglai was the most impatient of them all; he felt that the other party's silence was just a charade.
Si Cheng stopped him and led them around to the back of the house. There was a ventilation hole in the back of the house. They looked through the ventilation hole but did not find anyone inside.
"Could it be a ghost? There's no one here at all."
"Let's get out of here quickly, this is too eerie."
Si Cheng remained silent. He circled back to the main entrance and, before anyone could react, pushed the door open, startling those behind him who couldn't help but take a few steps back.
"Don't come in, you all get out of here right now, I don't know anything." A hoarse voice came from inside the house, speaking stiffly as if it hadn't spoken in a long time.
"Are you a human or a ghost?" The young man standing next to Ma Donglai asked a stupid question, but to his surprise, the person inside actually answered it.
"I'm neither human nor ghost, I don't even know what I am?"
"Who doesn't know who they are? Stop pretending!"
Si Cheng raised his hand to stop them, "We're just passing by and wanted to ask what this place is. We mean no harm."
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