Chapter 37: Courtyard

"This is it!"

Lali's originally heavy breathing had evened out, and he said excitedly.

At this moment, the squad had walked a bit deeper into the forest.

And with the increasingly dense buildings in the grass by the road, they had finally arrived at their destination.

"Is this where that adventurer found the wooden tablet?"

The half-elf Haian held his longbow, his silver-grey eyes carefully examining the scene around him, his face revealing deep curiosity.

This was a vast courtyard.

Unlike the broken walls encountered on the road before, the courtyard itself had a high degree of integrity, with most of the building structures remaining in good condition.

This also allowed Xia Nan to carefully observe everything related to this place while comparing it with the knowledge from his previous life in his mind.

Overall, it was symmetrical along the central axis where the courtyard gate was located, with houses on both sides arranged neatly, orderly, and aesthetically pleasing;

classic black tiles and white walls, roof eaves as agile and light as flying birds, beams and pillars painted with black lacquer and decorated with exquisite cloud patterns; doors and windows mostly adopted complex and exquisite hollow structures, but the window paper originally pasted on them had been damaged, leaving only a few paper scraps at the edges.

"It's exactly the same."

Xia Nan muttered to himself in his heart.

At the same time, his gaze scanning the courtyard seemed to have noticed something strange, and he paused.

In his impression, the mansions where those ancient dignitaries lived often had lotus ponds of various sizes.

Whenever someone passed by, the schools of koi fish raised in the pond would swim over to gather and beg for food.

Naturally, this courtyard was no exception.

High-arched double-sided empty bridges, winding and tortuous small corridors, and even a classical stone pavilion extending straight to the center of the lake.

Everything seemed normal.

Provided you could ignore the lush shrubs and long grass under those pavilions and corridors.

Let alone any lake or pond, there wasn't even a small water pool in this entire courtyard!

Although it had been built for only a few months, there was no trace of water left under those arched bridges and lake pavilions.

As if it had been built on the meadow from the beginning.

Seeing this strange scene, Xia Nan couldn't help but be even more convinced of his previous thoughts—

These buildings were absolutely not from this world!

"Eh?"

In his ear came Lali's exclamation.

His gaze followed, only to see the other party standing before a rockery, his chubby face filled with surprise.

Following the other party's gaze, Xia Nan's expression also revealed a bit of strangeness.

"Clipping through the model?"

He saw that on the upper left side of the rockery, those rugged, pale stones were eerily fused with the branches of an oak tree beside it.

Grey, rough stones interspersed with emerald green branches, intertwined in the masonry, contrasting yet perfectly fitting, as if they were born that way.

It was just like the bugs caused by model collision and friction in those poorly made games from his previous life.

Only, placed in the real world, it was more natural.

It was like a strange sight produced by forcibly moving things from another world to this space regardless of anything else.

At the same time, the half-elf and Wood on the other side were not paying attention to these.

They were making a final confirmation of the goal of this mission.

"Young Master..."

Withdrawing his gaze, which had repeatedly compared the building decorations countless times,

Wood shook his head slowly at the half-elf beside him.

"Confirmed, it's not the style of the Matriarch's clan."

Although Elves, due to factors such as living environment, different subspecies, and living habits, had unique styles distinct from others in major clans.

But there was one point that had a universal and unchanging commonality—

Integration with nature.

Whether it was green leaves and thorns, or glow-algae and mushrooms, Elven buildings were often closely integrated with their surrounding natural environment.

The houses with different styles before them, although they also used various woods and bricks to the point of perfection,

still had an essential difference from the style of the Elven race.

Hearing this, one could clearly see a look of disappointment on Haian's face.

But, it stopped there.

He had long been prepared mentally.

The half-elf, after getting confirmation from Wood, let out a breath of relief as if he had unloaded the burden in his heart.

He called Xia Nan, Lali, and the others not far away, and said sincerely:

"Mission ended."

"I have already obtained the result."

"Having stayed in the forest for so many days, if there are no objections, we can return now."

Lali and Doris grew up in towns, not to say they were pampered, but they had indeed never suffered much.

Having been in the Mist Forest for so many days, seeing adventurers and encountering magic beasts, both were already satisfied.

Now, facing Haian's proposal to return, there was naturally no reason to object.

Xia Nan, however, didn't respond immediately, his face showing some hesitation.

The reason he joined Haian's squad was that the remuneration offered by the other party was secondary; the main thing was that he wanted to figure out the source of the wooden tablet in the half-elf's hand.

Now, with their gradual penetration, familiar buildings kept appearing, and the truth seemed to be right before his eyes.

Returning at this time...

Sensing the hesitation on Xia Nan's face, Haian, mistakenly thinking it was about the remuneration, immediately added:

"Don't worry, although the mission result is different from what I thought before setting off, your 100 gold will definitely not be less."

As soon as he finished speaking, Lali beside him patted his chest, looking wealthy:

"I'll pay the reward!"

"If it weren't for you, I'm afraid I would have already died in the mouths of those Rust Monsters last night."

"What's 100 gold, I'd even pay 500 gold!"

Regarding "crossing over," Xia Nan's biggest secret, he couldn't explain much.

He glanced toward the depths of the forest outside the courtyard.

Pondering in his heart:

Although the group was still on the outskirts of the Mist Forest, they were already close to the boundary.

Further in, even with a Professional in the squad, it was estimated that it would be difficult to guarantee safety.

And judging by the regularity of the appearance of buildings along the way, if he wanted to figure out the source of the wooden tablet, he had to penetrate deep into the Mist Forest.

With his current strength, it was too dangerous.

"Perhaps, come back later?"

The thought was just for a moment.

Facing the enthusiasm of the few, Xia Nan didn't hesitate anymore, nodded to Haian, Lali, and the others, and agreed to return.

Just like tourists at various scenic spots in his previous life, no matter how uninterested they were in the surrounding attractions, they would often buy some local souvenirs to show they had been there.

At worst, they would take a few photos.

Having experienced this "Mist Forest Tour" that might be the only one in his life, Lali and Doris naturally wouldn't go back empty-handed.

Seeing that the return was decided, they subconsciously searched around, looking for souvenirs that were easy to carry.

"Yo! This stone statue is made quite well, more detailed than the craftsmen in the city!"

Lali looked surprised, having dug out a stone statue of a venomous snake from some corner.

As thick as an arm, every scale was carved extremely meticulously, the snake body curled, fangs slightly exposed, in a posture about to attack.

Lifelike.

But Xia Nan couldn't help but frown.

This stone statue before him didn't look like the style of Eastern civilization in his impression.

"Hey! Come over, all of you come over!"

"There's also a Rust Monster statue here! It's exactly the same as the one we encountered yesterday!"

Hearing this, seeming to associate something.

Wood, who had been standing behind Haian, suddenly sank his expression.

His figure blurred, and in the next second, he was already protecting the half-elf behind him.

He roared:

"Alert!!!"

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 38 =====