From the end of the world

Chapter 286: Quick Pass to Guyue Village
The villagers slowly gathered around, and the young man in his twenties seemed to grow bolder, moving closer to where Ma Zao and I, two strangers, were.

He might be the young traveler who appeared in Dong Che's narration. At the same time, I also retrieved the appearance information of the corpse I had seen before from my memory.

It can be judged that the height and body shape of this young man are almost the same as that of the corpse. The reason why it can only be said to be "almost the same" is that the latter has decayed after all, and some corpse decay phenomena such as gigantism have appeared. Compared with the similarities in the body, it is more convenient to compare the clothes. The black and green jacket he wears is exactly the same as the clothes worn by the corpse.

The young traveler who had clearly died in the ravine long ago actually appeared alive in such a place.

Moreover, he, like Dong Che, gave me an inhuman impression. Not only him, but the villagers also had an inhuman impression very similar to Dong Che. Previously, I stopped Dong Che from getting close to them just because of my conditioned reflex. In fact, Dong Che and them were the same kind.

If Dong Che was the only person with inhuman sense appearing in front of me, I would at most be on guard. But now seeing so many people who look like humans but are not human gathering together, it broke through a certain threshold in my heart in one breath and triggered the uncanny valley effect.

Why not just massacre this village... This thought came to my mind.

"Dongche, where did you go before?" the young passenger complained.

"Where were you going... I went to look for you." Dong Che said confusedly, "Where did you go before?"

"I haven't been anywhere!" the young traveler said in astonishment. "I heard from the villagers that you suddenly entered the fog for some reason and left me alone here. I was originally thinking about whether I should go into the fog again to look for you, but fortunately, you came back so soon..."

The villagers nearby said to Dongche, "Little boy, where did you go before? The mountains are very dangerous. If you want to leave this place, we can help you lead the way."

"That's what I mean." Another villager agreed.

Everyone started talking at once.

"how so……"

Dong Che frowned at first, then turned to look at me.

In his previous account, the villagers said that the young traveler left first, and then the winter car entered the fog outside the village. The villagers' testimonies in the two accounts did not match, as if the villagers deliberately told different lies to the two people. But I know very well that this is not the case. The body of the young traveler did appear in the forest, which means that he really left the village on his own initiative.

It seems that without knowing it, the "fait accompli" has been modified by the mysterious power again. I am afraid that even the villagers have been modified. The shopkeeper and regular customers of Yueyin Mountain City Hotel have also encountered such a situation where the previous and subsequent accounts do not match, but they themselves have no idea, so I can easily accept this situation.

Having said that, seeing this group of people who vaguely exuded an inhuman aura and displayed such abnormal behavior in front of me, I just felt an indescribable weirdness.

It was as if there were a pair of huge hands in the darkness, manipulating all the people who looked alive, those who should have died, and those who were not sure whether they were alive or dead, like a puppet with twisted joints, performing a grotesque drama with broken logic.

Perhaps, these villagers, like Dongche, did not realize that they were not human.

"Young man, are you here to climb the mountain too?"

Among the dozen villagers, there was an old man who looked frail. He looked at Ma Zao and me for a while, then said, "You don't look like you're going to climb a mountain, and you all look so young... Where are your parents? Did they get lost in the mountains, too?"

This old man gives people the feeling that he is the leader of the village.

“I’m a folk lover.”

I introduced myself as I usually do when investigating strange events all over the country, and continued, "I want to study the folk traditions of Yueyin Mountain City. I heard about Guyue Village on Yueyin Mountain on the way, and I want to visit your village. I was not prepared for the climb because I just wanted to do it on the spur of the moment. If possible, please help us leave this mountain, and I will reward you handsomely afterwards."

"As a folk lover, you will be generously rewarded afterwards...at your age?" the old man questioned.

After all, I now look like a 12- or 13-year-old boy, so I can't blame others for looking down on me. Before entering the village, I thought about whether I should change myself back first, but I didn't want to break the promise I made to Ma. So I could only continue to wear this appearance and force myself to say the truth: "I only look young, but I'm actually an adult."

The old man frowned and looked at me for a while, then continued, "You mentioned Guyue Village just now... Let's call this place Hujia Village. The name 'Guyue Village' sounds unlucky."

"Okay, Hujia Village." I changed my words.

"Since you're leaving, you'd better leave quickly." The old man showed an attitude of driving guests away, "I'll send you four away anyway." "Thank you," I said, "But to be honest, I still feel a little upset about returning empty-handed. As I said before, I came here to study the deeds related to Guyue Village and Guyue God. Old sir, can you tell us about Guyue God before we leave?"

Hearing this, the old man suddenly became alert, his eyes became scrutinizing, and he said: "--You want to inquire about the Ancient Moon God?"

The other villagers stopped talking and looked at me at the same time.

"Is this an inconvenient topic to talk about?" I was also observing the other person.

Judging from the information we have obtained before, the villagers of Guyue Village chose to leave Yueyin Mountain out of fear of the Ancient Moon God, Yinyue. Although we don't know what Yinyue did at that time to make them avoid him so much, considering Yinyue's cruel habits, it would be a strange thing if he could get along with humans peacefully. It is normal for the villagers to want to escape. The question is - what are the composition of these villagers who choose to stay?

The people of Yueyin Mountain City seem to regard the Ancient Moon God as an unpopular folk myth that no one knows about outside the local area and is not worth believing, so they may not think deeply about this matter. But I know very well that the true identity of the Ancient Moon God is most likely the real Silver Moon, and Silver Moon is a monster that literally eats people.

Are the villagers who stayed behind the villagers all people who thought it didn't matter even if they lived under the control of man-eating monsters? Or do they have such fanatical faith in the Ancient Moon God that it even overwhelmed the most basic moral judgment?
Under such circumstances, perhaps these villagers did not intend to honestly send us down the mountain.

They might lead us into dangerous areas in the fog under the guise of taking us down the mountain.

"It's inconvenient, please go back. We will send someone to take you down the mountain. Don't think about coming back after you leave." The old man said coldly, "The Ancient Moon God does not exist. Those are all myths and legends from long ago. I see that you seem to be from the city. Do people in the city believe in this these days? You are so young, don't get involved in so many superstitious things."

"It's not necessarily superstition," I said, "For example, the fog surrounding Hujia Village seems to be hiding incredible phenomena. Before I entered the mountain, I clearly saw that the sky had just entered night, but after encountering the fog, it immediately turned into daytime... I heard that the ancient moon god has a legend that can make the daytime on the mountain continue forever. Could it be referring to this phenomenon?"

"Stop asking so many questions." The old man's tone became rude. "Are you leaving or not? If you keep talking too much, I won't help you get down the mountain."

Hearing this, the young traveler also became nervous and said quickly: "Let's go back quickly and stop asking so many questions..."

I also began to consider whether I should go along with the other person first.

So far, we haven't encountered any real danger in the fog. If the other party takes us to a dangerous area, I would be more than happy. This will help us to better understand the strange phenomenon that occurred on Yueyin Mountain, and may even further collect clues related to Silver Moon.

The xenophobic mountain village, the inhuman villagers, the cannibalistic gods, the taboos that are not allowed to be touched... these elements combined together, it is impossible not to interest me.

I regretted again that I was not acting alone. Moreover, under our current conditions, even if we wanted to find out the details of Guyue Village, there was no need to accompany them in performing the "Mountain Village Horror Story". Maybe if only Dongche and the young traveler were there, it might turn out like that, but we have a more convenient way. I am not interested in putting aside the practical way and making it more difficult for myself.

"Ma Zao, let's get started," I said.

"Ah?" The old man was stunned.

Ma Zao understood what he meant and took out a fake moon in the water.

Immediately, a wave of magical power that controlled the mind swept across the entire mountain village.

Including the young traveler, all the villagers had dull eyes. Even the old man standing in front of us suddenly had a relaxed expression, and his eyes no longer contained xenophobia and coldness.

At this moment, Guyue Village fell under our control.

Dong Che seemed to be slightly affected as well, but he was a high-level demon hunter after all, and the impact was probably just due to being caught off guard.

It only took a moment for his eyes to return to normal, and then he said in astonishment: "Um... why am I also within the target range?"

"Accidentally." Ma Zao said seriously.

"Old sir, can you answer my question now?" I asked the old man.

The old man seemed to have changed his soul and said in an unusually cooperative manner: "No problem."

(End of this chapter)