Among the prisoners in Silent Valley, the middle-aged man who had just given Xia Chuhe a thumbs-up wrote a coordinate on the sand.

S41, E02

Xia Chuhe frowned—Silent Valley should be very close to their current location. But the coordinates given by the middle-aged man were so far from their current location on S44 and E81 that they could circle half the world, a true geographical marvel.

“You’re not the only prisoner in Silent Valley. Kill him and find someone else to write it,” Xia Chuhe said coldly.

Li Qiusheng was eager to try, so he stepped forward with his knife. The cold light of the blade made the prisoner immediately start vibrating.

The middle-aged man was so frightened that he kowtowed repeatedly, his fingers hurriedly tapping around the "1" and "0".

"Wait a minute." Xia Chuhe grabbed Li Qiusheng. "Write my name, Xia Chuhe."

The middle-aged man carefully wrote characters on the ground, stroke by stroke. Xia Chuhe silently counted the strokes: 10, 12, 5.

Each character has the correct strokes, but the characters appearing on the sand are "百助木" (Bai Zhu Mu).

"Were you influenced by the city's rules?" Xia Chuhe asked.

The middle-aged man nodded frantically, afraid that if he nodded too slowly, the knife would fall on his neck and his head would fall to the ground.

"Do the rules include keeping silent and omitting strokes when writing?"

The middle-aged man nodded again, then pointed to his wristwatch.

Both verbal and written communication are affected by rules, and it seems there are other influences as well.

Xia Chuhe pulled the middle-aged man into the Haijiao Forum and casually sent him a "Hello".

The watch message received by the middle-aged man was not unusual.

However, when the middle-aged man sent a message to Xia Chuhe, Xia Chuhe only received a bunch of AWSL-style gibberish.

Xia Chuhe silently pulled up a picture of the electronic wooden fish and tapped it. The people in Silent Valley really have it tough; sending a message is like committing a cyber fraud.

However, the absence of text and the garbled electronic text reflect the key point of Silent Valley's rules—not to remain silent, but to prohibit the exchange of certain information.

Xia Chuhe stared at the goal that the middle-aged man had initially written down: "Let me guess. If I guess right, you nod."

The middle-aged man nodded in agreement.

Write down the coordinates as S41, E02; the current coordinates are S44, E81.

After some reasoning and probing around 44 and 81, Xia Chuhe quickly corrected the coordinates from "Eastern Hemisphere Wasteland" to "Neighboring Town" S44, E82. He was about to hand the address to Wang Yan, who was leading the main force, and also inform Li Qiusheng and the others.

Li Qiusheng suddenly raised his wristwatch: "Boss, Zhu Guanshan already told me the coordinates of Silent Valley, why don't you ask her?"

Xia Chuhe: "..."

I forgot.

The worst thing is when the air suddenly goes quiet.

Xia Chuhe stroked his chin tactfully, feigning seriousness: "I am verifying 'On the Dialectical Relationship between the Silent Valley and Information Entropy'."

"What?" Li Qiusheng tilted his head.

Xia Chuhe cleared his throat: "I've already figured out some of the rules of Silent Valley: First, keep silent, or you'll end up like that woman, bleeding from all seven orifices, or even dying; Second, beware of scams. Be cautious of any information given by the people of Silent Valley, as their writing lacks strokes and their electronic messages become gibberish."

Xia Chuhe deployed his troops: "The above rules currently only apply to those in Silent Valley. If we enter Silent Valley, the rules may apply to us. Therefore, without my order, no one is allowed to act without authorization, understand?"

"Understood!" Wang Mei and the other soldiers on the forced march responded in unison, their voices loud and clear, their momentum magnificent.

Summer hoeing is half exhausting, half satisfying.

Satisfied with the performance during the forced march, but mentally exhausted...

So many people, yet not a single one could catch Li Qiusheng's thoughtless words; she, the city lord, had to personally speak up to save face.

Xia Chuhe let out a soft breath: "Let's go!"

The middle-aged man gritted his teeth and stood in front of Xia Chuhe, bowing repeatedly, his hands clasped together, and kowtowing.

Xia Chuhe raised his hand to stop the hurried march: "Write down what you want to say."

The middle-aged man wrote down two characters: "炎半".

"Negotiations?" Xia Chuhe asked.

The middle-aged man was overjoyed and nodded vigorously.

Xia Chuhe shook his head: "There's no point in discussing it."

The middle-aged man was so anxious that he was gesturing wildly, almost speaking.

Xia Chuhe gave Li Qiusheng a look, and Li Qiusheng immediately pulled on the rope and tied the person up.

The journey was uneventful. The Taotie City's hasty march, carrying prisoners, rejoined the main force near Silent Valley.

A gentle breeze blew by, but the evolved beings remained motionless, their faces taut. Yet, a surge of emotion coursed through them; accustomed to fighting alone, this was the first time they had assembled an army for a combined attack.

Furthermore, Lord Xia himself leads the way. I've heard that Lord Xia possesses many powerful supernatural abilities and can take on a hundred enemies single-handedly!

It's exciting just thinking about it; I've never fought such a lucrative battle before.

Xia Chuhe could not hide his excitement either, and shouted loudly, "I will fire the first shot in the attack on Silent Valley in a moment. If the ammunition is effective, we will suppress it with artillery fire!"

Xia Chuhe's idea was wonderful; she wanted to use the rules of Silent Valley to counter the city's residents.

The Silent Valley demands silence, so what effect would a bomb exploding in the city have?

Try it and you'll see.

A bomb was dropped into Silent Valley, and Xia Chuhe silently observed it through his binoculars.

The bomb landed in an area almost deserted, so the shockwave caused no harm. However, those nearby seemed to have experienced something incredibly terrifying, immediately bleeding from all seven orifices.

Xia Chuhe was overjoyed; the rule of remaining silent had too many loopholes.

Taotie City could rely on this to create noise everywhere and completely destroy Silent Valley.

Just as Xia Chuhe ordered the attack, white flags suddenly appeared outside the Silent Valley City, countless white flags fluttering in the wind, more numerous than supermarket promotional banners.

"That's it?" Li Qiusheng almost strained his back when he had already raised the bomb.

The prisoners of Silent Valley were all in tears, while the middle-aged man who had just demanded negotiations writhed like a maggot.

The city gates burst open with a roar, and the city lord who came out was wrapped in foam padding, looking just like a precious and fragile item in a delivery box.

The middle-aged captive, Gu Yong, knelt down beside Xia Chuhe and gestured—begging for help.

Li Qiusheng struggled to make out the details for a while: "Please? How arrogant! Boss, beat them up!"

Xia Chuhe said, embarrassed: "You should save us..."

The middle-aged prisoner and the city lord nodded in unison, their eyes filled with anticipation and longing as they looked at Xia Chuhe.

Suddenly, the foam mat city lord pulled out a piece of cardboard with the following written on it:

What is it like to live in Silent Valley?

Thanks for the invitation. I'm currently in Silent Valley, just left the church. My advice is to bring a sign language interpreter; don't ask, it'll just bring tears to your eyes.

Xia Chuhe: "..."

These days, who in the wasteland knows sign language anymore?!

Only Li Yue knew a little Braille. But while Li Yue knew Braille, the people of Silent Valley didn't!