MJWCATFPITWOC Chapter 79

Chapter 79: Mutation

Chapter 79: Mutation

The group heading to the forest was assigned extra leaders, considering the potential dangers. Therefore, this group accounted for four out of the five leaders.

The disciples walked ahead, with Mo Yifeng and the others following behind. They passed through the small livestock pens built by the villagers and went deeper into the forest.

One of the disciples muttered under his breath as he walked, “What are we supposed to do in the forest? There’s nothing to see here.”

Mo Yifeng, as the leader, ignored him.

He originally wanted to be in the same group as Shen Yucheng, but someone beat him to it. His mood was so bad that he could swallow someone whole, so he was in no mood to answer such a mindless question.

Nie Yue glanced at him and said calmly to the disciples, “The villagers were injured when they entered the forest in the early morning, according to their statements. Therefore, this is likely where the culprit is hiding. Our mission is to look for suspicious traces and pay attention to every plant and tree around us.”

The disciples understood and nodded repeatedly, indicating that they would observe carefully.

Meanwhile, Shen Yucheng’s group was operating in the village.

“Should we split up and sneak into different houses to search?” someone suggested.

Shen Yucheng, standing at the back of the group, nodded when he heard the suggestion. This would indeed greatly reduce the search time.

After the leader confirmed, everyone dispersed. Shen Yucheng took the lead and ran towards A-Yan’s house.

“Are you very familiar with Sword Master Mo?”

Qin Feng’s voice suddenly came from the side. Shen Yucheng turned around and realized that the other person had been following him all along, staring at him as if waiting for an answer.

Shen Yucheng didn’t stop walking, but he didn’t want Qin Feng to keep pestering him, so he replied casually, “It’s okay. Something happened before, and he saved my life.”

A complete lie.

Qin Feng seemed relieved when he heard this: “Is that so? I just saw that Sword Master really wanted to come to this group… I thought it was for you.”

Speaking of this, Shen Yucheng was annoyed again. He really didn’t understand what that guy was thinking. If the two of them were in the same group, wouldn’t the search progress of the other group be completely uncontrollable?

He originally thought that Mo Yifeng should understand this principle, but he didn’t expect that the other party insisted on being in the same group as him.

Qin Feng got the answer and separated from Shen Yucheng again. Shen Yucheng quickened his pace and arrived at the entrance of A-Yan’s house in a few steps. There was no one else around him, so he stopped pretending and directly used [Penetration] to enter the house.

The interior of the house was simple and clean.

A-Yan lived alone and had no family, so the room was not big, with only a bed, a round table in the center, and a large wooden cabinet opposite the bed. Logically speaking, this should be a place for daily life, but the items in the room were unusually scarce.

Shen Yucheng looked around. To be honest, he didn’t feel the presence of anyone living here. It didn’t look like a room where someone lived, but more like an empty house for storing Debris.

Shen Yucheng scanned the area.

A-Yan wasn’t there.

Where could he have gone so late?

But he didn’t pursue it too much and started searching first. He searched all the places where things could be hidden, such as the bed, under the bed, and the cabinet, but found nothing except for the dust that flew up.

There wasn’t even any food.

If he hadn’t seen A-Yan return here with his own eyes during the day, and if his name wasn’t written outside, he would have even thought he had come to the wrong place.

The supplies in the room were not enough to sustain a person’s life at all, which further confirmed in Shen Yucheng’s mind the possibility that A-Yan was a “living dead.”

Time was limited, so Shen Yucheng didn’t waste time here and turned to leave. Just as he opened the door, he suddenly found a piece of paper pasted behind the door. He was only focused on searching the house just now and didn’t notice the existence of this paper.

He immediately took it off and unfolded it. It was written in messy handwriting:

“A-Xiang is gone too. Everyone in the village is… I might be next…”

A-Xiang?

If Shen Yucheng remembered correctly, A-Xiang was A-Yan’s good brother. When A-Yan persuaded Shen Yucheng to stay for the banquet that year, A-Xiang was also there, and the two were almost inseparable.

“A-Xiang is gone,” does that mean literally?

Shen Yucheng frowned. If it really meant “dead,” then the words “everyone in the village is…” made sense. No wonder he had only seen A-Yan since he came here, and hadn’t encountered any of the villagers from that year.

The worst-case scenario was that they were all dead.

The note had been folded several times, and when he fully unfolded it, he found a few more words at the bottom, in the same handwriting, but the handwriting was messy. He could feel that the person’s emotions were fluctuating greatly when recording:

“Spiritual power!!!”

These words were written in crimson color, with sharp strokes that almost pierced the paper.

Shen Yucheng frowned. What did this headless and tailless mean?

With questions in mind, he continued to visit other houses.

The villagers were all sleeping very deeply. Shen Yucheng didn’t find any valuable information in their homes, but without exception, there was no food in any of the villagers’ houses.

It was winter, so they couldn’t possibly be planting. Then, without food reserves, how did they survive?

Shen Yucheng left this house and was about to go to the next one when he fell into deep thought and walked straight ahead. Just as he reached the door of another house, a scream came from behind him.

“He… They’re all up?!”

Shen Yucheng turned his head sharply.

He saw a villager standing almost face-to-face with him, so close that he would have kissed him with a slight movement. The other person was holding a sharp kitchen knife in his hand, raised high, with empty and lifeless eyes.

Shen Yucheng’s hair stood on end. He couldn’t imagine what he would be like now if there hadn’t been that shout just now.

The next second, the kitchen knife suddenly chopped down at him!

He dodged sideways, and the blade brushed past his hair, and a few strands of hair fell to the ground.

Only then did Shen Yucheng see that there was more than just this villager in front of him. Dozens of people were standing behind him, all the villagers he had just searched, and they were all holding various household weapons in their hands.

What was going on?!

Shen Yucheng stared at the villagers’ empty eyes, and his heart sank.

Sleepwalking? Or…

“What the hell is going on?!” The disciple who first noticed the abnormality shouted in surprise. He was standing outside the house, but he didn’t notice that the door behind him was being silently pushed open.

Shen Yucheng was shocked. He saw another villager in the house quietly approaching the unprepared disciple with a sharp weapon.

“Careful!!” he shouted suddenly. The disciple turned his head in a panic, and his face turned pale, and his legs became weak. Before he could stand firm, he fell to the ground in a mess.

Seeing that the villager’s blade was about to fall, Shen Yucheng waved his hand, and millions of golden threads suddenly flew out, firmly Entangled the other person. The villager’s figure froze for a moment, and then struggled frantically. The tighter the golden threads Entangled, the sharper the silk threads were deeply embedded in the flesh. In an instant, he was covered in blood.

The disciple’s cultivation was still shallow, so he couldn’t see the entity of the golden thread. From the disciple’s perspective, the villager suddenly stopped moving, then his body twisted violently, his flesh was inexplicably kneaded and compressed, and then suddenly tore open, and blood splattered everywhere.

The disciple was so frightened that he trembled all over, slumped on the ground, and wouldn’t move like an idiot.

Shen Yucheng didn’t want to be so cruel to the villagers, but if he didn’t restrain the other party, the disciple’s life would be in danger at any time. He shouted in a deep voice, “What are you still doing? Hurry up and leave!”

With this shout, the disciple came to his senses and scrambled to his feet, using both hands and feet.

Shen Yucheng waved his hand to Close the golden thread, flew to the disciple’s side in an instant, scanned the mutated villagers around, and said calmly: “They walk slowly, don’t be afraid, let’s go and see the situation of the others first.”

.

In the forest, the disciples surrounded a newly dug deep pit. Everyone’s faces were covered with mud and sand. No one spoke. Everyone’s eyes were fixed on the things at the bottom of the pit, their expressions pale and speechless.

“What… what is this?” the disciple asked in a trembling voice.

Mo Yifeng stepped forward and squatted down. After examining it carefully, his tone was heavy: “It’s brains.”

As soon as this was said, several disciples immediately turned around and ran to the tree, supporting the tree trunk and vomiting non-stop.

The faces of the leaders were not much better. They had seen bloody scenes, but they had never witnessed such a horrifying sight.

Just now, they were exploring in the forest. After passing all the livestock pens, Li Juemu found that the soil under his feet was abnormal. Unlike other places, this piece of soil was abnormally soft.

In order not to miss any clues, everyone worked together to dig open the soil layer, and as a result, they saw the scene in front of them.

Buried at the bottom of the pit was a pile of blurry paste, with fleshy lumps stacked randomly, and a fishy stench coming from it.

Li Juemu swallowed and tried to suppress his nausea, and hesitated: “Brother Mo… could this be… animal brains?”

No one said it was human brains, but thinking of the abnormality of the village, everyone had a premonition in their hearts.

Mo Yifeng said in a deep voice: “It’s human.”

He knew the situation of the injured villagers, so the origin of these things was obvious.

But in front of Li Juemu, he said this: “You saw the livestock pens when you passed by just now, right? After winter, there is not a single living livestock here. And the things in this pit were all buried just now. Then, it shouldn’t be difficult to guess who they belong to, right?”

Mo Yifeng’s words completely shattered the last trace of luck of the disciples.

Nie Yue’s expression was heavy. She didn’t expect that the experience this time would become so complicated: “Sword Master Mo, the situation this time has exceeded their coping range. Do you think it is necessary…”

Before she finished speaking, a loud noise suddenly came from the direction of the village!

The creatures in the forest were frightened and fled in all directions.

Li Juemu’s face changed: “…What happened in the village…”

Mo Yifeng’s heart suddenly shook, and he suddenly raised his head, staring at the direction of the village.

This spiritual power!

.

Night shrouded the entire village, like an invisible barrier, bringing the magic of the walking dead here.

“Ugh——!!”

On the street, the villagers walking forward limping stopped instantly when they heard the sound, looked around for a few times, and then continued to walk forward.

Shen Yucheng observed the movement outside through the crack in the window. He was relieved when he saw that the villagers had not discovered this place. He looked back and saw a disciple with wide eyes, his mouth Cover tightly by dozens of hands, and he could only make a muffled “ugh ugh” sound.

Shen Yucheng gestured, and the other disciples released their hands.

The disciple was able to catch his breath and took a few breaths, and asked anxiously: “What’s going on? What happened to the villagers outside?! Why are they all holding weapons!”

Just now, Shen Yucheng and the disciple who first discovered the abnormality, Shi Zhong. When he escaped from the villagers’ attack and reunited with the others, he found that only the villagers behind them had mutated.

But unexpectedly, in the next moment, like some kind of chain reaction was triggered, the remaining normal villagers also began to mutate and frantically attack the disciples.

Everyone fled into an empty house in a panic. Shen Yucheng noticed that there was another disciple running away alone outside, so he grabbed him and pulled him in.

The leader counted the number of people and confirmed that no one was left behind before he felt a little relieved.

“What is the situation now? Are the villagers sleepwalking?”

“They are so scary, they can’t feel their aura at all. When they are discovered, they have already appeared behind them!”

“What should I do… Is the experience so terrible?”

“Can we still go back? Won’t we be killed by the villagers? There are so many of them!”

The disciples had little experience and showed fear, almost unable to bear this pressure, and the atmosphere on the scene almost collapsed.

The leader tried to appease them, but obviously, in this state, he himself did not have the full confidence to take everyone out.

The house fell into a stalemate for a while.

“Yi… Senior Yi, what should we do now?”

Shen Yucheng was stunned and looked back in confusion.

Who would call him that here?

What he saw was Shi Zhong. He did not stay in the group of disciples, but walked to his side with firm eyes, no longer the timidity he had at the beginning. He didn’t know what he had figured out, or he was sure that Shen Yucheng could find a way.

Shen Yucheng glanced at Shi Zhong, then turned his gaze back to the outside of the window, and said in a low voice: “I don’t know either.”

Shi Zhong’s expression obviously froze for a moment, but Shen Yucheng didn’t see it.

Shen Yucheng was telling the truth.

He still didn’t understand the reason why the villagers became like this, and he didn’t understand why they attacked his group. They and the villagers had never met before and had no grievances with each other. What was the purpose of the villagers’ sudden hostility?

Just like the group of people who drugged him a few years ago.

He still doesn’t understand what they want to get from him.

“Why don’t we just rush out and leave this village? With our remaining spiritual power, we should be able to hold on!” the disciple suggested in a low voice.

Spiritual power…

Shen Yucheng was slightly stunned. This word…

In an instant, the note left by A-Yan flashed in his mind.

The last sentence written: “Want spiritual power.”

Looking at the villagers’ walking dead again, the clues in his mind pieced together, and he thought of the reason why the villagers attacked them.

At the same time, the group of disciples seemed to have made up their minds and stood up in unison, about to walk towards the door.

The leader asked quickly: “What are you going to do?!”

The disciple’s tone was firm: “Since staying here is also waiting for death, we will rush out now! If you are afraid, you can stay and wait for reinforcements. After we leave successfully, we will definitely bring people back to save you.”

The leader’s face turned pale when he heard this: “Don’t mess around! The situation outside is unclear now. It’s dangerous to go out rashly!”

The disciple ignored him: “What could be worse than this? It’s just the group of villagers who walk like snails.”

With that said, they had already reached the door.

Shen Yucheng was still staring out the window, not turning his head. However, in the next moment, a few golden threads shot out from his palm, straight into the feet of the disciples. The golden threads were dangerously close to the shoe surface, as if to say “If you take another step forward, you don’t have to want these feet.”

The disciples froze immediately. A few people swallowed. Just as they were about to curse, a loud noise came from the house, accompanied by a huge aftershock.

“Boom——!”

The whole house shook, and even fine cracks appeared on the ground.

Shen Yucheng’s eyes narrowed.

The loud noise was not just once, but with a very oppressive frequency, vibrating regularly.

But whether it was an illusion or not, the sound seemed to be getting closer and closer.

Shi Zhong’s hands clenched unconsciously, and he gritted his teeth and said, “…I think this vibration seems to be getting stronger and stronger…”

It’s like…

Coming towards them!