"Who is the real one and who is the fake?"
Qi Xiaoshuang felt a bit dizzy from being led in circles, and Feng Yuan smiled and said,
"They might all be real or all be fake, whatever happens here won’t leave any trace in history."
"If you think they are real, then they are real; if you think they are fake, then they are fake."
"You’re making me somewhat dizzy... wait, let me catch my breath."
Qi Xiaoshuang held her forehead, feeling a headache coming on, and saw Feng Yuan smiling mischievously while Dou Yanlan calmly said,
"The people from Noscarte and Calien have technically become independent from time, right?"
"That’s right, what about it?"
Dou Yanlan glanced at Jenna and sighed,
"Get ready to head to the Giant Rock Tavern, take out your weapons."
Qi Chen, surprised, looked at Dou Yanlan and asked,
"Why are you taking us to the Giant Rock Tavern?!"
"You plan to take that little path behind the tavern, right? You can avoid going through the Giant Rock Tavern by going around the side."
Feng Yuan walked to the front of the group, and Dou Yanlan took a few steps back and said,
Feng Yuan led the group along the path until they arrived in front of a dilapidated building; he then turned around and looked at the White Wolf Deity, asking,
"What to do when you come across a door you can’t open? If this were an RPG, now would be the time to find an NPC and do a quest to get the key, but we are in a sandbox, after all~"
"What nonsense are you spouting now, it doesn’t make any sense."
Qi Chen looked at Feng Yuan, speechless, when suddenly the White Wolf Deity leapt up and sprayed a gust of white mist at the door, which the next moment turned into a huge block of ice. Shortly after, the ice shattered, bringing pieces of the wooden door crashing to the ground.
"Even the best lock doesn’t matter if you simply destroy the door~"
"That’s called breaking and entering..."
Qi Chen looked speechlessly at Feng Yuan, while Dou Yanlan patted Qi Chen’s shoulder, saying,
"Don’t worry about it, no one lives here."
Seeing the room behind the door was full of cobwebs, Qi Chen breathed a sigh of relief. Although the people here might exist outside of time and could be slightly more reckless, breaking and entering and meeting the owner would still feel odd.
Yang Hongzhi, holding Najia, followed the group into the room. Noticing that Najia seemed a bit scared, he whispered to her,
"Don’t be afraid, he’s here, nothing will happen."
Hearing Yang Hongzhi’s whisper, Qi Xiaoshuang chuckled and said,
"I never imagined that guy, who is so unreliable on a regular basis, could actually be considered a pillar of support~"
"Xiao Shuang! Stop talking nonsense!"
Qi Chen gave Qi Xiaoshuang a stern look, and she stuck out her tongue, while Yang Hongzhi chuckled and said,
"His strength is convincing enough. It’s just that he tends to follow his own desires a bit too often."
"Is that what you call following his own desires?..."
Qi Chen, with a touch of headache, held his forehead as Feng Yuan led the group to a small room that looked like a bedroom, with its rundown furniture. Just when Qi Chen and others were puzzled about why Feng Yuan brought them here, the White Wolf Deity again destroyed a wall. Looking at the tidy path behind the wall, Dou Yanlan chuckled and said,
"Did you just create your own path where there was none?"
Feng Yuan said proudly, while Dou Yanlan had Cotton use Shadow Claw on the tired furniture. Watching the furniture break into pieces with a cloud of dust, Dou Yanlan laughed and said,
"It’s quite fun, shame we can’t do this every day."
After glancing at Qi Chen, Dou Yanlan flicked her long hair and said,
"What? Having regrets?"
"Not at all! Just... you right now... this..."
"Enough, it’s better to vent fully now than to suppress it all the time. It’s quite fun, isn’t it?"
Looking at Dou Yanlan, Qi Chen hesitated a long time but ultimately did not command Ah Mu to attack and break the objects around.
"It seems she still chose that path of no return."
A scholarly middle-aged man stood on the highest terrace of Noscarte Fort, looking down at Calien Town enveloped in a thick white mist. The mist slowly advanced toward Noscarte Fort in the night. Shaking the wine glass in his hand, the man seemed to express regret as he said,
"Why can’t you see? With enough strength, those so-called Divine Lords are merely toys in our hands."
The faux Yagina stood atop the highest statue of the Noscarte Fort, staring at the fog shrouding Calien with a gaze full of combativeness, focusing on the direction where Najia was.
Seeing Feng Yuan suddenly looking around, Qi Xiaoshuang asked with some bewilderment, noticing that Najia in her arms seemed to be searching for something just like Feng Yuan, Yang Hongzhi spoke softly,
"Did you find something?"
"Seems like something is watching us."
Feng Yuan summoned the Greatsword and swung it fiercely, the walls of the houses along the alley sprouted countless ice spikes. Sheathing the Greatsword, Feng Yuan said somewhat dissatisfied,
"Tch! Not nearby, huh?"
Seeing Najia wanting to act, Yang Hongzhi quickly hugged it and said,
"Don’t get agitated, your body won’t be able to take it."
Feng Yuan glanced at Yang Hongzhi without saying anything, continued along the alley, and Qi Xiaoshuang asked with some curiosity,
"Where does this path lead to? How come the houses along the way have no windows?"
"This is sort of a shortcut, leading directly inside Noscarte Fort. Those houses are just cover, basically uninhabited."
Feng Yuan turned her head and looked at Qi Xiaoshuang saying,
"Have you forgotten what the Giant Rock Tavern is for?"
"Isn’t it just... you mean this path is used for passing intelligence? But isn’t that too obvious?"
"Not particularly obvious. The Echo Boulder Tavern, as a renowned tavern of Noscarte, has had a long-standing order for their drinks from the fort. It wouldn’t be too strange to have such an alley for that reason..."
Feng Yuan smiled and glanced at Jenna saying,
"That’s the story after it got big, but actually this place is basically undiscovered. Don’t forget where this is, the civilian district. No one would bother with such trivia, and even if they did..."
Feng Yuan continued with a chilling tone,
"There’s a kind of accident called knowing too much."
Qi Xiaoshuang said, somewhat incredulously, Feng Yuan spread her hands and looked at Jenna saying,
Biting her lip, Jenna said somewhat angrily,
"Indeed, it’s very consistent with their usual modus operandi."
"That’s the huge class disparity of the Dynasty Era."
Dou Yanlan didn’t seem surprised and calmly said to Qi Xiaoshuang, who was looking at the quiet buildings around and spoke softly,
"These houses weren’t all inhabited before, were they?"
"Probably, after all, if there were a bunch of uninhabited houses, anyone could spot the problem."
Qi Xiaoshuang’s gaze turned towards Feng Yuan, looking somewhat saddened and seemingly expecting something, but unfortunately, Feng Yuan shook her head saying,
"Perhaps people used to live here, just that a variety of ’accidents’ led to the gradual abandonment of these houses."
"Alright, let’s not talk about that."
Qi Chen gently patted Qi Xiaoshuang’s back and said while the White Wolf Deity leaned against Qi Xiaoshuang, rubbing her with its body as if to comfort her.
Following the alleyway, everyone arrived at an iron door. Jenna looked at the iron door somewhat nostalgically and said,
"If it were the Echo Boulder Tavern, behind this would be the castle’s cellar. As kids, we used to sneak out following the transport teams carrying drinks. We thought ourselves so clever and that the adults never noticed, but little did we know..."
Jenna said, laughing at herself. Feng Yuan looked at Jenna and asked,
"Do you have the key to this place?"
"No, the keys to the castle are all with Captain Borian. Besides, this place..."
Jenna lightly brushed her hand over the locked iron door. Here was Calien Town; the other side of the iron door surely wasn’t Noscarte Fort. Even Jenna didn’t know where the dark passageway would lead.
"If a physical lockpick won’t do... then let’s go with a magical one~"
Glancing at Feng Yuan, who was preparing to act, Qi Xiaoshuang pursed her lips and said,
"Aren’t you going to try picking the lock?"
Feng Yuan said and drew out the Greatsword, slashing fiercely at the iron door. The chill-emitting Greatsword struck the door, busting it open and slamming it violently against the passageway’s stone walls.