Chapter 331 The Barn and the Resolve

Xia Nan's questions went unanswered.

The guide's unusual reaction to the mention of that strange little cabin had caught his attention.

But when he tried to ask for more information, the villager acted as if he had hit some hidden taboo. Refusing to speak or even make a sound, the man simply kept his head down and hurried along.

This ruined Xia Nan's plan to gather intelligence about Fog Lamp Village through casual conversation on the road.

Fortunately, this stiff, silent atmosphere did not last long.

A familiar figure appeared, breaking the dead silence just as he had when Xia Nan first arrived at the village.

"Uncle Jem, I... phew, I can take it from here!"

Accompanied by a flurry of hurried footsteps, the breathless young voice rang out from behind.

It was Dongshu.

The fresh-faced youth had clearly followed his older brother Aspen's instructions. After dropping Xia Nan off at the village chief's cabin, he had gone back to wash up.

His hair wasn't even fully dry before he rushed right back.

"The village chief and Brother Aspen already told me," Dongshu said. "There happens to be an empty house on the east side of the village. I can take Mr. Xia Nan over there, so you can go handle your own business."

Already feeling awkward and uneasy from Xia Nan's probing questions, the villager named Jem breathed an instant sigh of relief.

He dropped a few polite instructions to "host him well" and "don't be negligent" before turning and leaving without a second's hesitation, looking as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his shoulders.

Xia Nan naturally had no objections. Having an acquaintance guide him was much better anyway.

He didn't speak, merely standing in place and waiting quietly as the youth rested his hands on his knees to catch his breath.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Xia Nan." Seeing that Xia Nan had no intention of rushing him, Dongshu seemed a little shy, scratching the back of his head with a sheepish smile.

He quickly stepped forward to lead the way.

Along the way, showing deep trust in Xia Nan, he began pointing out various details about the village:

"Uncle Jem, the guy guiding you just now, is a famous tailor in the village. I always give him the animal skins I bring back from hunting. If you ever need anything like that, you can ask him for help. If you mention my name... actually, just mention Brother Aspen's name. He might give you a discount."

"The wooden bridge over here has been broken for almost five days now, so we have to take a short detour. But I heard the village chief is already assigning people to rebuild it. It should be fixed by next week."

"Ah, over there in the distance is the village's threshing floor. When I was a kid, I used to..."

Inside the village, Dongshu acted far more enthusiastic and lively than he had out in the wilderness. He chattered away, his mouth never closing from the moment he reached Xia Nan's side.

It wasn't a fake act, but a reflection of his true personality and a genuine welcome toward Xia Nan.

Seeing this, Xia Nan—who was still wondering about the village's oppressive atmosphere and the cabin the previous villager had refused to discuss—asked with feigned casualness:

"Your Fog Lamp Village is quite different from other small villages outside. It's incredibly quiet. Did something happen recently? It feels like everyone in the village is a bit... tense."

His tone was calm, as if he were just asking in passing.

But Dongshu's reaction was unexpected.

His bright smile instantly stiffened and quickly faded, replaced by a complicated expression of anxiety and helplessness.

"The village chief should have mentioned it to you. In these next two days, the village's traditional sacrificial ritual is going to be held. Everyone... everyone is preparing, so the atmosphere is a little strange," he said.

"It's normally never like this! If you had come a few days earlier, Mr. Xia Nan, you would have felt the difference."

"I see... no wonder," Xia Nan agreed, noticing the change in the youth's expression. He stopped pressing the issue and shifted the topic to his other question.

"On my way here, I saw another house behind the village chief's cabin. The surroundings were swept pretty clean. Does someone live there?"

At sixteen or seventeen, a youth who had grown up in the village possessed no guile and didn't know how to hide his emotional fluctuations.

As soon as those words fell, Dongshu's face—already a bit stiff from the previous topic—darkened further.

"It's Lillie..."

His lips trembled as he mumbled those few words. His gaze subconsciously flicked toward the distant village chief's cabin before snapping back, his expression dimming in an instant.

"Who?" Xia Nan raised an eyebrow, keenly sensing a potential secret.

"No, it's nothing, Mr. Xia Nan." Dongshu forced a smile. "I don't really know either, but there must be someone living there. After all, like you said, it's kept so clean..."

Before Xia Nan could question him further, Dongshu, who was leading the way slightly ahead of him, came to a halt.

"Mr. Xia Nan, we're here."

Dongshu stood in place and pointed to a wooden cabin down the path.

The house itself didn't look much different from the other single-story homes they had passed on the way. In fact, having been abandoned for so long, it gave off a thick stench of rot.

Dark green vines clung to the outer walls, weeds grew wild, and thanks to the overly damp environment of the depression, a few clusters of mushrooms could even be seen sprouting in the corners.

Fog Lamp Village's conditions were what they were. Clearing out an entire empty house for Xia Nan to stay in temporarily was already the limit of what they could do.

Knowing they weren't intentionally slighting him, Xia Nan didn't mind.

He was only staying for a couple of days. Having a decent place to shelter him from the wind and rain was enough to satisfy him. The environment and the rest... didn't matter.

Dongshu, on the other hand, looked a bit awkward upon seeing the house, clearly embarrassed.

Tossing the previous topic to the back of his mind, he offered to help Xia Nan clean up the place.

"Don't trouble yourself." Xia Nan waved a hand at the anxious youth, his tone casual. "I'm not fussy. I won't be staying long anyway."

Even so, the honest, freckle-faced youth stubbornly helped Xia Nan sweep and clean the inside of the house.

Later, when Xia Nan insisted that it was truly enough and there was no need to scrub any further, the youth even looked a little reluctant to stop.

"Then I won't bother you anymore?"

Dongshu stood on the path in front of the door, dust clinging to his hair and his freshly changed clothes.

"It's really fine." Xia Nan reached out and patted his shoulder. "I'll be staying three nights at most."

Hearing this, Dongshu nodded earnestly.

Suddenly, as if recalling something, his gaze faltered.

He stood there by the road, not daring to look up at Xia Nan, his eyes fixed on the mud and weeds.

His slow, heavy breathing gradually quickened, as if he were trying to muster up his courage.

"Mr. Xia Nan, you'll be staying in the village until after the ritual ends, right?"

"Of course," Xia Nan replied, feeling puzzled. After all, both on the way here and while cleaning the house, he had already mentioned multiple times that he wouldn't be leaving for at least three days.

For the youth to repeat it like this felt less like a question and more like he was trying to confirm something.

"If you have something on your mind, just say it. There's no need to hide anything. I'm not a villager here anyway."

Xia Nan answered him plainly.

But perhaps his comment about not being a villager of Fog Lamp Village made Dongshu realize the gap between them.

A clear flash of hesitation crossed the youth's fresh face, and in the end, he swallowed the words that had reached his throat.

He forced an obvious smile onto his face once more.

"I just wanted to say, thank you for your help the other day. Otherwise, Brother Aspen and I probably never would have made it back to the village."

"You're welcome. It was no trouble." Xia Nan waved a hand, his gaze sweeping over the youth's face, which clearly hid some heavy secret. "Is that all?"

"That's all."

Dongshu nodded heavily. Without saying another word, he bowed to Xia Nan, turned, and hurried away.

Standing in the sunlight in front of the house, Xia Nan's dark eyes reflected the thin figure disappearing into the shadows at the end of the road.

He shook his head imperceptibly, turned, and walked into the cabin.

[Gravity Control] activated silently.

He did this both to train and increase his proficiency, and to make the place more livable.

An invisible singularity of gravity gathered at the tip of his index finger. It wasn't an exaggerated effect, but it was enough to suck up the dust hiding in the corners and between the floorboards.

Hum—

The fine dust swirled like a vortex into the empty space above his fingertip, forming a perfect sphere of dirt.

With a light flick of his finger, the dust ball shot out the window like a bullet, landing in the mud outside.

Setting the backpack full of supplies on the table, Xia Nan pulled out a chair and sat down, a thoughtful look on his face.

He could certainly tell that whether it was the village chief and Aspen earlier, or Jem who had guided him later, or even Dongshu—they were all hiding something about the village's affairs.

This was especially obvious whenever the upcoming sacrificial ritual or that strange little cabin was brought up.

It seemed there were certain things they didn't want an outsider like him to know.

Was Xia Nan curious?

Naturally.

It was human nature. Upon noticing something strange, one naturally developed a thirst for answers; it was an inherent psychological need for any intelligent creature.

On the other hand, curiosity was just curiosity. The values and personality Xia Nan had developed over his life meant that no matter how curious he was, he wouldn't translate that curiosity into actual action when faced with something that had nothing to do with him.

Just like earlier, even when he noticed his guide's change in attitude while trying to learn about the village, he hadn't forced the man to stay and answer his questions.

Even when he clearly sensed Dongshu hiding something, swallowing back words that had been right on the tip of his tongue.

When the youth claimed that "it was nothing, that's all," Xia Nan hadn't pressed the issue. He had simply let him leave.

From beginning to end, he was keenly aware that the purpose of this trip was to harvest fog lamp grass in the canyon.

Nothing more.

As for the people and events he encountered along the way...

Xia Nan had always just followed his own heart.

...

...

Xia Nan's dinner could be considered quite hearty.

To repay him for saving Aspen and Dongshu, the villagers had specially prepared a few pieces of smoked meat and a large pot of fragrant stew mixed with various ingredients. The clusters of mushrooms inside, in particular, tasted incredibly satisfying.

After eating his fill, since he only needed six hours of sleep a day, he naturally wasn't going straight to bed.

He pushed open his door, intending to find a secluded, open spot where he wouldn't disturb anyone so he could train for a while.

It wasn't particularly late, as the sun had just set, but the night had already completely shrouded Fog Lamp Village.

There was no moon in sight, and not a single glimmer of light leaked from the surrounding cabins. Only the bonfire in the village clearing, serving as public lighting, crackled and popped.

A suffocating pressure, far heavier than during the day, hung in the air. Even the occasional bark of a dog seemed deliberately muffled.

Xia Nan gently closed the door. His sharp perception spread out silently like tentacles, keeping watch over his surroundings. Following the route from his memory, he bypassed a few silent houses and headed northwest.

He remembered that on the edge of Fog Lamp Village, there was a relatively open threshing floor. It would be a good place for him to train.

It was cold and deadly quiet. The air was filled with the faint, rotting stench unique to the depression. Piles of haystacks looked like giant beasts crawling through the dark, casting even deeper shadows onto the ground.

Yet Xia Nan's mind felt relaxed.

Ever since he had gained a boost to his Constitution attribute in the Snake Den Secret Realm, the amount of sleep he needed every day had drastically decreased. This allowed him to flexibly adjust his training schedule.

He had grown accustomed to—and even come to love—this wonderful feeling of solitude, pouring his heart and soul into his training during these quiet moments when the whole world had fallen asleep.

However, today... there seemed to be a slight disruption.

It was a young, emotionally charged voice, suppressed yet agitated, drifting from a nearby barn.

And one of those voices was incredibly familiar to Xia Nan.

With a thought, his Agility attribute, having already reached "10," quietly combined with his Perception, which was one point higher.

With light, silent footsteps, his tall figure melted into the shadows of the night.

Xia Nan wasn't skilled at stealth, nor did he possess any special abilities related to it.

But in his eyes, "skilled" was relative to the professional standards of his own level.

His experiences in the [Dream Weaving Corridor] Secret Realm had taught him a few tricks for concealing his presence, and that was bolstered by his own physical stats.

For the vast majority of ordinary people, as well as adventurers whose perception wasn't particularly sharp, spotting Xia Nan when he was deliberately hiding was actually no easy task.

And it was precisely because of this that he managed to approach the barn where the voices were coming from. Without alerting the people hiding inside, his gaze pierced through the darkness and captured the scene within.

"We have to leave! Tonight!"

"Lillie, you can't... you can't just accept this!"

The thin, frail figure and that familiar young voice allowed Xia Nan to recognize him at first glance—it was Dongshu.

Yet right now, compared to the lively, cheerful demeanor he had shown during the day, the fresh-faced youth's expression held nothing but pain and resolve.