Ren Baqian and his entourage entered the stronghold and saw that there were hundreds of stone houses arranged in a ring. In the middle of the stronghold was a huge open space. In the open space, there were some bonfires and bits and pieces of sundries. This made the stronghold a little more lively.
He carefully looked at the houses on both sides. Although they were the kind of stone houses that were commonly seen in the aboriginals, the stones here were the same as the soil. They were mottled dark red as if they had been stained with blood.
Pushing open the door of a stone room, there was only a wooden bed, a table, three stools, and a cabinet inside.
Apart from them, there were two other people.
A man and a woman in their thirties or forties were sitting on the bed with their eyes fixed in front of them. Their entire bodies were covered in a greenish-gray color, and they were not wearing anything.
Ren Baqian walked up to the two of them and looked at them. Their gazes were the same as the previous two people. There was not a trace of life in them, as if they were dead people.
Ren Baqian touched their foreheads. They were still warm, but it was a little lower than that of an ordinary person.
He probed his nose and found that there was also breathing, but it was very slow and light.
He wanted to place his hand on the woman's chest to sense her heartbeat, but considering the thickness of the fat on her chest, it would be difficult to sense her heartbeat. In the end, he placed his hand on the man's chest.
His heart beat about ten times a minute.
"What are you doing?" the empress asked as she walked into the room and saw Ren Baqian placing his hand on the man's chest.
Ren Baqian turned his head and said, "Their heartbeat is very slow. It's about 10 beats per minute, while a normal person's heart rate is 80 beats per minute."
The heartbeat of an aboriginal was about 80 beats per minute. This was probably to provide sufficient blood and energy to the body, so it was slightly faster than an ordinary person's.
"Oh!" The empress nodded.
"Let's take a look at the other rooms." Ren Baqian walked to the door and pulled the empress out.
After entering seven or eight rooms in a row, the situation inside was more or less the same. There were people sitting in each room, men and women, and they were similarly naked. Whether it was the skin color, the eyes that resembled a dead person's, or the condition of their bodies, they were all about the same.
If it weren't for their breathing and heartbeats, he would have thought that they were clay puppets.
When they entered another room, Ren Baqian suddenly asked, "Has Your Majesty discovered a problem?"
"What?"
"There don't seem to be any young people or children," Ren Baqian said with a frown.
After hearing Ren Baqian's words, the empress recalled that those houses they entered just now were filled with people above the age of 30 or 40. Not only were there no children, there weren't even any youths in their teens or twenties.
It was normal for one or two houses to have this kind of situation, but it was abnormal for seven or eight houses to have this kind of situation.
According to the ratio, the proportion of youths and children under the age of 30 would not be less than one-third.
After all, the lifespan of an ordinary aboriginal was less than 100 years.
"Let's wait and see …" At this moment, Ren Baqian had entered the mode of a primary school student. He had never encountered such a strange thing in his life, and such a strange village had piqued his curiosity.
"Justice!" The empress called Gong Zheng as soon as she stepped out of the door. "Get someone to check all the rooms and see if there are any youths or children below the age of 30."
Ren Baqian didn't care about the empress's arrangements. Instead, he pushed open the doors one by one to take a look. When he had walked past half of the houses, Gong Zheng sent him a message, "There are no young people or children in any of the houses."
Soon after, Ren Baqian, the empress, and the rest found a corner in the village to rest and wait to see what would happen tonight.
According to Ya Sheng, these people would come back to life at night.
Ren Baqian pondered for a long time while he was resting, but he couldn't come up with anything. Instead, he had a lot of messy and unreliable ideas.
For example, being possessed by ghosts or that the people here had died many years ago.
After all, this place was very close to the Earth Yin Spring, and it was only a day's journey away.
Legend had it that the Earth Yin Spring was a passageway to the world of the dead.
Coupled with the strangeness of this village, Ren Baqian's imagination ran wild.
When everyone arrived, it was already close to three o 'clock in the afternoon.
After waiting for another four hours, the curtain of night began to fall.
When the sun completely set, a strange smell began to pervade the village.
It smelled like the fishy smell of soil.
Soon after, all kinds of sounds began to appear in the village, which had always been quiet.
The sounds of people stretching, talking, and sighing could be heard from the stone houses.
Ren Baqian's eyes were fixed on the two people who had been thrown on the ground not far away.
As the curtain of night fell, the old man and the middle-aged woman opened their eyes one after another, looked around, and walked toward the stone houses in the village as if they didn't see anyone.
Following their footsteps, the rest of the people also came out of the houses one after another. All of them were naked, and their expressions were somewhat stiff as they greeted the people around them.
"Mu Xu, have you dealt with today's prey?"
"That was three days ago. Your memory is getting worse and worse!"
"Xu Damian, you didn't even wear any clothes and just came out swaying around! Be careful that the elder will beat you to death! "
"Xu Yiyi, aren't you going to Ya City? When are you leaving? "
"Who has seen that kid of mine? I don't know where he went last night, and I couldn't find him after looking for him for an entire day. "
"Auntie, do you have any wild vegetables? Catch some for me. "
The empress, Ren Baqian, and the winged cavalry warriors frowned as they looked at the village that had suddenly become "lively."
"Your Majesty, that person should be called Xu Damian. He didn't wear any clothes when others asked him, but he asked another person when they were going to Ya City … The conversation between these people doesn't match up at all. They aren't talking at all, but talking about something that has been prearranged in advance," Ren Baqian said as he patted the empress on the back of her hand.
The empress nodded. She could tell without Ren Baqian saying anything.
However, Ren Baqian was more familiar with this phenomenon than the empress.
This reminded him of the NPCs in games.
They spoke according to the preset program.
This was the feeling that the people in the village gave him.
"It's a little strange!" Gong Zheng said as he stood at the side with his arms crossed. "There are so many of us here, but none of these people are looking over."
Very quickly, one of the phenomena attracted the attention of Ren Baqian and the others.
Thirty to forty people formed a group and walked out of the village.
"Let's follow them and take a look." Ren Baqian immediately jumped up from the ground.
Ren Baqian and the others didn't avoid the group. They passed through the middle of the village and followed the group out of the village.
After walking for about an hour, those people stopped at a place where there were pits everywhere. Then, they used their hands to dig the ground around them.
Very quickly, Ren Baqian knew what they were digging for.
Each of them was as long as a child's arm and had a green body.
Those people grabbed the squirming worms in their hands. Each of them grabbed five or six worms with both hands. Then, they stood in a line and walked back to the village.
Throughout the process, those people were still talking according to the preset program.
Strange!
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