Chapter 94 094 His mouth is the hardest part of his whole body, hard enough to crack a walnut...

In her previous life, Lu Yuanyuan had never triggered the "Snow Plum Blossom" instance. Of course, she wasn't bound to the system back then, so she naturally didn't realize that the original plot was incomplete.

Looking back now, it's highly likely that the reason the dungeon entrance didn't appear in my past life was because Xiao Ruo, such an important character, was missing.

It's like playing Jenga, where you can stack blocks all the way up. But there are too many gaps in the middle, with a block missing every few rows. The higher you build, the less stable it becomes. Quantitative changes lead to qualitative changes, and eventually, the entire Jenga tower collapses, and she's done for.

System: "Ding! The main quest beginner dungeon [Snow Plum] has been triggered. Please go and accept the quest within half an hour."

Lu Yuanyuan: "..."

It seems that while the plot has been triggered, its implementation differs somewhat from the original story.

For safety reasons, many sect missions have an unwritten rule that senior disciples lead the team, to prevent the entire team from being full of newbies who would easily make mistakes. In the original novel, the disciple leading the [Snow Plum] team was Duan Lansheng. And the original owner of the body she possessed would try every opportunity to work with Duan Lansheng—of course, many people shared the same idea.

Ultimately, with sheer willpower and shamelessness, the original owner successfully squeezed into the mission and secured a spot, thus foreshadowing her various mindless rivalries with Xiao Ru along the way.

In this life, she diligently cultivated herself and met the entry requirements for the mission. She was so lucky that she could skip the arduous process of begging to join.

Two days later, Lu Yuanyuan, Duan Lansheng, Fu Xinguang, and two young disciples arrived at a remote border town called Dingchan in the cultivation world.

The cultivation world has no national borders. This place is called the frontier because it's the closest sizable city to the former site of the Ghost Realm. Beyond this city, a few scattered villages dot the mountain valleys. Heading west, you'll reach the territory of the Spirit Treasure Secret Realm.

However, the group's real destination was not Dingchan City, but Aipozi Village, which is 20 miles west of the city.

This task is, in a way, related to Fu Xinguang.

A month ago, Fu Xinguang's servant He Zhao asked for leave to return to his hometown to visit relatives.

He Zhao's hometown is in Aipozi Village. His father died early, and his only remaining relatives are his mother, He Shi, and his younger sister, A Hui. A Hui is getting married next month, and as her older brother, he naturally has to go back to see her off.

However, during this seemingly ordinary leave, He Zhao suddenly disappeared.

Before disappearing, He Zhao wrote a letter to Fu Xinguang, describing his situation after returning to the village and saying that he had discovered some strange things. He said he would tell Fu Xinguang after he investigated.

Things have progressed fairly smoothly up to this point.

But after that, He Zhao never sent another letter.

Fu Xinguang wrote to him, but all his letters went unanswered. With more than a month already passed, Fu Xinguang, sensing something was wrong, asked his sect for permission. This led to the group's trip.

The autumn heatwave was fierce. When they arrived in Dingchan, the sun was high in the sky, and after standing in the sunlight for a while, they were drenched in sweat. After discussing it, the group decided to go into the city first to rest and have lunch, and also to inquire about some news—after all, He Zhao's disappearance was very likely related to the strange events he had mentioned.

Passing through the heavy, arched city gate, a sparsely populated street scene unfolded before the five. The city looked rather desolate.

The five of them found a teahouse that looked relatively clean and sat down by the window on the second floor.

Among the new disciples, a young man named Jia Song sat down, lifting his robe, and spoke for everyone: "This place feels really uncomfortable, so lifeless, there are hardly any cultivators here."

Fu Xinguang tapped his head with his chopsticks and said, "That's because this place is too close to the Spirit Treasure Secret Realm, and the feng shui is bad. A wise man doesn't stand under a dangerous wall, so the immortal sects and aristocratic families don't look down on this place, and of course you won't see many cultivators here."

In the world of cultivation, there are countless families and sects that have established their own independent operations. Just grab a map, pick any spot, and smash it with your hammer; you'll find a vast area of ​​sect and aristocratic strongholds.

Dingchan is an exception. It's too close to the Spirit Treasure Realm and the old site of the Ghost Realm, lacking spiritual energy and posing more trouble than it's worth. If any monsters were to emerge, Dingchan would inevitably be the first to suffer. Those who aspire to cultivate immortality have long since gone elsewhere to pursue their ideals; those who remain here are all ordinary people from the cultivation world.

The last time Lu Yuanyuan came to a place this close to the Spirit Treasure Secret Realm was more than four years ago. At that time, she did not enter the city, but only flew over it in a white crane boat.

Another new disciple was a girl named Xu Rao, with her hair tied in two buns with pale yellow ribbons, and she had a lovely face. She glanced out the window and, as if she had discovered a new continent, said, "Look, I just mentioned it and I saw it. Look down there."

Following her gaze, everyone saw two young men carrying swords on the empty street. Their clothing and accessories suggested they belonged to no particular sect, but appeared to be independent cultivators.

Jia Song clicked his tongue in amazement: "They must be rogue cultivators heading to the Spirit Treasure Secret Realm. Their courage is truly commendable."

Every ten years, the cultivation world holds a grand gathering of rare and precious materials. All the renowned immortal sects lead their disciples into the Spirit Treasure Realm to participate in the gathering. To put it simply, if there are monsters, everyone works together to fight them; if there are treasures, everyone works together to collect them.

However, there are often some fearless rogue cultivators who cannot resist the temptation of the Spirit Treasure Secret Realm and sneak in on their own.

In the end, almost all of these people never returned.

Dingchan is the last resupply point before entering the Lingbao Secret Realm.

Just then, footsteps interrupted their conversation. A waiter brought over tea and snacks, saying solicitously, "Gentlemen, what would you like to drink? What would you like to eat?"

Knowing that there were few cultivators here and not wanting to be watched like monkeys and alert the enemy, Lu Yuanyuan and her group did not wear sect robes, and their weapons were hidden in storage rings, making them look no different from ordinary people.

Lu Yuanyuan casually ordered a few side dishes, closed the menu, exchanged glances with everyone, and asked, "By the way, shopkeeper, have you heard of any strange things happening in this area lately?"

The waiter tossed the cloth he was using to wipe the table over his shoulder: "Strange thing? Hey, there really is."

"What strange thing is this?"

“Look, go out of the west gate of Dingchan and walk for twenty li, and you will see a village called Aipozi Village.” The waiter lowered his voice and looked in a direction from the second-floor balcony, looking like he still had a lingering fear: “Things have been terrible there recently. Four men have died in a row, all of them young and strong lads, and the way they died was more and more gruesome than the last.”

Four people died in a row?

Lu Yuanyuan was stunned. Fu Xinguang's expression changed, and he clenched his fists, clearly thinking of He Zhao, who was missing: "Do you know their names?"

"I don't know, they should all be villagers from Aipozi Village."

Lu Yuanyuan pressed further, "What else do you know?"

The waiter looked around, lowered his voice, covered his mouth with the back of his hand, and said in a sensational tone, "I heard that these four people died a really horrible death. When they found the bodies, their heads were completely separated from their bodies, and they were soaking in water, swollen up really high. Tell me, isn't that terrifying!"

Lu Yuanyuan began to ponder.

Since she had no past life to draw upon, this was her first time experiencing such a mission. However, she had already completed many missions, many of which were monster-catching quests unrelated to the main storyline and offered no hints. This mission, however, had system prompts, so she wasn't worried about completing it.

However, *The Enchanting Fairy Tale* is ultimately a novel told from the female protagonist's perspective, and only the scenes involving Xiao Ruo are described in detail. The plot of this instance goes like this: Xiao Ruo passes through Dingchan and becomes good friends with A Hui. Several days later, hearing of an accident at A Hui's home, she rushes to visit her. It is also on this day that she happens to reunite with Duan Lansheng at He Zhao's house, beginning their bickering yet delightful relationship.

However, as everyone knows, Duan Lansheng's most stubborn thing about him is his mouth, so stubborn it can crack walnuts. After only a few days together, Duan Lansheng's mouth, which wouldn't even say a soft word to his wife, successfully drove Xiao Ruo away.

Xiao Ru disappeared. Several days later, Duan Lansheng finally found the monster's lair and found Xiao Ru, who looked like a little kitten, who had been captured by the monster. The two reconciled.

The crucial process from Duan Lansheng and Xiao Ru's separation to his discovery of Xiao Ru in the BOSS's lair was glossed over in the original novel. Readers only know that Duan Lansheng angrily ran away from Xiao Ru, and that he found Xiao Ru after defeating the monster, but they don't know how the events in between were connected.

Therefore, she could not find the original text of the mission process in "The Enchanting Fairy Tale" for reference, and only received a brief text evaluation.

The system has determined this task to be a simple task, with both the probability of encountering danger and the probability of death being only 1%.

This shows that those who commit evil are either not difficult to deal with, or they don't have much blood on their hands.

But if Xiao Er wasn't lying, then this thing killing so many people in such a short time is beyond just being described as ferocious. Could it have evolved that quickly in just a few days?

Also, all four victims so far are men, which makes it seem like the boss has a bit of an obsession with this. But in the story, Xiao Ruo, who was captured and taken to the hideout, is a woman…

It feels a bit contradictory.

Lu Yuanyuan was lost in her thoughts and didn't notice the waiter for a moment. When she looked up, she realized that the waiter was staring at her intently, with the same look a storyteller would give an audience's reaction.

Lu Yuanyuan: "?"

Waiter: "..."

The two looked at each other in bewilderment.

Just then, the waiter suddenly felt a cool gaze fall on the back of his head. He turned around in confusion, but couldn't see anything. He only saw the handsome young man, who looked like a fairy, drinking tea with his eyes down, not looking at him.

That's strange.

The waiter muttered to himself, then heard the shopkeeper yelling at him from downstairs. He finally realized he had been slacking off for too long, so he quickly laughed it off and went downstairs.

Thinking of He Zhao, whose fate was unknown, the five of them lost their mood for joking and laughing. After eating their fill, they set off again.

Not wanting to alert the enemy, the group dismounted from their swords and put away the cultivators' equipment as they approached Aipozi Village.

Standing on the mountain and looking into the distance, a tranquil village sits nestled in the lush green mountains. He Zhao wrote in his letter that his home was easy to find, located under a large banyan tree south of Aipozi Village.

Inside the fence, a young girl wearing a headscarf was sweeping fallen leaves. Hearing the rustling footsteps, she looked up in confusion, revealing a pale honey-colored baby face with thick eyebrows and big eyes. She looked exactly like He Zhao, except that the corners of her eyes were still red and swollen, indicating that she had just been crying.

Upon seeing several strangers, the girl became wary and gripped the broom tightly: "Who are you?"

"Are you He Zhao's sister, A Hui?"

When Lu Yuanyuan asked the question, she already had a premonition of the answer.

Ah Hui was stunned: "Who are you?"

...

He Zhao's house was small, a typical village dwelling, but it was kept clean and tidy, with a faint smell of medicine permeating the air. On the table was an unfinished handmade straw hat.

As soon as she entered, Lu Yuanyuan glanced around discreetly, but she did not see Xiao Ruo.

There wasn't even a single fox hair.

The instance has clearly been opened, but Xiao Ruo hasn't appeared in the quest on time?

Lu Yuanyuan frowned, but she knew now was not the time to ask that question, and she reluctantly suppressed her doubts.

Although it's an unlucky thing to say, she seemed to have already sensed something ominous at the very beginning of the mission...

"Please, esteemed immortal masters, have some tea."

After being inside for a while, Ah Hui, who had been trembling with excitement ever since learning their identities, finally calmed down a bit. She served them tea, wiped the chairs clean, and nervously rubbed her hands together. Standing to the side, she glanced back at the room and said, "After my brother disappeared, my mother fell ill and is still bedridden. I..."

“There’s no need to disturb her.” Fu Xinguang said in a gentle voice, “Ahui, you can just call us by our names. We don’t want to reveal that we are disciples of Mount Shu in the village for the time being.”

"Okay, okay, Brother Fu, Sister Lu..." Ah Hui called out to everyone in turn. When it came to Duan Lansheng, she seemed to feel that he was too distant because of his otherworldly appearance. Ah Hui's voice suddenly became softer and her address became inexplicably polite: "Young Master Duan".

Duan Lansheng nodded slightly.

Lu Yuanyuan pulled Ah Hui over, not letting her stand there like a wooden statue, and pulled her to sit down next to her.

Ah Hui's hands had many rough calluses, but they were also very warm. She pursed her lips and sat down somewhat awkwardly.

Fu Xinguang paused, then asked with some difficulty, "Ahui, we heard that four men have died in the village recently. Is your brother among them...?"

Fortunately, Ah Hui shook her head and whispered, "The deceased is someone else. My brother is just missing; he has neither been found alive nor dead."

Everyone secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fu Xinguang took out a letter from his pocket and unfolded it to show her: "This is a letter He Zhao wrote to me. He said he discovered something strange and planned to investigate it himself, after which he disappeared. Ah Hui, did your brother mention to you what the 'strange thing' he was investigating was?"

Unexpectedly, Ah Hui nodded: "She mentioned it once or twice."

"What did he say?"

Ah Hui took a breath and began her story: "My brother came back this time because of my wedding. The wedding was originally scheduled for next month, but my mother has trouble walking. After he came back, he took it upon himself to buy things for the wedding. He went to all the nearby villages and learned that in the past six months, several young girls have gone missing in several villages. And the timing is very regular, with one girl disappearing every ten days. Many of the missing girls are either about to get married or on their way to their weddings."

Missing girl case?

Lu Yuanyuan and the others were somewhat surprised.

What Ah Hui said seems to be a completely different type of evil spirit incident from what Xiao Er said earlier.

You see, monsters usually have their own specific fetishes. One that enjoys eating fetuses would never prey on an old woman. And if they say they'll cook their prey to medium-rare, they'll cook it perfectly, not a minute more or less…

Here, Xiao Er says all the victims are men, while A Hui says all the victims are women.

Xiao Er's victims were all concentrated in one village, and their bodies have been found. A Hui's victims, on the other hand, lived erratically in various places and are currently only missing.

Not only are they irregular, they're completely diametrically opposed, with absolutely no common ground to be found.

When she got to the point of sadness, Ah Hui couldn't help but lower her head and wipe away her tears. Fu Xinguang and Xu Rao quickly comforted her: "Ah Hui, don't blame yourself. Your brother is just missing, he may not be in any danger. He is a cultivator."

Although, he was just a novice cultivator.

“Yes, Ah Hui, don’t cry.” Jia Song was clearly not good at comforting young women, and awkwardly changed the subject: “With us here, your brother will definitely come back safe and sound to drink your wedding wine.”

Upon hearing this, Ah Hui's tears fell even more fiercely, and she slowly shook her head.

Jia Song was at a loss, feeling like he had messed up: "W-what happened? Did I say something wrong?"

Ah Hui raised her swollen, red eyes, tears making her eyelashes stick together: "My brother will never be able to drink this cup of wedding wine. My fiancé is among those four people who were killed by evil spirits."

No sooner had she finished speaking than a loud "thump" was heard as Ah Hui's front door was suddenly slammed open by a great force.