Chapter 323: Sick Village

Xia Nan felt that his luck was still a bit worse.

Just as the little guy who was deeply favored by the Goddess of Luck once said:

"You can't win all the time, and you won't lose every game."

A sudden heavy rain washed away the traces left by the Goblins in the forest, greatly increasing the difficulty of his search for the Goblin lair.

But it also caused two hunters who shouldn't have appeared here to accidentally attract the Goblins' attention, and the movement they made was noticed by Xia Nan, who followed the vine to find the destination of the extermination mission.

And when he said goodbye to the two, with a relaxed and enjoyable mentality, continued to move forward in the rain, trying to reach the canyon where the Mist Lamp Grass grew before dark.

He unexpectedly discovered that the impact of this heavy rain was far worse than he had imagined.

A violent mudslide rushing down from the highlands, wrapped in endless mud and gravel, greedily swallowed the surrounding oaks and shrubs.

The mission route from Ms. Edwinna was still accurate, but the entrance to the canyon, which was the destination, was completely buried by huge rocks and mud rushing down from above.

Separating Xia Nan and the Mist Lamp Grass on both sides.

He was now a lv2 professional, and it was true that he possessed supernatural power.

But facing this level of exaggerated natural disaster, a slightly outstanding physical fitness, a burning black sword, or a roaring wolf head made no difference.

Perhaps when his professional level reached double digits, or 【Gravity Control】 had improved slightly, he could think of some ways to face the entrance blocked by mud and rocks.

At the moment, he could only stand in place helplessly.

The seasonality of the Mist Lamp Grass meant that the mission issued by Ms. Edwinna had a clear time limit. Fortunately, Xia Nan didn't waste too much time on the way here and had plenty of leeway.

Therefore, he wasn't particularly anxious, just thinking carefully about the solution.

His goal was the Mist Lamp Grass growing in the canyon in front of him, but the entrance to the depths of the canyon in the mission route had been completely blocked by mud and sand, and he couldn't move it away with his ability in a short time.

In this case, if he didn't want to give up the 100-plus gold coin earnings of the mission itself, Xia Nan's only choice was to go around from the other end of the canyon.

It's just...

Judging from what the two hunters said just now, the side of the canyon near the village was their village's forbidden area, and it was unlikely that they would let him in so easily.

And the middle-aged man named "Aspen," although he had invited him, saying he wanted to invite him to the village to thank him properly, the keen Xia Nan still sensed the politeness in his words, and it was highly likely that he didn't want him to go to the village where they lived.

"Or just go back like this?"

A round trip of nearly ten days, such a long distance, if he went back now, the earnings would only be the mission rewards for clearing these two Goblin lairs on the way, and after deducting expenses such as material supplies, he would probably only get a few dozen gold.

A bit of a loss...

"Why not go to the so-called 'Mist Lamp Village' and take a look, maybe there will be a turning point."

After all, no matter what, it was a fact that Xia Nan saved Aspen and Winter Tree from the Goblin siege, and the other party did indeed invite him to be a guest in the village.

If it was really inconvenient for him to enter the "forbidden area" in the village, then he... wouldn't force it.

As an anchor to maintain his original intention after crossing over, Xia Nan was not willing to break his conscience and bottom line for just over a hundred gold coins.

Otherwise, what was the difference between him and those scumbags who called themselves adventurers but actually did banditry?

Planning this in his heart, Xia Nan glanced at the rocks and mud that completely blocked the entire entrance one last time.

He turned around decisively and went around to the other side of the canyon.

Xia Nan finally knew why, even though Mist Lamp Village was located on the other side of the canyon, few adventurers had passed through for rest in previous years.

This terrain was too complicated.

To find Mist Lamp Village, you need to first pass through a complex forest with tangled tree roots like a maze, follow an inconspicuous path stepped out by villagers and beasts, walk down a long, gravel-covered hillside along the height difference next to the canyon, and finally enter a depression surrounded by towering ancient trees and interlocking black rock cliffs.

Mist Lamp Village curled up in the deepest part of this valley floor, as if abandoned here, or as if deliberately hiding itself.

If it weren't for Xia Nan's outstanding perception, able to keenly detect the traces left by villagers coming and going nearby, and asking Aspen for the specific location of the village before leaving, ordinary adventurers passing by might not really be able to find this remote and hidden location.

The valley floor was damp and the light was dim.

The heavy rain had just stopped, but the air was not as fresh and cool as imagined, but instead turned up a faint musty smell.

And the space that suddenly opened up after the path also lost the sense of openness it should have had due to the shadows cast by the surrounding rock walls and dense forest, appearing particularly gloomy, as if sick.

The ground was muddy, reflecting the wilted wild flowers washed away by the rain, and there were dozens of crooked wooden houses.

Most of the village's houses were roughly built of dark oak and rock slabs. They did not follow neat planning, nor did they have any fixed style, just following the complex terrain of the depression:

Some were squeezed into the cracks of the rock wall on one side, some were half-suspended against thick tree roots, and some less particular ones were directly located at the bottom of shallow depressions, with walls covered in brown-green moss.

Roads and the like were even less worth mentioning. Let alone neat stone brick roads like River Valley Town, even Green Creek Village couldn't compare.

Short bridges made of several logs, slippery natural steps, wooden floors covered with fungal moss and laid intermittently on the ground...

Poverty and remoteness almost filled every corner of his sight.

I don't know if it was Xia Nan's illusion.

Perhaps because they lived in a damp environment lacking sunlight for a long time, the villagers in Mist Lamp Village also looked a bit dark and strange.

Their behavior all looked normal, and their dress and appearance basically conformed to Xia Nan's understanding of ordinary people in this world.

Several men in coarse clothes were repairing fences there, workers dressed as carpenters were waving axes to chop wood in front of the house, and there were women in dirty aprons stirring food in pots at the door.

However, the whole scene appeared particularly oppressive and dull.

There was no children playing, no chatting between neighbors, and even the sound of chopping wood was so restrained and short.

An invisible air pressure as heavy as lead was shrouding this remote and dim little village.

When Xia Nan gradually approached, the people who saw him didn't stop their work.

Curiosity, anxiety, awe...

The villagers who noticed his existence didn't dare to look at him, but their peripheral vision was locked on him in the suffocating silence, not leaving for a moment.

Whispers of unknown meaning sounded quietly, and against the backdrop of the whimpering of the cold wind blowing through the branches and the wary gazes from the depths of the closed windows of the wooden houses on both sides, even his footsteps seemed to become out of place.

Xia Nan frowned slightly.

These ubiquitous silent gazes, those deep, scrutinizing eyes, were even harder for him to bear than direct hostility.

It was a sense of isolation that made one's back feel cold and silently excluded the stranger.

Fortunately, this suffocating state didn't last long.

Extremely abruptly, a shout full of surprise and enthusiasm came from the roadside.

"Mr. Xia Nan!?"

Looking at the sound, what came into view was one of the two hunters he had saved from the Goblin encirclement, the immature boy who looked like sixteen or seventeen years old. ===== CHAPTER 324 =====