Chapter Twenty-Five: Sacrificing the Village People

  At that time, I had a kind of fear that dozens of tongues were licking me at the same time. This big turtle stared at me with a dead gaze! And the dog behind me was nowhere to be found, now it can be confirmed that this dog is also in cahoots with this turtle. It's not taking me away from here, but bringing me right in front of this turtle.

  I swallowed a mouthful of saliva and tried to overcome my nervousness, asking the big turtle: "What are you? What do you want?"

  This big turtle at this time stretched its head a bit longer, usually when looking at turtles it's basically just from afar looking at their shells, but now observing its head up close. My heart is racing, feeling numb and tingly because the flesh on its head is mangled and disfigured. There are deep scars, sunken spots, and the color looks quite disgusting too, mainly due to that fishy stench.

  Fear is certain, but I can't just sit and wait to die. It seems that this thing has locked the door and returned to the top of the shed, not wanting me to leave. I take out the ghost mirror, ready to fight it, although the chances of winning are zero percent.

  I tightly grasped the ghost mirror, wanting to see what kind of move the big turtle would make. But this guy just stared at me with those eyes, without making any extra moves.

  "You big turtle egg, what exactly do you want to do? Stop pretending to be mysterious with me, I've even provoked a fox spirit before, so why should I fear you?"

  This is absolutely to boost his own courage, let alone it still stared at me with a dead expression, even if it didn't stare at me, its appearance by my side would be a very frightening thing.

  But no matter how I said it, this big turtle did not speak or transform into a human figure. This was somewhat unexpected for me. Could it be that this big turtle had not become a spirit? However, this thought flashed through my mind because it was impossible. How could something so large not have become a spirit?

  But since it ignored me, the thirty-sixth trick is to leave. I mustered up my courage and arrived at the gate, wanting to open the door. But before I even reached out my hand, this door actually opened strangely.

  Right after that, a coffin appeared before my eyes, and my hair stood on end again. I quickly ran back, but to my surprise, the coffin also followed me in. It was a black wooden coffin, carried by eight pallbearers, with many people following behind.

  That's right, it's a person. After all this time, despite the strange occurrences, I can still tell humans and ghosts apart. It's almost dawn, who would come here at this hour? And there was no noise beforehand!

  The people in front placed the black wooden coffin on the incense burner, and then everyone stood together. I took a rough look around and there were about twenty or thirty people. There were both men and women. Some of the women were still holding incense in their hands.

  They didn't say a word and stood in a line with great discipline. It was just like an ancient ritual! They acted as if I didn't exist, not even acknowledging me.

  I cast my gaze once again at the top of the gate, and unexpectedly discovered that the big octopus had vanished. At that moment, I felt a bit relieved in my heart - since it was no longer there, I should hurry up and leave. Can't be curious anymore! Now the big octopus is gone, and they're not paying attention to me either. If I don't leave now, when will I?

  Although I said so, I still couldn't help it, because I saw that all these people had gone to the main hall. They went there with incense in their hands, could it be that they were going to worship this big turtle?

  As I thought about it, I followed them in, with a question in mind - would that turtle statue appear again in the main hall? With a nervous heart, I followed the crowd into the hall, and indeed, I found the statue was there, and I remembered very clearly that this was definitely the same thing that was just on top of the gate.

  At that time, it was another great baptism for my soul. It really proved the words of Tang Bingxue: one mountain is higher than another. If I hadn't experienced this personally, I wouldn't have believed it even if you killed me. This can't be described as strange, but rather bizarre.

  They were indeed here to pay their respects, and I didn't want to say anything more. Since they gave me a chance to slip away, I'd better hurry up and leave. I quietly left the crowd and walked towards the entrance, thinking that this would be enough for me to leave. Who would have thought that just as I reached the door, I saw a man around my age walking in this direction? His skin was quite fair, and he even had a bit of a handsome look about him.

  I happened to run into him, and I gave him a slight smile. He also smiled slightly at me and asked, "Have you finished paying your respects inside?"

  I shook my head and said, "No, they just arrived."

  At that time he was taken aback, and it wasn't until then that I realized the words I had just spoken seemed somewhat inappropriate, hadn't I just blown my cover?

  As expected, he nodded and said to me: "You're not with them, are you? Then hurry up and leave! This isn't a good place!"

  "Oh?" I became interested and asked him: "Do you know what this place is?"

  "Uh-huh!" The boy nodded and said, "Of course I know, it's said that a turtle spirit lives here!" As he spoke, he suddenly didn't want to say any more. He waved his hand at me and said, "Alright, I won't tell you anymore. The less you know the better. Since you're not with them, hurry up and leave! This is a place of death, no one who comes in will have a good ending!"

  The man's expression was solemn when he spoke, his eyebrows furrowed in a mixture of fear and resentment.

  "Since this is a forbidden land of death, how can they still come in to worship that turtle spirit? And what's inside the coffin?" I stared at him and asked.

  "Ah...... there's no way out of this!" The man replied to me.

  It was clear from his expression that the man knew what was going on here, but he didn't want to tell me. After sighing, he was about to go in, and I grabbed him.

  "What are you doing?"

  "Don't go in either, since you said it's a forbidden death zone."

  Although I just talked to him, I can feel that he is a good person from his words. I saw this big turtle just over ten minutes ago. Of course, I couldn't let him go in and die.

  "I have to go in, the villagers are all inside, and as the village head, I must also go in. This turtle spirit is just a legend, no one has seen it with their own eyes. I suspect there's something else at play here. Although I came with them this time, I want to tell them not to be superstitious anymore. As for the evil door here, it must be something else, not a monster."

  This is probably the legendary young man with ambition, resolutely refusing superstition. However, becoming a village chief at such a young age is quite impressive. But all this doesn't matter, what's important is that he can't go in.

  "This is not a legend, it's true, I saw it with my own eyes, there really is a giant turtle here."

  "What?! The man's eyes widened after hearing it, "What did you say?"

  I continued to tell him, "Although I don't know why you want to worship that big turtle, but I'm telling you, that big turtle really exists. And besides the big one, there are also some small turtles, all of which I've seen with my own eyes."

  "Is what you're saying true?" The man asked me again for confirmation.

  "Of course I don't have to cheat you. There is a particularly large turtle shell here, and the carved image inside is?"

  The man blinked his eyes and said to me: "I know you won't cheat me, but what you said here..."

  The man hadn't finished speaking when a gurgling sound of bubbling water came from inside...

  "You listen, this is what that turtle egg does!" At this time, my heart began to tense up again.

  "Gurgle......" "Gurgle......" At this time, the sound grew louder and louder, and then people inside began to scream in terror.

  I knew something was wrong inside. The man didn't continue talking to me and instead ran in directly. I followed right behind him!

  At this moment, the people who had just gone in to fetch the offerings began to rush out of the main hall in a state of panic, all with anxious expressions.

  "What's going on, what's going on?" the man asked these villagers, but no one paid attention to him, and they all ran towards the gate. This really proved that saying, when disaster strikes, everyone flees for themselves, but this is just human nature.

  Just then, with a "bang", the two doors at the entrance closed together once again.