Chapter 177

The Moon Feast is coming.

Every household in Niumu City has made preparations to welcome the arrival of the festival.

Candlesticks, altar incense...

On the plane trees on both sides of Eagle Emblem Avenue in the rich area, even special ornaments were hung, just waiting for the night to deepen and the moonlight to be intense, reflecting starlit radiance.

Although the Iron Barrel Toad is not a high-end tavern, as a famous adventurer gathering place in the nearby urban area, business has always been good.

It has both the financial resources and the intention to decorate.

At the moment, the interior of the tavern has been dotted with decorations large and small related to the Moon Feast.

It is impossible to be as extravagant and wasteful as the rich streets, but a few plush tapestries printed with silver moon patterns, the gentle piano music of a specially hired bard, and two or three types of special-priced alcoholic beverages enjoying festival discounts are enough to make the drinkers inside feel the festival atmosphere.

"You have definitely never seen so many Grey-skinned Rats!"

"Good fellow, it's simply more exaggerated than the flies on the garbage dump, you have all been to the sewers, right? Places wider than the streets of the Lower City District are all stuffed full by them, just imagine it!"

The crystal-clear wine swayed, splashing a few drops from the cup mouth.

Iron-Head held the wine glass tightly in one hand, his cheeks slightly flushed on both sides, clearly already slightly tipsy.

His expression was therefore increasingly impassioned, saliva flying everywhere, and his raised tone frequently attracted the side-glances of drinkers at the neighboring tables.

And sitting opposite him were naturally a few underlings of the Grey Badger Gang.

"And those are not the palm-sized little rats you usually see at home."

"Each one is as big as a calf, and one bite can bite off your toe!"

"Ordinary people can't last two seconds inside before being gnawed into bone frames by them!"

Hearing him say this, the underlings in front of him also quite sensibly deliberately showed a bit of worry, curiously asking:

"Boss Iron-Head, since it's so dangerous, how did the brothers in our Grey Badger Gang's sewers survive?"

"Did Boss 'Eight-Fingers' make a move?"

Hearing this, a proud smile couldn't help but appear on Iron-Head's face, he looked up and drank a mouthful of wine fiercely, and then shook his head pretentiously.

"Of course not."

"Boss 'Eight-Fingers' after all has to be distracted to take care of the brothers in the gang, and so many rats cannot be solved easily."

"That is..."

"Forgot the two gentlemen who specially came to the tavern to find me yesterday?"

"Is it the black-haired one we met at the tailor shop before?"

"That's right!" Iron-Head's showing-off expression was almost overflowing from his face, "I told you, this kind of person is a ruthless character you can't afford to offend at first glance."

"Tsk tsk, you weren't at the scene at the time, you don't know how exaggerated the scene was."

"Just those giant rats, let alone one sword per rat, just the biting wind brought up when that person shuttled through rolled a large area to death!"

Saying this, Iron-Head even looked left and right pretentiously, and then leaned in and lowered his voice:

"I even suspect that person is no longer an ordinary professional."

"You mean..."

"Heh heh." Iron-Head mysteriously smiled pretentiously, the reaction of the underlings made him feel incomparably satisfied, and he happily poured another mouthful of wine into his stomach.

Without too much concealment, his bragging naturally fell into the ears of the surrounding drinkers.

Even if many of them were forgotten as soon as they heard it, there was a very small part among them who knew this powerful professional with short black hair and holding an iron-grey longsword mentioned by the small leader of the Grey Badger Gang.

"It's not that your boss is bragging, I even helped this person do a small thing this morning."

"Otherwise, I'm afraid I would still be staying in the sewer, helping the brothers inside pack things up."

"Hearing you say that, Boss, that professional... has a friendship with you?"

An underling followed the conversation and asked at the right time.

"Friendship, there must be a little bit." The blush on Iron-Head's cheeks became increasingly obvious, and he began to brag unconsciously, "If it weren't for Boss 'Eight-Fingers' seeing my loyalty and persuading me to stay, I might have been able to make a name for myself among the adventurers now."

"After getting along for these two days, I think that gentleman should also quite appreciate me, perhaps..."

"That's a professional!" An underling looked expectant and hoped, "If you can pass down a move or two, wouldn't you, Boss, be walking sideways in the Lower City District!"

The flattery from the underlings made Iron-Head feel so comfortable that he almost squinted his eyes, and he didn't speak, just enjoying the compliments of the people around him.

But for some reason, and I don't know from which moment, the atmosphere on the field suddenly cooled down.

The fawning and flattering sounds from the underlings dissipated in an instant.

Replacing them were gazes looking behind him, and the stagnant and stiff expressions of the underlings.

Seeming to vaguely guess something, like rust, Iron-Head slowly turned around.

What came into view was the metal chain mail reflecting cold light under the light, two slightly trembling sword hilts, and a pair of dark eyes reflecting his own body without emotional fluctuations.

Looking at the sharp figure quietly watching him in front, a stiff and awkward smile couldn't help but appear on Iron-Head's face.

"Mr. Xia Nan, you, why did you come..."

Niumu sewer.

Even though it was the second time following Iron-Head down, the overly keen senses still made Xia Nan somewhat unaccustomed to the environment rich in water vapor and dirty and smelly.

Climbed down from the iron ladder and landed lightly.

Condensed gravity at his fingertips, constructing an invisible mini vortex.

The Iron Scab Moss growing in the wall cracks collapsed accordingly, turning into dark red crystal particles, rotating and flying to land on his fingertips.

Gently rubbing, the crystals refracting metallic luster turned into fine powder, drifting away with the airflow in the pipe gallery, melting and infiltrating into the mud.

Feeling the weak stimulation on his fingertips caused by the Iron Scab Moss particles, Xia Nan looked thoughtful.

What he recalled in his mind was the dark red crystals stained on Iron-Head's clothes after he collided head-on with the attacker this morning.

He had already confirmed it once again in his heart.

It was precisely the plant unique to the Niumu sewers:

—Iron Scab Moss!

"Mr. Xia Nan, hearing you say this, this 'Ba'en' might really be hiding in the sewer."

Iron-Head was leading the way seriously in front, saying without looking back.

"After all, these humans infected with 'Beastification Syndrome', if they don't have a sufficiently resilient will to support them, just by being stimulated a little, they will go mad and transform, becoming a bloodthirsty beast that has lost its reason."

"It also happens that the Moon Feast is approaching, and the moonlight at night is almost the most intense time of the whole year, and the probability of madness increases significantly."

"Although I don't know if he cares about the residents in the slums, hiding in the uninhabited sewer is indeed much safer than outside."

"Even if it breaks out, it will at most kill a few rats and will not be hunted by the patrol because of attacking city residents."

Xia Nan followed behind the other party, his calm gaze staring at the deep and quiet darkness ahead.

Did not reply.

Niumu has been built for I don't know how many years, countless forces have lived and died in cycles, and I don't know how many things are hidden in the huge and complex sewers underground.

Even the town officials with armies and those agents of the gods in the mortal world cannot clean it up.

If it weren't for the limited concentration of magic in the air, it wouldn't be impossible to form a dangerous magic beast gathering place like the Mist Forest in the sewer.

If his future self committed some crime and was hunted by others, this might be a good place to hide.

Once he drills into the sewer, he might get lost and not be able to come out, but at the same time, it would be very difficult for others to find him in these intricate pipe galleries.

While pondering, Iron-Head, who was leading the way in front, seemed to have thought of something again, and realized suddenly:

"So that's it, no wonder those giant rats behaved as if they had been stimulated, chasing people and biting."

"If there really is a beast-man hiding in the sewer, it's like a wild beast dividing its territory in the wild, sensing the aura emitted by the beast-man, these rats naturally dare not stay any longer, and it is reasonable for them to run around everywhere against the firelight."

Hearing this, Xia Nan, who heard the hidden meaning in the other party's words, raised his eyebrows slightly.

"You mean... he is hiding in the Grey-skinned Rat's nest?"

"It is highly likely, even if he is not in the nest, he must be somewhere near the nest, otherwise those Grey-skinned Rats could not have this reaction." The burly man with a shiny head nodded repeatedly.

"Rest assured, the Niumu sewer is so big, although our Grey Badger Gang has lived under here for many years, the area we are actually familiar with is actually just a small piece."

"But coincidentally, the Grey-skinned Rat nest is right within this range."

"If the beast-man is really hiding nearby, we will definitely help you find him!"

"Then I will trouble you." Xia Nan nodded slightly, not appearing as if he was superior and incomparably arrogant just because of his identity as a professional.

But he also didn't want to owe the other party any favors, planning to help the other party with a small favor within his ability and without breaking his moral bottom line after the mission ended.

The complex and highly repetitive environment in the sewer made time seem to be infected by the cold darkness inside, becoming slow.

I don't know how long it took, until graffiti patterns of the Grey Badger Gang gradually appeared on the walls on both sides, and traces of human life on both sides of the road became increasingly obvious.

Xia Nan finally felt familiar, knowing that he was already approaching the destination.

Glanced at the walls painted in colorful colors on both sides, pondering in his heart, it should be arriving soon.

Remembering that when he came with Wood last time, there should have been two people responsible for guarding here.

It's just that they seemed to have died in the rat swarm's attack.

At the moment, the Grey-skinned Rats have been driven away by them, and it should have returned to normal.

Perhaps he could ask the gang members guarding the entrance if they had heard any strange movements recently?

Xia Nan considered this in his heart, his nostrils subconsciously flaring slightly.

Flowing into his nasal cavity with his breathing, in the sour and rotten air that he had gradually become accustomed to after being in the sewer for a long time, it seemed to suddenly carry a smell he was exceptionally familiar with.

Just like rust stained with water, fishy, salty, and thick.

That is—

The smell of blood!

"Careful!"

His footsteps stalled abruptly, Xia Nan warned, making Iron-Head, who was responsible for leading the way in front, tremble violently, the whole person stunned in place at a loss.

At the same time, his gaze also instinctively looked in the direction the smell of blood came from.

Those were two corpses that had completely lost their signs of life, cold and stiff.

One of them had relatively intact limbs, only a cheap iron sword with a crude shape penetrated his chest from the front, nailing him to the wall;

The other one looked miserable, his left hand was twisted and torn from the middle of the forearm, the broken end was only connected by a few strands of flesh, revealing the pale bone fragments inside, and one head was almost twisted and turned one hundred and eighty degrees, clearly lying on his back on the ground, but one could only see the back of his head.

As for their identities...

No need to consider others, just looking at the tattoos on the skin surface of their clothes, it was enough to identify them.

They were precisely the thugs of the Grey Badger Gang!

Iron-Head trembled as he stepped forward, forcibly suppressing the fear in his heart, wanting to identify the specific identities of the two corpses.

But just after taking two steps forward, he paused again, his pupils shrinking.

"Bad! Boss 'Eight-Fingers' and the others..."

Turned around abruptly and ran wildly in the direction of the Grey Badger Gang's station.

Xia Nan also quickened his pace to follow.

The Snake Scale Arm Shield reflected a cold luster, the iron-grey sword light flashed in the air for an instant, and the decapitation longsword had already been unsheathed, tightly held in his hand.

His body was tense, his gaze condensed, his attention highly concentrated, and he was already prepared for battle.

Silence.

Eerie silence.

Unlike the last time when facing the siege of the rat swarm, the shrill whistling and human cursing and roaring echoing in the pipe gallery.

At the moment, although he was already close to the core station of the Grey Badger Gang, Xia Nan did not hear any movement of fighting.

And the increasingly thick smell of blood in the air also seemed to foreshadow the development of things.

Finally, accompanied by the last corner, the already spacious corridor suddenly opened up, revealing a large open space.

And on the ground, countless corpses that had already died.

The wooden platform, which was painstakingly transported from outside box by box and took several years to build, had already collapsed for the most part at the moment.

The orange-red flames spreading from the overturned fire basin surged and rolled, devouring those fragile wooden boards and thatched sheds at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Just like a Goblin nest after being cleared by adventurers.

The thugs who once ran rampant on the streets and were arrogant and domineering had already become broken and fragmented corpses at the moment, lying motionless on the pool of blood.

And their boss, the man named "Eight-Fingers."

At least in the first second after Xia Nan and Iron-Head arrived, he still had a glimmer of life.

His toes left the ground, struggling and kicking, veins bulging, his cheeks swollen purple-red, and a pair of eyeballs almost exploding.

But just the next second, the furry big hand that firmly clamped his neck like iron pliers suddenly exerted force.

"Creak."

On the empty and dead silent field, it was the cold crisp sound of vertebrae breaking.

The burly figure wearing a cloak threw Eight-Fingers' corpse to the ground like throwing trash.

The face shrouded in the shadow of the hood was blurred.

One could only see the warm water mist sprayed out when the other party breathed;

And those manic beast eyes that reflected ghostly green light in the darkness, swaying and jumping like ghost fire, mixed with violent beastly nature and human reason.

(End of chapter)