Chapter 95 - Liuxi Village (1/2)
Yu Hanjiang touched the 4 of Spades playing card and there was a familiar dark vortex. The two men were sucked into the 4 of Spades world and Xiao Lou endured the vertigo caused by s.p.a.ce conversion.
This place was surrounded by mountains and vegetation. Both sides of the road contained lush greenery and it was like a quiet paradise.
There was a small mountain village not far away. It was dusk and the golden sunset seemed to place a small veil over the entire village. A clear stream was flowing around the village and blue smoke rose in the distance. The strong aroma of food filled the air. Someone unknown was cooking pork with green peppers. The spicy scent of green peppers and the scent of pork mixed together and drifted from afar, arousing Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang’s appet.i.te.
It had clearly been morning when they cleared 4 of Diamonds just now but in the world of A of Spades, it was dusk.
The time flow rate of the secret room was controlled by the keeper. It was the same when they went to 3 of Spades last time. It suddenly changed from dusk to morning. They were used to the confusion of different times in secret worlds so they weren’t affected by the time difference.
What world did A of Spades throw them in this time? It looked like a little village in the wild mountains? The two men were wondering about this when the floating boxes about their heads filled with the familiar text cues.
[Welcome Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang to the 4 of Spades secret room, Liuxi Village!]
It is home to the clearest stream in the world and the entire village is surrounded by three streams, so it is named Liuxi Village (Flowing Creek Village).
This is a small isolated village. It is said that due to genetic reasons, the babies of the village are born blind. Their world is dark and they can’t see any light. They think it is normal for all humans to be in darkness like them.
The sun setting or summer, spring, autumn and winter have no difference in their eyes.
In the dark world, they have their own standards to judge time. Every day when the rooster crows, they will get up in a group and turn the hourgla.s.s in the middle of the village upside down. Once the sand in the hourgla.s.s runs out, they know it is dark and everyone will go to bed on time.
The villagers’ lives are simple, regular and idle.
It wasn’t until one day, there was a genetic mutation in the village and a child could see the light.
The child found out that this world was actually so colourful.
However, Liuxi Village is too remote. There are no roads or railways. Only helicopters can fly into the mountains. Even if the child could see, there is no way to go to the outside world.
They had to stay in the village and live like a blind person with their friends and family.
You don’t know who this person is hiding in the crowd but once they find you, they will immediately unite with the other villagers to drive you out. Liuxi Village is extremely reclusive and doesn’t allow outsiders to disturb the quiet of the village.
Outside the village is a continuous wildness. There are wild animals, poisonous snakes and birds of prey, making hard for people who leave the village to survive.
Asking challengers to live in Liuxi Village for seven days and try not to be kicked out of the village.
During this survival period, it is forbidden to kill villagers. Challengers who kill villagers are directly judged to have failed.
Every challenger will receive the negative effect of ‘blinding’ randomly for three hours every day. Try to act with your partner so you don’t fall into the lake and drown when you can’t see.
It is said that Liuxi Village is home to seven precious stones. After seven days, any team that has found a stone is judged to have cleared the instance. The team that can’t find one will be expelled from the village.
Friendly tip: The hearing and smell of the blind are usually extremely sensitive.
Good luck.]
***
Yu Hanjiang nodded and concluded, “For seven days, we have to avoid the villagers and find a gem. Finding one will allow us to clear the instance.”
Xiao Lou looked up at the mountain village not far away. “I think that it won’t be as simple as hiding from the villagers and looking for the gems. It is likely that there will be other things within seven days.”
In the 3 of Spades Financial Crisis, all challengers were issued 100,000 coins. As long as the challengers could obtain enough supplies to not starve to death, they could smoothly clear the instance. This looked very simple.
Who would’ve thought that the challengers were living in a place that robbed and killed its guests? The owner and free man worked together and nearly killed the challengers.
This time, 4 of Spades was definitely more difficult than 3 of Spades.
First, they didn’t know if the person with the genetic mutation was male or female, old or young. This person mixed in with the villagers and had grown up with blind relatives and friends. Their ability to camouflage was absolutely first cla.s.s.
Since they didn’t know the ident.i.ty, the challengers needed to avoid all villagers, increasing the difficulty. Once found, they would be evicted from the village.
Outside the village contained countless beasts and poisonous snakes. The result of being driven out was to become food in the belly of the beast. Even more so, challengers would randomly become blind every three hours What if an accident occurred at this time? In addition, what if a challenger found a gem? If challengers couldn’t find anything after a few days, would they steal gems from other people?
In the last few days, infighting was likely to take place as challengers tried to clear the instance. They couldn’t rule out the possibility of some challengers being able to clear the instance so they would ruthlessly drag others down with them, resulting in the challenger group’s destruction.
Challengers could unite in Financial Crisis but this secret room had too many restrictions. The more people there were, the greater the movements and the easier it was to be found. Therefore, it wasn’t advisable to join hands for the moment. Once a pig teammate exposed their whereabouts, it was likely to cause the challengers to die.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang glanced at each other.
Yu Hanjiang whispered, “Advance to the village to see.”
They walked side by side. They hadn’t taken a few steps when they saw a clear dividing line. Next to the boundary was a stone monument with the words ‘Liuxi Village’ engraved on them. This was obviously the village boundary.
It was dusk and the villagers were busy. Women picked vegetables from gardens in groups of two or three to prepare dinner. The men went to the fountain to carry water while children were playing in the open s.p.a.ce. Others were walking their dogs through the village.
Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang hid behind trees far away. The blind villagers looked like ordinary people and their eyes were clearer than most people, as if they had been washed by a stream.
There was a genetic reason behind not being able to see. It was just a pity they had such beautiful eyes. Since they were blind from an early age, they developed a strong sense of hearing and smell and there was also their familiarity with the village’s roads, houses and other villagers. Young people didn’t walk slowly or even need a walking stick. Only some old people with grey hair walked with sticks and slowly explored the road.
Many old people had huge and strong dogs that were nearly a metre tall…
Xiao Lou met the eyes of a dog and hurriedly ducked to hide behind a tree. He saw a big dog and was scared his voice would be heard, so he crouched down and used a branch on the ground to quickly write, “This dog looks fierce. Group Leader Yu, is it familiar to you?”
Yu Hanjiang quickly wrote, “It is a Tibetan mastiff. They were one of the most ferocious dogs and their territorial awareness is very strong. In the territory of strangers, they will show a strong hostility. They have a good attack, supple body and sharp teeth capable of biting off a human neck. It is forbidden to raise such fierce beasts in the city so Professor Xiao has probably never seen them before.”
Xiao Lou was frightened. “I haven’t seen them but I’ve heard of them before. How can there be such ferocious dogs in this village?”
“They might be fierce but they have the characteristic of being very loyal to their master. Tibetan mastiffs have a strong sense of protection and protect their territory, food and belongings. If Liuxi Village is their territory then us outsiders will be enemies.”
Xiao Lou secretly looked out from behind the tree at the majestic figure of the Tibetan mastiff in the distance. If he was knocked down by the Tibetan mastiff then he probably wouldn’t be able to resist. Xiao Lou suddenly had a splitting headache. “It seems that we have to avoid the villagers as well as the big dogs.”
Yu Hanjiang frowned. “Once it gets dark and the villagers are asleep, let’s do it again.”
Xiao Lou nodded. This was the only way.