Chapter 74


    “Do you also want to go to Daliang City together?” Looking at the two guests who were the first to greet her in the courtyard, Qing Fei, who had just returned from doing something outside, blinked her eyes and nodded without hesitation, “Sure, sure! Go find Grandpa Vige Chief, he will help arrange your entry permits for the city.”


    Her attitude was so straightforward that it made both Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang stunned. The lie they had prepared in their minds had no chance to be used, and it “died in the womb”.


    Originally, they had fabricated identities as two country bumpkins who had been isted in the mountains until their elders passed away, forcing them toe out and see the world… For a moment, the two felt strangely regretful.


    They quickly shook their heads to get rid of this inappropriate emotion, then frowned, realizing that the situation was not simple.


    — Two strangers of unknown origin, asking to join the vige’s group to enter the city using the vige’s identity, no matter how you look at it, it shouldn’t be something that could be agreed to so easily, right?


    Even though Qing Fei in front of them looked only about thirteen or fourteen years old, since she could make such an important decision for the vige, she couldn’t possibly be as easily fooled as an ordinary child.


    The hesitant and conflicted expressions on their faces werepletely caught by Qing Fei, but this enthusiastic host didn’t seem to have any intention of exining things to her guests.


    Instead, she seemed to have finally foundpanions for an adventure. With a smile on her face, she put her hands behind her back and happily trotted back to her room. Every frame of her retreating figure seemed to spell out the word “excitement”.


    Left behind, Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang looked at each other, both hesitant and uneasy, deeply fearing that they had missed some detail, or if there was something about them that could be exploited by others.Could it be… that their background had been seen through? No, perhaps she knew from the beginning… Thinking about how they had been secretly observing the vige from outside, this strange little girl might have been observing them from inside the vige. Maybe she even saw the scene when they first arrived in this world, and perhaps it was because of this that she became interested in them and was willing to help them enter the city… The two felt suffocated at the thought.


    At this moment, these childhood friends miraculously connected their thought processes, both thinking of Yin Xubai’s various experiments, and for the first time felt an unprecedented sense of empathy.


    However, they weren’t empathizing with Yin Xubai, the perverted scientist, but with the various experimental subjects observed by Yin Xubai.


    “Why haven’t youe in yet? We’re leaving early tomorrow morning!”


    The previously closed door opened a crack, and a small head with two braids peeked out. Her bright ck eyes looked at the two people standing still in the courtyard with confusion.


    “Oh, oh, we’reing right now!”


    The two finally snapped out of their trance, nced at each other, and seemed to see in each other’s eyes the embarrassment of wanting to escape by boarding a train overnight.


    What experiments, what observations, how could such a cute little girl be like the perverted Yin Xubai? It must be an illusion caused by staying with Yin Xubai for too long…


    Behind them, the girl’s eyes blinked a few times, filled with both curiosity and confusion. “Could it be them?”


    “The ones who can take me away from Shicun Vige…”


    ****


    The sky had not yet brightened. The sun was like a melted egg yolk, coating the surrounding clouds with a warm and hazy ze, and draping ayer of dawn light over the city standing silently in the remnants of night.


    At the wide-open city gate, a group of about a dozen people was entering the city. In the group, a young man and woman were queuing up obediently while curiously looking around.


    “The road into the city is unexpectedly short. I thought since this world only has ten cities in total, each city would be about the size of a country in our ancient times…”


    The two huddled together, whispering and asionally looking at the tall city walls and the surrounding crowds. They seemed fascinated by everything they saw and continued to quietly exchange their guesses.


    “This world feels much smaller than I imagined. Could they still be living in an era before the great voyages? Besides the continent represented by these ten cities, are there other undiscovered continents? We originally thought these ten cities represented the entire world, but could it actually be just one country? Just like the ancient Yao Country before other continents were discovered?”


    “That’s a reasonable guess…”


    They spoke in low voices, mostly expressing awe at the appearance of Daliang City. When it came to things inconvenient to say out loud, they tapped and struck each other’s palms in code, using secret signals instead. Their gawking appearance made them look no different from any other “country bumpkins” entering the city for the first time.


    In the crowd, some people who noticed this scene frowned disdainfully and quickly averted their gaze from these country folk, as if fearing they might catch their uncouthness if they looked too long. Naturally, they overlooked the subtle movements of their almost intertwined hands and fingers tapping on each other’s palms.


    “Alright, let’s go,” Qing Fei, the little girl, skipped over to Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang after smoothly passing through the city gate inspection. She shed her trademark sweet smile, showing deep dimples. “Brother Li, Sister Liu, where do you want to go y?”


    “Eh?” The two were startled simultaneously, their sped hands naturally separating as they instinctively looked towards the rest of the group.


    Qing Fei followed their gaze and immediately understood their meaning. She shook her hand, “They’re going to sell goods, so boring! Don’t mind them, let’s go y, let’s go y, okay?” As she spoke, she nimbly positioned herself between the two, taking one hand each, and began swinging their arms in a yful manner.


    This set of well-practiced actions,bined with the little girl’s cute smile and voice, made it impossible to refuse.


    Liu Ningshuang immediately dered surrender. “Okay, okay, where do you want to go? We’re not familiar with this ce…” After all, their purpose of entering the city had been achieved, and they could start gathering information from anywhere. Having a local as a guide might even make things smoother.


    Li Fufeng nodded in agreement beside her, indicating he was on board.


    “Eh? This is my first time in Daliang City too…” Qing Fei, who had just achieved her goal, didn’t have time to be happy before she puffed up her cheeks in frustration. Then, she shook her little head left and right for half a turn, her eyes rolling around as if trying to judge where would be more fun based on the flow of people around them.


    What? The “guide” is also here for the first time? Yet you acted so experienced… Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang were both amused and exasperated. Just as they were about to say something, they saw the little girl, who had been looking left and right, suddenly brighten up, as if she had really figured out where would be more fun. She raised Liu Ningshuang’s hand and pointed in a certain direction, “Let’s go that way! It seems like something fun is happening over there.”


    This Daliang City had a style reminiscent of ancient Yao Country, with green bricks and red wood, blue tiles and ornate roofs. On the main streets paved with t bluestone, people were bustling about. Perhaps the only difference was that almost everyone here carried swords or daggers, and asionally people would leap high over the houses and alleys like flying birds.


    The red sun had risen to the middle of the sky, set against the tallest tower in the city, like the golden crow from mythology perched on the Fusang tree.


    The direction Qing Fei pointed to was towards the central tower of the city. In that direction also stood the mansion of Daliang City’s lord.


    After entering the city gate, the surging crowd had been dispersed by the branching main roads, suddenly bing sparse. As they walked on the road towards the city lord’s mansion, they faintly heard discussions from the side.


    “Hiss, the corpse… really disappeared?”


    “That’s no lie, we all saw it with our own eyes. The executioner had just carried out the sentence, and the next moment the body disappeared… This was witnessed by the city lord, the executioner, and the hundreds of spectators gathered at the execution ground. We all saw it with our own eyes!”


    “This… it’s ghostly! How can such a thing happen? A severed head, yet able to escape. Could that Kunlun ve know sorcery?”


    “That shouldn’t be possible, right?”


    “I think it must have been a monster in disguise. Yellow hair and blue eyes, has anyone ever seen such a person before? You all say it’s a Kunlun ve from ancient texts, but I say it’s a monster.”


    “The monster theory is absurd! If there were really mountain spirits and strange creatures in this world, how could the Skywalkers with their godly martial arts not detect them? If even one monster had ever been discovered, it would have made the front page of the ‘Martial Arts Gazette’. Since there’s never been the slightest rumor of monsters, they must not exist!”


    “Skywalkers? Who knows if there are still Skywalkers in this world! Not to mention if the Skywalkers are dead… mmph…”


    “Shh! Are you crazy? Saying such mad things, ndering the Skywalkers, all ten cities wouldn’t tolerate you…”


    In a corner of the street, the gazes of the two followed the speakers’ voices precisely, seeing two men dressed as wandering knights leaning very close to each other. The one in blue was covering the mouth of his thoughtlesspanion with one hand while warning him in a low voice. His gaze nervously scanned the surroundings, meeting the eyes of Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang.


    The blue-clothed man’s face froze, and he was about to leave quickly with hispanion, but when he lifted his leg, he couldn’t move.


    “!” He slowly lowered his head like a zombie, only to find the little girl in red who had somehow run to his side, her hand precisely gripping his trouser leg. She looked up at the blue-clothed man’s face, which had stiffened as if his father had died, and smiled with innocent curiosity. “Uncle, what are you talking about? I want to hear too.”


    The blue-clothed man’s raised heart slowly settled down. He tried to squeeze out a smile. “Little one, you must have misheard. We weren’t saying anything. And we don’t have any stories to tell you…”


    As he spoke, he brushed off the little girl’s hand and gave a meaningful look to hispanion who had regained his senses. Both of them simultaneously gathered their internal energy, their bodies bing light as they were about to leave.


    “Liar!” The little girl immediately frowned and reached out to grab again. Her young face suddenly had an indescribable aura.


    The blue-clothed man, who was about to soar into the air and flee, suddenly felt the internal energy in his body’s meridians freeze instantly. He seemed to have suddenly turned into an ordinary person with no martial arts skills.


    At this moment, he was like a bird that had just taken off but forgotten how to fly, instinctively pping its wings desperately, and in the chaos, he dragged his friend down with him.


    After stumbling a few steps before steadying himself, he looked down and still saw a small hand gripping his trouser leg, and the girl’s young face.


    The blue-clothed man was terrified. Thetter half of the little girl’s words also drifted to his ears. “I clearly heard you mention Skywalkers…”


    “Cough cough cough cough!” The blue-clothed man coughed frantically. Hispanion, not even having time toin about his friend’s actions that implicated him, quickly spoke up loudly, “We were talking about a strange incident that happened recently!”


    He shouted at the top of his voice, trying to cover the little girl’s words. “A few days ago, a Kunlun ve was executed at the execution ground. His head was clearly separated from his body, but the corpse disappeared before it even hit the ground!”


    “Kunlun ve?” Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang caught the key words.


    “Yes, a Kunlun ve.” Realizing that the topic had been sessfully changed and no one was focusing on the Skywalkers anymore, the man breathed a sigh of relief and smiled, “He was dressed strangely, with yellow hair and blue eyes, much like the Kunlun ves described in ancient books. However, we’ve never heard of Kunlun ves having such sorcery…”


    “Dressed strangely, yellow hair and blue eyes?” Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang exchanged a nce, feeling a strange sense of déjà vu.


    They suddenly thought of the missing people who disappeared in Kunshan, and those contestants, family members, and photographers from various countries around the world… Could it really be what they were thinking?


    Seeing that the two seemed very interested, the man tried even harder to steer the conversation in this direction, attempting to make them quickly forget about the Skywalkers topic. “Oh right, that Kunlun ve had twopanions, also dressed strangely, but with appearances simr to us from the Ten Cities…”


    “?!!” The gazes of the two immediately turned towards him, suddenly appearing very sharp.


    “…Since they didn’tmit capital crimes, they’re still being held in the dungeon of the city lord’s mansion. It’s said that the city lord will interrogate them today, and maybe we’ll find out what kind of sorcery it is.”<hr>


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