Chapter 794 The Stone Monument in the Village
But there was one thing she did not lie about. That was...the fact that a village truly existed here.
To be honest, Ye Xuanyue was still somewhat surprised when she saw the village faintly visible among the trees ahead.
There actually could be a village here; the girl in front truly had not lied. She seemed to give a bitter smile, her voice very low,
"This is the place."
"But those left inside are mostly the old, weak, sick, or disabled..."
Ye Xuanyue took a step forward. Before she even got close, she could smell a very strange, foul odor in the air.
It was hard to describe the smell; it was like the scent of some rotting plant. It was very unpleasant.
Ye Xuanyue frowned slightly.
Then...she suddenly heard a cough.
The sound was very soft at first, but it gradually grew louder. Ye Xuanyue looked up and saw someone walk out.
That person was holding a tree branch. When he stepped forward and suddenly lifted his head to see the man and woman ahead, his expression first held a faint smile.
Then he saw Ye Xuanyue and Leng Moran following behind. A flash of amazement appeared in his eyes, which quickly turned to surprise. He coughed twice forcefully and abruptly closed his mouth.
Ye Xuanyue stared at this old man. He gave her a not-so-good feeling.
He looked extremely aged, as if the wrinkles on his face could not possibly be more numerous. His steps were shaky and unsteady. He lifted his head to look at Ye Xuanyue and coughed twice again. He even seemed to have difficulty speaking.
Ye Xuanyue always felt there was something strange about this man’s gaze. But exactly what was strange, she could not quite say.
She walked forward a few steps before she saw several more people emerge from behind.
These people all gave Ye Xuanyue the impression of being very, very old.
The two younger people beside her lowered their voices slightly. They glanced at each other and then said softly,
"These are our friends. We brought them back to the village to take a look."
Ye Xuanyue could not be bothered to expose the lie of the two people beside her.
For some reason, from the very first glance, this village gave Ye Xuanyue an extremely strange feeling.
Inside Dark Abyss Canyon, the fact that there could be a small human settlement was already peculiar. And in this village, most people seemed very, very old. Their cultivation strength was also very low.
The two who had set the trap for her might truly be the most powerful people in this village.
The more Ye Xuanyue looked, the stranger it seemed. Mainly because, no matter how one looked at it, this place completely went against common sense.
The woman looked back at Ye Xuanyue, a hint of awkwardness in her voice.
"Follow me forward."
Her steps moved ahead. Ye Xuanyue and Leng Moran followed behind her.
The village was not large in scale, almost something one could see the end of at a glance. Ye Xuanyue walked a few steps forward.
The next second, she unexpectedly discovered that at the far end of the village entrance, there was a very conspicuous Stone Monument.
Ye Xuanyue became interested. This thing looked somewhat peculiar. She always had an interest in peculiar things.
Ye Xuanyue walked a few steps forward and heard the woman’s voice hold a faint trace of panic. She paused before speaking,
"That thing... you’d better not get close."
Ye Xuanyue turned her face. Her stunningly beautiful features carried a faint, seemingly smiling expression.
"Oh? Don’t get close?"
"Why?"
A flash of fluster crossed the woman’s face, and her expression held an indescribable panic.
Ye Xuanyue looked at her expression and lightly moved closer a few steps.
The closer she got, the more frightened the woman seemed to become.
Ye Xuanyue approached the Stone Monument. Its style was very ancient and looked somewhat special. She reached out her hand, just about to lightly place it on the Stone Monument, when she heard the woman mutter,
"Don’t."
It was as if this Stone Monument had become her vital point.
Ye Xuanyue glanced down at the Stone Monument. Then her hand suddenly reached up. The woman opened her mouth, her expression terrified, but at the very last moment before Ye Xuanyue’s palm touched it, her expression suddenly flipped completely...it turned into a look of wild joy.
But contrary to her expectations, Ye Xuanyue stopped her hand less than a centimeter away from the Stone Monument. Her expression remained faint, carrying that seemingly smiling calmness.
She walked to the woman’s side and said softly,
"How about... you give it a try instead?"
As soon as her words fell, Leng Moran grabbed the woman’s wrist and, without hesitation, tried to make her hand touch the Stone Monument.
Only then did a flash of true terror appear in the woman’s eyes. Her entire body trembled violently in fear.
Ye Xuanyue smiled slightly, hearing her continuously cry out,
"Don’t!"
"Don’t... I know I was wrong..."
"Don’t make me touch that Stone Monument..."
Ye Xuanyue’s gaze turned back to the Stone Monument. She touched her chin. Was this woman so afraid of it?
She said quietly,
"You can tell me what this really is."
"If I find out you are lying again, I won’t give you any more chances."
The woman’s eyes were somewhat unfocused. She hesitated for a moment, gritted her teeth, and said softly,
"This Stone Monument... this Stone Monument is a cursed Stone Monument!"
"What’s on it is an extremely deep curse!"
"We are trapped in these woods, completely unable to escape, precisely because of this Stone Monument."
Ye Xuanyue lightly clapped her hands. It seemed there was a story to hear. Coincidentally, she was quite fond of listening to stories. Her eyes fixed seriously on the person before her as she spoke,
"You can tell your origins and the curse of this Stone Monument in detail."
But that trace of a smile on her stunningly beautiful face made the other person almost afraid. This girl’s mind was too meticulous, almost... almost like a demon’s trickery.
She simply could not outsmart the person opposite her, yet repeatedly ended up losing more than she gained. How could there be such a cunning demon in this world...
She clenched her teeth tightly. But seeing Leng Moran press her body toward the Stone Monument again, a flash of genuine panic appeared in her eyes. Only then did she say softly,
"We... we are a family that migrated from a small town at the border of the Imperial Dynasty."
"We secretly left the Imperial Dynasty back then because we offended a certain noble. Later, my ancestors received news that within Dark Abyss Canyon, there existed a certain cultivation method...an extremely astounding cultivation method that had been lost within Dark Abyss Canyon."
"We investigated for a long time. And because we could not stay in the Imperial Dynasty anymore, that was when we made the decision for the entire clan to leave the Imperial Dynasty and come to Dark Abyss Canyon to search for that cultivation method. We believed that once we succeeded, our cultivation strength would greatly increase, and we would return to the Imperial Dynasty in glory."