Lord of Deception

Walking out of the long and narrow valley, Yu Ziqing looked at the mist ahead, knowing in his heart that this Jinlan Mine was probably different from what he knew before.

The temperature here is at least relatively warm, and it is less likely to freeze to death.

But when I think about the female ghost I met before and the man-eating forest, I haven't heard those people mention it at all. According to the temperament of those people, it is probably impossible for them to get out of the abyss of despair.

In other words, there should have been no such changes when those strong men came last time. This happened only in the past two months.

As for the other people who appeared in that illusion, their appearance clearly looked like cannibalism, but they did not show the characteristics of practicing evil practices.

From this we can also make a guess. In the past two or three months, there have been too many changes here, which has made it difficult for this place to be self-sufficient. The most basic food must be in short supply.

No, there should be a serious shortage.

Otherwise, people who are not forced to lose their minds and are about to starve to death, and unreasonable and cannibalistic things will appear in large numbers, and the female ghost will not be so decisive in throwing the child in her arms off a cliff before she dies. .

Yu Ziqing slowed down, looked ahead, and made up his mind again, no matter what, he had to go.

Again, at least people should not starve to death.

Even if he was hacked to death with random knives or eaten alive by demons, it would still be better than being frozen to death or starved to death in the freezing wilderness.

I'm afraid of being cold, I'm afraid of being hungry.

Let’s settle down in the mine first. If the Jinlan Mine is important to some big shots, there will definitely be people who brave the cold wind to come here.

Taking those few invulnerable evil strongmen as a reference, their strength can only be used as teeth in this remote wilderness, and the man in the south who has been mentioned many times by the old gentleman, the so-called Daqian Shenchao, can come here. Definitely stronger.

Coupled with the changes that occurred in the Thousand Miles of Wilderness, no matter what the situation was before, there will definitely be people who want to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the Jinlan Mine, and there will definitely not be just one or two people who come here.

Then we will think of ways to leave the wilderness and go to the warmer south. This is the best choice. Anyway, Yu Ziqing is fed up with the weather that is freezing to death all day long.

This is the new short-term plan, and now, it is how to settle in the mine.

While Yu Ziqing was still thinking, Lao Yang bit Yu Ziqing's cloak, glanced at the road ahead, and shook his head at him.

"Old sir, do you want me not to go? Or do you want me to be more cautious and investigate first?"

Lao Yang was silent for a moment and shook his head.

Yu Ziqing understood Lao Yang's worries. It was impossible not to go. He was already here and there was nowhere else to go. It would be nonsense to go and investigate. He was alone, and he was still powerless. He was hungry. A half-dead frozen chicken.

It is completely useless to hide the traces and explore the unknown ahead. If there are still living people inside, it will be equivalent to having evil intentions and showing cowardice after being exposed.

Thinking about what happened to the female ghost in front of her, showing her timidity is equivalent to delivering food.

After comprehensive consideration, Yu Ziqing still planned to walk in openly. No matter what the situation, he must first pretend to be confident.

Yu Ziqing took the old sheep and continued to move forward with the rest of the flock.

Walking out of the valley in front of us, the temperature climbed again, and suddenly there was a clanging sound ahead, as if the fog had parted, and a piece of life suddenly appeared in the dead world.

The land was slightly barren, with sparse hay dotted on the surface. On a slightly higher ground, there were holes in the ground, and people were entering and leaving the holes.

A little further away, you can still see the recessed areas dug out on the hillside. There are piles of soil outside. At first glance, they look like crude cave dwellings.

He smelled the smell of burning flames and the aroma of steaming food. He also saw people walking deeper with pickaxes on their shoulders, and heard people with various accents shouting.

Yu Ziqing stopped moving forward. To be honest, he really didn't expect that this place would be like this.

Harmony is a bit like a dream.

Yu Ziqing could only stand still for a few breaths before someone spotted him in the distance.

"Here comes a newcomer..."

A shout with a long tail sounded out, instantly suppressing other sounds.

Those who seemed to be going to work all turned around, quickened their pace, and ran towards Yu Ziqing with cheers.

The expression was like that of an old country farmer who was about to go to farm. He couldn't hold back the surprise when he saw his grandson who hadn't been back for several years. Before his mind could react, his body was already rushing over with brisk steps, for fear of being late. , the most beloved grandson disappeared.

Yu Ziqing didn't feel any malice, but there was always something unreal in his heart.

He looked down at the old sheep beside him.

"Old sir, am I not in an illusion now?"

The old sheep shook his head, then raised his front hoof and stepped heavily on Yu Ziqing's foot.

Yu Ziqing carefully took out the recipe book in his arms and took a look at it, making sure that he could still recognize the words in it. I heard that you can't recognize the words in a dream, so it shouldn't be a dream now, plus the toes were stepped on for a while. The pain is coming, it seems to be real now.

The sheep following behind also rushed out in a swarm at this time to fight for some remaining hay on the ground.

The black-faced man who rushed to the front knocked down a skinny goat. He pressed the goat's head with one hand and lifted the goat's hind legs with the other hand. He looked down and immediately smiled. He put his right hand on the waist and lifted the goat. The dagger was already pressed against the goat's jaw.

The dagger was slashed downwards from the lower jaw, and in the blink of an eye a gap more than a foot long was made. Hot blood gushes out. The weak goat howled in fear, but could not break away at all. The black-faced man kept cutting with his right hand. Goat belly.

In just one or two breaths, the goat's skin was cut open. With a flick of his wrist, the dagger returned to the leather sheath on his waist.

He pulled the separated sheepskin with both hands and tore it hard on both sides. The sound of flesh and skin being torn was accompanied by blood gushing out.

The goat howled miserably, tilted its head, and then stopped moving.

Seeing that the goat no longer struggled, the black-faced man moved faster and tore off the goat's skin. He picked up the bloody sheepskin and shook it hard. The last bit of sheepskin still attached to his head fell off completely.

In an instant, the skinless goat fell to the ground and turned into a skinny woman covered in blood, naked and naked.

The black-faced man grinned widely, picked up the ignorant woman, and ran to the side with the wind at his feet.

"Hei Wa, you bastard, don't run away!"

There were angry curses coming from behind, and there was an old man carrying a pickaxe, blowing his beard and staring angrily.

Unfortunately, the black-faced man had already disappeared into a hole in the ground. The old man cursed a few words and had no intention of pursuing him any further. The people coming behind him didn't seem to be surprised either, and some even laughed and cursed.

What made Yu Ziqing feel a little confused was still behind. There were people carrying wooden sticks and others holding hemp ropes. After arriving at the place, they immediately set up a shelf with quick hands and feet.

Some people are driving the sheep, some are sharpening knives, and some are tying the goats' limbs and hanging them on a wooden frame.

After being hoisted and skinned, the skinless sheep transformed into human forms, and those who endured the pain of skinning were carried away.

Those who had not endured the pain and died on the spot were also carried aside and piled together like garbage.

In this short time, the scene became lively, like a village market.

But Yu Ziqing feels that it is more like an orderly assembly line, efficient and smooth.

Those who survived being skinned were cheered and some were fighting over them. Those who died were thrown aside. Even the few real goats mixed in were skinned and killed. Some people immediately lit a bonfire and set up a bonfire. A big pot big enough for a bath.

No one seemed to find anything strange about this scene.

Except Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing unconsciously stretched out his arms and tightly held the old sheep, preventing the old sheep from running away and preventing the old sheep from being caught and skinned.

In just a short time, all the goats that died after being skinned were quite young.

With the old sheep's current condition, I'm afraid he won't be able to bear the pain of being skinned.

Yu Ziqing held Lao Yang in his arms and stood there with no expression on his face... no, he was so shocked that he looked numbly at this scene, as if he had just seen the real world for the first time at this moment.

Even if we saw too many human lives being lost in the past few months, it would be better to overturn our three views now.

In a disaster, fighting and fighting were a normal development for Yu Ziqing.

When Ren Yazi appeared and killed people without batting an eyelid, Yu Ziqing thought it was a normal development.

Without resources, cannibals appeared. Although I was shocked, I could still find the words "when people are hungry, people can eat each other" to match.

But what was in front of me was completely different.

The people here are like ordinary people, like an ordinary village.

There is no ferocity on the faces of those people, no hostility in the eyes. If you don't look at the goats, this is a scene of a simple mountain village celebrating a big festival.

No one thought there was anything wrong with skinning those "goats" roughly alive. Some of them died, and the person who did it would just sigh as bad luck.

It's my own bad luck.

Rather than the goat having bad luck.

Yu Ziqing came back to his senses, and now suddenly felt that the current situation here was different from what he thought, and was actually quite normal.

Only in this way can they still maintain a harmonious and stable scene that seems harmonious and stable after several months of changes.

On the contrary, when it was Yu Ziqing who was different from everyone else, he was the one who was abnormal.

Watching the sheep being cut open one by one, the evil spell was broken, most of the people survived, and the dead were carried away one by one.

As for those real goats, except for the first one, all the rest were divided and carried to the high slope on the side, where the cold wind was blowing. The mutton would be dried in a few days. It is difficult to corrupt.

Everything is going on in an orderly manner.

To be honest, Yu Ziqing had guessed that there would be a way to unravel the evil spell here, but he never expected that it would be so simple and crude.

At this time, I saw an old man holding a cane slowly walking towards Yu Ziqing from behind.

The old man's eyes were cloudy, he squinted his eyes, and leaned his neck forward, as if his eyesight was not good, and he was still trying to see who was coming.

"The sheepherder is here, why are there so few this time?"

"The weather has changed outside. It's too cold. We can't see many living creatures." Yu Ziqing paused for a moment and then continued: "The sheepherders are all dead. This is the last time."

Hearing this, the old man was slightly startled, and the people behind him also stopped for a moment and looked at Yu Ziqing.

Yu Ziqing's expression remained unchanged and he pointed behind him.

This man looks like he has half a foot in the coffin. At first glance, he looks like a confused old man, but the first sentence he says is a trap for him.

When those shepherds were chatting, they never talked about the situation inside the mine. Moreover, with the special danger at the door, how could a murderous and merciless cannibal evil get in?

As his thoughts raced, Yu Ziqing felt that the best way to respond to the other party's temptation would be to be honest, which would save you worry and avoid being exposed later.

"I'm a kidnapped cook. I can't survive even a few days outside with them, so I brought them all in. I also have to rest here for a few months and leave when spring starts. Is there no problem?"

The old man looked Yu Ziqing up and down, and suddenly smiled.

"Okay, then you can stay here until spring, but we don't have idle people here."

"It should be."

The old man didn't ask how the shepherd died, and he didn't care about the old sheep that Yu Ziqing had been pulling. He directly asked someone to arrange a hole in the ground.

Each of the burrows on the leeward hillside has a space of about ten feet inside. The lighting and ventilation are poor, and the space is small. It is difficult for tall people to straighten their backs, but this is not a problem. They can avoid the wind and cold, plus the inside It's pretty good to have hay to keep you warm.

Resting in the ground, the old sheep lay on the hay, with drooped eyelids and exhausted, but Yu Ziqing still managed to hold on without rest.

"Old sir, I always feel something is wrong. They dared to let me stay without asking anything."

Lao Yang didn't respond. Yu Ziqing lowered his head and saw that Lao Yang had fallen into a deep sleep.

Yu Ziqing sighed softly, took out a few dirty robes from the looted salute, and covered the old sheep.

At this time, there was a sound outside.

"Hey, little brother, come and have some soup."

After getting out of the hole, there was a short man, carrying a wooden bowl, which contained more than half a bowl of clear and watery mutton soup, and two pieces of fat mutton. The strong smell and fragrance were crazy together. Drill into Yu Ziqing's nose.

The man kept swallowing, his eyes seemed to be locked on the wooden bowl in his hand.

Yu Ziqing shook his head.

"I'm allergic to mutton."

"What?"

"Eating mutton will ruin your stomach. Brother, just eat it and give me some boiling water."

"Oh, what a pity." The man's face was full of regret. He had a bad stomach, and someone might die here.

The man left with the bowl in both hands and came to the old man with bad eyes.

"Grandpa, he won't eat it and says that eating mutton will spoil his stomach. What should I do?"

"Hey..." The old man was a little surprised and grinned: "If you don't eat mutton, then stay here for now. You can ask him later what he will do. We don't raise idlers here."