The foul-smelling wind blew from the cave, compelling everyone to hold their breath. Although the entrance was small, the cave itself was quite expansive.
Under the illumination of torchlight, skeletons of various shapes and sizes lay scattered on the ground, some matte, some shiny, some with a frosted finish, reflecting a shimmering gloss.
Before the road of bones lay a trench, from which a strong smell of blood and iron rust wafted.
Following behind Priest Kosse, a few brave young men shielded Horn and Jeanne as they ventured deeper into the cave.
While the human shields paved the way under the guidance of Priest Kosse, Horn took a moment to examine the cave itself.
Reaching the cave's edge, Horn reached out to touch the rough and solid gray-white cave wall.
The texture felt just like the cement from his previous life.
Looking up towards the semi-circular dome, Horn finally noticed that the cave had no supporting pillars, relying only on the unknown gray-white dome for support.
"This is mortar," remarked Jeska, recognizing it immediately due to their extensive travels, "Evil wizards can use a magic called 'petrifying mud.' This magic can transform rock into a special paste, commonly known as mortar, which hardens like stone after drying."
"So, this is a wizard's base?"
"Not necessarily. In fact, many nobles or churchmen purchase this mortar on the black market when building churches or castles."
"The black market?"
"Yes, wizards from Black Snake Bay often commission the Secret Faction to sell the mortar on the black market. You know, the black markets around Thousand River Valley are mostly controlled by the Secret Faction and cultists."
Horn nodded, stepping over the skeletal remains on the ground to move forward.
Up ahead, the brave young men were gathered around the trench, pinching their noses and discussing in low voices.
As Horn approached, the stench from the trench almost overwhelmed him, forcing him to hold his breath.
Inside the trench stood rows of metal spikes, with the corpses and bones of various animals impaled on the sharp spikes, emitting a pungent odor from fermentation.
The most conspicuous among these corpses was an upturned villager.
The villager, of middle school age, had only recently died, a long spike piercing through his throat.
Bright red blood flowed along a sloped path into a small depression.
The small blood-filled pit emitted no smell of blood, rather a hint of milk fragrance.
In the pit, two thumb-sized pink creatures floated in the blood.
"Magical rabbit cubs!"
"No wonder they didn't attack him; they knew he was here to feed their cubs," Busak realized.
Jeanne, showing compassion, stepped forward, enduring the stench to pull the villager from the spike.
Closing the villager's wide-open eyes with his hand, Horn instructed the young men beside him, "Carry him out with the brave archer and send them back to the camp."
Directing one of the young men to scoop the two juvenile magical rabbits out with a handkerchief, Horn did not hesitate to grip their heads and swiftly snapped their necks.
Such objects borne from others' bloodshed should not exist in the world.
Despite the commotion caused by Horn and his group, the legendary Green-clothed Flute Player had yet to appear.
Holding a torch in one hand and a butcher's knife in the other, Priest Kosse stood in the front row, advancing deeper into the cave.
In the company of the group, Horn and Jeanne reached the bottom of the cave, still without a trace of the Flute Player.
Before them were just a pile of straw and a few broken boxes, while Priest Kosse stood by a person-high crack, staring dazedly at it with a defeated look.
In the crack was a bone flute.
On the other side of the crack, it was evidently ventilated, as each gust of wind brought along a wailing flute sound.
"So, this is what caused the fuss, just a flute," Horn couldn't help but cover his forehead.
Being around these perpetually superstitious villagers had inadvertently led his thoughts to follow suit.
He gave Jeska a sign, who dutifully stepped forward to pull out the bone flute with a handkerchief.
Taking the bone flute from Jeska's hand, Horn handed it to Jeanne. "Jeanne, give it a try."
As the King of Demons, this sinister object likely would have little effect on Jeanne, making her the safest candidate to test it.
Without a second thought, Jeanne took the flute and blew into it with all her might.
The next second, it seemed as if sound waves materialized, rippling outward.
All the villagers present appeared as if they had heard something terrifying, clutching their heads and crying out in pain.
Some, with weaker constitutions, even had blood trickling from their noses.
Horn did not hold Jeanne's hand this time, yet he remained unaffected, only hearing pure, unpleasant noise.
Why wasn't he affected?
Because I'm a transmigrator, does my soul become more resilient?
Taking the bone flute from Jeanne's somewhat helpless hands, Horn carefully wiped the saliva off the flute with a handkerchief, only to suddenly discover a crack on it.
Horn initially intended to give it a try himself, but seeing the crack, he decided to put it down.
"How did you feel when you played it?" Horn asked, meeting Jeanne's discontented gaze.
Jeanne frowned, "It felt nauseating, like I wanted to vomit."
He roughly understood what had happened, it must have been someone stuffing the bone flute into this crevice, letting the wind make it sound, luring the animals into the forest.
These animals, if killed by the demon rabbits, their bones would be at the cave entrance, if by the spikes, their bones would be in the trench.
No wonder there is no food in the forest, turns out you brat have been embezzling and feeding the demon beasts.
Thinking it over, these rabbits are terrifying demon beasts for ordinary people, but far weaker than other demon beasts for well-armored Knights and specialized Demon Hunters.
Although consuming the entire forest's hunting resources and taking on the risk of demon beasts losing control, the price of a pound of demon beast meat is worth more than gold.
Just the 8 rabbits outside could provide nearly forty pounds of meat, do you know what forty pounds of gold means?
It's equivalent to 500 gold pounds, or 60,000 dinars, or 540 tons of wheat.
The total annual income of a Knight is only about 20 or 30 gold pounds, even with full efforts to harvest, they couldn't make this kind of profit, especially after the century-long Wu Wars ended and grain prices plummeted.
No wonder the Hunter's Hut is so luxurious and comfortable; all the money came from this.
It's truly challenging for the Master Knight, unable to live in a nice manor or villa, having to act as Forest Patrol Officer, living in the Hunter's Hut, monitoring migrants and Public Register Farmers, preventing poachers.
Thinking further about Barnett's father offering the forest to the High Castle Archbishop, who instead of visiting himself, sent a specialized hunter every two or three years to hunt, and the last visit was exactly three years ago...
Yikes, thinking carefully, it's terrifying.
Raising demon beasts is a serious crime, even Barnett couldn't bear it, let alone secretly hiding an evil bone flute.
Now the reason Barnett refused to let them into the forest is found, he even took the risky step to assault Horn, probably fearing discovery.
As long as no one finds enough food in the forest, someone will find out about this.
Especially since the High Castle Archbishop is involved, it wouldn't weigh only four liang if weighed, but a thousand jin.
As for the origin of the bone flute, Horn had a rough guess.
Since this flute was made by the Secret Faction or Wizards to abduct children, the Church must have caught such a group of traffickers but withheld the bone flute without reporting.
They somehow acquired the method to raise demon rabbits, combined with the Red Mill Village's remote forest and the impoverished Knights' desperation.
The perfect circumstances gathered altogether.
But this also indicates that the mastermind this time wasn't the "Flute Player," and Priest Kosse's two daughters' clues have once again broken off.
Horn's gaze turned to Priest Kosse.
Sure enough, Priest Kosse leaned against the wall and slowly sat down, as if aging several years, dejectedly staring at the ground.
Busak, familiar with the Priest, couldn't bear it any longer and patted his old partner's shoulder, though he said nothing, Priest Kosse understood his meaning.
Standing up, Kosse barely forced a smile: "It's all in the past, I have vowed to serve my Lord for the rest of my life, just consider them already in Paradise Mountain."
After hesitating for a moment, Horn stepped forward and patted Priest Kosse's shoulder: "The clue to your daughter might be found in High Castle, if there's a chance, maybe you can go there and ask, perhaps you'll get news."
Priest Kosse's eyes initially lit up, but then he shook his head with a bitter smile: "Master Holy Grandson, I'm just a rural Priest, where would I have the qualification and capability to continue investigating?"
Numbly standing up, Priest Kosse dejectedly walked out of the cave on his own, the other young men also began walking out of the cave.
Having clarified the truth, the villagers felt much lighter, but Horn, trailing at the end, felt troubled.
The danger was resolved, but the problem was that all the animals in the forest were killed, and the roads and bridges to other forests were destroyed, where to find food?
Demon beast meat can hasten the practice of breathing techniques, but can't provide enough calories.
The remaining food will only last through today, tomorrow there won't be anything left, should we urgently order the Armed Farmers to hand over their stored grain?
Their stored grain would barely last another one or two days, then what?
Standing in the forest clearing, lifting his head, Horn called out to the remaining people: "The matter is resolved, it was Devil Barnett's doing, we'll discuss it in detail after returning, we should bring those rabbits and these two... huh?"
Horn pointed to the three corpses lying neatly side by side on the ground, scowling, he asked Hezi who stayed behind, "Why is there one more corpse?"
Hezi, with a mournful face, replied, "Master Holy Grandson, truly not my fault, this wretch was born with a big stomach, just got tempted by roasted rabbit, dug out a poisonous potato root from the ground, ate the entire thing, and was no longer responsive after eating, couldn't save him in time."
"Potato root?" Horn swiftly searched his memory.
Potato root is a specialty of the Thousand River Valley and Black Snake Bay, cylindrical and soil yellow with a tinge of purple-red, with roots, resembling a thickened and enlarged yam.
It looks edible, but is actually poisonous, causing mild diarrhea, or in severe cases like this person digging it up and eating it, ends in swift death.
Recalling his memory of the potato root, Horn stroked his chin, "Why does this look so much like cassava?"