After the chicken-headed people dispersed, everyone gathered together and began discussing the situation in low voices.
“This ghost domain looks exactly like the God Village we saw in Panlong Ridge before,” Jin Qingqing said first.
Xu Muchan looked up at the sunlight overhead.
It was clearly winter, yet the sunlight above them was as fierce as it would be in summer. At that moment, it hung dazzlingly overhead, so bright that it was almost impossible to keep their eyes open.
“Although it looks exactly like the God Village in Panlong Ridge at first glance, there are actually differences,” Xu Muchan said.
Of everyone present, Xu Muchan had been the first to discover God Village. Once he brought it up, the others immediately turned their attention to him.
“What’s different?”
“From what I observed, these chicken-headed people should be nocturnal. They probably don’t like sunlight. Also, it’s winter right now. There wouldn’t be such intense sunlight in Panlong Ridge.”
Their nocturnal habits remained uncertain for the time being, but the excessively fierce sunlight indeed did not seem like something that should occur during winter.
Panlong Ridge was at a high altitude and experienced heavy snowfall throughout winter. Even when it was not snowing, there was rarely much sunlight, so such harsh sunlight was even more impossible.
Everyone turned to look at the village behind them.
White sunlight, a white sky, white snow, and snow-white monsters walking among it all—everything was enveloped in white.
After staring at it for too long, it even became difficult to suppress an inexplicable sense of dread.
“So are they alive or dead right now?” someone beside Ouyang Mu asked quietly.
Xu Muchan raised his eyes toward him, his gaze casually sweeping across Ouyang Mu as he said, “Dead, I suppose. After all, we just saw their corpses with our own eyes.”
That single sentence seemed to make the already-cold temperature drop several more degrees.
After a moment of silence, Chai Ming said quietly, “But they haven’t shown any signs of aggression so far. Let’s try not to come into conflict with them. We should look for clues first and see what happens.”
The others agreed with him as well.
Ouyang Mu suggested, “Looks like we’ll have to stay here for a few days. Why don’t we set up camp first? Since those bird-headed people have allowed us to stay temporarily, there shouldn’t be too much danger.”
Xu Muchan did not particularly agree with him.
He turned his head toward the wooden tower behind the village.
The imitation hexagonal Ascension Tower stood quietly there. Its body was covered in snow and almost blended completely into the white sea of forest behind it, making it seem almost inconspicuous.
But for some reason, Xu Muchan noticed it at a glance.
Thinking of the corpses of those bird-headed people piled upon the ruined divine pedestal, he could not shake an extremely uncomfortable feeling.
This village looked peaceful, but that did not necessarily mean it was safe.
He reminded everyone, “Something doesn’t feel right to me. Everyone be careful and try not to violate any taboos.”
The others nodded in agreement, and then everyone split up to carry out their respective tasks.
Xu Muchan was not in a hurry to set up camp.
Instead, he walked around the outskirts of the village, observing the chicken-headed people going about their activities.
His earlier guess had been correct.
These chicken-headed people still maintained human habits and lifestyles. They were scattered in groups of two or three. Some were weaving cloth, some were dyeing fabric, while others were carrying large baskets filled with snow-white feathers out to dry.
Compared with the division of labor within individual families in modern society, they seemed more like one large collective. Everyone had a different role.
Although their feather-covered faces made their expressions impossible to see, the atmosphere they gave off was peaceful and happy.
Seeing Xu Muchan staring at him for a long time, the chicken-headed person drying the feathers looked at him warily, the fleshy comb atop his head standing straight up.
“Mortal, what are you looking at?”
Xu Muchan smiled. “I just feel like this place is some kind of paradise beyond the mortal world. It’s like I accidentally wandered into the Peach Blossom Spring.”
The chicken-headed person was pleased by his words. The folded wings behind him fluttered open slightly as he proudly said, “It’s not like one. This is one. Mortals like you should consider yourself lucky to be able to come here even once in your lifetime.”
Xu Muchan nodded along and sighed. “If only I had the chance to become an immortal too.”
The chicken-headed person scrutinized him critically before saying disdainfully, “The path to becoming an immortal is full of hardships. Ordinary mortals don’t have that kind of good fortune.”
Xu Muchan said, “That’s true. So I can only envy you.”
The chicken-headed person gave a pleased snort and carried the feathers over to dry them.
Xu Muchan followed behind him unhurriedly, watching him bustle around while chatting with him curiously.
“I noticed there aren’t any crops planted in the village. After becoming immortals, do you no longer need to eat? And does that mean you can live for a very long time?”
The chicken-headed person said, “Immortals aren’t like you mortals. We don’t need to eat, and our lifespans are incredibly long.”
“Then how old are you now?” Xu Muchan asked curiously.
The chicken-headed person counted on his fingers for a while before answering hesitantly, “I should be over eighty.”
Xu Muchan was surprised. “Only over eighty? That’s so young. I thought immortals were all hundreds or thousands of years old.”
The chicken-headed person said, “I became an immortal relatively late. The oldest person in the village is a little over a hundred. Ordinary mortals back in our time could live to fifty or sixty at most, and they would already grow old at that age. We’re different.”
Xu Muchan lowered his eyes in deep thought.
Judging from the ages of these chicken-headed people, this so-called God Village had very likely been established after the destruction of the Wei family.
Moreover, from the way these chicken-headed people spoke, Xu Muchan had a very familiar feeling.
Aside from their terrifying, inhuman appearance, their words and behavior were actually not much different from the simple rural farmers Xu Muchan had encountered before.
Rather than terrifying monsters, they seemed more like a group of pitiful people who had been deceived by the so-called promise of becoming immortals.
In their understanding, not needing to eat and not growing old meant becoming an immortal.
As for their terrifying appearance, which had become different from ordinary people, they believed that immortals naturally had to be different from mortals.
But perhaps, deep down, this bizarre and deformed appearance violated the image of immortals that ordinary people had imagined for thousands of years.
That was why they collected snow-white feathers and wove them into pure-white, beautiful wings to cover up the pair of deformed, ugly arms that had grown from their backs.
—When Xu Muchan had been talking with the chicken-headed person, he had deliberately paid attention to the feathers in the basket. Although all the feathers were white, their shapes and sizes were different.
Clearly, they had not fallen from the heads of these chicken-headed people themselves. They had been collected from other birds.
Xu Muchan thought again of the chicken-headed people’s bewilderment and disbelief when their companions died, as well as their despair when their faith was shattered.
People capable of believing such a crude lie were most likely not highly educated or particularly intelligent.
And even after becoming “immortals,” they had continued living their primitive pastoral lives instead of going out and causing trouble.
Xu Muchan could almost picture the scene when they had become immortals.
Someone had fabricated a crude lie about becoming an immortal and deceived a group of ordinary people who had received little education and had limited knowledge of the outside world.
Then, through a shoddy imitation of an ascension ritual, they had been transformed into monsters.
God Village was very likely nothing more than a failed experiment.
A failed experiment whose traces had never been erased.
It had remained in Panlong Ridge all these years without being discovered by the outside world, yet just after he accidentally entered God Village, the people of God Village had suddenly appeared collectively on the busiest and most prosperous street in Panlin City…
Xu Muchan turned his face toward Wei Xilou and said softly, “I think they’re like experimental animals that have been kept in captivity.”
After their existence was accidentally discovered, there had not been enough time to silence these experimental animals.
So they had simply released them into the crowd.
The chicken-headed people, their faith shattered, would go on a killing spree in the bustling streets, naturally drawing the authorities’ forces to hunt them down.
But what kind of person could possess such enormous power?
And there had been a gap of more than a hundred years between all this.
If God Village was merely a failed experiment, could there have already been successful experimental subjects during those hundred years?
Xu Muchan furrowed his brows, increasingly puzzled.
Just as he fell into deep thought, a hand reached out from behind and moved toward his shoulder—
But before the hand could land on his shoulder, Wei Xilou intercepted it.
With a frown, he gripped the newcomer’s wrist bone and tossed it away without making the slightest attempt to hide his disdain. His eyes narrowed slightly as he stared at the other person with unmistakable hostility.
Xu Muchan came back to his senses and saw Ouyang Mu standing there with an awkward expression.
“Mr. Ouyang, is there something you need?”
Ouyang Mu rubbed his bruised wrist and glanced at the tall man standing silently beside Xu Muchan.
Smiling, he said, “I saw you standing here spacing out, so I wanted to come over and say hello. But your brother seems to have misunderstood…”
Xu Muchan had not noticed what had happened just now, but judging from Ouyang Mu’s reaction, he could more or less guess.
He appropriately put on an apologetic expression.
“My brother is a little overprotective of me.”
Ouyang Mu was good-natured enough not to pursue the matter any further. Instead, he said, “Everyone split up and gathered some information. Let’s compare notes and see if there are any useful clues.”
Xu Muchan nodded and walked with Ouyang Mu toward the open area they had cleared.
Ouyang Mu walked in front while Xu Muchan followed behind. He faintly caught a strange smell at the tip of his nose. Just as he was wondering what it was and trying to confirm it, the scent disappeared again.
He frowned and glanced at Ouyang Mu ahead of him, then looked around. That was when he realized that the chicken-headed people who had still been outside just moments ago had somehow all disappeared.
Half-woven pieces of cloth and feathers that had not yet been put away were simply left where they were. The entire village had gone from lively and peaceful to dead silent in an instant.
The sun overhead was still blindingly white, hanging glaringly in the sky.
At least three hours had passed since they entered the ghost domain, yet the sun overhead seemed not to have moved at all.
Xu Muchan took out his phone and checked the time. It was already around sunset.
Yet the entire world was still filled with white light, with not the slightest sign that night was approaching.
A powerful sense of danger instantly enveloped Xu Muchan. He instinctively turned to look at the person beside him and saw that Wei Xilou seemed to have noticed something as well. He was frowning as he looked around.
A strange gurgling sound came from the distance, like the noise made by moist chunks of flesh being squeezed together.
Xu Muchan followed the sound to its source and discovered that it was coming from the Ascension Tower.
Gurgle, gurgle. The sound of wet flesh being squeezed continued without pause, as though some living creature inside the wooden tower was struggling desperately to get out.
Xu Muchan swallowed, grabbed Wei Xilou, and ran toward the nearest house. At the same time, he shouted to the others, “Something is coming out! Hurry and find somewhere to hide!”