Seeing everyone's eagerness, the old hunter spoke up:
“We have lived in Yunjiazhuang for generations, which is only a dozen miles away from Devil Valley, but we still don’t know the specifics of Devil Valley.”
Although Devil's Valley is a valley, it is not what we imagine at all; it is a very mysterious place.
The entrance to this valley is very wide, but as you go further in, the mountains on both sides begin to converge, and the valley begins to narrow.
This valley is over twenty miles long, nothing special, and very safe. Hunters from the village like to hunt here and often have a good catch.
But further in, the hunters became extremely cautious. During the hot season, demons frequently appeared in the valley ahead, and if they were unlucky enough to be targeted by one, disaster would befall them.
"Old man, what exactly happened when you said you encountered a demon in the valley?" Li Guang asked.
“There are demons in the valley, but I have never seen them, otherwise I would not be able to chat with you.”
Most people who encounter the devil in the valley die there; very few manage to escape. Even those who manage to escape and are not eaten by the devil will eventually die.
Many years ago, a hunter from our village encountered a demon in the valley. Luckily, he escaped, but died that same day.
I saw him before he died; he looked horrible, bleeding from all seven orifices.
Before he died, he told us that as he walked through the valley, he gradually felt dizzy and disoriented. At that moment, many demons appeared before him, baring their fangs and claws, and approaching him.
He turned and ran, but there were demons behind him, closing in on him. He looked around and saw demons everywhere, gradually getting closer to him.
He was terrified and wanted to escape, but he couldn't tell which way was which. Soon his vision went black and he collapsed to the ground.
He didn't know how much time had passed before he woke up and found himself lying in a valley. He quickly realized what had happened. Although he was still dizzy, he knew that what he needed to do was escape from here.
He struggled to his feet, turned and fled, only to find that the demons had emerged from the valley again and were rushing towards him, causing him to faint once more.
After many attempts, he finally escaped Devil's Valley, but by then his life was nearing its end.
Zhao Xian knew that he had analyzed the situation the old hunter was talking about before. It was probably that the valley was filled with miasma. This miasma was colorless and odorless, but highly toxic. Inhaling too much would cause hallucinations, as if one saw a demon with bared fangs and claws.
This person must have inhaled a large amount of miasma, was severely poisoned, and was extremely terrified, which caused him to faint.
Because the miasma was suspended in the low atmosphere and there was very little miasma on the ground, the man regained consciousness after inhaling fresh air, and what he did next was to continue his escape.
Those who are lucky may escape the valley, but due to inhaling large amounts of miasma, they will bleed from all seven orifices and die, which should be a reaction to miasma poisoning.
Zhao Xian didn't speak, and continued to listen to the old hunter continue.
"For thousands of years, the locals have known about the demon in this valley, but some people still don't believe it and insist on going in. Some people are unlucky and end up encountering the demon, and never come back."
Some outsiders thought that Devil's Valley was a major road and wanted to pass through it, but they also encountered the devil and were eaten by the devil until only their bones remained.
I've lived here for over ten years, and I don't know exactly how deep this Devil's Valley is. I've heard it's over a hundred miles long, and beyond it lies a small kingdom called Golden Kingdom.
The old hunter's words were quite unexpected; no one had imagined that Devil's Valley had an end, connecting to another country.
At this moment, Li Guang remembered something the old hunter had said earlier, and asked:
"Old man, you just said that a general accidentally wandered into Devil's Valley. Can you provide some clues? What's going on?"
The old hunter picked up the bamboo pipe on the table, filled it with tobacco, lit it, took a satisfying puff, and then spoke.
"The appearance of the demons in the valley is also regular. Every year when the weather starts to get cold, the demons hide away. Perhaps they are afraid of the cold. Only at this time do people dare to enter the Devil Valley to collect the corpses."
Ten years ago, one day when the weather turned cold, people went into the valley to collect the bodies. They found the skeleton of a horse in the valley and, based on the other remains, guessed that it was a warhorse.
However, no human bones were found next to the warhorse, so people continued searching and found a helmet not far from the bones, which indicated that a person and a horse had entered Devil's Valley at that time.
People searched a long stretch of the valley but found no human bones, indicating that the person was not eaten by the demon. Where this person went remains a mystery to this day.
The old hunter's words brought a glimmer of hope to everyone. They were both surprised and delighted. If Li Ru had mistakenly wandered into Devil's Valley on horseback and all that was found later were the bones of his warhorse, but no trace of Li Ru, it meant that Li Ru might have left the valley.
So where did he go? At least he didn't die in Devil's Valley. If that's the case, Li Ru might still be alive.
Everyone perked up immediately. It was truly a blessing from heaven. If Li Ru were still alive, there was a chance they could find him. Even if he became mentally impaired, they would bring him back.
"Old man, is the helmet you found still there?" Li Guang asked.
The old hunter, puffing on his pipe, glanced at everyone and continued:
“When we go into the mountains in winter, if we find any victims, we collect their remains, take them out of the valley, and bury them somewhere.”
As for the helmet, we didn't pay attention to it. If the owner of the helmet was already dead, it would be bad luck to take it home.
I remember it wasn't long ago, about two years ago around this time of year, I was hunting with a few hunters in a safe area of Devil's Valley when we discovered a group of people walking towards us from the depths of the valley. We were terrified, thinking that the devil had come out of the valley.
But this place is a safe zone, how could there be any demons here? So I wanted to find out for myself.
We hid in the grass, watching the depths of Devil's Valley with bated breath. After a while, a group of about twenty people emerged from the valley.
They didn't ride horses, but led them forward. The person in front carried a stick with a cage on it containing several rats.
The man held the rat cage high, as if he were holding a flag.
The appearance of these people surprised us greatly; judging from their clothing and attire, they were not locals.
Since it wasn't a demon, there was nothing to be afraid of, so we hunters emerged from the bushes.
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