"Little ancestor, what are you looking for? I, Xia, can help you."

Xia Ming noticed that Su Luo casually strolled around the gas station, seemingly not looking for anything in particular, but he couldn't hide it from Su Luo.

Not even bothering to say a word to the man, Su Luo turned to leave, but unexpectedly, a thick fog rose in the mountains, spreading so fast that it rushed towards the gas station.

In the thick fog, someone touched Su Luo's wrist. Su Luo subconsciously raised her hand to retaliate. The dagger struck the metal with a sickening scrape. Then she heard a familiar, cold, and beautiful female voice, "Don't panic, it's me."

Yan Ruyu?

Su Luo frowned, pretended to put down the dagger in his hand, and took advantage of the opponent's moment of distraction to take a few steps back. The next second, he launched a flying kick towards the opponent's head.

His right foot landed, but there was nothing there; he hadn't attacked anything.

They got away?

wrong!

There was no one in the thick fog.

Was that just her imagination?

Hallucinations? The same ability as Brainy?

Or perhaps, it's Xia Ming?!

This person's innate ability has always been a mystery. In his previous life, Xia Ming's name was renowned, but no one knew about his innate ability. Could it be that his innate ability is similar to that of Brother Brain? Tampering with memories and confusing concepts?

"My little darling sister, are you thinking about me?"

The disgusting words rang out behind him. As if in a stress response, Su Luo immediately elbowed the person behind him. The force was so great that the sound of flesh hitting the ground and a painful groan could be faintly heard.

Is this for real?

Su Luo turned around indifferently and, unsurprisingly, saw Xia Ming lying on the ground looking pitiful. He was pretending to be weak, but he was still fanning himself with a half-flipped fan. Su Luo was shocked by what she saw.

She knew the force she used in that attack; even a one-star monster might not be unharmed. Yet Xia Ming had only fallen to the ground, seemingly unscathed.

Xia Ming has too many secrets!

Realizing the fog had dissipated, Su Luo ignored Xia Ming's pitiful cries and cautiously looked around. She found that the location was still the same, but the gas station looked much newer and brighter, a far cry from its previous dilapidated state.

More vendors carrying loads of goods appeared around, their loads brand new, but the items they carried were rather appalling. Some were dried-out, rotting meat that had been sitting out for a long time, while others were fresh fruit infested with maggots. The mix of old and new was strange, bizarre, and illogical.

"Gentlemen, would you like some rose tea?"

"This is a specialty of our Mengshan Meixian County. Combined with hot spring water, it tastes amazing."

Hot spring water?

"This taste... is indeed top-notch," Su Luo thought coldly to himself.

"What about the others?"

Yan Ruyu walked over with a short gun in her arms, approached Su Luo, and looked at Xia Ming warily.

A thick fog enveloped them, leaving only her, Su Luo, and Xia Ming. Their men had vanished without a trace, their fates unknown.

"Hey, you seem to know something? Speak up!" Yan Ruyu said, pointing a gun at Xia Ming's head, the threat obvious.

Seeing that his little darling sister wasn't falling for his tricks, Xia Ming stopped lying on the ground, dusted himself off, stood up, and shook his head seemingly sincerely while waving a half-folded fan, "Beauty Yan, what are you saying? This thick fog is strange, and I don't know why either."

"As for my men..."

Out with the old, in with the new.

After saying that, Xia Ming chuckled and looked at Su Luo with eyes full of affection, "Of course, if my little darling sister is willing to join my guild, I naturally won't treat her the same way I treat them..."

Before he could finish speaking, Su Luo threw a load of fresh fruit infested with maggots at him, hitting Xia Ming on the head.

"This is for you. Eat more and talk less."

In short, it boils down to four words: Shut up!

Ignoring Xia Ming, Su Luo circled around the area. Judging from the surroundings, they might have accidentally entered some strange instance, or perhaps some strange instance had forcibly pulled them in.

"Let's go see what this thing is."

Seeing that the group was about to leave, the old man carrying the rose tea politely called out to their departing figures, "Are you guests going to the hot spring hotel? The rose tea served there is exceptional; don't forget to try it."

Hot rose tea.

Su Luo secretly noted it down. The old man had mentioned this thing repeatedly and also mentioned the hot spring hotel, which was very likely related to this strange instance.

It was at this moment that Su Luo remembered the story Zhao Cai had told her on the bus. Mei County had developed because of a hot spring hotel. Now that the old man was mentioning the rose hot tea in the hot spring hotel, could this hot spring hotel be the one Zhao Cai had mentioned?

Along the way, apart from the three of them, they didn't see anyone else. The merchants and villagers they passed by were more like NPCs in a game. If you asked them a question, they would give you an answer, but it was always the same few sentences, like pre-programmed code that was always repeating the same thing.

"This dungeon is quite interesting." Su Luo raised an eyebrow. This kind of immersive dungeon, which doesn't rely on strange corpses or a bloody environment to create a bizarre atmosphere, is very rare. She had never encountered one like it in her previous life. Compared to Yan Ruyu's fear of danger, Su Luo was actually enjoying it.

A dozen minutes later, the three of them walked to the end of the straight road and saw the true face of the building called Rose Hot Spring Hotel.

From the outside, this hotel looks no different from any other hotel, except that there are many more roses around it, blooming beautifully and each one in full bloom.

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!