Chapter 267 Night Talk on the Winter Cart 3
Regarding Ma Zao's "jinxed" constitution, there might be some operating mechanisms within it that I don't yet understand, or perhaps external disturbances have caused the effects of the "jinxed" constitution to deviate. For now, I can only remember this anomaly and contradiction I've discovered and continue to observe and research it later.
At least for now, it's certain that Fuyutsu didn't have any particular intentions towards Asahi; even he didn't know why he paid so much attention to her. And after we part ways, perhaps there will be no further entanglement between us for the time being.
Will it really end that easily? I wondered to myself. Fuyusha was a strange creature attracted by the jinx, if we could shake it off so easily, wouldn't that be underestimating Asahaya's attraction to strange events?
I decided to take the initiative and said, "We plan to leave the Fufeng base after dawn, and the reason Fufeng had for holding you hostage will disappear. What do you plan to do after that?"
“Is that so? As for me… I want to continue my mission,” he said.
I thought for a moment and then said, "You seem to be planning to go to a place called Hujia Village to investigate strange events, right?"
“Yes. The Conscientious faction has more mission targets for regular Witchers than the Transcendent faction, requiring them to complete a certain number of anomaly incident handling missions each year. I haven't been with the Conscientious faction for very long, and this year ends in two months.” He said with distress, “Although according to the rules, the number of missions I need to complete can be reduced, I know that many people in the Conscientious faction still have doubts about me…”
“I don’t know how to solve it either. I just want to complete at least the same number of missions as other socially conscious witchers. Through my own private channels, I learned that strange phenomena are happening in a place called Hu Family Village in the west. I want to use that place as my target… that’s the ostensible reason.”
At first, he didn't seem to intend to say that last sentence, but towards the end, he seemed unable to resist revealing the truth to me.
Then, he seemed to regret it a little. However, words spoken in real life are not like messages on a chat app; they cannot be recalled at will.
"The apparent reason... then what is the real reason?" I asked.
“This…” he hesitated.
“If that’s your secret, it’s okay if you don’t tell me,” I said.
“It’s not exactly a secret… no, it’s just something that’s inconvenient to tell others, but it should be fine to tell you, Senior Zhuang Cheng.” He hesitated for a moment before saying, “Actually, I feel like I’m about to die.”
"Death?" I asked, puzzled.
“It’s a premonition. People like me, who are born with a strong sense of awareness, will automatically sense when their time to die is near. The more unstoppable the fate of death, the easier it is for people like me to sense it,” he said. “And just recently, I felt that my destined death was about to come.”
"Because my master was proficient in divination, I also know a little about divination. I cast a divination for myself. The divination showed that I was like a skeleton in a tomb, and the signs of death were even already showing on my face."
"Senior Zhuang Cheng, do I look like a dead person in your eyes right now?"
I scrutinized his handsome, youthful face. His tone was as pessimistic and dejected as that of a terminally ill patient who had received a death sentence. Perhaps influenced by his words, for a fleeting moment, I actually saw a deathly pallor in his eyes. It was like my imagination; upon closer inspection, the illusion vanished.
I wasn't naive enough to believe it was just my imagination. And just as I was about to tell him the truth about the strange feeling I had glimpsed, a strange inspiration suddenly struck me, as if my words would actually come true.
To be honest, that might not be a good idea... I changed the subject and said, "You don't look like a dead person at all."
"Thank you for your kind words." He forced a smile.
I pondered my feelings from just now. Why did I feel that my words would come true? Did I admit here that he was truly like a dead man, and that he would indeed die soon? Could my words determine his future fate?
Just as my overwhelming power prevents strange beings from easily associating with me, sometimes great power itself is accompanied by many mystical phenomena. In the mysticism, "language" is considered to possess an innate supernatural mystery, and perhaps even more so the words I utter. If I possess an inner potential akin to that of a god, then now that my power has awakened, my words may, to some extent, be regarded as the words of a god, possessing a mystical power of "final pronouncements."
Dongche seemed unaware of the unusual signs he had just exhibited. Perhaps his calculated death was deeply connected to the strange, inhuman impression I had of him.
I once suspected that the real Winter Chariot might have been killed and replaced by some strange creature. If we combine the information we had previously obtained with this suspicion, it seems easy to conclude that the real Winter Chariot had already fallen victim to its own calamity.
I couldn't sense any malice or deception from the Winter Chariot before me. Could it be that the strange being that killed and replaced the Winter Chariot mistakenly believed itself to be the real Winter Chariot, and was still busy with the aftermath of that long-overdue catastrophe? Although this sounds like a far-fetched hypothesis, it seems to explain many things.
"So, what does this have to do with your trip to Hujia Village?" I asked.
“First of all, Hujia Village is a place name that appeared in my dream. Through divination, I can confirm that it is a real place. It’s just a pity that there are too many places called Hujia Village in reality. I can only rely on my intuition to determine that the place should be located in the west. And according to the divination, my only way to survive is also in that direction,” he said.
"I see." I nodded. "And what was your dream about? Can you guarantee you'll find that place?"
"I don't remember very clearly, I just vaguely remember that I seemed to be lost in a dream." He sighed. "As for whether I can find it... I'm quite confident in that regard. I have a feeling that as long as I'm willing to look, I can definitely find the place."
"Is there a time limit for this? For example, if you don't reach Hujia Village within a certain number of days, you're doomed?" I asked.
Upon hearing this, he pondered for a moment, and then said, "Although there are some time constraints, it doesn't feel that tight. As long as we arrive within ten days, there shouldn't be any major problems."
"So, at least for the next two days, could you please avoid going in that direction?" I asked.
He asked in surprise, "Why?"
The reason is simple: I believe that Hujia Village is very likely located in the Yueyin Mountain area.
This conclusion is drawn from the speculation that "Masa and I are likely unable to extricate ourselves from our entanglement with Fuyusha in the near future." If we, who are heading to Tsukikage Mountain, encounter him again on his way to Hujia Village, then we can only assume that our destinations are likely to overlap.
And I will most likely clash with Silvermoon again at Moonshadow Mountain, a bizarre battle that even I can hardly imagine how it will begin and end. At that time, if Winter Chariot gets too close to us, we might suffer collateral damage. Furthermore, what he meant by "death calamity" might just be this.
Our matter should be resolved within the next couple of days. If we have more free time afterward, we could also check on Dongche's situation. Anyway, we have at least eight more days, which is much safer than arriving early. And if it turns out Dongche really is a monster in human form, we can deal with him then. That's my thinking.
Just in case, I didn't directly tell Dongche the place name "Mount Tsukihime," nor was it convenient to answer his question directly, so I just said, "You'll know in two days." And that was the end of the conversation.
Dongche went back home with a heavy heart, and I returned to my room. Ma Zao was still sleeping peacefully. I sat back down at my desk and used my phone to research information about Hujia Village online.
There are quite a few places named Hujia Village, or rather, as long as a village name follows the format "Xujia Village" and you add a not-too-uncommon surname, the search results will be plentiful. And this is just the number that can be investigated; if you include small villages that don't have any entries online, the number is probably even greater.
Oh right, Dongche mentioned that the Hu Family Village he was looking for was to the west… I tried searching for the location of Moonshadow Mountain on the map again. Sure enough, Moonshadow Mountain is also to the west of where I am now. It seems my earlier suspicion was correct.
I then went on to investigate other aspects of the information. Time passed by, and it was morning. It should already be light outside the base. Suddenly, while searching for information related to the strange events, I came across a freshly published news article.
The government has announced the existence of amnesia to the public on official platforms. Currently, it has been estimated that more than 100,000 people in China are in a vegetative state due to amnesia, and the number of patients is increasing every moment.
The cause of the illness is unknown, the solution is unclear, and there is no scientific explanation… The government has described the current situation in a tone that is tantamount to admitting that it is a supernatural event. Although it is still morning, related comments have already surged on major media platforms.
The unknowable world was officially revealed to the general public.
(End of this chapter)
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