554 The Vanished Sunny Goat Village (1/2)
Translated by XephiZ
Edited by Aelryinth
The area around Xianchi was always covered in thin sand. Rumors said that the sands would be absorbed by the undead like nutrients after being exposed to the presence of death for some time.
Along the journey, Mo Fan did discover quite a number of undead were collecting the white sand that had stored some energy of the moon and death, like trying to scoop up gold in waves.
These undead were a fair distance away from the outer walls of the city. They were roaming aimlessly, trying to find anything useful for themselves, like scavenging bones and body remains that were chewed up by wild dogs...
”With such an effective way to avoid contact with the undead, doesn't that mean they aren't as scary as we thought?” asked one of the companions of the black silk woman with a thick beard.
”Ash Garlic is harder to find than gold. They simply cannot be planted, as they only grow in bunches at places crowded with undead, relying on the dead as their source of nutrients. Only the people from the villages outside the walls know how to retrieve them. However, the number of Ash Garlic produced every year is limited. If it weren't for my brother here, who's a half-blood from one of the villages, there's no way we could get our hands on them,” smiled Shorty.
The muscular man also wore a smile, his eyes sneakily cast a glance at the black silk woman. It was likely that neither of them had ever seen a beauty like her before.
”The Sunny Goat Village is not far ahead. The night is still long, we should rest there for now,” said Shorty, pointing at a hill nearby.
”Every village has its rules. You all should obey them if you're planning to enter one,” the muscular man reminded them. The group nodded in agreement.
They successfully arrived at the hill. As they proceeded down the hill, everyone was expecting to see a human village right in the middle of the Land of the Undead. However, as they glanced down the hill, all that was left between the rivers and the mountains were piles of logs. There was no sign of a village!
They quickly glanced in other directions, yet all they saw was black soil. There was nothing else, apart from a few lower grounds leading to some caves!
”Are you trying to trick us?” snapped the man with the beard.
”I...I have no idea what's going on!” Shorty seemed dumbfounded, and glanced at the muscular man.
The muscular man's eyes were filled with astonishment, too, as if he could not believe his eyes.
He started running down the slope.
Not a single hut could be seen among the piles of logs scattering across the place, let alone a village!
However, the muscular man acted as if he had gone mad. He completely ignored the zombies that were roaming nearby.
”The map did say that Sunny Goat Village is right here...” said Liu Ru, after she checked the map.
”Yeah, it's impossible that the map is wrong. I swear I wasn't lying!” blurted out Shorty.
”Where's the village, then?”
”I don't know.”
”Unless...”
They were easily convinced that Sunny Goat Village was supposed to be here based on the reaction of the muscular man. Yet, the entire village had somehow disappeared.
If there were still fences around the boundary or debris and stuff scattered across the place, it would easily prove the existence of a village prior to their arrival, yet all that was left were some logs, and the rest was pitch-black soil, nothing else.
”Does this mean that the village has fallen victim to the undead, too?” asked Liu Ru.
”Perhaps, maybe the new ruler of the undead didn't bother giving any face to these locals...”
The group headed down the hill and discovered that the place where the village was supposed to be had obvious burn marks. The piles of logs were likely used as the fuel. A soft breeze swept a cloud of ash into the air.
”There isn't any dead body, but there are burn marks everywhere. It's hard to tell what happened here,” the bearded man told the black silk woman.