Chapter 735 - 456: Understanding [1]

"Burn these Devils!"

"Look at them, pretending to be so innocent. They’re wicked to the bone!"

"Oh, gods... my poor cow. My whole family was depending on her to get through the winter..."

A mixture of curses and choked sobs rose and fell, ringing in his ears.

Just moments before.

The instant the timer in the Reincarnation Bookstore hit zero and his body vanished,

Hu Qi had felt a cold force seize his consciousness, violently ripping it from his physical form.

His consciousness plummeted through the void, as if passing through an endless, viscous, dark swamp.

When his five senses returned, the curses were accompanied by a sour stench and the reek of feces and urine.

Hu Qi opened his eyes.

He saw that he was in a large pit.

His body was tied to a thick wooden stake, the coarse hemp rope digging deep into his wrists.

Firewood and branches were piled at his feet.

Soaked in pine resin.

He was surrounded by a circle of villagers dressed in coarse linen clothes.

These people had the distinct Features of Caucasians: thick hair, deep-set eyes, and high-bridged noses.

However, the hair color of some of them was quite varied.

Some even had green hair and green eyes.

These people—men, women, and even children—stared at him with faces twisted in rage.

They looked at him as if he had slaughtered their entire families.

At this moment,

Hu Qi’s calm expression seemed to further enrage them.

Just then, from the crowd,

an old woman with a gray headscarf and a wrinkled face stepped forward and spat at Hu Qi.

However, perhaps because of the distance, the yellow phlegm landed only at Hu Qi’s feet.

"You damned thing, you..."

Seeing that she had missed Hu Qi, the old woman opened her mouth to curse, furious.

But when her gaze inadvertently met Hu Qi’s calm eyes,

an inexplicable palpitation seized her heart.

The half-spoken words caught in her throat.

To this,

Hu Qi merely glanced at her, paying her no mind.

As he processed the memories of the body’s original owner in his mind,

he scanned his surroundings, taking in the environment.

It was nighttime.

Overhead, two bright, Pan-sized full moons hung high in the sky, casting a hazy, silvery glow.

Because of the two full moons,

even though it was night,

his surroundings were still clearly visible.

Low-lying thatched huts were scattered on either side of a muddy path. Their roofs, long in disrepair, had caved in and warped, with dried moss hanging from the edges.

The walls were made of rammed earth, their surfaces cracked with a spiderweb of fissures. Some spots were patched with a slurry of dried cow dung and straw.

Farther in the distance were a few more indistinct houses.

They were built from rough-hewn logs, with crooked chimneys poking through the roofs, puffing out thin trails of gray smoke.

In addition,

two other men were tied to stakes beside him.

One was an emaciated middle-aged man, the other an old man with salt-and-pepper hair and beard.

Their hair was as tangled and matted as dried grass. Bruised skin was visible beneath their tattered clothes, and caked blood could be seen on their chapped lips.

At this moment, their murky eyes held neither fear nor anger, only the dull emptiness of stagnant pools.

It was as if their souls had already been ripped out, leaving empty shells tied to the stakes.

Clearly, from their appearance, they had been brutally tortured.

’This is an interesting way to start...’

Hu Qi thought to himself as he subtly flexed the stiff fingers of his new body.

’To think I didn’t even get a moment to adapt. Just thrown right into this Native’s body.’

He lowered his head, using the motion to quickly sort through the fragmented memories in his mind while studying the villagers’ clothing out of the corner of his eye.

Tunics of coarse linen, leather leggings... everything pointed to this being a world similar to medieval Europe.

As Hu Qi was deep in thought,

a tall figure holding a torch stepped forward.

In the flickering light of the torch, the man’s silhouette came into sharp focus in Hu Qi’s eyes.

In stark contrast to the sallow, hunched villagers, this man stood like a towering oak tree.

He was broad-shouldered and thick-backed. His strong muscles strained against his linen shirt, and where his sleeves were rolled up, sinewy veins stood out on his forearms.

His attire was far more refined than that of the average villager.

His long-sleeved linen shirt, though faded with washing, was clean and tidy.

Around his waist was a belt made of animal leather.

He wore well-tanned leather trousers and a pair of sturdy black leather boots, their surfaces spattered with fresh mud.

In addition,

by the light of the flames,

a short knife in a leather sheath could be seen hanging at his side, its hilt wrapped with cloth for a better grip.

The firelight cast a flickering shadow before him. Just by standing there, he exuded an oppressive aura.

"In the name of the Seven Gods, the three men, Potter, Hawke, and Elu, are found guilty of stealing villagers’ livestock and robbing them of their money. The evidence is conclusive.

They are hereby sentenced to death by fire. Do you confess your guilt?"

The man stood at the edge of the pit.

He looked down on Hu Qi and the others, his voice as biting as a winter wind.

Hearing this,

Hu Qi’s gaze shifted.

He recognized the man before him as Rock, a guard for the village chief.

According to the information he had managed to piece together,

the original owner of this body was a sixteen-year-old boy named Elu Goth.

Though calling him a boy wasn’t quite accurate.

At this age, he was already considered an adult in this world.

As for why he was in this situation,

it was because of the recent disappearances of the villagers’ money, belongings, cattle, and sheep.