Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1380 Bald words

"Ye Cong, how are you?"

In the ice mirror maze that seemed to extend infinitely, a person suddenly walked out of the mirror and entered the only normal building inside.

“Not bad.”

The building was filled with cold air, and on the only bed, a thin young general was leaning there. He looked haggard, and his once strong body was no longer strong.

"I feel you activated the formation."

"Nothing, I just saw a... very suitable candidate." Ye Cong coughed, "She is very suitable to be the next flag bearer of the Ice Array. If I can't hold on one day, maybe she can take over."

"The commander of the battle flag must be someone who is trustworthy enough, and she is not trustworthy enough." The visitor said, "You may have a passion to join the army, but fighting against the northern demons requires not a momentary passion, but perseverance."

"Haha, I can cultivate it slowly... not recently anyway." Ye Cong touched his chest, "It's much better recently. Many demon spies died in the strangulation of the ice array, which is good for me."

"If it really helps you, we can capture more monsters and throw them into the formation."

"That's not necessary. Every formation requires life, not just me." Ye Cong said, "Just help me keep an eye on her and see where she comes from. If possible, you might as well recruit her to our side."

"It's not difficult."

The man smiled, then turned and walked into an ice mirror and disappeared.

=

After nightfall, thanks to the curfew, Lu Ning didn't have to wait long before people came back one after another. No one spoke in this situation where everyone was leaving work, which added a bit of weirdness. When the time came, people also followed the curfew rules and returned to their rooms one after another. There was no extra activity.

Then, more and more people entered the dream of the momentary scene.

She was investigating three families, but in fact, no one was alive in these three families. All she could find were neighbors or distant relatives. When Lu Ning entered the dream, the unintentional memories of those people were forming a village in the city. The reappearance of the deceased was not particularly difficult, and the blurred sense of time and space would make the dreamer think that he was still in the peaceful years of Lingzhou.

Lu Ning advanced the dream step by step, making the dream of every place as realistic as possible, so as to obtain information from the conversations of the people she fabricated.

Finally, after a long period of tracing, she heard a word from a man named Huang Ji.

"If we hadn't separated from my second uncle's family, we might have been able to become officials."

"Your second uncle? I've never heard of him."

"It's been so long, it's normal that you don't know. Our great grandfather was a capable man, and he saved up a fortune, but later he went into business and no one knows where it went. After my grandfather took over, he could only look after the property. He always lamented that he, a child adopted from a neighboring family, did not inherit the great grandfather's business skills. Later, my second uncle did have some talent, but he made some profits and some losses in business. When the losses were big, my father was not happy, and finally the two families decided to separate."

"That can't be helped."

"Yes, once the war started, the little property we had would have been wiped out. Alas..."

Huang Ji was obviously a person who liked to brag about his family's past. Even though he had died in the war, it did not stop him from telling his neighbors about this incident. And the missing "grandfather" was obviously a bit suspicious.

Since no other problems were found, Lu Ning decided to follow this clue first. Since they were a business family at the time, and their business was not small, there would probably be some records left. If they did something beneficial to the county at that time, it might be recorded in the county annals. The law of the Wei Dynasty required that three copies of the county annals be made every six months, one copy to be submitted to the capital, one copy to the prefecture, and one copy to be secretly sent to the imperial palace library. Whatever the prefecture had, it was naturally collected in the three cities.

But she could still learn more, after all, it had been passed down for so many generations, there must be some other clues. Through deliberate induction, she also learned the name of Huang Ji's second uncle - this was not in the list in her hand, after all, it was difficult to check the branches of the previous generation during the chaos of war.

Just as she was carefully trying to find out the news, a sentence suddenly came into her ears from the other side of the dream:

"You don't want to die...but this is the only way we can survive."

It was a weak and desperate voice. Just by listening to it, Lu Ning felt uncomfortable.

It was very strange, and there was some emotional temptation in the voice. With a thought, she appeared where the voice came from.

A skinny man sat on the ground, surrounded by several civilians. The man was in tattered clothes, with throbbing blood vessels clearly visible under his brown and scarred skin. He had a depressed and hopeless expression on his face, and spoke to one of the people.

"But, but our current life is also..."

"You have lived in Lingjiang City for too long." The man rubbed his chest, rubbing off a large mass of mud, while the skin beneath the mud had a dark red luster.

"Have you seen what the outside world is like now? I escaped here, and I know... Outside Lingjiang, people kill people, and ghosts kill ghosts. Do you know anyone who has joined the army? Have any of them never come back?"

"But there will always be casualties in war," someone whispered.

"Yeah, there are always deaths in war," the man sighed, "but what if I say that you may not die in the war, but you will definitely die if you stay here?"

"You bullshit!"

"I'm not kidding. Do you know what's happening outside? Lingjiang is a very solid city, but being solid is useless. So many things are going awry. When this city goes awry, that will be our death! This place will change from being a fortress that protects you to a monster that will slowly eat you up!"

He took out the only clean thing on him from the torn bag in his belt and placed it in front of those people.

"You are all from Lingzhou. Do you remember that there is a city in Lingzhou called Chongguan?"

"Yes, my hometown is nearby."

"Do you know how Chongguan disappeared? You have lived here for so long, but you haven't met anyone from Chongguan? Haha..." The man smiled bitterly, "I am from Chongguan, so I have long given up hope."

"What happened to Chongguan?" a curious voice sounded.

The man said helplessly: "I was lucky at that time, because I went out of the city to see the traps set outside the city, but when I returned to the city, it was already surrounded!" "Surrounded by whom!"

"By... by the Wei army. I don't blame them, because I saw it, I saw the city come alive, it was eating people, it had the mouth of a human, no, a beast, I, my wife and children were eaten, half eaten, I could hear cries for help, but they soon turned into voices calling me! I could only run, I was scared, I knew she was dead, they, everyone in the city was dead!"

"I don't understand what you mean by the city has turned into a wild beast..."

"Why are you talking so confusingly?"

The onlookers stood up and left, grumbling. The man shook his hands in panic: "I didn't lie to you! I told you the truth!"

But everyone left until the man noticed that one person stayed.

"Ah, do you believe me?" The man raised his head and looked at the last person. "Look, this is the solution I found. If you believe me, then believe this. It can keep you alive. You may not believe it. I have died before and I failed to escape. But before I died, I believed this and came back. Although I look like this now, I can still survive. You have to prepare early, otherwise you will die!"

"Yeah, let me see."

Lu Ning reached out and took the crudely made wooden sign from the man.

If it was more refined, it might be a demon star token, but unfortunately it wasn't. Lu Ning didn't know whose symbol it was, but in the northern part of the Great Wall, which demon star's symbol could be popular here?

"But this matter is still too bizarre. Can you explain it in more detail?" Lu Ning looked at the man, a little helpless.

The identity of the demon star is indeed unknown to many people, especially the common people. But this person was able to make such a statement in a moment, which means that he really believed in his heart that this was the only salvation. Whether he was frightened by the change of the city eating people or shocked by the miracle of resurrection from the dead, this person has become a firm believer of the demon star.

"I don't know. I crawled out of a mass grave. So I'm sure I'm dead. Look, look at my skin. It's weird, right? But this is the proof that I'm alive again. I didn't turn into a zombie or anything. I'm alive!"

Indeed, Lu Ning was able to check the condition of this person in her dream. Although it was a little strange, he was indeed a living person. Moreover, the fact that he could enter Lingjiang also proved that he was able to pass all the overt and covert investigations here.

"Just hold this wooden sign and believe it?"

"Yes, yes. But I can't give you the wooden plaque. You can carve one according to this. You can use anything. You don't need to pay anything else. As long as you believe sincerely, you can be blessed and live forever."

"Thank you."

Lu Ning threw the wooden sign back and clapped her hands gently in the man's puzzled gaze. The dream was quietly shattered in the sound of clapping, and everyone returned to their own dreams. No one remembered what had happened.

Lu Ning came out of her dream and woke up. She looked towards the wall. Although she couldn't be sure of the exact location, the position she set for everyone in her dream was similar.

That person is right there. According to his mental state, when he starts to actually transmit the symbol of the demon star, he will probably be caught. As for the ending, it all depends on the rules of Lingjiang.

But... resurrection? At no cost? Is it such a good thing?

So far, apart from the resurrection provided by the distribution center, Lu Ning has never seen any so-called "resurrection" without side effects. Not to mention the changes in the man's skin, his emaciated appearance is obviously far from that of an ordinary person, but it is not surprising that a person wandering in the wilderness during the war would look like this.

Lu Ning closed her eyes slightly and began to listen to the sounds here with her enhanced hearing.

She heard talking in her sleep.

There were not many people, but they were all muttering to themselves with emotions of despair and fear. Their dreams were not peaceful, but they could not wake up normally. Their mumblings were unclear, and Lu Ning could not even hear what they were saying.

Just then, there were light footsteps passing by her door.

One step is heavy, the other is light, that's lame. There's a slight smell of cigarette smoke, the same as the pipe smoked by the waiter I met at the door during the day.

Then, there was the sound of the sword being unsheathed, and a slight sound was made when the sharp blade rubbed against the edge of the scabbard.

The footsteps passed in front of Lu Ning's door and went deeper. Lu Ning closed his eyes and listened more carefully to the sounds outside the door.

A door was opened.

Although the old man's footsteps were lame, they were light enough not to alarm anyone in the room. Lu Ning could only hear a slight sound, and then the old man walked out of the door and went to the next room.

There is one less mumbling voice.

This process continued in the silent night. Lu Ning didn't even know how she fell asleep in such a state of high concentration. When she opened her eyes again, it was daybreak. People had begun to walk out of their houses one by one. Some yawned and walked to a sink to wash their faces with cold water, while others who were too lazy to do so walked to a shed outside the house.

Four large pots had been set up in the shed, two pots of porridge and two pots of some unknown vegetable and meat stew. The conditions here were already pretty good. People lined up with bowls in hand to get their meals. Lu Ning stood at the door and looked carefully, but did not see the desperate man in the scene yesterday.

"Eat something. If you don't want to go to work, take a walk around. Don't waste time here. It's useless." The old waiter was still sitting at the door. He didn't look like he had been out and about last night. He puffed on his pipe and spoke lazily to Lu Ning.

Lu Ning nodded. She didn't know what rules the waiter had to follow, but judging from his performance last night, it was definitely different from hers. She didn't say anything, took out a bowl from her luggage, and queued up to get a bowl of breakfast. The porridge was relatively thick, and with the salty paste, it was not bad.

Then she packed up and went out - except for a group of bacteria that stayed at the door of her room.

She didn't walk too far, because the fog here even weakened the induction between her and the colony. Lu Ning just found a stone to sit on and continued to observe the situation in the house.

After everyone left, a group of soldiers rushed into the house. They quickly carried out corpses one after another, including the man. The soldiers lined up the corpses neatly on the open space outside the house, and then the old man scooped out a bucket of red sand from a jar beside him.

The soldier took it and carefully poured a little sand on the first corpse. The red sand suddenly jumped up like a living thing. Although it was only a tiny handful, it quickly circled around the corpse and instantly ground the person into a ball of flesh and blood. Then, the red sand drilled directly into the flesh and blood. In just a moment, the flesh and blood began to decompose. After two or three breaths, it merged into the ground along with the red sand.

Then, the soldiers followed the same method and destroyed all the bodies with red sand. Finally, they left quickly at the signal of the old man.