Gu Yuan glanced at the mission information in his hand, then looked up at the village not far ahead.
After half a day of rapid travel, Gu Yuan had arrived at the village described in the mission.
Gu Yuan looked at the mission information in his hand, then looked up at the village before him. He recalled the strange expression on Guan Ye's face when he bid farewell and his reminder to be careful.
Rubbing his chin with his finger, he fell into thought. Would this mission be without incident?
[Mission Name: The Strange Village]
[Mission Level: Profound Tier]
But then he looked again at the mission report in his hand. It didn't seem to involve any great danger. Wasn't it just a normal Profound Tier mission?
Gu Yuan couldn't help but fall into contemplation. He really couldn't understand what was going on. What was the meaning of that expression Guan Ye had shown him before he left?
Regardless, he would enter the village first and see what demons or monsters were causing trouble. Gu Yuan was eager to test his current strength, especially since he had just compressed his vital energy and was at the peak of his power. No one had yet tested his fists.
To be safe, he tied his horse in the woods not far from the village. The horse had the bloodline of an ancient beast and possessed a brute strength that three adult men could not control. Therefore, Gu Yuan was not worried about it being stolen. Moreover, the horse was trained and could forage for itself, so Gu Yuan didn't need to worry about it.
It would be too troublesome if he had to worry about this horse during a fight.
After settling the horse, Gu Yuan strode towards the village ahead.
This was a village with a long heritage, which had now been plagued by demons and invaded by strange entities. However, these had all been resolved by previous Demon Suppressors. Now, a new series of problems had emerged, and the surrounding cities had no personnel to spare, so they had to report to the headquarters of the Demon Suppression Bureau to dispatch a巡视镇魔使 (Patrolling Demon Suppressor).
Entering the village, it appeared to be a very ordinary village of the Great Qian Dynasty.
Very ordinary, with no distinctive features. With scattered households numbering around a hundred, it wasn't a large village. However, the village had a peculiar characteristic mentioned in the mission intel.
That is, the people of this village never married out. Men could marry women from outside, but women could not marry men from outside. This was the only characteristic mentioned in the intel.
However, over the past century, the population of this village had not increased but decreased. This was a point of suspicion, and the intel had warned him to pay attention to it.
Furthermore, during actual investigations, several Demon Suppressors had encountered strange occurrences while carrying out missions in this village, all of which were mentioned in the mission intel.
These strange occurrences involved all doors needing to be closed at around ten o'clock every night, with no villagers allowed to wander outside. This could be considered a minor characteristic.
Then, at ten o'clock, there should not be the slightest hint of light in the village. Under these circumstances, even knocking on doors would not elicit a response, and any attempt to force entry would result in villagers driving the intruders away.
As the Demon Suppression Bureau was an official organization, they could not easily force their way into people's homes. This matter, which they had intended to investigate, was eventually dropped. After all, as an official organization, how could they forcibly enter private residences? If word of this spread, it would have a significant negative impact on the reputation of the Demon Suppression Bureau.
Gu Yuan entered the village in the afternoon. However, the village was strangely deserted. On the road in the middle of the village, he saw no one, nor were any villagers wandering about. It was as if the village had become a lifeless ghost town.
The village was laid out in a shape where a main road divided it into two equal halves. The main road connected to village paths, which led to the homes of the villagers.
The main road extended to the mountains not far away.
Very eerie. This was the first impression the village gave Gu Yuan. The intel had not mentioned anything about the daytime being so strange.
However, having experienced so many worlds, Gu Yuan's mind was already as tough as steel. An ordinary person would have been terrified and fled by now, given the eerie atmosphere. After all, who could accept a village devoid of any sign of life in broad daylight?
Gu Yuan frowned, walking along the main road in the village, his senses at their maximum, sensing the surrounding aura. He clearly felt the presence of life in the houses lining the road. It was as if they sensed Gu Yuan's arrival and were all fearfully hiding together.
Were they under some kind of oppression? Gu Yuan frowned, pondering. Had cultists come here?
But that didn't seem right. When Mu Shi had undertaken a mission here before, he had known about the village's peculiarity. So why hadn't he mentioned any trace of cultists?
After all, Gu Yuan's previous mission had been related to cultists, so he was particularly concerned about cult rituals. For him, invasion by demons and monsters was not a major issue in this world. The most important thing was the emergence of traitors among the people, which was very troublesome.
Such cults were universally condemned in all worlds, as their ability to deceive the uneducated populace was extremely harmful.
There was no other way but to capture and kill them one by one. After all, these were cultists! Even in an era of information explosion, they could stir up a considerable force. Not to mention in this ancient world where people were easily influenced. These villagers had not received any formal education and didn't understand anything about cults.
Gu Yuan decided that this situation could not continue. He had no choice but to go to the village chief's house, as described in the mission, to get to the bottom of things.
He hoped this mission wouldn't present any unexpected complications. He just wanted to complete the mission steadily, earn contribution points to exchange for resources, improve his cultivation, and then complete his trials and leave this world. He wanted to return to the Myriad Spirit Continent to find spiritual medicine to heal Old Wang. This was his primary objective.
After all, decades had passed here. He didn't know how many years had passed for Old Wang, or if his injuries had worsened. Gu Yuan deeply respected his first master, so completing the mission quickly was paramount.
Old Wang's injuries were not a trivial matter; they were injuries to his very essence. How could Gu Yuan be at ease about it? Otherwise, Old Wang, a powerful expert at the Martial Heaven realm, would not have suffered for so many years.
...
Brothers, I'm not doing well. My head feels like a mush of paste.
I can only pad the word count a bit. Please skim through it and don't take it too seriously. I can't even look at it myself.
I've spent the entire day writing these four thousand characters, and my mind is so muddled that I can't write anything substantial. My throat also hurts terribly.