Huangfu Yue and Xiao Hei turned to look at the village simultaneously. Huangfu Yue made a decisive command to Xiao Hei, "You stay outside the village and find the person who shot the arrows just now. I'll go back into the village to see what's happening."
"Yes," Xiao Hei immediately agreed.
Huangfu Yue turned and quickly returned to the village. She saw corpses lying everywhere. Some had arrows stuck in them, clearly having been shot to death earlier, while others had stab wounds, evidently killed by knives.
Those killed by knives were likely the ones who were killed when she and Xiao Hei left the village earlier.
Were the ones who used knives and the ones who used arrows allied?
She needed to find the knife-wielding culprit immediately.
Huangfu Yue searched around, only to find more and more corpses. Without exception, all of them had knife wounds.
Judging by the wounds, the killers must have been a few people, all of whom were highly skilled, striking with extreme speed and ruthlessness.
After searching for a while, Huangfu Yue found no one resembling the murderers. Instead, she discovered that all the villagers, men, women, and children, had been killed.
This village had been massacred!
Huangfu Yue frowned deeply. How could this happen! This village was too tragic!
She wondered how brutal the culprits were to annihilate the entire village.
Even more so, she wondered why they did it.
She also didn't know where they had gone or if they were hiding, as she couldn't find them anywhere.
Not a single living soul could be found in this village.
It was truly bizarre and strange…
Was that…
Huangfu Yue suddenly saw a group of people, but they were…
"Master, I've found the archer. It's dozens of men in black," Xiao Hei's voice suddenly transmitted into Huangfu Yue's mind.
"I've already seen them," Huangfu Yue replied. She had opened the communication link with Xiao Hei when she exited her spatial dimension earlier, so she could see what Xiao Hei saw and hear what Xiao Hei heard.
At this moment, through Xiao Hei's eyes, she saw a group of masked men in black, carrying bows and quivers, running rapidly. They were clearly the culprits who had shot and killed the madwoman and the villagers earlier.
"Do we really not need to enter the village to confirm if everyone in the village is truly dead?" one of the two leading black-clothed men suddenly asked the other.
"No need. The boss ordered us to fire a volley of arrows into the village. Any villagers not killed by us will be dealt with by those lurking inside the village," the other black-clothed man replied.
"We must leave this area quickly. Because the national treasury was stolen, the Emperor has ordered the blockade of a five-hundred-li radius around the capital. All available soldiers and constables have been dispatched to search everywhere within this radius. There is a detachment of imperial troops stationed just over a li away, responsible for searching this area.
Once the people lurking in the village finish dealing with all the villagers, they will set the village ablaze. The raging fire will be seen by the imperial troops stationed over a li away, and they will rush over. We need to evacuate this area before they arrive."
Hearing this, Huangfu Yue narrowed her eyes. Based on his words, the knife-wielding culprits had not yet left the village; they were still inside because they hadn't set the village on fire.
But it was strange, why couldn't she find those knife-wielding culprits?
Were they hidden in some secret place?
"Xiao Hei, you keep following those archers. Make sure not to lose them. I'll stay in the village and find their accomplices who are lurking inside." Huangfu Yue instructed.
"Yes," Xiao Hei accepted the order and continued to follow the men in black from high above.
Huangfu Yue, remaining in the village, searched everywhere, checking every house, even the villagers' stables and warehouses. However, she still couldn't find the people she was looking for, which made her extremely puzzled.
Did these people have the ability to become invisible? How could she not find them anywhere?
Suddenly, she heard the sound of fire. Her eyes flashed. The other party had set a fire!
She hurried to find the source of the fire, hoping to find the arsonist. When she reached the burning area, she saw a large, furry black shadow from afar.
As she tried to get closer, the shadow vanished in a blink of an eye.
Huangfu Yue was slightly stunned and frowned. How did that shadow disappear so quickly? Was it the one who set the fire?
Although she hadn't seen the shadow's appearance clearly, it was furry and likely not human.
An animal setting a fire? An animal killing people?
This sounded rather fantastical!
However, considering she herself could travel through dimensions, possessed earth elemental abilities, and had a spatial dimension, it was already quite fantastical.
And Xiao Hei too!
With the existence of a spirit like Xiao Hei, nothing was impossible…
Wait. Xiao Hei! A spirit!
She thought of it. Could that furry, animal-like creature be a spirit?
If the other party was a spirit, it would make sense, and it would explain why it was so strange and eerie, and why she couldn't find it anywhere, as if it were invisible.
If the other party could indeed become invisible, it should be a spirit of a higher level than Xiao Hei, because Xiao Hei couldn't become invisible.
But if the other party was a spirit, new questions arose. If it was a spirit, why would it kill these villagers?
Spirits killing people, according to novels and TV shows, is usually for consumption. But the other party clearly wasn't. The villagers' corpses were intact; there were no signs of them being eaten.
Since it was allied with those men in black and mingled with humans, could it be like Xiao Hei? Raised by humans, obeying human commands?
The more she thought about it, the more this possibility seemed likely.
But the other party and Xiao Hei definitely did not have the same master.
She recalled Xiao Hei telling her before that among the carrier pigeons and crows raised by its former master, only it had become a spirit. And Xiao Hei had never mentioned its former master raising any large animals. Xiao Hei said its master only raised carrier pigeons, crows, and dogs.
Wait, she suddenly remembered something. Looking at the knife wounds on the villagers killed by knives, they were not killed by a single person but at least by two or more.
This meant that besides the large black shadow, there were other people. Where were they?
Huangfu Yue wanted to search again, but she had already turned the entire village upside down, searching every possible spot. Since she couldn't find them then, she wouldn't be able to find them now.
She had no choice but to give up.
Watching the fire grow larger and larger, threatening to engulf the entire village, a trace of hesitation flickered in Huangfu Yue's eyes.
Should she put out the fire?
If the fire wasn't extinguished, this village and these corpses would all burn, their evidence destroyed. However, with such a large fire, it was difficult for her to extinguish it alone.
Even if she had ten hands and could carry ten buckets of water to douse the flames, she couldn't put out such a massive fire.
No, she didn't need to carry water to fight the fire; she could use earth to fight it.
She possessed earth elemental abilities and could manipulate earth freely. She could use earth to suppress the fire.
Although earth wasn't rain, as long as she unleashed enough earth, she could still extinguish the fire.
She was so clever to come up with such a brilliant idea!
Huangfu Yue immediately manipulated her earth elemental abilities and began to unleash an earth rain. Each "earth rain" was as large as a hailstone, covering the entire village and falling ferociously…