Digging up spiritual roots and seizing blood? You scumbags, wait and tremble.

Zhong Ran's brother and sister and Ah Sheng also hurriedly rode their horses to catch up, condensing a layer of spiritual energy on their bodies to protect themselves from getting wet.

Soon, a small mountain village appeared in Zhong Ran's spiritual consciousness.

There are houses built with stones and trees, with about twenty households.

I never thought that there would be a small village in such a desolate mountain wilderness.

Because of the rain, the horses slowed down and it took almost fifteen minutes to reach the distance of seven or eight miles.

Four horses rushed into the small village in the rainy night, but the roaring thunder did not alarm the people inside.

Mu Jinning walked forward and knocked on the door hard, but there was no response. He probed his spiritual sense inside and was instantly startled.

He pushed the wooden door open with all his strength, and it flew backwards and fell to the ground. He strode in, leading the horse.

Zhong Ran also used his spiritual sense to explore, and when he discovered the situation inside, he couldn't help but be shocked.

The horses were led under the eaves to shelter from the rain. Among the four people, except Asheng who had no spiritual energy to protect them, the clothes of Zhong Ran and the other two were not wet.

But Zhong Ran and Mu Jinning's expressions were not relaxed at all. They pushed open the door and walked in.

Right at the door, there was a dead body lying on the ground. There was still a faint smell of blood and a bit of rottenness in the room.

Because of the heavy rain, they didn't smell anything outside, but when they entered the house, the smell was really disgusting.

Although it was dark, it did not affect their observation.

The body was lying on the ground, with a black hole on the back where the heart should be. The heart inside had been dug out from behind.

Not only did the wound not form a blood clot, but it was slowly rotting. However, the flesh and blood inside was no longer blood red, but black.

Further inside, there were still several corpses, and on the table in the middle there was still uneaten food, which was already emitting a foul stench.

Judging from the food, these people had been dead for several days and maggots were growing on the food.

But strangely, there were no maggots on the corpse.

All of these corpses had their hearts dug out and died by someone, most likely an evil cultivator.

"I didn't expect that we would encounter an evil cultivator." Zhong Ran frowned and sent his spiritual consciousness to the next door house.

Everyone in the house was dead, not a single breath of life. All of them had their hearts dug out and died, even the children were not spared.

"Sister, are these the evil cultivators?" Zhong Yan's voice sounded faintly, and he was very curious about this scene.

Zhong Ran said in a serious tone, "Xiao Yan, these are the methods of evil cultivators. They use human lives as cultivation resources. That's why I have been trying to stop you from practicing like that."

He responded in a very soft voice: "Sister, I understand."

"Ran Ran, go next door and rest for a night, and then see tomorrow."

Mu Jinning's voice came. Several days have passed and it is impossible to track down the murderer now.

Zhong Ran turned around and walked outside. He did not return to the room, but rested under the eaves.

Looking up at the night sky filled with thunder and lightning, she suddenly wondered, if she rushed out now to cultivate the power of thunder and lightning, could she draw the thunder and lightning from the sky down to cultivate?

But this thought was fleeting.

I don't have any basic knowledge of thunder and lightning yet. If I rush out, it would not be cultivation, but death.

The power of thunder in the sky is not the same as the power of lightning in meteorites, and its destructive power is probably even stronger.

Even cultivators with thunder spirit bodies would not easily dare to draw thunder and lightning from the sky to practice.

The four of them sat in silence until dawn.

It was daybreak, but the rain did not stop and the sky was dark and gloomy.

Although it was dim, I could still see the corpses clearly.

"These bodies are rotting because a wisp of black mist remains in the wounds."

Mu Jinning explained: "If I'm not mistaken, this black mist should be demonic energy."

"This flesh and blood will slowly corrode and turn into demonic energy. Over time, the surrounding demonic energy will become much denser, and the nearby plants will slowly be devoured."

He shot out a wisp of flame and burned the body.

"These bodies must all be burned. Leaving them is not a good thing."

Zhong Ran said quietly, "The evil cultivator is not in the hidden world, but outside?"

Logically speaking, the spiritual energy in the hidden world should be richer and more suitable for cultivation, so all practitioners want to go there.

"Isn't it dangerous in the hidden world?"

The spiritual energy in the hidden world is rich, but there are also many powerful cultivators, and the status of evil cultivators is also difficult.

In the secular world, he dug out human hearts to devour them for cultivation. Even if he was discovered, the strong men in the secular world could not do anything to him.

"Let's burn these bodies first, and then we'll leave after the rain stops."

Mu Jinning released another flame to burn a corpse. Zhong Ran stood up and released his own fire, letting it burn the houses and the corpses inside.

Although it was still raining, her fire was not afraid of this ordinary rain.

After burning all the corpses and using the spiritual power storm, the air inside suddenly became fresh.

Although the air was fresh, among the four people, except for Ah Sheng who was heartless and only cared about eating, the other three were not in the mood to eat.

He stared blankly at the raindrops gradually becoming smaller, then ate something hastily, got on his horse and left.

"There is a county town ahead. Let's go in and take a look." Mu Jinning urged his horse to head towards another avenue.

I went into the city to change my mood and also to find out if the hidden world was in this direction.

They have been traveling for seven or eight days and should be very close to the hidden world.

There aren't many people in this small county town, and it's even a bit deserted, with only a few people walking on the streets like zombies.

Zhong Ran and Mu Jinning looked at each other. The situation here was obviously not right. Could it be that it had also been occupied by evil cultivators?

The four of them slowed down and walked towards the restaurant in front.

There were still a few customers in the restaurant, but whether they were the customers or the waiters and the owner, they all looked listless.

"Waiter, bring up anything edible."

"Here I am." The waiter became alert when he saw a stranger coming in. He responded and quickly went to the kitchen to ask someone to prepare the food.

After a while, a large portion of braised pork, a portion of braised eggplant, a portion of stir-fried vegetables, and a few bowls of white rice were served.

"Is this all the dishes?" Zhong Ran asked the waiter indifferently.

The waiter's face turned grim, and he said helplessly, "Guys, you can see that the situation in town is very bad right now. There are very few people here, so we dare not prepare too many dishes."

"What happened? Why did it become like this?"

When the waiter heard her ask, he looked around nervously. Seeing that no one was paying attention to them, he lowered his voice and spoke.

"No one knows what happened, but a lot of young girls have gone missing in the past month."

"Later, the bodies of those girls were discovered. Not only had their innocence been destroyed, but their hearts had also been dug out. It was horrific."

"So far, hundreds of girls have gone missing, so everyone is staying at home if possible."

Zhong Ran frowned: "You don't even dare to go out during the day?"