Chapter 412: Warehouse Keeper (3/10, Autumn Subscription)

Fang Yue:???

So I'm a warehouse keeper now?

What's the point of being a warehouse keeper? The things you store aren't even yours, isn't that just working for someone else? Worker bees, worker souls, workers are the cream of the crop—so why are we looked down on? Can't we workers stand tall? But if you ask me whether I'm willing to be a warehouse keeper? I can only say…

"I swear I'll complete the task Lord Meiyu assigned!!"

"Mm."

After a pause, Meiyu glanced at the mark on the back of Fang Yue's hand: "The curse on the back of your hand is no simple matter, but I have to hurry off to Jing Shan and don't have time to deal with it for you. From what you've told me, this place is Qing Guo? Then if you have the time, you can go to Qian Yao Palace yourself, find the Palace Master of Qian Yao Palace and ask for treatment—just say I sent you."

Qian Yao Palace? Jing Shan?

Fang Yue was a bit bewildered; these were all places he had never heard of.

He turned to look at the others, all of them equally lost—even Lord Han was no exception.

But before Fang Yue could ask further, Meiyu transformed into a gust of green wind and vanished before his eyes, so fast that it left them no time to react, only leaving behind a single sentence from far away.

"Don't bother the main body. She too is an immortal's vessel."

Fang Yue:?!!

Holy crap!

Fang Yue immediately glared furiously at the parchment.

"You told her about our business??"

【……】

"Speak!"

【She—she threatened me…】

"You—you—you, you're really…"

For a moment, Fang Yue didn't know what to say.

The parchment, however, as if its eyeballs had rolled, quietly produced text: "Oh right, uh, Fang Yue, now that we've finally dissolved the contract, let's not sign that unfair contract this time, alright?"

Dream on!

Sign it!

Fang Yue's forceful attitude, combined with the silver might he had just yielded to Meiyu Xianzi's avatar, gave him away just a little.

Guilty as charged, teary-eyed, the parchment signed the contract with Fang Yue once more.

Fang Yue felt the parchment return to his hand, and for once, a rare sense of solid comfort settled in his heart.

But the moment he thought of the main body awakening and coming to take back the parchment, Fang Yue felt a twinge of unease.

Something I've already swallowed—am I supposed to spit it back out?

Immortal-grade… as long as he reached Immortal-grade, even if Meiyu's main body woke, he'd have the strength to fight her, no longer forced to stand by helplessly and watch the parchment be snatched away like before.

This is a cuckold, the cuckold must die!

As for the previous plan—killing Meiyu's main body in reality or whatever—was already fit to be abandoned.

Because the Cheaters, at the end of the Inner Side, had synchronized their in-game and real-world strength once.

In other words… Meiyu's slumbering main body is also an immortal's vessel!

Fang Yue was only at the Postnatal realm now, and his body's toughness had already begun racing wildly in the inhuman direction—one could well imagine how terrifying the bodily toughness of an Immortal-grade powerhouse, an immortal's vessel, would be.

And to think the parchment had excitedly agreed with his plan earlier—was that sending me to my death?

【Slander! There's always a way, there's gotta be a way to kill that old witch's main body!!】

Oh, shut up!

Fang Yue's face darkened; he wasn't about to listen to the parchment's nonsense.

Lord Han, beside him, looked at Fang Yue as if wanting to speak but holding back.

Clearly very curious about Fang Yue's relationship with Meiyu Xianzi, and about matters like the parchment.

But since it involved Fang Yue's secrets, Lord Han still held back his impulse.

Jing Yan next to him, however, was far more direct.

"Holy shit! Ye Ge, that's badass, you're fine after that, you snatched your life back! Oh right, what's that parchment Lord Meiyu wanted actually for? And what's she going to Jing Shan for?"

Fang Yue rolled his eyes.

I wish I knew.

Anyway, the Cheaters probably have some grand scheme, likely tied to the United Front as well.

But on second thought, Fang Yue felt something was off—what was the point of the Cheaters laying out their plan inside the game? And across two whole epochs? Could they all have lived over a thousand years?

No, no, that shouldn't be the case.

Fang Yue figured it must be that their closed-beta timeline was two epochs ago, and after the closed beta ended and the game synchronized data once, the in-game world had developed for over a thousand years, while they themselves had fallen into slumber in reality.

Fang Yue still didn't know why the Cheaters had collectively fallen into slumber; he'd asked the parchment, but the parchment treated it as a deep taboo and never responded.

The upper echelons of the United Front probably knew a thing or two, but a small fry like Fang Yue couldn't reach that kind of stage, didn't have the standing to ask such secrets.

"Alright, alright, everyone stop asking. Anything involving Meiyu Xianzi, matters at that level aren't something we can worry about. What happened today, no one is to mention again—if outsiders learn of it, we may face deadly peril. And if something does happen, the enemies drawn here will inevitably be on the same level as Meiyu Xianzi… immortals!"

Hearing Lord Han say this, everyone fell silent at once.

The urge to keep pressing Fang Yue with questions faded as well.

Beneath Immortal-grade, all are ants!

No one wanted to be crushed like an ant—who'd choose to court death when they could live?

It's just that Qing Guo and the surrounding nations hadn't seen an immortal in a very long time. If an immortal truly came to trouble them, it would have to be an immortal from the lands further out.

For a moment, everyone was lost in their own thoughts.

It took a good while before their moods settled.

*Slap! *

Lin Ling clasped her hands together and said to the group, "Enough. Meiyu Xianzi has left. Immortal affairs are far above us mortals; there's no need to dwell on them. Everyone, snap to it—we're heading to Qingsi County."

Without Meiyu Xianzi's unexpected intervention, we would have already been on the road to Qingsi County.

Fortunately, the team's preparations were nearly complete.

Under Lin Ling's command, the Gu Yue Cun contingent—now fewer than a hundred souls, like a candle flickering in the wind—marched along the ruined village path.

Gu Yue Cun's location was unusual, situated within a dead-end-like formation.

Behind them lay the Heiqing Shanmai; if possible, no one wanted to venture deep into the Heiqing Shanmai—such a place was wilderness beyond wilderness, the home of the bizarre, and entering it would likely cost them more than a few lives.

Thus, the only viable route was the very path Fang Yue had taken when leaving and returning to the village.

Only by following that path to the fork could they begin heading toward Qingsi County.

Having just endured Meiyu's sudden attack, many in the group remained tense, walking along the upturned surface of the village path, alert to everything around them.

Yet as they traveled this stretch and reached the fork, they encountered no danger whatsoever.

Fang Yue suspected it was likely because the Wu Yu tribe's attack had frightened off other weaker bizarre entities, leaving this area unusually sparse in such threats.

But this was only temporary.

Now that the Wu Yu tribe's force was destroyed, those bizarre entities that had retreated would surely return here.

(End of Chapter)