Wei WuXian said, “Oh, there are man-eating monsters lurking there, right?”

He had heard similar legends at least a thousand times, and had personally eliminated hundreds of them, which made them boring. The doctor said in an ups and downs tone: "Yes! It is said that there is a 'man-eating castle' in the forest, and man-eating monsters live in it. Anyone who accidentally enters will be eaten by them until there is no bone left, and no body can be found, without exception! Scary, isn't it?"

No wonder Jin Ling showed up here. He failed to capture the Soul Eater Goddess of Mount Dafan last time, so this time he must be coming for the monster on Xinglu Ridge. Wei Wuxian said, "How terrifying! But since there are no bones left and the bodies cannot be found, how do you know they were eaten?"

The doctor was silent for a moment, then said, "Of course someone saw it."

Wei WuXian said admiringly, “But didn’t you just say that anyone who strays in will be gnawed to the bone without exception? Then who spread this rumor? How could they be so amazing that they could survive and spread the news after seeing such a scene?”

"..." The doctor said: "That's what the rumor said. How would I know?"

Wei WuXian: “Then do you know how many people were eaten on Xinglu Ridge? When were they eaten? How old were they? Are they male or female? What are their names? Where do they live?”

Doctor: “I don’t know.”

Wei WuXian: “Qinghe Baixiaosheng? Hmm?”

The doctor was angry and carried the basket on his back: "The rumors didn't say that!"

Wei WuXian chuckled, “No, no, no, no, don’t go. Let me ask you one more question. Xinglu Ridge is still in Qinghe, right? Isn’t Qinghe the territory of the Nie family? If there really is a man-eating monster roaming around Xinglu Ridge, will they just sit there and do nothing?”

Unexpectedly, this time, the doctor did not answer "I don't know" again, but showed a little contempt: "Nie family? If it was the Nie family of the past, of course they would not sit idly by. The next day after such a rumor spread, they would vigorously raid the place where the evil spirit appeared. But the head of the Nie family now, hehe, isn't he the one who 'knows nothing'?"

The original head of the Qinghe Nie Clan was Chifeng Zun Nie Mingjue. After his father, the previous head, was killed by Qishan Wen Clan head Wen Ruohan, he took over the Nie Clan before he was twenty, and his style was upright and tough. He was sworn brothers with Zewu Jun Lan Xichen and Lianfang Zun Jin Guangyao. After the Sun Shooting Campaign, under his leadership, the Nie Clan was once as powerful as the Lanling Jin Clan. After he went crazy in his cultivation and died in public, the one who took over the position of head of the family must be his younger brother Nie Huaisang. Wei Wuxian asked: "Why do you call him 'know nothing'?"

The doctor said, "Don't you know this story? This Nie family master, when people ask him something, he won't tell them if he doesn't know, and he doesn't dare to tell them if he knows. When they ask him urgently and force him too hard, he keeps shaking his head and crying, saying 'I don't know, I don't know, I really don't know!' Begging people to let him go. Isn't this just saying he knows nothing?"

Wei Wuxian and Nie Huaisang were classmates in the past, and he could say a few words about this man. Nie Huaisang was a kind person, not unintelligent, but he had no interest in learning, and used his intelligence for other things. He painted fans, caught birds, skipped school, and was indeed very poor in cultivation. He barely formed the Dan □□ years later than his peers in other families. When Nie Mingjue was alive, he was always disappointed with him and disciplined him very strictly, but he was still a hopeless case. Now that his elder brother has lost his protection and supervision, the Qinghe Nie family has been going from strength to strength under his leadership. After becoming an adult, especially after becoming the head of the family, Nie Huaisang was often busy with various unfamiliar affairs and asked for help everywhere, especially from his elder brother's two brothers. Today he went to Jinlin Terrace to cry to Jin Guangyao, and tomorrow he came to Yunshen Buzhichu to beg for mercy. He relied on the two heads of the Jin and Lan families to always support him, and he barely sat down as the head of the family. Nowadays, when everyone mentions Nie Huaisang, they don’t dare to say it directly, but their faces are full of four-character comments: pustules and wastes.

Recalling the past, it is inevitable to sigh .

After Wei Wuxian inquired about Xinglu Ridge, he still took care of the doctor's business and bought two boxes of rouge. He put them in his arms and walked back to Lan Wangji. The latter still had no intention of asking him to return the purse, and without saying a word, they walked in the direction pointed by the doctor.

There was a large fir forest on Xinglu Ridge. The forest path was wide and the green shade was rustling. They walked for a while without encountering anything unusual. However, the two did not have much expectation in the first place. They took this trip just to be on the safe side. If the horrific rumors about a place are true, then there will always be something to prove it. The ghost-eating goddess of Mount Dafan was causing trouble. Once you inquire, you will know exactly where the victim lives and what his surname is. Even the nickname of Ayan's fiancé is not hidden. If you are hesitant about the details of the victim's name, then it is probably just hearsay and sensationalism.

After half an hour, they finally encountered a little setback after all the hard work. Seven or eight figures staggered over from the opposite side, rolling their eyes, in tattered clothes, as if they would fall down at the slightest breeze, extremely slowly. It turned out to be a line of zombies of the lowest level.

Not only are these zombies bullied by their peers, but if they encounter a slightly stronger living person, they can kick over a row of them; if they encounter a faster-running child, they can be thrown out of the street in an instant. Even if you are extremely unlucky and are caught by them and have their yang energy sucked in, they cannot kill you. Apart from their ugly appearance and bad smell, they pose no threat at all. Therefore, when encountering them during night hunting, most high-level monks will simply ignore them and leave them to the younger generation. This is the same as hunting only tigers and leopards and not mice.

???? Eun-Jing^'s^study roomwww…E nJi ng…com…

Wei Wuxian knew something was wrong when he saw them approaching, so he lowered his head and retreated behind Lan Wangji. Sure enough, the line of zombies crookedly walked to within five or six feet of them, and when they saw Wei Wuxian, they were so scared that they immediately turned around and retreated the same way. Their legs and feet were two or three times more agile than when they surrounded them. Wei Wuxian rubbed his temples, turned around and said in horror: "Oh my God, Hanguang-jun, you are so powerful! As soon as they saw you, they were so scared that they turned around and ran away! Hehe."

Lan Wangji was speechless.

Wei WuXian pushed him with a laugh, “Let’s go, let’s go down the mountain. I don’t think there are any other monsters. The people in this place are really good at spreading rumors. They can spread rumors about a few wretched walking corpses into monsters that eat people without leaving any bones. The ‘Man-eating Castle’ must have been made up. It’s a wasted trip!”

Lan Wangji was pushed several times by him before he started to move forward. Before Wei Wuxian could catch up, a burst of crazy dog ​​barking suddenly came from the distance in the fir forest.

Wei Wuxian’s face turned pale with rage, and he instantly flashed behind Lan Wangji, hugged his waist, squatted down and curled up into a ball.

Lan Wangji: “…Shang is still far away, why are you hiding?”

Wei WuXian: “Let’s hide first. Where is it? Where is it?!”

Lan Wangji listened for a moment and said, "It's Jin Ling's black-maned spirit dog. "

Wei Wuxian stood up when he heard Jin Ling's name, but was immediately forced to squat down again by the barking of the dog. Lan Wangji said, "The dog is barking wildly, it must have encountered something."

Wei WuXian groaned in pain, then with trembling legs he managed to stand up: “Then then then then then then then then let’s go take a look!”

Lan Wangji didn’t move an inch, so Wei Wuxian said, “Hanguang-jun, please move! If you don’t move, what should I do?”

After a moment of silence, Lan Wangji said, "You... let go first."

The two of them followed the barking sound, stumbling and pulling, but ended up circling the fir forest twice. The barking of the black-maned spirit dog was getting closer and farther away. After listening to the barking for quite a while, Wei Wuxian barely got used to it and finally stopped stuttering: "Is there a maze here?"

This maze was clearly man-made. Just now, the rumors about Xinglu Ridge were all hearsay, but now it becomes more interesting.

The black-maned spirit dog roared for half an incense stick and was still full of energy. After breaking through the maze, the two men followed the sound. Soon, the outlines of dense stone castles emerged in the cedar forest.

The stone forts are all built with gray-white stones, and the surface is covered with green ivy and fallen leaves. Each one is built in a strange semicircular shape, as if several large bowls were inverted on the ground.

There is actually such a stone fortress in Xinglu Ridge, it seems that the rumors are not groundless. But whether this is a "man-eating fortress" or what is inside is hard to say.

Jin Ling's black-maned dog was running around the stone fortress, sometimes purring, sometimes barking. Seeing Lan Wangji approaching, it retreated a little timidly, but did not flee. Instead, it barked at them even louder, looked at the stone fortress, and dug holes in the ground with its front paws, causing the dirt to fly, looking anxious and restless. Wei Wuxian hid behind Lan Wangji and said in pain, "Why doesn't it leave... Where is its owner? Why is the owner gone?!"

From the time he heard the dog barking, he hadn't heard any sound from Jin Ling, not even a cry for help. He must have brought the black-maned spirit dog here, and he must have broken the maze, and a living person seemed to have disappeared just like that.

Lan Wangji said, “Let’s go in and take a look.”

Wei WuXian said, “How do I get in? No way.”

There is really no way. The gray-white stone was sealed tightly, leaving no doors or windows. The black-maned dog jumped up and seemed to want to bite the corner of Lan Wangji's clothes, but didn't dare to. It went around him and bit the hem of Wei Wuxian's clothes, dragging him out.

Wei Wuxian’s soul was about to leave his body, and he stretched out his hands towards Lan Wangji: “Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan Lan Zhan… Lan Zhan Lan Zhan Lan Zhan!!!”

The black-maned spirit dog dragged Wei Wuxian, and Wei Wuxian dragged Lan Wangji. The dog dragged the two of them around for a short while, and they came to the back of the stone fort. There was a cave entrance nearly as tall as a person. The shape was irregular, and there were large and small pieces of gravel on the ground. It was obvious that it had just been blasted open by someone with a violent magic weapon. It was pitch black inside the cave entrance, and there seemed to be a faint red light. The black-maned spirit dog opened its mouth, barked wildly at the inside, and then wagged its tail wildly at the two people.

Needless to say, Jin Ling must have broken open the stone fortress with great force, but something unexpected happened after he entered.

Bichen automatically unsheathed half an inch, and the blade emitted a cold light blue halo, illuminating the dark road ahead. Lan Wangji bent down and entered first. Wei Wuxian was driven crazy by the dog, and rushed in, almost colliding with him. Lan Wangji held his hand, not knowing whether it was blame or helplessness, and shook his head.

The black-maned spirit dog clearly wanted to follow in, and tried to rush in, but it seemed to be blocked by some force, and could not break through the barrier no matter what, so it had to sit down at the entrance of the cave, wagging its tail more and more frantically. Wei Wuxian was so happy that he almost knelt down for it, withdrew his hand, and walked a few steps inside. The cold blue sword light was set off by the dark surroundings and turned into a cold white.

The trees on Xinglu Ridge were tall and the forest was deep, making it very cool, but the interior of the stone fort was even cooler. Wei Wuxian went into battle in simple clothing, with the cold wind blowing through his sleeves and vest, and the cold sweat he had just experienced when he was frightened by the black-maned spirit dog had dried up. The light at the entrance of the cave had long since disappeared like a candle, and the further he went in, the wider and darker it became.

The top of the stone fortress was round. Wei Wuxian kicked the gravel at his feet and heard a slight echo.

He finally couldn't help it, so he stopped, pressed his right hand on his temple, and frowned slightly.

Lan Wangji turned around and asked, "How is it?"

Wei WuXian said: “…So noisy.”

Inside the stone fortress, there was a dead silence, as quiet as a tomb. It was indeed like a tomb.

But in Wei Wuxian's ears, they were already in the midst of a noisy scene at this moment.