The Terror of the Heavens Begins with Gu

Chapter 185 The Bizarre Layout
Li Zhen quietly looked at the woman.

Even without any expression or action, he can exert a tangible pressure on people.

The woman's smile froze.

No one knew that the hairs on her back were actually standing on end.

The bodies of the other three also stiffened.

The fog seemed to be affected by something, like flowing water encountering an obstacle, bypassing Li Zhen's body and churning continuously a meter or two away from him.

A gentle breeze stirred the vampire and the woman, carrying a strong stench of blood towards her, making her expression even more solemn.

"Are you the owner of this place?" Li Zhen finally asked.

The woman was dressed very fashionably; she certainly wasn't born in this remote village.

The woman took a breath and quickly explained, "We are not the owners of this place. The owners are someone else, but we received permission from the village owner after we came here."

After she finished speaking, she added, "We came to check because we saw something happen at Wuxuan Mountain."

"You call these five mountains the Five Mysterious Mountains?" Li Zhen asked.

The woman replied, "As far as we know, these five mountains are indeed called the Five Mysterious Mountains; it is a name passed down from our ancestors."

When did this change occur here?

"About a day or two ago, we noticed some changes at Wuxuan Mountain, so we came to check what was going on here."

"Has this fog just appeared?"

"Yes, we just saw the fog and came out to check it out. We didn't expect... the fog to be so strange. As soon as we came out, we found that we couldn't find our way back."

"What are you doing here?"

After exchanging a few words, the woman's smile became a little more natural, and she asked in return, "Didn't you come here for the treasure?"

"Treasure?" Li Zhen asked, somewhat surprised.

The woman was even more surprised and asked again, "You didn't come here for the rumored treasure?"

"Who said there's treasure in here?" Li Zhen looked at the five mountain peaks that had become hazy in the mist.

The woman exchanged a glance with the people beside her, and said hesitantly, "I don't know when this news came out, or where it came from. I've only heard that these five mountain peaks have a strange feng shui layout and are special treasure troves. Those who are destined to come to the foot of the mountain will receive the blessings of the mountain god and obtain various benefits. So some people believe that this is the mountain god's treasure trove."

Li Zhen caught the key phrase: "Is there a mountain god in this mountain? Has someone received a benefit from the mountain god?"

The woman nodded: "I don't know if they are mountain gods, but these five mountains are indeed somewhat mysterious. Some people have benefited from them."

Li Zhen, lost in thought, looked away and asked, "What benefits did you receive?"

The woman said, "Someone had a dream at the foot of the mountain, and in one night he had an epiphany and became a master of feng shui."

"Some people even remembered an old item they had lost many years ago while they were down the mountain, and found it when they got home."

"This matter has spread widely in the vicinity of Lianglin. A while ago, some villagers from the surrounding area even came here to burn incense and worship the mountain god."

Li Zhen asked, "Didn't you find any opportunities here?"

The woman smiled wryly and said, "No one knows when this opportunity will come. We wandered around the foot of the mountain before and didn't see anything, but we were certain that the feng shui of these five mountains is indeed excellent."

Li Zhen then looked at the five mountains.

The woman exchanged another glance with the men, then said to Li Zhen, "Regardless of why you came here, since we're all trapped here together, why don't we work together to find a way out?"

Li Zhen said something the woman couldn't understand: "The last struggle?"

After waiting a moment and not hearing Li Zhen speak, the woman said again, "We were just lucky to arrive here ahead of time. Some people had their eyes on Wuxuan Mountain before, and the changes here certainly couldn't be hidden from their eyes."

"You must have noticed the strange changes here, which is why you entered this place unintentionally? Someone will be here soon."

"You know, some people are more terrifying than ghosts. If we stay trapped here, anything could happen."

She said so much before, firstly to show her fear of Li Zhen, and secondly to demonstrate her sincerity. Only at the end did she reveal her true purpose, which was that she saw Li Zhen as someone extraordinary and wanted to recruit him into her group.

Li Zhen looked at the woman noncommittally.

"Lianglin Zhouyuan." As the woman introduced herself, her face regained that confident smile.

“There are no opportunities here.” Li Zhen walked towards the women and their companions. “I suggest you find a place to hide and don’t come out no matter who you see, until the fog here dissipates.”

He brushed past the woman and continued walking forward.

After his body was reborn, the only thing that didn't change much was his eyes.

To be precise, his eyes' perception of yin energy was not weakened much.

Although the contact lens he obtained from "Ghost Eyes" was integrated with his eyes, it was still a special item that was distinct from his body.

After his eyes decayed and were reborn along with his body, the contact lens merged with his new eyes.

Upon arriving here, Li Zhen discovered that the glasses were not only capable of sensing Yin energy, but also extremely sensitive to the flow of Feng Shui energy.

Even with the naked eye, Li Zhen could roughly see the qi flowing in the martial mist and determine that there were special nodes in certain places.

The woman, her forehead beaded with cold sweat, stared at Li Zhen's retreating figure, hesitant to speak.

The person in front of me exudes an evil aura.

The two non-human beings following behind this person were also extremely terrifying. Just passing by her made her tense all over, and she dared not move a single finger.

Where did this person come from?

The moment the thought crossed the woman's mind, her expression changed slightly, and she instinctively warned, "Be careful!"

Just as he shouted "Watch out!", Li Zhen's right leg was grabbed by a rotting hand that emerged from the ground, attempting to pull Li Zhen underground.

The three evil spirits opened their eyes the instant they entered Li Zhen's consciousness.

A terrifying aura emanated from Li Zhen's body, only to vanish in an instant.

A scream came from underground, then disappeared.

Upon seeing this, the woman and the other three men's expressions changed simultaneously.

Although the evil aura vanished in a flash, they all clearly felt how terrifying it was.

The moment the evil aura appeared, they all felt as if they had fallen into an ice cave.

How could a person possess such terrifying evil energy?
Is this really a human being?
Or is it some kind of legendary ghost?
Li Zhen turned to look at the group of people, or more precisely, at the child.

The child's expression remained unchanged, but he suddenly stepped back.

A strange squeaking sound rang out.

The banshee's robe swayed slightly, and a red-eyed bat appeared above the child's head, pouncing on the child's face in the child's horrified gaze.

The child who was tackled to the ground let out a pitiful scream.

His body looked small, but the voice he made was very rough, like that of an adult. This was clearly not a child, but a dwarf.

The woman and the remaining two men's expressions changed drastically, and they retreated to the sides in unison.

Seeing the dwarf struggling on the ground, the three men's expressions changed repeatedly, but in the end, none of them offered to help.

Detective Li was somewhat disappointed.

Driven by his will, the red-eyed bat grabbed the dwarf and flew to Li Zhen's front.

After abandoning the dwarf, it flew to the top of the banshee's head, glaring menacingly at the dying dwarf.

Li Zhen only instructed it not to kill the dwarf, not to hold back, so it dealt with the dwarf with great force.

In just a short time, the dwarf's face was covered in sores, with several wounds so deep that the bone was visible.

But the dwarf showed no panic; instead, he wore a strange smile.

Even more bizarrely, the blood flowing from the dwarf's body was slowly seeping into the ground.

The seemingly hard ground acted like a sponge, constantly absorbing the dwarf's blood.

Not only blood, but even the dwarf's soul was seeping into the ground along with the blood.

The ground here is sucking this person's blood and soul...

Li Zhen frowned as he looked at the ground he was standing on.

Although he didn't know exactly what the layout was like here, he knew it was definitely not simple.

The red-eyed bat suddenly swooped down, leaving a huge wound on the dwarf's chest.

Li Zhen stretched out his right hand, dabbed some blood on the wound, and then reached his right hand behind the banshee, smearing it on the fleshy demon statue.

The obscure incantation came from Li Zhen's mouth.

A wisp of black mist flew out from the dwarf's body, and the dwarf's illusory soul could be seen struggling within the black mist.

The moment Li Zhen saw the dwarf's soul, he thought of Fang Xinzhong.

Like Fang Xinzong, this dwarf's soul was also incomplete.

This incompleteness is not the absence of a single soul among the three souls and seven spirits, but a complete lack, as if a part of the soul has been removed.

The black mist tried to fly away, but was sucked into the basket on the banshee's back by the demon statue.

Just as the fleshy demon swallowed the dwarf's soul, an angry roar echoed from between the five mountains shrouded in mist.

The red-eyed bats, having received their orders, gulped down the blood left on the dwarf's corpse to prevent it from dripping onto the ground.

The dwarf had a lot of blood on him, but red-eyed bats were blocking the flow, so only a small amount of the blood fell to the ground.

Li Zhen looked up at the five mountains, then at the three people opposite him.

The expressions on the faces of the three people opposite them grew even more unpleasant.

The woman, her face turning deathly pale, backed away while explaining, "We weren't familiar with him at all. We only met him after we came to Lianglin."

The old man then said, "His name is He Xing. According to him, he is a local and usually works at the funeral home."

"I've heard of someone whose identity can't be faked."

“I don’t know why he went crazy, but judging from the situation, the fog and the ground here are strange. He… he may have been poisoned after arriving here.”

Upon hearing what this person said, the expressions of the others, including the woman, became even more unpleasant.

Both of them witnessed the ground absorbing the dwarf's blood and soul, and they both knew that if Li Zhen hadn't managed to seize the dwarf's soul, the ground would have definitely swallowed it.

They were unfamiliar with the dwarf and didn't know why he had gone mad and suddenly provoked a powerful enemy. They all resented him for dragging them into this mess. They didn't expect that the dwarf might not have wanted to provoke a powerful enemy either, and that his actions were perhaps out of necessity.

After hearing the old man's analysis, the group had to admit that what he said made a lot of sense.

Anyone with eyes could see that the person in front of them was an extremely terrifying figure. Why would that dwarf make a move?

Although this person exuded a menacing aura and didn't seem like a good person, he wasn't lying...

"If you see anyone else, remind them that this place is eerie and they shouldn't wander around." Li Zhen turned around and continued walking forward.

He had no interest in checking if there was anything wrong with the three men.

The biggest problem now is under the five mountains. Once the thing suppressing it is dealt with, all the problems will be solved.

As for asking these three to remind the newcomers, it wasn't because they had any great kindness, but more because they were worried that too many people coming would cause too much killing and lead to some unnecessary changes.

Only after Li Zhen's figure was swallowed by the mist did the woman breathe a sigh of relief: "I don't know where this vicious person came from... that bastard almost killed us all."

The old man and the middle-aged man exchanged a glance, both seeing the wariness in each other's eyes, and silently took a few steps back.

The woman noticed their actions and said helplessly, "We don't need to be wary of each other. If anyone else had a problem, we should have acted together earlier."

The old man and the middle-aged man understood what she meant.

Although it's unclear why the dwarf suddenly attacked that person, if someone else had also been affected, they should have attacked together earlier.

The old man shook his head: "No one can say for sure. If another one of us happens to be... I wouldn't be surprised. It's better for everyone to stay away."

"Let me make this clear: anyone who gets close to me will be killed."

The middle-aged man sighed, "I just came here to watch the excitement and try my luck, to see if there was any opportunity. Who knew this place would be so strange, and with such terrifying people here? We'd better leave as soon as possible."

The woman had no objections.

The question now is...

"How do we get out of here?" the woman asked.

The middle-aged man looked around and said, "Don't go any further in. Let's look for a way out. If we can't find a way, then like that man said, let's find a place to hide and wait for the fog to dissipate."

Neither the woman nor the old man had any objections.

The death of that dwarf had shattered all their illusions.

The three of them found their way and headed towards the outer edge of the fog. Not long after, they suddenly heard footsteps again.

The three exchanged a glance and stopped in their tracks in unison.

A group of seven or eight people appeared in front of the three, led by an old woman holding a baby.

The moment the woman saw the old woman in front of her, her expression changed drastically, and she turned to run away.

The old woman also saw the three people opposite her.

She patted the baby in her arms and said in a sinister tone, "My child, my child, am I that scary? Why do people want to run away as soon as they see me?"

(End of this chapter)