CH 88

"Don't move, don't move!" When Li Huowang's voice echoed in the dark bamboo forest, everyone froze in place.

They stood there motionless, looking up at the rows of bamboo tips above their heads, afraid that these things would just plunge straight down.

"Don't move." Li Huowang said, lifting his right foot and taking a step forward.

The others saw this scene, their hearts instantly rising to their throats, but when they saw that the bamboo above their heads had not changed at all, they all breathed a sigh of relief.

Li Huowang took a few steps forward and turned around the surroundings, but the bamboo was still the same, with no changes.

"Is it...is it just the bamboo in this crappy place that looks weird?" Gouwa hesitated.

Li Huowang didn't dare to guess whether it was or not, and began to shake the bell with one hand. The gamekeeper, formed by the lines, quickly circled the bamboo forest.

After a while, when the gamekeeper came to Li Huowang and said that there was no problem, Li Huowang's heart finally relaxed a little.

He was not relieved by what the gamekeeper said, but by the strange feeling of being stared at disappeared.

Li Huowang did not immediately put away the gamekeeper, but moved forward with it.

Although the sound of the bell was dizzying, it was still better than being ambushed by the so-called "Lunar 18".

"Follow me, let's hurry through this forest."

Li Huowang shook the bell and walked towards the bamboo forest. He flicked the clasp of the cowhide bag with his finger, and the instruments of torture inside quickly spread out at his hem. Under the illumination of the fluorescent stone, these things emitted a faint cold light.

At this moment, everyone held their weapons and held their breath, one after another, closely following, afraid of falling behind and never catching up.

As time passed, the bamboo tips above their heads became lower and lower, and they were even touching the roof of the carriage.

The sound of the bamboo tips scratching against the carriage roof was piercing and sharp, making everyone feel oppressed, but the gamekeeper still showed no signs of any enemies.

Walking through this strange bamboo forest, everyone had the feeling of something crawling in their mouths, and those bamboo tips were the sharp teeth of that thing.

In this environment, Li Huowang didn't know how long he had been walking, and the dizziness made him lose his sense of time.

Suddenly, he felt a light in the distance, an exit!

Excitedly holding up the sword that was as sharp as mud, he swung it hard, and a large area of bamboo was cut down, and the dazzling sunlight shone in.

The sun in the sky made everyone instinctively squint their eyes. It was too bright. Looking at the position of the sun, it should be afternoon now.When everyone had recovered and looked ahead, they couldn't help but widen their eyes. They had actually seen a village behind this strange forest.

The distant green tiled houses were scattered and arranged unevenly, just like all the villages Li Huowang had seen on the way.

And beside a clear and bottomless pond at the entrance of the village, some young girls and women were pounding clothes while chatting and laughing about trivial matters.

"Senior Brother Li, are you sure this is the place? Did we go to the wrong location?" asked Xiao Man with a furrowed brow.

After quickly filtering through the location given by Mrs. Master Jingxin in his mind, Li Huowang put away the Dao Bell in his hand and took a step towards the village in the distance.

"Stay alert and don't let your guard down. Maybe this is just an illusion of 'Lunar December Eighteenth'," he warned.

"Lunar December Eighteenth... could it be a village?" Bai Lingmiao muttered to herself.

Her words were also Li Huowang's thoughts. The only information he could get from Master Jingxin about Lunar December Eighteenth was that it was red.

As Li Huowang and the others approached, the women washing clothes were the first to notice them. They picked up their clothes and whispered to each other as they walked towards the village.

As this large group of people with black veils and bamboo hats approached, they obviously attracted the attention of the villagers. Groups of young adults holding some farm tools gathered at the entrance of the village, with a guarded look in their eyes.

"Outsiders! What are you doing in our Wu family village? Are you passing by or visiting relatives?" shouted an old man with a goat beard from afar.

Li Huowang's gaze swept over the faces of all the villagers, but he didn't see anything unusual. From the surface, this seemed to be just like a normal village.

"Could Lunar December Eighteenth be here?" Li Huowang wondered.

When he heard the village chief's second sentence, Li Huowang led his group over and opened the map in front of them, bowing and presenting it to the village chief.

"Excuse me, is the location on this map your village?"

"What? You're asking for directions?" The old man took the map and began to whisper to the people next to him.

Li Huowang stared at their faces intently, observing any expression they made.

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After a long discussion, the village chief handed the map back with both hands. "Outsider, you've got the wrong place. The location on this map is two or three dozen miles away from here."

"Wrong place? We haven't arrived yet?" Li Huowang quickly calculated the distance from An Ci An to here in his mind. Master Jingxin said it was two hundred miles, and he wasn't a machine, so a little error seemed normal."Hehehe, my apologies, I was reckless and ended up at the wrong place." Li Huowang politely bowed to the people in front of him.

"But, sir, the sun is setting soon. Can we stay here for the night? We've been on the road for half a month and we're quite tired."

"Well..." The village chief looked at Li Huowang and his companions with obvious suspicion.

"Sir, please be kind and let us stay for the night." Li Huowang smiled and leaned in, his long robe brushing against the village chief's hand.

Feeling a slight weight in his palm, the village chief's expression changed and he pinched his fingers.

"Alright, our west wing is empty, you can stay there. But remember, just for one night."

As the two carriages rolled towards the village on the moss-covered stone road, Gouwa leaned in and whispered, "Senior Li, didn't we go to the wrong place?"

Li Huowang glanced sideways and caught sight of the villagers peeking out from behind the door.

"Maybe we didn't go to the wrong place. Maybe this is where we're supposed to be."

After being out for so long, the most important thing he had learned was that he could only believe a person's words to a certain extent.

Since the evil spirit on the 18th of the twelfth lunar month could take on any form, a complex village like this would undoubtedly be a very convenient hiding place.

He didn't know if it ate people or not, but if it did, this village would be a very convenient feeding ground.

His eyes began to search for any red objects in the village, but even after entering the houses, he couldn't find any red.

Standing under the village archway, the village chief clasped his hands and looked at the outsiders in front of him.

"Let me make this clear, Wujiacun has many rules that have been passed down from the previous generation. We cannot change them. If you want to stay here, you must follow the rules. If you can't, then leave now."

"Rules?"