The sun hung high in the sky, scorching the earth. The air was filled with a searing heat. Vultures circled overhead, eyeing their prey on the ground hungrily, ready to feast at any moment. Crows perched on the dead trees, cawing mournfully.
War had raged for a decade. During these ten years, hardly anyone engaged in farming. People stayed behind closed doors, accompanied only by hunger and fear day and night.
The air reeked of sourness, yet not a single corpse was to be seen.
"I know why the meat in the restaurant smelled so sour," Shen Weixun said blankly, staring at the finger. Horrible images flashed through his mind one after another.
In his previous life, when he was suffering from hunger and cold, he had almost become such a person.
If it hadn't been for Niannian.
"Ah? Why?"
It was the first time Niannian had seen Senior Brother Shen looking so terrified. Instinctively, she patted his shoulder to comfort him.
Shen Weixun steadied himself, took a deep breath and said, "It's human flesh."
"Human flesh?! How do you know?"
Luo Wuyou almost jumped up in fright when he heard this.
The answer was too shocking for him to bear.
"No, you're not kidding me, are you? How could you possibly know what human flesh tastes like?"
Perhaps out of self - comfort, Luo Wuyou, who always trusted Niannian and Shen Weixun completely, for the first time chose to doubt their words.
He Qing stepped forward at this moment. He sniffed the air and said in a deep voice, "He's right. It's human flesh. Once I was out on a job. A client came to ask me about her missing sister. It turned out that her sister had been dismembered and killed. I took the client to the place where the body was hidden, and I smelled the same odor there."
"No wonder I thought the smell in the restaurant was strange before. It was so familiar, but I just couldn't remember. Fortunately, I didn't eat that meat."
After He Qing finished speaking, he gave Shen Weixun a suspicious look.
In this peaceful society, a person who could immediately recognize the smell of human flesh was really a bit scary.
Shen Weixun noticed his gaze but didn't care.
In the war - torn era of his previous life, everyone was as hungry as locusts. In such an environment, even if one didn't participate in evil deeds, one must have witnessed a lot.
Another person confirmed this statement.
Luo Wuyou remembered that he had picked up that meat with chopsticks yesterday and almost put it into his mouth. His stomach churned. He covered his mouth and rushed to the trash can, about to vomit. But as soon as he lowered his head, the finger in the trash can seemed to be greeting him, making him even more uncomfortable.
The others who heard their conversation had the same reaction, but they had a stronger tolerance than Luo Wuyou and only retched a few times.
"There must be something wrong here. Not to mention where this human flesh came from. Just looking at the current clues, they never intended to let us out. All the puzzles are lies. There's no such thing as an escape room."
"But what's the purpose of luring so many people here?"
"I don't know, but we have to get out first."
"Count. Are there any people missing?"
The crowd was in an uproar. Someone suddenly raised this question, and everyone began to count.
Niannian took a rough look. She had a good memory and could remember most of the people she had met yesterday.
She looked around and found that indeed quite a few people were missing.
"Senior Brother Shen, about five or six people are missing," Niannian said.
Shen Weixun nodded slightly. He had calculated the same result.
"Are you from the Taoist sect?"
The strong man who had fought in the restaurant before walked over. He was very burly, with well - defined muscles all over his body. He looked fierce and a bit intimidating.
Xiaotuanzi instinctively shrank her neck.
Um...
This uncle looks so scary.
"Yes," Shen Weixun said, turning his body to block Niannian's view as much as possible.
The strong man seemed to realize that his appearance was not very likable. He scratched his head awkwardly.
"Hey, I'm a carpenter. I've learned some skills from the Luban School passed down in my family. We're kind of in the same field. I don't think we should stay here any longer. The door up there is no problem for me. I'll break it down, and we can get out."
"Why are you looking for us?"
Shen Weixun was puzzled. Why did everyone want to cooperate with them?
Come on, they were just kids!
"I heard what you said before. You can tell at a glance that there are spirits on them. Your Taoism must be very profound. You're the only orthodox ones here. You should be good at exorcising ghosts and drawing talismans. We unorthodox people feel safer being close to you."
The strong man didn't feel embarrassed about asking a few kids for help.
In the world of metaphysics, those with great skills were the bosses.
Among the same sect, seniority was important, but in front of outsiders, skills were the capital.
"It seems that everyone here has some skills," Shen Weixun said, looking around at everyone present.
Taking a closer look, he found that quite a few people had a spiritual aura around them.
So many people from the metaphysical world had been gathered. What was the purpose of this game?
"So, do you want to go up?"
The strong man looked a bit anxious. Although he looked rough, he was actually a very cautious person.
This place was so strange that he already had the idea of giving up.
If he wasn't afraid that his limited skills couldn't handle emergencies, he wouldn't have come to talk to Shen Weixun.
Shen Weixun thought for a while and nodded slightly. This place did give him a very uneasy feeling.
Moreover, he wanted to see if the missing people were still alive.
Taking Luo Wuyou with them, the four of them returned to the restaurant along the same way. Without saying a word, the strong man started to break down the door. His carpentry skills were really good. He took the door apart in no time.
"Let's go and check if there's anyone in the other rooms," Shen Weixun said, quickly picking up Xiaotuanzi and heading towards the rooms.
All the doors here were not locked on the surface. Knocking on the doors one by one, they found that all the rooms were empty. That meant the missing people were not trapped in the rooms.
They had really disappeared.
Just then, He Qing and his younger brother and sister rushed to the corridor. All three of them were out of breath and looked shocked. He Qing swallowed hard when he saw Shen Weixun and rushed forward in three big steps.
"Did you... open the... door of the... restaurant?"
He Qing was still out of breath and spoke intermittently.
"Another person who came up with us opened it. What's wrong?" Shen Weixun asked in confusion.
"After we went down the hidden door, we saw a long flight of stairs. We thought it was the exit and went up. Then we came to a room with many human skins hanging in it," He Qing said, still feeling terrified just thinking about what he had seen.
Human skins?
Niannian suddenly became a bit interested.
She looked at Senior Brother Shen and then at He Qing.
Tugging at Shen Weixun's sleeve, she whispered, "Senior Brother, let's go and take a look too."