"I am the village chief here, Zhou Congping. You all came to hunt Spirit Beasts in the nearby forest, correct?"
As he spoke, the middle-aged man signaled the villagers, who gradually lowered their spears.
With a forest nearby, hunting Spirit Beasts was indeed a believable excuse.
Sun Buyu, acting in his role as the team's teacher, stepped forward.
"Hello, I'm the leader of this group."
"We didn't bring enough supplies. Since the Spirit Beast town is still quite far away, we hoped to buy some food from the village. Don't worry, we'll pay."
Zhou Congping smiled and nodded.
"Our village was only established a few years ago, so we don't have any spare rooms."
"After you've eaten, I hope you'll continue on to the Spirit Beast town as soon as possible so you don't lose too much time."
"Thank you for your hospitality, Village Chief Zhou. We'll rest briefly and then be on our way," Sun Buyu replied.
Led by several villagers, the group arrived at a nearby house.
After Sun Buyu paid them, the family retrieved a large leg of meat from an ice cellar and began cooking.
Meanwhile, Wu Qi quietly observed the village.
The more he looked, the more something felt off about the people living there.
Seeing him deep in thought, the others assumed he was simply disappointed that the ruins he had hoped to find were nowhere to be seen.
About fifteen minutes later, the mistress of the house approached with a pot of hot soup and a warm smile.
"Friends, it's cold outside. Have some meat soup to warm yourselves up."
Wu Qi stared intently at the soup in her hands, his expression blank, almost as if hunger had left him dazed.
The woman paid little attention to it.
After setting down the soup, she brought over several bowls of white rice.
Wu Qi finally snapped out of it and urged everyone,"Hurry and eat. If we're delayed, we won't reach the Spirit Beast town before nightfall."
At the same time, he secretly dipped his fingers into the rice and soup and slipped a small sample into his Wishful Hundred Treasures Pouch.
After confirming that the food was not poisoned, he began eating heartily.
After another fifteen minutes, the group finished the soup.
Wu Qi immediately urged everyone to continue their journey.
Once they had left the village behind, the others could no longer contain their curiosity.
"Captain, why are we leaving in such a hurry? Why not stay a little longer?"
Wu Qi remained silent.
He led them farther away until Dugu Bo finally emerged from hiding and rejoined the group.
"Those people are all Spirit Masters," Dugu Bo said.
"That village chief is a Spirit Emperor, and the others are mostly Spirit Elders and Spirit Ancestors."
Only then did everyone understand why Wu Qi had insisted on leaving.
Changkong looked alarmed.
"Don't tell me that place is a bandit hideout. Have we been marked as targets?"
Wu Qi shook his head.
"If it were a bandit hideout, they would've welcomed us warmly after we walked right into their hands."
"They might even have poisoned our food."
"Instead, they were trying to get rid of us as quickly as possible. The people in that village clearly don't want any unnecessary trouble. I've never lived in a village myself, but I've heard enough."
"People who make a living through manual labor always have calluses on their hands."
"Those hands can't stay smooth."
Feng Xiaotian and Huo Wushuang nodded.
They had noticed the same thing.
The woman who served them looked nothing like someone accustomed to hard labor.
Her hands were remarkably well cared for.
Wu Qi continued, "Also, there are far too many young adults in that village."
"In a normal village, most able-bodied young people would leave to earn money elsewhere."
"They wouldn't spend all day sitting around guarding the village."
Once he pointed it out, the logic was obvious.
Sun Buyu frowned.
"They're all Spirit Masters. Could they have once belonged to some clan that was destroyed?"
"Maybe they built the village here to hide from their enemies."
His explanation did seem to account for the strange circumstances.
If they were hiding from enemies, they would naturally avoid traveling outside.
And in a self-sufficient village like that, if the men handled most of the labor, the women would have an easier life.
Calluses alone were hardly conclusive evidence.
Changkong looked confused.
"Brother Wu, that sounds perfectly reasonable. Aren't you being a little too suspicious?"
Wu Qi nodded.
"Of course I thought of that."
"But I wasn't finished."
"I saw elderly people and women in the village. And the village chief said the village had only existed for a few years."
"Judging from the condition of the tree stumps nearby, the village was probably built around six years ago, using timber cut from the surrounding forest."
The true problem immediately became obvious.
Dugu Bo spoke in a low voice.
"There aren't any children."
Wu Qi smiled and continued.
"Exactly."
"If they really came here to hide from enemies, then even if the younger generation didn't care, the elders certainly would."
"They'd be urging them to have children."
"After all, if a child were born with full innate Spirit Power, that child could one day avenge them."
"Put yourselves in their shoes."
"If your family had been driven into hiding, could you really give up on revenge completely?"
"Knowing you lacked the strength yourselves, wouldn't you try everything possible to raise a stronger next generation?"
"And yet that village doesn't have a single child. Their behavior seems reasonable on the surface. But when people deliberately try too hard to appear normal, flaws inevitably appear."
"Unless every single young man there possesses unbelievable self-control, how could none of them have children after getting married?"
"Even if the men could suppress themselves, could all the women do the same?"
Everyone drew in a sharp breath.
Still, all of this only proved that the village was unusual.
It did not explain their motive.
Perhaps they had once served in a royal court and had been physically incapable of having children.
Or perhaps they simply didn't want children and had taken precautions.
Without a motive, all of these theories remained speculation.
At that moment, Wu Qi was reminded of an old tomb-raiding drama he had watched in his previous life.
Comparing the people from that village to those characters, the answer became obvious.
"Which is exactly why that place is the location of the ruins."
"I'll ask you this."
"If you discovered an ancient ruin in advance and wanted to keep outsiders from finding it while monopolizing all the treasures inside, what would you do?"
Feng Xiaotian answered without hesitation,
"I'd hide it."
"If you deliberately covered it with rocks or other materials, that would only attract the curiosity of passersby."
Huo Wu picked up where he left off.
"If you want to hide it while still making everything seem natural, then you turn the area into a village and have your own people guard it around the clock."
Huo Wushuang added,"In that case, even if someone notices something unusual, they won't know there's a ruin here."
"Without knowing the ruin exists, they won't be able to guess the villagers' motives and therefore won't pay much attention to it."
Ning Rongrong said seriously,"These people are incredibly calculating. They're really cunning."
"What should we do then?" Sun Buyu asked, clearly tempted.
If these people had been waiting here for years, they likely had a good idea of when the ruins would open.
Who wouldn't be tempted by treasure?
If they could obtain something that increased their strength, this trip would be more than worthwhile.
Dugu Bo reminded them,
"A mere Spirit Emperor leading a group of Spirit Elders and Spirit Ancestors wouldn't have the courage to pull off something like this alone."
"And think about it. If they're guarding the ruins at all times, they can't leave freely."
"So where does their food come from?"
"There must be other people backing them."
"If we don't uncover the forces behind them first and act recklessly, we'll suffer heavy losses."
Wu Qi chuckled.
"The one thing I don't lack is time."
"This trip was meant for training anyway."
"Old man, you'll have to stay nearby and keep watch over the situation for the next few days."
"As for us, we'll continue with our training."
Since they couldn't venture too far from the area, they would be limited to operating around the Spirit Beast town.
Chen Ping proposed,"Why don't we form a Spirit Beast hunting team?"
"Helping others hunt Spirit Beasts can count as training. And if the ruins open, we can rush over immediately."
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