Chapter 1188: Doubts

“Changes at dawn?” Hao Ren became curious. “What is it?”

“This village does not remain active all day long. When the first ray of the dawn shines on the fence on the edge of the village, everything will instantly lose its vitality and fall into a strange state of suspended animation. I suspect that this magical land cannot continue to work perfectly, so it needs to ‘take a break’ for a few hours every day. By noon, the village will recover.”

“It seems that space and time distortion here will weaken after dawn,” Vivian said thoughtfully. “By then, it should be easier to break through the enchantment and avoid triggering the alarm.”

“Well, after dawn, we can also wake this lass up. Otherwise, we will have to carry her out.”

Everyone’s caring eyes fell on Lily, who was snoring like a pig. Vivian sighed, “Absent-mindedness is a blessing. I don’t even know how she did it; she could eat and sleep no matter where.”

Tonight, except for Lily, no one could sleep.

Hesperides was thinking about the Olympians, which made her sleepless. Vivian was very sensitive to the strange atmosphere in the village, and also she was a nocturnal creature, so she might as well stay up all night. Meanwhile, the noise coming from the square was keeping Hao Ren awake, so he rather studied with the MDT how to communicate with the little Malevolence, and because of that, his fingers were bitten several times over.

Pierre said that as long as they went around the routine of the villagers, they would be able to evade their monitoring. Pierre had eluded them today, and no one would come to bother him until noon the next day. So he found an empty room in the longhouse to stay for the night.

According to Pierre, the Wang brothers, and Catherine, who stayed in the square, had been assimilated and immersed in this land. They had a problem regaining their sanity. Contacting them would only alarm the curse of the land. So the best way was to leave them alone. If they could lift the curse from the outside in time, the three might still have a chance to recover.

The next morning, when the first ray of the morning sun shone into the village, Hao Ren could immediately feel the changes in the atmosphere.

“It seems everyone has become quiet,” Vivian said, listening carefully to the surroundings. “And the biological vitality here is weakening.”

“Space and time distortion in the surroundings is easing up, confirming that some energy is declining on a wider scale.”

Pierre brought Hao Ren and his teammates out of the longhouse and headed toward the center of the village. It was quiet when they arrived there.

Everything in the surroundings seemed different.

The old houses looked more dilapidated than before. A layer of gray covered the mottled wooden walls and roads as if colors had faded away. There was a strange odor mixed with an earthy and slightly rotten smell in the air, but the source of this odor was unknown.

Lily rubbed her eyes and yawned. The strange odor in the air made her brows knit together. “That smell is so bad!” she complained.

Pierre again brought everyone to the edge of the village. They did not bump into any villagers along the way. This place was now dead, just like a grave—cold and silent, it seemed. Hao Ren curiously asked, “Where are the people? Have they disappeared because of the declined magic energy?”

“They are all in their houses,” Pierre said, coming to a wooden cabin on the side of the road and pushing the rotten door open.

In the wooden house, a middle-aged villager was lying on the low bed quietly. Hao Ren went up and took a gander. The villager’s skin was dry and pale, seemingly dehydrated. He had collapsed abnormally; however, he was not dead. Taking a closer look, Hao Ren found that the villager was still breathing, but his vital was weak.

Vivian went up and touched the villager’s skin. “His body temperature’s even lower than mine.”

“He is still alive, but also as good as dead,” Hesperides whispered. “This living dead phenomenon was quite common in the realm of the Egyptian gods back then. They were good at creating living-dead corps. But this one here is not quite the same.”

“Everything in the village is not an illusion. Magic is keeping the houses intact while the villagers are also living humans. But the supernatural forces have distorted everything and made them exist in a strange condition.” Pierre shook his head. “I don’t know what will happen if the curse is lifted suddenly. Perhaps without the magic, the people here will die instantly, and the village will turn into ashes.”

“If what you say is true, this village must have become ashes more than two hundred years ago and the thing lingering on this land is only the souls of the dead.” Hesperides glanced at the spirit detective. “If the souls disappear, the villagers with just empty shells were only walking dead. When these people were first ‘transformed,’ they were already dead. What we have to do is to dispel the curse as soon as possible so that the remaining three persons may have a chance to survive before the village devours them altogether.”

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On the edge of the village, the low wooden fence still stood there acting as the boundary for the cursed land. Pierre stood in front of the fence, looking at the dark forest outside, shaking his head. “Even during the weakened state of the magic, I couldn’t make it out. The enchantment will not change with time.”

Hao Ren reached his hand outside of the fence. This time, he felt his hand penetrating an invisible barrier.

He did not see this barrier when he first stepped into the village.

This barrier was repelling anything that crossed the enchantment. Hao Ren could feel the energy turbulence. The MDT started to detect rising energy readings and quickly warned, “Space and time distortion is intensifying! This place is closing!”

Hao Ren retracted his hand and the closure of the space and time as detected by the MDT gradually normalized.

“As expected, you can use brute force to break through the enchantment, but it will also trigger the alarm. If you stop doing so, the enchantment will normalize immediately.” Hao Ren turned his head around. “It is like an automatic alarm system, which works according to a set of rules.”

Vivian looked at Pierre and said, “We can take you out, but I still think you better stay here. We have to go to the aristocrat’s house to investigate the source of the curse, and that place could be a lot more dangerous than the village. If something happens, we may not be able to look after you.”

“I also think that I should stay here. I would only be a burden to you guys,” Pierre said with a smile.

“Wait for our good news,” Hao Ren said as he patted on Pierre’s shoulder. “Don’t worry; we are not going to abandon you.”

“I’m counting on you guys,” Pierre said, barely smiling this time. He then looked at Vivian. “Probably I should consider your advice—retire from this job.”

“Take this.” Hao Ren gave Pierre a radio which he took out from his pocket. “Use this to keep in touch with us. It is simple to use.”

Pierre took the radio, brows knitting together. “Will the enchantment around the village interfere with the radio signal?” he asked.

“No worry,” Hao Ren said, giving Pierre a thumbs-up gesture. “This radio is anti-interference. You stay here to monitor the situation in the village. While we go to remove the curse, we need to contact each other if there is anything that happens.”

Pierre tucked the radio securely in his clothes as he nodded.

After figuring out the location of the aristocrat’s residence, Hao Ren and his team broke through space and time enchantment to get back out to the natural forest.

As they crossed the enchantment, the entire village shook violently for a while. It seemed that the magic force entrenched deep inside the earth was angry as its ‘prey’ were escaping. But as they left the enchantment, everything was back to normal again.

Getting out of the enchantment was unbelievably smooth. But Hao Ren knew that the curse of this village was not a problem for people like them. The real problem was the secret behind all this: Hercules, the divine artifact that carried the power of Vivian, and the historical truth about the curse of the village.

Finding out these truths was the most critical task.

Walking in the forest was still a challenge. But the air, after leaving the village, was noticeably fresher, making the trip in the woods seemed less daunting. Hesperides was leading in front. “I have a gut feeling that the village is not as simple as being cursed,” she said casually.

“You could be right. The enchantment around the village is a deliberate setup. The purpose is apparent: people can only get in but not out.” Vivian said. “It is more like a cage than a curse.”

“A cage is to keep things in,” said Hao Ren. “If someone deliberately creates the enchantment, then this person must be worried about something would escape from the village. I’m afraid that the people trapped inside the village are just collateral damage.”

At this time, Lily had wholly woken up. Hearing the conversation between Hao Ren and Vivian, she cut in. “Isn’t this cage too shabby? People like us could walk in and out at our will.”

“There are only two explanations: either that the cage is shoddy, or that it has been broken and what remains is only a less-than-effective shell,” Hao Ren said after thinking for a moment.

Hesperides suddenly interrupted Hao Ren. “It looks like we have arrived.”