In this remote ancient village, Zhang Sijia, with her beautiful face and delicate skin, was undoubtedly a dimensional crush compared to the village women with waxen complexions and rough, dark skin.
Lu Wenwu used his spiritual power to take in all the movements from all directions.
The village women looked at Zhang Sijia with eyes filled with covert hostility, casually pulling their husbands who had been enchanted by her back home by the ear.
For a moment, the whole road quieted down considerably.
Soon, everyone arrived at the residence led by Dazhu.
Aiken stood still at the courtyard gate, turned off the systemâs simultaneous interpretation, and pointed in the opposite direction, asking awkwardly in clumsy Chinese: "Here, glutinous rice shop, why, in village? Red words, not very auspicious, right?"
Dazhu, indulged in beauty, awoke and looked at Aiken bewilderedly: "What did you say, blond boss?"
Da Bao replied gruffly: "He asked why there is a glutinous rice shop in the village and why the sign is of that color. In Archbishop Aikenâs impression, people here generally think red letters are not very lucky, so itâs rare for a shop to use it as a sign, making it curious to him."
Including Dazhu, everyone looked towards the direction Aiken pointed.
A not very large wooden sign hung at the entrance, scribbled with a few words.
[Longevity Glutinous Rice Shop]
Apparently without ink, the shop owner with lacking calligraphy skills used some inferior cinnabar to write it at the time, making the words appear in a bizarre reddish-brown color.
Finally realizing, Dazhu had a face of enlightenment mixed with some grievance: "Ah, youâre talking about that? This shop is run by the village chiefâs family and has been around for over a hundred years, usually selling rice, noodles, grains, and oil."
"As for the sign... donât even mention it; we all think itâs unlucky. You say, whoâs going to use red letters for this?!"
"But thereâs no way around it; the village chiefâs family runs it. The sign is reportedly written by an esteemed expert very close to the village chiefâs family back then, and changing it would be disrespectful, wouldnât it?"
"So, this thing has just hung there for all these years, until now."
Zhang Sijia said softly: "The words written by this expert are so bad, not even as pretty as mine. Back when I was learning to write, the teacher said my handwriting didnât even look as decent as a dogâs paw prints."
Upon hearing this, Mao Mao squatted down in pride, puffed his chest, raised his dog head high, exuding an air of pride.
"Smack!"
Lu Wenwu slapped the dogâs head.
"And youâre getting proud too, can you write?"
"Woof!"
"Still daring to talk back?"
"Woof woof..."
...
Calm, incredibly calm.
Besides Lu Wenwu attracting a strong crowd while roasting egg-filled pancakes in the small courtyard, the rest was uneventful worthy of mention.
This made Aiken, who was cautiously on guard, feel tense.
As the most serious person in the team, this Holy Knight, also serving as archbishop, staunchly believed that if things stayed calm, it must mean something big was brewing.
The Dungeon World couldnât possibly be so smooth for them.
So, he volunteered to take the first watch shift.
Moreover, Aiken carefully set up an array called the Holy Light Spirit Array around the small courtyard, said to ward off evil invasions and serve as an early warning.
Ahmed the mummy had a lot to say about this.
Though he had taken out a Tutankhamun replica coffin, the intense Holy Light Power made it difficult for him to enter a sleep state.
Unable to sleep, he simply went to chat with others in the courtyard under the dark.
The gentle Octopus Lady curiously asked: "Mr. Mummy, you are not a traditional undead creature, and youâre not categorized into the evil faction by the Holy Light, yet does the Holy Light bother you the same?"
"Of course, these users of Holy Light and their Holy Light are the most unreasonable beings in the world!" Ahmed complained with resentment, "Theyâre just as irrational as those frantic vegetarians!"
While Aiken wasnât looking, Lu Wenwu secretly gestured with a thumbs-up in agreement.
In Northern slang, these folks who believe in Holy Light are really "stubborn"!
Though their intentions are mostly good.
However, their execution method and process...
Itâs simply more infuriating than Fa Hai!
Da Bao, always straightforward, didnât comment, just smiling while eating pancakes and gently scratching Mao Maoâs chin.
"According to that Eastern horror movieâs interpretation, should we prepare some glutinous rice?"
After venting about the Holy Knights, Ahmed pointed towards the glutinous rice shop.
"And protractor and red lines, I wonder if the village has them."
"Weâll know when we check tomorrow if the village has a carpenter." Da Bao said in a deep voice, "But I feel uneasy; normally, survival-type dungeons shouldnât put the most crucial survival tools in plain sight. If it were like this, it only proves..."
"The dungeonâs difficulty will be very high, high enough for the dungeon to think itâs obviously indicating our certain death." Lu Wenwu showed a bright smile, affirming, "But... thatâs what makes it interesting! I canât wait to go on a rampage!"
Zhang Sijia stroked Mao Maoâs smooth fur and asked slowly: "I remember black dog blood can restrain zombies, donât know if Mao Mao... Hey? Why did you run?"
"Mao Mao is not a black dog woof!"
Mao Mao shrunk back into Lu Wenwuâs arms in fright, tucked its tail, trying to curl its already large frame inwards.
But seemingly with little effect.
"Mao Maoâs blood is useless! Useless!"
"Hahahaha..."
The others couldnât help but laugh at Mao Maoâs cute appearance, filling the courtyard with joyous atmosphere.
"Everyone, thereâs a situation!"
Amidst the laughter, Aiken suddenly walked in quickly with a serious face, speaking urgently.
"My warning amulet was triggered, there is a team heading towards Longevity Village, on the road we came by!"
Hmm?
Upon hearing this, Lu Wenwu perked up immediately.
"How many people, what strength, anyone wants to go?"
Aiken was puzzled by his trio of questions, subconsciously asked: "What do you mean who wants to go?"
"Nevermind, answer my first two questions." Lu Wenwu was already gearing up.
"About ten B+ level, the rest are all B-level." Aiken responded quickly, "They are strong, in my perception, at least five are equivalent to players who have cultivated to three or four levels of inheritance-level cultivation techniques, and two of them are even..."
"Great, you all stay here, donât move, protect yourselves, Iâll be right back."
Lu Wenwu couldnât wait, tucked Mao Mao under his left arm, and immediately spread the Azure Sky Wings on his back.
With a flash of blue light, he soared into the sky, rushing towards the dirt road the group had initially came from.
"...are equivalent to top B+ experts who have cultivated four or so levels of ultimate level cultivation techniques!" Aiken finished saying the complete latter half of the sentence now.
Zhang Sijia stretched out a tentacle and pointed: "Mr. Aiken, Violent Dragon has already gone..."
Of course, Aiken saw that Lu Wenwu had already left.
So now he was extremely distraught, his eyes full of disbelief.
Man, I know your strength, but youâre being so reckless?
"No way, itâs too dangerous for him to go alone, we need to hurry and support him!"
...
Just while the teammates were still in a daze, Lu Wenwu had already run into the enemy.
[Cursed Zombie Puppet Yi Yonghong/Former Player Yi Yonghong (B+)]: 380000/380000
[Current Status]: Soul Imprisonment, Evil Curse, Evil Magic Blessing, Zombie Body, Chaotic Spiritual Wisdom, Bloodthirst
Former player?
Lu Wenwuâs smile faded, immediately looked towards other zombie puppets.
Player!
Player!
Still players!
Those at the B+ level even have the former player title prefix.