The Labyrinth of the Monsters

Qing Ling frowned, "What do you want to say?"

"Just literally, this Ancient Village is not the same Ancient Village we visited before." Gao Yang stretched his body, enjoying the sunshine and gentle breeze. The village appeared peaceful and serene, giving off an unreal feeling.

"Are there two Ancient Villages?" Qing Ling was a bit confused.@@novelbin@@

"You can use your imagination," Gao Yang, as someone who had experienced time travel, had bolder ideas. "For example, parallel worlds, time reversal to 30 years ago in the Ancient Village, and so on."

Qing Ling shook her head, "Your mind is indeed abnormal."

"Gao Yang!"

A familiar voice that made people feel distressed appeared. Gao Yang turned around and saw Wang Zikai running towards him through the small muddy path between the pond and the vegetable field, followed by Officer Huang and Chubby Jun.

Wang Zikai hugged Gao Yang's shoulder, "I knew you wouldn't easily give up!"

"Where did you guys go?" Gao Yang asked.

"We got lost in the small forest," Officer Huang replied, looking around and quickly noticing the stone tablet at the entrance of the village. He frowned, "Things have become complicated."

Gao Yang briefly explained his thoughts to Officer Huang, who listened attentively. After a moment of contemplation, Officer Huang made a decision, "Wang Zikai, Chubby Jun, you two take Qing Ling and try another direction. Gao Yang, come with me to the small forest. I'll show you something."

"Okay." Gao Yang didn't know what Officer Huang had up his sleeve, but he followed him.

Soon, Officer Huang and Gao Yang arrived at the small forest. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, creating scattered patches of light that appeared and disappeared. There was supposed to be a breeze in the forest, but halfway through, the wind stopped.

Officer Huang stopped walking. "We're here."

Gao Yang looked ahead and realized that he had a strange feeling.

The air around him became heavy, and gravity beneath his feet became peculiar. He continued walking forward, unable to believe his eyes. No matter how he walked, the exit of the forest, which he should have reached in 10 seconds, always maintained a distance of about twenty meters, like a "horizon." No matter how close you got, you could never reach it.

It was clearly broad daylight, but Gao Yang felt a chill, and his hair stood on end. He took a deep breath and quickened his pace, running for a long time.

It was useless!

He was still about twenty meters away from the exit of the small forest. Gao Yang turned around, and Officer Huang was still standing behind him, as if he had been following him all along.

"You..."

"I swear, I didn't take a single step." Officer Huang said.

"Then, in your opinion, did I move?" Gao Yang asked.

"You did move... but, how should I put it?" Officer Huang pursed his lips and tried to explain with professional terms, "You know about perspective, right? It's something artists and photographers use."

Gao Yang nodded.

"In my perspective, the relationship between you and the scenery ahead is distorted. You're clearly moving forward, but in a blink of an eye, it seems like you haven't moved at all..."

Gao Yang walked back and easily returned to Officer Huang's side. He looked puzzled, "Why is it like this?"

"I don't know." Officer Huang said, "If it weren't for Chubby Jun making a fuss about leaving, we wouldn't have discovered this 'magic barrier'."

A few minutes later, Officer Huang and Gao Yang returned to the entrance of Ancient Village. Soon, Wang Zikai came back from the west side of the village with Chubby Jun and Qing Ling.

"How's the situation?" Officer Huang asked.

"We can't leave. Damn, this is unbelievable!" Wang Zikai looked excited, showing no signs of nervousness or fear.

"There's a river outside the village, and no matter which way we go, we can't cross it." Chubby Jun looked dejected, his face ashen. "Officer Huang, I'm afraid we've hit a dead end."

As a skeptic, Officer Huang didn't express his opinion.

"I want to leave." Qing Ling had no interest in things she couldn't understand or control.

"How do we leave? We can't get out of this dead end. We're doomed..." Chubby Jun became increasingly pessimistic. "I told you we should go back, but no one listened..."

"Coward." Wang Zikai coldly snorted, "No matter what it is, gods can't stop gods, and Buddhas can't stop Buddhas!"

"It's okay," Gao Yang comforted, "As long as it's a space, there must be an exit. The exit is the door. Find the key, and we can open it."

"That's right." Officer Huang agreed with Gao Yang and encouraged, "Don't panic, everyone. Maybe this is a test from the Zodiac organization."

Gao Yang didn't think the Zodiac organization would go to such lengths to create a place like this to test them, but he didn't say anything.

"So... what do we do now?" Chubby Jun was very uneasy.

"Since we're here, let's accept it." Gao Yang looked up towards the ancestral hall on the hilltop, "Let's go to the funeral."

"Let's go!" Wang Zikai was the first to agree.

Qing Ling and Officer Huang had no objections. Chubby Jun hesitated for a moment before nodding.The group made some preparations and walked up the village road, quickly arriving at the large tent outside the Ancestral Hall where the funeral was being held.

Outside the tent, a table was set up with two men sitting behind it. One was a thin young man dressed like a Literary Youth. He sat at the back of the table, wearing an old-fashioned pair of black-rimmed glasses and a white shirt from the 80s. A white flower was pinned to his chest, and he held a brush in his hand, writing names in a book of condolences.

"Gu Guilun, five. Gu Xianfang, ten. Gu Mingxue, six." Sitting next to the Literary Youth was an old man with silver hair and half of his face covered in vitiligo. As he unwrapped the white envelopes, he read out the names.

The old man looked up at the group, squinting his eyes, "Are you... friends of Hua?"

Officer Huang had initially planned to pretend to be a friend coming to mourn, but seeing the money on the table, all old bills from thirty years ago, he feared it would be inappropriate to take out a few hundred-yuan bills from his wallet.

He simply took out his police badge: "We're from the Shanqing District Police Station, here to investigate a case."

"Haven't you been here several times already? We're holding a funeral today, can't you let the deceased rest in peace?" The old man with vitiligo was somewhat dissatisfied, but he held back his anger in front of the police.

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"Master Wu, as long as this case remains unsolved, everyone will be uneasy. It's a good thing that the police are so dedicated." The Literary Youth stood up, put down his brush, and extended his hand to Officer Huang, "Hello, my name is Gu Xianzhi, but you can call me Zhi. If there's anything you need assistance with, please feel free to ask."

"Alright." Officer Huang nodded, "May I go inside to offer some incense?"

"Of course, of course." Zhi smiled warmly, then turned to Gao Yang and the others, "And who might these people be?"

Officer Huang quickly explained: "Oh, they just graduated from the police academy and are interning at our station. They were assigned to me, so I brought them along. Young people have active minds, they might be helpful in solving the case."

"I see, I see." Zhi stood up, offering a cigarette to Officer Huang while leading the five of them into the tent, "Sister Fan, bring over five cups of tea."