After surviving my ordeal, I learned that the school beauty had given birth to twins for me.

"It's okay." Shen Yu walked over and patted Sanhua's head. Sanhua relaxed and rubbed against his hand.

"Go to sleep early, I'll take you to see the golden monkeys tomorrow."

"Great!" The two children were overjoyed at the prospect of seeing the golden monkeys. After washing up, they went to bed, and Sanhua also lay down in her little nest next to the bed and fell asleep quickly.

Jiang Xinlan lay in bed, listening to the sound of the stream and the chirping of insects outside, and soon fell asleep.

She didn't see that in the latter half of the night, the fog grew thicker and thicker, slowly enveloping the entire town like milk, until even the streetlights at the gates of the courtyards could not be seen.

The next morning, Jiang Xinlan was awakened by the noise outside. She checked the time and it was only a little past eight o'clock. The sky outside was gloomy, like evening.

She got dressed, walked to the window, pulled back the curtains, and was stunned.

It was all thick fog outside.

The thick, impenetrable white fog enveloped the entire world.

Even the swings in the yard were only a blurry shadow, with visibility at most five meters. The sun was nowhere to be seen, and the whole world was shrouded in a gray haze.

"This fog is not right."

Jiang Xinlan frowned, turned to Shen Yu and said,

"There's a bewitching aura inside, along with the malevolent energy of a Yin-gathering array. If an ordinary person stays inside for too long, they'll lose their sense of direction."

"Hmm." Shen Yu also got up, walked to the window, glanced at the mountain, and his eyes darkened.

"Three minor figures from the Dark Council set up a Yin-gathering array in the mountains, which startled the little spirits in the mountains."

The little guys were worried that people would encounter bad people if they went deep into the mountains, so they set up a maze to stop them. They meant no harm, they just had good intentions but ended up trapping people in the mountains.

Jiang Xinlan pushed open the window, and a damp, cold mist rushed in, carrying a hint of grassy and woody smell, as well as a very faint, unsettling, and slightly sinister aura.

She channeled her spiritual energy around herself, blocking out the evil aura. Sure enough, she could sense the presence of many small spirits in the mist, who were panicking and clearly frightened.

After the two finished washing up and went downstairs, they found Boss Wang standing at the gate, looking anxiously towards the mountain with his brows furrowed so deeply they could trap a mosquito.

Seeing them come down, Boss Wang said with a wry smile:

"Look at this fog. I've lived for over fifty years and I've never seen such thick fog. It's been fogging since late last night. The power's out, and there's no cell phone signal. We can't contact the outside world at all."

The other guests staying at the guesthouse also got up. Seeing such a thick fog, they were not afraid at all; on the contrary, they were all very excited.

"Wow! This fog is so thick! It's definitely a once-in-a-century sea of ​​clouds!"

"Let's go! Hurry and grab your cameras to head into the mountains! If we're late, the sun will come out and the fog will dissipate, and we won't be able to take any pictures!"

"Photos taken in this weather are sure to win awards! Hurry!"

A dozen or so young photographers and tourists, carrying camera backpacks, were excitedly heading into the mountains.

"Hey! Hey! You can't go!" Boss Wang quickly reached out to stop them. "This fog is too eerie! You'll get lost if you go in! Wait until the fog clears!"

"Boss, you don't understand. A sea of ​​clouds is only beautiful when there's a lot of fog!"

"Exactly! We're all seasoned outdoor enthusiasts. We just stay at the mountain pass and don't venture deeper. What could possibly happen?"

The tourists ignored his advice, pushed away Mr. Wang's hand, and excitedly disappeared into the fog, quickly vanishing from sight.

Boss Wang tried to stop them but couldn't, and he stamped his feet in frustration, shouting, "Hey! Come back! It's dangerous!"

After shouting for a long time, those people had long since disappeared.

One after another, many tourists came out from other guesthouses. Seeing such a thick fog, they all thought it was a rare spectacle of a sea of ​​clouds.

They called on their friends and headed into the mountains, and the elderly people in the town couldn't stop them; they could only watch as they disappeared into the fog.

"What a disaster," Boss Wang sighed. "This fog is incredibly ominous; once you go in, you might not be able to get out."

By 9 a.m., the fog had not only failed to dissipate, but had become increasingly thick, making it as dark as 6 or 7 p.m. in broad daylight, with visibility less than two meters. You couldn't even see each other's faces clearly if you were standing face to face.

Panic began to spread in the town.

First, several girls ran to the entrance of the scenic area crying, saying that their boyfriends had gone into the mountains to take pictures of the sea of ​​clouds in the morning and had not returned yet. They could not get through to them by phone.

Then more and more family members came over; they were all people whose family members had gone into the mountains that morning and hadn't returned. The scenic area staff used a loudspeaker to shout at the mountain pass for a long time until their voices were hoarse, but no one responded.

"Quickly organize people to go in and search!"

"Yes! Search and rescue! My wife is pregnant, how can I live if something happens to her!"

"My child is only six years old. He went in with his father. Please, please search for him quickly!"

The families were in tears, and the scenic area manager was sweating profusely with anxiety.

They quickly organized ten local villagers and security guards, armed with flashlights, ropes, and walkie-talkies, to go into the mountains to search for the person.

"Don't worry, everyone, we'll go in and search right now, and we'll definitely bring them back safely!"

The search and rescue team leader shouted and led his men into the fog.

Everyone waited at the mountain pass, craning their necks to look into the fog. Jiang Xinlan and Shen Yu also stood in the crowd, looking at the misty mountain pass.

Less than two hours later, around 11:00 AM, the ten search and rescue team members emerged, all drenched in sweat, their clothes torn by tree branches, and their faces pale.

"How's it going? Did you find them?" Everyone immediately surrounded them and asked.

The captain shook his head, panting, and said:

"This is weird, really weird! After we went in, the compass spun like a top."

I can't tell which way is east, west, south, or north at all. No matter which way I go, I always end up back where I started, like being lost in a maze.

There was no signal on the walkie-talkie, and no one answered even after shouting at the top of their lungs. After circling around for two hours, we ended up back at the mountain pass.

"What?"

Everyone panicked.

Even the old mountain folk who grew up in the mountains got lost, so wouldn't it be even more dangerous for the people inside?

"I told you we couldn't go! You just wouldn't listen!"

Mr. Wang was so anxious he kept pacing around in circles.

"My son went into the mountains this morning to pick some fresh mushrooms for the guests, but he hasn't come back yet. What should we do?"

The scenic area manager quickly had someone count the number of people to see how many had entered the mountain.

After a long period of counting, it was finally determined that a total of 127 tourists entered the mountain in the morning.

There were also five local villagers who went into the mountains to collect herbs and mushrooms, making a total of 132 people, but none of them came out.

"More than a hundred people!"

The person in charge was so anxious that his lips were blistered. He wanted to call the police, but his cell phone had no signal and the landline was also unusable due to a power outage.

The road out of the mountains was also blocked by fog, making it impossible for cars to drive out and even impossible to go out to ask for help.

Several old women burst into tears on the spot, knelt on the ground and kowtowed to the mountain, saying, "Grandpa Mountain God, please forgive us. We know we were wrong. Please, please release the children."

"It must have been those three foreigners who caused this!"