"Your Highness! We have just searched the area, and there are no living people left. All the villagers must be dead."
Pei Xuan reported to Qi Guze.
Qi Guze asked, "Have you confirmed it? Are those people's bodies inside the fire?"
If those villagers were relocated but didn't die, then there's a different story behind it.
Pei Xuan replied, "We've already checked. The villagers' bodies are all inside the fire. They didn't seem to struggle when they died; they must have taken some kind of drug and passed out before this happened. We haven't been able to find out who started the fire either."
"Looking at this fire, it started from the village chief's house and spread because the village chief's house had been completely burned down and had long been reduced to ruins."
Xu Yuehuai felt a pang of heartache upon hearing this.
The village chief was such a good person, he helped them so much, and yet they had only just parted ways when he died.
Xu Yuehua bowed towards the fire as a farewell to the village chief and the others.
Qi Guze's expression, however, was quite strange, suddenly becoming much more serious.
"Perhaps the villagers ate something poisonous, which is why they didn't notice the fire and were burned to death."
"The village chief gave us a lot of dry food before we left. Maybe there's something wrong with that food too?"
"Go and fetch those rations, and check them carefully to see if there's anything wrong with them."
Upon hearing this, Pei Xuan and the others hurriedly took out the dry rations and carefully examined them, only to find that some of the rations were indeed poisoned.
"Your Highness, this portion of the rations is poisoned! The rest of the rations are fine!"
Xu Yuehuai was shocked when she heard this!
I never imagined that the dry rations the village chief gave them would contain toxins!
If they hadn't witnessed the village being massacred and burned to ashes, they might never have noticed that the rations had been poisoned. If they had eaten them, the casualties would likely have been severe.
Qi Guze frowned. "Those non-poisonous rations were mixed with the poisonous ones, so they must have come into contact with toxins. Let's throw all of these rations into the fire to dispose of them. There's no need to take them with us."
Although Xu Yuehua wanted to persuade them to stay, she couldn't leave those things behind now, as they concerned their safety.
So she watched as Pei Xuan threw all the dry rations that the village chief had painstakingly prepared for them into the fire and burned them.
"The situation is so serious right now that we have no way to put it out. It's spreading and it'll probably be burning for several days before it goes down. We have to keep moving forward and there's no way to deal with their bodies for the time being."
"After we settle down in Wuling Kingdom and ensure our safety, we will send people back to properly bury the bodies of these villagers."
Qi Guze shared his thoughts, and Xu Yuehuai agreed wholeheartedly, as this was the only thing they could do at the moment.
Then everyone bowed towards the fire, and then got back into the carriage and continued on their way.
Their round trip had already wasted a lot of time, and now that they were on their way, they had no more food to eat, making the next few days very difficult to get through.
It's winter now, and hunting wild animals in the jungle is no easy task.
They traveled on and off, only managing to catch a few very small wild boars and drink from mountain springs, which allowed them to survive for a few days.
Then we arrived at a large village, which was surrounded by many villages, with a market area in the middle.
"This village is so lively! It's completely different from the previous village!" Xu Yuehuai looked at the village with some curiosity.
Qi Guze said, "This village probably gathers many households from the surrounding area. Originally, this area was mountainous, but due to a flash flood, the entire area was washed away, so the surrounding villages gathered here and rebuilt their homes in this safe place."
He was extremely familiar with every place in the Great Zhou Kingdom. He had carefully investigated the situation in all the towns and villages. When he saw this village, he immediately became excited.
"Oh, I see. Did this area often experience flash floods before?" Xu Yuehuai asked.
Qi Guze looked at the situation outside and carefully explained it to Xu Yuehuai.
“There are some places in the Great Zhou Kingdom that receive a lot of rain, such as the area above this place. Frequent rainfall there caused the dikes to break down, and the water rushed over here, washing away a mountain and causing a flash flood.”
“This area is usually very safe. It wouldn’t have become like this if it weren’t for the influence of the surrounding area.”
After hearing these explanations, Xu Yuehuai finally understood the situation in this area.
As they hurried toward the village, they talked about everything around them.
After arriving at the village, Qi Guze and his group found a place to stay. This time, instead of staying at the villagers' homes, they set up their own tents to avoid any further entanglements with the villagers.
Just after they finished setting up the tent, Xu Yuehuai seemed to see a familiar figure.
Qi Guze noticed that Xu Yuehuai kept looking in the same direction, which made him a little puzzled.
"Ah Yue, what are you looking at? Do you know someone here?"
Xu Yuehuai replied, "He is indeed an old acquaintance, and you know him too."
Qi Guze was even more puzzled after hearing this, "What old acquaintance is it?"
Xu Yuehuai spoke up: "Adong!"
"What? How could it be Ah Dong?"
That village was completely burned to ashes, and many villagers died. How did Ah Dong manage to survive?
Could it be that Ah Dong did all of this?
Did A-Dong set the fire and kill everyone in the village in an attempt to escape his guilt?
Qi Guze was guessing what was going on, but whatever it was, he felt that this A Dong was a dangerous person and that he should never get close to him.
Xu Yuehuai said, "I want to ask Adong if he was the one who killed everyone in the village."
Qi Guze knew that Xu Yuehuai was having a hard time getting over the fact that everyone in the village had been murdered, and he wouldn't stop her from doing what she wanted to do.
"Okay, we'll test him out later."
Qi Guze agreed, and then they secretly hid in the tent.
After A Dong went to the corner, Qi Guze led Xu Yuehuai closer to A Dong.
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