Kikyo and I are of one mind

"Damn, of course it has something to do with it!" Inuyasha gritted his teeth, thinking about what to say, but suddenly blushed, and then pouted his neck and said:

"This guy is my tool to find the Jade of the Four Souls, you'd better stay away!"

As soon as Gouzi finished speaking, Feng Xue immediately moved a few steps to the side. Seeing this, Gouzi was a little surprised. When did this guy become so obedient?

Could it be that you are afraid of me, Uncle Inuyasha?

As soon as the thought came together, the dog immediately floated away, and immediately raised his chest and said:

"You are wise, my uncle..."

Before he finished speaking, Gouzi suddenly saw Feng Xue showing a gloating smile, and stretched out his finger to point behind him.

Gouzi's keen nerves immediately sensed the danger, and he turned his head a little stiffly, and saw Kagome waiting for him with an angry face.

"Wait a minute, Kagome, I, I just..."

"It's useless to talk too much, sit down for me!"

1Chapter 16 Harvest God

The building complex of the village is not too big. After passing through several bamboo houses, they saw a group of villagers.

Their clothes were shabby, but their spirits were not bad, and their complexion did not have the sallowness that is often seen on poor people. Although it could not be called a "healthy blush", at least they did not look too miserable.

At this time, they are nesting in groups of three or four under the bamboo arbor, and they are making something with a clear division of labor.

Bamboo craftsmen split the bamboo to make bamboo strips, and then the men take over the bamboo strips, bend them into a rough shape, and then the women do the final modification. The whole process is very smooth, as if it has been repeated countless times.

"This is the bamboo man?" Shan Shan took two steps closer, and finally saw clearly the finished product they put aside——

They were human figures tied and woven with strips of bamboo strips. Because they were too crude, they couldn't even cause the uncanny valley effect, and it was probably only in the middle of the night that they could scare people.

Seeing a group of people approaching, an old man about 50 years old suddenly put down the bamboo strips in his hand, stood up and walked up. He was wearing gray-black cloth clothes, his hair was gray, his face was full of wrinkles, the corners of his eyes and mouth were drooping, and his body was also aging due to aging. And it looks rickety, with a slightly forward-leaning body and a head that protrudes forward unconsciously, giving people a strange feeling that the neck is out of proportion to the body.

The old man's hands were behind his back, and his cloudy eyes stared straight at the coral standing at the front of the line, showing a puzzled expression and said: "There are very few people in this village.

There are so many people here in a row. Judging by your appearance, you shouldn't be ordinary travelers, right? "

Hearing the old man's question, Maitreya, who is very good at communicating, immediately stepped forward and said with a friendly smile, "Old man, we are wandering mages and exorcists. We came here because we lost our way. I don't know who you are?"

"Ahem, I'm the head of this village, called Kujie. Speaking of which, you came from outside, didn't you encounter raw swallowing ghosts?" The village head had a faint suspicion on his face, and Mitreya immediately followed the conversation:

"Swallowing ghosts, you mean those big ghosts?"

"That's right!" The old village chief nodded, then looked at the crowd carefully, and then said:

"You were able to escape alive from the Raw Swallowing Ghost's hands, it seems that you do have some strength, but it's a pity..."

"Stinky old man, don't say half and keep half!" Inuyasha couldn't stand this kind of riddle the most, so he yelled loudly, then sat down after eating again.

Mitreya looked at the astonished eyes of the old man and the surrounding villagers, and said with a smile:

"This is a monster tamed by the witch, because it has just been caught and has not been tamed yet, but with the witch around, it will not hurt anyone."

"Stinky monk, who are you talking about..."

"sit down!"

"boom!"

Feng Xue looked at the farce in front of her, felt the joy of Kikyo, and said with a smile:

"Old man, what did you mean when you said it was a pity? And where did those swallowing ghosts come from?"

"We don't know how the raw swallowing ghosts appeared. We only know that they have been active in the surrounding bamboo forest since the village was built. Our ancestors also hired mages and exorcists to eliminate demons, but the raw swallowing ghosts killed more and more, and the bamboo forest became bigger and bigger. At first we could leave to find people to kill the ghosts. Later, we couldn't even leave the bamboo forest. Thanks to the protection of the harvest god in the village, those ghosts would not dare to approach, otherwise we would have been eaten."

The village chief spoke with great emotion, and occasionally even shed a tear, but Maitreya, who is an old fritter, was not as moved as Kagome and Shan Shan, but asked casually:

"You mean the Harvest God?"

"Yes, it is the god enshrined in our village. About 70 years ago, our ancestors established a village in this remote bamboo forest in order to avoid the war (the Yingren Rebellion). It was the Harvest God who protected us from the attack of the ghosts in the bamboo forest and allowed our barren land to be harvested. It is also because of the Harvest God that we can survive here."

When the old man talked about the so-called Harvest God, the piety in his eyes was beyond words, and Maitreya probably knew it in his heart, but Feng Xue continued to ask:

"Then what are these bamboo figures used for?"

"These are for sister Guo in the village." The village chief said sincerely without any intention of hiding them, "Our village holds a harvest festival after the autumn harvest every year to thank the harvest god for his grace. If you want, you can also come to participate."

"Who wants to participate in the Harvest Festival, old man, we are going to Echigo, do you know how to get there?" Inuyasha rudely interrupted the village chief, but this time, Kagome did not let him sit down again, after all , she also wants to know this question.

"Echigo, you can just follow the path behind the village, but there are a lot of swallowing ghosts there now, so you can't go out at all." The old man shook his head lightly, and then said, "Compared to this, you must be tired after meeting the swallowing ghosts. Why don't you take a rest in the village now. Although no one comes here all year round, the inn is a bit deserted, but you can still settle down."

"We don't..."

"Sit down!" Kagome patted the dog on the ground again, then smiled and said to the village chief:

"Then thank you, the village chief."

When the old village chief heard Kagome's words, he immediately turned his head and said to his back, "Shunzhu! Come here and take these guests to the hotel!"

"I know, I know." The man named Shunsuke was splitting bamboo strips. Hearing what the village chief said, he immediately put down his work and walked over quickly. Before he could speak, he showed a naive look. The smile gives people a clumsy feeling.

However, this kind of clumsiness also seems to mean that it is easy to formulate words. After leaving the bamboo shed of the bamboo man, Maitreya asked:

"Will your village not be attacked by raw swallowing ghosts?"

"No, with the protection of the God of Harvest, those ghosts dare not approach, but once they leave the village, those ghosts have no scruples. It turned out that when there were few ghosts swallowed alive, the elders even hired demon exorcisers. Who knew that these guys killed more and more, and the bamboo forest grew bigger and bigger. If I were you, I would just live in the village, at least it would be better than being eaten by ghosts."

Shunsuke vividly depicted the scene of swallowing ghosts and eating people, but his eyes swept over Kagome and Coral from time to time, and it was self-evident what he was thinking.

Coral was not surprised by this, and ignored the impolite eyes at all, but kept observing the route in the village. After a while, she suddenly froze for a moment, then pointed to a bamboo house that was obviously much taller than other houses and said:

"What's there for?"

1Chapter 17 Weird everywhere

Junsuke looked in the direction Coral pointed, and there was an unnatural flash in his eyebrows, but it quickly disappeared again, and he introduced to Coral:

"There, there is a warehouse in the village, which is used to store firewood and other places. Although our place is full of bamboo, we still need to store some dry firewood. Otherwise, once it rains, the day will be difficult..."

"Is that so?" Coral frowned slightly, and was about to walk towards the warehouse. Shunsuke was flustered for a moment.

In fact, in a village, it is quite normal to have such a large public warehouse. The reason why Coral is concerned is that there is a sad man sitting next to the house. old lady.

The old lady's hair was all white, and her body was extremely bent. The white dry hair covered half of her face, and the exposed face was full of wrinkles.

Although it has not yet entered the late autumn, the temperature in this era will be lower than that in 500 years. The old lady is wearing single clothes, shivering slightly under the eaves.

But even so, she still lowered her head and muttered to herself, even with the hearing of everyone present, she could only capture some intermittent words——

"My... poor... son... shouldn't... what should I do..."

Probably aware of the focus of Coral's attention, Shunsuke explained before Coral could ask:

"Auntie Qingzi is also a poor person. Her son is born a fool, crazy, and he is fine on weekdays, but isn't it coming to the Harvest Festival recently? We are worried that her son will offend the Harvest God, so we temporarily locked him in the warehouse."

"Old lady, is that so?" Coral obviously didn't believe Shunsuke's words, but the old lady nodded affirmatively, muttering something like "My poor son", but if you observe carefully, You will find that the old lady's mood seems to be different from before.

If I was really sad before, then now I am obviously very happy, but I have to pretend to be sad.

Feng Xue wasn't the only one who felt this way, but everyone didn't speak up, and Mitreya even changed the subject, talking to him about the village:

"With so many people in your village, is there enough food?"

"With the blessing of the God of Harvest, food is not a problem. In contrast, the main thing that is lacking is clothes." Shunsuke pointed to the tattered clothes on his body, "Decades ago, when the bamboo forest was not so big, , Occasionally, some merchants will pass by here, bringing some fabrics or something. Now that the forest is so big, and there are so many ghosts swallowed alive, even the exorcists are unwilling to come. Our clothes are still from decades ago. Maybe in a few years, everyone will have to wear bamboo leaves."

But at this point, Junsuke felt that he seemed to have said something wrong, and after looking back and forth between Kagome and Coral, he said:

"Actually, it's not as serious as I said. At least compared to the outside world, we don't have to worry about food and drink here. Compared with being arrested and fighting or something, our village is much better. Instead of going to fight with the raw ghost, it's better to just stay here."

"Hehe..." Kagome laughed dryly twice, staring at Inuyasha with fixed eyes, Inuyasha probably understood what Kagome meant, although he really wanted to hit someone, but he still endured it.

Because Junsuke's words were very effective in silence, several people arrived at the so-called hotel in silence.

Well, to say that the hotel is a bit exaggerated, this thing looks more like the kind of abandoned village and house that was completely abandoned because of the massacre.

No one has used it for a long time, so naturally no one has repaired it. Even the bamboo exterior wall with excellent performance has collapsed halfway. The house can still be seen in general shape, but it is already covered with mildew. Facilities, but even if you just take a look from the outside, you should understand that even digging a hole casually is more comfortable than going to the toilet there.

However, on the side of the wall that was relatively intact, there was unexpectedly a well. The stones along the well were covered with moss, and the ropes were rotten, but there seemed to be water in the well—of course, except for Gouzi and Qibao, other people should not be able to drink it.

(Even I wouldn’t drink it! by Qibao)

Entering the interior through the long-haired door, the situation made everyone feel better. Although there are holes in the roofs in some places, we can still find a few rooms that can live in, but there is a little dust and they need to be cleaned.

"If you have any orders, you can come to me. You can just ask Shunsuke to anyone in the village. I still have work over there, so I'll leave first..." I don't know if I don't want to work together, or I am in a hurry to return to my job. After Shunsuke said something polite, he turned and left.

As soon as this guy left, Inuyasha immediately became old, and said with a displeased face:

"What's the point of cleaning this kind of broken place, anyway, there is no jade of the four souls, so let's just leave!"

"The question is, is it that easy?" Maitreya asked Qibao to conjure up a small broom using the demon fox technique, and began to clean up the cobwebs and dust. Hearing this, Gouzi became more and more upset——

"Otherwise? Just this group of ordinary people, can they still stop us? Could it be you who want to stay?"

"How is this possible?" Mitreya retorted immediately, but Feng Xue smiled slightly, "Really? This kind of village with a small population and little communication with the outside world will have the problem of genetic deterioration, so every foreign population is It's very precious, if you stay, maybe you will be asked to have a baby with every woman in the family..."

"stare--"

Before Maitreya could say anything, he was stared at by Shan Shan's dangerous gaze, and immediately expressed his opinion:

"How come! There is obviously a problem in this village, of course I won't stay because of this kind of thing!"

Although she didn't quite believe Maitreya's statement, Shan Shan also knew that now was not the time to discuss such matters, so she turned her head to look at Feng Xue and said:

"Mr. Feng Xue, did you find something wrong?"

"Oh? Why do you ask that?" Feng Xue raised her eyebrows and asked with great interest.

"Because you looked thoughtful after seeing the old woman in front of the warehouse." Shan Shan did not shy away from her observations, or because she was attacked from behind and killed her whole family back then, she is now very sensitive to everything around her and behind her.

Feng Xue nodded lightly as a tacit consent to Shan Shan's words, but she didn't answer immediately, but picked up a bamboo branch, and began to write and draw on the dusty ground——

"This is the layout of this village. Take a look and see if you have anything to say."

Chapter 148

"Layout?" Hearing Feng Xue's words, everyone immediately turned their attention to the sketch drawn on the dust.

"Isn't this a normal village? There are houses in the middle, and farmland around it..." Kagome Higurashi, as a modern person, obviously lacks the understanding of the composition of villages in this era, but Coral is different. As a self-cultivator who used to have a rich family (mistake), she has certain experience in farming and building villages.

It was precisely because of this that she was able to see how abnormal the village was at this time.

"Generally speaking, village construction is completely different from city construction. Because of the relationship between reclaiming land, the most fertile land is usually selected as farmland first, and then the village is built in one direction. When the number of people in the village increases, the village is expanded in the direction away from the farmland, so as not to cause the farmland that has been reclaimed with great difficulty to be destroyed. However, this village has completely reclaimed a circle of farmland around the village, which means that every time the village expands, a part of the farmland has to be destroyed. This is not in line with common sense, unless..."

"Unless they didn't plan to expand the village from the beginning, or...the population of this village never increased." Mitreya added, but Kagome was still confused.

After all, the neon that comes from the population aging is quite serious, and the negative population growth seems to be common sense in her heart?

"Generally speaking, in this era, if there are no factors of war and there is enough food, the population growth rate is very exaggerated. Often, the population can double several times in ten years, even if the baby survival rate is not high. Therefore, if this village has existed for decades or even hundreds of years as they say, it is not surprising that the population is five times higher than the initial migration."

Seeing everyone looking at Kagome like a fool, Feng Xue finally sighed and explained to her, and then added:

"In addition, although there are old people and children here, there is no cemetery. That is to say, the villagers here seem to have no funeral customs..."

"What's the matter? There are ghosts in the surrounding bamboo forests. Maybe people are thrown into the bamboo forests to feed ghosts after they die?" Inuyasha grinned, and then found that everyone was looking at him.

"What are you looking at, am I wrong?" Inuyasha was still very stubborn at this time, and he came back directly, Mitreya spread his hands and smoothed things over:

"In short, whether there is no funeral or the dead are discarded, it shows that this village is not normal."

"Then what should we do? Shall we fight all the way out?" Qibao waved his small fist vigorously, and Kagome shook his head lightly, "No, even if these people have problems, they are all ordinary people, and even if we kill them, we can't pass through that bamboo forest."

"Then what should we do? Stay here?" Inuyasha squatted on the ground in a dog's usual posture, scratching his head with his hind legs, looking very impatient.

"..."

Everyone fell into silence for a while, and after a while, Coral suddenly said:

"I'll go and ask the old lady before, she seems to have something unspeakable."

"Then let's go and see the blocked road that the village chief said." Kagome nodded lightly, and the team was immediately divided into an investigation group and a social group.

Maitreya and Coral, who are good at communicating with humans, took Qibao Mica to the village to inquire about the situation, while Inuyasha and Kagome went to investigate the so-called way out of ten deaths but no life.

……

"Why are you following up?" Looking at Feng Xue who was following, Inuyasha asked tensely. Feng Xue showed an unconvincing smile, "Because I think communicating with people in the village is a waste of time."

"No way? Even if there is a problem in that village, there should still be conflicts. For example, the old lady, her son was locked in the warehouse, there must be some reason, right? As long as we help her save her son, she should cooperate with us." Kagome has confirmed with Inuyasha that there is indeed a man locked up in the warehouse, so he naively thinks that the old lady should not lie.

"..." Feng Xue really wanted to tell Ge Wei, judging from the happy expression on the old lady's face when she saw an outsider, we might be regarded as a substitute for her son.