Those words, "Yuanshi Tianzun," seemed to choke off Please Call Me Queen's voice. Her striking face filled with shock, and in utter disbelief, she looked Zhang Yuanqing up and down. As a seasoned veteran who frequented the forums, she knew the genius of the Songhai Branch like thunder to her ears and had actively participated in discussions about him.
Though he was only a Level 2 Night Wanderer, he was already like a celebrity.
Yet she never dreamed that she would be matched with this genius in a Spirit Realm.
"Yuanshi Tianzun, is it really you? Is it really you...?" Queen's face beamed with excitement, her eyes darting between Zhang Yuanqing and Guan Ya.
Guan Ya gave a slight nod. "It's him."
"I actually got matched with you!" Confirmed by her Songhai Branch colleague, Queen grew even more thrilled. "Once we return to reality, I'm definitely going to brag on the forum and tell everyone I matched with Yuanshi Tianzun!"
"Yuanshi Tianzun..." Huode Xingjun's eyes lit up, asking with suppressed excitement, "The Yuanshi Tianzun from the Songhai Branch?"
Without even realizing it, I've become a top dog at the Transcendent stage, a big star... Zhang Yuanqing offered a faint smile. "I don't think there's a second Yuanshi Tianzun in the entire Spirit Realm."
The slightly chubby, round-faced youth, Chi'ou, asked in confusion, "Yuanshi Tianzun... bro, are you very famous?"
He was an unaffiliated walker who couldn't access the Five Elements Alliance's official forum. Due to his low level and lack of an advanced intelligence network, he had never heard of Yuanshi Tianzun's great name.
Queen piped up immediately, "He's our official organization's prodigy! He cleared two consecutive S-rank dungeons! At Level 1, he killed a Level 3 Bewitching Demon on his own; at Level 2, he took down a Level 6 Witch Doctor single-handedly; and not long ago, he fought Li Xianzong all by himself, was nearly beaten to death, but tenaciously survived—"
No, there was no need to mention that last one... Zhang Yuanqing, who had been secretly feeling smug, froze slightly when he heard the end of her list.
To the Earth Monster Chi'ou, hearing this was an entirely different experience. His mouth dropped wider and wider, his expression growing exaggerated as he looked at Zhang Yuanqing as if gazing at an unreachable titan.
Someone like that... can actually match with me?
Even the quiet, melancholy Lili Yuanshangcao couldn't help but look Zhang Yuanqing up and down repeatedly.
No matter how indifferent he was to strangers, hearing such terrifying achievements and an illustrious track record made it impossible to ignore this peer who was only a few years older than him.
Cleared two S-rank Spirit Realms... a Night Wanderer who kills evil professions above his level... Li Chunfeng immediately cast aside his negative and pessimistic mindset, saying in pleasant surprise, "To think an almighty god like you was hiding in our team! That increases our win rate tremendously. We can definitely play this round."
Actually, there's another hidden boss in the team. Guan Ya has always been deliberately keeping her score down, losing non-death dungeons whenever she can, so her hidden rating wouldn't be high, but her physical combat skills are absurdly strong... Zhang Yuanqing took the cue and said, "Then I will serve as captain. Don't worry, everyone, I will definitely lead you all to clear Yinyang Town."
"No problem!"
No one objected. Apart from Huode Xingjun and Queen, the others felt the captain existed merely to boost efficiency and prevent unnecessary disputes; as for who took the role, it made little difference.
Since there was an almighty expert in the team, having him as captain was best—it commanded everyone's respect.
Please Call Me Queen pursed her lips and hummed, "We'll see how you perform, then. If you make a tactical blunder, I'm seizing power."
She didn't insist further.
I wonder what level of leadership is required to earn the faction token... Zhang Yuanqing looked back toward the town behind him. "Time is short. Let's go in."
The group passed through the archway and entered the ancient town.
***
At another entrance to the town, Li Xianzong looked down at the two companions sprawled on the ground, then glanced at the four silent ones, grinning. "I'll be the captain. Any objections?"
A bald man snorted. "If you'd said from the start you were Li Xianzong, who would dare object?"
Meanwhile, an emaciated middle-aged man chuckled slyly. "Still, having two Level 3s on our side, and one of them being Li Xianzong, means according to matchmaking mechanics, the orthodox faction probably has some heavy hitters over there."
Li Xianzong said proudly, "That's what makes it fun, doesn't it? Better if we're matched against one of the official top ten at the Transcendent stage. Kill one in the Spirit Realm, then slaughter Yuanshi Tianzun after returning—that will wrap up my trial mission early, and I can prepare for the mid-year dungeon."
If all went well, he could amass a considerable fortune.
The emaciated middle-aged man showed a lecherous smile. "I only hope there are pretty women in the orthodox faction. Nothing is more thrilling than humiliating them."
In his past multiplayer Spirit Realms, he had done such things more than a few times.
"Cut the crap, follow me!"
Leading his team members, Li Xianzong walked through the archway and entered the town.
A party of seven walked along the wide flagstone street, and a notification soon chimed in their ears:
[Please find Blacksmith Wang's shop within ten minutes.]
***
"Granny Wang?"
Huode Xingjun asked as soon as he had a question. "How do we find Granny Wang? Just now outside, we saw a cowherd tending cattle, but once we entered the town, where did all the people go? Is this an empty town?"
The prompt they had received was to find Granny Wang's home within ten minutes.
At this moment, they were walking along the quiet streets of the ancient town. There was no birdsong, no barking dogs, and the courtyard doors of the houses on both sides were tightly shut. It was as if they were the only ones in the entire town.
Li Chunfeng earnestly pointed out the Fire Master's error: "If this were an empty town, why would it tell us to find Granny Wang?"
Huode Xingjun was too lazy to use his brain, so he asked, "Where is this Granny Wang? The town is huge—who knows where she's hiding? We only have ten minutes. Hey, Queen, right? Didn't you read the walkthroughs?"
Looking around, Please Call Me Queen replied, "Oh, I forgot to tell you guys. Yinyang Town is an ever-changing dungeon. The main storyline is the confrontation between the orthodox and evil factions—that part doesn't change, but the process does. Among the walkthroughs I've read, some had to find Blacksmith Wang, some had to solve a town murder, some had to navigate a maze, and the most terrifying is the midnight variant."
"The midnight variant?" The round-faced youth Chi'ou asked curiously, "Why is that the most terrifying?"
"If you happen to match into it in the dead of night, the dungeon makes you stay at an inn, and someone dies every night. You have to root out the killer before you can leave the inn, and you can't use any skills," Queen explained at length.
"How long would that take? And they still didn't lose?" Li Chunfeng analyzed it, looking quite surprised.
"The evil faction that time probably ran into something even more troublesome," Queen said. "But the core of this stage remains unchanged: resolve the incident, obtain the corresponding item, and then you can leave this area. Otherwise, we'll remain trapped here forever. Who knows what we have to resolve this time? We probably won't know until we meet Granny Wang."
She turned her head to Zhang Yuanqing with a charming smile. "Tianzun, what do you think, sir? Find Granny Wang within ten minutes, and we've already burned through four."
Seeing all his teammates looking over, Zhang Yuanqing seemed to have already formed a plan. "That's not hard. I had an idea all along; I was just waiting for you guys to finish blabbering."
With that, he took a deep breath and roared, "Granny Wang, where are you?!"
He bellowed five or six times in a row, his voice echoing farther and farther away.
His companions stared in dumbfounded bewilderment, exchanging looks, thinking: Is he crazy? Is this how anyone looks for someone?
Right then, from an alleyway to their front left, an old woman walked out. Her hair was silver, she wore coarse cloth robes, and she hobbled along with a cane.
Wrinkles crisscrossed her face, her back was slightly hunched, and her voice sounded ancient: "Who are you folks? What do you want with this old woman...?"
That actually worked?! The teammates were stunned.
Huode Xingjun exclaimed, "How did you know she'd come out if you yelled?"
Zhang Yuanqing gave a light chuckle. "I didn't know; I was just trying it out. The town is so big. Wandering aimlessly, finding an old woman within ten minutes would be practically impossible. The Spirit Realm wouldn't present an impossible deathtrap right at the start."
Huode Xingjun had a sudden realization. "As expected of an expert who cleared two S-ranks."
Leading the others, Zhang Yuanqing stepped forward to meet her. He waited a few seconds, and seeing that the Spirit Realm gave no prompts, he could only say, "Granny, we're travelers from out of town, newcomers to this place. We were wondering if we could beg a sip of water? We're hungry too. We can pay."
In situations without system prompts, the "players" usually had to trigger the plot themselves.
"Travelers from out of town, eh..."
Granny Wang's somewhat cloudy gaze swept over the crowd, and she said slowly, "Guests from afar are welcome. Follow me. No need for money."
With that, she turned shakily and walked into the alleyway leaning on her cane.
Zhang Yuanqing and the others immediately followed. The alley was paved with cobblestones, wide enough for only two people walking shoulder to shoulder. Deprived of sunlight year-round and damp with moisture, moss crept along the edges of the pathway.
There were many such alleys in the ancient town, dense as a spiderweb.
Guan Ya took a couple of brisk steps forward and whispered into Zhang Yuanqing's ear, "Did you notice? She isn't wearing modern clothes. I don't know much about ancient history, so I can't tell which dynasty it is."
Guan Ya had grown up abroad as a child.
"Looks a bit like Song dynasty, but also a bit like Tang," Zhang Yuanqing said uncertainly.
From behind, Li Chunfeng said, "It's early Ming. Ming dynasty clothing varied sharply between the early, middle, and late periods. Early Ming commoner clothing imitated the Tang system, but with slight differences from the Tang style, making it easy to identify. In addition, the architectural style of this ancient town is also typically Ming. Tang and Song certainly weren't like this."
As expected of a Scholar, quite knowledgeable. Zhang Yuanqing quickly turned to Guan Ya and said, "I was just about to say early Ming."
Guan Ya rolled her eyes at him and whispered, "The background of Yinyang Sanren's active period is early Ming? That matches Lady Sandao's background."
Before Zhang Yuanqing could reply, Li Chunfeng added, "The Spirit Realms encountered in the Transcendent stage are set in either modern times or the Ming dynasty—only those two. But as far as I know, Song dynasty settings appear in Saint stage dungeons. As for the reason, I'm not really sure."
The dungeon settings in the Transcendent stage are only modern or Ming, while the Saint stage includes Song... That's right, last time at the Lady Sandao Temple, the temple master mentioned that he wanted to tell the notebook's owner a secret concerning a thousand years of rise and fall...
I wonder if he was just stringing along his disciple or if it was true. Yinyang Sanren and the old crone were from the same era; I wonder if he left any clues here... I also have to pay attention to the hidden quest the Demon Lord mentioned. So far, there's no trace of it...
While he was pondering, Granny Wang led the group to the front of an ancient, dilapidated courtyard house.
The gate of the residence was rotted and decrepit, its door knockers rusted, secured with a bronze padlock.
Granny Wang fumbled around for quite a while before fishing out a key and unlocking the gate.
The architectural style of this courtyard residence was a standard skywell house: rooms on three sides surrounding an open area in the center, the eaves of the three wings forming a square skywell above.
The most prominent impression given by this kind of house was dimness and gloom.
Coupled with its great age, the all-wood structure was covered in traces of gray decay, making it appear all the more eerie.
Leaning on her cane, Granny Wang stepped over the threshold and glanced back from the shadows. "Come in..."
Zhang Yuanqing hesitated slightly, while Huode Xingjun carelessly strode over the threshold first.
The group entered the house and came beneath the skywell. To the left was a spacious living room furnished with a round table and several round stools, all covered in dust, appearing long neglected.
"No guests have visited this house in many years. An old woman with bad legs neglects the housekeeping."
Granny Wang wiped off some dust with her sleeve and said, "Please make yourselves comfortable. I'll pour some tea for you."
With that, leaning on her cane, her hunched figure walked into the room to the right of the skywell.
At this moment, Guan Ya lowered her voice and said, "Look above your heads."
Above our heads? Huode Xingjun instinctively looked up and sharply drew in a cold breath.
Hanging from the roof beams above their heads were skinned cats. Suspended high up like a forest of hanging meat, their cat eyes bulged wide, bizarre and terrifying.
Why did Granny Wang hang so many cats here? To cure meat? Zhang Yuanqing grew alert.
Guan Ya continued, "Did you notice earlier? The door of the house was locked."
"What's wrong with that?" the round-faced youth Chi'ou asked.
Guan Ya shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with locking doors, but when we walked over just now, I estimated the distance. From the main street to here is only fifty to sixty meters. Did she really need to lock it?"
In a place like this, awareness of burglaries was unlikely, and Granny Wang had trouble walking. For such a short distance, was it worth locking the door?
Please Call Me Queen understood her meaning and mused thoughtfully, "Is she afraid that someone would sneak inside while she was out... or is she afraid that something in the house might sneak out?"
Chapter 126