Whispering Verse

Returning to the shore, Shade put on his shoes and socks, while the girl in the black skirt also sat on the stone on the shore and put on her white stockings and a pair of black leather shoes.

Shade squatted by the stream and washed his hands before picking up the night watchman again and carrying the [God's Gift Box] on his back.

The girl in the black skirt did not introduce her name, but clasped her hands behind her back and asked curiously:

"Sir, may I ask why you went into the mountain?"

Blue eyes looked at Shade with a smile.

"I made an appointment with my friend to go to Summit Lake to see the scenery."

"But in the past two weeks, the Five Gods Church has blocked the road to the top of the mountain, and now it is impossible to go up there."

The top of the mountain is also an important venue for large-scale magical rituals prepared to re-seal the narrow realm of life and death. No matter what the church considers, it will not allow ordinary people to enter there again in the near future. However, Granny Cassandra must have considered this, so Shade was not worried that he would not be able to climb up:

"So madam, what are you doing going into the mountains alone? Although the front-end of the Middleburg serial murder case has been solved by a captain, a girl of your age should not go into the mountains alone."

"I was in the mountainous area inspecting the old villages in the Sikal Mountains to prepare for my graduation thesis."

The girl in the black skirt raised the notebook in her hand, and the old villages in Xikal Mountain refer to the isolated villages scattered in the mountains before the city was established. But with the advent of the steam age and the increasing prosperity of Midhill Fort, most of the young people in the mountain villages moved to the cities below the mountains. So within a few decades, most of the villages in the Sikal Mountains were abandoned:

"Is there a small mountain village near here?"

Shade was very curious.

"Yes, sir, right over there."

The girl in black skirt pointed to the other side of the stream, but in the dense mountain forest, it was impossible to see whether there were any mountain villages and settlements in the distance:

"I'm going to take a look. Sir, are you willing to accept my employment and protect me temporarily?"

She smiled again and said to Shade, her blue eyes looking a little transparent in the sunlight.

"You believe me so much?"

"When you were carrying me on your back just now, I noticed that you were carrying two guns. If I guessed correctly, you were holding an object wrapped in cloth, which should be a long sword inserted into a scabbard. More importantly, you don’t look like a bad guy, and bad guys don’t look as handsome as you.”

"Why?"

Shade asked curiously, and the smile on the girl's face became brighter:

"If you have a look like this, it's easy to make money. Why do you need to do bad things? Sir, I bet you are a detective."

"Yes, Shad Suren Hamilton."

Shade did not say "John Watson", but gave his real name. In fact, his real name was Shade:

"Madam, are you really a student of the history department, not the folklore department?"

"Folklore and history are sometimes not clearly distinguishable."

As he turned around, the red butterfly pendant around his waist swayed. The butterfly seemed to be alive for a moment, but after just blinking, it returned to its normal appearance.

"Sir, please come with me. There is a wooden bridge over the creek over there."

Shade did not refuse, and just followed the girl in the black skirt, crossing the wooden bridge upstream of the stream, which was actually a rotten wooden board, and arrived at the other side of the stream, further away from the road up the mountain.

Walking into the jungle again, the late autumn midday sunlight was completely blocked by the shade of trees, and the temperature seemed to drop accordingly. The girl in the black skirt is a good talker. While leading the way, she asked Shade various questions.

His identity, his family, his life, the difference between Fort Midhill and Tobesk, and even asked about the box that Shade was carrying, and Shade still said "the evil beast is sealed here" to explain.

As for the girl in the black skirt herself, she didn't say much. She just admitted that she has a twin sister, and she is waiting for a long time for her sister's return.

"Do you have a good relationship?"

"Yes, it's great. We vowed to be together forever."

After walking for half an hour, I still saw no trace of a small mountain village ahead. The girl in black skirt stopped in the clearing of the forest. Shade looked around suspiciously, but still saw no trace of the village.

"Look."

The girl in the black skirt suddenly stretched out her finger and pointed to the right front of the two of them. Shade looked up and saw a fiery red butterfly swaying in the forest. Its body seems to be transparent, and it can leave red light spots around it when it moves.

When Shade paid attention to the red butterfly, it flew deeper into the forest, as if to attract the two of them to go over.

"That's it. There are often red butterflies like this near that small mountain village!"

The girl in the black skirt said, grabbing Shade's hand and quickly chasing after him. Shade tried to break free a few times, but failed, so he simply followed the girl in the black skirt and chased the red butterfly deeper into the forest.

This kind of reckless behavior is usually the beginning of a horror story.

The dense trees made the forest become darker and darker, even a little eerie. At the same time, more and more red butterflies gathered from all directions and appeared around them. Those red butterflies flew among the leaves and grass, becoming the brightest light source nearby, adding a misty color to the gloomy scene.

The concentration of whispering elements is becoming more and more terrifying as the two of them continue to advance. The light dimmed, whispers murmured, and a dark wind swept. But surrounded by red butterflies, Xia De didn't feel the slightest impact of the relics.

"Look, here it is."

When the two finally stopped, the surroundings were as dark as night, but swarms of red butterflies still surrounded them, shielding them from the dark wind and resisting the invasion of the whispering elements.

In front of them is an old village located in the mountains and forests, which looks like it has been abandoned for a long time. Most of the buildings that can be seen are made of straw and mud, and the two houses at the entrance of the village have completely collapsed. The road into the village was almost covered by weeds, and as far as the whole village could be seen, except for the central tower, there were no buildings with more than two floors.

Not only that, Shade could even see the black fog surrounding the village, as well as a vague figure wandering in the village. This was probably a scene that would only appear in horror stories. For the Ring Warlock, this is obviously a location-based relic, a location-based relic attracted by the chaos of the four elements in the Fort Midhill area, just like the [Sin Mansion].

"There is such a place in the mountains. It's not easy to find it."

Shade looked at the girl in the black skirt, who was still smiling:

"Sir, this is my goal."

She held Shade's hand and refused to let go. When she turned to look at him, her blue eyes seemed to be shining under the reflection of the red butterflies around her.

"Ma'am, are you sure you want to enter this place?"

Shade asked hesitantly:

"In the stories people usually tell, the beginning of tragedy is often the situation we are facing now. A deserted village shrouded in black mist in the mountains, a man and a woman who accidentally broke in, stories and tragedies hidden for hundreds of years, and buried in the deserted village. Secrets and horror. If my writer friend knew this story, maybe he could publish a good detective novel right away."

PS: Good news to announce. One year after the completion of the 5 million used book "Lord of the Strange World", the author is not here, it has finally reached 10,000 orders. Interested readers can take a look.

After the end of this volume, the author will update a linkage chapter here, which will not have any impact on the main plot. The story time point is after the end of the third volume and before the official introduction of the plot in the fourth volume.