Chapter 351

After Xia Nan told the two members of the Black Wood Squad his conjecture, the air in the private room suddenly fell into a dead silence.

They were both experienced adventurers; even if they hadn't personally experienced such events, they had at least heard of them.

Therefore, they clearly understood how terrible and extremely dangerous a situation it would be if something truly existed that could silently influence people's minds and alter their cognition without anyone noticing.

They highly recognized Xia Nan's strength and character, knowing he would not speak without cause.

Margaret and Suoerding barely considered the possibility that he was deliberately deceiving them and immediately began thinking of countermeasures.

"If it's really as you suspect, and that pastel gem in Kukunuer's hand has a special charm effect."

"I think there is one point that must be confirmed first."

Margaret crossed her arms over her chest, her body language showing a defensive posture, her face serious.

"Whether the three of us... have already been affected by the gem."

The female swordsman's reminder made Xia Nan's heart tighten involuntarily.

She was right to consider that.

If the situation had developed to the worst possible point, and they, as professionals, had already had their mental will controlled by the gem, then things would be troublesome.

After all, to some extent, the two members of the Black Wood Squad had indeed made the decision to stay in town with Kukunuer to investigate the source of the gem, and Xia Nan had not chosen to leave immediately after arriving in Yangjiao Town, but instead was slowly preparing supplies that might be needed for the upcoming long journey.

If one really had to say it, the three of them's behavior in Yangjiao Town could all be covered by the scope of the gem's influence, as they couldn't help but want to stay in town longer due to the gradual fermentation of subconscious obsession and possessiveness toward the gem.

Fortunately, after careful thought, Xia Nan felt slightly relieved.

First, even if the gem had influenced their cognition, Xia Nan was able to notice the "oddities in the behavior of the townspeople and Kukunuer," and took the initiative to inform the two members of the Black Wood Squad of his findings, and Margaret and Suoerding did not deliberately ignore them but thought about them seriously.

This meant that even if they were under some kind of mental influence, it was not too severe.

At the very least, it had not reached the level of shielding cognition and forcibly modifying their thinking and will.

Secondly, for Xia Nan himself.

He felt he had complete control over his own actions and thoughts.

If he were to have the thought of "leaving Yangjiao Town immediately" right now, he would not feel any resistance in his heart.

He could leave whenever he wanted.

Whether to leave or not depended on himself.

This also meant that the gem had not had the same influence on him as it had on Kukunuer.

At the same time, Margaret, who had raised the question, realized this point just as she finished speaking.

Her tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.

"So what should we do?" Sitting to the side, the expression on Suoerding's face was exceptionally serious.

Clearly, this straightforward dwarf had also noticed the severity of the situation.

"Should we abandon the mission and leave directly?"

"But looking at Kukunuer's behavior, he might not be willing to."

Of course, they wouldn't have any scruples because of this wealthy merchant.

Even with all his wealth, he was ultimately just an ordinary person without transcendent power—his wealth had not yet reached a magnitude sufficient to achieve a qualitative change.

To put it bluntly, if it were an adventurer squad with a relatively lower moral standard, let alone sitting in a private room discussing how to explain it to the employer after noticing the danger in Yangjiao Town, they would likely have looted the man halfway through the mission, thrown the blame on some monsters like Goblins, and who could do anything about it?

If that didn't work, since they were an adventurer squad with no family shackles, they could just flee to the neighboring provinces; who could catch them?

Although Suoerding was ostensibly asking the two how to give Kukunuer an explanation, in reality, he was just trying to see Margaret and Xia Nan's attitude toward this wealthy merchant.

Regarding this, Xia Nan would not violate his own bottom line.

At this moment, he was pondering more suspicious points he had discovered.

According to Kukunuer and his assistant Afu, the rumor that there might be a gem mine around Yangjiao Town had been circulating in Niumu as early as several months ago.

Considering the long distance between Yangjiao Town and Niumu, there must have been people in the towns along the way who knew about it.

But strangely, compared to the immense wealth a gem mine represented, in these entire few months, over a hundred days, the only gem that had truly flowed out of Yangjiao Town was the one in Kukunuer's hand.

Xia Nan did not believe that those greedy adventurers and merchants would have missed this opportunity.

The only possibility was that when the first batch of "gold diggers" came to the town, the townspeople had already been deeply infected by the pastel gem, showing the same paranoid and irritable reaction they now showed toward Kukunuer, collectively hiding and avoiding relevant information.

This was how they had kept batch after batch of covetous people away from the treasure.

Thinking of this, Xia Nan suddenly felt a sense of subtlety.

He seemed to have personally experienced a case of such large-scale cognitive influence before:

—The Sheep-Deer Statue, the Niumu Evil God incident.

It was just that, currently, the pastel gem was far inferior to the former in both scale and degree of influence.

To some extent, its charm and control ability only affected ordinary civilians and was ineffective against professionals.

After all, the adventurer squad that sold the gem to Kukunuer had brought it all the way from Yangjiao Town to Niumu, and after so much time had passed, they were still able to send the gem in their hands to the auction house.

This also meant that the charm effect of the pastel gem was far weaker than the Sheep-Deer Statue of the past, and far weaker than Xia Nan and the others had imagined.

One had to admit, thinking of this, Xia Nan, who had just been planning to hurry and leave the town, couldn't help but have some other thoughts.

If the pastel gem was really related to an Otherworld Secret Realm as he had previously guessed, and it didn't have such an evil mental control effect...

"Let's find Kukunuer and explain it clearly."

Xia Nan raised his eyes and looked at Margaret and Suoerding before him.

"After all, he is the initiator of this mission. Regardless of how he reacts after hearing our conjecture, and regardless of whether we stay in the town or leave later, I think he needs to know these things."

The two members of the Black Wood Squad had no objections.

Inn second-floor guest room.

It was the afternoon, and the dim light of the sunset from outside the window spilled in, casting the shadows of the few people onto the wall, swaying unsteadily.

Listening to Xia Nan and the others finish their analysis, Kukunuer sat stiffly behind the table. His expression seemed to maintain his daily peace, but a flash of indignation at being offended couldn't help but flicker in his eyes.

"Charm?" The slightly chubby merchant with a round face subconsciously covered his chest. "You mean... I, and even the residents of Yangjiao Town, have all had our wills controlled by this gem?"

"That leading the caravan here from Niumu in person was not my own intention?"

Speaking of this, Kukunuer took a deep breath, as if to calm the gradually rising emotions in his heart.

With his chest heaving, he closed his eyes for several seconds before slowly opening them again, and with wording that was as inoffensive as possible, he said in a calm tone:

"Mr. Xia Nan, and the two from the Black Wood Squad."

"The reason I was willing to pay a reward far exceeding the average to hire you all, and treated you with the highest standards along the way, is because I clearly knew your reputation in River Valley Town, and knew that you are not those despicable villains who carry the title of 'adventurer' while secretly engaging in 'bandit' activities."