The strange story of Huai'an Inn

There are 15 remaining officers and soldiers under Xu Hanke's command, less than half of the original number.

In addition to those who were confirmed to be infected by the malignant swelling and turned into a pool of pink mucus, there were also those who were frightened and lost their minds after seeing the malignant swelling.Even the remaining 15 people were at a loss, confused, and followed their "adult" Xu Hanke in a daze, but even the hands holding the weapons were shaking.

Not long after they walked among the empty and vast ancient ruins, suddenly an officer and soldier started screaming loudly.He pulled his hair hard, his whole face twisted in fear, "We will die, we will all die here! I want to go home...I want to go home!!!"

His cry was extremely miserable and sharp, and it was as abrupt as a thunderbolt in the absolute silence, scaring everyone to their core.Liu Sheng was worried that the sound would attract more evil and terrifying things, so he hurriedly ordered, "Shut up! Cover his mouth!"

The two officers and soldiers around hurriedly rushed up to cover his mouth, comforting him softly.The man was still whining, and his whole body was limp on the ground, making lung sounds like a tuberculosis patient as if he couldn't breathe.

It's not just him, despair and panic permeate everyone's face, body, and gestures.Unlike Zhu Helan, Guan Zhongliu, Xu Hanke and the others, they have already seen the other side of this world.For these ordinary people, everything they saw in this short day was a maddening nightmare.

Those legends and ghost stories that they thought were just deceiving children were too innocent compared to what they saw today.The ancient civilization hidden underground, the black mud that can turn people into water, and the deformed monsters that come out of the hole...all of these are beyond their cognition, and they are completely incomprehensible nightmares.

And they are likely to be kept in this nightmare forever.

At this time, Zhu Helan stepped forward, knelt down and pressed the officer's shoulder with one hand, and asked in a low voice, "What's your name?"

The officer trembled and sobbed out his name, "Qian Zhang..."

"Qian Zhang, come on, do the same action as me." Zhu Helan said, stretched out her hand, and used one finger to draw a square in the palm of her hand. Hold, exhale when coming upright, and hold back when the fourth stroke is connected. Come, follow me."

His voice was gentle and soft, like a basin of ice spring water poured on a raging fire.The officers and soldiers were induced to do the same movements as him, trying hard to control their breathing.

Over and over again, Zhu Helan patiently led him to draw squares on his palm.Some other officers and soldiers watching also followed suit.

Liu Sheng seemed impatient, and was about to urge him, but was stopped by Xu Hanke, who whispered something in his ear.

Gradually, the frantic and out-of-control heartbeats of the officers and soldiers began to slow down, and all kinds of wild horse-like emotions of collapse in their minds finally returned to the stables. Even if the fear still existed, it was at least controllable.His trembling eased a lot, and he calmed down a little bit.

Chong Liu has been quietly looking at what happened in front of him, seems very curious.

When Zhu Helan stood up, Xu Hanke said, "I'm afraid it has been a day and night, and everyone is tired. I think we should find a safe place to rest temporarily."

Zhu Helan thought, it would be very dangerous to stay in such a place for a moment.But with the mental state of these people, it was really too much to continue, so they didn't object.

The best refuge is obviously a huge building that stands silent in all directions.Most of these tombstone-like building bases are pentahedral, and each side has a two-foot-high depression similar to a door.But it is only a depression, and there is no place to push it away.They inspected several buildings that were still intact, and finally found a tower with an oblique opening in a depression.

Zhu Helan probed in and took a look. The inside was very empty, and the mysterious light that shrouded the city was taken in from the window, interspersed and crisscrossed.There are slopes spiraling upwards along the walls on both sides, without steps, wide and heavy, and in the center of the hall, there are many tall black shadows, which seem to be stone tablets, or they may be shelves.

The foul smell is not very strong, so it should be considered safe.

Zhu Helan went in first, followed by Chongliu, Xu Hanke and Liu Sheng.

There are many deep purple crystals inlaid on the towering stone tablet, arranged in a special way.In addition, there are a lot of strange equipment that I don't know what to do. Some spheres are suspended in the air with some unknown force, and they are constantly circling.

Xu Hanke looked at the rotating sphere and exclaimed, "This place has been sealed for 2000 years. Could it be that these things have been rotating for 2000 years?"

Guan Chongliu leaned against a stone tablet, seemingly bored.

Zhu Helan looked at Chong Liu indistinctly for a while, and then his eyes fell on the stone tablet again.He stretched out his palm and tried to sweep across several crystals.

Accompanied by his movements, the crystals lit up one by one, and then dimmed again.

His movements attracted Xu Hanke's attention, "What is this?"

Zhu Helan ignored him and continued to try.He counted the number of crystals on several nearby stone tablets, muttering words as if he was calculating something, then he raised his hand and scanned the crystals with his fingers, drawing more than a dozen interlaced lines on the stone tablet.

This time, the crystal lighted up and never went out again.Not only the crystals touched by Zhu Helan, but also the crystals on the nearby stele flickered.Suddenly, purple light shot out from the crystal, precisely passing through the non-stop sphere to shine on the opposite stone tablet, and was reflected by the crystal on the stone tablet.A purple ray shuttled through the air several times, and then some characters resembling characters emerged, circling back and forth in the air in a spiral shape.

Everyone exclaimed one after another.Xu Hanke asked again, "What is this?"

"It's the place where the Xinglao people store their knowledge and craftsmanship." The characters in the air, like purple ghosts, slipped past Zhu Helan's dark pupils, "This is the index, maybe we can find the map."

"That would be great!"

Zhu Helan then began to manipulate the stele to search in the so-called "knowledge base", but no one except him could understand these characters, and gradually everyone began to search upstairs, hoping to find a suitable place to rest.

On the second floor, you can see a lot of shelves standing in the center of the room, about two adults tall, covered with mud underneath, and I don't know what they are used for.Some people sat down against the shelf, and some people looked curiously at the decorations made of conch shells on the wall.

After a day, everyone was thirsty and tired, but most of the dry food they brought was lost on the way to escape, and it was impossible to find something edible in this unknown depth underground.They can only endure hunger and thirst, trying to sleep.

Zhu Helan searched for a while, and suddenly realized that she hadn't seen Chong Liu for a while.

"Six children?"

He immediately lost the intention of looking for the map, and began to look around among the steles.Liu Sheng, who had been staring at him for fear that he was playing tricks, also felt strange, "I saw him standing here just now, why did he disappear after a while?"

Everyone gathered on the second floor, thinking that Chongliu might also go up there, so Zhu Helan and Liu Sheng went up to look for it.They counted the number of people and found that two were missing.

One is Chong Liu, and the other is Qian Zhang, who had almost collapsed before.

"Could it be that he went to a higher level?" Xu Hanke asked.

So Zhu Helan rushed to the higher floors, searched for the strange and huge homes that the Xinglao people piled up in the center of each floor, and shouted loudly.When I found the fourth floor, I saw Chongliu Shi Shiran coming down from the fifth floor.

"Liu'er! Why are you running around!" Zhu Helan rushed up to meet him, grabbed Chong Liu's arm and looked him over carefully.Not only did Chong Liu not show any signs of injury, but his face was much rosier than before, so he was relieved.

But why does Liu'er have a faint smell of blood?

Chong Liu laughed, eyes squinted, "Don't worry, I'll just go up and see what's there."

Zhu Helan put on a serious face and blamed, "In this kind of place, how can you run around without telling me?"

"It's my fault, don't be angry." Chong Liu smiled brightly and tugged on his sleeves flatteringly.Liu'er's smile has always been light and bright, but at this moment, it seems too sweet.

Zhu Helan frowned, looked up at the dark slope leading to a higher place, and asked, "Have you seen the officer named Qian before?"

Chong Liu shook his head and said, "No."

Zhu Helan observed his expression carefully, and she didn't know what she was looking for in Chong Liu's eyebrows.

Chong Liu was probably uncomfortable with his eyes that seemed to be burning in the dark, so he dragged him downstairs and said as he walked, "He may have wandered somewhere, and he will come back by himself in a while. .It's been a rough day. Let's go, we have to hurry up and rest."

Zhu Helan only felt that the temperature coming from Chong Liu's palm was a bit too cold, and a bit uncomfortable and sticky.His fine brows furrowed even tighter, and he withdrew his hand without a trace.

................................................

Yuanchu almost trotted behind Chong Liu, who was blowing wind under his feet, while Di Chi wriggled his huge body and followed behind the two of them.

"Heavy six! Slow down! Where are you going!"

Chong Liu glanced back at him, and hurriedly said, "It's not safe here, you should take Chonger out first. I have to find my boss."

"No, wait a moment!" Yuan Chu grabbed Chong Liu's wrist, forcing Chong Liu to pause for a moment, "Can you explain to me what happened first? How did you get into the box? And... how did you become... the way you were before?"

Chong Liu looked at him quietly, and there seemed to be a bit of confusion in the depths of his eyes.After a while, he said softly, "I was always like that."

Yuan Chu was startled, "What do you mean?"

"I'm not human." Chong Liu sighed and whispered, "literally."

Chong Liu's words circled Yuanchu's head, but it made him even more confused, "What are you if you are not a human?"

Chongliu shrugged his shoulders, pointed at Dichi, and spoke in an unusually calm and casual way, "Who knows. It's probably similar to it."

Yuanchu only felt that his head was swollen and he couldn't turn the corner.He stared at Chong Liu from head to toe, no matter how you look at it, he is a young and handsome normal person.But the gorgeous and treacherous scene like the blue sun before remained true in his memory.

"...We haven't seen you for a day, so why are you not human?"

Chong Liu could not help laughing a few times seeing Yuanchu grabbing his hair and trying to think hard, as if he had turned into confusion.It's just that my heart is still pressed by too many things that have newly entered the surface of consciousness, which makes this smile disappear too quickly.

"Yuanchu, if you are afraid of me, go quickly. There are too many ghosts here. I still have to find my boss, and I really can't delay." Chong Liu lowered his eyes, and in his always clear and worry-free pupils, after all, Contaminated by some heavy haze, "The bug has been looking for you, you take it and leave the same way."

Yuanchu's gaze suddenly became firm at this time, "Who said I'm afraid of you. Aren't you the Xiaochao of Huai'an Inn. Besides, I still have something to investigate."

"You want to find your master?" Chong Liu's expression tightened slightly, "I advise you not to. Think about those spells... think about his behavior of using the earth to trap me and threaten my master... He may not be You know the master."

"I must find him...Master...Master may have gone mad, I have to figure out what's going on." Yuanchu paused, and said, "And there is a connection between Ah Chi and Master, as long as you find him Master, maybe we can find Boss Zhu too. I think we should stay together."

Chongliu knew that what Yuanchu said had some truth.Now his perception ability has become several times stronger than before, but he still can't feel the location of his boss.Something under the underground palace was seriously disturbing his perception, making him dizzy and difficult to discern the direction.

Chong Liu looked at Yuan Chu's worried but firm eyes, suddenly tilted his head and laughed softly, "Didn't you be scared away by me and my boss before? Why are you suddenly not afraid now?"

Yuanchu's cheeks flushed, and he couldn't bear it, but he still quibbled, "I'm not scared away, I'm just not mentally prepared! Who would have thought that your shopkeeper's distortion is so serious that you can't see it at all at ordinary times..."

He remembered what he saw at that time... the red silk ribbons flying all over the sky, and the sacrifice-like posture of Chong Liu wrapped in layers of silk ribbons...

Even though it was frightening, it also had a kind of bewitching beauty.

Chong Liu looked at Yuan Chu in a daze, thinking that he was frightened by his own memory again, so he reached out and patted him on the shoulder, "Okay, let's cooperate again."