140: Chapter 141 A Thick Fog of Mystery, Suspicious Candidates

"Could it be that someone still hasn't arrived?"

Lin Ye was certain that the recent incidents in the village were related to an Demon, and the grade of that Demon definitely hadn't exceeded his detection limits.

As for the possibility of him overlooking it, that was even more impossible.

With his current Mental Energy, saying he had a photographic memory would be an understatement.

Therefore, the only explanation was that the Demon hadn't come.

Perhaps it sensed something and deliberately stayed away?

No, that wasn't right either!

Even if that Demon was incredibly intelligent, it couldn't possibly guess the true purpose of his gathering everyone for a meeting; there was no reason for it to intentionally avoid this assembly.

"Dad, is there anyone else who hasn't come?" Lin Ye asked in a low voice.

Hearing this, Father Lin looked around, but there were too many people for him to check all at once, so he could only ask the Village Chief to inquire.

The Village Chief tapped the megaphone and shouted loudly, "Everyone look around, see who else isn't here."

The crowd looked left and right upon hearing this, and finally, someone in the crowd raised their hand.

The person who raised their hand was none other than the one Lin Ye had previously detected as having the thickest evil qi.

"Village Chief, my younger brother Lin Dong hasn't come yet. He's probably still sleeping in. How about we just forget it? I can represent him."

The speaker was Lin Yang, who lived at the east end of the village. He was ten years older than Lin Ye and had dropped out of high school to farm at home. According to the family hierarchy, he still had to call Lin Ye 'Uncle'.

As for his brother Lin Dong, he was in a similar situation, also a dropout staying at home.

"Nonsense! I said everyone must be present. Go and get him here quickly."

The Village Chief had served in the military in his youth and had always detested such unorganized and undisciplined behavior.

Lin Yang shrank his neck in fear and hurriedly stood up to run home.

Watching Lin Yang's retreating back, Lin Ye was lost in thought.

Soon, Lin Yang returned, his face filled with anxiety.

"This is bad! My brother is missing. I searched the whole house and couldn't find him."

As soon as these words were spoken, the crowd immediately erupted into a commotion, with everyone clamoring to call the police and search for him.

But at this moment, Lin Ye had a different idea.

In his view, this Lin Dong was very suspicious.

There was a high probability that the other party wasn't missing, but was still in the game and hadn't come out yet.

More accurately, the other party was the culprit who brought the Demon into the real world!

That would explain why the evil qi on Lin Yang was so dense.

They lived under the same roof; how could it not be dense?

As for why that Demon hadn't devoured Lin Yang first, Lin Ye speculated it was to better hide its identity.

As mentioned before, Demons possessed high intelligence.

As Lin Dong's older brother, if Lin Yang were to disappear without reason, Lin Dong would immediately become the target of public criticism.

It wasn't that everyone would guess Lin Yang's disappearance was related to him, but he would inevitably draw the crowd's attention.

This clearly didn't fit the style of an Demon that preferred to cause trouble covertly.

However, just as the Village Chief was about to call the police and mobilize everyone to find the person, a figure came running hurriedly from behind the square.

Who could this person be if not Lin Dong?

The villagers all let out a collective sigh of relief upon seeing this; it was good that he wasn't missing.

"Eh? Little brother, where were you just now? I looked all over and couldn't find you."

Lin Yang was also happy to see Lin Dong appear and quickly asked.

"I had diarrhea just now, so I found a place to squat for a while.

But what's going on here? Why did everyone run over here?"

"Didn't you hear the broadcast? The Village Chief gathered everyone here for a meeting."

Lin Yang was about to say more when the Village Chief suddenly spoke up: "Alright, now that he's here, let's start the meeting!"

Hearing this, the crowd stopped paying attention to this small interlude.

By now, Lin Ye had already used the Qi Observation Technique on Lin Dong, but the more he looked, the more confused he became.

In his vision, although the black aura on Lin Dong was even denser than Lin Yang's, there was still a portion of Life Force present.

This meant the other party was still a living person and hadn't had his body occupied by the Demon.

Could it be that he had guessed wrong, and Lin Dong wasn't the Demon's primary body?

But now that everyone in the village was present, could it be that the true Demon was among the several people who had previously gone missing, intentionally playing a game of hiding in plain sight?

If that were truly the case, things would be troublesome.

After all, if the opponent was truly hiding in the shadows, he really wouldn't have a way to deal with it for the time being.

Lin Ye's hands unconsciously clenched.

The situation was much thornier than he had anticipated.

An Demon hidden in the shadows was much harder to deal with than one hiding in a crowd.

After all, it could hide anywhere.

The mountains and forests around the village were so vast that trying to find the opponent would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Of course, another method was to wait for the target to show up.

Judging by the concentration of evil qi on the two brothers, Lin Yang and Lin Dong, the Demon's next target was likely one of them.

Lin Ye only needed to lie in wait near these two to find the Demon's true body when it made its move.

However, this method had a drawback: it would consume a massive amount of his energy.

Who knew when the Demon would strike next? He couldn't keep wasting time waiting for it forever.

Half an hour later, the meeting ended, and the crowd began to leave one after another.

Taking a deep breath, Lin Ye also turned and left the square.

He needed to plan carefully.

At the very least, he had to clarify the situation with Lin Yang and Lin Dong first.

They were the Demon's primary targets. Asking them if they had encountered anything unusual recently or been to any special places might provide clues to the Demon's hiding place.

More importantly, he needed to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

If he really couldn't find the Demon's true body, he would have to make a difficult decision: have his parents temporarily leave the village and stay in the county town or elsewhere for a while.

As for the other villagers, Lin Ye would also advise them to leave, but whether it would be effective was unknown.

After all, if they were willing to leave, they would have left long ago and wouldn't have waited until now.

Rural areas were different from cities; villagers generally had a strong attachment to their homeland, and few were willing to leave their ancestral home to live in a foreign place.

As soon as he got home, Mother Lin couldn't help but ask, "How was it? Did you find the Demon?"

Lin Ye shook his head and gave a rough account of what he had detected.

He mainly wanted to use this as an excuse to persuade the two of them to temporarily leave this place of trouble.

The two of them also frowned after listening.

"You said just now that the evil qi on the Lin brothers is the heaviest. Then wouldn't it be enough to ask them who they've been in contact with recently?" Father Lin asked with a frown.

"I've thought of that method too, but if the Demon was someone present at the scene, there's no reason I wouldn't have detected it.

And if it were one of the people who went missing previously, the Lin brothers wouldn't have kept quiet about it.

So, either the Demon has been in contact with them in the shadows and they don't even know they're being targeted, or..."

At this point, Lin Ye suddenly paused, as if a bolt of lightning had flashed through his mind.

A bold guess emerged!