Chapter 77

Chapter 77

Even as they sat in the inn room, the siblings hadn’t fully come to their senses, almost believing that everything happening now was just a dream.

Half an hour ago, they were prisoners confined in a dungeon, facing possible execution at any moment. Half an hour later, they were completely transformed, sitting in an inn room drinking tea. This earth-shattering change was simply too incredible.

The siblings’ gazes simultaneously turned to the other two people in the room, the righteous passersby who had brought about this change for them.

Even when these two righteous passersby had declared in the dungeon that they would investigate the truth and clear their names, deep down, the siblings hadn’t held much hope. It was more like clinging to a false lifeline for self-comfort in a desperate situation.

They never expected...

“You did it, you actually did it! Great gods, saying you saved us from fire and water isn’t enough to describe your greatness. You are the light of righteousness, forever divine!!”

“Wuwuwu, we’re finally out of that hellhole. I thought we were going to die. Even if we didn’t die, we would have become stinky if we stayed any longer. I’ve already washed myself five times!”

A long string of words burst out from the siblings’ mouths simultaneously, filled with genuine emotion. After finishing, they exchanged a glance and realized what they had done. Then, as if on cue, they both lunged forward—

“We have no way to repay this life-saving kindness except with our bod—no, I mean, we siblings have nothing, we can only offer ourselves in service. From now on, if you two great powers have any dirty work, hard labor, errands, or tasks you don’t want to do, you can leave them to us. We’ll serve you like horses and oxen, we’ll definitely repay this great kindness of saving our lives! Please, you must accept us!”

Li Fufeng/Liu Ningshuang: ...?

Slowly looking down at the siblings who had accurately targeted their legs and were now [literally clinging to them], showing no psychological burden whatsoever, the two Special Case Investigation Team members both had a question mark slowly appear in their minds.

...Are these really citizens of Yao Country? There must be some mistake, right?

...Should we be grateful that these two at least divided themselves according to gender, and didn’t turn from leg-clinging to harassment of the opposite sex?

Liu Ningshuang, who had nearly unconsciously kicked away the attacker who pounced on her, twitched her lips. Having never experienced anything like this before, she was at a loss as she tried to comfort the girl clinging to her. “Um, miss, calm down, calm down. You’re safe now. Can you please let go of me first?”

“—Unless you want to be thrown back in prison, charged with assaulting the city lord’s new special advisors,” Li Fufeng leisurely added from the side.

Whoosh—ost as soon as he finished speaking, the siblings immediately let go and retreated back to their chairs at nearly the same speed they had used to pounce earlier. This series of actions looked as if a scene that had occurred not long ago had been recorded and then played backward.

“Hahaha, so our life-saving benefactors are now the city lord’s appointed special advisors? How impressive! As expected of the great gods who could clear our names!”

“Yes, yes, we’re so grateful to you both. Without you, we don’t know if we would have survived to get out of there.”

At this moment, the siblings revealed matching starry-eyed expressions, their tone full of genuine gratitude and praise, particularly sincere and enthusiastic!

It was as if this was their first conversation with Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang after being rescued, and everything that had just happened was an illusion, like deleted scenes from a movie shoot.

...That’s right, nothing happened just now! (Convinced)

Li Fufeng and Liu Ningshuang once again: ...?

...For some reason, they had the inexplicable feeling of being defeated by the speechlessness of facing a Husky that pretends to be innocent and wags its tail after wrecking the house... and can only be forgiven.

Feeling that continuing might lead them into the silly rhythm that Huskies excel at, causing them to stray further from the main topic, Li Fufeng cleared his throat and got straight to the point. “Let’s be frank, you’re not natives of this place, are you?” He sat upright in his chair, leaning slightly forward as he spoke, his gaze firmly fixed on the faces opposite him, exuding a subtle sense of pressure beneath his focus.

— Not yet entirely certain that these two were indeed among the missing people from Blue Star, he wouldn’t take the initiative to reveal their background first. After all, this concerned their most important secret.

Under such an intense gaze, Ji Heng laughed nervously. “Didn’t we say before? We’re from the mountains...”

“Blue Star,” Li Fufeng suddenly uttered these two words.

As he spoke, he didn’t miss the slightest reaction from the two. With his judgment, a momentary reaction was enough to draw a conclusion.

“!!!” The siblings were simultaneously startled.

Five seconds later, they realized something.

Logically, the natives of this world shouldn’t know about the existence of Blue Star. Before this, they had never let it slip, and the city lord’s office obviously didn’t know either. Could it be...

“—You’ve secretly captured other transmigrators without the city lord’s knowledge, tortured out the secret of our transmigration, and now you’ve specifically rescued us to monopolize this secret?!”

The trembling siblings fell into an inexplicable fear.

“—If we don’t agree, are we going to be silenced? If we agree, we won’t be dissected, will we...”

“Stop, stop, stop! Please, can you not overthink this?” At this moment, Liu Ningshuang was greatly shocked. She raised a hand and made a heavy gesture in the air, successfully silencing the siblings, then couldn’t help but comment, “By the way, have you considered that we might have just accidentally learned the term ‘Blue Star’ from other transmigrators, without knowing anything else? As a result of our casual probing, you two directly exposed yourselves!”

“Ah, right, I’m so stupid, really...”

Looking at the siblings who were almost huddled together trembling, Liu Ningshuang was once again at a loss for words. “No, I was just making an assumption. There are no other transmigrators. No, you’ve got me all confused now. We two are the other transmigrators!”

With her last shouted sentence, the trembling siblings instantly froze into stiff statues.

Right, they could also arrange these people according to their abilities, having them help build Daliang City... Then, as their status improved, find ways to access deeper secrets of this world, and perhaps one day have the chance to return to Blue Star...

With a fairly complete blueprint in mind, the four quickly formulated more detailed steps. Finally, they simultaneously cast interested glances at one thing.

— That was the unique martial arts of this world.

Whether or not there was a chance to return, learning martial arts was necessary.

Originally named by elders obsessed with wuxia at home, and thus growing up with wuxia-style names, these four “comrades in misfortune” had long yearned for the magical martial arts described in wuxia novels.

Now that they had the opportunity to learn firsthand, how could they pass it up?

Conveniently, Daliang City had specially established martial arts schools, open to all for teaching basic martial arts. Even for more advanced parts, given their current status in Daliang City, obtaining a few martial arts manuals and secret texts from the city lord’s mansion wouldn’t be difficult.

Hmm, it’s decided then. Next up: start martial arts training, work on increasing contributions to climb the ranks, and find people!

****

The Outside World.

The dense white fog that had enveloped Kun Mountain was gradually beginning to thin, or rather, a large amount of the fog had already spread outward from Kun Mountain, silently merging into the air and drifting in all directions.

According to relevant department measurements, in just a few short days, the air quality across the globe had mysteriously improved by no small amount.

The five fog areas, now the most mysterious regions with the best air quality, had recently attracted many unknown figures rushing to occupy nearby areas. If not for interventions from various national organizations, wealthy individuals would have started buying land in the vicinity.

— Although the unknown fates of numerous missing people indicated the danger of the fog areas, the evident benefits this mysterious fog brought to the human body made people want to take a gamble.

Even though plans to buy land were thwarted by official intervention, it didn’t stop them from spending large sums on buying houses.

The biggest changes this strange and inexplicable anomaly brought to the world, apart from several hundred missing people, turned out to be the soaring property prices in towns near the fog areas???

In this wave, it was actually a victory for real estate developers???

“Hmph, a bunch of foolish mortals. The gates to the immortal realm have opened, the golden age of cultivation is about to descend, yet they remain oblivious. This is my opportunity, Li Daotian’s opportunity! Hahaha!”

In the northern suburbs of Yuanyang City, at the Seventh Hospital.

Li Daotian, draped in a white bedsheet, stood on a tree with his arms spread wide. Bathing in sunlight, he let out a maniacal laugh.

A group of mental patients formed a circle under the tree, curiously looking up at this scene that could only be described as a mixture of chuunibyou and comedy.

“Hahaha—”

The laughter stopped abruptly. With the sound of a branch snapping, something heavy fell from the tree.

“What happened?”

Someone walked over, curiously looking down.

Struggling to get up from the human cushion formed by the mental patients, Li Daotian raised his head nonchalantly and made eye contact with the newcomer.

“Ah, it’s young friend Bai. It’s nothing, I just forgot that my current shallow cultivation can’t support levitation. No, it’s that the current immortal energy is insufficient to support the realm of levitation.”

As he spoke, he sighed heavily, meeting a pair of pitch-black eyes that seemed to hold the depths of the ocean.

“To be able to perceive to this extent? Mere delusions surely aren’t enough. Could it be that you’re truly a natural cultivation prodigy?” The owner of these eyes murmured softly, “No, even the highest talent needs correct theoretical guidance. To reach this level just based on delusional immortal cultivation theories... Isn’t that reaching the correct goal by treading the wrong path?”

“...Unless that path isn’t absolutely wrong. At least... it contains even a tiny bit of correctness.”

Bai Yi slowly blinked, revealing an intrigued expression.

Ah, I only realized this now...

[Are the delusions of immortal cultivation really just delusions?]

He half-knelt, making eye contact with the person on the ground in a strange posture, suddenly tilting his head. “By the way, I forgot to ask, fellow cultivator, how did you initially embark on this path?”

“Well, about that.” When it came to this topic, Li Daotian became energetic. He sprang up, “It has a lot to do with you, young friend Bai.”

“Your mother was the guide to my path!”

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