Chapter 32: Big Trouble

Liu Wei looked at Wu Chang with suspicion and asked, "Has Hero Wu seen me before?"

Wu Chang said with a smile, "I haven't, but upon seeing you yesterday, I felt you looked familiar, though I couldn't recall who you were. Only after hearing you speak just now did I remember you resemble an old friend of mine."

While muttering to himself that anyone with real ability was abnormal, Liu Wei realized and said, "So that's how it is."

To avoid Liu Wei continuing to pester him, Wu Chang asked first:

"I heard from the Village Chief that you all came to discuss moving up the Year-End Sacrifice?"

Liu Wei nodded and said, "That's right. Uncle Shan said Hero Wu also agrees with moving the Year-End Sacrifice earlier."

"The seal on the evil spirits is still holding at the moment, but if we delay another month and the evil spirits break free completely, it will be difficult to subdue them," Wu Chang said.

"Hero Wu has extraordinary insight; you are truly a young hero," Liu Wei said, cupping his hands.

"You flatter me," Wu Chang replied with a smile.

Liu Wei changed the subject and said quite naturally, "There is a matter I must trouble you with; I don't know if I should speak of it."

"Uh..."

The corner of Wu Chang's mouth twitched in a fake smile; he knew Liu Wei wasn't up to any good.

"Speak freely."

Liu Wei and Liu Shan exchanged a look, and after confirming each other's intentions, Liu Wei said, "Uncle Shan should have told you that a year ago, a scholar passed through and improved the Year-End Sacrifice."

"He did mention it."

"When the scholar left, he left behind a palace lantern. The palace lantern is the core of the improved Year-End Sacrifice; without it, the ceremony cannot begin."

Wu Chang caught Liu Wei's meaning, "That palace lantern is not in the village?"

A look of worry appeared on Liu Wei's face as he said, "We lent it to the neighboring Chen Family Village. According to our agreement, the people from Chen Family Village should have come to return the palace lantern the day before yesterday, but there has been no news until now."

"We would like to ask Hero Wu to make a trip to Chen Family Village to see if they have encountered any danger. If everything is normal, please bring the palace lantern back with you."

Wu Chang asked, "Is it possible that the people from Chen Family Village ran off with the palace lantern?"

"That is absolutely impossible," Liu Wei denied.

"The Four-Direction Palace Lantern is integrated with the Year-End Array in the village. The Year-End Array replenishes the lantern oil for the palace lantern; once removed from the array, the palace lantern will lose its effectiveness after half a month."

If it were Liu Shan making the request, he might not have thought too much about it, but since it was Liu Wei issuing the task, he had to ask clearly to avoid Liu Wei having ulterior motives and wanting to strike at him prematurely.

"Since they don't have the Year-End Array, why did they borrow the lantern?"

"The Four-Direction Palace Lantern can control flames and has the ability to drive away monsters. Chen Family Village used it to escort the women and children of the village to a safe location to take refuge, leaving only the able-bodied men to guard the village, just like us."

Wu Chang was silent for a moment, weighing things in his heart, and finally decided to agree to Liu Wei's request.

At this moment, he suddenly understood the protagonists in various RPG games.

In the past, when he played games, he could never understand why he, a great hero in the game, would be driven around like a grandson by various NPCs, having to do chores like fetching water, chopping wood, or running errands.

He had often wanted to ask, didn't those NPCs have hands?

Now he understood: when a protagonist must rely on NPCs to achieve a certain goal, even if these NPCs want to do the chores themselves, he wouldn't dare let them do it.

For instance, right now, even if Liu Wei wanted to take the able-bodied men of the village with him, he would be worried that these ordinary people would attract monsters to him along the way.

To minimize variables when clearing a level, even for errands, a hero must do it himself.

After getting the map from Liu Wei, Wu Chang said, "In that case, there is no time to lose; I will set off now."

Wu Chang retrieved his horse, and just as he came down from the mountain and before he had started his journey, he heard a commotion coming from the woods at the foot of the mountain.

Following the sound, he discovered a group of boys from Huaigu Village.

The boys were mostly eleven or twelve years old, and they were standing in a circle, tossing a rabbit back and forth.

Trapped in the center of the circle was the village-guarding boy he had seen last night; the boy had a silly smile on his face, running back and forth in the circle as the rabbit was tossed.

Every time the village-guarding boy was about to grab the rabbit, the tallest and strongest child-king among the boys would kick him, sending him back to the center of the circle, and then they would continue their mockery. "Bang!"

A massive gunshot exploded in the woods; the cotton hat on the child-king's head was blown apart on the spot, and the bullet grazed his scalp, leaving a charred, bald scar on the top of his head.

"What game is so fun? Count me in," Wu Chang said with a smile, taking a step forward and catching the rabbit that the startled child-king had thrown.

"Oh no, it's the hero! Run!"

Someone said this, and the village boys scattered like birds and beasts, leaving only the child-king with the "middle-part" hairstyle, still holding his kicking pose, standing in place.

Wu Chang glanced at him sideways, "Not leaving yet? Are you planning to keep playing?"

The child-king shook his head hurriedly, crying as he ran toward the village, leaving a trail of yellow liquid on the path he trod.

Wu Chang shook his head; of all things to learn, they learned bullying, thinking this dungeon plane also has a minor protection law, right?

The village-guarding boy didn't realize at all that he had been bullied, and still shouted at the child-king with a silly smile, "Why stop playing? Don't go."

Wu Chang handed the rabbit in his hand to the village-guarding boy and said, "They have something urgent to do; let's play another day."

"Oh," the village-guarding boy responded dejectedly, stroking the rabbit in his arms.

The boy stroked it while whispering, "Don't be afraid, they were just playing with you."

The rabbit, which had been curled into a ball from fright, recovered in the blink of an eye under the village-guarding boy's soothing.

A look of surprise flashed in Wu Chang's eyes; was this boy a Druid?

Looking at the boy, who was dressed in rags, with chilblains on his hands and feet, and could only rely on wrapped straw to keep out the cold, Wu Chang untied the bundle on his horse's back and draped the thick cotton coat Liu Shan had prepared for him over the boy.

"It's not safe lately; find a place to hide."

The village-guarding boy stared straight at Wu Chang, "Can you play with me?"

"Not today, I have to go out on business," Wu Chang said dismissively.

The village-guarding boy pointed to the mountain at the very edge of Huaigu Village, "I live there; you can come there to find me and play."

"Next time for sure."

After the brief interlude, Wu Chang left Huaigu Village and headed straight for Chen Family Village on the map.

Huaigu Village and Chen Family Village were twenty miles apart, but these twenty miles were mountain roads, and there were several dangerous mountain areas in between, requiring a detour.

According to the normal walking pace of the villagers of Huaigu Village, it would take three days to reach Chen Family Village, and nearly a week for a round trip.

The roads in the hundred-mile Huai Mountain were complex, and outsiders easily got lost in the mountains; without a detailed route map, it was easy to get lost.

Once lost, one wouldn't know where they would end up.

The player grievances, which were almost evenly distributed across the various danger points of the hundred-mile Huai Mountain, demonstrated the price of getting lost in the Huai Mountain.

However, it was precisely because of these grievances that Wu Chang had them to guide him wherever he went.

Through the grievances, he could see the information obtained by his predecessors who had used their own bodies to test for errors; relying on this information, he could foresee the activity rules of the monsters in advance and didn't have to waste time detouring around dangerous areas.

Traveling at high speed, by the Shen hour, with the sun just past the west, he arrived at the area where Chen Family Village was located.

Chen Family Village was built against the mountain, near the intersection of two mountain roads.

Although it did not possess a valley and large tracts of farmland within it like Huaigu Village, it was a trade hub of the hundred-mile Huai Mountain due to its convenient transportation, and the conditions within the village were no less than those of Huaigu Village.

The geographical advantages of the two villages complemented each other, and their sizes were comparable, so they had always maintained a close relationship, close enough to lend out the magical palace lantern.

With such a close relationship, Chen Family Village's failure to return the palace lantern made the people of Huaigu Village worry that Chen Family Village had met with an accident.

Wu Chang stood on high ground, checking the route map Liu Wei had given him.

He saw that the area where Chen Family Village should have been was now shrouded in gray-white mist, and even the outline of the village could not be seen clearly.

Liu Wei and the others had guessed correctly; Chen Family Village had indeed encountered trouble—big trouble.

(End of chapter)