“Wa ...

Xie Lian withdrew his hand, speechless for a while.

He found that whenever he saw or touched something in the dark, faced with such a horrifying scene, he would often not even say a word before the other party started screaming.

The bushes in this garden were tall and dense. Just now, someone was sneaking in the bushes and was touched by Xie Lian on the calf. The leg quickly pulled away, and the bushes in front of him rustled. Someone shouted, "Don't hit me, don't hit me, it's me, brother!"

Xie Lian took a closer look. He had never expected that the person who shouted "Stop, stop" was actually the young Tiansheng with thick eyebrows and big eyes. Tiansheng breathed a sigh of relief when he saw that he recognized him. However, after seeing that it was him, Xie Lian did not breathe a sigh of relief. Instead, he became more alert. He raised an arm to block in front of him and said, "Aren't you staying with the others to take care of the injured? Why are you here? Are you really Tiansheng?" Appearing in this situation, it seems more like he is some other thing pretending to be Tiansheng.

Tiansheng said hurriedly, "It's me! It's really me. Not only am I here, but my three uncles came with me! They are inside, if you don't believe me, just look!" He pointed to the palace, and sure enough, not long after, three people ran out of the dilapidated hall. They were the merchants from the group. When they saw Xie Lian, they were all startled, and then looked embarrassed. Xie Lian stood up, patted the hem of his white clothes, and said, "What's wrong with you?"

When he asked this, the merchants were all silent. After a while, Tiansheng said hesitantly, "...Not long after you left, Uncle Zheng's poison recurred. It was very severe, and we... didn't know when you would come back, and we were worried that you would not be able to find him, or that you would come back too late. Brother Zhao said that we could find the Half Moon Kingdom by following that road, so we thought that with more people, we could find him faster, so we came here too..."

After all, he still regretted it. He was afraid that Xie Lian and the others would find the Shanyue Grass and run away with Ah Zhao, so he chased after them. Xie Lian could fully imagine that if Fu Yao couldn't persuade them, she might just not bother to stop them. From the last incident with Junshan, it can be seen that Fu Yao would not bother to save those who were so stubborn and refused to listen to advice and rushed to death. Xie Lian could understand them, but he was also helpless. He rubbed his brows and said, "You are too brave. You know what might be in this city and what might happen. How dare you come here like this?"

I think Tiansheng knew that doing this clearly showed that he didn't trust them, and he felt a little guilty. He didn't dare to say anything while lying in the bushes. He probably felt embarrassed, so he said, "I'm sorry, human lives are at stake, and I got anxious and just..."

There was nothing we could do. It was only human nature to be more considerate when it came to human life. Moreover, he was willing to risk his life to get the herbs for others, which was considered to be a sign of loyalty. Xie Lian could not say much, so he sighed, “You guys were really lucky that you didn’t encounter anything on the way to this ancient city. By the way, how did you know to go to the palace to find the Good Moon Grass?”

Tiansheng scratched his head and said, "We don't know where to find it. But didn't the story that the brother in red clothes told about the good moon grass that the queen picked? The queen can't leave the palace casually, so I was thinking, can I try my luck in the palace?"

Xie Lian smiled, thinking that this reason was the same as his. At this moment, San Lang said, "Found it."

He looked back and saw Sanlang walking towards him with his two slender legs. In his hand was a handful of green leaves with some roots still attached.

The leaf was about the size of a baby's palm, with a very thin peach-shaped root and a pointed tail. Somehow, Xie Lian felt that he didn't need to confirm with Ah Zhao, this must be the legendary Shanyue Grass. Before he could say anything, Sanlang had already grabbed his injured hand.

The hand was stung and was horribly swollen. After Sanlang sucked out the poison for him, although the poison was not cleared, the swelling was much reduced. At this moment, Sanlang held his injured hand with one hand and held the Shanyue grass with the other hand. He closed his five fingers and did not see how much force he used. When he opened them again, the leaves had broken into a pile of green powder.

He carefully smeared the green powder on the back of Xie Lian's hand. Feeling the gentle coolness slowly spreading from the wound, Xie Lian said, "Sanlang, thank you very much."

San Lang did not answer. After applying the herbs to him, he put his hand down. With his attitude and the atmosphere between them, Xie Lian felt that something was a little strange, but he did not know how to ask. No matter how he asked, it felt wrong. Others did not care about these things at all, nor could they understand the subtleties. They were naturally anxious and asked: "Brother, is this herb useful? Did you find the right herb?"

Xie Lian came back to his senses and said, “Much better, this should be correct.”

Hearing this, the others were very excited and said, "Quick, look again." Not long after, Ah Zhao also raised a handful of green leaves and said, "I found it here too."

The leaves of the Shanyue grass in his hand were much larger than the pitiful little piece that Sanlang had just found. Everyone saw that the shape and characteristics were correct, and they all rushed over, saying in surprise: "There is such a big piece here!" "So many!" "Hurry up and pick more." "Can we sell more if we pick more?"

They were busy gathering herbs. Xie Lian turned around and looked at the back of his hand. After a moment’s deliberation, he said to San Lang, “I think you looked for the place they were looking for just now. Didn’t you find it then?”

He was just making small talk. After he opened his mouth, he found his words quite boring. Sanlang shook his head and said, "Don't use the grass there."

Xie Lian asked curiously, “Why?”

Unexpectedly, before Sanlang could explain the reason, he heard a scream: "Go away!"

Everyone was stunned for a moment, their movements froze, and they all asked, "Who is shouting?" "I'm not shouting!" "It's not me either..."

At this time, I heard that voice again, saying shrilly: "Go away, you stepped on me..."

Now, everyone noticed that the sound came from right under their feet!

In an instant, the people who had gathered there to pick the Good Moon Grass dispersed. Xie Lian had long been accustomed to taking the lead at times like this. When others retreated, he would step forward. So, he walked to where the scream came from, stretched out his hand, and slowly pushed aside the dense grass. This push made several people's breathing stagnate.

I saw a man's face buried under the grass and in the soil.

In this piece of land, there was actually a living person buried under the soil, with only his face exposed!

This scene was truly bizarre, and several merchants were so frightened that they hugged each other and screamed. Xie Lian then comforted them very skillfully, “Don’t panic. Everyone calm down. It’s just a face. It’s no big deal. Who doesn’t have a face, right?”

The face chuckled and said, "Did you get scared? Alas... I often scare myself too."

After Xie Lian comforted the others briefly, he half-knelt down and carefully examined the face buried in the ground.

This was a man's face, very flat when not smiling, but with many wrinkles when smiling. It was hard to tell whether it was old or young, or ugly or beautiful. He looked at it for a long time, but couldn't tell what it was, so he had to ask directly: "Who are you?"

The face buried in the earth asked: "Who are you?"

Xie Lian said, “A passing caravan.”

Tumaimian sighed and said, "Alas. A passing caravan. I was once a passing caravan. But that was fifty or sixty years ago."

After he said that, the picture became even more bizarre.

This person has been buried in the land of this abandoned ancient city for fifty or sixty years. Is he still a human being?

A businessman asked timidly: "Then...then why did you come here...ah?"

Tumaimian coughed a few times and said with a frown, "I... I was captured by the Banyue soldiers. I accidentally entered the city and was caught by them. They buried me in the soil and turned me into fertilizer for these Shanyue grass..."

It turns out that these Shanyue grasses are grown using living people as fertilizer, no wonder they are so plump!

Several merchants quickly threw the handfuls of Shanyue Grass in their hands to the ground, feeling that what they had just done was no different from grabbing a corpse. Xie Lian couldn’t help but look down at the back of his hand, only to hear Sanlang say, “That piece is fine.”

Xie Lian thought about it and realized what was going on. No wonder Sanlang had clearly searched this piece of land before, but went to another piece of land to search and only brought back a very thin piece of Shanyue grass. He probably saw this buried face just now, but simply ignored it, turned around and looked for it somewhere else, until he found a piece of clean herbs that were not grown with human fertilizer in a remote place, and then applied it to him.

Xie Lian said, “Thank you so much.”

Saburo shook his head, his expression still sullen.

He had been acting like this since he was stung by a scorpion-tailed snake before entering Half Moon Ancient City. When the two of them were together a few days ago, he kept calling him brother, but now he didn’t even call him that. Moreover, although the boy seemed to be very resistant to contact with him on the first day they met, after a few days together, it seemed that this was not the case. But now, apart from taking drugs and applying medicine for him just now, Sanlang seemed to be trying his best to avoid physical contact with him. This really made Xie Lian very strange and a little uncomfortable.

At this time, the buried face spoke again: "I haven't seen a living person for many years. You...you all stand over here, so I can take a good look, okay?"

Everyone looked at each other, and all agreed that it would be better not to do what he said. After a while, seeing that no one responded, the man buried in the earth muttered, "Why, you don't want to? Alas... what a pity..."

Xie Lian turned his head and asked, “What’s a pity?”

Tumaimian said, "Since you came in, there has been something that I have been concerned about. I have always wanted to confirm it with my own eyes, so I want you all to stand here and let me see. Because I want to take a close look at you all one by one."

Xie Lian asked, “What’s the matter?”

Tumaimian said: "There is a person among you...I have seen him fifty or sixty years ago."

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's hair suddenly stood on end.

All the ordinary people here cannot be over 50 years old. If there is one person in this group who has seen this buried face 50 or 60 years ago, then this person must not be a human.

Xie Lian's eyes swept over everyone's face, starting with Ah Zhao and ending with Tian Sheng. Some were slightly surprised, some were terrified, some were doubtful, and some were dumbfounded. Everyone's reaction was extremely reasonable. If there was anyone whose reaction was unreasonable, it would be San Lang who had no reaction at all. However, for this young man, no reaction was probably the normal reaction.

Xie Lian glanced at San Lang who didn’t show any reaction, then turned around and asked, “Who is this person you are talking about?”

The man buried in the earth said, "You... come closer, and I will tell you."

If Xie Lian believed it 80% the first time it said that, then after this, Xie Lian only trusted it 50%. How could we know that this monster wasn't trying to trick people into getting close and then suddenly attack?

Xie Lian would not listen to him, so he stood up and walked away. The man with the face buried in the earth said, “You really don’t want to know who that person is? He will kill all of you.”