Chu Zhiyuan looked at the change on his waist, frowned tightly, and after a moment of thought, said:
"It's okay. Let's find your body first. After we find it, I'll go to the hospital. I remember the onset period of this thing is quite long. Your matter is more important now."
Chu Zhiyuan comforted Yun Lianmeng and said:
"Once we get back, Zhaocai will surely help us. Have you forgotten? Zhaocai used to be a flying snake."
Chu Zhiyuan tried to make his tone as cheerful as possible. He didn't want Yun Lianmeng to worry. They'd finally found a clue this time, and if they delayed any longer, Chu Zhiyuan was afraid something might go wrong.
Especially since Yun Lianmeng seemed extremely vulnerable now. Chu Zhiyuan was also afraid that she might leave before accomplishing her last task.
Moreover, this village was strange in itself. Once they left, there would surely be many other variables.
Since Chu Zhiyuan insisted on staying, Yun Lianmeng had no choice but to agree. They accelerated their search.
However, after searching the entire village, they found nothing.
Yun Lianmeng was extremely certain that her body must be in this village.
Chu Zhiyuan originally wanted to use his spiritual power to detect for Yun Lianmeng, but every time he tried to activate his spiritual power, the shingles on his waist would burn with pain.
He could even clearly feel it accelerating its growth.
Even if he managed to use his spiritual power with great effort, its effectiveness was greatly reduced.
There was something in this village that had been hindering the spread of Chu Zhiyuan's spiritual power.
There was simply no other way.
In the end, they had no choice but to sneak into the villagers' homes one by one to search.
And of course, it was Yun Lianmeng who took on this task.
Chu Zhiyuan kept watch.
Although Chu Zhiyuan was worried about Yun Lianmeng's safety, he also knew that further delay would be bad for both of them.
After a round of investigation, the search scope was greatly narrowed.
Yun Lianmeng ruled out all the houses on the outermost circle.
As the number of houses decreased, they were getting closer and closer to their target.
Yun Lianmeng felt her heart was about to jump out of her chest.
They approached the center of the village.
But the closer they got, the more Yun Lianmeng bumped into a membrane.
She couldn't get through. She was blocked outside.
Now she couldn't enter any of the remaining houses.
Yun Lianmeng looked at Chu Zhiyuan with a pleading look in her eyes.
Chu Zhiyuan had no choice but to tentatively climb over the wall into a house to search inside.
For the remaining houses, Chu Zhiyuan had to go in person.
Chu Zhiyuan, who had been feeling uneasy, found that
even when he directly entered the villagers' homes, no one opened the door to stop him.
The villagers just closed the inner-room doors tightly.
Except for the inner rooms, Chu Zhiyuan could go anywhere else. No one bothered him, which left Chu Zhiyuan confused.
Chu Zhiyuan wanted them to open the inner doors.
He knew that the villagers were afraid of the shingles on his body.
But he didn't know how the villagers knew he had been infected with shingles without even seeing him.
Chu Zhiyuan continued to knock on the villagers' doors, hoping to get something out of their mouths.
However, the middle few villagers weren't afraid of Chu Zhiyuan's constant noise. The inner rooms were deathly quiet.
They didn't make any move and just quietly listened to the commotion outside, as if there was no Chu Zhiyuan outside.
The situation had reached a deadlock.
Yun Lianmeng couldn't get in.
And although Chu Zhiyuan had gotten in, he couldn't enter the inner rooms.
The whole village was deathly silent.
It seemed as if only Chu Zhiyuan and Yun Lianmeng were left.
No matter how much Chu Zhiyuan shouted, only the birds in the jungle responded to him.
Night gradually fell.
The whole village was enveloped in darkness.
Chu Zhiyuan, who had been exhausted all day, had his throat hoarse from shouting, but no one was willing to pay attention to him.
The two had no choice but to sit down under the eaves of a villager's house.
At night, the temperature in the mountains was extremely cold, and Chu Zhiyuan didn't have any extra spiritual power to keep warm.
He could tell that this shingles was no simple matter.
When he first got it, Chu Zhiyuan thought it was just a minor illness.
But as time passed, the shingles, which had initially just had a few red rashes, changed the moment he entered the village.
Chu Zhiyuan clearly felt a slippery and itchy sensation around his waist, as if thousands of snakes were crawling on his body. But he didn't mention this strange feeling.
He pretended nothing was wrong and followed Yun Lianmeng to look for clues.
By nightfall, without even lifting his clothes, Chu Zhiyuan could feel that the red rashes on his waist had already spread across a quarter of his waist.
It was feeding on the nutrients in Chu Zhiyuan's body.
Now that it was night, most of Chu Zhiyuan's spiritual power was being used to resist the shingles.
It wasn't afraid of Chu Zhiyuan's spiritual power. Instead, it devoured it as its own nourishment.
But Chu Zhiyuan found that feeding it spiritual power was the only way to slow down its progress.
Chu Zhiyuan's heart sank. It seemed this trip had been in vain.
While Chu Zhiyuan was silent, Yun Lianmeng suddenly noticed something.
She excitedly patted Chu Zhiyuan's shoulder and said:
"Let's go quickly. It's working. I can feel my body is moving. It's about to leave this village. It should be that our constant noise today has panicked that person, so they're trying to move it."
Hearing this, Chu Zhiyuan came to his senses and quickly stood up.
Yun Lianmeng led the way in front, and Chu Zhiyuan closely followed.
His steps were already starting to be unsteady, but Yun Lianmeng, who was walking in front, didn't notice and kept talking to herself:
"I can feel that person is taking my body towards that gully. They're moving very fast. We have to hurry up."
Chu Zhiyuan's mind was already starting to be muddled.
He pinched his own flesh and tried his best to keep up with Yun Lianmeng's steps, echoing what she said.
Unexpectedly, that person's target was really that gully.
But everything in the gully was contagious. Why would they go there?
Yun Lianmeng didn't have time to think about it. All she wanted now was to find her body.
When Yun Lianmeng and the others rushed to the gully, they found that the straw mats that had been piled up like mountains during the day had all disappeared, and even the bloodstains were gone.
Yun Lianmeng searched around here again and again unwillingly.
"How is this possible? How could so many bodies be moved away just like that?"
Yun Lianmeng said in surprise.
"It shouldn't be those villagers. We were guarding there during the day. To move so many bodies, it would surely take more than a dozen people to complete the transfer in such a short time,"
"We would have noticed immediately if any of them had left the village, and most of the people in the village are old people. It should be the people living in this jungle. Don't be in a hurry. Let's look for them slowly."
Yun Lianmeng was anxious only because Chu Zhiyuan had already been infected with this disease.
She didn't want anything to happen to Chu Zhiyuan. They had already delayed for too long.
Yun Lianmeng was just about to ask Chu Zhiyuan to wait for her in place while she went to look for it when Chu Zhiyuan's expression changed. His ears twitched, and his expression became serious.
He quickly dodged behind a tree beside him.
Yun Lianmeng, who had only taken two steps, noticed Chu Zhiyuan's movement and turned to look in the direction Chu Zhiyuan had just looked.
Sure enough, there was someone.
Chu Zhiyuan lowered his voice and said to Yun Lianmeng:
"They didn't leave. They're right here."
Chu Zhiyuan gave Yun Lianmeng a wink, and Yun Lianmeng walked towards the other side of the gully.
Sure enough. There was a discovery. They found the moved bodies.
Those people had moved the bodies into a cave on the other side.
Chu Zhiyuan hid behind the tree, listening to the rustling sounds coming from the gully.
He was vigilant about the surrounding movements, waiting for Yun Lianmeng to come back.
Finally, after waiting for Yun Lianmeng to come back from her exploration, her face was blank, as if she had been scared by something.
Chu Zhiyuan shook her shoulder before she came to her senses.
Yun Lianmeng stared wide-eyed in horror and said:
"They're boiling human bones and eating... human flesh."
This sentence made Chu Zhiyuan freeze on the spot.