Holy Bone

Chapter 2008: A Hazy, Indistinct Scene, Hide-and-Seek, and a Little Girl
A girl with two braids.

He carried a bundle of firewood on his back.

They moved forward with faltering steps and great difficulty.

We walked into the town from the hazy mountains behind us.

The little girl was very short, and with the darkness of the sky, it was difficult to tell her exact age, but she was probably no more than seven or eight years old... Jin An thought to himself.

The little girl carried firewood on her back with her small body, her steps faltering and her journey very difficult. She stopped to rest several times along the way, and continued on her way only after she had rested enough.

It took the little girl an incense stick's time to walk such a short distance to reach Jin An.

However, the little girl was having too much trouble walking with the firewood on her back. She kept her head down and didn't notice Jin An standing not far away. She continued to walk with difficulty into the town.

The town under the cover of night appeared exceptionally desolate, quiet, and silent, as if everyone in the town had gone to sleep and no one would be active at this time.

The town was too dark.

It's too quiet.

After the little girl entered the town, she continued her arduous journey.

Jin An, with some hesitation, followed.

Since such a grand illusion has appeared here, pulling him into a small town, and he has nowhere else to go for the time being, he might as well follow this so-called little jinx and see what this illusion is all about...

Jin An walked alongside the little jinx. Along the way, he also encountered several women from the town. These women were originally chatting together, but when they saw the little girl approaching, their expressions changed, and they hurriedly went back into their houses and closed the doors, seemingly unwilling to even look at the little girl one more time.

Even the few small dark figures chasing and playing in the distance, who were having a great time and laughing non-stop, were so frightened when they saw the little girl approaching that they ran away as fast as they could.

"Run! The little jinx is coming!"

"Run this way!"

"Wait for me, wait for me, you little jinx, don't come any closer! Wait for me, don't leave me behind!"

In the blink of an eye, those little dark figures had vanished without a trace.

The little girl carrying firewood seemed to have seen this many times before. She casually adjusted the load on her back, making the load higher to save herself some effort, and then continued to walk step by step towards home.

In fact, the little girl's home was not far from the town entrance, only two miles away. However, for a little girl who was only a few years old and carrying firewood on her back, this journey was extremely long and arduous.

call--

call--

The little girl, panting heavily, stumbled along the path, her steps uneven, and after a long and arduous journey, she finally arrived home.

The little girl's family lived in a large house, not in a very poor or impoverished household. The house covered an area of ​​about an acre, indicating that the little girl's family had been wealthy in the past.

I just don't know why, but the people in the town all say that her family is all dead?

And they even called her a little jinx?

Everyone avoids and stays away from it?
The house door was not completely closed or locked, with only a small gap allowing a child to pass through. It was dark all around, devoid of any human presence or signs of life.

At this moment, the house, including the nearby houses, was completely dark, a dark mass, without a single ray of light.

The little girl carried the firewood on her back into the house, went straight to the kitchen, put down the firewood, then picked up a large ladle of water and gulped it down. Her stomach visibly swelled up, and she didn't stop drinking until she was full.

Then, the little girl ran back to the front gate, slammed it shut, stood on a small stool to lock the bolt, dusted off her hands, jumped off the stool, and turned to look at the courtyard.

The ground was covered with fallen leaves and withered branches, and the room was pitch black, without even a lamp lit.

She walked toward a room by the dim moonlight.

In the empty and quiet courtyard, only her footsteps echoed, her worn-out straw sandals making a crisp pattering sound on the stone path.

The little girl seemed to be used to this scene. She walked quickly into a huge hall and looked around. It was dark inside, with moonlight shining on the round wooden dining table in the hall, which was empty.

There was no rice.

There were no dishes either.

"Hey……"

The little girl let out a sigh; this was the first time she had uttered a sound.

Then, with her belly full of water, she walked towards her mother's room.

After crossing the stone bridge, the withered flowerbeds, and the dark, foul-smelling ditch, the little girl arrived at the front of a house and gently pushed open the door.

Squeak.

The dilapidated wooden door, long neglected and abandoned, emitted an extremely grating sound of wood scraping against wood, which was very loud and jarring throughout the entire village.

The room was dark and difficult to see; the little girl could only make out the furnishings by the moonlight coming from outside.

One side of the room was completely dark, and nothing could be seen except by the moonlight. In that corner, there seemed to be a very large and round object.

Because of the lighting, it was impossible to see clearly what it was.

"Hey……"

The little girl sighed; this was the second time she had made a sound.

Then the little girl walked towards the large, round object, but soon came out again, seemingly having not found the person she was looking for. She went to the other side of the room, and by the moonlight, saw a table with several sets of bowls and chopsticks on it.
It was vaguely visible that some bowls and chopsticks were empty, while others had not been touched at all. They were exactly as they were when the rice was served, untouched.

"Mother, are you still refining pills?"

Haven't you eaten?

This was the third time the little girl had made a sound.

But after a while, no one in the room spoke.

The little girl didn't speak this time. She silently went to the table, sat down, and reached for her bowl and chopsticks to eat.

It turned out that the rice grains in the bowl were moldy.

The little girl changed several bowls and found that they were all moldy.

"Mother, is my cooking not good?"

No one spoke in the room.

"Xiao Yin heard the storyteller mention a few days ago that ancient immortals could refine a kind of pill called something like that..."

"It is said that after eating it, a person can go for ten days or half a month without feeling hungry... Mother, ever since you became obsessed with alchemy, you have neglected all household affairs. Have you managed to refine such a magic elixir?"

The little girl, holding her rice bowl, asked.

But the room was cold and quiet, and no one spoke.

"Hey……"

The little girl sighed again, then struggled to pick up the bowls and chopsticks on the table, and stumbled out of the room.

The little girl struggled to carry her rice bowl to the kitchen. She was reluctant to light a candle, as that would be a considerable expense, and her family was so poor that they couldn't afford even a single candle. So, by the moonlight, she began to carefully select her rice bowl.

The little girl picked out the moldy and spoiled rice grains from her bowl, then selected the rice grains that were not moldy or only slightly moldy and put them in another bowl.

After such a painstaking process of picking and choosing, they could only manage to pick out half a bowl of rice that was passable.

Next, the little girl started climbing onto the stool, washing the pot, burning firewood, and heating up the food.

The little girl, having heated up the rice, took a deep sniff of the bowl, swallowing hard with a clear gulp. But instead of touching the rice, she picked up a clean pair of chopsticks and went to her mother's room.

"Mother, I've reheated the food. You should eat first and then refine the elixir."

The little girl put down her chopsticks, hissing and putting her hands to her ears to cool down. However, after a stick of incense had burned, there was still no sound from the room.

"If Mommy isn't hungry, then Xiaoyin will eat first..."

The little girl picked up the bowl and chopsticks and ate her food with gusto. She finished the bowl of rice quickly and then licked every finger clean, making sure not to miss a single grain of rice or any oil.

It's easy to imagine how hungry she was.

After she finished eating, the little girl timidly and weakly said to her mother, who was not visible in the room, "Mother, no one plays with me. They all say I'm a little jinx who brings bad luck to everyone. Nobody wants to play with me... Mother, can you play hide-and-seek with me?"

"Mother?"

"Mother?"

"If Mommy doesn't say anything, that means she agrees to play with me, okay? Okay, okay."

"Then you hide well, Mom. I'll count to ten and come find you, hehehe."

The little girl slammed the door shut, then turned her body towards the door with her back to the room, covered her cheeks tightly with her hands, and began to count.

"one."

"two."

"three."

At this moment, Jin An stood in the room, coldly watching the little girl who was counting numbers with her back to the room.

He followed the little girl all the way to the mansion, to the kitchen, to this room. He followed her wherever she went, hoping to find clues about this illusion from this little jinx that everyone called him.

The little girl was still pressed against the door, her back to the room, counting without moving.

"Four."

"five."

"six."

The little girl had her hair tied in two braids, which hung down and covered her face. In addition, she covered her cheeks tightly with her hands, so not a single part of her face was exposed. Her face was completely covered, and no one could see her expression.

And joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness.

Jin An stood beside the huge, round object, about ten feet away from the little girl.

This is a three-legged bronze cauldron, made entirely of bronze, and is very solid and heavy.

However, the tripod cauldron was already rusted, covered with green copper rust, and had a very thick layer of ash on its surface, indicating that it had not been touched for at least several years.

Jin An had already checked the room; it was completely empty except for the little girl, and there was no one else there.

The mother the little girl was talking about wasn't in this room.

"seven."

"Eight."

"Nine."

The little girl was still counting.

But Jin'an suddenly became very alert.

He was continuing to search for clues in the room when, as the little girl counted to seven, the sound of her counting suddenly amplified in his ears.

Then eight, nine, each one larger than the last.

The unsettling feeling was as if the little girl wasn't playing a game with her mother, but with him, and he was the one being targeted by the little girl.

This discovery immediately made Jin An's muscles tense slightly, and he turned to look at the little girl who had her back to the room.

"You noticed me a long time ago?"

"Is me your target?"

"That's not bad either."

"Let's solve problems together."

"It's a one-time solution."

"Come on, let me see what this illusion is all about, and what's going on with you."

Jin An spoke through his navel, revealing his ruthless words.

"ten."

The little girl finally finished counting all the numbers.

Jin An was mentally prepared for battle, watching everything unfold before him with indifference.

"I'm going to start looking now, are you ready?"

"Giggle."

The little girl spoke at this moment. Although she was laughing, to Jin An's ears, this laughter was very different from the past. This time, the laughter was not pleasant, but dark and cold. The little girl's voice became very distant and calm, with a hint of gloom and eeriness.

Jin An sneered.

Although the little girl was speaking to her mother, who was not in the room and could not see, he sensed that she was actually addressing him.

"Why don't you tell me first, where is this place?"

"And why are you here?"

Jin An took the initiative to ask.

The little girl, with her back to the room, calmly said, "I'm going to start looking now."

"You'd better hide it well."

Jin An narrowed his eyes and sneered, "Begin?"

"If you're so confident, then come on, it's either you who kills me, or I who kill you."

Jin An was getting impatient. He had come down to the abyss to find Zhang Weishan and the other two, not to play hide-and-seek with some ghosts and monsters from the underworld. He just wanted to deal with the monsters in front of him as soon as possible and continue searching for Zhang Weishan and the other two.

At this moment, the little girl slowly turned around, lowered her hands from her cheeks, and looked up at the room. However, because the door was closed, moonlight couldn't shine in, and the room was dimly lit without any candles, so the little girl's face couldn't be seen in the pitch-black room.

However, Jin An was headless at this time, so he relied on his mental vision to see things. Under his mental vision, he could see the little girl's appearance without any obstacles.

The little girl's body glowed with a bluish light, and her face was stiff and pale, making it impossible to associate her with a normal person.

call!
The little girl suddenly disappeared from the spot, and at that moment, Jin An also moved.

Without warning, he swiftly reached out with one hand to his side.

boom!
A deafening sound erupted as the little girl slapped Jin An's arms with both hands. However, Jin An was a martial arts immortal, and apart from the burst of sparks and the clanging of swords clashing, the skin on Jin An's arms remained completely intact, without a single scratch.

The little girl was also unharmed; she had actually survived the divine power of a martial arts immortal.

This little girl is no ordinary fighter.

"Ok?"

Jin An let out a soft "Eh," also surprised by the little girl's combat prowess.

The little girl, following a whirlwind, flew up Jin An's arm and landed on his back, continuing her attack towards his back...