The shadow hung from the branch of a tree directly above my head, only about two meters away from me, but the fog was so thick that I couldn't see what it was.

I took my pickaxe out of my backpack and wanted to climb up a little further down the trunk of the tree. When the first pickaxe smashed into the bark, the tree burst into small fragments, and if I hadn't flashed fast, I would have almost been blinded.

When the flying particles were gone, I took a closer look at the small piece of bark that had been punctured by the pickaxe, and I saw that some sticky white sap slowly spilled down the crack in the bark, and they slid down the tree for a short distance, and then quickly solidified on the tree, looking like a small piece of rust stuck to the tree.

Only then did I realize that the entire trunk of the tree was evenly covered with this white rust similar to scale, so it was no wonder that the soles of my feet had a frosted feeling when I went up the tree just now.

Li Renfeng shouted under the tree: "Uncle Shi! ”

"What's wrong?" As I spoke, I looked down at the tree, but I couldn't see anything but fog.

I heard Li Renfeng say: "She seems to be waking up." ”

I replied simply, "Look after her." Then he quickly climbed up the talisman.

Less than a meter away from the cocoon-like shadow, I realized that it was a corpse wrapped in layers of white embroidery.

It also wore a white cloth around its neck, hanging from the treetops, the corpse swayed with the wind, and the white cloth was constantly rubbing against the trunk, this cloth was very tough, it wore through the bark, and the mucus dripped down the wound of the bark on the dead body, and then solidified in a very short time, turning into layers of white rust.

I couldn't see the whole picture of the tree, but I could imagine that this strange tree should be full of corpses.

Thinking of what the send-off team said, and the little girl's actions just now, I speculated that these bodies were brought by the send-off team.

When I came down from the tree, the little girl had already woken up, and she was looking at Li Renfeng with very vigilant eyes, which made Li Renfeng a little overwhelmed.

When I walked up to her, she asked me in a very vigilant tone, "You are not from Jiufeng Mountain, who are you?" ”

Looking at the way she spoke, she didn't have the childishness that a seven or eight-year-old child should have, but showed a kind of steadiness that only adults have.

She didn't look like a child, and I didn't plan to talk to her in the way of coaxing a child, so I squatted in front of her, took a deep breath, and said to her: "We are from the Soul Village, and we are here to find Old Ghost He." ”

"Soul Village?" The little girl muttered this, and her face showed a thoughtful and meditative expression.

Looking at her appearance, it seems that she has heard of the Soul Village, but for a while she can't remember where she has heard it.

She still has a lot of mood swings now, and I am afraid that talking too much will affect her, so I can only stand by without saying a word.

After a while, her body suddenly trembled, and then she shrank to the ground with her head in her hands, and her whole body kept pumping, and her eyes rolled straight up.

Li Renfeng became nervous when he saw her like this, and asked me, "What's wrong with her?" ”

I noticed a faint black gas emanating from the top of her head, and immediately leaned over, held her head with one hand, and pressed her in the other, and said to Li Renfeng: "Lay her body flat!" ”

Li Renfeng put the little girl on the ground according to my words, and at this time, the black qi that came out of the top of her head became more and more dense, it was a mixed Qi field formed by the mixture of Yin Qi and corpse Qi, it was impossible for corpse Qi to appear on the body of a living person, this Qi field was artificially planted into her body.

I took out a soul sealing talisman and stuck it on the back of her neck when the black qi was at its thickest, these evil qi were not too strong, and the spiritual charm of the soul sealing talisman began to dissipate quickly as soon as it came into contact with it.

When the evil spirit was almost gone, I tore off the talisman, put a pair of index fingers on the little girl's temple, and rubbed it slowly.

Her body stopped twitching, her face improved, and it took a few minutes for her to slowly open her eyes and stare at me silently.

I asked her, "Are you better?" ”

She nodded at first, and then asked me, "Are you a left-hand man?" ”

"I am."

I responded with this on my lips, but in my heart I was thinking that when she first mentioned Jisoul Village, she still couldn't remember where she had heard of it, and now she actually said my name directly. It seems that she should be very familiar with the Soul Village, and it is very likely that the evil qi that was entrenched above her head just now sealed her memory.

I asked her, "Do you know where Old Ghost He is?" ”

She shook her head, then fell silent.

After a long time, she asked me, "Are you really Zuo Youdao?" ”

I didn't answer, but asked, "What happened to Jiufeng Mountain?" ”

She didn't speak, she just stared at me, her eyes didn't roll.

I could sense her suspicion of us, so I took out the iron plate He Lao Ghost had given me earlier from my backpack, and when she saw this iron card, her eyes immediately widened.

"This is what Old Ghost He gave me," I said to her, "Old Ghost He told me that if I have any problems, I can take this iron plate and come to Jiufeng Mountain to find him." ”

Then she moved her gaze to my face again, but she still didn't speak.

I asked her again: "Are you from Jiufeng Mountain, what is going on here?" ”

She still looked at me, and after a while, tears fell, first sobbing, and soon turned into crying, she cried and shouted: "Nine sealed mountains are finished, nine sealed mountains are finished!" ”

Although this sentence was shouted, she deliberately lowered her voice as if she was worried that her cry would be heard by others.

Probably afraid that she would not be able to control her voice, she bit the back of her hand again, crying silently, and her whole body was shaking.

Li Renfeng opened his mouth, as if trying to persuade her, I waved my hand at Li Renfeng, signaling him not to speak.

At such a time, it is better to wait for her to calm down on her own.

This was more than half an hour, and when she stopped crying, she was still a little excited, and her hands and feet trembled uncontrollably.

She seemed to use a lot of effort to stabilize her breath, and asked me with a little crying, "Can you save us?" ”

I said, "I need to know what's going on here." ”

She was stunned for a moment before she said slowly: "Everyone has changed, they have changed, they are no longer themselves." ”

Li Renfeng asked beside him: "It's not yourself?" What do you mean? ”

"Don't speak," I waved at Li Renfeng, and then said to the little girl, "Go on." ”

She stabilized her emotions and spoke after a while: "A few months ago, two people came to Jiufeng Mountain, saying that they were going to take over Jiufeng Mountain. After that, the head of the house disappeared, and I don't know where he is now. ”

I was suddenly shocked in my heart, He Lao Ghost is missing?

I heard her continue: "After the head of the family disappeared, the two people from outside the mountain also disappeared. On the night when everyone proposed to go to the cave to find the whereabouts of the master, a heavy fog suddenly rose in the back mountain, and several people went up the mountain to check, but they never came back. The people who stayed at the foot of the mountain also seemed to be controlled by something the next day, one by one they all forgot that they were the people of Jiufeng Mountain, when I got up that morning, I saw that everyone was wearing red jackets, I don't know where these jackets came from, we Jiufeng Mountain have always been vegetarian and vegetarian, and we have never seen people wear such clothes. And they all forgot who they were, and everyone called each other strange names that I had never heard before, and in their eyes, Jiufeng Mountain seemed to have become a small village deep in the mountains. ”

She spoke for a long time, and her breath was a little unstable, and I interrupted her at the right time: "What about you? Why aren't you like them? ”

"At first, I really didn't become like them," she responded, "but then I found out that my memory was getting blurred day by day, and a voice kept echoing in my head, telling me that my name was Xiaohua, the granddaughter of the village chief, and that I had almost forgotten my real name during that time, and thought I was Xiaohua." But I still have a trace of sobriety, I know that something is wrong here, so I always want to escape, but every time I go into the fog, some invisible people will catch me back. ”

Hearing this, I thought of Liu Shangang's disappearance, and immediately asked, "The invisible person?" ”

She nodded, a hint of fear on her face: "I can feel someone grabbing my arm and hair, but I can't see them, I really can't see them, they seem to be ...... Transparent. ”

I pointed to the white tree behind me: "What's going on with this tree, why are there so many corpses hanging on it?" ”

The fear on her face grew deeper as she looked at the tree, and I shifted between her and the tree so that she could only see me.

I heard her say: "The others say that this tree is the god of the mountain, and it is because the god of the mountain is not satisfied with the tribute of the villagers that he has attracted a heavy fog and wants to trap the people of the village in the mountain forever." Every once in a while, the villagers would send the virgin here, saying that they were going to marry the mountain god, and the fog would not disperse until the mountain god was satisfied. I was already in my thirties, but one morning when I woke up, I found that I had become the way I am now, and many people came to my house that morning, and they said that I was a saint, and as long as I was dedicated to the mountain god, the fog would naturally disappear. ”

With that, she fell silent again.

I frowned, glanced at the tree behind me, and thought to myself that this tree had no spirit at all, it was not a spiritual creature at all, and it could not be a mountain god.

Feeling that she had almost calmed down, I continued to ask her, "Was this tree originally here?" ”

She immediately shook her head: "This land used to be the altar of Jiufeng Mountain, but I don't know when it started, the altar disappeared, but such a tree appeared. ”

I asked her again, "Who are Xiao Wu and Goudan?" The people who just sent you here mistook us for these two people. ”

"Every once in a while, someone will go missing from this side of the back mountain," she thought for a while and said, "Most of the people from Jiufeng Mountain are staying in the back mountain, but there are also people stationed on the side of Face Mountain, and some people are active outside all year round. Every time someone goes missing from the back mountain, the people from the face mountain will come over and take their identity and integrate into the 'village'. Xiao Wu and Goudan are the two people who disappeared not long ago. ”

I took a bottle of water out of my backpack and handed it to her: "What do these people usually do in the 'village'?" ”

She poured a large mouthful of water and responded, "The men plough the land and fish, and the women do needlework at home, day after day, every day." In the past, the people of Jiufeng Mountain also had to plant the land, but they didn't plow the land every morning and sow new seeds, like them, every day. In the morning, they dig out yesterday's seeds and plant new ones in the ground. ”