Why is my journey to the world of anime a strange tale of rules?

However, Yili was still a Red Moon level player, so she eventually calmed down, forced herself to shift her attention, and began to recount what she knew.

From the moment he parted ways with Gao Hai and the others upon entering the village until now, Ichiri has been silently gathering intelligence in this abandoned village.

Because the clones are special creatures created by the guitar, they don't have a particularly obvious living nature compared to Ichiri Goto himself. The invisible death intent is not very sensitive to these clones, and even if the clones are eventually killed, the process is relatively slow, giving Ichiri enough time to use his expertise to find something he can do during the process.

Over several hours, the girl's clones searched the entire village and confirmed the following facts.

First, this abandoned village has no name. Unlike [Li Family Village] and [Liu Family Village], this strange village has no name at all, and there are no wooden plaques or stone slabs with names carved on them like the previous two villages.

Secondly, there is truly nothing active or observable within this abandoned village. All the strange creatures here are invisible, like the spreading aura of death; there is no tangible structure to describe, no part that can be touched, and all threats always appear in an elusive state.

Third, this abandoned village had been used at least for a period of time, and the original users had left in a great hurry. The clones found a large number of houses with their doors open or ajar. After exploring these houses, they discovered that most of them contained packed or partially packed luggage, while others were completely empty, without any furniture. In some buildings, they could also see broken porcelain bowls and basins, and bedding scattered haphazardly on the floor.

What kind of people used to live here?

What have they been through that made them move away, or rather, flee, in such a hurry?

What connection does this abandoned village have with the present-day villages like "Li Family Village" and "Liu Family Village"? These questions kept popping into Gao Hai's mind.

However, he did not speak. He simply listened attentively to Ichiri's investigation and the information he continued to provide.

The fourth point that Ichiri Goto wants to make is about a person.

He was a man whose birth and death dates were unknown, whose origins were unclear, and who was extremely mysterious from beginning to end.

Based on some textual clues found in Yili, and by listening to the lingering murmurs of remnants in the village, the name of an old Taoist priest called Ge Yuan appeared in Yili's investigation.

I found a fragmented record on the edge of the village.

{That was a burial mound on a small hill leading down the mountain. This paper was placed in front of one of the very inconspicuous small graves and weighed down with a stone.}

The paper is badly damaged and stained; I can't restore it. Mr. Hai, could you try? I remember you had a related blessing.

Once the conversation turned to serious matters, Ichiri quickly let go of her girlish shyness.

Gao Hai naturally didn't refuse, so the two struggled in the cardboard box for a while. It took Yili quite a bit of effort to take out the torn piece of paper and hand it to Gao Hai. The two of them changed their posture in the cardboard box from embracing each other face to face to Yili lying in Gao Hai's arms.

The power of blessing was swiftly activated, restoring the previously damaged document.

Then, Gao Hai saw the crooked and messy written record above.

【Travel Notes on Mountains and Rivers, Part 963, by Ge Yuan】

Today I crossed the Mountain of the Dead again. This mountain range stretches for at least 160 miles and is teeming with all sorts of poisonous insects and ferocious beasts. If it weren't for my still relatively robust health and the few young and strong disciples I had with me, I probably wouldn't have been able to get out of this place so easily.

However, the hardships along the way have been a form of self-cultivation for this old man. Haha, although I'm just a fake Taoist priest with no real background and only a smattering of pharmacology, I've traveled across mountains and rivers, saving lives and healing the sick along the way. After this journey, perhaps I can call myself a carefree wanderer.

But the place we arrived at this time was really too strange.

The fact that villages are scattered among these mountains is already surprising enough, but the fact that evil spirits are hidden within these villages makes it even more ominous.

These isolated villagers have lived in harmony with those things for a long time, and so far, they have coexisted peacefully. But this balance is truly terrifying. Perhaps one day, if these villagers take even the slightest misstep, the consequences could be utterly devastating.

I only have a superficial understanding of how to decoct herbs and treat patients.

How to vanquish demons and monsters, that's a real challenge for this old man. After all, I'm not a true Taoist priest; I'm just an old man who, despite knowing his fate, refuses to accept it.

However, since we've come to this place, it must be fate.

There seems to be a certain pattern in the actions of those evil and strange creatures. Perhaps by finding this pattern, we can find a way to eliminate the hidden dangers facing these villagers.

Ghost Cry Cave

Bottomless Lake

[These two routes require traversing one. The Ghost Cry Cave is located high up on Little Black Mountain and is difficult to reach, while the Bottomless Lake can be reached by following the river. I've heard that the Bottomless Lake is one of the two major lakes on Little Black Mountain. Unlike the Water Ghost Lake, this Bottomless Lake is located deep in the forest, where it's easy to encounter wild beasts. We'd better be prepared with swords and spears.]

[The mystery of this bottomless lake and the Ghost Cry Cave remains unsolved; perhaps the entire village will perish with it.]

Alas, natural disasters and man-made calamities. Natural disasters are unavoidable, but why do man-made calamities always seem to repeat themselves? In any case, let's at least hope for a positive outcome.

[Then what follows... (The rest of the content has been torn out)]

Chapter Twenty-Three: Numerous Suspicious Points and the Clues Gathered by Goto Ichiri

Taoist priest Ge Yuan.

Gao Hai silently memorized the name.

Gao Hai wasn't surprised to find this new name and record in this desolate village. After all, he had already discovered another group of outsiders who had entered the village besides the ghost-suppressing people by empathizing with a certain strange entity.

Based on the information I sensed at that time, the child was talking to a "little Taoist priest" and was telling the little Taoist priest not to go to his "master". So, was Ge Yuan the so-called master?

Speaking of which, this instance has already introduced quite a few names and factions. Li Ziyong, Li Duosun, and others from Li Family Village, Liu Family Village filled with paper figures, the Jiang family, who come from the outside world and take it upon themselves to control the spread of strange creatures, and now the old Taoist priest Ge Yuan that Goto Ichiri discovered in this abandoned village, are already four different groups.

Liu Village was the strangest place. It seemed to be in opposition to Li Village, with one day and the other night cycling through each other. However, the subsequent actions of the Li Village villagers freely entering Liu Village suggested otherwise. It was incomprehensible how they were operating. The same went for the mountain god temple. Kaguya encountered a seemingly friendly old woman there, and messages from generations of unwitting victims remained inside. Then, the same group of villagers emerged from the temple. Moreover… Gao Hai was absolutely certain that when he initially watched the ceremony in the small square, the direction the villagers came from when they carried the statue down was different from the direction Kaguya had found at the mountain god temple.

Yes, those villagers came down from the road leading up the mountain, while the mountain god temple that Kaguya found was on one side of the village. Moreover, the temple on Kaguya's side was very close to the village, but it was not very noticeable because of the dense trees.

There are simply too many doubts.

The information within this instance was likely deliberately concealed and fabricated by the villagers. Finding the correct information and timeline will be extremely difficult. For one thing, since entering the instance, Gao Hai has barely encountered any strange creatures. Those paper figures are merely derivatives; almost none of the true strange creatures representing the instance's power have appeared.

"Besides this, have you found any other clues?"

After thinking for a while, Gao Hai looked at Yili, who was still blushing and nestled in his arms, and asked.

“Hmm… there are a lot of graves outside this village, um… I think I should… I should let Mr. Hai take a look.”

The pink-haired girl carefully organized her thoughts for a while, but after a few sentences, she still couldn't quite make herself clear. So she thought for a moment, then stood on tiptoe inside the cardboard box, reached out and grabbed Gao Hai's shoulders, arching her back so that her fair forehead was pressed directly against Gao Hai's forehead.

I sensed Goto Ichiri's spiritual power gradually being transmitted to me.

Gao Hai quickly realized what Yi Li wanted to do, closed her eyes, and let the other person transmit her senses to her.

Soon, blurry images appeared in Gao Hai's consciousness, and gradually became clearer.

That was a mass grave outside the desolate village.

One mound after another spread across the withered hillside.

Many graves have only a rough wooden sign in front of them, and the vast majority of graves have nothing at all that can identify the deceased. Only a very few graves have proper tombstones, although the inscriptions are already blurred and illegible.

{That's not all; this is just what you see from the outside.}

The girl's voice echoed in Gao Hai's heart, and the scene that appeared in Gao Hai's consciousness began to move, heading deeper into the cemetery.

Then Gao Hai saw many dug pits and corpses wrapped in straw mats next to them.

This is……

One corpse after another appeared, increasing in number as the viewpoint zoomed in.

Ten...twenty...fifty...one hundred...three hundred, no, more than three hundred, even more than that...

The hillside was piled high with corpses of all sizes. Some bodies weren't even wrapped in straw mats; they were simply tossed into the graves. Strangely, despite being bluish-purple or swollen, the corpses showed no obvious signs of decay, and no maggots or other parasites were visible. The process of decomposition that should have occurred on these bodies seemed to have been halted by some force.

Gao Hai's attention was focused on the corpses.

Adults, the elderly, children… they were all there. This place was unlike the Li Family Village and Liu Family Village we had passed through before, where there were children's corpses. Furthermore, all the corpses were in an extremely contorted and agonizing state. It seemed they had endured considerable suffering before death; some corpses had their fingernails flipped off or fallen off, and their bodies bore numerous scratch marks, as if they had desperately tried to pull something out of their bodies before they died.

Some of the corpses were even disemboweled, with their purplish-black internal organs scattered on the ground, or even held in the hands of the deceased.

The bodies dumped in the center of the grave mound were mostly arranged neatly, either lying flat and properly clothed with undug pits nearby, or naked, stripped of their clothes and wrapped in straw mats. Near the edge of the grave mound, closer to the village, the bodies were in a very messy state, completely abandoned and carelessly tossed about in the grave mound.

Not far from the burial mound, Gao Hai also discovered a large pit filled with many charred, blackened corpses. It seemed the villagers had tried burning the bodies, but the method didn't appear to be very effective.

{A plague?}

Gao Hai pondered for a moment before speaking through the mental link.

{Yes, it must be the plague}

Unlike speaking directly, Goto Ichiri's tone seemed much more cheerful in the mental link, and the content of her words was no longer stuttered or abruptly interrupted.

It was at this moment that Gao Hai saw the scene that appeared in his mind suddenly begin to flicker and darken. Then, his perspective suddenly plummeted to the ground and began to shake violently. After a short while, his perspective went completely black and disappeared.

Takahashi immediately realized that this was the perspective left by the clone created by Ichiri Goto.

{The longest a clone can survive in a graveyard is no more than 3 minutes. Even if I adjust the clone's base stats to give it the highest resistance, it will still die quickly. That place is shrouded in a deadly force of rules, and nothing alive can maintain its mobility for long.}

Goto Ichiri was still earnestly explaining the situation to Takami.

{Hmm, this clue is quite valuable. I feel like my brain is a bit of a mess. What on earth has happened in this wretched village...?}

Gao Hai merely sighed softly at this, while his mind raced even faster. He began to ponder the events that Goto Ichiri had discovered, the time before this instance was formed, and its connection to the present-day [Li Family Village] and [Liu Family Village].

plague.

If this is indeed a plague, then for a small village in the mountains, it would be a complete catastrophe.

I recall the village had a population of around a thousand. If a major plague had indeed struck this place, resulting in the deaths of over three hundred people, then roughly 3% of the population would have perished, and the loss of young and middle-aged adults, who were the main labor force, would likely have been significant. After all, given the era in which this village existed, the average life expectancy was probably not very long, and Gao Hai didn't see many elderly people from that perspective.

Could it be due to the plague?

Because of the plague, the entire village was wiped out, so the survivors quickly fled the village, leaving behind only a mess of corpses that could not even be buried and a completely abandoned village.

Because of the plague, the entire village was driven to desperation. As a result, some things that were originally lurking in the shadows found an opportunity to approach the village, made promises to the villagers, and then used these promises to exert some influence on the entire village, leading to the situation we see today.

No, there's no need to fabricate a "mastermind." The true situation of these villagers in Lijia Village can only be known after a more thorough investigation.

The same applies to the "Little Black Mountain God" and the "Fox Queen." The Mountain God, at present, seems to be a non-human entity with a clear self, but whether it was artificially created like Alice, a unique being combining elements of monsters and humans, or something even stranger, is currently impossible to determine. As for the Fox Queen, we don't even know what she is, since Gao Hai never encountered her at all.

There are still not enough clues; there are still too many things we don't know, are unclear about, or cannot confirm.

{Um, there's another clue...}

Goto Ichiri suddenly spoke again, interrupting Takami's thoughts.

It was only then that Gao Hai realized that, due to his intense concentration, he had somewhat overlooked the embarrassed expression on Yi Li's face in his arms. She might have called him several times already, but only spoke through the mental link because he hadn't responded.

Are there any other clues?

Gazing intently into Yili's light blue eyes, Gao Hai asked very seriously.

{It's a stage}

Goto Ichiri nodded, then looked thoughtful.

{Um... let's just show it directly...}

After thinking for about 5 seconds, the girl's head pressed against the other side again.

Gao Hai closed his eyes, feeling the sensation of Yi Li's forehead touching his own, and the tangible feeling of their spiritual energies intertwining.