Having cultivated myself into an immortal, all I want to do is raise female disciples.

With her doubts still lingering, Fan Luokui walked around the corner and came to Zhang Ruoxue's side.

【white】

In the pure darkness, they were greeted by a blanket of white.

The white was a stark contrast to the previous overwhelming swarms of insects.

But they are the same in one respect.

They all represent death and symbolize a disaster.

However, the black tide was completely wiped out before it could cause any disaster, and what they are now facing is the disaster that has already occurred.

White bones.

Yes, what lay before them were piles of white bones, carelessly discarded like trash on both sides of the cave, forming small mounds.

If it were animal bones, they wouldn't be so surprised, Zhang Ruoxue wouldn't have looked somber, and Fan Luokui wouldn't have looked so serious.

Those were all human bones!

Moreover, judging from their condition, most of the bones were shattered, the head and body were separated, and there were countless cases of decapitation. Many limbs were also broken. And there were men, women, young and old, with strong skeletons, weak skeletons, hunched and crooked skeletons, and small skeletons...

Everything is there, not a single one is missing.

"What...is this?" Fan Luokui's mouth gaped open, somewhat unable to comprehend the scene before her.

Why... are there so many skeletons in the cave?

why?

Zhang Ruoxue did not answer; her sharp gaze fell on a tiny piece of cloth next to a skeleton.

It was a light brown piece of cloth, which looked very worn, and even had some light green, unidentified slime on it.

"...I found it a bit strange from the beginning."

She suddenly spoke, her tone exceptionally sorrowful.

"I thought it was my imagination, or that a lot had indeed happened in the past two years, but now it seems that's not the case."

"Senior Sister Zhang?" Fan Luokui was a little stunned; she couldn't understand Zhang Ruoxue's words.

Zhang Ruoxue's lips trembled incessantly, and her body, which had remained strong in the face of the insect swarm, suddenly became somewhat weak.

Even his tone sounded extremely weak.

"There are fewer people in the village..."

"what?"

"When I came back, there were fewer people in the village... Although there were many familiar faces, it seemed that their wives, their husbands, their children, their parents and relatives had all disappeared."

"I thought it was my imagination... or that they had temporarily gone somewhere else for some special reason."

"I think I've found them now."

"Right here."

26. They were nothing more than provisions.

In life, one is a human being; in death, one is reduced to bones.

Fan Luo Kui had seen many skeletons. The cases that the Trial Team had to deal with were often related to killing. As the captain, she was naturally familiar with these human bones.

Looking around, Fan Luokui found no trace of insects, which eased her mind a little. She stepped forward and squatted down in front of the skeleton closest to the two of them.

She lowered her head, her pale golden eyes suddenly turning sharp. She reached out and gently stroked the bones of the dead man before her.

"Judging from the integrity of the skeleton, it shouldn't be a skeleton from decades ago. There's not much dust on it, and the smell of blood is very faint... The pelvis is quite wide and it's very light, so it should be a woman's..."

As if she had a special understanding of the deceased's bones, Fan Luokui began to deduce various information about the deceased little by little from the skeleton in front of her.

In fact, she didn't figure this out on her own. Any member of the trial team would know this knowledge very well.

Because a certain Palace Master surnamed Fang was very strict about this aspect, she practically treated these basic knowledge as induction training for the members of the Judgment Team.

This is also the fundamental reason why there are relatively few girls in the trial team—girls who dare to deal with bones are rare.

She slowly infused her spiritual energy into her bones, closed her eyes, as if sensing something incredibly peculiar.

After a while, the girl dressed in a red and white shrine maiden outfit slowly stood up, awkwardly crossing her arms and deliberately covering her exposed armpits.

"Her bone age is not high, probably a middle-aged woman in her thirties. All her joints are still relatively intact, except that her leg was broken. And she hasn't been dead for long."

The series of messages left Zhang Ruoxue somewhat bewildered.

She glanced at the skeletons on the ground with lingering fear, took a deep breath, and said, "Junior Sister Luo Kui, who are these...?"

As if knowing her doubts, Fan Luokui smiled and said, "It's just the foundation of the trial team. You can't work in the Northern Ice Palace without some skills."

"However, this also proves that these people didn't exist here a long time ago, but died in this cave not long ago..."

As Fan Luokui spoke, she scanned her surroundings with her divine sense, then frowned.

"What's wrong?" Zhang Ruoxue noticed her change and immediately asked.

“These people all have marks on their legs, some large and some small. Although they all look different, it seems that they all have broken legs.”

As soon as these words were spoken, Zhang Ruoxue knew what Fan Luokui was implying.

"You mean, someone broke these villagers' legs and dragged them here?"

Fan Luokui nodded in agreement, "I think so."

"But...why?"

Zhang Ruoxue was a little confused. If these villagers had died in the cave not long ago, then the most suspicious person must have been the cultivator from before!

As for how he managed to deceive the villagers and drag the others into the cave to kill them, there is no need to speculate or prove it.

He was a cultivator, while every villager in Jingyuan Village was a mortal with no cultivation level, no spiritual root, and no spiritual energy fluctuations. He could easily manipulate these villagers with a few simple spells.

But just like Zhang Ruoxue asked, why?

Why did he kill these villagers?

Fan Luokui shook her head helplessly. Faced with the current situation, even she, the former captain of the trial team, was completely baffled.

This is a bit awkward...

I originally thought that coming to this cave would at least give me some clues about why the stench had suddenly disappeared, but to my surprise, not only did I not figure it out, I also came up with so many other strange things.

Black worms with skeletal eyes and stark white bones... What does this have to do with anything?!

Furthermore, what about the two years that Grandma Lin and the other villagers lived through, yet seemed to have never existed? How can all of this be connected?

I can't figure it out, I really can't figure it out.

Gazing at the mounds of white bones piled up like small mountains, symbolizing the deaths of her former compatriots, Zhang Ruoxue clenched her fists so tightly that her nails almost dug into her palms, and bit her lower lip hard.

These people were all villagers she used to know, one after another, vibrant lives!

Now, for some strange reasons, they were dragged into a cave and killed without any explanation...

and……

"Ok?"

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught a glimpse of something strangely white.

Fan Luokui glanced back at Zhang Ruoxue, who was standing still. She knew the heavy mood her senior sister Zhang was feeling at that moment, but unfortunately, Fan Luokui didn't know how to comfort people.

She sighed deeply, then focused her attention on that patch of white.

That was a bone.

She squatted down, picked up the bone, glanced at it briefly, and her eyes were filled with doubt.

This is a rib, and the cross-section looks strange, as if it was cut off by something sharp.

A sharp object, a rib? Why?

……

Fan Luokui looked around; it was an endless expanse of white, the remains of the villagers after their deaths.

……

There weren't any strange people, but I remember a deity came here a while ago!

It's true, that deity even performed a ritual for us, and the water problem was solved immediately.

"A while ago?"

Fan Luokui turned around and stared at the bones on that body, which didn't even have a trace of flesh or blood.

She suddenly stood up.

"No...no, it's too fast."

Her eyes widened suddenly, and she lowered her head, sweeping her spiritual energy over her feet.

Although the cave was damp, there were very few creatures that could corrode flesh. Upon closer inspection, this might be because the ape-eyed black worms would also devour those small creatures.

At this moment, Zhang Ruoxue also noticed that something was wrong with Fan Luokui and asked in a low voice, "What's too fast?"

“Their bones turned to white too quickly!” Fan Luokui replied in a deep voice, holding the broken rib in her hand: “If these people were really secretly broken by that cultivator before hiding in the cave to kill them, the process of their bones turning to white is really too fast.”

"Unless something accelerated their skeletalization, their bodies were too clean..."

At this point, Fan Luokui suddenly raised her head, a look of understanding flashing in her eyes.

"Senior Sister Zhang...do the scarlet-eyed black worm eat human flesh?"

Faced with this sudden question, Zhang Ruoxue was taken aback for a moment, but immediately realized what was going on.

"Food... For monsters like the Ape-Eyed Black Worm, meat is the best food."

Now Zhang Ruoxue realized what was happening too, her eyes widening as she stared at Fan Luokui in disbelief, "Could it be...?"

"Yes."

Fan Luokui's tone suddenly turned incredibly cold, not just indifference, but a chilling cold that sent shivers down one's spine.

"These villagers are probably the food source for that swarm of insects..."