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As soon as Xu Lei arrived, she noticed four big men surrounding her. They were either holding weapons or shotguns, which nearly scared her to death, causing her to collapse onto the ground.
Bai Yujing and the others rushed out and saw a figure heading into the temple. After glancing at the girl who was collapsed on the ground, they asked uncertainly, "Xu Lei?"
Xu Lei looked up and saw the four of them, immediately feeling relieved. "It's you guys! I thought I had run into some monsters!"
Bai Yujing and the others put away their weapons and looked at the girl on the ground. "Wait, how did you end up in here? Li Hao, weren't you supposed to contact someone to take her away?"
Li Hao shook his head and said, "How would I know? Once we entered the mountains, our phones stopped working, and we had no idea what was happening outside!"
Hearing this, Xu Lei became furious. "Bai Yujing, Li Hao, you two said you would take me into the mountains together! But on the agreed morning, you secretly left me behind. Did you even consider my feelings? You just left a girl alone in the mountains!"
Li Hao awkwardly replied, "We were just trying to protect you! It's too dangerous in these mountains!"
Bai Yujing looked at Xu Lei with a frown. "How did you get in here? The mountain paths are difficult to navigate. We set off earlier than you, yet you managed to arrive before us?"
Xu Lei stammered, "I was so angry that I took a map and went into the mountains. After that, I just wandered around aimlessly until I ended up here!"
Zhong Qiang spoke up, possibly because Xu Lei was about the same age as his daughter. "Alright, now that we're all here, let's not waste time. We should head inside; it's getting dark."
The group quickly started a fire in the center of the temple hall. Having camped outdoors for several days, spending a night in this temple felt incredibly comfortable. They didn't have to worry about wild beasts or snakes and insects or the damp and dark environment outside; they could rest comfortably for a night and regain their energy.
After Bai Yujing got the fire going, he placed a kettle on top to boil water. Since they didn't need to set up tents, they saved a lot of time. Bai Yujing walked around the temple; besides the main hall, there were areas for lodging on both sides. He also noticed beds made of mud bricks and beds covered with weeds. The kitchen had a stove and an iron pot, but that pot looked very rough, resembling a large pancake.
The water tank was filled with water, and there were two mulberry trees planted in the backyard. Everything made it seem like someone frequently lived here, which increasingly made Bai Yujing feel uneasy. He returned to the main hall and focused on the statue.
The clay statue didn't appear very exquisite. When Bai Yujing asked about it, they all said they didn't know what deity it represented since there were no distinct features—just a middle-aged Taoist priest dressed in a long robe gazing into the distance.
Bai Yujing searched around and found a line of small characters at the cuff: "Dedicated to the God Chizongzi here, Ancient Mili Artisan Qiang!"
The characters were written in Eastern Zhou bird seal script. After reading it, Bai Yujing felt a sudden jolt in his heart. Chizongzi, also known as Chisongzi, was a famous deity from ancient times, said to have participated in the Battle of the Deer and followed the Yan Emperor. As for the ancient deer mentioned later, Bai Yujing couldn't quite understand its meaning.
Bai Yujing suddenly felt an urge to leave immediately. He looked at the incense that continued to burn gracefully; he had previously thought it was lit by Xu Lei, and no one had questioned it. However, at this moment, Bai Yujing immediately asked Xu Lei, who was sitting by a nearby pillar: "Xu Lei, you must have lit this incense, right?"
Xu Lei quickly shook his head: "No, I haven't been in here before. How could I have lit this incense?"
Bai Yujing's face turned pale. At this point, it was completely dark outside. The four of them felt a moment of disorientation and suddenly saw two lamps inside the temple light up, while faint glimmers appeared in the outside world.
However, the outside world suddenly became lively, losing its previous tranquility and quietness. Bai Yujing and the others immediately pushed open the temple doors to look outside and saw that the temple, which had been on a hillside, was now situated halfway up a mountain. Below them appeared a small town with lights flickering continuously, looking very bustling.
Everything around had changed; the thick fog had vanished, and the mountains and forests looked different. Li Hao stammered while pointing below: "How did a town appear? An ancient town at that! Lao Qi, aren't you from around here? Do you know what's going on?"
Lao Qi was equally astonished: "I don't know either! I've lived most of my life and have never encountered anything as bizarre as what we've experienced these past few days. If you ask me, who should I ask?"
Bai Yujing quickly packed his things: "Let's go down and take a look; it must be a mirage or an illusion left over from thousands of years ago!"
Zhong Qiang gritted his teeth: "That's right! We need to figure out what's going on. We've already been trapped here; if we don't understand what's happening, how can we get out?"
The group gathered their courage and headed toward the town below. Previously, this area had been a Mountain Valley filled with towering trees and dense fog; now it had transformed into a grassy slope with a frequently traveled mountain path leading down to the town.
Bai Yujing and the others walked down along the path. The town had walls less than four meters high and didn't seem large; it was brightly lit inside. At that moment, there were quite a few people lined up to enter the town. Guards stood at the entrance, and these people wore tattered hemp clothing with straw sandals; some were even bare-chested.
Xu Lei immediately shouted: "There are people lining up over there! If we follow behind them, we can get into the town too!"
Bai Yujing and the other three looked at Xu Lei as if he were foolish: "Are you crazy? Where is this? The core area of Shennongjia! Look at those people—are they even human?"
Lao Qi also knelt down at this moment and said, "Amitabha, Buddha bless!"
Li Hao, trembling all over, said, "We haven't ended up in the Underworld, have we? What exactly is going on here?"
Zhong Qiang tried to remain calmer: "We currently have two options. One is to send someone to blend into the group and enter the city; the other is to find a way to sneak in from a blind spot on another wall!"
Bai Yujing immediately said, "I think the second option is more reliable!"
Mixing in with those obviously non-human beings to enter the city? What a terrible idea! Bai Yujing had no intention of dealing with them and certainly didn't want them to discover their group.
At that moment, Xu Lei stammered, as if his upper and lower teeth were fighting each other, saying, "Look behind us, behind us!"
"What's behind us?" Bai Yujing immediately turned around and saw four pale-faced figures in modern clothing walking down from the mountain. The place they emerged from was the temple that Bai Yujing and the others had just exited.
The temple was situated halfway up the mountain, with a vast expanse of jungle behind it. Dots of bright lights shone from inside the temple, and the four figures swayed as they approached Bai Yujing's group. Bai Yujing and the others broke out in cold sweat watching these four individuals, who seemed completely unconcerned as they passed by. One of them nodded at Lao Qi as he walked by.
Lao Qi immediately reacted and shouted, "Dama Zi, isn't that Dama Zi? What happened? Why haven't you brought back any information after entering the mountain? Dama Zi, speak up!"
Lao Qi wanted to chase after them, but Zhong Qiang quickly grabbed him. Lao Qi kept trying to shake off Zhong Qiang's hand: "Qiangzi, what are you doing? I need to ask them what's going on! Don't hold me back."
Zhong Qiang pointed at the ground. Lao Qi looked over and was instantly frozen in shock, his face turning pale. He saw that under the moonlight, as those four people walked along the mountain path, there were no shadows behind them!
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