"Although you are from the Golden Blessing Escort Agency, this is likely your first time to our Chen Family Fortress. I am Chen Yongde, the village head and an elder of the Chen clan here. I've known many of your agency's escorts for a long time... Just follow me."
Led by the old man, the escort team entered the interior of Chen Family Fortress.
Lin Yu had already told Sanyang to find a place to hide—after all, although Yue Zhenqiao and his group had seen how he tamed this demon, bringing it into a human settlement would only create unnecessary trouble when explaining.
Less trouble is better, so Lin Yu simply told it to find a cave or shady spot in Double Saw Mountain to wait and avoid the hottest part of the afternoon.
Anyway, Sanyang's combat power is very high, and the local demons of Double Saw Mountain shouldn't be able to do anything to it; moreover, although entering Chen Family Fortress might be dangerous, there's no need to have this demon as extra fighting power.
After all, when Lin Yu subdued Sanyang, his main consideration was to find a completely trustworthy "local" to ask questions.
Now, naturally, Sanyang is not needed for the moment—although Lin Yu is now full of questions about Chen Family Fortress, Sanyang, as the leader of the mountain demons and mountain goblins of Fuyuan Mountain, wouldn't know anything about human settlements!
Bringing Sanyang would be less useful than Lin Yu investigating and observing himself.
And after entering Chen Family Fortress, Lin Yu did observe and gather a lot of useful basic information.
Although Chen Family Fortress is a relatively closed, single-surname clan fortress, if foreign merchant or escort teams arrive, they also have sophisticated reception methods.
After all, in the Prison Mountain Realm, a human settlement cannot survive without any contact with the outside world—merchant and escort teams are essential mobile parts for every settlement.
Entering through the main gate and following the descending main road in the center of Chen Family Fortress, the escort team's carts quickly arrived at a plaza that was partially sunken underground. There were stone and dry grass sheds for the carts and livestock, as well as naturally formed caves that had been regularized.
Inside the caves, there was the sound of flowing water, with underground spring water flowing through them—a rare structure in the Fire Prison territory.
Although the temperature inside the cave was still not cool, it was much better than outside.
After stopping the carts and tethering the livestock, Yue Zhenqiao appointed a deputy escort leader and two other escorts to guard the cave, and then find someone to replace them later.
Afterward, Yue Zhenqiao gave several strings of coins to the old man Chen Yongde as a reward.
Chen Yongde accepted the reward and led the remaining thirty or so escorts back into Chen Family Fortress.
It was approaching noon, and there were no Chen clan villagers active outside Chen Family Fortress, but passing by those small earth forts, one could still see villagers tidying up inside the small windows—some young children were even peeking out of the windows, curiously looking at the escort team.
From the perspective of the [Mind-Peering Monocle], these Chen Family Fortress villagers all had rich emotions and even seemed to have souls.
However, Lin Yu was very clear...
These people, like the "village head" Chen Yongde beside him, were all not... alive.
One only needed to use mental perception to explore their spirits and souls to know that these villagers had vitality, emotions, and thoughts, but were not alive at all.
They were empty shells that seemed to be alive—which was the exact opposite of the incomplete remains that the Golden Blessing Escort Agency was transporting.
That incomplete, broken body that looked like a corpse was alive.
And these complete and lively villagers were dead instead.
"It's just like the mental hospital you ran on Mist Island..."
Lin Yu complained to Old Zheng.
Old Zheng said helplessly, "To be honest, what I did wasn't this good—I was just manipulating corpses. Anyone with a discerning eye could tell that the 'medical staff' there were basically dead people, but it's different here..."
"If one's perception isn't strong enough, they would only think that they are proper villagers—at least the escorts over there obviously don't know this."
"Although it's a bit strange that the people of Chen Family Fortress are 'dead,' in the eyes of these escorts... they certainly wouldn't think that Chen Family Fortress is a group of 'dead people'!"
As Old Zheng spoke, Lin Yu nodded.
If Yue Zhenqiao knew that everyone in Chen Family Fortress who seemed to be alive was "dead," then he probably wouldn't "hesitate" at all—Yue Zhenqiao would rather die than bring a team here.
The fact that he came here now means that he has only heard or knows that Chen Family Fortress is "strange" but doesn't know exactly what's wrong.
Under the leadership of Chen Yongde, they soon arrived at a larger stone fort.
"This is where our Chen Family Fortress hosts guests. You can rest here—you can stay until the third day when the sun completely sets before departing."
After Chen Yongde finished speaking, he used a key to unlock the lock on the stone fort door and opened the stone door.
"It's almost noon, so I'll go back to avoid the heat and sun. Please make yourselves at home, guests."
Then, Chen Yongde left.
Yue Zhenqiao led the group of escorts inside and closed the stone door.
The room was a bit stuffy, but it was much better than outside—especially the inner walls of the stone fort, which even had a few yellow paper talismans pasted on them to ward off heat and generate coolness.
Although these talismans seemed to be quite old and their effect was extremely weak, the occasional cool breeze was enough to make everyone who had been traveling in the scorching sun and fighting demons feel extremely comfortable.
The wounded and the unconscious were settled down one by one near the talismans, and 'Flying Knife' was mixed among them, slowly recovering his strength and spirit.
Seeing this scene, Escort Leader Yue finally breathed a sigh of relief: "Finally, we are safe and sound. We are really lucky."
Hearing him say this, Lin Yu and Li Nian, who had been holding back their questions the whole way, finally found an excuse to ask.
"What do you mean by 'safe and sound' and 'lucky'," Lin Yu pretended to have just noticed something and asked curiously, "Is there any danger in this Chen Family Fortress?"
Li Nian also nodded: "Yes, I think that old man was quite amiable, and the facilities in this Chen Family Fortress are quite good. Is there anything to worry about?"
Seeing their questions, Yue Zhenqiao's expression was a bit surprised.
"Don't the two heroines know?"
However, considering the strength of the other party, even if they didn't know, Yue Zhenqiao didn't question it too much. Instead, he immediately explained to them himself.
"It seems that the two heroines are usually very strong and rarely need to stop in the wilderness past noon. It's normal that you are not familiar with these small village fortresses."
"This Chen Family Fortress is one of the stop-over points with the highest 'disappearance' and 'accident' rates in this area!"
