Thinking things through like this, Yu Qing realised that the Rift Valley Villa personnel might really have fled.
Only fleeing could explain the abnormal behaviour of the Rift Valley Villa personnel leaving in such a hurry.
That is to say, they really fled?
Nie Pinlan suddenly spoke, “If they really fled, and if it is really as Brother Lin said that the previous halberd was fake, then has the real halberd already been taken away by them?”
Everyone fell silent again. Logically speaking, that was indeed the case.
However, Yu Qing and his two martial brothers had a different thought in mind. If the previous golden halberd was fake, it meant that what the man in black said might be true, and the real golden halberd was in the hands of the Sleeper. Would the Sleeper hand over the halberd in his possession to let the Rift Valley Villa people take it away? Or would the Sleeper flee along with them?
These possibilities were entirely plausible.
Yet, despite this perfectly reasonable situation, the three martial brothers instead felt that the real halberd might not have left, and this feeling was very strong. They felt that the Rift Valley Villa people had fled too easily. Even if a figure of the Sleeper’s level wanted to escape, would he mix with such a large target and leave together?
The three martial brothers could not help but glance at each other, feeling that the real halberd had either not left yet or had left alone.
Nan Zhu chimed in, “Did they really take it away? When they hastily retreated from this mountain cave, it seemed they did not have time to take anything. Could the real halberd still be hidden in this mountain cave?”
Ning Chaoyi said, “If they have really left, the item should not be hidden here. Wu Xieshan knows what we are here for. For something so important, knowing that we will inevitably search every inch of this place, it is unlikely that they would continue to leave the item here. The facts are also like this. Later, we will definitely search every corner here.”
Listening to their discussion, Yu Qing always felt that he had missed some important clues. He paced back and forth, thinking hard. Suddenly, in an unintentional glance back, he saw the firelight at the village entrance. He was startled, walked to the cave entrance, and stared carefully at the firelight at the village entrance.
He faintly saw a few people doing something around the fire. He faintly saw that someone seemed to be squatting under the flagpole. The distance was too far to see clearly who it was, but he visualised the scene of the person squatting there, the picture of a dirty old man sitting on the steps puffing on a dry tobacco pipe.
He finally remembered a situation he had neglected. It was when he first arrived a few days ago, while pasting the wall with that young man, that dirty old man suddenly appeared nearby. This was nothing in itself. The key point was that, with his level of cultivation, he actually did not notice when the old man appeared. He had a strange feeling at the time, wondering if it was due to his own negligence. At that time, because he had just arrived and did not understand the situation, he did not think much of it, but that trace of doubt had actually been in his mind all along.
Afterwards, he was affected by various frequent incidents and did not think of the village, until he was reminded by the firelight at the village entrance at this moment.
After listening to the discussion for a while, he finally spoke slowly, “If the item is still here, perhaps it is hidden in a place none of us ever thought of.”
Everyone turned to look at him. Ning Chaoyi asked, “Hidden where?”
Yu Qing raised his hand and pointed to the village that was gradually waking up in the hazy morning, “Do you think they might have hidden the item in that village?”
Everyone immediately walked quickly to the cave entrance to look. Even the mother and daughter, Lu Xingyun and Shen Qingcheng, at the next window, all stared at the village in unison.
After gazing for a while, Ning Chaoyi frowned and muttered, “Not placed in the heavily guarded villa, but placed in a village with no defensive power?”
Nie Pinlan also pondered and said, “Brother Lin, I understand your thinking. The most dangerous place is the safest place. However, for the Rift Valley Villa, there is absolutely no need to do this. If they absolutely must hide the item in a place with no defensive capability, it would be better to just find a random place in the vast Gobi Desert and bury it. That would actually be safer.”
Is there really no defensive capability? The three martial brothers looked at each other. They were afraid that the most terrifying defensive power was right in that village.
Because of this thought, the heartstrings of the three martial brothers could not help but tremble. Subconsciously, they thought of the same question again, which was that the previous so called monster heart digging mostly happened in the village. The monster mostly targeted ordinary villagers, although it could be said that the villagers had no ability to resist.
Ning Chaoyi raised his hand to signal Nie Pinlan not to deny it too quickly, and asked Yu Qing, “What is the basis for such a guess, brother?”
Yu Qing took a deep breath. It was not good to tell the truth. He shook his head slightly, “I cannot explain it clearly either. It is just a feeling.”
“A feeling?” Nie Pinlan could not help but raise her eyebrows.
Ning Chaoyi, however, stared closely at Yu Qing’s reaction and said, “That is a village of tens of thousands of people. It will not be easy to search. If the item is really hidden in the village, where do you think it would be hidden?”
Yu Qing said, “When you arrived, and when you were strolling around the village, did you see a dirty old man smoking a dry tobacco pipe at the village entrance?”
Although he was just an ordinary person, to tell the truth, now that you mention it, everyone felt they had an impression of him, since his demeanour was different from the other villagers.
Ning Chaoyi said, “I saw him. What is the story?”
Yu Qing said, “To be honest, I do not know if it is my illusion, but when I first arrived, I felt that old man was a bit abnormal. For this reason, I specifically asked the Third Villa Master. He told me that the old man is the highest seniority member in the clan.”
Ning Chaoyi said, “Do you mean the item might be hidden in his hands?”
Yu Qing said, “I am just suspicious. We might as well check it out.”
Nie Pinlan said, “Is it really based on a feeling, or do you know something and are deliberately hiding it from us?”
Yu Qing said, “I really cannot be sure.”
Nie Pinlan said, “You cannot just make us act based on a feeling, can you?”
Ning Chaoyi raised his hand again to stop the strong woman beside him, “The scope is too large. Having a suspicion is better than searching blindly without a target. Since that old man is suspicious, let us start investigating from him first. It does not delay anything.”
He made the final decision, so everyone had no objections and began to discuss how to investigate.
In the end, the group had a division of responsibilities.
Ning Chaoyi continued to enter the village to investigate with the thief couple.
Yu Qing suspected that the dirty old man was a cultivator. He took the initiative to lead people to the village entrance to watch and prepare for support, so that they could go over to support Ning Chaoyi and the other three in time if there were any changes. Regarding this, Ning Chaoyi and the others were quite reasonable and did not object.
As for Lu Xingyun and her daughter, they stayed in place, responsible for continuing to observe and notifying in time if there were any changes.
In fact, everyone felt that Lu Xingyun’s mental state seemed somewhat abnormal. Afraid she would cause trouble again, Ning Chaoyi had already hinted to Shen Qingcheng to keep a close eye on her mother.
Before parting, Yu Qing had to remind Ning Chaoyi and the other three, “Remember, once you find out something, absolutely do not act rashly. If the halberd is really hidden in the village, it is very likely guarded by an expert. It is not too late to take action after discussing it properly.”
“Hmm.” Ning Chaoyi nodded and smiled, with his usual free and easy manner, and then jumped out of the cave entrance with the thief couple.
Yu Qing and the other four did not beat around the bush either, and directly jumped out of the cave entrance.
Under the starry sky, on the peak of the mountain where they were operating, stood a robust man in black. His shoulder-length long hair fluttered in the wind. His sharply defined face and beast-like gaze deeply examined everything under the night curtain.
It was none other than the man in black who had met with Yu Qing earlier.
After the big bell of the Rift Valley Villa was rung, the sound wave of the bell could indeed travel very far, startling him. Taking advantage of the darkness to arrive, he found no lights in the villa caves, which was too abnormal, so he climbed up to check…
A few figures sneaked into the grape field, quietly lurking all the way to the vicinity of the village entrance, watching the bonfire at the village entrance, and the dirty old man sitting on the steps of the flagpole.
At this time, Yu Qing finally said in a low voice to the three people beside him, “Once the situation changes, once a power we cannot resist really appears, immediately slip into the dark channel, escape downstream, and go find that man in black. Since he can exist, he should have the ability to resist that Sleeper.”
He had actually brought people here as a precaution for a convenient escape. Who knew if Ning Chaoyi and those people were humans or ghosts. It was best to borrow their strength, and if they could not be of use, push them out as a shield when encountering risks.
Nan Zhu and Mu Aotie both knew what he meant. To put it bluntly, they were using Ning Chaoyi and the others to take the vanguard, helping them trigger the dangers they dared not touch, so that they could escape smoothly.
This situation was truly a treacherous world!
Qiao Qie’er was full of surprise and doubt, and asked in a low voice, “What Sleeper?”
Since things had come to this, seeing Yu Qing hesitate, Nan Zhu simply took the initiative to help speak, “The reason we suspect the halberd is fake is because we touched upon some new information. There might be a highly cultivated old monster in the Rift Valley Villa, and the real halberd seems to be guarded by him. If it is really hidden in this village, once we provoke him and bring him out, if we do not run, are we going to stay and wait for death?”
Qiao Qie’er was surprised and doubtful, “What kind of old monster? If the Rift Valley Villa has such an expert, why do they still need to flee?”
Yu Qing said, “We do not know the specifics either. Let us prepare carefully first, and talk about the rest later.”
Mu Aotie immediately spoke up, “Look!”
Following their gaze, they saw the dirty old man sitting on the steps puffing on his dry tobacco pipe knock the ash clean from his pipe bowl, and suddenly stood up and left.
The old man raised his hand to adjust his fur hat, then put his hands behind his back with the tobacco pole on his back, and walked back into the village with the demeanour of an old man, heading home.
His home was not far from here. Following the road straight ahead, it was an old courtyard with earth walls in the central area.
Pushing open the courtyard gate to return home, the old man closed the door again, and then went straight to the horse stable, which had now become a shed for stacking firewood.
Entering the shed, he tucked the tobacco pole behind his waist, lifted a pile of firewood branches, and revealed three people, three Rift Valley Villa cultivators lying quietly.
The three could still move their eyes, but their bodies could not move, nor could they make a sound. They looked at the old man with bewildered eyes.
The old man lifted a ground cover on the side, revealing the pitch-black cellar below. He casually grabbed a villa cultivator, and his five fingers cut into the man’s heart like a knife cutting through tofu. With a puff sound, he directly pulled out a still-beating heart.
He casually threw the injured man into the cellar, and thrust the heart into the cellar to squeeze it, bursting it into a mist of blood.