Chapter 464: The Wooden Sculpture’s Change!
Qin Lie’s group abruptly came to a stop.
A shabby village suddenly appeared before them. The village looked as if it was hidden within the ancient trees, its flat stone floor covered with grass, leaves, and dust.
The group became dumbstruck as they stared blankly at the village ahead of them, then at Luo Chen with strange looks on their faces.
Luo Chen’s eyes were filled with puzzlement as well as he shook his head beneath their gazes, “When I came here, it was probably through this path. But I did not notice that there was a village along the way.”
“Are you… lost?” Du Xiangyang taunted him bluntly.
Surprisingly, Luo Chen did not object to his accusation. After frowning for a moment, he said honestly, “I might be.”
The crowd immediately broke out in a clamor.
“Luo Chen! What the f*ck are you doing?” Chu Li was the first one to voice his frustrations as he scolded, “Do you know the road or not? We’ve ran into countless troubles and lost a few men along the way, but you brought us to this place instead? Do you have a hidden agenda or something?”
The Illusory Demon Sect girls all turned anxious and worried. They looked everywhere with doubtful gazes.
Qin Lie was also angry on the inside.
However, he did not join in. He knew very well that Luo Chen absolutely could not stand his angry rebukes.
He did not wish to fight against Luo Chen right then, so the best course of action would be to keep his silence and find out what exactly was going on first.
“Luo Chen, do you still recognize the path? Are you still confident that you can lead us away from this place?” He Wei asked for confirmation.
Luo Chen appeared to be a little hesitant.
“Why is there a village in the forest? This is the Graveyard of the Gods, the ultimate battlefield where experts fought and were buried in this strange land. Why is there a village in this place?”
Puzzlement and confusion appeared in Xue Moyan’s clear eyes. After a moment of ponderment, she suggested, “Let’s go in and take a look.”
Everyone agreed to her suggestion.
Luo Chen was the only one who did not speak. He took out a pocket-sized silver sword from his spatial ring and rubbed its blade with his palm.
The palm-sized silver blade glittered with silver light and let out a crisp sword ring.
“Ring!”
Several hundred meters away, an identical sword ring resonated and vaguely heeded the call of this small silver sword.
While he was doing this, the group’s attention fell on him once more.
“Wait for me!”
After throwing down such a line, Luo Chen headed in the direction of the sword ring, seemingly wanting to test something.
The group did not walk into the strange village and waited for Luo Chen. They wanted to see what kind of answer he would give them.
Luo Chen went swiftly, and returned just as quickly.
Before long, he held up another small silver sword and appeared before the group once more.
“The direction of our path is probably correct.” Luo Chen pointed at a location, “As long as we continue in that direction, we should be able to leave this forest. I have used this small sword to confirm my path. These are small swords that can transmit signals with each other, and they’ve been forged by the same person who made Heavenly Sword Mountain’s sword tokens. It was my grandmother who entrusted him to help forge another batch of these small blades for me…”
Luo Chen explained to the group.
There were a total of thirty five Sound Summoning Swords. They could sense and communicate with one another within fifty kilometers.
This batch of Sound Summoning Swords came from the same person who forged the Heavenly Sword Mountain sword tokens.
Ever since Luo Chen entered the forest from the thunder-filled zone, he had been stabbing Sound Summoning Swords into ancient trees and marking his path this way.
He had prepared a path of retreat for himself since the beginning.
The reason he had confidence that he could lead the group away from the forest and into the thunder-filled land wasn’t because he had a terrific sense of direction. It was purely because he had many Sound Summoning Swords to lead the way.
After listening to his explanation, the people who suspected his motives earlier no longer said anything.
“The reason I didn’t find this village before is because the ancient tree I stabbed with a Sound Summoning Sword had moved elsewhere on its own. However, it hadn’t moved too far away. It is at the edge of the village right now. I am still confident about the approximate path of retreat…” Luo Chen said.
“So this is how it is.” He Wei nodded and smiled apologetically, “It seems that we have blamed you wrongly.”
Everyone saw with their own eyes that the ancient trees in the forest could move. Naturally, they no longer suspected Luo Chen’s explanation.
“There is another Sound Summoning Sword fifty kilometers to the front. There is no mistaking the direction.” Luo Chen withdrew the two small silver swords and turned around to glance at the shabby village. He said indifferently, “Ye Yihao may be rushing towards us. Would you like to leave as soon as possible, or enter this village and look around for a bit?”
“Let’s head in and have a look,” said Chu Li, rubbing his chin.
“This village is very strange. I also think that we can go in and inspect it for a bit. Maybe we’ll discover something.” Xue Moyan agreed.
“What about you guys?” He Wei looked at Qin Lie and Du Xiangyang.
“I’m fine. I’m just going to follow the biggest crowd no matter what. I have no intention of facing that Ye Yihao alone,” Du Xiangyang nonchalantly shrugged.
“With our joined numbers, I do not believe that Ye Yihao and the people of the three great families can do anything to us!” Qin Lie grinned and looked just as unconcerned, “Let’s go in and take a look!”
“What about you, Luo Chen?” He Wei said again.
“I’m fine with whatever.” Luo Chen’s expression was indifferent.
“Then let us go into this strange village and have a look.” He Wei had also become interested.
“Let’s go!”
Therefore, due to the change in movement of the ancient trees, the group of people who passed by the village formed their respective colorful light shields with spirit energy and carefully stepped in.
The village’s limestone floor was filled with dead leaves. It was as thick as snow, reaching all the way up to one’s knees.
The many ebony houses were only one or two stories high. They gave off a simple and crude feeling.
With cautious expressions, the group investigated the many small wooden houses while being on guard against potential danger.
“Creak!”
A wooden house’s doors were pushed open by Du Xiangyang, letting out a creak that suggested it could not bear the heavy force.
Qin Lie followed closely behind.
The wooden chairs and beds inside the house were covered in thick dust. The place had probably been devoid of life for thousands of years.
All furniture appeared to be simple and crude, they could not be considered fine or delicate at all.
It was as if tools used to carve them were an entire era behind those used by the Silver forces of the Land of Chaos.
“There is no life here. There’s nothing at all.” Chu Li’s voice came from a wooden house.
“There’s nothing here as well,” Xue Moyan also said loudly.
“There’s no need to go through them one by one. Let’s just go to the center of the village and see if there is anything unusual. If not, let us leave as soon as possible,” Luo Chen said impatiently.
“Alright,” the group answered him in succession.
The group of people walked out of their respective wooden houses and gathered together once more. They headed straight into the deeper areas of the village.
“Sha sha sha!”
There were only the sounds of their feet pressing against dried tree leaves inside the silent village.
“The front! Look in front!” He Wei screamed.
The group looked towards the indicated direction.
There was a stone well and a floor of corpses at the center of the village.
Those corpses obviously did not belong to humankind.
They had gray brown skin and their bodies were as dry as logs. Upon closer inspection, it was as if the trees had suddenly grown consciousness and turned from tree trunks into humanoid beings.
These corpses had four limbs and a head just like a human being. However, they felt like wooden sculptures.
Were they wooden men?
“They are clansmen of the Wood Race. The Wood Race is an ancient race of forest elves. They are highly intellectual and capable of cultivation just like us. However, they can only cultivate the power of wood,” Xue Moyan explained in a soft voice.
The Wood Race?
A bolt of inspiration suddenly flashed past Qin Lie’s mind. A blurry memory gradually grew clearer in his head.
It was a memory related to the Wood Race…
He did not say anything. Instead, while frowning and narrowing his eyes, he slowly combed through the memory in his mind.
He didn’t know why, but he had subconsciously taken out the wooden sculpture his grandfather left him from the spatial ring as he watched the Wood Race corpses.
Li Mu once told him that he had seen a corpse covered in mist from the memory of a person condensed into a Memory Fragment Crystal. There was also an identical wooden sculpture beside that corpse.
Li Mu could not identify the corpse’s face, nor did he know where the corpse was. He only saw the wooden sculpture clearly.
The wooden sculpture in Qin Lie’s hand suddenly lit up!
He hadn’t combed through the memories of the Wood Race completely, but he could clearly sense that there was something causing the change of his wooden sculpture in the nearest wooden house beside the stone well at the front!
Everyone noticed the abnormal change on Qin Lie.
“Qin Lie, you?” Chu Li asked him with wide open eyes.
Qin Lie looked at the wooden house beside the stone well and walked step by step towards it with an intimidating look in his eyes.
Everyone in the group was staring at him with shock.
……
