132 The Meaning of Life

Van stepped casually into the bustling town. The sight of a stranger entering the town barely drew any attention, contrary to Van's expectations.

Van relaxed a little bit and looked around. The houses were constructed well, clearly a step-up from the village level and the streets were lined with stones. The people in the town looked exceedingly ordinary - there were rich and poor, young and old, men and women were busily conducting their own lives. Over there, two young children played on their front door step with dolls made of straw. A thin and tanned middle-aged man was leading a donkey down the main road, calling out to any friends he passed on his journey.

Van followed the main road with no particular aim in his mind. Further in, the town became busier and appeared more prosperous. Stores selling various wares lined the sides of the streets. A street vendor waved sticks of barbecued meat through the air, sending the smell of lightly spiced beef into Van's nostrils, greatly arousing his appetite despite him being stuffed with crocodile meat.

"Just half a copper tael for a skewer of this Eight-Herb Spiced Beef, one bite and you will never forget the deliciousness!"

Van found that he could understand what the townspeople were saying perfectly. If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't read the characters on the signboards, Van would have suspected he had stumbled into an ordinary town in Cloud River country. The red-haired youth narrowed his eyes and inspected the strange symbols on the shop signboards. After some intense scrutiny, he found that the symbols shared about 20% similarity with the characters used in modern language.

'Could this be the language of a nearby country? Or perhaps an ancient form of the modern-day language…'

The streets got noisier and more crowded. Van was hemmed in on all sides by the tide of people walking down the main street but he didn't mind.

'The people seem so realistic. This scenery even reminds me of Clear Water Town.'

Despite being somewhat charmed by the sights of the bustling town he could see; Van was under no illusions. The people and the town might seem real but it was undoubtedly the construction of a giant and intricate illusion array. Van estimated that the Firestorm Abyss Entrapment Array was merely the scribbling of a toddler compared to this array. The youth had the thought of inspecting the illusion array to learn from it but found that his spiritual sense was not powerful enough to see into the details of the array. He could only give up on breaking the array and just focus on the trial that it would undoubtedly contain.

As Van walked, his eyes were attracted to a small bookstore that gave off a humble but scholarly feel. He was immediately intrigued, curious about the type of literature and ancient town like this would have. He lifted his heels and entered the store. Unexpectedly he was immediately bowled into by two small blurs.

Even Van with his study body cultivation was caught by surprise and had to stabilise himself from the impact. His hand flashed out and caught the collar of a girl child about six to seven years of age.

"Watch where you're going!" He chastised. However, any harsh word Van was about to give the girl died in his throat when big tears started rolling down her eyes. He felt awkward; it was only a small child bumping into him after all, there was no need for him to raise his voice.

"Don't bully my big sister!" Another voice piped up. The second small blur was a little round-faced boy who couldn't have been older than four. He immediately ran towards the skinny youth holding onto his sister's collar.

Pah! Pah! Pah!

The little boy's fists rained down on Van's robes.

Van felt helpless. What to do in a situation like this?

"Who's there!?"

Van heard a hoarse voice shout from within the store. He looked up with difficulty, feeling guilty for making the two children cry despite the fact that they had been distraught before Van had frightened them. An old grandfather came slowly out of the depths of the bookstore. His back was hunched from old age and he held tightly onto the walking stick in his right hand.

Van dropped the little girl and coughed lightly. He looked around the store casually.

"I am interested in your wares. You sell books?"

A glance over the shelves showed that they were slightly old but they were indeed full of scrolls, books and even a few slips of jade. One section had writing tools such as brushes, inkstones and papers.

"Oh, a guest?" The grandfather seemed to cheer up a little bit.

As the old man drew closer, Van was startled to find that his eyes were red-rimmed and his hands trembled continuously .

Van looked between the two children and the grandfather and felt that the atmosphere was a bit desolate and suffocating. Clearly all three of them had been crying their eyes out just before Van entered the store.

At that moment, loud footsteps sounded out. Five men suddenly stormed into the bookstore with cold looks in their eyes.

"Trash everything!" The man at the helm shouted. The other four immediately took action; they picked up a table and used it to smash the shelves violently.

The grandfather paled; his eyes shook as he scanned the space behind the intruders.

"M-my son, where is my son?!"

"Move aside, old geezer!"

One burly man kicked the grandfather's walking stick, causing the old man to fall to the ground. The two children cried out and rushed to their grandfather's side.

Despite this bookstore having little to do with him, Van felt indignation and anger flame up in his chest. Who the hell were these people and why in god's name were they smashing the shop?

Van looked at the grandfather and the two small children. One was frail and the other two were too little to do anything. This act of bullying the weak was just too extreme!

"Stop!" Van shouted.

The head of the gang that had just stormed in finally saw the stranger in their midst. His small, mean eyes flashed.

"Who the fuck are you!?"