Song Lian gathered his stuff and walked back , the Village Elder was there, though Shaman Hu had gone back.
One by one the group regathered. And the Village Elder addressed them , " Today , you are tasked with an important task. You will enter the village and bring back anything that is useful for us. But above everything be careful , while you are safe from the threat of miasma , there can be Crazies lurking around. Those charms that we gave you , can mask you from the Crazies , but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be careful. If you encounter some Crazies , try your best to evade them and escape. I wish you all good luck ".
Song Lian stepped forward." We shall follow your orders, Village Elder." he then turned to the group. " We will set up a base camp at our lookout. We will decide our further course of action once we reach there and observe the current situation. Let's move out."
" Yes Brother Song ! " the group called out unanimously.
The group bowed to the Village Elder before moving out. They reached the lookout just as the sun broke through the horizon.
Song Lian directed them to set up , and he picked up a spy glass to observe the current situation. Kong followed suit , also picking his spyglass up .
They noticed that the corpse miasma was getting thinner , the figures were still strewn about the village. This time they could see clearer and they saw that the still figures were concentrated near the center of the village.
Ling approached Kong and Song Lian. " Brother Song , we're done setting up , how will we proceed ? "
Song Lian stood up and walked over to the others.
" We will keep a group here to observe the situation from above. Kong, did you bring the whistles ? "
" Yes Brother Song." Kong pulled out a small bag containing whistles .
Song Lian took the whistles , keeping 3 , he handed the rest to the others." You three will stay here and keep watch. If you see anything you can signal us by whistling."
" Yes Brother Song ! " they replied while accepting the whistles.
Song Lian then turned to rest. " The rest of us will split into 3 groups. " he said, handing a whistle each to Kong and Ling. " Incase of danger , you can use this to ask for assistance or inform the other group. "
Song Lian pointed at the oldest member of their crew , Old Jin. Though they called him Old Jin , he was barely into his fifties. " Old Jin , you're with me."
Old Jin just nodded at him and walked over to stand beside him. Old Jin is known to be an excellently resourceful and knowledgeable man, in the military he was well known for assisting the chief strategists. Song Lian met him when they were dispatched together to check on the situation in Beifeng. Old Jin proved himself to be extremely useful during their expedition , he was also the one who found the cave they stay in currently.
" Old Jin and I will take the village center. You two can take the remaining area. Once you are done , come to the village center to help us. "
There was a reason why Song Lian specifically wanted to take Old Jin with him. Song Lian wanted to utilize his knowledge to identify and find the thing the group used to purify the water.
Song Lian picked his spyglass up again. " The miasma is getting thinner and dispersing fast. Let's get going , by the time we arrive at the village , it would've lifted completely. From then we only have time till noon to finish our mission." Song Lian walked over and stuffed his spyglass into his bag , the rest followed him.
They began to descend the mountain and soon they arrived at the entrance to the village. By now the miasma had lifted completely, but the unsettling feeling wasn't going away , the village wasn't any less creepy now that the miasma lifted.
Song Lian paused for a while to survey his surroundings. He felt that something was off. But he couldn't figure out what , so after observing for a while and seeing nothing , he decided to brush it off and proceed. He signaled for the group to continue.
Song Lian passed the threshold of the entrance into the village , and the others followed closely behind.
" Ling , Kong, let's split up now." The words barely left Song Lian's mouth when he heard a low growl emanating from around them.
" Everybody be alert ! " Song Lian warned , the group huddled up into a circle and got into a battle stance , getting ready to face whatever the growl came from. But after waiting for a while , they didn't spot anything, and they didn't hear the growl again.
" Brother Song , I think it was just a wild animal or something here to scavenge the dead." Ling suggested. Kong also nodded at this.
" Maybe , but we better keep an eye out just in case.Let's proceed with our original plan first. " Song Lian instructed.
Song Lian , Kong and Ling split into their respective groups and moved towards their assigned areas.
As the group split up , Song Lian and Old Jin moved towards the city center , as they reached the center , they spotted multiple bodies strewn about , they were mutilated , their faces were completely torn and unrecognisable . Blood had coagulated everywhere. Song Lian felt that something was off again, so he turned to Old Jin. " Old Jin , I feel that something is off ."
Old Jin walked up next to him , " I feel it too , but I can't figure out what's wrong."
Song Lian and Old Jin contemplated for a while , but nothing crossed their minds , so they decided to stop wasting time and got back to work.
Up ahead they spotted a corpse lying face down in the middle of the road. From the clothes he was wearing , Song Lian immediately recognised the flashy man who accompanied the woman .
Song Lian walked over to the body and crouched down next to him , he began to pat the body , trying to find something of value . While searching he felt that the corpse was too dry and hard. But he brushed it off as it was normal for corpses to dry up and harden fast due to the harsh conditions in the North.
After finding nothing in the pockets and the back side of the corpse , Song Lian grabbed the corpse to turn it around. He again felt that the corpse was too hard and dry.
When he flipped the corpse , he was shocked to see a very uncanny face staring back at him.
Song Lian stumbled back and crashed into Old Jin.
" What is that ? " Song Lian asked, shocked.
Old Jin observed the corpse from a distance , not daring to go closer to it. " It looks like a doll…" Old Jin muttered.
Song Lian stood up bewildered , he rushed over to the corpse and observed it , it was in fact a humanoid doll. Song Lian then rushed to another corpse nearby, turning it over; it too was a humanoid doll .
Old Jin approached another corpse and smeared some blood on his fingers and brought it up to his nose. Old Jin's eyes widened and he turned around to call " Brother Song , this isn't blood."
Song Lian finally figured out the off feeling he had been saving since he entered the village. Despite a massacre taking place there, just a day before , the village did not stink. And there wasn't a single organism , not even a bug in the village attracted to the blood.
Song Lian suddenly had an epiphany .
It was a trap !
"Old Jin , it's a trap ! Song Lian yelled out, he rummaged through his bag and pulled out his whistle, as he was about to whistle , he was beaten by a shrill whistle breaking through the silent village. Another shrill whistle followed suit from another direction. Kong and Ling were likely in trouble !
Song Lian was just about to rush off towards the direction the whistles came from , when he was stopped by another shrill whistle , only this time , it came from further away. The scouts they left behind to observe the situation were warning them about something !
" Old Jin be on alert." Song Lian yelled out , pulling his sword out.
" Brother Song ! Look over there ." Old Jin yelled.
Song Lian turned to see smoke billowing in fast from all directions , in mere seconds he and Old Jin were completely engulfed by the smoke. The both of them reacted too late , they couldn't mask their faces in time, and they inhaled the smoke.
Old Jin immediately became light headed and he fell to the ground. "Brother Song , I can't hold on…" he crossed out before collapsing onto the ground unconscious.
Song Lian fought hard to stay awake , his vision began to blur and fade , suddenly he spotted a blue figure emerging from a corner , the figure walked closer by ,stopping a few feet away from him . Song Lian tried hard to lift his head to try to catch a clearer glimpse of the figure , but it was as if he was paralysed. He then spotted another figure , this time in white approaching them. The last thing he saw was the 2 figures silently standing next to each other observing him.
" Shit…" Song Lian managed to mutter before losing consciousness.