Uncanny Valley

Chapter 20

Continuing the search in this direction, more bloodstains appeared, each one closer to the next, extending to within four or five meters. After that, the trail seemed to disappear.

"No need to search any longer." Yue Dongbei was getting impatient and stood up, saying, "Just keep going in this direction."

Luo Fei shook his head: "No, he didn't come from this direction."

Yue Dongbei pursed his lips: "Why not? The bloodstains have always been in this direction."

"Several drops of blood appeared here, indicating that he paused for a while when he got here." Luo Fei pointed to the last bloodstain, but his gaze was fixed on Zhou Liwei. "Because he spotted you, he stood still quietly, waiting for his opportunity. When you had your back completely to him, he began to stealthily approach you. The bloodstains are denser here, indicating that his initial attack was very slow and light. Once you were within his attack range, he suddenly took two steps forward and delivered a heavy blow to you."

Luo Fei described the scene of Zhou Liwei's attack in words, and everything matched the traces left at the scene so well that it was impossible not to believe it.

Zhou Liwei nodded thoughtfully: "Yes, if that's the case, this bloodstain only shows the route he took when he attacked me, it doesn't mean he came from this direction."

“But finding this direction isn’t difficult now.” Luo Fei said, scanning the ground with his sharp eyes. Then, still crouching, he took a step to the south. “Look, it’s here.”

Sure enough, the bloodstains that had disappeared reappeared at Luo Fei's feet.

Continuing the search southward, the bloodstains stretched endlessly. After walking another seven or eight meters, Luo Fei stood up, his gaze fixed firmly ahead, and said, "Now we're on the right track, this is the direction!"

The three of them then headed south. The further they went, the more treacherous the terrain became, and the denser the jungle grew. Before long, a huge rock suddenly appeared before them. The three of them stopped in unison, their faces showing surprise.

Although the stone wall was tangled and broken after Zhao Liwen's hacking and slashing, the sixteen crimson characters were still clearly visible:

"To walk with the demons is a joyous and carefree experience."

Those who harbor rebellious intentions will be imprisoned in terror!

Luo Fei and Zhou Liwei both turned to look at Yue Dongbei. Of course, they remembered that when Yue Dongbei first came to Luo Fei's office, he had shown them the headbands that Li Dingguo's soldiers wore during battle, and there were sixteen identical characters on those headbands.

Yue Dongbei stared intently at the stone wall, his expression one of fascination. Then, he softly recited the sixteen characters and walked step by step toward the stone wall.

Countless centipedes of all sizes clustered together, forming characters. Yue Dongbei, who had come closer, discovered this secret. He was first taken aback, then his eyes lit up with reverence, and he reached out his right hand to gently touch the "characters." Immediately, two or three centipedes coiled up his chubby fingers.

Luo Fei and Zhou Liwei followed behind him and, upon seeing the scene, couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.

Yue Dongbei, however, seemed completely unconcerned. He looked at the centipedes with almost reverence and murmured, "Did you also come here following 'it'?"

Suddenly, a centipede tensed its body, opened its jaws, and bit the base of his index finger, as if in response. Yue Dongbei cried out in pain, "Ah!" and hurriedly shook his head, scattering the centipedes to the ground. The biting centipede happened to land next to Zhou Liwei, who, with a look of disgust, stomped on it, crushing it to pieces.

“These are all sentient beings, and you dared to step on them and kill them.” Yue Dongbei muttered as he sucked on the wound on his finger.

“Spiritual?” Zhou Liwei scoffed and mocked, “Indeed, this bite is full of spirituality.”

Yue Dongbei, however, had a serious expression and said solemnly, "If they didn't have some kind of connection with that 'demon,' how could these lowly arthropods use their bodies to form the ancient inscriptions on the stone wall?"

"Are you really not clear or just pretending to be crazy?" Zhou Liwei looked coldly at Yue Dongbei, his gaze sharp. "This kind of trick appeared more than two thousand years ago, yet there are still people who try to use it to bewitch people."

Luo Fei was initially shocked when he saw the centipede-shaped characters, but after calming down and thinking about it, he had some clues. Now, hearing Zhou Liwei's words, he immediately pointed to the stone wall and asked, "What, is there a historical basis for this method of character formation?"

"In 202 BC, during the Chu-Han Contention, Liu Bang gained power. His strategist Zhang Liang predicted that Xiang Yu would flee to the Wujiang River, so he sent someone to the riverbank to write the six characters 'The Hegemon-King commits suicide at Wujiang' in honey. Ants, attracted by the scent of honey, gathered around and licked it, eventually crowding together so densely that the characters looked as if they had crawled out from the river. Upon seeing this, Xiang Yu believed it was the will of Heaven and became even more determined to draw his sword and commit suicide." Zhou Liwei finished telling this story and then said to Yue Dongbei, "Although this is just unofficial history, you claim to be a historian by training, surely you've heard of it?"

"Ants are ants, and centipedes are centipedes," Yue Dongbei retorted, still unconvinced. "Ants can be lured with honey, so tell me, what do centipedes use?"

"No matter what you use, the principle is the same." Luo Fei waved his hand to prevent Yue Dongbei from continuing to pester him. At the same time, he secretly wondered: What could attract such a large number of centipedes? This kind of knowledge is something most people wouldn't understand. Considering everything that had happened before, this mysterious "demon" seemed to be very familiar with the terrain and habits of the jungle creatures.

“Bai Jian’e and his group must have been here.” Zhou Liwei made a new discovery and pointed to a bunch of messy vines. “Look, these were just cut down with sharp tools.”

Luo Fei nodded, agreeing with Zhou Liwei's assessment. Then he reached out his left hand to pull a broken vine, but suddenly felt a chill on the back of his hand—a drop of blood had fallen onto it.

Luo Fei suddenly looked up and saw a small protrusion at the top of the boulder, resembling an eave. It was mottled and stained crimson with blood!

"Something's up there!" Luo Fei shouted in a low voice, his right index finger already on the trigger of his gun. At the same time, he took two steps back, widening his angle of observation upwards. But the stone top was obscured by lush foliage, making it difficult to see anything clearly.

"Officer Luo, you can get up to the rock from over there." Zhou Liwei looked around and found a slope on the left side of the boulder that seemed climbable, so he nudged Luo Fei and whispered a reminder.

"Let's go take a look." Luo Fei immediately strode forward and climbed the hillside. Seeing Zhou Yue and the other man following, he turned back and added, "You two stay behind me. Be careful!"

The three followed one after the other, slowly climbing up the steep slope to the top of the boulder. About two or three minutes later, Luo Fei leaped forward and reached the top of the boulder first.

A platform, roughly ten meters square, had formed here. Bai Jian'e and Zhao Liwen, whom the group was searching for, were located at the outer edge of the platform.

The large trees that once grew beside the rock were now only visible as dense canopies. Part of the canopy extended inward, covering the platform, making them look like low shrubs rooted on top of the rock. Zhao Liwen hung upside down among these branches and leaves, his arms limp and motionless, clearly having been dead for some time.

Bai Jian'e stood a few steps away, staring blankly at Zhao Liwen's corpse. He didn't seem to be hurt, but he looked dazed and lost, completely unaware of Luo Fei's arrival.

At this moment, Zhou Yue and his companion also ascended the platform. Seeing the scene before them, they were both somewhat apprehensive and did not rush forward. After a moment of silence, Luo Fei tentatively called out twice, "Chief Bai? Chief Bai?"

Hearing the call, Bai Jian'e slowly turned his head to look at the three people not far away, his gaze timid and unfocused. Although they had only been separated for a short period of twenty or thirty minutes, Bai Jian'e now seemed like a completely different person.

At first glance, Bai Jian'e appears as a capable and domineering chieftain; the sudden change at the Rain God Temple reveals his cunning and gloomy side; even after encountering dangers one after another in the jungle, he remains fearless, displaying the true nature of a ruthless hero; but now, you can only see two words in this man: desolation.

His eyebrows were no longer raised high, his back was no longer straight, and even a few wrinkles had suddenly appeared at the corners of his eyes. He was no longer a village chief, but just a poor mountain dweller burdened with the weight of life and full of sorrow.

What could possibly cause such a dramatic change in a person's spirit in such a short period of time?

With this question in mind, Luo Fei slowly walked towards the edge of the stone platform.

Bai Jian'e's gaze lingered on Luo Fei for a moment, then turned to the bushes, muttering, "...Zhao Liwen is dead too..."

Yes, Zhao Liwen was dead too. His right ankle was tightly bound by a loop of vines, causing him to hang upside down from a thick branch. In his throat, there was a horrific gash, large and deep, severing his trachea, esophagus, and carotid artery, from which blood continued to flow.

Because the body was hanging upside down, almost all the blood in the deceased's body had been drained. A large pool of blood had formed on the stone surface below, and Zhao Liwen's cleaver was soaking in the blood.

Without Bai Jian'e needing to say more, Luo Fei could roughly deduce the circumstances surrounding the victim's death: he had been caught in a trap at the foot of the stone wall, and his entire body had been pulled high into the air. The "demon" was already waiting for him atop the boulder, and before he could react, a sharp blade had already slashed across his throat. His body was then forced to rotate, and blood gushed from the wound, forming a splattered ring of blood over a large area below.

Blood must have splattered all over the "demon" too, right? Even when "he" walked out of the jungle and came to the riverbank, the blood was still wet.

What was Bai Jian'e doing when all this happened? Only the person involved can answer that question.

"Did you see him?" Luo Fei asked Bai Jian'e.

Everyone understood what Luo Fei meant by "he." Zhou Liwei and Yue Dongbei also stepped forward, their expressions concerned.

“Him? Yes… that ‘demon,’ I saw him…” Bai Jian’e seemed to be answering Luo Fei’s question subconsciously, his gaze wandering, his thoughts drifting elsewhere.

"Really? You saw him?!" Yue Dongbei suddenly became excited. He grabbed Bai Jian'e's arms uncontrollably and asked in a trembling voice, "What...what does he look like?"

"What does he look like?" Bai Jian'e's arms were tightly bound by Yue Dongbei. The pain seemed to make his thoughts start moving again. He shook his head blankly. "I can't see what 'he' looks like. 'He' is wearing a long black robe with a big hat on it, and his face is covered with a black cloth, only his eyes are visible."

"Those eyes were bloodshot, weren't they? That's right, it's him!" Yue Dongbei said, glancing excitedly at Luo Fei. Luo Fei understood what he meant; such a "person" had recently appeared in their "hallucinations."

Zhou Liwei's mood was completely different from Yue Dongbei's. He glared at Bai Jian'e and asked seriously, "You looked so carefully, why did you still let him get away?"

Bai Jian'e grinned, as if he wanted to laugh, but no sound came out. It was an expression of extreme helplessness. Then he said, "'He' wanted to leave, and I couldn't stop him at all."

"Why?" Luo Fei also sensed something was strange here and frowned as he pressed for an answer.

“All three of my men are dead. Zhao Liwen, the best warrior in Mi Hong Village.” Bai Jian’e pointed at the corpse beside him, his voice becoming hoarse. “He didn’t even have a chance against ‘him.’ What more do you want from me? Do you want me to die in this jungle too? I only agreed to be your guide, not to risk my life for you.”

“But you didn’t make any effort at all!” Zhou Liwei seemed a little annoyed. He raised a machete in his right hand. “This is your weapon, but you threw it on the hillside! When he appeared in front of you, you immediately surrendered, didn’t you? I really didn’t expect that Bai Jian’e, you are such a coward.”

Two nights ago, when faced with the first terrifying threat from the "demon," Bai Jian'e had brandished that knife and laughed wildly into the dark jungle. But now, that same arrogance had vanished from him. He seemed completely unfazed by Zhou Liwei's mockery, merely looking at him with a strange gaze before saying indifferently, "You don't understand. I have no way to resist 'his' power."

"Really?" Zhou Liwei was extremely disappointed, but then laughed. "Heh, if he has such terrifying power, then why is 'he' hiding from us and doing all sorts of sneaky things? Let him come over. If he's so capable, he can treat us all as sacrifices to the 'demon'."

Before Zhou Liwei could finish speaking, he suddenly heard footsteps on the hillside, and someone was indeed coming over.

The people on the stone immediately turned to face the entrance. Luo Fei raised his gun, and Zhou Liwei held his sword, both assuming a defensive posture.

A young man flipped and leaped onto the platform, appearing in everyone's sight. He was about twenty years old, with a strong build and dark skin. Upon seeing Luo Fei and the others, he was clearly surprised. He waved his right hand, holding a gleaming curved sword to his chest, and simultaneously uttered a string of strange words in a sharp voice.

"Don't misunderstand. This is a Hamo!" Bai Jian'e explained to the group, then stepped forward and spoke to the young man in Hamo dialect. Luo Fei nodded secretly: Indeed, the tone and rhythm of the language were very familiar; it was the Hamo language he had heard in the Kunming Mental Hospital.

As the young man listened to Bai Jian'e's account, he kept glancing at Luo Fei and the others with a sharp eye; his hostility had largely dissipated. Finally, he nodded, turned back to the edge of the platform, and shouted something down towards the base of the boulder. A response immediately came from below; he had companions. A moment later, four more men climbed the rock face. Like the young man before, they were all dressed in short, neat black linen clothes, with black square scarves tied around their foreheads. The one in the lead, however, had flashes of white light at his temples and waist, indicating he was adorned with numerous exquisite silver ornaments.

The young man who had been there earlier had already sheathed his knife and stepped aside, but his eyes remained fixed on the man wearing silver ornaments, his expression even respectful.

Bai Jian'e stepped forward, placed his right hand on his chest, bowed in respect, and then called out, "Lord Anmi."

The man recognized Bai Jian'e and looked quite surprised. He returned the greeting with his chest folded and asked, "Chief Bai, what are you doing here?" Although his Chinese was stiff and inaccurate, it was still quite fluent.

Bai Jian'e's expression was solemn. He raised his hand and pointed towards Luo Fei and the others, replying, "We've all come for the demons of 'Terror Valley'."

The man's expression suddenly changed, and he switched to the Hamo language, pressing Bai Jian'e for answers. Bai Jian'e responded in the Hamo language as well. At first, it was a question-and-answer session, but gradually it became Bai Jian'e talking while the man listened attentively, only occasionally interjecting with a question or two.

The conversation lasted quite a while, presumably Bai Jian'e recounted in detail the whole story of their trip to the Valley of Terror. The Hamo man frowned, his expression growing increasingly worried as he listened, occasionally glancing up at Luo Fei and the others with a scrutinizing look in his eyes.

The other four Hamo men seemed to be subordinates. They stood on both sides, patiently waiting like Luo Fei and his two companions, without saying much.

Finally, the two finished their conversation, and then Bai Jian'e led the Hamo tribe towards where Luo Fei and the others were. Upon reaching them, Bai Jian'e first pointed to the man wearing silver ornaments and introduced him: "This is Lord Anmi, the leader of the Hamo tribe."

Luo Fei had already guessed the man's identity to some extent. At this moment, he imitated Bai Jian'e's previous actions, smiled and bowed to the man, while carefully examining him.

The Hamo chieftain named Anmi was about thirty years old, slightly taller than Luo Fei, with a robust but not fat build, dark skin, thick eyebrows, and sharp eyes, and a natural air of heroism about him.

Upon seeing Luo Fei take the initiative to bow, An Mi's lips curled up slightly, revealing a pleased expression. However, he did not immediately return the bow to Luo Fei. Instead, he went to Zhao Liwen's corpse, knelt on one knee, and bowed deeply.

The four followers did the same as their leader. Bai Jian'e explained to Luo Fei and the others in a low voice, "The Hamo tribe respects the dead, especially warriors who died in battle."

Luo Fei nodded in understanding. Zhou Liwei, however, gave Bai Jian'e a cold glance, seemingly still harboring resentment over his previous cowardly behavior.

At this moment, the Hamo people mumbled something incoherently, then each extended their right index finger, dipped it into the pool of blood beneath the corpse, and sucked on it.

They believed that a person's soul was attached to their blood. By drinking the blood of a fallen soldier, one could gain his courage and strength.

Upon hearing Bai Jian'e's words, Luo Fei couldn't help but think of the blood vial. It seemed that the Hamo tribe indeed held human blood in extraordinary reverence.

After offering condolences to the deceased, Anmi stood up, her gaze sweeping over Luo Fei and the other two in turn, before she said in broken Chinese, "Demons are our enemies. We are all friends. Now, please follow me to the 'Valley of Uncanny'."

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Night Banquet

The river originating from Ni Hong Village flows southeastward, joining the Mekong River (Lancang River) in Laos after crossing the border, and eventually emptying into the South China Sea. This journey is winding and circuitous, traversing countless deep and shallow valleys, its waters nourishing the land on both banks and nurturing countless lives. Not far from Qingfeng Pass lies a vast mountain basin, the river flowing along its northern edge, its waters emptying into the valley to form a tranquil mountain pool. Here, the mountains are beautiful, the water is clear, and the forests are abundant; the Hamo people have lived by this pool for generations.

However, compared to the entire basin, the area occupied by the mountains and lakes is not large. Due to the lack of water, most of the southern area has never been inhabited for thousands of years.

To the southwest of the Hamo people's settlement, there is a low mountain. Beyond this mountain, there is a valley. This valley is relatively high in altitude, but it is densely forested and has treacherous terrain. So, although it is not far away, the Hamo people rarely venture there.

More than three hundred years ago, Li Dingguo led his last remaining troops and camped in this mountain valley for nearly three years. During that time, they fought more than a hundred battles, large and small, against the Qing troops who came to pursue them. Countless corpses of soldiers from both armies are buried in the towering green hills.

This valley thus acquired a name that inspires fear: Terror Valley.

When Luo Fei and the others arrived at the Hamo tribe's village with An Mi, it was dusk. The sky was clear, a gentle breeze was blowing, and the clear mountain pond shimmered with light. Wooden houses and bamboo pavilions were scattered around the pond, creating a beautiful scene, just like a paradise on earth.

Perhaps because he had just escaped danger, Luo Fei still felt somewhat uneasy even in such a peaceful village. He looked around and felt that there was an eerie atmosphere hidden in the tranquility.

Along the way, Bai Jian'e had given Luo Fei a general overview of the Hamo tribe. Although located in a remote area, the Hamo people had multiplied for generations, numbering in the thousands, much larger than the village of Ni Hong. The men hunted and fished, while the women farmed and herded livestock, living a largely self-sufficient life. Occasionally, they would engage in simple trade with the outside world, and in this process, they had the closest ties with the village of Ni Hong. The Hamo language was still commonly used among the tribe, but some members also possessed basic knowledge of Han Chinese.

The hereditary chieftain holds absolute authority among the tribe. Furthermore, the revered positions of the tribe's holy woman and high priest are unshakeable. In this primitive village, the priests are a unique group. This position is held only by those recognized as wise within the tribe, and in addition to presiding over festival worship ceremonies, they bear the responsibility of spreading the tribe's culture and practicing medicine.

The most respected priest was honored as the High Priest, possessing the highest authority second only to the chief priest. The position of High Priest was not hereditary; rather, a new successor was chosen by the priests upon the death of the previous high priest, with the chief priest's approval.

The Saintess holds a unique position; each Saintess personally selects her successor. The Saintess wields no real power; her sole duty is to safeguard the sacred artifact passed down through generations of her clan: the Blood Vial.

Luo Fei already knew that the blood vial was actually filled with Li Dingguo's blood. The Hamo people, however, believed that the vial contained a terrifying demon that had been subdued by their warriors hundreds of years ago. Yue Dongbei's academic theories were derived from this.

The saintess is forbidden from marrying throughout her life. When she reaches middle age, she will choose a clever and obedient girl from among her people to be her successor.

This selection process is two-way; the chosen girl has the right to refuse. Before the girl makes her decision, the saint solemnly emphasizes to her and her family: if she accepts this selection, she will bear the burden of the suffering accumulated by her entire tribe over hundreds of years!