Chapter 21: Night Snow Swings the Blade, Mist Rises on the Tanghe

In the daytime, after Song Cheng and the three women finished breakfast, they quietly crept toward the outskirts of the mountain forest again.

Song Cheng could not bring himself to do something like "leaving his own woman alone at home." Although he did not have much combat experience, he had watched plenty of television in his past life; therefore, he was no stranger to the trope of "the woman is left at home, and then the house is raided."

He swept a glance behind him; the three women were holding the Third Master's saber, a sickle, and an axe, respectively, with combat power ratings of "2~2," "2~2," and "0~0."

Song Cheng squinted and looked at Young Mistress Nan Hui, who was still "0~0" even after taking the axe.

Hmm... perhaps the axe blade was rolled. The four of them climbed over mountains and ridges; the cold wind of deep winter swirled with sunlight, and the mixed, chilly stench of withered, rotting soil in the air rushed toward them. That putrid smell seemed to come from the carcass of a wild beast that had been rotting for who knows how long. Guan Xi suddenly spoke up, saying, "Mr. Song."

Song Cheng hurriedly waved his hand, saying, "I'm just a mud-legged peasant, I don't deserve to be called 'Mr.'"

Guan Xi said, "May this young woman ask, to what level have you trained?"

Song Cheng was taken aback, then immediately asked, "I'm just a country bumpkin who practices blindly. Miss Guan, could you enlighten me? What levels are there?"

Guan Xi said, "There are three realms for a Martial Artist: Force, Strength, and Form."

Among them, Force is the surface, which is the power of flesh and blood.

Strength is the interior, nurtured by flesh and blood.

To give an analogy, if power is the force of a heavily armored cavalryman charging on horseback, then Strength is the refined iron spear held in the cavalryman's hand.

As for Form... forgive this young woman's ignorance; I have heard the name, but I do not know its essence."

Once these words were spoken, the Young Mistress of the house beside them felt a sense of reverence, and at the same time, a feeling of inferiority arose in her heart.

Good heavens, city folk indeed.

This is what it means to be knowledgeable and well-read; even the way they speak is so refined.

Song Cheng was also stunned.

His interface clearly showed "Heaven Earth Profound Yellow, Jia Yi Bing Ding," so what was this "Force, Strength, Form"? Even if it corresponded to "Yellow Jia, Yellow Yi, Yellow Bing, Yellow Ding," wasn't one missing?

But if one matched them from the bottom up, it did correspond.

Thus, he said, "Oh, then I am still stuck at the level of Force."

Guan Xi said, "Then Mr. Song is not weak even within the Force Realm; the strength of that bandit from before must have already been close to breaking into the Great Accomplishment of the Force Realm."

Song Cheng said, "I ambushed him."

Guan Xi:... They set off in the morning and did not arrive at the front mountain until dusk.

Along the way, the Young Mistress of the house would constantly shout, "There are wild vegetables over there, wait for me to go cut some," "Hey, it would be a waste not to pick these frozen mushrooms," "Wow, why is there Fire Mother Grass here? Use it to brew tea, just one sip and you won't be cold all night"... This was the "herb-gathering syndrome" of a herb-gathering woman. By the time the four of them arrived at the front mountain, the Young Mistress of the house had already used the Third Master's saber to cut quite a lot of things, and her bamboo basket was already half full.

The Third Master's saber was quite good; as for who was close and who was distant, Song Cheng naturally gave it to his own woman.

A moment later, Song Cheng found an old tree with a good line of sight and hid behind it, with the three women lining up and huddling behind him.

Through the old tree, under the setting sun, there was actually a small settlement.

Bonfires were blazing, illuminating the figures around them; there must have been nearly two hundred people, including bandits, but most were still villagers.

Song Cheng was stunned for a moment.

So many people?

Tanghe Village had a total of less than three hundred households; after the forced conscription, the number of people remaining was likely only around eight hundred.

To be trapped in a forbidden area where Taboos roam, and yet still have so many survive?

Song Cheng asked again, "Miss Guan, how many bandits are there?"

Guan Xi answered fluently, "Fifty-six... most of them died in the village, and then some ran from the front of the village, while others ran here. The bandits here, excluding the Third Master, only have eight left."

Song Cheng found it even more incredible.

There were actually some who ran from the front of the village? Then Yun E killed even fewer people.

In his memory, once one fell into a Taboo of "Avici Hell," it was considered a stroke of great luck if one out of ten could escape; total annihilation was the normal phenomenon.

And apart from the few lucky ones who escaped, there was actually only one turning point.

That is: Chongxian.

"Chongxian" was the term used on the "Avici Hell" player forum.

That is, the events experienced by the source of the Taboo that were originally "programmed" into the Taboo.

Everyone who enters may at some point be drawn into the "Chongxian" and become a certain character.

If you go against the character, you will be immediately killed by the Taboo; if you wait for the Chongxian to end, you will also be immediately erased.

The only chance is to seek a path to survival while "playing the character"—this was the experience that the hardcore players of the "Avici Hell" forum had stayed up all night to figure out at the beginning of the game. It was mainly because this thing was truly addictive; once you put on the holographic glasses, you felt as if you had entered a ghost movie. Players who were tired of ordinary leveling games had finally waited for such an exciting and colorful game, so they naturally forgot to eat and sleep.

Yun E was, firstly, a newborn Taboo; secondly, the process of Yun E becoming a Taboo was actually not that smooth because it had been interrupted by him. This interruption was out of kindness, but would it weaken Yun E's original power? Many thoughts flashed by, and Song Cheng stopped dwelling on these baseless things; he began to patiently observe the people coming in and out of the camp below.

The bandits were naturally all masters.

Even though the villagers were numerous, no one dared to be presumptuous, and they were ordered around by the bandits.

And the village girls who were slightly attractive had long been divided up by the bandits, becoming private property, taken along wherever they went.

Just like how Guan Xi and Nan Hui had followed the Third Master before.

Lines of data flashed before Song Cheng's eyes.

"0~0" was the most common. A few others were things like "3~5" or "4~6."

Song Cheng observed until it was dark, and he continued to observe.

The three women were stunned behind him, following his line of sight, but they saw only pitch-black darkness and could see nothing at all.

Guan Xi reminded him, "Mr. Song, they have all entered their tents."

"Where did the tents come from?"

Being thorough in every detail, Song Cheng asked again.

Guan Xi said, "They sent people into the village to get them; usually, for every three who go, one comes back, sometimes four go and one comes back."

"Besides the tents, there is also some coarse grain flour and the like. They all go to the houses closest to Hou Shan to get them, and they come back as soon as they get them."

Song Cheng:??? Three go, and one can still come back? As expected, Young Mistress Yun E isn't fierce... He nodded and continued his observation.

In fact, by this point, his confidence had also begun to rise rapidly along with his observation.

The strongest person in the camp below turned out to be that "4~6".

Yet he was "16~29".

This battle, should be winnable?

Song Cheng decided to make a move.

However, he had to pick a good time.

Thus, he turned around and told the three women his plan.

The Young Mistress took the cold meat she had brought, distributed it to the others to eat, then rummaged through her bamboo basket to find grass with fiery red leaves, soaked them in water, took a sip herself, and then shared it with the others.

The night deepened; the weather in the deep mountains is fickle.

Just a moment ago, moonlight still filled the sky, but suddenly, a demonic wind arose, sending sand and stones flying.

The moonlight vanished, and dense, crimson clouds quietly drifted down, bringing falling snow.

Heaven and earth were devoid of light; walking here, everyone was like a blind person.

Song Cheng simply closed his eyes; the black-and-white world appeared before his eyes once more, and not a single data point could escape his sight.

A lightless night could affect anyone, but it could not affect him.

Song Cheng led the three women to a place closer to the tents, then pulled off his wolf-skin scabbard and crept over from the leeward side of the wind and snow. He caught sight of the nearest tent, looked through the tent to lock onto one data point that had no favorability rating and was clearly a bandit, poured strength into his arm, twisted his body, and his blade pierced the sky.

*Ssh! * The tent was pierced through, and the person behind it was also pinned dead to the ground.

Yet the other village girl sleeping beside them had not noticed a thing.

Song Cheng's hand rose and the blade fell, the blade fell and his hand rose.

In the snowy night, his heart pounded wildly, and he carried out the slaughter with immense tension.

Finally, in the darkness, a villager from Tanghe Village let out a terrified scream.

But by this time, Song Cheng had already killed all the bandits.

The tension in his heart eased slightly, but just as he sheathed his blade, his heart suddenly tightened.

In the direction of Tanghe Village to the west, it seemed... something was watching him.

"Is it Yun E?"

The cold, gloomy river had many corpses strewn across its bed.

These corpses were soaked until they were rotten, yet the flesh had strangely not fallen away.

A woman in green stood on the river surface amidst the light snow.

She was looking toward the east.

It was unknown what she was looking at.

After suppressing her murderous intent and letting some villagers go, her memories finally began to peel away rapidly.

What remained was only the "program execution" as a Ghost, or perhaps a tiny shred of memory still lingering in the deepest part of her shell.

Suddenly, one of the corpses on the riverbed floated up.

The corpse was bloated from soaking, yet one could vaguely see it was a bandit with a face full of flab and an immensely sturdy build.

If Guan Xi and Nan Hui were here, they would recognize this as the head bandit.

After the head bandit's corpse floated to the surface, the woman in green stared straight at him.

Suddenly, the woman in green's body sank beneath the water as if she had lost her Soul, while the head bandit stood up; his rotten flesh was repaired by a strange power, becoming as whole as it was in life.

Those fierce eyes rolled back, revealing two cruel, pale whites, devoid of any human vitality.

Rising mist, far superior to the mist that had previously covered the village, began to spread from the river, expanding outward; Taboo has "programming," and also "loading."

And the more powerful the carrier, the more it can unleash the power of the Taboo.

(End of chapter)