The place where the strange old man was just now was empty.

It's as if he never appeared.

"Have you ever seen an old man with a patchy face and a height of about one meter six?"

Aono asked Taiichi Kaneshiro.

"Old man? Plaques on your face? ”

Looking at Kaneshiro Taiichi's dazed expression, Aono already had the answer in his heart.

But the strange thing is that he didn't have the slightest suspicion and awareness?

Aono touched his chin.

The old man was just an ordinary human being, neither a ghost nor the product of some kind of hallucination.

But even if it's your own inspiration, you can't trust it 100%.

Just as what the eyes see, what the ears hear, and what the nose smells is not necessarily true, so is inspiration, which is just a more acute means of perception.

"Look at this."

Aono handed the broken pottery shard to Taichi Kaneshiro while observing his reaction.

"What is this?"

"It is said to have been excavated from Sarin, or it could be the fragments of clay pots from the archaeological record."

"What!?"

Kaneshiro's face changed slightly, of course he had read the archaeological record.

It is no stranger to the pottery shards in it.

"Can you smell that strange smell?"

Aono asked, Kaneshiro Taiichi's demeanor showed that he didn't recognize it at the first time.

Kaneshiro Taiichi took the pottery shard, sniffed it carefully, but shook his head gently.

A puzzled look looked.

"There's no smell in the notes, isn't it too long?"

Aono's eyes sank slightly, and he didn't say anything more.

Too much inspiration always allows him to observe more existences that ordinary transcendents cannot discover.

Perhaps, it influenced his thoughts and made him see the old man.

It's this inexplicably upsetting smell.

Aono also found some random scribbled scratch paper in this wooden hut that resembled a utility room, and his face was covered with dust.

When you brush off the dust, it looks like a scribbled line, and you can't find the slightest pattern.

But after watching it for a long time, it will only make people feel upset.

It is conceivable that this is obviously the paper that Takeshi Takaji and his party once left behind.

In fact, they searched for Saleen more than once.

This is also documented in archaeological notes.

This passage illustrates the origin of these seemingly useless drafts.

It's just that under Aono's eyes, these lines have obvious traces of transcendence.

It was under the influence of some supernatural force that they became this state.

Aono looked at it for a moment and realized that he couldn't get any more information from the face.

He left the hut.

By the way, he asked the transcendents who stayed in the village about the situation, including the old man with a patch on his face.

To Aono's surprise, nothing was gained.

Aono was not discouraged.

There may be some huge secret hidden in this mountain forest, and it is not surprising that it cannot be discovered for a while.

Aono raised his head and looked at the tall mountains not far away, surrounded by turquoise barriers.

The blood flowing in his veins, as if it had been cold, seemed to be unusually restless because of the existence hidden here.

The body temperature is slightly elevated.

'It's going to be fun, isn't it?' ’

From an angle that Kaneshiro Taiichi couldn't see, Aono burst into a smile.

——————————

One o'clock in the afternoon.

After eating a lunch made of simple food, Aono and his party set off again.

This time, the destination is Salin.

The sky was not raining, but the air was high in moisture.

The sky was shrouded in a faint mist, and the mysterious mountains rose and fell in the pale sunlight that filtered through the mist.

This time, the tour guide was a middle-aged man with a strong body and dark skin.

He is in his fifties, but he looks far younger than that.

In fact, he is also the youngest villager left in Higashihan Village, and the others are only sixty or seventy years old.

Because the Nagoya Rangers paid a lot of money, the middle-aged man behaved very enthusiastically.

"To be clear in advance, I'm only responsible for bringing you to your destination, and whatever happens to you there, it has nothing to do with me."

Before leaving, the middle-aged man said to Aono and the others.

The simple opinion of the villagers is likely to think that the people in the city are cunning and do not want to take responsibility, and this kind of statement is very normal.

So, people set off.

The people who acted this time, in addition to Aono and Taiichi Kaneshiro, there were also three Nagoya local transcendents.

In fact, Aono wanted to explore with Taiichi Kaneshiro at first, but such a request was refused.

In Kaneshiro's opinion, they can always play a role.

The three of them are also quite confident in their own strength and insist on following.

Aono could only reluctantly agree.

And looking at their expressions now, although they are a little nervous, they are more excited.

Even if people had read the note, in their minds, it was the reaction of ordinary people to strange things.

Even the subsequent disappearance of the two A-class transcendents proved the danger of this incident.

But this only stirred up the impulse in their hearts even more.

As the so-called - wealth and danger are sought!

From the perspective of "profit", the Nagoya branch attaches great importance to this incident, and the rewards are naturally extremely rich, not to mention being able to be promoted to the position of team leader in one fell swoop, there will be a lot of resources tilted.

And from the perspective of "name", if they solve the crisis that even A-class transcendents can't solve, wouldn't it prove themselves.

Under the double temptation of fame and fortune, it is normal for them to appear slightly excited.

Aono silently shook his head in his heart.

Fame and fortune are very tempting, but you have to have a life to get it!

Lu, Aono and the tour guide chatted about some folk rumors about Salin.

Ten years later, this tour guide does not have a particularly strong awe of Sarin like Ishitaro in the notes, and he does not seem to particularly believe in the mountain god "Sacrifice Cricket".

It should be that later life in the city changed some of the tour guide's concepts.

"Salin, it's not an auspicious place."

The tour guide said casually while leading the way.

"This is an ancestral precept handed down from a long, long time ago, what is the sacrifice of the mountain god?"

"Sacrificial crickets!"

Behind Aono, a girl made a crisp voice and reminded the uncle tour guide.

After saying that, he quickly glanced at Aono, peeked for a moment, and then withdrew his gaze, pretending that nothing had happened.

This is the only female transcendent in their team - Chibon Yayoi.

It's also the girl who was surprised when she greeted Aono at the beginning.

She wears a refreshing single ponytail, and it can be seen that she has painted a layer of light makeup, which is a little beauty.

In fact, in the eyes of the transcendents that Aono is currently in contact with, the transcendents whose extraordinary abilities tend to be powerful will not be much worse in appearance.

On the one hand, this has the effect of transcendent qualities that will subtly improve the human body.

On the other hand, it is the transcendent nature itself.

It seems that the more good-looking a person is, the more powerful the extraordinary abilities he can control, and the more likely he is to get closer to those beings who are difficult to describe in words.

Of course, this situation is not absolute.

The existence of Shu Ito fully illustrates this point.

Chibon Yayoi's ability is also a special kind.

It is possible to connect the minds of two people directly – not in a completely blended way, but only in an invisible filament.

To a certain extent, the effect of information sharing is achieved.

Considered the only one of the three transcendents who was more useful.

The remaining two are both combat-type transcendents - since Aono is here, they can't play a role.

Regarding Chibon Yayoi's actions to secretly spy on Aono, Aono himself and Taiichi Kaneshiro are well aware.

It just wasn't indicated.

The girl's thoughts, they can all understand.

The two glanced at each other, and they both saw the hard work of being a handsome guy, and for a while they felt a little "the same is the end of the world".

"Yes, that's where the Laush crickets live."

The dark-skinned tour guide said happily.

"But in my opinion, he is not very powerful, otherwise our village would not have fallen to this point."

Uprooted from home, the village was deserted, and he moved to live in the big city.

It seems to be easy and life is better.

But the depth behind this is something that only they can understand.

"Have you heard of that cave in Sarin?"

Aono asked again.

"Caves?"

The tour guide frowned, thought for a while, seemed to remember something, and then took a slight breath.

"You can't be talking about that strange hole, right?"

"What strange hole? Please be careful. ”

Taiichi Kaneshiro hurriedly asked.

"That's something that only the older generation knows, and few people like my generation know about it."

The tour guide said slowly.

He didn't deliberately sell it, it's just that those stories and memories are too far apart, and it takes time to recall them.

"Strange holes are called strange holes."

"It's the same thing as Saleen, it's something we fear, and very few people actually come into contact with them."

"Some people say that the strange hole is a bottomless pit that leads to the bottom and connects to another world; Some people also say that the strange cave is a very large and complex labyrinth, and those who enter it rashly can easily be trapped in the cave; Some people say that there are very dangerous monsters living there, and there is no chance of survival if they encounter it."

The tour guide smiled bitterly.

"When I was young, I didn't believe in evil, and I used to go to a strange cave with only a torch."

"Thinking about it now, I was really too young at that time."

"I walked inward and all the way in, and I did not encounter any labyrinths or terrible beasts. I just walked to the end of the cave, and I looked at my shadow, and in the dim environment of the cave, I was inexplicably scared, so scared that I ran out in a panic. ”

"Strange to say, it seems like I've been walking for a long, long time when I came, and when I fled, it seemed like only a short time had passed."

"I felt like I heard a buzzing sound in my ears that didn't stop for a week after I left."

The dark tour guide's eyes rarely showed fear.

It can be seen that the original incident left a lot of psychological shadows on him.

"If you're going there, I'd suggest you dismiss that idea."

"Isn't it something like 'magnetic field' and 'compound' that the Internet says? Maybe that's the reason why I reacted like that, but it's definitely not normal in that place anyway! ”

The middle-aged man swears.

"Okay, I got it."

Aono nodded slightly, hiding all his thoughts under a calm expression.