Chapter 52: Gathering

Under the seemingly regular but actually strange life in this holy village, there are actually many things that bother me, but the most annoying thing is the clothes they uniformly distribute to the villagers.

White sheepskin coats, white undershirts, white pants. If you go out at night, you’re as conspicuous as a searchlight.

Although the nights here are lit by oil lamps because of the power shortage… the contrast in color is just that.

I had never thought about this before because I had never needed to go out at night. But today, when I rolled up my sleeves and looked at the bugs crawling on my arms, I realized how difficult it was to go out. Even if this was already conspicuous enough, there were also village affairs that patrolled the village 24 hours a day.

However, there is no other way. The village is so ‘regular’ that there is not even any clean clothes for me to change. These clothes are collected and washed by the village affairs once a week. So, even if it is dangerous, I can only try to break through. It is not a solution to be trapped here indefinitely. Maybe Yueyue has thought of a better way.

In the vast darkness of the night, the entire village was quiet. It was already past the so-called bedtime, and in this village with its strict rules, talking was not allowed, so everything seemed to be overly quiet.

In the absence of any other options, I was extremely lonely, because I couldn’t avoid it after all. So when I rushed out of the house, I didn’t avoid anything, I didn’t dodge, and I didn’t slow down.

Because I had experience with this kind of insect, I just kept my head down and quickly followed the direction it was pointing in. What surprised me was that I didn’t encounter any village affairs along the way. I walked through the densely populated living area of the cave dwellings and arrived at a somewhat desolate place, and I was safe all the way.

This desolate place seemed very unfamiliar to me. The moonlight fell on the loess, reflecting a kind of indescribable light. I saw that the area was surrounded by low, low earthen slopes, and the place where I was standing was an open space surrounded by earthen slopes.

However, I didn’t expect to see Ruoyue here either, but in this quiet and empty environment, I actually felt a little bit of relaxation and a little bit of freedom… I wasn’t worried about Ruoyue because although the bugs no longer guided the way, they were still very active, which meant that the person carrying the same bugs was fine.

I casually squatted down under a low hill and lit a cigarette. Before I finished the cigarette, I heard the sound of footsteps. I didn’t feel any danger, so I just looked up and saw that it wasn’t Yueyue, but actually Lushan… We exchanged a glance, and Lushan quickly came over and squatted down next to me.

Even though we had been apart for ten days, the feeling of familiarity and trust between us had not been erased. Lushan took a cigarette from me and asked casually, “Chengyi, did you also receive Ru Yue’s bug?”

“Yes,” I replied simply, thinking to myself that no wonder it was different from the bug that Ru Xue gave me before. This bug is not as simple as a mother and child.

Then, I and Lushan whispered to each other, and all we did was exchange information we had obtained in the village. During the conversation, I discovered that we actually knew almost the same thing. He was also quietly observing everything, the only difference being that I had gone to the entertainment room and obtained more information from the bartender.

During my conversation with Lu Shan, everyone came one after another. Hui Gen was especially excited because he thought that such a gathering meant that we were going to take action. His mind was relatively simple and he didn’t observe as much as we did, so he didn’t feel the tremendous pressure from this mysterious village. He thought that we could still do what we did before, and that we could break through anywhere with our group.

Unfortunately, there are some forces in this world that we cannot subvert, even if we risk our lives. Why don’t we give up? We don’t want to think about it. Is it because we always want to move towards the light, even if there is only a little hope?

Compared to everyone, Yue was the last to arrive here. With her arrival, we were finally able to reunite after being separated for ten days. This is something to be happy about. Compared to being trapped in the village, cut off from all external contact, the feeling of being ‘lonely and helpless’ is that having a partner to rely on can always bring great comfort to the soul.

But I have to say, this is a miracle, and I didn’t expect this miracle to be created by Ruyue.

“Tell me, what happened?” I couldn’t help but be curious. If it was a coincidence for me to get here alone, it wasn’t a coincidence for everyone to get here.

Ruyue smiled sweetly and said to us, “What else could it be? Because I use gus. What I gave you was actually the most precious nest of gus on my body. To be precise, they are no different from the mother and child gus, but after special cultivation, they have formed a family centered on the mother gus. Unlike the child gus, which do not exceed four, the mother gus were placed by me in this place, so we can gather here.”

Ruyue said it lightly, but things are definitely not that simple. When you think about it, there are many things that are worth wondering about.

Looking at the curious looks on our faces, Ruyue casually brushed a lock of hair that was hanging down by her ear, and then said, “You know, my life is connected to my life-giving worm. To a certain extent, what it feels is what I feel. There are Taoist masters and cultivators in this place, but not necessarily masters of the art of the worm. Unintentionally, I thought to myself, since I can’t use my eyes to see this place, I can use my life-giving worm.”

Ruyue was referring to the fat silkworm that Ruoxue had left her. She never imagined that the effect of the life-affecting bug would be so great… It was entirely possible to think about it again, because the fat silkworm was not an ordinary bug. The most unique thing about it was that it had its own “level.” I guessed that it should have a spirit , an exceptionally powerful spirit, although it cannot be called a soul… And the feeling of being connected to life is so strange, as if part of Ruoyue’s soul is also resting in the fat silkworm. The highest method of planting a life-affecting spirit is also that kind, so the fat silkworm is Ruoyue’s eyes.

In fact, Silly Tiger could have done the same thing, but he was just too conspicuous. Here, there was also a Taoist master, and in comparison, the fat silkworm of Yueyue played a greater role.

After understanding this, I felt a vague excitement in my heart. I looked at Ruyue and said, “So you know all the topographical information about this village? Then…”

“Not only that, I know even more.” Ru Yue told us to calm down and then told us everything she knew in detail.

First of all, the reason we haven’t encountered any village affairs on our way here is that, through the observations of the fat silkworm every night, Ru Yue discovered a strange rule, that is, every night after we finish the so-called worship, the village affairs patrols the area once, that is, after about half an hour, they will mysteriously disappear for one to two hours.

It’s just that we’re usually restricted by the rules here at night, and we’ve never thought about going out to find out, so we thought the village affairs were always patrolling. This is a misunderstanding caused by the rules, so we’ve also suppressed our unusual caution.

Ruyue discovered this rule through the fat silkworm, so she let us go out boldly.

As for why she mysteriously disappeared and where she went, Ruyue kept it a secret for the time being.

Then, Ruyue gathered us all together, and she proceeded to light our lighters in turn, and began to draw a strange topographical map for us.

“This is what the village looks like. In this large plain, which is sandwiched between the valleys, the center is actually like this,” she said, drawing a simple column in the middle, and then explained, “This is an independent mountain in this plain, with high and low loess slopes next to it. From here, it is a small, low mountain.”

Ruyue drew a line on the column to indicate a path… Although Ruyue’s drawing skills were not very good and her drawing was very abstract, we still understood the meaning.

It’s like a cake with a strawberry in the middle. The strawberry is the mountain standing in the plain, and the rest is naturally the plain where we live. Since we are not overlooking it from the air, we naturally can’t find this…

“And the so-called village is actually divided into nine areas, all arranged in a circular shape around this low mountain. When you came, I knew through the mother’s senses that Third Brother was here, and Brother Chengxin was here…” Ru Yue gestured one by one, and soon clearly drew a picture of where we were.

Naturally, I also understood that the place where she had gathered us should be a forbidden place, just the entrance to the path that leads into the low mountain. Ru Yue said that she had drawn it very small, but in fact it was very large, and the entrance was just such a small flat area surrounded by mountains.

The entrance? But where is the entrance? I looked around, but I didn’t see it at all!