Chapter 16: Novice Village

The village at night is not as beautiful as the stories say. For those accustomed to city life, the tranquility here is more like a deathly silence, and the darkness here is like a solid, not to mention the layers of smoke that permeate the air punctually at dinnertime.

"You still need to kill thirty kobolds," Luo Qi said, crouching behind a dark bush. "There are no other shortcut leveling routes."

He looked up at the layers of smoke rushing toward him under the moonlight. "Are you done yet? Even if I don't freeze to death, I'm about to be choked to death by the smoke."

No one responded to his words. Luo Qi poked his head out from behind the bush; in the silent wilderness, even the sound of his own breathing felt jarring. He stood in a forest in Bei Guo, the withered grass covered in a thick layer of snow. The woods were empty, and the cold wind of early spring whistled through the mountains like a whip, piercing bone and marrow. The village lay at the end of the hillside at his feet, its lights dim. Looking from the mountain down to the village, there wasn't even a ghost in sight.

Damn it, couldn't even say a word before leaving. Luo Qi muttered irritably in a low voice.

In truth, he wasn't genuinely annoyed; with things having progressed to this point, all he had left was excitement.

A few hours ago, he had analyzed the current situation with Du Zhengyi. They had to force the believers of Jingtu Temple to make an urgent wish. Luo Qi broke this matter down into several key parts: the believers, an urgent environment for wishing, and making the task as difficult as possible to complete. If this were a game, this sentence could be replaced with—the quest NPC of this map, the conditions to unlock the quest, and a high-experience quest.

"Once this task is completed, they might be introduced to the Great Chieftain!" This was what he told Du Zhengyi. To make Du Zhengyi understand his metaphor, he later guided Du Zhengyi to play the game. As it turned out, just as he had expected, although Du Zhengyi was expressionless, he leveled up fifteen times in one go without letting go of Guan Xinyue's mouse. It wasn't until Luo Qi urged him to hurry out and get to work that he finally left with a long face.

As for the specific analysis process, first, the believers were easy to locate. According to Guan Xinyue, there were a large number of Jingtu Temple believers in this village, and the Christian church next door with the red cross simply couldn't compete with Jingtu Temple.

Luo Qi felt that, in some mysterious way, this place was very much like a novice village in a game. To create a quest, they needed to manufacture a certain crisis for the village; this was the urgent environment for wishing—in other words, forcing the NPCs to post a quest. The greater the crisis, according to the temple's method of Calculation, the greater the merit attached to the wish made.

After discussing and revising his ideas time and again with Guan Xinyue, Luo Qi generally had a plan. He outlined the contours of this plan in his mind. The village's trouble couldn't be as massive as a landslide or earthquake, or they wouldn't be able to contain it. It couldn't be too far beyond common sense, or it would be hard to explain to the school upon returning. Therefore, this trouble had to be very secular, something inseparable from the common things of the countryside.

Afterward, Guan Xinyue went home—to the home of her Nainai and father. They didn't know exactly how many days they would be delayed here; there was no need for Guan Xinyue to wait here the whole time, and she couldn't stay away from home forever. Before leaving, she confirmed his phone number with him again. In their previous mutual lying, at least the phone number part was true for both. Finally, they added each other on WeChat, and he promised that if there was any movement here, he would tell her every detail on WeChat.

Ultimately, Luo Qi decided to manufacture a crisis involving the temple's animal release; out-of-control wild dogs with symptoms of rabies were the best choice.

He had just been carefully inspecting the terrain and formulating the plan around the village with Du Zhengyi. Mages used to be very adept at driving animals, but after humanity ended the era of cold weapons, mages stopped using them. The reason was simple: the Spirit Beast Technique gradually became of little use, as animals no longer held the upper hand against firearms. Besides, humans had almost hunted animals to extinction; were mages supposed to perform Psychic Art on domestic hens and goldfish? As mages abandoned most gathering areas and gradually sank deeper into human society, skills that were hard to conceal, like Summoning and Psychic Art, lost their last bit of value.

Fortunately, mages had recently become bored enough to start a retro trend, and the school's History Department had restored some ancient Magic, among which were Summoning and Psychic Art. The History Department had once held a brilliant academic report on this, and Luo Qi was deeply impressed. He was also glad that Du Zhengyi wasn't picky, absorbing miscellaneous knowledge and knowing at least a little about every field, and he was especially well-versed in his school's innovative projects.

The only thing Luo Qi worried about was that Du Zhengyi might not be able to control his strength; after all, they were in a human village now and couldn't really cause any major incident. He absolutely must not let the Psychic Beast hurt anyone, otherwise, he would never be able to face his own conscience again.

Du Zhengyi was a man of few words when doing serious business. He didn't say a word while inspecting the terrain around the village and in the mountains, which made Luo Qi very uneasy. Luo Qi prattled on, designing routes for advance and retreat to facilitate the movement of Du Zhengyi's mad dogs, but Du Zhengyi ignored him. He nagged like a mother about precautions, and Du Zhengyi still ignored him. He wanted to say something else to get some interaction, so he started talking about Du Zhengyi's game strategy, but that backfired—Du Zhengyi vanished without a sound.

Now Luo Qi was standing alone in the mountain forest, feeling the wind growing stronger. Although the temperature was still very low, it already had the shadow of a spring gale. He looked up at the treetops; through the sparse branches, he could see thin clouds drifting in the sky, and the half-moon hanging high over the mountain peak, its edges becoming clearer. The smog was gradually dissipating in the gale, and he caught a whiff of real air, coming from deep within the forest, carrying the fragrance of soil.

A gust of wind stopped just at this moment, and silence once again enveloped the forest. Luo Qi heard a faint sound of dry branches being crushed.

"Brother?" he asked softly. No one answered him. He tentatively asked again, "Du Zhengyi?"

He listened intently, but another gust of wind blew, and he could hear nothing but the sound of the wind. An instinct that made his spine go cold caused him to lean against the thick trunk of an old tree.

Almost at this moment, the first long howl, sounding like both a wolf and a dog, came from down the mountain. Several black shadows ran through the paths between the cottages, and Luo Qi could almost hear their heavy footsteps. Then, all the dogs in the village began to bark in succession.

Things down below had already been turned upside down by Du Zhengyi. Luo Qi was distracted by the chaos below; lights in the village were being turned on one by one. The villagers, who were always frugal with electricity, had finally spent their hard-earned money.

Luo Qi felt sorry for them and began to wonder if there was anything he had forgotten to instruct Du Zhengyi on. He didn't know when the wind had stopped again; the mountains were quiet, and the clamor in the village sounded as if it were behind a fish tank. All of Luo Qi's senses were amplified by this silence.

He shivered, waking up from his tangled thoughts, and looked up blankly, finally staring into the pitch-black woods a few steps away. The pale bark of several birch trees reflected a faint light under the moonlight.

It was as if a wind had blown, in the opposite direction to the previous one. There was a faint static electricity in the wind, so slight it felt like a hallucination, but it was the stinging pain of fear approaching. It was as if the deepest fear engraved in his genes, the most primitive instinct, swept across his spine. He couldn't help but lower his head, lower his center of gravity, and shrink his neck.

A tingling sensation swept across his left hand, like the excitement one would only have after drinking six cups of strong coffee.

It happened in this instant. The lowered perspective made him lock eyes with a pair of eyes flickering with a faint green light under the moonlight. That thing was definitely not human, but it was as tall as an adult man's chest; he vaguely knew it was a behemoth.

Luo Qi's mind went blank, then instinct took over his body. He abruptly shrank his body and rolled into the bushes to the side.

The sound of wind behind his ears passed almost instantly. The fierce force that brushed past him made him think that thing would definitely have crashed into a tree.

But the heavy footsteps behind him landed lightly; the thing had an agility that didn't match its weight. Luo Qi didn't dare to stop at all, rolling several times, guarding against that thing launching a second attack immediately.

There was silence in the wind. Luo Qi climbed up from the ground in astonishment, not knowing whether to be confused or afraid. He gathered some strength in his hands and looked up toward the spot two meters away where he had just been standing, but his focus was completely off. As soon as he looked up, his whole body went limp, and he almost collapsed to the ground. A pair of glowing eyes were watching him from close range; the thing had followed silently behind him just now. His hair stood on end, and he opened his mouth to make a sound, but only gulped in a mouthful of cold night wind, mixed with the cold, light snow kicked up by the wind.

Holy shit.

He finished this curse in his mind.

He thought of a cat catching a mouse, approaching silently, calculating cunningly, and only pouncing for a fatal blow at the right moment. Now he was the mouse, and that ginger-colored giant cat was majestic, its bright eyes even seeming to possess intelligence. Could he really have seen a lion?

He suddenly became indignant. Did Du Zhengyi have any sense at all? He told him he wanted dogs, he wanted dogs! Could he not even tell the difference between a lion and a dog? Or was this how he understood the word "lion-dog"? A yellow dog that was three meters long and weighed 500 pounds? After this was over, he would have to properly educate Du Zhengyi on what human language was.

Luo Qi suddenly felt a chill. Could it be that all the things running in the village below were this stuff? He already imagined the scene where he would never get his graduation certificate.

He suppressed the primitive cowardice in his body. He knew these were lions cultivated in a laboratory. Their brains were different from real lions and not as complete as lions in the natural world. In other words, they were much stupider than lions in the natural ecosystem; this was also the reason why animal rights activists had always opposed the restoration of Psychic Art and Summoning—manufacturing such things was somewhat inhumane. Their incomplete brains waited for the integration of human thought to complete their self-repair. They were more like the mechs humans longed to realize. A part of Du Zhengyi's mind must be wandering in its brain at this moment, perhaps just some subconsciousness, some simple instructions, but ultimately, what it was reacting to now was Du Zhengyi's will.

That was why Luo Qi was a bit bristled after being startled.

The lion stared at him, motionless.

"Are you doing this on purpose to mess with me?" He was even more annoyed; Du Zhengyi must be scaring him on purpose.

"Get lost." He waved his hand in front of the lion puppet.

The lion stared at him, its huge head tilting with his movements, looking somewhat ignorant and cute.

Luo Qi laughed, feeling it was a bit fun. Emboldened, he reached out and touched the mane of this man-eating beast, feeling it was a bit like Du Zhengyi's mentor, that lion-like Old Mage. "I guess you're still a little cute, but get lost."

Luo Qi pulled his hand back, straightened his face, and lectured like training a dog, "Sit!"

A low growl came from the giant beast's throat. Luo Qi shivered instinctively, then came to his senses and bristled again, "You're threatening me, you bastard?"

He hadn't even finished his sentence when, as he shouted, he saw the lion bare its teeth. A giant claw swiped across his chest as if carelessly, but it was too fast to distinguish. Luo Qi's vision blurred, and he was knocked to the ground.

A single swipe from the lion tore his clothes to shreds. While feeling the sharp pain in his chest, he saw feathers dancing in the sky before his eyes, as if angels had descended—he hoped they were Victoria's Secret angels. Then the lion stepped on him so hard he almost couldn't catch his breath, though his mind was much clearer. He remembered it must have been his down jacket that was torn, and he had to make Du Zhengyi pay for his clothes.

His numb left hand gathered the strength he could almost never muster on a normal day; this was basically the limit of his Mage power. He didn't harbor the delusion that he had the power to flip over a giant beast; he raised his hand and cast a violent flash of light.

The animal with good night vision roared; its eyes were injured, and it instinctively dodged to the side. Luo Qi wanted to take the opportunity to climb up and escape, but he used some strength and didn't move. His chest hurt like he was dying, breathing was difficult, and his right hand, which he could still move, touched a damp patch on his chest. His ribs had probably been broken by this overweight thing; he hoped his internal organs were fine.

And that lion seemed to be completely enraged. It retreated slightly and then pounced a second time. In the bright light, Luo Qi saw its sharp white teeth heading straight for his neck. He closed his eyes; death came too fast, and he didn't even have time to be afraid, only vaguely thinking that his way of dying was really not worth it.

The sharp teeth with massive bite force stopped near his neck. Luo Qi waited stiffly, his scalp tingling as he smelled the pungent, bloody scent on the lion. But this moment actually dragged on, until he became impatient and suddenly opened his eyes. He was astonished to see a strange scene: the lion seemed to be struggling with some invisible force, as if two instinctive powers were tearing at it. It stared at Luo Qi, its eyes filled with extreme bloodthirsty desire, longing to bite through Luo Qi's soft, warm neck. But it also shook its head uneasily, as if trying its best to restrain its desire to slaughter; it looked just like a schizophrenic lion.

At the same time, Luo Qi himself was breathing with difficulty. He could feel his life force slipping away from his body bit by bit; he might become one of the few people to be trampled to death by a lion. Living a pathetic life, dying a frustrated death. From the corner of his eye, he seemed to see a human figure. At the moment that shadow completely turned into a person, the force battling within the lion won out, and the lion abruptly retreated.

Luo Qi gasped for air, the scenery before his eyes becoming dim, but his pounding heart finally slowed down, and the cold air rushed into his lungs, making him feel a bit better. He felt Du Zhengyi beside him, his fingers working gently and deftly on his chest, calling his name, his voice almost gentle. Hospice care?

Luo Qi sighed in his mind, wanting to pass on his max-level game account to Du Zhengyi as an inheritance, but before he could speak, he fell into darkness.