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The surface of the altar was not smooth. When Xu Ziyan observed it, he noticed some strange grooves. Those grooves twisted and turned, extending to the side of the altar, where a massive urn was placed underneath.

Xu Ziyan had a bad impression of the sacrificial square, because he always felt that there was a faint scent of blood coming from the dark marks with those grooves.

“Human blood.” Xu Zirong just glanced at it lightly and then looked away.

Xu Ziyan immediately frowned upon hearing that.

Cultivators would not respect ghost deities. Those kinds of godly immortals and devils spoken of by ordinary people were nothing more than well-cultivated demons or powerful cultivators. As long as they had sufficient cultivation, killing deities and defeating ghosts was as easy as flipping one’s hand.

As for the so-called living human sacrificial rituals in remote mountain villages, they were often the methods of demon and devil cultivators. At present, the eerie Ghost Deity Festival in that peculiar town forced Xu Ziyan to think about a great number of things.

“We should gather more information.” Xu Ziyan contemplated for a moment, and decided that it was best to not act rashly for the time being. Although he deduced that the so-called “ghost deity” was likely a powerful ghost cultivator, he still could not guarantee how powerful they were.

The optimal outcome would surely be their success in defeating the ghost cultivator and leave that weird town, but what if doing so would not lead them out?

The existence of that “ghost deity” was just a clue provided for them to leave the small town, yet it was still unknown whether they could truly leave.

Taking advantage of their “non-existence” feature, Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong strolled around the town again, but the information they collected was very limited. The lives of the townspeople seemed very peaceful. Most of the topics revolving around everyone were just everyday matters. Occasionally, they would mention the Ghost Deity Festival in three days, as well as the appearance of the “stranger” in town.

Xu Ziyan knew that the stranger they were talking about was Tianle, who was able to communicate with them. From their whispers, it was not difficult to see that Tianle in disguise had left a very favorable impression on the townspeople.

After listening for a while, Xu Ziyan was somewhat astonished to find out that perhaps Tianle’s act was too good, because some of the more enthusiastic aunties among those people were already planning to arrange potential matches for the young women in their town.

Xu Ziyan could not help wanting to have a good laugh when he thought of Tianle’s face, awkwardly declining the kindness of those aunties. However, after the laughing, he felt an odd sense of uneasiness.

He tapped his chin with his fingertips, carefully thinking about where that feeling of uneasiness came from. In fact, similar occurrences were common in the modern world. After all, being pursued and surrounded by the aunties was something that many mature youths would encounter. Thinking back, if he had not been studying in the United States, far away from those relatives at home, he probably would not have been able to escape that hurdle.

However——

Xu Ziyan’s eyes gradually darkened, and his thoughts became clearer.

Such enthusiastic uncles and aunties were the norm in modern times, and perhaps even in the past. Their existence was not contradictory, but the question was—— Tianle had only appeared in town for briefly a day. Even if those uncles and aunties were eager to be matchmakers, would they have taken such quick action if they had not known the young man’s identity and background?

Besides, they were also clueless about the purpose of Tianle’s arrival, as well as when he would leave. However, when they were discussing behind the scenes, their confident tone clearly indicated that he would never leave that place.

Why are they so confident? Is it because—— they know something we don’t?

Xu Ziyan pondered for a while, but he could not unravel the puzzle, so he had to set his matter aside for the time being.

He wandered around the residential area again, hearing similar discussions from before. The only special topic was that someone had mentioned a group of “new” laborers that had arrived at the dock.

Xu Ziyan could not help wondering. From the skeleton attendant’s words, it was not difficult to hear that there were merchants coming and going for trade on a regular basis, which meant that strangers did appear in town frequently. Yet, among the townspeople, he heard completely opposite descriptions from different attitudes.

Towards Tianle, they were warm and generous. Even without knowing his details, they were willing to be matchmakers for him. However, those newly arrived workers were spurned and hated by them. Even if they did not express it openly, the disgust in their tones was impossible to conceal when talking about them.

How interesting…

Xu Ziyan lowered his eyes halfway, concealing the complexity in his eyes. Two groups of people appearing at the same time, yet the former was a wealthy young master, while the latter were laborers, leading to such different treatment?

This is unreasonable! Very unreasonable!

If he heard the resentment of those rock monsters he encountered at the inn yesterday towards the laborer, he could understand. After all, they were robbed of their jobs was robbed. However, he had been hearing the ordinary townspeople speaking ill of the new workers. Some of them were even wealthy officials, which was simply an impossible situation.

Unless—— the appearance of those people disrupted the folks’ common interests!

“Perhaps, we should also go take a look at those newly-arrived laborer.” Xu Ziyan said to himself.

Xu Zirong’s eyes flickered, and a red light shot out from his fingertips, piercing into the nearby wall. He exclaimed, “Who’s there?!”

Xu Ziyan was already on alert, and hurriedly turned towards the corner of the wall, only to hear the sound of retreating footsteps.

“Is there anyone else here who can see us?” Xu Ziyan asked in surprise.

Xu Zirong’s eyes narrowed dangerously into slits, and he said in a cold voice, “Most likely, otherwise this person wouldn’t have run away.”

Xu Ziyan nodded, then came back to his senses, looking at Xu Zirong with a strange expression, “Have you regained your cultivation?” After they entered the town, they became ordinary people, so what was that red light earlier?

Xu Zirong shook his head, walked to the corner, and retrieved a dark red dagger, “There’re eighteen serial daggers from the brush I got, so I used them directly as throwing knives.”

As soon as Xu Ziyan saw them, he burst into laughter. Due to his current state, he was unable to use those powerful magic artifacts anymore, but he had forgotten that the materials of those magic artifacts were incredibly astonishing. Even if they were used as ordinary weapons, they could still cause significant damage.

He rummaged through his Qiankun bag, and frowned. He had gotten used to stuffing everything into Mr. Square, but now that Mr. Square was inaccessible, there were only a few bottles of fasting pills and a few broken spiritual stones left in his Qiankun bag…

“It’s fine, I still have some with me.” Seeing his brother’s miserable expression, Xu Zirong could not help but chuckled, then seized the opportunity to give his brother a kiss on the cheek while handing over his weapons.

Xu Ziyan rolled his eyes at the cheeky brat who took advantage of him, then sighed as he looked at the longbow in his hand.

Well, although it was not the dark gold longbow that he was used to, it was still a handy weapon. With the longbow in hand, he could at least have the ability to protect himself.

The two of them strolled around the residential area again, and rushed to the dock area after finding that there was no new information.

The dock area was not bustling. Judging from the small boats that were transported there, it seemed that they were mainly carrying fresh fruits and vegetables. The amount of goods was not too much, which made the competition between the two groups of laborers quite intense.

When Xu Ziyan and Xu Zirong arrived, they saw the two sides glaring at each other while competing to unload a shipload of rice. The group of rock monsters he saw yesterday had now turned into a several bulk men, standing on the dock with them and arguing with the leader of the other group.

Xu Ziyan looked at the newcomers, and to his surprise, the new group of laborers did not look like ordinary workers at all.

There were four of them, old and young. There was even a delicate-looking woman among them.

Xu Ziyan was standing quite close to them, so he could clearly see that the woman had fair and exquisite features, with slender, delicate fingers that lacked any calluses. No matter which angles he looked from, she appeared to be a delicate young lady. How could she be a laborer?

However, the surprising thing was that the beautiful woman’s words were unbearably crude and vulgar. Her actions did not have any trace of gentleness of a woman. On the contrary, she was more of a tomboy than the modern tomboys—— Er, or, from Xu Ziyan’s point of view, it was as if the soul of a bulk man had taken over that beautiful body!

“What did you find?” Xu Ziyan asked Xu Zirong.

Xu Zirong frowned, “These people all appeared pampered and privileged. They don’t look like laborers at all. Moreover, that woman’s situation is even more outrageous. She is obviously a woman in appearance, but her clothing, speech and behavior are far from what a lady should look like!”

“Is it possession?” Xu Ziyan asked doubtfully.

Xu Zirong shook his head, “Doesn’t seem like it.” His gaze lingered on the woman for a while, and his eyes ran up and down. After a good while, he turned his head in confusion, “Brother, have you noticed that their movements occasionally become very stiff. Look…” He pointed to the woman’s right hand.

Xu Ziyan followed his gaze and saw the woman’s fingertips slightly twitched. After that, she wiped her face forcefully, then casually wiping the sweat on her pants.

If she were truly a laborer, that would be a very common movement. However, when performed by such a delicate and charming young lady, the action appeared extremely unsightly.

“She seems to be struggling…” Xu Zirong observed for a while, and came to his conclusion. “They give an impression of being a group of marionettes, like having their behavior and action controlled by an external force. However, their self-awareness hasn’t disappeared, so they can occasionally react, which will show a slight hesitation in an action that is completely contrary to their original personalities.”

“Look…” Xu Zirong pointed out to Xu Ziyan the people’s movements of hesitation. After observing for a while, he then confirmed Xu Zirong’s inference.

The original status of those four people were definitely not laborers, but educated individuals from wealthy families—— perhaps, even cultivators.

Yet, for some unknown reason, they had transformed into their current state, using their original bodies to act as a group of laborers, even fighting with another group of people at the dock just for such a small profit.

Could that somehow be related to them being disliked by the townspeople?