In the dead of night, Han Zhen was lying alone on the earthen bed of a farmer's house in Lijia Village, thinking about what happened during the day.

After being invited into the village by the villagers, Han Zhen was led into the largest tile-roofed house in the center of the village. According to the villagers, this was the home of the village chief, the old man who persuaded Han Zhen to leave before.

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Then, the simple villagers went home to get some food and drinks, and sent them to the old village chief's house to entertain Han Zhen, a foreign guest.

Although there were no delicacies, it was still a rare feast for Han Zhen who had eaten wild game for several days.

During the banquet, the village head of Lijia Village gave Han Zhen a general introduction to their small village.

Under the introduction of the village chief, Han Zhen learned that the entire Lijia Village only had a dozen households, and because it was close to the mountains and forests, there was not much flat land suitable for farming. Most of the households in the village relied on hunting for a living.

After introducing the general situation in the village, the old village chief looked at Han Zhen worriedly again, as if he was hesitant to speak.

Looking at the old village chief's expression, Han Zhen probably guessed that the old man was trying to persuade him to go back again, so he simply asked: "Old man, you just said at the entrance of the village that there are monsters on Foshou Mountain. What's going on?"

Hearing Han Zhen's question, the old village chief hesitated for a moment, sighed again, and then said to Han Zhen: "Hey, this matter is very strange. The old man doesn't know that our small village has provoked the mountain god.

, or some kind of wild monster. But it probably happened one night three days ago."

As the old man slowly narrated, Han Zhen also understood the general story of what happened.

More than 80% of the more than a dozen households in Lijia Village make a living by hunting wild animals in the mountains.

And the Foshou Mountain on the back of their small village is basically undeveloped, but it is not too far from the surrounding towns, and there are often some hikers entering the mountain.

There are a lot of wild boars, badgers and the like in the mountains. In fact, tigers, leopards, jackals and wolves are basically invisible.

Therefore, most experienced hunters who are familiar with the conditions in the mountains will probably not be in any danger when entering the mountains. There are often hunters who simply stay in the mountains overnight because of poor harvests, waiting to catch something the next day before returning to the village.

And what happened happened three nights ago.

Three days ago during the day, Li Gen, a hunter in the village who was about forty years old, went into the mountains to hunt, but he did not come back until the sun returned to the west.

At first, his wife and children were not very worried, guessing that he probably didn't hunt anything during the day, so he settled in the mountains.

Li Gen's wife made a fire and smoke as usual, prepared dinner for the two children, and put them to sleep after eating.

After finishing a busy day, Li's wife felt that the weather was unbearably hot that night. She glanced at her son and daughter sleeping soundly on the bed, and simply opened the door and walked out to take a breath.

After opening the door, Li Gen's wife casually strolled in her yard. The summer night mountain breeze blew by, and a feeling of comfort filled her heart. She looked at Foshou Mountain in the distance, which seemed to be sleeping in the dark night.

Listening to the chirping of birds and insects from time to time in the mountains is also a relaxing thing.

Li's wife stayed in the courtyard for a while, feeling that the sweat on her body had subsided, and then turned around and went into the house to prepare ingredients for tomorrow's breakfast.

But just as she turned her head and was about to open the door, a loud noise suddenly came from the Buddha's Head Mountain behind her.

This loud noise was like a thunderous explosion, which seemed to shake the entire mountain and tremble slightly. Immediately afterwards, a large group of birds were frightened and flew away, like black clouds suddenly rising in the dark night.

The woman, who was startled by the sudden loud noise in the mountain, looked back nervously, but except for the flock of birds that quickly disappeared, nothing seemed to have changed in Foshou Mountain.

Thinking that her husband was still in the mountains, Li's wife felt a faint twinge of uneasiness in her heart. Just as she was feeling uneasy, the lights of several nearby houses that had already turned off their lights were also lit up one after another.

Not long after, someone put on a coat and went out to check. Apparently, he was caught by this

The loud noise alarmed many villagers.

As more and more villagers gathered, everyone's discussions became endless.

Some people said it was just a thunder, some said it was a monster coming out of the mountain, and some people thought it was the villagers who went into the mountain to hunt and angered the mountain god.

However, no matter how these simple mountain people discussed, they could not come to a conclusion that convinced everyone. After seeing the loud noise, there was no change in the mountain, so everyone simply went back to their houses to sleep.

Only Wife Li, whose husband was still in the mountains, spent the night tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Early the next morning, Li's wife took some strips of bacon and personally went to the homes of several families who were friends with Li Gen to ask them to go into the mountains to find her husband.

In this small mountain village, most of the villagers get along with each other like family members. When they heard that Li Gen had not returned home all night, several hunters agreed to go into the mountain to look for him without thinking.

However, just as many hunters were preparing their bows, crossbows and shotguns and preparing to enter the mountains, several children suddenly ran from the entrance of the village crying.

The hunters immediately realized that something was wrong and quickly ran to the village entrance without saying a word.

When everyone ran to the entrance of the village, the scene in front of them made several strong hunters take a breath.

Li Gen, who had gone into the mountains the day before and had not returned home all night, was seen lying at the entrance of the village covered in blood with countless large and small wounds on his body.

An experienced veteran hunter hurriedly stepped forward to check. Only after taking a look did he realize that Li Gen had been out of breath for a long time.

If things had progressed to this point, if it were just the death of one hunter, the people of Lijia Village would not be in panic.

However, after several hunters took turns to look at Li Gen's body, the hunters who had seen bites and scratches from various animals all believed that Li Gen's injuries were not caused by the bites of wild animals, but rather seemed to be caused by cuts with swords and sharp objects.

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In such a backward mountain village, everyone's first reaction after an accident was not to call the police, but to immediately organize four or five young and strong men to go into the mountain to search for Li Gen's murderer.

But this decision to search the mountain not only caused heavy losses to Lijiacun, but also spread rumors that there were monsters in Foshou Mountain.

At this point in the village chief's story, he seemed to recall some horrific memory. He tremblingly picked up the wine bowl from the table and took a sip of the earthy liquor to calm down slightly.

Han Zhen, who was next to him, waited quietly for the village chief to swallow his drink before asking: "What happened next? Did something happen to the five people who went into the mountain to search for the murderer?"

The village chief's pale face seemed to be a little rosy due to the moisture of the wine. He breathed out something, and his mouth was full of alcohol, and then he continued: "I don't know if something happened to them all, but only one pair of brothers came back.

, one of the younger brothers desperately brought back the body of his eldest brother, but after this person returned to the village, he seemed to have been frightened and lost his soul, and completely turned into a madman. As for the other three, they just lived in the mountains without seeing anyone.

, there is no corpse left.”

"Then you won't go into the mountain to look for the remaining three people?" Han Zhen asked in confusion.

The old village chief didn't know whether it was because he was drunk or depressed. His eyes were red and he slapped the table and asked loudly: "Who dares to go in? I know you guys from the city don't believe in ghosts and gods, but

We mountain folk, because we have lived in the mountains for generations, have seen a lot of mysterious and ghostly things."

Speaking of this, the old village chief controlled his emotions and shifted the topic to admonishing Han Zhen: "Young man, listen to my advice. Don't go into the mountains now. Don't go in just to show your ability.

life."

Seeing that the village chief began to persuade him not to go into the mountain again, Han Zhen drank up the bowl of local wine in front of him without caring, and let out a "ha" sound stimulated by the spicy wine.

Then he said to the village chief: "Don't worry, old man, I have practiced kung fu. I have suffered a meal from the villagers for nothing. I will not eat for free. Tomorrow I will go into the mountains and help you get rid of these so-called monsters and monsters."

Hearing Han Zhen say this

He said that the village chief thought he was too drunk and was talking nonsense, and he quickly tried to persuade him: "You can't do it, you can't do it, you can't do this."

But no matter how much the old village chief tried to persuade him, Han Zhen just giggled and stopped talking. This made the old man think that this kid was drunk and talking nonsense. In desperation, he had to arrange for Han Zhen to stay in his own side room first, hoping to wait for him tomorrow.

Let’s talk after you sober up.

But Han Zhen was not actually drunk. Generally, the blood circulation speed of martial arts practitioners is faster than that of ordinary people, so these three or two bowls of local wine would not make him lose his mind.

However, he definitely had to go up to Foshou Mountain anyway. Instead of wasting his time explaining to the village chief, he simply pretended to be drunk and planned to sneak up the mountain before dawn the next morning, which would save him a lot of trouble.

Talking.

At this time, lying on the earthen kang in the folk area, looking through the open window at the lush Foshou Mountain in the distance, standing quietly under the bright moonlight, Han Zhen couldn't help but fall into deep thought: What will happen to the strange changes in this mountain?

Could it be related to the tomb that his master mentioned?

While Han Zhen was staring at the mountains in the distance in a daze, he had no idea that a thrilling chase was taking place deep in the mountains and forests.

A figure in torn clothes was running wildly on the dark and rugged forest path, making rapid breathing sounds. From time to time, he would look back and look behind him, as if he was being chased by something terrible.

However, the experience in countless movies, TV series and literary works tells us that it is definitely not a good habit to look behind you when running for your life.

Sure enough, at the moment when this man turned around nervously, his foot suddenly tripped over a tree root protruding from the ground, and he immediately fell to the ground.

When he tried to get up again, he realized that his foot seemed to be twisted, and he was unable to stand up due to the unbearable pain.

Looking at the dark woods behind him, the man felt that the thing chasing him was getting closer and closer, but no matter how hard he struggled, he could not stand the pain coming from his ankle and got up from the ground.

It's over, am I going to die here? In despair, this man crawled forward unwillingly.

I can't die, I can't die here, thinking like this, this man seemed to burst out the last bit of strength, and tried to drag his body into a bush on the roadside with his hands, and quickly pulled away a large amount of weeds and grass from the surrounding area.

The vines covered his body.

Then, the depths of the jungle fell into a dead silence again, and even the chirping of insects and birds seemed to have stopped.

Through the gaps in the grass and trees, the man looked around with his eyes wide open in fear. With the mottled moonlight shining through the gaps in the leaves, he was looking for something with difficulty.

Silence, deathly silence, in the deep forest on a summer night that should have been extremely noisy, the air seemed to be half frozen in silence.

One second, two seconds...ten seconds, suddenly! A withered and shrunken human foot fell in front of the hidden person.

The sole of the foot and the calf connected to it were like mummies that had been buried deep in the ground for many years. The skin was damaged, the flesh and blood were withered, and even large flakes of dead skin could be seen attached to it.

Then, another leg fell in front of him, together with another foot that was as dry as bones in a grave.

The owner of the two soles seemed to be searching for something on the spot. The naked and dry feet turned around in front of the hider's eyes, and then stayed in place for a moment. Finally, when he could no longer suppress his racing heart,

At this time, he turned and walked step by step towards the distance.

I'm gone, am I saved? I didn't dare to move rashly while hiding, and I held my breath and hid in the grass for more than ten minutes.

Seeing that the other party had not been found, he felt that he might have been saved. When he was about to take a breath, his pupils suddenly contracted.

He looked down at his chest in horror, and the rusty long sword pierced the weeds and vegetation covering his body, and then penetrated his back, nailing him to death while he was lying on the ground.

On the ground.
Chapter completed!