Xiaocang Mountain was located in the western suburbs of Tianmu City, near the villages below.
Due to its remote and desolate location, few people came here normally.
Except for a few small villages on the mountain, there were only a few bold, curious, and adventurous tourists.
At this very moment, in the quiet mountain forest to the west of Xiaocang Mountain, Su Mo and Xue Qiaoqiao were walking forward, step by step.
There were no obvious paths in the forest. Other than the tall trees were only the many small trees that grew as they pleased and spread their branches in all directions, forming a dazzling maze.
If it wasn't for the positioning function of the mobile phone he had, Su Mo would rather die than enter this place.
He even suspected that he might be trapped in this mountain before he could find the fox demons.
Even if Xue Qiaoqiao was beside him, it didn't seem to make much of a difference. She also didn't know the way. Rather, it wasn't just that she didn't know the way. She couldn't even tell north from south here.
Say he had a one-in-ten chance of being saved if he had gone on the adventure alone, if he brought Xue Qiaoqiao along, then even this last hope would be gone.
Fortunately, they did not come here for an adventure. Instead, they were looking for traces of those fox demons.
Since all the clues pointed to Xiaocang Mountain, there was no reason for Xu Liushuang not to bring his team over. However, even someone as experienced as Deacon Xu had also underestimated the size of Xiaocang Mountain.
At first, many people thought it was a small hill. In the end, when they arrived at the scene, they found that it was a f*cking huge mountain!
Even though it was unexpected, Xu Liushuang still gritted his teeth and arranged for people to go in and search.
Fortunately, they were all Transcendents, and their physical fitness far exceeded that of ordinary people. Moreover, all of them carried mobile phones that could locate their position.
This way, even if one had to travel alone, it would not be a problem at all.
Of course, that was only for those who were experienced.
Experienced and powerful professionals such as Old Master Zhou and Zhang Zhenyu traveled alone in the search areas.
Only people like Su Mo, who had only become a Transcendent not too long ago would have an experienced senior leading them.
The experienced senior leading Su Mo this time was Xue Qiaoqiao, but he kept feeling that Xu Liushuang had given him a burden instead.
"Oh my..." As he was thinking, Xue Qiaoqiao suddenly stepped into a pit hidden under fallen leaves.
Just as she was about to slide down, Su Mo quickly reached out and pulled her back, managing to pull her back from the edge of danger.
"Thank, thank you!" Xue Qiaoqiao's face turned pale as she looked at the mud-like pit below.
Although she would not die from falling, it was certain that she would be disheveled. If that happened, she would be a laughingstock when they returned and met up with everyone else.
How could she, Xue Qiaoqiao, ruin her reputation in such a place?
Su Mo looked at the location on his phone and then at his surroundings.
He roughly estimated the distance and said to Xue Qiaoqiao, "We should be able to reach Stone Village in another 1000 meters."
When Xue Qiaoqiao heard this, she said gloomily, "There are so many mountain villages around here. Why are you so adamant about Stone Village? "
"It's because I think the fox demons might be near Stone Village."
"How is that possible?" Xue Qiaoqiao used her hand as a small fan to fan herself, "According to the lost identity card, there's a high probability that they're in the Zhao Village on the mountainside. Even if they're not exactly in that village, they're probably in the nearby villages. They can't possibly grow wings and fly deep into the mountain. I think you're overthinking it."
"Maybe, but we still have to go and see the situation," Su Mo looked ahead, his gaze slightly solemn.
He did not decide to head to Stone Village on a whim. In fact, according to the seller, the old mountain ginseng that he had bought back then was from Stone Village.
In other words, the old ginseng that had been contaminated with the origin power might have grown near the Door.
Of course, he wasn't very sure about this.
Perhaps a spatial fluctuation had accidentally opened up a crack, causing the ginseng to be infected with origin power.
Perhaps it was because the wild ginseng had been accidentally infected with the origin power when it was being sold in the market.
Or could it be that the mountain ginseng had once been placed together with items from the origin world and was thus infected with the origin power?
...
All in all, there were many possibilities.
This was also why Su Mo had not told Xu Liushuang about the situation and instead decided to investigate it himself.
It would be best if they didn't find the fox demons.
It didn't matter if they did either. They could send a message through their mobile phones and wait for the others to come. Then, he could follow behind and loot lifespan points.
It was a perfect plan.
Even though Xue Qiaoqiao's addition to his team had caused a slight flaw in his plan, Su Mo was confident that his plan would still work.
After trudging forward for another few hundred meters, they could finally see the village buildings in the distance.
At this moment, his phone suddenly rang with a notification.
A message had arrived. Xu Wei had found some fox demons where he was and was dealing with them.
Xue Qiaoqiao raised her phone at Su Mo and said smugly, "See, didn't I tell you they were over there?"
Su Mo shrugged his shoulders and said, "Either way, Captain Xu didn't ask for reinforcements, so he should be able to handle it alone. Since we're here, we have to go and take a look."
Xue Qiaoqiao looked at the nearby Stone Village, which was hidden by the forest, and wore a ferocious expression, " Let's go! I can't have climbed this mountain for nothing today!"
The two of them walked forward, and soon, the entirety of Stone Village appeared in front of them.
It was a small village with at most twenty to thirty households.
Most of the houses in the village were square, built with countless stones.
The roof was also made of some thin stone pieces stacked on top of each other.
It had a kind of rough beauty.
However, when they entered the village, they realized that the entire village was silent. There was not a single person.
"Don't tell me they all went down the mountain to the market?" Walking from the entrance of the village to the depths, Xue Qiaoqiao looked at the empty houses and asked in confusion.
"It can't possibly be that everyone in the whole village went to the market together. They should've at least left some people behind to watch the houses."
Su Mo looked at the loquat trees in the village. A few of them had been picked clean, but a few others had loquats scattered densely under them.
In addition, there were clearly many traces of the village rearing poultry, yet he didn't even see a single fowl.
His heart sank slightly, and he had an extremely bad feeling.
At this moment, a shrill scream was heard from not far away.