novelraw Chapter 214: The Silent Village
Chapter 214: The Silent Village
Yan Xilou's words quickly settled the turmoil within the caravan, a turmoil born of superstitious fear and indecision.
He did not force others to accept his viewpoint;
he merely placed a cruel and realistic choice before each person.
Should they choose to believe in that baseless legend passed down by their ancestors, and then painfully turn into desiccated corpses in this desert due to lack of water?
Or should they choose to muster the courage to face the truth of the legend, and fight for that slim chance of survival for themselves and everyone else?
The answer was self-evident.
Even the one-eyed Hassan, who had reacted most violently earlier and was terrified of the "Devil's Salt Marsh," after a long silence and internal struggle, wiped his cracked face with his hand and spoke to his employers, Lin and Ethan, an ancient Bedouin proverb that represented compromise.
"May Allah forgive us, these hungry souls about to intrude upon the devil's dining table."
After brief discussion, the team ultimately made a rational yet dangerous decision: to enter that unknown "Ghost Oasis." However, they did not let the suspicious Yan Xilou go alone.
"As for the choice of scout."
Ethan was the first to step forward, drawing the twin guns from his waist."I'll go."
His reason was both simple and sufficient.
"I'm the fastest and have the best marksmanship. If we encounter a sudden situation, I can provide immediate suppressive fire or withdraw quickly."
"No, going alone is too dangerous." William immediately vetoed Ethan's proposal. "I have to go with you. My 'eyes' can see things none of you can."
As he spoke, William patted his Grotesque Armament.
This was also a reason that could not be refused.
"Well then, since the two most professional 'soldiers' have already decided." Yan Xilou naturally inserted himself into the team. "I presume you must also need a guide who can identify local plants and water sources, and who can, if necessary, engage in friendly communication with any locals who might appear?"
Yan Xilou said this, elegantly performing a standard scholar's bow to everyone.
Just as the team was about to reach a consensus on the composition of the "three-person reconnaissance team,"
a voice that had been silent for a long time spoke up.
"I'm going too." It was Lin Jie.
"Why?" Ethan was the first to question. "Lin, your abilities are more suited for intelligence analysis in the rear. You should stay in the safest place!"
"No."
Lin Jie shook his head. He offered no extra explanation for his decision.
But his eyes conveyed one message: he would not let Yan Xilou, this potential variable, leave his sight for a single second.
Half an hour later, the four scouts quietly arrived at the edge of the "Ghost Oasis."
The closer they got, the stronger the ominous premonition grew in Lin Jie's heart.
This oasis was far too quiet.
The palm trees and tamarisk bushes growing at the oasis's edge looked full of vitality.
Yet, no birds or insects could be seen resting on their leaves, and there wasn't even a single spiderweb.
This lush, verdant green seemed to be a "no-fly zone" of fatal threat for small flying creatures.
When they turned their gaze to the lake at the oasis's center, the ominous feeling intensified further.
That lake of life now presented a turbid, milky white, like a mixture of milk and lime.
The water's surface was like congealed grease, without a single ripple.
The air was thick with a strong alkaline odor tinged with a chemical scent.
This was a deathly salt marsh, "pickled through" by an unknown force!
The footsteps of the four men became cautious in unison.
Using the cover of sand dunes and vegetation, they crept toward the abandoned Bedouin village deep within the oasis.
It was a village of considerable size, composed of dozens of simple, locally-styled houses built from sun-dried mud bricks and palm fronds.
However, when they carefully stepped into the village's first street, the sight before them was so bizarre that it sent a chill down the spines of all the experienced hunters, including William.
The village was not empty.
On the contrary, it was "crowded."
At the village entrance, an adult camel knelt in a strange posture.
Its front half still maintained the posture of trying to rise, its head held high as if letting out a silent lament to the sky.
And beside it stood a man.
A man wearing traditional Bedouin robes, holding the camel's reins in his hand.
His face was frozen in a vivid expression of shock and disbelief.
If not for the thick layer of white salt crust covering their bodies,
they would look alive!
It appeared as if the village and all life within it had been frozen at their final moments by a highly skilled yet macabre sculptor, using salt as the material.
The entire village was a vast, silent, and deathly "sculpture exhibition" of terror.
"My God..." Even Ethan, accustomed to bloody and horrific scenes, couldn't help but utter a low whisper of shock upon seeing this surreal, bizarre sight before him.
Yan Xilou, however, calmly walked forward and tapped the body of the camel that had turned into a "salt sculpture" with a silk-gloved finger.
*Thunk! Thunk!*
The "salt sculpture" emitted a clear, hard sound like tapping on rock.
"Interesting..." The corner of Yan Xilou's mouth lifted. "An unknown phenomenon capable of instantly extracting all moisture from a living being and causing external crystallization in the form of salt?"
From behind, William raised his Grotesque Armament, [Zulu's Gaze].
When he looked through the lens at the lifeless "salt sculptures" before him, the muscles on his face twitched.
"A massacre happened here."
In his vision, those white salt sculptures did not exist.
What appeared were clusters of emotional echoes, constructed from negative emotions like pain, fear, and despair, resembling burning black flames.
William could see that within the man's emotional echo, his final moments before death were constantly replaying.
He saw the man look up at the sky in terror, and then a viscous white slime descended from the sky, covering his entire body.
He could hear the agonized scream that erupted from the depths of the man's brain the instant he was covered by the slime, a scream that never had time to be uttered.
That feeling... was the pain of having all moisture inside one's body instantly sucked dry.
"Watch the sky."
William issued a warning to his teammates beside him in his concise language.
The four men hesitated no longer and began searching this deathly "Sculpture Village" in a standard combat formation.
They discovered more horrifying "exhibits" throughout the village.
At the doorway of a mud-brick house, they found a young mother breastfeeding her child.
The expression on her face was frozen in a gentle smile.
And the hungry infant in her arms, its tiny mouth open, was still waiting for its mother's milk.
Mother and child had together become a "Madonna and Child" statue imbued with tragedy and irony.
In a small, open-air blacksmith's shop, they found a bare-chested blacksmith who had just raised his hammer high, preparing to strike a piece of red-hot iron.
Even in an adobe mosque used for prayer, they found dozens of villagers piously kneeling and praying in the direction of the holy city of Mecca.
Everyone maintained their posture from the final moment before death. A "Divine Punishment" had sealed them, along with their faith and piety, within this silent city of amber.
And as they ventured deeper, William's already grave expression grew increasingly grim.
Because he saw that although the villagers' emotional echoes carried pain and fear, they lacked one crucial element.
That was resentment.
These villagers did not seem to have been killed.
They seemed more like harvested crops, and stored food.