Chapter Fifty-Four: Mysterious Text

  The girl spoke and tears fell again.

  "Big brother, do you know? In my dream, the moment I saw my dad, I even thought of dying. Dad didn't say a word, and let my hands pound on his chest... After a long time, I was tired, and Dad finally sighed heavily, gently pushed me away, beckoned to me, indicating for me to follow him."

  Where was Father taking me? I was terrified, got out of bed and followed him. Outside, it was all white mist, I couldn't see a few meters in front of me, my line of sight was like being covered with a layer of gauze, only seeing the faint outline of Father's broad back in the white fog. He took me into the dense forest behind the mountain, underfoot were mud, fallen leaves and animal bones, all wet with cold dew, and it seemed to me that I heard a sound...

  I walked and walked in the dew and white fog, getting farther and farther away from Uncle Gaba's house until I was completely covered by the black forest. Since childhood, people have said that the back mountain is full of vengeful spirits, like hell, whoever walks into the back mountain at midnight will lose their way, and their soul will be taken away by the evil demons in the mountain. I was both shocked and afraid, wanting to shout loudly for Father to stop his footsteps, but Father didn't listen, only rushing forward with a quick pace.

  Dad quickly took me into an abandoned village and stopped in front of a large pagoda tree. The pagoda tree was particularly strange, with one side being clear and the other shrouded in mist... What place is that? You should have guessed it by now." The girl said with a sigh.

  "Dead village! It's the dead village you took me to!" I blurted out.

  "Yes." The girl nodded, "Dad stood up straight and faced me, staring at me for a long time. Suddenly, he leaned in close to my ear and said a few words that I couldn't understand at all. I was instantly stunned, shaking my head repeatedly saying I didn't hear what he said."

  What her father said in her dream that she couldn't understand must be the secret hidden in the ancient well's ominous rumors. My heart skipped a beat, "And then?"

  "Dad saw me shaking my head and saying I didn't understand, suddenly took out a pink stone from his pocket and wrote a few lines on the old locust tree. The little girl was recalling that dream with all her might."

  "What did your dad write?"

  "What he wrote was not Chinese characters, nor English, I didn't recognize it, but in my heart, I memorized all those lines of words. Although more than a year has passed, even now with my eyes closed, I can still write them out. Dad told me that these words hide a great secret, to remember it, to guard against anyone who tries to pry into this secret, and then he disappeared. I woke up from the dream crying, seeing Ah Ba standing in front of the bed, his face full of concern."

  "He didn't ask me why I was crying in my dream, if he had asked that night, maybe I would have been scared and told him about the things in my dream... Later on, I pretended to be crazy and wandered around every corner of the village, catching many people's attention, and learned that this so-called secret was actually a hidden secret in the ancient well legend. And there were many people prying into this secret, I gradually closed myself off and made up my mind to keep this secret deep in my heart."

  Her dream is also too bizarre, right?

  "So you don't recognize those strange characters either, and you don't know what they're recording?" I couldn't help but ask.

  The girl bit her lip and nodded, "But I can clearly write out those strange characters. Otherwise, I'll write two words for you to see."

  She thought for a moment, gently pulled my palm over, and slowly drew several specially arranged lines in my palm with one finger. There were straight lines and curves, these lines combined into everything, looking really like some kind of text. These complex texts were written by a completely unknown girl in her early teens, it was simply unbelievable!

  But that is not a Chinese character, I almost know all the Chinese characters, Traditional, Seal Script, Clerical Script and Regular Script are not difficult for me. That's also not English, because the lines she drew on my palm do not have any trace of English letters at all.

  In fact, I don't know this character at all.

  The girl stopped scribbling on her palm and asked me in a low voice, "Big brother, do you recognize these two characters?"

  I shook my head, "Don't know."

  She saw my solemn expression and chuckled, "Look at you, so tense. Don't worry if you don't recognize it. After we escape from Duanhun Cliff and get through tonight, I'll write down all the symbols for you, and then you can figure out how to decipher those texts yourself."

  I was shocked all over and suddenly remembered something.

  No, these strange characters should still be recognizable by someone in this world, and the person who can recognize them is in Fenghuang Town. Who knows, maybe they're even near Duanhun Cliff right now!

  These are Jin Xiangyu and Qiu Yan! They are descendants of the Western Xia, so they should be able to recognize the characters left by their ancestors! But, Yatou is at odds with them, will she agree to let me show this secret to them? Moreover, in front of Duanhun Cliff right now, there is a village chief like a tiger and wolf, it's not certain whether I and Yatou can walk down the cliff alive tonight!

  I was so engrossed in talking to Yatou that I had forgotten the heart-wrenching fear, but now it suddenly came back to me, and I couldn't help but shiver with a chill. I looked over at the village chief sitting in front of Duansheng Cliff, just in time to see his fierce gaze fixed on me and Yatou!

  This guy has been harassing us for half the night, and he doesn't show any signs of fatigue at all. He hasn't let his guard down against us for a moment! As I gaze at the fish belly white gradually appearing on the horizon, thinking that it will be even harder to escape his clutches after dawn, my heart is burning with anxiety.

  No way, must get rid of this guy's entanglement before dawn, think of a way to leave the Soul-Breaking Cliff!

  I gently pushed the little girl leaning on my shoulder and whispered, "It's almost dawn, the village chief is full of energy and won't have a chance to doze off, we need to think of another way to leave here!"

  The little girl was startled, raised her head and gazed at the dark sky, a pair of bright eyes sparkled mischievously as she blinked twice, and suddenly said, "Big brother, I've got an idea!"

  "What's the solution?"

  "We'll find a way to lure the village chief, that scoundrel, into Dead Village and then get rid of him!" Yatou replied.

  "Go die in a village?"

  "Hmm. I'm very familiar with the situation in Dead Village, and he's never been there before. With this thick fog, we can definitely shake him off. Let's think of a way to rescue Little Brother after we're safe! The village chief won't dare do anything to Little Brother until he gets the secret, that old devil is afraid of being tricked!"

  "Alright! Then hurry up and tell me how to get to Dead Village!"

  The girl suddenly pointed to a place where thorns were growing densely at the mouth of Duanhun Cliff and said in a low voice, "Just now I was busy talking to you, I actually forgot such an important thing. That place looks full of thorns, but in fact there is a small path leading directly to Dead Village, outsiders don't know."

  I followed the direction of Yaotou's pointing and looked over, and indeed saw a thorny thicket, dark and dense, with no visible path inside. However, since Yaotou said there was a road leading to Dead Village, then there must be a road!

  Moreover, that place is fifty or sixty meters away from the village chief's seat, but only ten meters away from me and the servant girl. If we suddenly ran towards that escape route, the village chief would not have time to react!

  I was overjoyed, grabbed Er Tuo's hand and stood up, "I'll count one, two, three, and when I reach three, we'll start running!"

  The girl nodded slightly.

  I grasped Xiao Tou's hand, glanced at the village chief in the distance, and saw that he had also stood up. Time was of the essence; if we didn't make a run for it soon, he might discover our intentions? I quickly counted to "three", pulled Xiao Tou's hand and sprinted like an arrow across the narrow stretch of road on Duan Hun Cliff, then crouched down and slipped into that thorny thicket.

  "What are you doing?! Are you trying to get yourselves killed?!"

  Only by running can we survive, not running is truly courting death! In the darkness, I and Yaotou ran desperately along the small path hidden in the thorny bushes, with a bright spot chasing behind us, revealing the sinister face of the village chief.

  Everywhere was pitch black as ink. I didn't know how much longer I had to run before reaching the dead village, but I knew that the village chief behind me was getting closer and closer, even his panting could be heard clearly.

  The girl bit her teeth and stumbled after me, sprinting all the way. Her clothes were cut open by thorns in countless places, but she didn't care about these at all, just wanting to escape into the dead village as soon as possible and shake off the devil behind her.

  About ten minutes later, I and Ya Tou finally rushed into the dead village, behind us came the village chief's devilish roar: "What is this place? Do you think you can escape my palm by coming here? Hehe, you also underestimate Dai Yongguo too much!"

  I grasped Ya Tou's hand tightly, and we didn't dare to leave the village chief's threat behind. We ran through the abandoned houses and soon arrived at the old locust tree in the village.

  Under the reflection of dawn, the air in front of the old locust tree is clear and bright, while behind the tree it's still thick with fog, just like my last visit. This old locust tree seems to be a boundary point between the world of yin and yang, this side being the world of light, and that side being the underworld.

  I and Xiao Tou exchanged a knowing smile, then plunged headfirst into the dense foggy world behind the pagoda tree!

  Perhaps due to the morning, the density of the fog was even higher than last time. In the thick fog, I couldn't see Lü'er's face even though she was right next to me, and all I could hear was her soft gasps for breath.

  We were really exhausted, and as soon as my sister and I ran into the thick fog, we couldn't run anymore. My sister pulled her small hand out of mine, panting, "Big brother, if that bad Village Chief dares to chase us in here, I'll use those things from last time to deal with him, teach him a lesson..."

  "What was that thing that attacked the autumn wild goose last time? Recalling the scene where I couldn't tell east, west, north or south under the attack of those things, my whole body's hair stood on end and fell to the ground. I quickly adjusted my breathing and asked, 'Girl, what were those things?'"

  "Have you heard of man-eating insects?"

  Cannibal insect? I was just about to tell Liao that I had never heard of it, when a hand suddenly emerged from the thick fog and covered my mouth. In a low voice, it whispered in my ear, "Don't move, follow me!" Soul forbidden

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