Returning from the abyss

Chapter 246 White Lake Town

This grouping is actually not that difficult.

Judging from the skills displayed on the surface, Lu Ning is obviously a supportive role as a doctor, Zhu You is fighting, and Qiu Yiyun is more inclined to investigate.The three of them quickly selected the group they wanted to join and made up for some shortcomings.Qiu Yiyun was handed over to Qu Siyuan, and their protection ability was obviously the strongest.Zhu You supplemented Shen Lishu's team who obviously lacked combat effectiveness.In the end, Lu Ning was still in a group with Carl and Robert.

Neither five-man team was short, so no disputes arose.

"It's a good start," Carl said.

Then, the part that everyone needs to investigate was quickly confirmed.

Shen Lishu had formally contacted the mayor when he came to Baihu Town, and he will definitely visit the mayor today, and inquire about the specific situation of the town by the way.

Kiyotaro Asayama and his party had an old relationship with a retired forest ranger here. This time, they were entrusted to come here, and they also needed to listen to the specific entrustment from the other party.

The background of the other three groups is that they discovered this small town by accident, and have no specific contact with the people in the small town.So after some discussion, Carl and the others were in charge of investigating the farm area in the south of the town, Yu Guiting and the others were in charge of visiting the shops in the town, and Qu Siyuan and the others would leave the town from the east to check the surrounding conditions. to explore.

After agreeing, everyone began to split up.

Karl took the lead and walked in the front, followed by Lu Ning and Robert. The three moved the fastest, and soon set foot on the slightly muddy path to the south.

In fact, it didn't take long before the houses began to thin out.The population of Baihu Town is not particularly large, but the area is very large. As a result of the vast land and sparse population, there is often only one family in the farm area several hundred meters away. It is so empty that it is suspected that people will suffer from autism if they live for a long time. .

Karl, however, is at ease in this environment.

"I have imagined since I was a child that when I retire one day, I will find a place like this to spend my old age." Carl leaned on a fence post, pointed to the golden farmland in the distance in the sun, " Robert, come and have a look, it looks exactly like my hometown."

"I've never really seen what your hometown looks like." Robert also walked over, "But if it's really like this, it's really good."

"Lu Ning, how about you come over and see?" Carl greeted with a smile.

"not bad."

"Not good at judging? It doesn't matter, as long as you can feel it." Carl didn't care, and continued to walk along the path, "Then what kind of monsters are hidden under such peace and tranquility? The devil , Witch, magic? Hahaha, I hope that after everything is over, the beauty here will not be damaged."

As the footsteps continued, a slightly older wooden house appeared in the sight of the three of them.An elderly woman is sitting in the house. From the open door, she is weaving wool, and what she is doing now is only soaking in water.

And there are a lot of agricultural and sideline products in this room, which is obviously a self-operated small shop, selling some items to passers-by to earn some extra income.

"Hey, good morning, mother-in-law." Carl walked in directly.

"Good morning, lad."

Carl, who seemed to be over 30 years old, touched his chin and said with a grin, "Young man? It's been a long time since I've been called that."

"Hehehe, the old man is used to it... Are you travelers? It's good to see some new faces." The old man stopped what he was doing and shook his hands, "Is that for a visit here, or What are you going to bring back?"

"I saw the wine urn here, and I can smell the aroma of the wine even from such a distance."

The old woman stood up while laughing, and Karl hurried up to help her up.

"You glib boy, if I can really smell it, I have to check if the jar is broken, okay, let's go there."

Lu Ning walked to some piles of plants that were drying on the side, and slowly looked through them. Robert was interested in those dried fruit pulp and jerky, as if he wanted to prepare some food reserves.

Carl quickly came back with two jugs of wine, looking quite satisfied, holding a small bottle full of golden liquor in his hand.

"It seems that I have found my heart." Robert smiled at Lu Ning in a low voice.

"Hey, hey, I heard it." Carl stuffed the bottle in his hand to Lu Ning, "For me, there are only beauties and good wine in this world that I can't live up to. Do you think there is any problem?"

"I have a problem." Lu Ning looked at the bottle in her hand and said doubtfully, "This is..."

"Mead, this thing is rare." Carl grinned, "It's not high in alcohol, and it's as sweet as a dream. I think you need this."

"I--"

"Hush... good girl, your furrowed brow betrayed your heart, you are not happy. This is not good, even in such a place, we should still face everything with a good mood and let ourselves relax a little bit. So that we won't worry about your mental state in the future."

Carl raised his finger and shook his mouth, then glanced at Robert.

"I don't have that problem," said Robert quickly.

"Of course, you just put on a polite face every day, I understand." Carl shook out a paper bag and placed it in front of the dried meat and preserved fruits that Robert subconsciously arranged, "If you don't make preparations, you I'm afraid I can't think of anything else, so please."

"Hmph..." Robert nodded in satisfaction, and began to neatly stack the things in the paper bag.

Lu Ning silently pulled out the cork of the mead wine.

This bottle is not much, about [-] milliliters. She used to hate the smell of alcohol very much, but this time she pulled out the cork and didn't smell any alcohol, which made her a little relieved.

The old woman had already returned to her original position, continued with the work at hand, and said with a smile: "It's just slightly fermented wine, even children can drink a lot, but it is said that drinking a glass at night can really make you have a golden dream Well, like the color of wine."

Lu Ning savored the taste for a while, and there was still some irritation and bitterness on her tongue, but she was swallowed by the more intense sweetness in an instant.

"Not bad right?"

Carl picked up a plant stem and held it in his mouth. It should not be some kind of medicine, so Lu Ning didn't recognize it.Hearing his question, Lu Ning nodded slowly.

"That's good. Mother-in-law, how big is this farm area?"

"Forty or fifty households." The old woman slowly washed the magazines off the wool.

"There are so few people around, don't you worry about something? Especially for a shop like you."

"They are all worthless. Who cares about what everyone has? If you pass by the orchard and pick some fruits to eat, no one cares. I have lived here all my life, and I have never heard of a few farms being robbed." thing." The old woman replied.

"But I heard something happened in the town before."

"You said that, there hasn't been anything wrong with the farm. Several cats and dogs died. It should be that some ferocious beast passed by nearby, but the people in the town panicked and said that it was a witch who caused the trouble, or it was too late. Young."

"There are still rumors of witches in this town?" Karl looked surprised.

"They are all stories passed down by the old people. Some people say that the lake in the east of the town is sealed with a witch. I remember that my grandma liked to tell me stories about witches when I was a child."

"Would you mind telling us about it? To tell you the truth, I like listening to all kinds of novel and interesting legends during the journey."

The old woman thought about it for a while, and then began to talk.

"I don't know how long ago, the lake in Baihu Town was just an ordinary small puddle. A witch came to the town, but people didn't know that she was a witch.

The witch fell in love with the beautiful scenery here and planned to stay here.At first, everything was normal, until one day, the residents discovered that she had made a decoction with plants, which revived a dying puppy. People felt scared and strangled them to death with the plants she collected. her.

Not long after, a woman with the same appearance as the witch came to the town again and stayed there.Residents found that she had refined gold from stones she picked up from the wasteland, and made them into toys for the children in the town. People felt terrified and beat her to death with the stones she collected.

However, not long after, the No.3 woman came to the town. Her appearance had never changed, and she still chose to stay.During a grand festival, the woman dyed the sky colorfully with fire. The residents believed that this was the power of doom, and burned the woman and her workshop to ashes with the flames in fear.

Finally, the No.4 woman came to town.Not long after she stayed, she headed to the small puddle on the east side of town, which turned into a lake after a night of earthquakes that woke up the entire population.The residents finally understood that the witch cannot be killed, so they used a coffin to sink her alive to the bottom of the lake.

After that, sure enough, the witch never came back. "

After the old woman finished telling the story, the room fell into silence.

"This is not a bedside story suitable for children." Carl spat out the plant in his mouth and shrugged uncomfortably, "I have to say...you ruined my mood today."

"Young man, it's what you want to hear. Besides, who knows whether this story is true or not?" The old woman shook her head, "Nowadays many people regard this as an ordinary story, which may be regarded as a horror story, but there are also others. Few people still believe that the witch will return sooner or later. When she decides to make this town pay for what she did before, the whole town will become a living sacrifice for her resurrection."

"But the witch in the story sounds like a nice person." Lu Ning said.

"No matter how kind a person is, when good intentions are met with cruelty, it is impossible for them to be without resentment. Although I don't believe in the Return of the Witch, if such a thing really happened back then, those residents would undoubtedly be guilty Heavy." The old lady picked up the wooden basin for soaking wool, "However, this has nothing to do with you travelers, it's also the people in the town who make a fuss over a molehill. Now that you're here, take a good look at the surrounding scenery, and then continue your journey Just fine."

"I'll help you." Carl stepped forward to help the old woman lift the wooden basin, and the two walked out of the house.

Lu Ning and Robert looked at each other in the room.

"What do you think?" Lu Ning asked.

"I'd rather believe it..." Robert carefully folded the paper bag and said, "If there is nothing missing in the story she told, and the woman does exist, there is a problem."

"Technological leap." Lu Ning nodded, "Ordinary brewing herbal medicine is not a particularly difficult technology, but smelting gold and making handicrafts can be upgraded to a higher level. The following fireworks production is not difficult at first, but if you want to To dye the sky colorfully, it is necessary to add elements that change the color of the flames, and it is also a labor-intensive job to get enough fireworks to rise into the sky. As for the last earthquake that turned the puddle into a lake, it is at least the level of using explosives. "

"So it can't be a short-term jump, either word of mouth shortens the time it takes for every woman to come to town, or..."

"The witch is real." Lu Ning said the possibility that everyone didn't like very much.

"If one is the premise, then there are two situations that need to be faced. Is the witch a 'human' who can fight, or a 'ghost' who is invincible."

The main target of the scene this time is the devil, and there is no mention of the witch in the entire mission. If it weren't for the mission saying "The return of the witch", no one would pay attention to the witch.However, once the investigation started, Lu Ning found that there were all kinds of legends about the witch, but there was no clue about the devil.

Carl led the two of them around the farm area, eating and drinking, and found that he was not hungry at all until noon. He listened to a lot of clues or stories, and there were actually only a few people who didn't believe it like the old woman. , even if most people don't believe it, they will still show a little awe.

After coming out of the last farmhouse, Carl took out the jug and unscrewed the lid to take a sip, and asked his two teammates, "Do you find it strange?"

"certainly……"

"We've been wondering for a long time." Robert looked at Carl with some dissatisfaction. "I thought you were all focused on eating and drinking."

"My brain needs to be replenished with energy at any time, my friend." Carl smiled nonchalantly, "Then why do you think a legend, even something without any evidence, can be circulated in the town for so long? Even today it still has a wide range of influence? "

"The most likely explanation is that this incident has actually been confirmed." Lu Ning said, "and at least some of the people who experienced it are still alive and have important positions in the town. The real targets we need to find are those witches." Witnesses of the return."

"That's right. It's just that the population of this town is more than a thousand, and those who witnessed it may even live in seclusion. This may test our ability to inquire..." Carl said approvingly, "The investigation here is for the time being. Let's stop here, let's go back to the hotel to see what other people have found."

(End of this chapter)