The Secret Way of Immortality

The group arrived at Pingding Mountain.

As they approached the mountain village, their mood improved, and they even started chatting and laughing.

It would be relatively safe to find lodging in the village for the night, and they only needed to persevere for one more day to meet up with the jailers.

Only Ren Qing's expression grew increasingly solemn, and he deliberately led the team to slow down, taking the opportunity to observe the surroundings.

Those villagers who had suddenly left had not returned for more than half an hour, so they must have encountered an accident.

Or were they being driven by something?

Xiao Wu scratched the swollen lump on his face from a mosquito bite and couldn't help but excitedly say, "We're finally reaching the village."

"Li Quan, are you home?!"

Guo Qing shouted loudly as he headed straight for the village on the mountaintop along the winding path.

But the only response was complete silence, with only the whistling sound of the mountain wind passing through the gaps in the thatched huts.

The strangely shaped trees around them appeared somewhat eerie under the shadow's shroud.

Guo Qing, unwilling to believe it, rushed into the village, and Wang Wen and the others quickly followed.

Ren Qing stopped Xiao Wu and Zhu Ding, standing at the entrance of the village and constantly probing the environment with his double pupils, quickly finding the location where footprints gathered.

He approached, bent down to observe the footprints, and found that the depth was consistent, and even the spacing of the steps was similar.

"What's wrong, Brother Qing..."

Xiao Wu's voice trembled, but he noticed that Ren Qing was still relatively calm, and he calmed down as well.

"It's nothing, I'll just wander around and find a house to stay in for the night."

A guess arose in Ren Qing's mind, and he followed the footprints towards the depths of the village.

Zhu Ding lost his backbone, and he couldn't help but approach and whisper, "Officer Ren, why is there no one in the village?"

"Don't scare yourselves, maybe they left temporarily because of an emergency."

Ren Qing arrived at the end of the footprints, which was a towering tree that had grown for hundreds of years. The villagers should have gathered here at the time.

The towering tree itself was not unusual, but Ren Qing noticed striped marks on the surface of the trunk, which seemed to be left by dried mucus.

Ren Qing carefully inspected the marks and then picked up a fragment of an insect carcass, which was mixed with some minced meat.

It was actually a snail.

Song Rong...

His target was indeed in the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area, and he had set off several days earlier than the jailers, perhaps he had already found the forbidden area.

As for why he risked being discovered by the jailers and returned to Pingding Mountain Village to control the villagers, Ren Qing couldn't figure it out.

Ren Qing subconsciously grasped the blood heart that the yamen had distributed in advance. As long as he wanted, he could contact the jailers to come.

However, now that he had figured out the situation, he calmed down instead.

On the way here, his double pupils did not detect any insects or animals with eyeballs, indicating that Song Rong did not dare to wantonly deploy informants.

So, with Song Rong's cautious nature, facing such a situation, he would never easily show himself.

In addition, he was already old, and even if he extended his life, he could not change his weakened body, which made it even more impossible for him to expose himself in the open.

Ren Qing only needed to be careful to prevent animal attacks, and it should still be safe.

At this moment, Guo Qing walked out of a thatched hut not far away with a look of shock on his face.

He said to Ren Qing, "Officer, the houses in the village are all empty, and even the tables have meals laid out..."

Wang Wen, who was half a step behind, believed that the villagers had been transferred by the jailers, so he didn't care.

"Since there are no signs of fighting, it means the villagers left voluntarily."

The group discussed for a moment, and seeing that Pingding Mountain was about to be shrouded in darkness, it was impossible to travel at night.

Ren Qing quickly ordered, "Let's stay here for the night and set off early tomorrow morning."

He chose a larger thatched hut and quickly lit the wood with a fire starter, and the warm flames gradually dispelled the cold.

It was a good opportunity to put the carried dry food on the fire to heat it up, otherwise it would be too hard to eat.

The humidity in the mountains was isolated outside, and the temperature difference between morning and night was close to ten degrees.

Xiao Wu yawned, and suddenly the fatigue of the day's continuous travel erupted, and everyone couldn't help but feel sleepy.

Ren Qing felt fine, he relied on the pig eyes in his stomach to digest constantly, and his physical strength was constantly replenished.

"I'll arrange the night watch first, so everyone can rest for a while."

Because there were seven people, Ren Qing, Xiao Wu, and Zhu Ding formed a team, and the remaining cooks and constables were divided into two teams.

Each team kept watch for about an hour, so they could concentrate their energy.

Ren Qing reminded, "Remember, don't go far from the house even when relieving yourselves, there may be wild animals in the mountains."

The crowd agreed, and they used furniture to block the wooden door to prevent it from being blown open by the mountain wind.

Those who were not on night watch went to sleep by the bonfire, and snores would sound from time to time.

Zhu Ding stood guard at the window vigilantly, standing up and walking around a few times when he was sleepy.

Xiao Wu washed his face with water, then walked to Ren Qing and said, "Brother Qing, you should go and rest for a while, I and Zhu Ding will watch."

"How can I rest? We can't be slack in this situation."

Ren Qing's eyes swept across the mountain forest outside the window, and he could vaguely see bats flying over the treetops.

Xiao Wu didn't bother him any further, added some firewood to the bonfire and went to keep watch.

Ren Qing was secretly pondering Song Rong's intentions in coming to the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area, feeling that it was only separated by a layer of window paper, but he couldn't break through it.

He simply changed his way of thinking.

If I were Song Rong, what would be the reason for going to the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area...

Song Rong's cultivation must be promoted through strange objects of the same alienated path. Could it be that there are ghost envoy realm strange objects of the Hundred-Eyed One and the Skin Peeler in the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area?

Impossible, the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area has not shown similar abilities at all.

Song Rong would never do anything without certainty.

Unless he was sure that the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area had the strange object he wanted, maybe it has nothing to do with the Hundred-Eyed One and the Skin Peeler.

Ren Qing realized that Song Rong used the ability of eyeballs to possess animals, and suddenly reacted, his expression becoming extremely complicated.

To remotely control animals, even if only indirectly, it is unrealistic to rely solely on the Hundred-Eyed One's ability to create illusions.

It means that Song Rong has a third spell.

In fact, the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area has also shown similar abilities, which can control the cooks from a great distance. The two should be the same alienated path.

It seems that the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area does have the ghost envoy realm strange object that Song Rong wants.

Ren Qing was glad that he had the information stream.

It can be seen that the drawbacks of devouring strange objects to master spells are too great, otherwise how could Song Rong be trapped in the mere half-corpse realm.

No matter how Song Rong calculates, he still has to leave his life to fate after entering the Disaster Elimination Forbidden Area.

Ren Qing didn't have a good way to deal with it, so he had to meet up with the jailers first, and then it would be none of his business how to deal with it.

An hour passed in a flash.

The night watch was taken over, and Ren Qing lay beside the bonfire pretending to sleep, but in fact he spared some energy to observe the No-Eyed Method.

And in the darkness, a pack of mountain wolves was rushing towards Pingding Mountain.

Thanks to book friend 160506141214740, Mu Longtu, and Youzhong Juice for the reward.