Chapter 90: Star Chasing Journey (Part 11)
It was noon.
The Hunter of the Strange team gathered in the “Starry Sky Room” where their captain was located.
Although Cosmic Village seemed peaceful, it was clear that after this investigation, everyone inevitably suffered.
One by one, they looked listless and pale, and no one knew what they had experienced.
Yu Jinling’s face was pale, and she occasionally dry-heaved.
“Liu Weiwei” sometimes stared blankly into the distance, and sometimes smiled eerily.
Song Ru was still immersed in the grief of losing her Senior Brother, silently shedding tears without saying a word.
Lu Junan huddled in a corner, silent, like a wilting little white flower.
Even the two highest-cultivators, Captain Chen Shanyuan and Kuang Bowen, were in a trance, constantly popping Clarity Pills, clearly suffering from mental pollution.
The one who looked most normal at the moment was “She Chan,” or rather Liu Sheng, who was heartlessly eating roasted skewers and flatbreads she had just bought, eating very elegantly, and even taking out a handkerchief to carefully wipe the oil from the corners of her mouth.
“Why aren’t any of you eating? It’s going to get cold. Roasted meat isn’t good when it’s cold; the fat will congeal.”
Liu Sheng’s words, however, elicited a chorus of retching.
Nevertheless, the fact that no one was lost was a good thing.
Kuang Bowen even took out his self-made low-level Guai Qi sensing talismans and roughly scanned everyone, finding no signs of transformation into weird objects.
Of course, it was also fortunate that Chen Shanyuan and the others did not have a true Ghost Qi Detector on them, otherwise they would have found that the Ghost Qi fluctuations on “Liu Weiwei” were extremely strong, oscillating between a Mortal and a weird object.
Liu Sheng, being the only one who knew, naturally said nothing, only silently observing Wen Weilan’s condition.
“Then, shall I start by sharing what we’ve found?” Chen Shanyuan adjusted his state, perked up, and took the initiative to speak.
“Although Li Mingzhu said we should go to the Science Museum for learning, we thought we should first understand the situation in the village.”
Chen Shanyuan would not admit that his head hurt as soon as he heard the word “learning.”
If not for that, he would have long since taken the National Academy examination; with his cultivation talent, why would he need to be a Hunter of the Strange!
“The villagers here are very kind. Although they look strange, they are not weird objects; they are basically naturally or Acquired disabled.”
“Moreover, most of them are Tang Country citizens who accidentally entered the Weird Domain.”
Kuang Bowen added from the side: “What’s amazing is that when we asked them about the time they entered, it ranged from two years ago to recent days. So, unlike what we understood about when the Weird Domain started, this Weird Domain has probably been open for a long time, just unnoticed.”
Liu Sheng and the others nodded.
They had also discovered this, but hadn’t expected it to trace back two years.
No wonder Cosmic Village had quite a population!
It was also a strange thing that ordinary people without cultivation could survive so long in a Weird Domain without becoming weird objects.
Liu Sheng voiced this question.
Kuang Bowen frowned and said, “We also find this quite strange. However, although they haven’t turned into weird objects, their minds are not quite normal.”
“They keep talking about ‘summoning aliens,’ ‘welcoming alien civilizations,’ and they firmly believe they can attract alien civilizations through some special means,” Chen Shanyuan interjected.
“We saw a few old men form a special suona-playing team, constantly playing suona towards the sky, saying it could ‘blow down’ aliens.”
Finally, Chen Shanyuan said with a look of disgust, “They also say weird things like ‘rotten apples,’ ‘worms,’ and ‘wormholes,’”
“However, we learned that these statements and practices are all related to their Cosmic Village Chief.”
“So we went to the Cosmic Village Chief’s house.”
...
The Cosmic Village Chief perhaps loved solitude.
She did not set up her home in the village, but on a small dirt hill outside the village.
All around were weeds taller than a person. They pushed through the grass and climbed the slope until they finally saw the Cosmic Village Chief’s house.
Looking at the small, dilapidated house before them, their hearts immediately pounded, and they had an ominous premonition.
This was an instinctive premonition from a cultivator.
They didn’t know what was inside the house.
But it was clear that the house had been uninhabited for a long time. It was covered in cobwebs, overgrown with weeds, and even a Xiao Shu sprouted from a hole in the roof.
Chen Shanyuan was the first to step forward, gently pushing open the rickety, decaying wooden door. The door hinge creaked, breaking the surrounding silence.
Dust and cold air rushed out, making him sneeze a few times.
He held his spirit bead lamp high, illuminating the dim interior of the house.
“This… it doesn’t look like the Cosmic Village Chief’s residence…” Lu Junan leaned his head in to look and said.
Indeed, it was just an ordinary family’s main room, even more rustic and simple than the houses of the Cosmic Village villagers they had seen.
Except for the strange fact that a tree grew inside the house.
This tree grew from a crack in the floor beneath the central table in the main room, pierced through the table, grew all the way to the roof, then poked out through the hole, peering at the starlight.
The three of them circled the bedrooms and kitchen, finding nothing special.
However, from the floral dresses in the bedroom closet, it could be seen that the Cosmic Village Chief seemed to be a woman.
But these dresses seemed to have too little fabric, with only two thin straps on the shoulders. Wouldn’t that be indecent?
Chen Shanyuan gestured on himself, somewhat puzzled.
However, these dresses seemed to be quite old; with a slight pull, he broke the straps, and the brittle, yellowed fabric crumbled into pieces.
Chen Shanyuan awkwardly scratched his head, then suddenly heard Kuang Bowen calling him from the hall.
“What’s up?”
Chen Shanyuan walked out of the room and saw Kuang Bowen intently studying the tree trunk on the table, deep in thought.
“This tree, something’s not right.”
“I also think it’s really strange. How can a tree grow out of a house?” Lu Junan had been following right behind Bowen, meekly agreeing.
Kuang Bowen mused, “That’s not entirely strange, but I always feel there must be a much deeper section of the trunk below.”
Chen Shanyuan said, “We’ll know if we chop it open.”
Then he drew his saber and chopped, splitting the table in half. The floor also cracked open, revealing a deep gash, but the Xiao Shu was completely unharmed.
“Good swordsmanship!” Lu Junan’s eyes lit up.
As the floor cracked open, through the gap they could see profound darkness within, and gusts of weird wind blew out, carrying a foul, damp smell.
“Indeed, there’s space below!” Kuang Bowen stated with certainty.
So Chen Shanyuan made a few more cuts, creating a larger opening.
Before them appeared a set of downward stone steps, seemingly leading to some underground space.
This tree was extending from the deep darkness below.
The unsettling aura grew even stronger, as if something strange was lurking below.
“Let’s go down and see.” Chen Shanyuan said firmly.
Since they had come all this way, they couldn’t just leave empty-handed, could they?
Currently, they had no clue how to break this Weird Domain. Perhaps there would be some clues down here.
After all, this was the Cosmic Village Chief’s secret place.
Chen Shanyuan led the way, slowly descending the stone steps, one by one.
With each step he took, the surrounding air grew colder and damper, and low whispers seemed to echo in his ears...