Chapter 9: The Bloody Aura Spreads

  Earlier, due to the earth slope blocking the wind direction, only Liu Yi with a keen sense of smell detected the faint scent of blood. When everyone stood on the mountain top, they all smelled the strong vortex airflow blocked by the slope, mixed with the intense bloody smell.

  Lin Xuewan couldn't bear the bloody atmosphere and the killing aura that filled the air, so she squatted on the ground with her arms around her chest, covering her mouth as she dry-retched. Ma Liuji pretended to be concerned, running over to pat her back and comfort her, but no matter how you looked at it, he seemed to be taking advantage of the situation to grope her.

  Looking down from the top of the slope, it is a forest, different from the dense forest that has been passed before. The middle of this forest has a huge open space, and the edge of the circular open space is lined with wooden houses in a circular shape. In the center of the open space is an altar, and there are four wide roads leading to the outside world in the southeast, northwest, and northeast directions, taking the altar as the shooting point.

  The whole village and the four roads, from a macro perspective, are like a small sun emitting four lines that penetrate the forest and disappear. They saw from afar that a bonfire was burning in the center of Kekou Village, and a group of people holding weapons were walking around the altar. Due to the distance, they couldn't see their faces or know what they were doing. But for an ancient village like Kekou Village, the appearance of people holding modernized weapons is certainly not a good thing, and everyone's heart rose with bad premonitions.

  "We're a step too late, and the invisible enemy is still ahead of us!" Liu Yi said expressionlessly as he gazed at the bonfires in the distance.

  "But I don't know whether Korkwood is dead or alive?" Professor Zhou Tao's facial expression was solemn, with a worried look.

  No matter whether it is Professor Zhou Tao's research on ancient Qiang culture or Liu Yi's journey to find his father, the most important person at present is Keke Mu. If he dies, it will be unknown where to go to find the descendants of the tribe that held the "Crystal Sheep Head" for a long time. Only the tribal priests have the possibility of using the "Tongling Shu" to decipher the hidden information in the Crystal Sheep Head and continue to follow this clue to continue searching. Although Liu Yi and Professor Zhou Tao have different goals, their worries are the same, and both of them are filled with anxiety in their hearts.

  Liu Yi led the way down the mountain slope, and the others followed closely behind. They descended the mountain slope and walked quickly along a man-made road that had been opened up.

  This road is not made of mud, nor sand, nor stone pavement, but is composed of planks of wood joined together.

  Through this road, we can imagine that the ancient villagers of Keke Village were sweating and cutting down big trees to open up roads, and then manually processing the cut-down trees, applying moisture-proof and damp-proof materials on them, and then utilizing them locally to pave a high-end, elegant and upscale wooden floor road like this.

  This road has been through countless years, yet it doesn't emit the slightest hint of decay, leaving everyone who walks on it in awe. With each step forward, the bloody smell grows thicker, and not only Lin Xueyan can't bear it, but even Professor Zhou Tao and Liu Yi, with his keen sense of smell, are also struggling to cope. They borrowed a curved knife from Big Beard and cut off a piece of cloth to cover their noses, slightly reducing the intense odor.

  Among this group of people, only Da Hu Zi and Ma Liu Ka had seen bloody scenes before, so they could barely tolerate the smell. But when they walked halfway, the two suddenly felt a terrifying aura in the intense bloody smell, their body hair stood up, as if walking in the dark night, with countless wild ghosts floating behind them, emitting a strong resentment towards people. The further they walked, the more intense this terrifying aura became.

  The road was long and winding, and it wasn't until about half an hour had passed that the group caught sight of a faint light coming from the village entrance, and made out the figures of guards patrolling back and forth with heavy weapons in their arms.

  They stopped and conferred for a moment, then turned sideways and slipped into the dense forest.

  Entering the forest, there was no road, so they had to carefully weave through the gaps between trees, treading softly as they moved forward, afraid of making any noise that might be discovered by the villagers, which slowed down their speed.

  After an unknown period of time, they finally arrived at the edge of the village.

  That intense bloody atmosphere and terrifying feeling became more and more concentrated, the timid Lin Xueyan's whole body was trembling.

  Liu Yi and Malacca stood on either side of her, each holding one of her hands, passing on the courage of men. Professor Zhou Tao furrowed his brow, lost in thought.

  They hid their figures in a cluster of shrubs of varying heights, and the place where they were hiding was only two hundred meters away from the central altar of the village, so that they could see the details inside the village.

  They looked through the bushes into the village, and the first thing that caught their eyes was the huge altar in the center of the village. The altar was made of white stone, about two meters high, with a diameter of about 50-60 meters. In the middle of the altar stood a watchtower, which seemed to be an ancient religious building left over from the fertility cult.

  When they saw the situation on the altar, they only felt a chill all over their bodies, as if they had fallen into an ice cave. The timid Lin Xueyan almost screamed out loud, fortunately being covered by Liu Yi's quick hand, otherwise it would have startled the other party and would have been impossible to escape death.

  After Liu Yi covered Lin Xueyan's mouth, he only heard her make a soft "hum" before fainting in his arms.

  The remaining four men looked at each other, and saw a look of incomprehension in each other's eyes. This "fear" was strange, it would make you feel terrified from afar, but as you got closer, it would only make your whole body feel cold, but there was no fear in your heart.

  The big beard took out two binoculars from his bag and handed one to Liu Yi. Driven by curiosity, he widened his eyes and looked up at the altar.

  ……

  There were many people holding weapons walking back and forth around the altar, looking vigilant, as if they were guarding against someone's arrival.

  There were many corpses piled up around them, and judging from their clothing, they should be villagers from Koko Village. The corpses had no vitality, as if the last drop of blood had been drained out. The ground above had long been stained red with fresh blood, becoming a veritable "red land".

  That massive bloody aura was emitted from the surrounding corpses. The eerie breath they felt should be the vengeful spirit of the brutally killed residents.

  Liu Yi and the others gritted their teeth, their eyes blazing with fury. These unknown beasts had actually slaughtered the villagers in the village. But they didn't know why they had resorted to such cruel means.

  Malacca roughly estimated that there were forty or fifty enemies.

  Liu Yi and others were eager to capture one of them to ask: "Who are they? What did they come for? Why kill unarmed villagers?" But due to the disparity in strength between the two sides, they had to give up.

  On Liu Yi's side, apart from an aged professor and a timid female journalist, only three people had the ability to fight, with no chance of winning. He abandoned his plan for a surprise attack and quietly watched the altar, waiting to see what would happen next.

  On the altar, a wizard wrapped in a black robe sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, and his face was covered with what seemed to be a black veil. The whole person looked like a "black suit" man, emitting an evil aura all over his body.

  Liu Yi took a closer look and saw that he was wearing a chain on his right wrist, which consisted of more than a dozen small bells, but he didn't know what it was for.

  His surroundings were filled with the corpses of adults and children, at least thirty or forty, but it was unknown how long they had been dead.

  Two men stood beside the Taoist priest, one of whom was short and stout, a fatty. This man was another small leader in Ma's army, nicknamed "Huang Pangzi", who was the younger brother of the poacher "Huang Houzi" that Liu Yi and others met on the road. He held a dagger and stood quietly with his head bowed beside the Taoist priest in black robe, as if waiting for something.

  On the stone pedestal they stood on, countless grooves were carved in all directions, forming a strange pattern, unknown for what purpose.

  Suddenly, the black-robed cultivator abruptly opened his eyes, and his empty gaze shot towards the direction where Liu Yi and the others were hiding. Through the telescope, it could be seen that nearly four-fifths of his eyeballs were white, with dense, chaotic blood vessels covering the whites of his eyes.

  Professor Zhou muttered in a low voice: "Could it be..."

  Liu Yi was about to ask the professor what he had discovered, when suddenly a shrill, ear-piercing whistle came from outside. He saw that the black-robed Taoist priest had already stood up, his hands pointing at the sky and his head raised towards the moon. The whistling sound was coming from his mouth, like glass shards scraping against glass, sharp and unpleasant to hear.

  After the whistle, he turned his head and ordered something to the two people beside him. The yellow fat man and the big Han began to drag the corpses on the altar, arranging them into a large "five-star" shape. Then they lifted their heads and listened to what the black-robed priest said, then held a dagger and inserted it into the chest of each corpse.

  From a distance, the huge "corpse five-star" was right in the middle of the ground stripes. After the corpse's body was stabbed with a knife, fresh blood slowly seeped out.

  The black-robed wizard took a glance, pulled out a small bottle from his pocket, and sprinkled the powder inside onto the corpse. Then, with an irregular gait, he jumped into the middle of the "Stone Texture Gorge" and sat down on the ground with a thud, closing his eyes and muttering to himself.

  Liu Yi and others were all stunned by the eerie movements of the black-robed wizard, even Professor Zhou Tao, who had seen and known much, had his mouth agape as if an egg could be stuffed into it, staring intently at everything that was about to happen on the altar.

  Only the black-robed wizard's lips moved, muttering words, his hands constantly waving in front of his chest, the bells on his right wrist clashing and ringing out like a cold wind mixed with an icy arrow shooting in all directions. Liu Yi and several others listened dizzily beside him, while those under the altar covered their ears.

  In this process, the corpses that had been sprinkled with the unknown medicine powder by him had their fresh blood flowing faster inside their bodies, quickly flowing along the "stone texture grooves" on the altar and finally gathering around where the black-robed priest was sitting.

  The moonlight shines on the altar, and fresh blood emits a faint red glow, an unspeakable desolation, an inexplicable sorrow.

  The black-robed wizard suddenly stopped waving his hands, and quickly reached into his bosom to pull out a porcelain bottle. He poured the medicinal powder into his palm, licked it with his tongue, and then tossed his hands upwards. The powder fluttered and swirled in the moonlight, falling into the "Stone Gully Pattern" beside him that was filled with fresh blood.

  As soon as the blood came into contact with the powder, it started to boil and "gurgle gurgle" bubbles emerged. Then Liu Yi and the others saw that wisps of red smoke were rising from the bloody bubbles...

  Suddenly, an inexplicable wind arose around me, and the atmosphere instantly became eerie.