Chapter 283 Winter Chariot's Unpredictability 1
The appearance of the corpse was intriguing, but there wasn't much to say about the body itself. After studying it for a while, Ma and I set it aside and continued deeper into the white mist.
While focusing my attention on observing the changes around me, I also couldn't help but think about important matters in the outside world.
Before tomorrow night—no, considering it might be daytime now, it could be "before tonight"—I must return to Moonshadow Mountain Castle to meet with the Navy Master Genbu there. If I miss this trip, I might not be able to help Asaha obtain the elixir to heal his soul's wounds for a while.
Since time is distorted inside the white mist, returning to the outside world on time is highly unlikely. Perhaps what is happening now is not the daytime of the next day, but the daytime of the third, fourth, or even further into the future, or perhaps a daytime from the past.
After thinking for a moment, I decided to continue to believe in Asahi's power.
If the Water Master Xuanwu was indeed brought to Moonshadow Mountain City by some mysterious arrangement of his jinxed nature, then no matter how long I stay in the white mist, I will inevitably run into him at some point in the future.
Considering that Sailor Genbu seemed to already have business to attend to at Moonshadow Mountain Castle, perhaps my decision to exchange the Divine Seal fragment for answers from the Lord of the Divine Seal was a waste. After all, we'd definitely arrive at Moonshadow Mountain Castle after receiving Sailor Genbu's reply, and eventually be drawn into the events around Moonshadow Mountain, leading to our encounter with Silver Moon and finding Chang'an's soul. However, I think that if I hadn't arrived at Moonshadow Mountain Castle with Asahi beforehand, Sailor Genbu might not have come here at all.
It sounds like the timeline and cause and effect are reversed. How could the motives that the Navy Genbu possessed from the beginning be canceled because of our later actions? My thinking can only be described as confused. From an outsider's perspective, I'm probably just having some unfounded superstition about Asahi's jinxed nature.
However, I now have a strong belief in Asahi's power, and in my experience, this level of absurdity is only average. I no longer deny the possibility of something simply because it is absurd and illogical, and I am also well aware that this way of thinking may be approaching the realm of madness.
We walked quite a distance before the corpse behind us was completely swallowed by the fog. Perhaps even if we turned back and returned to that spot, we wouldn't be able to find the body again, like those mysterious remains in some ghost stories that seem to grow legs and run away on their own.
Then, we encountered new changes again.
Another figure emerged from the distant mist.
This figure was clearly alive; he was standing and slowly moving towards us. As we saw him, he must have seen us too. He immediately stopped, seemingly adopting a defensive posture, and then threw a sentence at us from a distance.
"who?"
It was a clear, androgynous boyish voice, yet it contained an unmistakable wariness and unease. The voice sounded familiar; Asahi had reacted similarly. We exchanged a glance, and then I was the one to respond.
"Winter carriage?" I asked.
"Hmm?" The figure on the other end hesitated for a moment. "...Senior Zhuang Cheng?"
The other party approached us again, soon revealing itself from the mist. A youthful face, snow-white hair, and an antique-style white robe. It was Dongche.
He looked at me with a surprised expression.
It's amazing he was able to recognize me by my voice. I still look like I'm twelve or thirteen years old, and my voice hasn't fully gone through puberty. Although I showed this form and made that sound in front of him when I interrogated a senior researcher at the Fufeng base, it was only once. His memory and reaction speed are quite impressive.
"Senior Zhuang Cheng, what are you doing here?" he asked in confusion. "And... how did you become so similar to me?"
About the same age as you? I'm not as handsome as you, I thought to myself. But he was probably referring to age.
Asaha seemed to want to stick close to me, while keeping a close watch on Fuyusha.
"The reason I've become like this is for personal reasons that I can't explain to you," I said. "But you, before asking why we're here, shouldn't you explain it to me first?"
"Explanation... what do you mean?" He seemed to be pretending to be confused when he actually knew the answer.
“I specifically told you during the day not to approach the Moonshadow Mountain area in the next two days, but you don’t seem to have listened to me,” I said.
“Moon Hidden Mountain…” he seemed to be talking to himself, “So… this place is called Moon Hidden Mountain?”
"You don't even know where this place is?" I asked.
"No, I know. But... how should I explain it..."
He cautiously observed my expression, as if afraid I would lose my temper before he could explain.
"It's okay, we're not in a hurry now, you can explain slowly."
Although I spoke calmly, there was something I kept to myself. If Dongche's answer was unsatisfactory, then depending on the situation, I wouldn't rule out the possibility of killing him on the spot.
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Dongche offered us an explanation, but its content, like the thin white mist, was shrouded in mystery.
First of all, he didn't break our agreement on purpose. On the contrary, according to him, he took it extremely seriously. Initially, our agreement wasn't "don't go near the Moon Hidden Mountain area," but rather "don't go near the west." So, to prevent himself from accidentally breaking the agreement, he even deliberately took a train a distance eastward to a town.
After getting off the train, he headed towards the station exit. However, as he walked, white mist inexplicably appeared in the station passageway. He immediately realized he had been caught up in a strange event and tried to escape from the mist, but to no avail.
Even I myself am not sure I can easily escape the white mist, let alone a demon hunter of his caliber. No matter how skilled or observant one is, sometimes one will inevitably encounter difficulties that cannot be overcome by talent alone. He kept running in the white mist, but not only did he not escape, the surrounding scenery also underwent even stranger changes.
The ground beneath his feet had mysteriously transformed from a hard stone floor into a weed-covered mountain, and the walls of the train station passageway were no longer visible, replaced by an endless forest of mixed trees.
He had been wandering in the fog for no less than ten hours. As a high-level witcher, he could maintain his health even if he didn't eat or drink for months, but if he were trapped in the fog indefinitely, even he would be exhausted. Just as he was worrying, he encountered a young man dressed as a mountaineer in the fog.
This young man had nothing to do with the strange phenomenon; he was just an ordinary person caught up in the incident, as Fuyusha immediately recognized.
Dongche initially thought the young man was also lost in the train station, just like himself. However, the young man claimed to be a mountain climber who had accidentally gotten lost in the white mist while climbing an unopened area of a mountain called "Moon Hidden Mountain."
Although Wintercar was in dire straits, barely able to save himself, he was, after all, a Witcher who considered himself a pacifist, and he couldn't just stand by and watch ordinary people die. So he took the young passenger with him and protected him carefully before continuing to explore the fog.
After an unknown amount of time, they finally encountered new changes.
They found Hujia Village.
Just as the innkeeper and regular customers of Moonshadow Mountain City at the foot of the mountain said, Hu Family Village is now a small mountain village with only a few households. They usually live a self-sufficient life in the mountains, occasionally gathering some mountain delicacies to sell in Moonshadow Mountain City, while also buying some necessities such as salt, sugar, or other production tools.
Mountain villages where strange phenomena occur are often of dubious origin; heaven knows who these villagers are, or even if they are human at all. Therefore, Touka was particularly wary of these villagers. However, the villagers showed no malice whatsoever, warmly welcoming Touka and the young traveler, and even offering to escort them away from Mount Tsukikage.
However, something went wrong in the middle of the matter. The young traveler had done his homework before entering Moonshadow Mountain. He knew about the existence of Hu Family Village, and even asked the old people in Moonshadow Mountain City about the exact location of Hu Family Village in Moonshadow Mountain, and marked it on the map.
He also had a compass in his hand. Although he was in a region that was almost like another dimension, the compass still worked and did not malfunction due to "strange magnetic field interference".
Of course, once trapped in this fog, even a hundred working compasses wouldn't help. However, he didn't know this; he only felt that since he knew his location on the map and his cardinal directions, he would surely be able to escape. Perhaps he also had some doubts about the villagers in this remote and impoverished place, so he kept it a secret from everyone, including Dongche, and left without saying goodbye, rushing into the fog in one go.
Upon learning of this, Dongche immediately realized that the other person might be in danger—this was a mountainous area shrouded in strange phenomena, and any rash action would only lead to destruction. Therefore, he hurriedly returned to the mist, hoping to retrieve the other person before they died.
(End of this chapter)
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