Qi Yu and Si Qing walked into the village.
They found it deserted.
Faintly, they could hear a few voices speaking, but they were very low, as if they were afraid that these two outsiders would do something to them.
Besides that, the village exuded a foul stench of decaying corpses.
Not far away, there were several corpses wrapped in white cloth.
They were stained with black and red.
The stench seemed to emanate from here.
Qi Yu covered her nose with a handkerchief, frowned tightly, and carefully squatted down. With her sharp nails, she cut open the shroud. The person inside should have been dead for three or four days, and pus was flowing all over their body.
"His hands are particularly stiff," Si Qing frowned. "I feel like he died from being poisoned by paralyzing grass, but that doesn't make sense. There's no malevolent energy on him. Paralyzing grass can only make someone temporarily unable to move, not die."
Qi Yu shook her head and stood up, looking around. "Paralyzing grass shouldn't cause death, but after a person is paralyzed and unable to move, their relaxed tongue can block their airway. It's very possible they suffocated."
A suffocated human, with the poison of paralyzing grass in their system, their corpse could become like this after two or three days.
"Then we still need to find someone to ask," Si Qing said, his gaze shifting towards a thatched hut not far away.
There had been signs of life in that thatched hut since a while ago, and several pairs of eyes were cautiously watching them.
It seemed that asking these people would be just right.
Si Qing thought this in his mind, but he didn't rashly walk over. To avoid scaring them, he stood in the center of the village and bowed, saying:
"This junior is merely a cultivator, here to find a friend. I wonder if it would be convenient for anyone to come out and inform me. If anyone is willing, I can bestow upon them a gold ingot."
Qi Yu narrowed her eyes and stared at him. "Where did you get a gold ingot?"
Si Qing showed her an obedient expression.
Qi Yu rolled her eyes.
Si Qing looked teary-eyed. "Actually, I do have gold. Although I only have a few pieces, I do have some, sob sob."
He pitifully took out a small piece of gold.
Qi Yu looked at him and, grumbling, took out her own gold and shoved it at him. "Take it, take it, take it. Don't put on that look like your sister is dying and you're about to go bankrupt."
Si Qing immediately grinned and, holding the gold, repeated his earlier words.
He deliberately slowed down his speech, enunciating each word clearly, and kept repeating about the gold in his hand.
Those who were hiding could no longer resist their greed. They pushed open the door of the thatched hut and walked out.
Suddenly, the desolate village became much livelier.
"Who are you looking for?" A man in blue, appearing to be in his thirties, asked Qi Yu and Si Qing in a local accent.
"I want to ask about the cause of death for this person," Qi Yu looked at the man. "And have there been any strange occurrences in your village recently?"
The villagers exchanged glances.
The man in blue hesitated, wanting to speak but stopping.
There had been too many strange occurrences recently, but where should they start?
The villagers whispered amongst themselves, seemingly discussing which event was more important and which was stranger. Finally, unable to reach a consensus, they simply recounted all the strange events that had happened in the village over the past six months.
Although Qi Yu was getting a headache from their rambling, she forced herself to listen.
It was only after about two hours.
Si Qing was almost falling asleep.
Qi Yu finally learned from the villagers that the corpse on the ground had actually died only that morning.
And the most noteworthy strange occurrence in the village, apart from the ghost rumors the villagers spoke of, was this corpse.
"Died only this morning, how could the corpse have become like this? And your village seems to have seaweed drying everywhere. This seaweed should be medicinal, right? It's poisonous, and if someone touches it and gets pricked, their limbs might become unable to move." Si Qing said, looking at the villagers' hands. "But I see many cuts on your hands. You must have gotten them while picking this seaweed. Aren't you paralyzed by the toxins from this seaweed?"
"Oh, these are all from drying the seaweed. This seaweed is indeed poisonous. If it cuts your hand, it will cause paralysis and immobility, but it only lasts for a short while. You recover quickly and it doesn't affect your whole body. At most, the hand that was cut is a bit inconvenient," a villager patiently explained. "Our village is by the sea, and we usually make a living by catching this seaweed, drying it, and selling it to the apothecaries as medicinal herbs for money."
"But a while ago, a female immortal descended to the mortal realm and came to our village. She said her companion was injured and wanted to stay in our village temporarily. During her stay, she would treat our illnesses for free as repayment."
"We thought it was a fair exchange and agreed. But we never expected that after this female immortal and her companion moved into the village, strange things began to happen frequently."
"At first, the seaweed we relied on for survival began to grow in large quantities, all along the west coast."
"Because there was a great demand for this type of seaweed, almost every apothecary in town needed it. So, while the female immortal was here, we harvested a lot."
"But later, strangely, this poisonous ordinary seaweed changed after it began to grow in large quantities. Once it pricked someone, it could be fatal within a quarter of an hour, and the corpse would rot completely within a few hours, just like this corpse."
"What about that female immortal? When did she leave?" Qi Yu became serious.
The villagers glanced at the corpse on the ground. "We drove her away two days ago. We drove her and her companion away together. We don't know where they went."
Qi Yu nodded.
Her face was thoughtful.
Si Qing handed the gold to them, telling them to divide it, and then asked, "By the way, can you let me see where the female immortal used to live?"
The villagers nodded.
They led Qi Yu and Si Qing to a mud house.
The moment the door was opened, the villagers behind and the one opening the door suddenly let out sharp screams.
Qi Yu walked over.
Upon seeing who was lying in the room, her pupils instantly contracted.