novellhall Chapter 112 Two Young Girls
Chapter 112 Two Young Girls
Chapter 112 Two Young Girls
Since they arrived in Yanxi Village, there have been several days of blizzards.
The snow flew horizontally, densely hitting people's faces with a soft thud, making no difference between day and night.
The snowfall was strange; staying outdoors made them feel their energy constantly draining away. At first, they didn't pay much attention, but after setting out to wipe out several groups of Red Sand Scorpions, they gradually realized something was wrong.
As the blizzard intensified, their strength was depleted rapidly, and they felt constantly being eroded while staying in the mountains.
After spending four or five days on the mountain, not only Lu Ren and his team, but also veteran professionals like Heishan Gaoyue looked exhausted.
However, this strange storm not only weakened them, but also affected the animals in the mountains and forests. In fact, the beasts were more severely affected than the beasts.
Their mission over the past few days had been going smoothly, eliminating 12 Red Sand Scorpions and nearly two hundred Rock-shelled Lizards. The mission was actually nearing its end, but now, looking at the vast expanse of white outside, everyone started to feel uneasy.
In a room resembling a village ancestral hall, the two teams began to discuss their plans.
"Miss Mei, you've been working as professionals in Yanzhou for so long, haven't you ever encountered such a bizarre blizzard?"
The dark-skinned girl smiled wryly upon hearing this, "No, when I had a cell phone signal, I consulted the professional association and some former colleagues, but they knew nothing about the situation we were talking about here."
"Mr. Gu and Miss Shen, you two come from prominent families, yet there are no records of this within your clans?"
Shen Yaoxing also shook his head, and the members of the Black Mountain High Moon Squad sighed helplessly upon seeing this.
But that's the nature of adventure for professionals; no one knows what they'll encounter.
But this blizzard is truly bizarre. A natural disaster can affect professionals, and the implications behind it are probably much deeper than their mere Silver-level mission.
Just then, Lu Ren, who had been busy playing on his phone, suddenly spoke up.
"Ahem, we have news, ahem, this should be White Storm."
Hearing him say this, everyone looked at him.
"A white storm?" the dark-skinned girl asked, puzzled. "What's that?"
"Lu Ren, you're coughing so badly. Come here, I have some hot water."
Lu Ren ignored this silly girl. He looked at his phone, replying to someone's message. The light from the phone illuminated his face, making him look deathly pale: "It seems to be a supernatural disaster that occurs in the Tianshan Realm. The white storm devours the spiritual power of any creature that wanders into it. Even purple-iridium level Void Beasts will get lost in the white storm and be devoured into a skeleton in a short time. So far, only one person has survived an encounter with the white storm, so there are almost no records of it."
"W-That's amazing?!"
Everyone was startled by what they heard, but they quickly realized something was wrong.
The mage, Bai Zhi, clicked his tongue and asked, "That's not right, Xiao Lu. Although the wind outside is strange, it's not as bad as people say. At most, you'll get tired if you stay outside for too long. If all the purple-iridium level Void Beasts had really been eaten up, we would have died outside long ago. Besides, that's the Void Realm, and we haven't even entered the Void Realm yet."
"Let me ask again—"
Lu Ren typed furiously, while the members of the Black Mountain High Moon Squad looked puzzled. Who was this kid asking?
He chattered on and on for a while, then said, "Ahem, it is said that disasters in the virtual world, when their power reaches a certain level, ahem, they can affect reality. However, their power in reality is negligible. So, this blizzard is actually just a projection of the white storm. Ahem, at most, it will have some impact on people, so there is no need to worry too much."
He coughed as he spoke. Two days ago, Shen Yaoxing had wanted him to go down the mountain first, but he refused. He had been running a fever for several days, and Lu Ren felt like he was a legendary fever-resistant king!
However, it really didn't have much of an impact. At most, I was a little irritable these past two days, and my mind wasn't as sharp. I couldn't help but think about some lewd things.
"Is...is this how it is?"
The members of the Black Mountain High Moon team were all skeptical. Li Haoke asked with a doubtful expression, "Since it's such a secret, how did you know about it?"
"How would I know? My master told me."
"Your master?"
Not only Li Haoke, but Xiao Mei and Bai Zhi are also somewhat strange.
The news of the white storm in Tianshan Realm was unknown even to the senior members of Yanzhou, as well as to the powerful clans of Gu and Shen. How did this kid's master, who was so far away, know about it?
She said she was the only one who encountered the white storm in the Tianshan region and survived.
Hearing this, Lin Hei and Bai Zhi suddenly smiled with relief. This person must have been burning up for several days, and finally his brain was damaged.
"Xiao Lu, you don't need to come into the mountains with us today. There are only a few left; we'll take care of them and then head back down!"
"After we go down the mountain, I'll take you to the merchant guild in Yanzhou. You've definitely never been here before. The merchant girls in Yanzhou are called—"
However, judging from the reactions of the others in the summer, after hearing what Lu Ren said, they all had an "I see" expression, and while they were laughing, they suddenly felt that something was not quite right.
"My brother's master is a master of the Burning Sun Realm, super powerful! He pinned Ali against the wall with just a glance!"
"Hey, hey, hey!?"
Lin Hei: "??"
Blank paper: "!!"
Lu Ren had been coughing and had a fever for several days, so he was still feeling a bit unwell. He didn't pay attention to the Black Mountain High Moon Squad's reaction and was sending his master a bunch of emojis.
Since obtaining his master's contact information from Shen Wangshu, he, as a disciple, has been sending greetings (and harassing) messages to his master via mobile phone every day.
Although the white-haired guy always found him annoying, he almost always got a reply to his messages instantly.
Lu Ren types very fast, always typing a long paragraph in a flash. After a long while, the other side replied with an angry little yellow bean.
Lu Ren: Master, I still have a fever. Lu Ren: Master, you said this whirlwind is so dangerous, will I be in danger? Lu Ren: Master, if I am in danger, will you come to save me?
Lu Ren: Master, why does it keep showing "typing" over there?
Master White Hair: ————
Master White Hair: You type too fast!
White-haired Master: [I'll give you a punch]
A smile crept onto Lu Ren's face as he continued typing, bothering the elderly man living alone. But then a sudden thought struck him: Could this be—this is what they call online dating?!
Ji Liguang quietly asked Lu Youhe, "Who is your brother chatting with? Why does he have such a lewd grin on his face?"
"Maybe he's watching some silly video, like someone blowing up cow dung."
"Why would you look at that kind of thing?"
"I don't know, my brother is an idiot, and he's gotten even sillier these past few days."
"And he was typing away, clearly replying to messages, which felt strange."
"It definitely can't be Xiao Kui."
"Who exactly is Xiao Kui?"
A mysterious woman who has never appeared, yet is frequently mentioned.
At noon, the white storm was at its weakest. Now that they knew the source of the storm and were certain that it wouldn't have any other major impact, everyone stopped worrying too much.
After lunch, the group prepared to enter the mountains again.
Just outside the village entrance, Lu Ren saw two small figures huddled under an old tree in front of the village.
They were two very young children, dressed in thin clothes amidst the heavy snowfall.
He suddenly stopped in his tracks, and the small group that had walked far ahead also stopped.
"What's wrong?" Shen Yaoxing asked.
Lu Ren coughed again and pointed over there, "Why are there two children over there?"
Ji Liguang glanced over and saw two little radish heads squatting under the tree: "You must have come out to play?"
Lu Ren frowned; he hadn't seen the two children in the past few days.
"I'll go take a look."
Heishan Gaoyue and the others looked at each other, but even Li Haoke, who was usually hot-tempered, didn't dare to say anything at this moment.
Gu Manman and Shen Yaoxing, although both are from aristocratic families, aristocratic families are divided into legitimate and illegitimate members. They had never heard of these two names in Yanzhou, so they must be marginal figures in their clans.
The master of the Burning Sun Realm, this is a real Celestial Dragon who came down to travel. His thighs are so thick that one of his toes could crush them!
"Let's go over there too," Gu said slowly, and started walking in that direction.
As Lu Ren approached, he discovered that they were two little girls, about four or five years old, probably twins. Their clothes were old and dirty, they were barefoot, and their feet were red from the cold as they shivered in the wind.
Seeing him walk over, she looked up at Lu Ren, her eyes filled with confusion and a hint of pleading.
He frowned and asked, "What are you doing here? Where are your parents? Why aren't you back in the village?"
Just then, an old woman came out of the village and exclaimed, "Oh dear, sir, stay away from those two! These two kids are really strange!"
Upon hearing this, Lu Ren frowned even more deeply: "Strange?"
"Master, you don't know, this strange, heavy snow was brought on by these two unlucky stars!"
In Yanxi Village, twins were considered an ominous sign that would bring misfortune and had to be sacrificed to the mountain god. The mother of these two sisters had a difficult childbirth, and the village unanimously agreed that they should be sacrificed to Dongtian Mountain.
However, the children's father refused, and in the end, the father and his two daughters were driven out of the village. The father then settled down in the mountains with his two children, but a few days ago, the mountains were attacked by a Void Beast, and their father died tragically at the hands of the Void Beast.
"Master, isn't it strange? They killed Mother and then Father, and for the past few days, they haven't been caught in the woods—"
"No need to say anything more."
"Master, let me tell you, this heavy snow these past few days was probably brought to the village by these two. We've been discussing how to drive them back into the mountains, but we're a simple, honest village, and we're worried there might still be other beasts in the mountains. We're thinking that you gentlemen should clear out the beasts first, and then drive these two away—"
"I told you to shut up, are you deaf?"
The old woman met Lu Ren's gaze and suddenly choked. What kind of look was that? It was like two ice holes that had been chiseled open, with wind and snow pouring in. She glanced at it and felt as if her soul was being pulled out, pulled into those two dark, deep recesses.
"Call your village chief over here."
The old woman remained motionless, seemingly frozen in fear.
People with a high level of empathy can influence ordinary people with their emotional fluctuations, which can be a form of deterrence.
Lu Ren hadn't intended to intimidate her; he was just emotionally fluctuating and hadn't been able to suppress his disgust.
Props maker Lin Hei immediately said, "My brother Lu is calling you. Go and call your village chief."
These past few days, Lu Ren has gotten along fairly well with the Black Mountain Gao Yue team, especially with the two old hands, Lin Hei and Bai Zhi, who would occasionally joke and laugh with him. But for some reason, today he's gone from being Lu Ren to Brother Lu.
"Okay, okay! I'll go right away, I'll go right away!"
Lu Ren didn't need to hear the old woman finish speaking; he already understood perfectly.
In situations of extreme scarcity of survival resources, any factor that is detrimental to survival due to personal reasons will be categorized as evil.
In backward agrarian or nomadic societies with limited resources, giving birth to twins meant doubling the mother's burden and the family's food consumption. This "excessive" demand might be seen as an ominous sign by outsiders.
In some cultures, mothers of twins are even considered "like wild animals" (because most mammals give birth to multiple offspring) and are expelled from the group.
But I never expected to encounter such a beastly thing in this day and age.
Lu Ren asked Lu Youhe for two pieces of clothing, squatted down and draped them over the two little girls. The two little girls just looked at him and wouldn't answer when asked their names.
"Are you hungry? I have some food here."
Lu Ren took some more food. The two little ones were already starving, so they didn't even say thank you. Their eating manners were not very elegant; they just swallowed the food whole. Lu Ren smiled when he saw this.
Being able to eat is a good thing, having energy is a good thing.
"Someone will take you away in a moment, okay?"
Surprisingly, both children shook their heads. Lu Ren asked them where they wanted to go, and they said they wanted to stay here.
"What are you doing here?"
"Dad is here."
"Is your father here?"
They looked up, pointed to the sky, and said their father was up there. Lu Ren thought they meant their father was in the sky, but that wasn't the case.
They were referring to a mummified corpse in the tree, the one they had seen when they entered the village, a body that had been hanging in the tree for many days.
One of the bodies hanging on this tree now is their father.
These two little ones didn't want to enter the village; they just came to find their father.
When the village chief came out, he saw them surrounding the two children and immediately understood what they wanted to do. He approached with a bitter expression.
Lu Ren pointed at them and said to the old village chief, "Take these two to the village later. I won't make things difficult for you. After we finish our mission, we'll take them down the mountain and find them a place to settle down, understand?"
The old village chief nodded and bowed, "Understood, understood!"
"And I'll take the bodies of the two children's father with me too."
"This is a village custom that's been in place for hundreds of years—"
In this world, beasts eat people, and people eat people too.
"If anyone has a problem, let them come find me. Do you have a problem?"
Lu Ren had been in a bad mood these past few days, and his voice wasn't loud, but as a Fire-level mental master, his emotionally charged words felt like a mountain of pressure to an ordinary person.
"Eh!"
Lu Ren squatted down again, rubbed the heads of the two little girls, and asked them what their names were.
Children this age can sense who treats them well and who doesn't. This time, they did answer: one was named Tuanzi, and the other was named Shuang'er.
They are all very cute names.
"Shuang'er, when your brother comes back, he'll take you down the mountain—and we'll take your father with us, okay?"
"good--"
"Then you wait for your brother to come back in the village."
"Okay~"
The group headed into the mountains. After walking a few steps, they felt something following them. Lu Ren looked back and saw that the two little creatures had left the tree and seemed to want to follow.
The snow fell on their hair and eyelashes, accumulating into a thick layer, but no one blinked, like two tattered rag dolls in the snow.
"Go back, don't follow us, it's dangerous outside."
Lu Ren waved for them to go back quickly, and they stood there without following, watching Lu Ren and the others leave. They weren't afraid, nor were they begging; they just watched.
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