Stepping on the demon door, the witch becomes the strongest.

Chapter 557: Deserted Village and Ancient Tombs
For top-tier cultivators, if they can quickly enter the Huafu stage, they will be able to crush those enemies who have not advanced in level in a short period of time, which is an indispensable advantage.

Of course, if we look at it from a long-term perspective, the talents of the top monks will not be too bad. Even Chen Lingyun, the "top monk", is at an upper-middle level among the monks in the team, so sooner or later everyone will reach the level cap and then level with each other - provided that you can live to that time.

The foreign supernatural world has always been a place where the strong prey on the weak and competition is disorderly, so the top people basically work hard to improve their levels, even if it means overdrawing their future for quick success. After all, only by being alive can there be a future.

In order to cope with international pressure, the country also needs to have a group of Huafu-level monks to support it as soon as possible, and these people can only be top-tier team monks - ordinary team monks not only have a slower cultivation speed, some people have not even reached the last level cap, and their starting point is much later than the top-tier monks. How can they compete with the top international monks?
In the arms race, backwardness is the original sin, and there is no reason to explain it.

Therefore, Li Weiguo called early in the morning and said that Yang Linhui from the Longxiong team was also making great progress. When would Su Yunjin from your team evolve to the palace level?

Yan Yu was also speechless. He explained that Yun Jin had been practicing very hard, but some things depended on talent. We will strive to be the best, strive for excellence, and continue to work hard to create brilliance...

Li Weiguo said, "Don't speak these official words to me. I am just urging you, not forcing you. If you really encounter a foreign extraordinary person at the Huafu level, just let Liu Longtao and Xie Ruoxi take over. I asked you to come here this time because the Annan Army found us and hoped that the Zhenhai Team would go over to help."

The content of the help was naturally the "mysterious disappeared village" mentioned by Li Minghu last time. It was said that it caused a small-scale heated discussion in the media. Fortunately, the military government discovered and suppressed it in time, otherwise it would definitely cause panic.

If it was due to a mysterious place, that would be fine. But I was worried that some demonic creature might be causing trouble and then go to a nearby town to commit crimes, which would make the situation very serious.

Since it was about defending the country, there was certainly no reason to refuse, so Yan Yu readily agreed.

Let’s go find the Valkyrie... Oh no, let’s go guard the land and protect the people’s health!
Yan Yu told the girls about the situation, and they all agreed that they had no objection. Only Lin Ning was still immersed in the embarrassment of having her underwear seen by the captain in the morning, and she didn't want to pay attention to him.

Everyone then set off on their swords and flew towards the southwest. They arrived at their destination at night and reunited with the Qing'an team.

Li Minghu seemed to have lost a lot of weight, and her sickly beauty aura was becoming more and more serious. The men hadn't changed much from before. Yan Yu also saw Xu Jin, a girl wearing glasses and pigtails, with a serious expression... It was a strange feeling of déjà vu. Could it be that I had dealt with this person in a past life?

"Tell me, what's going on?" Yan Yu urged. "Solve your problems quickly. We have to go back and continue our cultivation to reach new realms."

"I've told you about the situation before, and there haven't been any new developments recently," Li Zhaojiang complained. "Entire villagers have disappeared for unknown reasons, and we can't find any leads. Now their families are coming to the scene every day to beg for mercy. The military officials are getting fed up, so much so that we have to come here every few days."

"Comrade Xiao Li, this is your fault," Yan Yu said. "You just missed a few days of rest, but they have lost their loved ones and have no news at all. You should understand a little bit."

"I understand," Li Zhaojiang said defensively. "Didn't I beg you to come and help me?"

The brother-in-law would feel impatient about this, and Yan Yu could actually understand it. He simply felt that top cultivators should use their strength to fight and should not waste time on such deciphering and solving cases.

However, if this kind of thinking continues to develop, it will easily lead to the monks being completely disconnected from mortals in terms of group identity, and even evolve into "I only care about practicing and becoming stronger, and what do mortal affairs have to do with me."

In his previous life, Li Zhaojiang's brazen rebellion was certainly fueled by the sacrifice of his family, but it was also driven by his own arrogant belief that "monks are superior to others." For Li Minghu's sake, Yan Yu decided to give him some advice.

"Think about it, if your sister suddenly disappeared, what would you do?" Yan Yu used empathy. "You might be even more anxious than these family members."

"I'll grab a butcher knife and come find you, you pervert, right away." Li Zhaojiang replied.

"I'm drunk and can't continue talking to you. You're such a speechless, crazy sister-obsessed person." Yan Yu waved his hand and said, "I haven't had dinner yet. Bring me a bowl of barbecued pork rice to satisfy your hunger. I want your sister to cook it herself."

"I don't have the barbecued pork rice made by my sister, but would you like to eat the nine-turn large intestine I made?" Li Zhaojiang said with a sneer.

"Thank you for the invitation. I can't eat shit, so you can keep it for yourself."

Seeing that the two were talking more and more outrageously, Xu Jin tried to persuade them:
"Okay, okay, what's the point of arguing here? Let's solve the problem quickly."

"That's what I'm saying." Lin Ning also complained, "Since the missing person's family is urging you to act quickly!"

Yan Yu looked at the two of them in surprise, and finally understood where Xu Jin's sense of déjà vu came from - wasn't it just an ordinary-looking version of Lin Ning!
"Lingyun has already sent out her ghost servants to conduct a comprehensive search," Li Minghu suggested. "Don't worry, you've come a long way, eat something first."

The girls from the Zhenhai team all said they weren't hungry. Ultimately, they ate just to maintain their normal pace of life, not because their bodies truly needed food.

"Okay." Li Minghu looked at Yan Yu, "I'll make you some barbecued pork rice."

"No! Sister!" Li Zhaojiang was horrified. "Are you really going to do it?"

"They came here specifically to help us." Li Minghu taught his brother, "Take good care of them."

"See? Your sister's the best!" Yan Yuxi said happily. "Comrade Li, learn from her!" Li Minghu quickly brought the barbecued pork rice. It was difficult to cook in the wilderness, and for the sake of efficiency, the rice, vegetables, and barbecued pork were all prepared with self-heating military rations. They could be heated and eaten right out of the bag, which was very convenient.

Yan Yu picked up the chopsticks and laughed at the jealous Li Zhaojiang, looking so beautiful.

Just after taking a bite of barbecued pork, I heard Lin Ning suddenly say:
"I'm a little hungry too. Captain, would you mind sharing some with me?"

"Me too." Su Yunjin said with a smile, "There just happened to be five slices of barbecued pork in the bowl."

"Then just eat a little reluctantly." Zhao Yuanzhen said reservedly.

The girls rushed forward with chopsticks and spoons in hand and quickly finished all the barbecued pork rice.

Yan Yu:………………

"Hahahaha!" Li Zhaojiang was amused. "How are you now, Lao Yan? Is the meal my sister cooked delicious? Sorry, I didn't notice if you had a bite of rice..."

"Haha." Yan Yu sent a voice message to Li Zhaojiang, "I didn't enjoy it this time. I'll ask your sister to make it for me next time. There will be plenty of opportunities."

Li Zhaojiang was about to retort when he suddenly saw Chen Lingyun walk in.

"Found it?" Yan Yu asked.

"Found it," Chen Lingyun replied, "It's on the hill next door."

Although it is on the "next hill", it actually takes at least 20 minutes to walk there, and it is in the middle of nowhere, so it is indeed difficult to find.

Everyone followed Chen Lingyun's footsteps and came to the halfway point of the mountain, where they saw a dozen or so tombs scattered here and there - they were probably the burial places of the elders and ancestors of the village.

"Is there any problem?" Yan Yu scanned all the graves with his spiritual sense and asked for confirmation.

"The spiritual sense scan showed nothing unusual, right?" Chen Lingyun said with a smile, pointing to a tomb in front of her. "But my five ghosts told me that there's something wrong with this tomb."

Yan Yu squinted his eyes and looked. Judging from the distribution of all the graves, this grave was on a higher ground than the others and was also relatively far apart from each other, giving it a bit of a "lonely grave in the wild".

There were words engraved on the tombstone, but they were no longer legible due to weathering and wear. In front of the tomb stood an incense burner with a burnt incense stick in it.

"They must have no descendants," Li Zhaojiang analyzed. "If there were still descendants, they would have replaced this tombstone during the Qingming Festival. The inscription is completely blurred, which means it's been neglected for a long time."

"What about the incense in the incense burner?" Su Yunjin asked curiously.

"Maybe someone visited the grave and felt sorry for the owner, so they lit a stick for him." Li Minghu also said, "If you really want to burn incense to your ancestors, you won't light only one stick."

In the traditional culture of the Lu State, incense is an offering to ancestors, and usually starts with three sticks... This single stick of incense is indeed very abnormal.

"So," Yan Yu quickly guessed, "someone lit some incense and triggered a secret realm, which led to the disappearance of the entire village?"

"Just try it and you'll know." Chen Lingyun snapped his fingers, and a ghost transformed into a human form. He found an unburned incense stick from the grave below, pulled it out, and inserted it into the incense burner. "Light it up."

Jiang Hong took out a lighter, stepped forward and lit the incense.

It was night and there was no wind in the mountains, but the incense smoke rose straight up an inch and suddenly swayed strangely, as if there were invisible people around blowing air at it.

After a while, I saw endless fog emerging from the distant mountains, faintly visible under the moonlight, rushing madly towards the hillside here!

"Everyone, stand together!" Yan Yu quickly ordered, "Notify the monks in the nearby military mansions and have them evacuate as soon as possible!"

　Author: Whose line is this time? Guess? Li Zhaojiang: It’s definitely not my sister. Author: Guess again.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)