Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!-Chapter 847 - 846: Adventure Journey in the Main World (IV)

After telling stories to the children, Fina reappeared exhausted in front of Fang Zheng.

"I’m sorry, Mr. Fang Zheng, I don’t know what happened either..."

At this moment, Fina was also weary and didn’t know what to say. However, Fang Zheng already knew from the "Ratziel" that Fina wasn’t controlled, nor under an illusion, and definitely not dreaming, so he wasn’t too hard on her. He understood why Fina felt this way; after all, human nature is common, and often people’s reactions are based on their perception of their surroundings. Fina might have doubted earlier if this was a cultist trap or something, but after chatting with the children, her thoughts began to waver.

"Don’t worry, Lady Fina."

Fang Zheng reached out, patted Fina’s shoulder, and signaled her to pull herself together.

"Indeed, there’s something strange here, maybe we should expand the search area... By the way, you mentioned you saw the cultists earlier?"

"Yes!"

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s inquiry, Fina nodded vigorously, and her expression brightened again.

"Please follow me, Mr. Fang Zheng, I remember very clearly the cultist’s lair is on the mountain opposite!"

Thus, under Fina’s lead, Fang Zheng and his group set off again, leaving from the other side of the village, following Fina up the mountain path, and then into the dense forest, and then...

"What’s wrong, Lady Fina?"

"It’s not here..."

Fina looked at the forest ahead in surprise, filled with disbelief.

"When did this forest appear? I clearly remember there was a slope here, and below was a river, surrounded by bushes... I nearly tore my clothes here..."

However, the scene before them was completely different from Fina’s description, large dense forests covered the mountains, with no sign of a river. There were bushes, but clearly, they weren’t what Fina described.

"Could it be that you took the wrong path, Fina?"

"Impossible!"

Faced with Walnut’s curious inquiry, Fina shook her head vigorously.

"I even specifically observed the direction. Although I didn’t leave markers to avoid being discovered by the cultists, I’m sure this is the correct direction..."

As she continued speaking, Fina’s voice grew smaller... Apparently, with all these failures, Fina began to doubt herself.

"Alright, don’t overthink it."

Fang Zheng tried using his prophecy spell to find some clues, but this area was indeed unusually weird, Fang Zheng’s prophecy spell was completely ineffective, and he could only sense some chaotic fragments. And "Ratziel" started frantically displaying all sorts of records, as if infected with a virus...

"Let’s return to the village first and then plan from there."

At this point, Fina started doubting herself, seeing her like this, Fang Zheng couldn’t say much more. Fina seemed completely bewildered by the chaotic situation, and upon hearing Fang Zheng’s suggestion, she numbly nodded her head, leading the group back along the original path towards the village.

The group went back and forth several times, and by the time they descended the mountain again, it was already dark. Standing on the hillside looking down, they could even see the flickering lights in the village. At this time, Fina was despondent, walking with her head down without saying much. Fang Zheng and Walnut wanted to comfort her but didn’t know what to say, especially since Fina had been adamantly saying that something was going wrong here, but now it seemed... To be honest, if "Ratziel" wasn’t so reliable, Fang Zheng would have suspected Fina was just confused.

"Hoo..."

Suddenly, a gust of wind mixed with dust blew towards them, everyone instinctively turned their heads to avoid it, even Fang Zheng squinted his eyes.

However, when Fang Zheng opened his eyes again to look ahead, he suddenly realized something was wrong... Then he looked carefully, and was shocked to find that the village below, which had lights scattered earlier, was now completely pitch black!

"Fang Zheng, look below!"

Walnut exclaimed, pointing toward the foot of the hill, clearly having spotted the issue too.

"Kurumi, do you know what’s happened?"

Fang Zheng turned to Kurumi, and Kurumi shook her head.

"I just lowered my head to dodge the wind, and when I looked back, it was like this..."

What’s happening?

Fang Zheng furrowed his brow, staring carefully at the pitch-black village below. If earlier the village gave Fang Zheng a sense of peace and tranquility, now he could feel the evil and death lurking in that darkness... In just a blink of an eye, it seemed everything had changed?

"Lady Fina, do you feel anything? Lady Fina?"

"Eh?" 𝒻𝘳𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝘯𝘰𝑣ℯ𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝘮

Hearing Fang Zheng’s call, Fina seemed to snap out of her daze, looking up at Fang Zheng in surprise.

"What’s wrong, Mr. Fang Zheng?"

.........

So, you’ve been spacing out all the way.

Seeing Fina’s cute blank look, Fang Zheng rolled his eyes helplessly, then pointed ahead with his hand. As Fina followed Fang Zheng’s gesture, she too was shocked.

"What... is happening?"

"I don’t know... it was fine just now, and then suddenly it changed..."

Saying that, Fang Zheng reached out, gripping the black giant sword on his back.

"Everyone, be careful, something seems quite wrong..."

In fact, not quite wrong, very wrong.

When Fang Zheng and the others reached the village entrance from the mountain path, they were surprised to find the village before them completely different from before. The entire village was shrouded in deathly silence, with darkness all around, only the moonlight shining down barely revealing the surroundings. Unlike the previous peaceful village, the present village looked as if it had suffered a calamity, with many houses already collapsed, and one could smell a strong scent of blood and a stench of burnt decay.

Now everyone was tense, Fang Zheng carried the giant sword at the forefront, Walnut took her shovel, while Kurumi also silently summoned her usual firearm, the three forming a guard around Fina as they slowly ventured into the village.

"......"

The village was so silent that even the wind couldn’t be heard, only the sound of their footsteps echoed within. Fang Zheng narrowed his eyes, sweeping his gaze around, then suddenly raised his giant sword and thrust it into the ground!

"Aargh----!!"

With a scream, the ground suddenly opened up, and a skinny creature crawled out, struggling madly and flailing its arms, trying to tear at the enemies before it. Yet in the next instant, accompanied by searing red flames, the creature pierced by the giant sword was burned to ash.

"What is this?"

Watching the thin creature, Walnut widened her eyes in surprise, while Fang Zheng swung the giant sword fiercely.

"Ghouls, be careful, we’re surrounded!"

At the same time, as if to validate Fang Zheng’s words, figures began to emerge from all directions, skinny, with eyes glowing red. They emitted a fearsome wailing, and without warning, these figures accelerated, lunging at Fang Zheng and the others!