When I Lay Flat, the Female Lead Panicked - Chapter 8

Chapter 8: An Family Village

For her first experience with sword flying, the feeling of a stable roller coaster ride throughout the entire process was quite novel.

This caused Luo Xiaoxiao, after overcoming her initial timidity, to cling to Wen Nanshu while boldly looking at the beautiful scenery from above.

The destination of Wen Nanshu’s mission was An Family Village.

Based on Luo Xiaoxiao’s estimation, if she had traveled by carriage, she would have arrived at the earliest by tomorrow morning. But with the sword flying experience, it was unexpectedly fast. They arrived around twilight.

To avoid causing a commotion among the villagers and affecting their mission by arriving as cultivators.

So Wen Nanshu and her team chose to land not far outside the village, at a stone monument carved with the words “An Family Village,” and walk in.

The distance from the monument to the village gate was about one kilometer. An Family Village was located in a relatively flat area between two valleys.

So, from a distance, the layout of the houses and fields was clearly visible.

As they got closer to the village gate, she looked at the houses huddled together in the distance, and the scattered, gradually abandoned farmlands outside the village.

Wen Nanshu’s clear, cold eyebrows flickered slightly. She faintly sensed something strange.

Something was wrong. It was twilight, a time nearing dinner, yet not a single chimney in An Family Village had smoke rising from it…

Sensing the seriousness of the problem, her brows furrowed slightly. She carefully recalled the mission information about An Family Village.

According to the records of the Heavenly Sword Sect, An Family Village was a relatively large village within the sect’s protected area. It was home to about a hundred households.

The village was built against a mountain and lived by the water. The natural scenery was pleasant. The villagers were hardworking, simple, and pragmatic.

The people here lived off the mountain, content and prosperous. They also had farming, animal husbandry, weaving, and other developments. They were self-sufficient, living a fulfilling life. It had once attracted many people to come here to live in seclusion or travel…

The An Family Village in the records was supposed to be like this.

But not long ago, Elder Muze’s gossip mirror had keenly captured the mysterious presence of an evil spirit in An Family Village!

To prevent the evil spirit from harming the villagers and bringing disaster to the human world. So after the Sect Master and the elders discussed, they specifically dispatched her team to resolve this matter. At the same time, it also served as a form of experience for them.

But… logically, for a typical evil spirit, sending any one of them would have been enough. But this time, the Sect Master dispatched four direct disciples at once.

It seemed that this mission was not as simple as just being “tricky.”

Twilight was approaching. The dim light slowly cast on the five young women approaching the silent village, giving them a layer of divine radiance.

They walked little by little towards the village entrance. Even Luo Xiaoxiao, who was new to the cultivation world from modern society, faintly sensed that there was something wrong with An Family Village.

This place… why was it so quiet?

It wasn’t even night yet, but not a single person had appeared in this village.

It was so empty and desolate that not even a single domestic animal could be seen or heard…

“It can’t be…”

Her back went cold. She subconsciously moved closer to Wen Nanshu’s side, her hand quietly grabbing the sleeve of her clothes.

Her bright, deer-like eyes showed a hint of fear. Luo Xiaoxiao wanted to cry but had no tears.

“Darn it! I didn’t expect the An Family Village arc to start so, so early? She was thinking of just looking at Wen Nanshu from a distance and running before the haunting started…”

In the story of Sword of Pride, after Wen Nanshu killed the Demon Lord, the next place she appeared was in An Family Village.

As for what exactly happened in An Family Village… Emm, she remembered that the horror level of the opening paragraph in the original text of Sword of Pride was off the charts.

Forgive her, it was late at night, and she didn’t dare to read it. She had planned to save it for the daytime when she wasn’t as scared, to re-read it.

So at that time, Luo Xiaoxiao had… temporarily skipped the An Family Village plot.

So now, she only knew that this place was haunted. As for what kind of ghost… she didn’t want to know at all.

She regretted it…

She shouldn’t have been greedy for the female lead’s beauty and been so infatuated as to follow her. She should have run away without stopping just now!

In her mind, she suddenly remembered the various comments under that chapter of An Family Village. People were shouting that they were scared, traumatized, and couldn’t sleep. Luo Xiaoxiao silently swallowed her saliva. She comforted herself in her heart.

“I’m already here. Don’t be afraid, don’t be afraid. Wen Nanshu, the female, the female lead is here, the female lead is here…”

While Luo Xiaoxiao was comforting herself that the female lead was powerful and would protect her. At the same time, as they took a step and completely entered the area of An Family Village.

Luo Xiaoxiao’s legs still went weak.

The author of Sword of Pride‘s powerful literary narrative skill was completely no match for what Luo Xiaoxiao witnessed firsthand…

The dilapidated and desolate streets looked like they hadn’t been cleaned in a long time. The bluestone floors were covered in thick layers of dust. Large and small spiderwebs were densely spread across the eaves and corners of the village.

The green plants were left uncared for and were withered and dead. The streets were filled with piles of dry, fallen leaves, mixed with some dead insect bodies.

Stepping on them made a crackling sound. It clearly echoed in the currently empty streets, where all the doors and windows were tightly shut. It felt deathly quiet.

It seemed that An Family Village had been holding many funerals recently. Almost every household’s door was covered with white cloth and talismans.

Lifeless paper effigies were scattered in the corners of the street. Old and new paper money was mixed with the withered yellow leaves, flying in the wind from time to time.

With every breath, a foul, turbid smell mixed with the strange scent of burnt incense and paper money lingered.

In addition, the sunlight from above was getting weaker, and the temperature difference in the mountains was obvious. The temperature here seemed to drop suddenly. It was cold and gloomy, making one feel a chill from the inside out.

The hand that was holding Wen Nanshu’s sleeve suddenly tightened. Since stepping into An Family Village, Luo Xiaoxiao’s face had gone completely white.

She thought miserably, “This, this atmosphere would be a disservice to this eerie scene if it wasn’t truly haunted.”

“…” Sensing the tightness of her sleeve, Wen Nanshu turned her head to look at the girl. She saw that she seemed to be enduring her fear.

Wen Nanshu slowly retracted the coldness and vigilance from her eyes. She naturally reached back and held the girl’s slender wrist. She moved closer to her and spoke to comfort her.

“Don’t be afraid. I haven’t felt the presence of any evil spirits yet. If you’re scared, just close your eyes. I’ll lead you.”

“Okay.” Without any hesitation, Luo Xiaoxiao obediently closed her eyes.

But before she closed her eyes, she accidentally caught a glimpse of a narrow, dark, and unlit alley on the side of the road.

That place didn’t seem to be a good place either. There were headless bird corpses scattered all over the ground…

Just one glance was enough to make her shiver. She quickly closed her eyes and didn’t dare to look again.

Luo Xiaoxiao closed her eyes so quickly that she missed a pair of eerie green vertical pupils hiding in the shadows, quietly watching their group.

And after Luo Xiaoxiao and her group left. Deep in the alley, a skinny black cat nimbly leaped from a low wall and landed on the ground.

It sat among the bird corpses and lazily lifted a cat paw. While leisurely licking its pad, its eyes were fixed on Luo Xiaoxiao’s back. The look in its eyes was unclear.

…

They walked all the way to the only small inn in the village.

Seeing that twilight was fading and night was about to fall. And after a round of inspection, the village, apart from being desolate, did not have any obvious abnormal movements.

Wen Nanshu decided to rest there for the night and conduct a more detailed investigation of An Family Village tomorrow.

She stepped into the village’s only half-open, not tightly closed, and externally dilapidated inn. She walked inside.

The innkeeper, who looked tired, sensed that a few women with extraordinary temperaments and uniform clothes had entered.

He just looked up at them indifferently. Then he lowered his eyelids, which were covered with dark marks, and said in a deep voice.

“Staying? It’s five hundred taels of silver for one night. If you want to stay, stay. If not, the door is there. No need to see you out.”

“We will stay. Please arrange it for us. This is the fee for these few days.”

She took out silver from her storage bag at her waist. Wen Nanshu’s tone was calm and her expression was peaceful. She didn’t have any other emotional waves because of the innkeeper’s perfunctory and indifferent attitude or the ridiculously high price.

“…” The lowered eyes were fixed on the money bag Wen Nanshu placed on the edge of the table. He didn’t expect that they still wouldn’t leave even after he had set the price so high.

The pale-faced innkeeper sighed helplessly. He didn’t say much. He just picked up Wen Nanshu’s money bag and casually mentioned.

“There have been a lot of unlucky things in the village recently. The wind is strong at night. Remember to close the doors and windows before you sleep. Leave as soon as it’s light out.”

“Thank you for arranging the rooms, innkeeper. However, I didn’t pay for just one night. We might have to trouble you again tomorrow night.”

“Hmph… as you wish.”

His eyelids twitched. He was too lazy to persuade them anymore. The innkeeper just lazily closed his eyes. He pointed a hand casually in the direction of the stairs, signaling for them to go up themselves.

“Just find an empty room upstairs and stay in it. If you want to wash up, get water yourself. If you want hot water, come down and boil it yourself.”

“Mmm.”

Her gaze was calmly fixed on the hunched, withered-looking old man in front of her.

Wen Nanshu vaguely understood something from his words, but seeing that he clearly didn’t want to say anything more, she didn’t force it. She just led her junior sisters and Luo Xiaoxiao upstairs.

…

“Master Senior Sister, that innkeeper, he…”

They had completely entered the second floor, and the innkeeper was no longer in sight. The questions that had been held in for a long time finally found an opportunity to be asked. Cangruo looked at Wen Nanshu with a conflicted expression and stopped short.

“Don’t worry. I have confirmed his aura. He is indeed a living person.”

Guessing what Cangruo was suspicious of, Wen Nanshu explained calmly.

“And when we came in, I noticed. The four corners of this shop are all covered with talismans to protect the house and ward off evil spirits. But judging by the technique of making the talismans, they are not very refined. They were probably not drawn by someone from a legitimate sect. It looks like they were made by some unranked rogue cultivator.”

Qiutong said her discovery as she walked. Ningyu also looked at Wen Nanshu and talked about her own point of confusion.

“I observed the innkeeper’s aura just now. It’s weak and shallow, a sign of sickness. But his body doesn’t seem to have suffered any substantial harm… This is very strange.”

“Mmm. An Family Village, from what we’ve seen so far, still has many mysteries that we need to solve. But tonight, we will stay put and rest here for the night. We will take action tomorrow.”

Her gaze fell on the obedient girl beside her. Perhaps she was worried that she wouldn’t be able to handle it. Wen Nanshu temporarily decided to slow down their actions and let her rest.

After all, she had gone through those things during the day. Wen Nanshu didn’t want her to continue to be scared right now.