Chapter 761 - 760: Minstrel?

Chapter 761: Chapter 760: Minstrel?

Under Little Red Riding Hood’s reminder, Yu Sheng and a few others began to inspect the current state of the amusement park.

A strange fog always envelops the entire space, and the special environment of the Exotic Realm also affects Luna’s radar and Hu Li’s divine sense perception to a certain extent. However, fortunately, the area has temporarily rid itself of roaming amusement park components and invading lions and soldiers. As long as they maintain a safe distance from those still operating amusement park rides, there won’t be much of an issue.

The group soon found more battle traces—beside those damaged plastic wooden horses and shattered park sculptures, Luna also discovered armor fragments and a shriveled limb resembling dried tree branches on a vacant site.

These items evidently came from the "Undead Soldiers" Erin mentioned, who were dressed in tattered armor.

The invading unknown Exotic Realm (tentatively named Lodaxim High Wall) seemed to have indeed receded from here, though clearly, parts of it destroyed during combat left traces within the amusement park.

"The air has a stinky smell," the fox girl suddenly frowned, lightly sniffing the air, "Strange, it didn’t seem to be here earlier."

"Really?" Upon hearing this, Little Red Riding Hood also sniffed, adjusting the angle of her pointed wolf ears outside her hair, "Seems like it a bit..."

Thus, the two witty companions started to sniff and bend over, searching for the source of the odor.

Erin continued murmuring softly on Yu Sheng’s shoulder: "Such a massive wall..."

Yu Sheng frowned, pulled out a crumpled piece of paper from his pocket, and looked thoughtfully at the wall, monster, and soldiers depicted with childlike scribbles.

"...Could it be within this paper?" He suddenly muttered, "Pulled out by your mass-produced Puppets..."

Erin blinked a couple of times, suddenly patting Yu Sheng’s hair with a small hand: "Ah, tell you, really tell you, indeed worthy of writing books, hey!"

Freyia, floating nearby, saw this and did the same, patting Yu Sheng’s head, emitting a string of indistinct, wind-chime-like spiritual energy resonances.

"Hey, hey, don’t copy this," Yu Sheng’s head buzzed as Miss Angel pat him carelessly; he hurriedly dodged, reminding her, "Your hand strength..."

And within this moment of distraction, the two witty companions sniffing and leading the way suddenly stopped.

Hu Li raised her hand: "The smell is coming from ahead."

Almost as soon as she finished speaking, Yu Sheng suddenly saw a flash of fire amidst the fog.

The firelight seemed always to be there from the start, only appearing in others’ perception when Hu Li spoke.

Little Red Riding Hood glanced ahead, the wolf ears on her head perked up: "Someone’s beside the fire, everyone be alert."

On the vacant ground in front of the pirate ship device, a blurry figure sat beside the fire. Only when approaching did Yu Sheng see the person dressed in a tattered cloak, with two arms extending from underneath resembling dried branches. There was also an unknown four-string instrument, seemingly sculpted from some type of bone, horizontally placed on the stranger’s legs.

The cloaked stranger roasted the fire, seemingly unresponsive to Yu Sheng and others’ approach. A pot was set over the fire pit, simmering a black, suspicious substance, exuding an unpleasant smell.

Yu Sheng slightly squinted his eyes, noticing that amidst the flickering firelight, within the fog, certain suspicious shadows momentarily appeared, seemingly like stone-paved ground and walls, incongruous with the surrounding amusement park facilities.

"He and this fire, they seem not to be here," Little Red Riding Hood, experienced, quickly whispered, "See the shadows cast in the fog; probably it’s a ’projection’ from that Lodaxim High Wall."

As if stimulated by Little Red Riding Hood’s mention of "Lodaxim High Wall," the cloaked suspicious figure suddenly turned his head towards them the moment she finished speaking.

Wrapped under the hood was a piece of rag, with only a pair of cloudy eyes exposed between the rag and the brim.

But Yu Sheng wondered if those eyes were truly looking at him, as the gaze never focused, merely looking blankly into the fog.

He then picked up the peculiar four-string instrument laid across his legs, plucking at it casually.

The instrument emitted odd melodies, intermittently.

"Could it be an entity generated by Lodaxim High Wall?" Erin whispered, "Seems non-aggressive..."

The next second, from under the tattered hood came a somewhat hoarse voice: "Are you also looking for Lodaxim High Wall?"

Erin exclaimed in surprise: "Wow! He spoke!"

Yu Sheng also felt surprised; it was his first encounter within the Exotic Realm with such a communicative presence—though technically not the first, considering he brought back the fox girl from the Exotic Realm...

While contemplating, he hesitantly approached the cloaked person, probing with a question: "Who are you?"

"Just a humble Minstrel," the cloaked person plucked the instrument again, "Extremely inept, name not worth mentioning."

A Minstrel? A Minstrel from the Exotic Realm appeared able to communicate?

Yu Sheng felt another bout of oddity but continued questioning: "You mentioned we’re ’also’ looking for Lodaxim High Wall—are there others seeking it? Who else?"

The Minstrel raised a hand, pointing at himself: "Me."

Yu Sheng: "..."

"The exiled, like me, are those driven out of the Kingdom," the Minstrel continued, "The Kingdom is closed, and the High Wall is the only part of the Kingdom Border visible to ordinary people... Yet many have sought it, but none have truly succeeded in returning home."

The Minstrel, while speaking, suddenly started to strum the instrument in his hand, clearing his throat amidst the strange tune.

Then he put down the instrument, speaking leisurely: "I’ve been searching for many years, and I’m sure I’ve reached the foot of the High Wall, yet I can’t see its entirety, nor can I gain its permission."

Erin glared, suddenly raising a finger towards him: "Hey, aren’t you going to sing? I saw you strumming and clearing your throat, thought you were about to start singing..."

"Singing requires payment," the cloaked figure turned his head, "Even a poor minstrel is still a minstrel."

This abruptly disrupted Yu Sheng’s flow of thoughts, the questions he had prepared were suddenly stuck in his throat.

Fortunately, there was someone who kept the conversation going, Erin, ever oblivious to subtlety: "Oh, never mind the singing, we just want to ask you about someone."

The Minstrel thought for a moment, his murky eyes finally focusing on the little puppet: "That requires payment."

Erin: "You gotta be kidding me..."

Even Yu Sheng felt a bit like cursing at that moment—where was he supposed to get money for this "entity" that appeared out of the Exotic Realm?!

Yet just then, a warm white light drifted over from the side.

Freyia leisurely landed by the Minstrel’s campfire and reached out her hand—holding a few Game Coins with a spiritual body texture.

"Ah! Such brilliance!"

Surprisingly, the Minstrel was overjoyed upon seeing those illusory coins. He nearly dashed to grab them, vigorously wiping them on his tattered cloak before carefully putting these illusionary coins, untouchable by ordinary people, into his pocket.

"Ask away, who do you want to know about?" he said.

Yu Sheng was left dumbfounded, momentarily unable to discern if the figure before him was human or ghost, but at least he remembered the main issue: "A Knight, wearing iron-grey full-body armor, about this tall—possibly an exile too, do you know him?"

"Ah, the clumsy Knight," the Minstrel sighed slightly, "he was the first to be exiled... from the royal city to the wilderness, and beyond the border to the dark lands."

"Whoa! You actually know!" Erin’s eyes lit up instantly, "Then what’s the story with this Knight? Has he been here before?"

The Minstrel picked up his strange instrument again, strummed it twice, then set it down.

"That requires payment," he said.

Erin & Yu Sheng: "You gotta be kidding me!"

Yu Sheng then saw Freyia casually pull out another handful of Game Coins and hand them over.

"Ah! Such brilliance!"

How should I put it, the truth is, this enigma who is difficult to define as either human or ghost keeps asking for money, but the good news is, all the coins Freyia gives are fake ones she made...

"The clumsy Knight always stumbles from one danger to another," true to his word, the Minstrel happily pocketed those Spiritual Body Coins and continued answering Erin’s questions, "He indeed wandered here but alerted the giant beasts guarding the sealed High Wall and the eerie creatures in the darkness, leading to a hasty and embarrassed retreat."

"Really came here?!" Even Little Red Riding Hood was startled, subconsciously speaking, "Where did he go after that?"

"That requires payment... Ah! Such brilliance!"

The little puppet standing on Yu Sheng’s shoulder glared angrily: "I’m telling you, if your answer is ’I don’t know,’ I’ll kill you where you stand, I, Omen Goddess, Alice Puppet, will tie you to a lamppost and beat you with a frying pan..."

"The clumsy Knight retreated into the mist, his last known direction was a city shrouded in fog," the Minstrel said unhurriedly, seemingly unfazed by Erin’s harsh threat, "Many exiled have given up, but he still holds onto something."

Yu Sheng’s attention wasn’t on the last few words the Minstrel said, rather he caught the key words at the very first instance.

A city shrouded in fog... Mist City?!

However, the next moment, just as he was about to ask more questions, the flickering campfire suddenly crackled loudly.

As the brightness wavered, the fire’s flame gradually waned.

"Ah... it’s about to go out..."

The Minstrel mumbled softly, and in the next moment, his figure and the campfire quickly vanished into the mist.