"Oooh-"
"Seventh sister, what's that sound?!"
Qian Wanyu listened carefully, "Don't be afraid, it should be coming from the front, let's go check it out."
The closer they got, the louder the sound of this beast was, Qian Wanyu quickened her footsteps, and soon, they reached the place where the sound was coming from.
"Oooooooooooo–"
"Close your eyes."
Qian Wanyu dropped several moonstones, the light of the moonstones illuminated the place completely, feeling the light on her face, the moment Dongfang Minghui opened her eyes, she was frightened by the image in front of her and took two steps backwards, if not for Seventh sister still holding her hand, she would have wanted to turn tail and run.
In the small area of about thirty square meters, the kid who had jumped down was looking at them vigilantly, he had a huge magical beast corpse in front of him, now turned into an empty skeleton, his hands were still covered with blood and his fingers were even still dripping blood. Behind him were about 20 or 30 people, they were tied up with ropes chaining them. The other end of the rope was tied to the top of a rock.
Rooooaar
That particularly frightening sound just now came from their mouths, some of them still had bloody pieces of meat in their mouths, chewing as if they were complete beasts, and some probably kept making that sound because they hadn't been given meat.
"Seventh sister."
Dongfang Minghui tugged tightly at Qian Wanyu's hand and moved to her side with fear. These people should be the legendary undead, walking corpses with no emotion, no sense and even the basic features of shame and hygiene were gone.
When the little kid saw that they did not move, he immediately distributed the meat to the people behind him.
"What do you want?"
The questioning voice came from the mouth of a little kid, it gave a particularly heartbreaking feeling.
Presumably, he felt that there was no hostility from them so he intended to talk to them.
"We don't want to do anything, we are trying to find out what is going on." Qian Wanyu was also deeply shocked by this scene, if her guesses were correct, the four children hiding in the village were hiding the rest of the villagers in this cave and feeding them the meat of those magical beasts daily?
Dongfang Minghui nodded, "We are students of the Royal Academy, we came this time to suppress the virus from infecting more people."
To find a way to suppress it, they had to find out where the source of the disease was.
She didn't expect that the moment she said that the kid suddenly pounced on her, revealing his bloody mouth. Qian Wanyu pulled her back and immediately kicked him away but the kid had managed to cling to her leg and his sharp nails had scratched into her skin!
"Seventh sister!"
Qian Wanyu's face was serious, she immediately wrapped her leg up with spiritual energy, the other party's fingers wanted to dig deeper but it was as if digging into stone. He then tried to punch it but Qian Wanyu directly flung out her water thunder whip, unmercifully whipping him away.
Even without lightning, the whip was still strong enough to send the kid flying into the pile of villagers, those group of undead as soon as they encountered the living it was like seeing delicious meat, their brains all turned off and more than twenty people started to surround the small kid.
"Grrr"
The little kid showed his teeth, his gaze was fierce, he fought hard, and every time they came forward, he used his little fists to knock them back, but soon, his legs were pulled down and his fists were blocked by the sheer number of them.
Dongfang Minghui was so stunned by this scene that she tugged at Qian Wanyu's sleeve, "Seventh sister, if you get bitten by the undead you'll turn into them too right? We should fish him out…?"
"Okay."
The undead were too ferocious, Qian Wanyu also had to look for an opening before using her heavenly thunder, accompanied by the water thunder whip to drive them back.
But apparently, these living dead had no sense of pain, they were smacked several times until their skin was burned but it did not affect them at all.
"Roaaaar"
Qian Wanyu guessed that using lightning infused into her whip was like hitting cotton for the undead since they felt no pain at all.
Dongfang Minghui was also frightened, the water lightning whip did not work so she immediately summoned Little Colour, "Little Colour, quickly drag that kid back."
Little Colour's vines split into countless strands and scurried out toward him pulling the kid's hands and feet, while other vines shoved the hands and feet of the undead.
The undead struggled to shuffle over but Little Colour's vines were too strong so they couldn't move.
"Yuck, yuck, what the fuck it stinks." Little Colour also couldn't stand the smell of the undead. Its vine branches swung at the fastest speed before swishing and shrinking back, "Quickly give me a fragrant pill or later get pig fairy grass to come over and stop finding excuses to run away."
"Not for now, go back to the space ring, later I'll talk to Seventh sister and give it to you."
The kid was pulled back by Little Colour and thrown on the ground, he seemed to still be in shock by the battle, he slowly stood up and there were visible wounds and scratches on his hands and feet which were very obvious.
Dongfang Minghui immediately remembered that when Seventh sister kicked him just now, she was scratched by the other party's nails.
"Seventh sister, you're hurt, let me check first."
Qian Wanyu blocked her, "Let's go out first, it's not convenient here."
Qian Wanyu whipped out the water thunder whip again to tie up the brat then carried him with one hand to drag him out while using the other to hold Dongfang Minghui's hand, as they exited the cave they could still hear the roaring of the undead from time to time.
It's all because of these kids putting them underground, if they were put elsewhere with these constant noises, they would've been discovered long ago.
As soon as the three of them came out of the hole and covered it again, Dongfang Minghui breathed out deeply for a few seconds, as if wanting to expel the stench she had just sucked into her body all at once.
Qian Wanyu nonchalantly threw the kid to the ground still tied with her water thunder whip, "Wait for the rest for awhile, they will probably come out soon."
As she expected, several people could not stand the rotten smell of the undead any longer, on top of that, the lack of air circulation under the ground, the smell emitted from the bones of many magical beasts and the excrement almost made them faint.
"Is it a place for people to live down there?" Situ Hao came out and vomited, almost vomiting out bile.
Bai Ruo looked disgusted as she escorted the remaining few brats with a large sword.
"Let's go back to the village."
Six people watched the four brats and found a room in the village at random, they put on some moonstones and the room soon lit up. Several people refurbished the house and also made three stools, and a table with a missing leg.
"Seventh sister, sit down first."
She had been thinking about the wound on Seventh sister's leg all the while and just saw that Seventh sister was walking like she wasn't affected but now that she finally found a place to rest, she was still uneasy. After all, that kid's fingers had who knows how many different diseases and other nasty things.
Qian Wanyu knew what she wanted to do and picked a stool that looked more secure to sit down.
"Huh, what's going on here? Is Miss Qian hurt?" Situ Hao finished throwing up and still felt something churning inside his stomach, but he could not throw up anymore, once he turned around he saw Dongfang Minghui carefully taking off the other's boots.
"Yes, scratched by that brat's sharp claws." Dongfang Minghui rolled up the other party's pants halfway, the blood wound from the previous nail scratches had dried up but those black things on them made her slightly uneasy.
"Seventh sister, I'll clean your wound bear with it." The so-called cleaning was her using some cotton cloth, stained with alcohol to scrub hard at Qian Wanyu's wound, scrubbing until the black dirty blood was wiped off. As a result, the wound began to bleed again, but this time the blood that came out was bright red.
Situ Hao looked at the side and frowned, "Ouch, I say you guys are taking a lot of time for this, why not let me use my light spiritual power to treat the Qian girl?"
Qian Wanyu raised her head and sternly refused, "I don't want to bother you with this small injury, let Ninth Sister do it. What's more, men and women shouldn't be so familiar with each other."
Situ Hao froze, then wondered why everyone had turned away, even Bai Rou sat outside the door, "Sorry, I just-"
He immediately turned his back and covered his face, he must have just thrown up a little bit and lost his compusre yes, that's it.
Dongfang Minghui looked at Seventh sister's face and pursed her lips, almost laughing out loud. She reckoned Seventh sister mostly said that to scare Situ Hao, she crushed the blood clotting pill and put it on her leg after that she took out the mixture of Little Colour and pig fairy grass' juice from her space ring and dabbed some on it with the cotton cloth before applying it to the wound. She was still very afraid of all the germs on that kid's fingers.
He has been feeding the undead and been in close contact for who knows how long, in case they accidentally get infected and then pass their infection to Seventh sister through the wound, it would be a big problem.
Had she known that the kid would be so ungrateful, she shouldn't have tried helping the brat.
"Seventh sister, let me check every six hours until your wound recovers."
Qian Wanyu watched as the other party seriously bandaged her leg, every time her Ninth Sister was dressing her wounds her expression was always solemn so she replied equally seriously, "Alright."
Dongfang Minghui put her pants down again and personally helped her put on her shoes.
"Where is that brat from just now?"
"I think they took him out."
Unknowingly, the two of them were the only ones left in the whole house, even Bai Rou had disappeared.
Dongfang Minghui stood up, probably from crouching for too long, her legs wobbled and she tried to grab something with her hand in mid-air.
Qian Wanyu took her hand and pulled her closer to her arms with a little force, asking with concern, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
After a moment's reprieve, when she opened her eyes again, Dongfang Minghui felt better, "Seventh sister, I need to check that brat just now, I suspect he was infected by the undead."
"Go."
If he had been scratched by the undead while fighting before, he would most likely be infected as well.
They just walked out the door to go looking for him when they saw Bai Rou rushing over. "Something has happened, you guys come quickly."
Dongfang Minghui's heart thumped, "What's wrong?"
"You will know when you go and see." Bai Ruo words could not explain clearly so she took them to the next room where the few brats were standing in a row, besides the little guy tied by the water thunder whip, he was still rolling on the ground even now.
"Ow – ah -" his forehead veins were popped up, although his face was still dirty his furious face could still be seen.
"Hold him down quickly."
Dongfang Minghui barked out and Mu Sheng, Situ Hao and Li Yunan immediately tied up his hands and feet as well until his whole body was not able to move causing him to wail even more.
"Not comfortable?"
Dongfang Minghui squatted down to check both of his wrists, there was a black mark at the wrist, probably missed during her check before because the brat was dirty and it could not be seen without looking closely. She then checked both of his ankles which also had hand and claw marks.
"Strange, there's no wound."
She used the juice of Little Colour and pig fairy grass to rub on the wrists and ankles, as she did so, the black stuff on his wrists and ankles washed away, Dongfang Minghui almost cried tears of joy, taking care of these feral kids was really not easy.
"What's wrong with him?" Bai Rou saw the other three brats with a worried face so her heart softened a bit and asked for them.
"It should be because he got infected by the undead."
Qian Wanyu answered from the side.
Dongfang Minghui nodded slightly as well. She also did not understand how the infections were transmitted but there were only a few ways of infection, airborne, blood-borne, saliva-borne, or wound-borne, of these, she preferred the latter, which was from wounds.
"Hey, look, the wounds on his wrists and ankles have disappeared."
Situ Hao was also curious about the way the undead were infected, just now if not for the fact that the place really stunk he wanted to take back an undead to experiment and see if light-based healing could bring them back to their senses.
He shouted, and immediately all the attention of the crowd turned on the hands and feet of that little kid, not just the wounds had disappeared without a trace, even the sanity of the kid seems to have returned since he stopped making trouble and struggling.
He looked straight up at the roof above him and no one knew what he was thinking about.
"Should I untie him?"
Mu Sheng hesitantly asked, having so many people guarding a few children, there was always a sense of shame of adults bullying children, Mu Sheng felt that this small child lying on the ground was quite harmless and felt some sympathy for their experience.
If he were in their shoes, he probably wouldn't be able to do what they did at that age, raising a whole village of undead and going out of his way to catch them in order to protect them. On top of that hunting much larger magical beasts, it was too hard.
"Nope."
Dongfang Minghui had suffered a lot from this little kid, the so-called fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me. In case he went out of control again or something else happened, it's better to just tie him down, "His limbs have been scratched by the undead before, in case there's anything wrong, we have to keep watching him."
Furthermore, she had just started to research the connection between the undead and the black mist, plus why Little Colour and pig fairy grass' combined liquid could somehow make them disappear…
"Minghui, something seems wrong, look at his wrist again!" Mu Sheng, who was always watching the kid suddenly shouted.