Chapter 77: Mushrooms

Karanfor, outskirts.

A robin circled in the firmament above, its silver-white feathers seeming to merge with the mottled halos of light in the air.

"This is the place?"

I looked at the somewhat dilapidated wooden house before me and asked.

Behind me, the accompanying guard nodded in confirmation:

"Yes, sir."

At this moment, the halfling and I had already left the cemetery, bringing a team of guards to the residence of the person Ingram had mentioned who fit the verse's description.

As for our dedicated sheriff, he was currently escorting the gravedigger to the church—

With the priest's protection, under the deity's gaze, that place was almost the safest place in all of Karanfor.

After delivering and detaining the gravedigger, he would immediately come meet up with us.

There was nothing strange about it.

Different from the gravedigger's house in the cemetery before, although the wooden house before me also looked dilapidated, overall it was kept very clean.

The small flower garden before the door was lush and verdant, dotted with various brightly colored unknown flowers, full of vitality.

At the inconspicuous edge of the wall corner, there was even a clump of brownish mushrooms stubbornly growing.

After all, it had rained yesterday, and right now was the stuffy hot season.

I didn't think much of it and followed the halfling to the door.

"Knock knock knock."

The door was lightly knocked.

"Coming..."

A hoarse and low voice, accompanied by slow, dull footsteps, came from behind the door.

Creak—

The dark wooden door slowly opened amid the grating sound of stiff hinges.

What came into view was a gaunt-faced old man.

Obviously much older than the gravedigger, it seemed even his frame had bent under time's heavy pressure, hunched and stooped.

In his youth, he was supposedly a not-very-famous adventurer, until during one mission, he was pecked blind in the left eye by a crazed axe beak bird.

So he stayed in Karanfor, becoming one of the town's few grave diggers, responsible for moving corpses and digging graves.

"Old Blind Eye,"

This was what people now called him.

"You two, is there something I can help you with?" The old man looked at the two before him and slowly asked.

His sluggish gaze leisurely turned, landing on me.

I didn't know why, but clearly the sunlight behind was fierce, and the light inside the house wasn't particularly dim either.

When the other party opened the door, I seemed to inexplicably feel a cold wind, accompanied by some strange and unpleasant smell, surging out from inside.

The wrinkles covering his face and the age spots revealing deep twilight gave me the feeling of those rough, dim oak bark wrapped in mist deep in Mist Forest;

That single gray-white eye pierced by a hideous scar was filled with death energy, yet like a black hole swallowing all my consciousness.

A bizarre and grotesque feeling grew wildly like weeds in my heart.

At this moment, I suddenly felt like I was that mushroom growing at the wall's base.

Light, tiny spores germinated in moist soil, hyphae intertwined and interwove, condensing into substance extending outward and developing, finally breaking through the soil layer to become...

"Xia Nan, Xia Nan?"

A shaking force came from my arm. As if separated by water, a blurred call brought me back to reality.

My consciousness returned to my body.

I suddenly froze.

At some unknown time, I'd already walked into the wooden house.

Right now I was sitting with the halfling around the soft sofa by the fireplace.

On the table before me were even two cups of steaming tea.

"What's wrong? You've been absent-minded since just now?"

Beside me, Alton looked at me with confusion.

I didn't answer, my eyes staring straight at the opposite side, at that old man with hunched body who was also looking at me with confused eyes.

One second, two seconds...

I suddenly shook my head, forcefully rubbing my cheeks.

"Nothing, just spaced out a bit."

Was it an illusion?

I wasn't clear.

But regardless, this place, or rather Old Blind Eye opposite me, definitely had problems!

"How long has it been since we came in?"

"Two hours, right? What's going on, are you really confused?"

The halfling's answer made my heart even more uneasy.

I suddenly stood up, pulling over Alton who was lying on the sofa in a quite comfortable posture.

"Why hasn't Ingram come yet? Did something happen?"

"I think we should go to the church to check."

"What do you mean?" The halfling only felt baffled. "You were silent just now, and now this so suddenly?"

But seeing my exceptionally determined expression at this moment, he didn't resist much, lightly leaping from the sofa, toes touching the ground.

The hot water in the teacup on the table and my heart both trembled twice simultaneously.

"This 'Old Blind Eye' is quite nice. Many of the stories he told I haven't even heard before. Don't know where he adventured when he was young."

"In a couple days, let's come..."

"Hey! Are you listening to me?"

The halfling looked at the stiffly postured me beside him, his tone carrying some complaint.

"Let's go out first, let's go out first."

My pace involuntarily quickened, almost pulling him toward the door.

"What's wrong with you today? Acting all weird?"

"I..."

Before I could speak, I only felt the wooden sword on my back suddenly transmit a wave of heat.

And almost simultaneously, a huge commotion rang out outside the door.

It was the pained cries and roars of the guards standing watch outside.

No more words. The two of us instantly rushed out the door.

The warm air inside the house dissipated completely in an instant.

What replaced it was a bone-chilling cold wind wrapped with rich negative energy.

Fingers that fell to the ground with the arm twitched powerlessly. On the surface of the half-severed rusted sword, bright red blood silently dripped.

Skin pale and greenish, his dead gray eyes filled with whites showed dim light.

Tim stood on the muddy ground before the door, quietly looking at the two who'd rushed out.

On that shabby scale armor, right in the center, you could still vaguely see traces of being pierced by the wooden sword before, but the injury inside had already healed, revealing the dry, rough skin beneath.

At his feet lay several guards' corpses.

"How could it be so fast? I didn't hear any commotion inside?"

Alton hastily picked up his lute, his expression surprised.

But I'd already charged at Tim with sword in hand.

But strangely, although the enemy was right before me, the surging battle intent from before didn't well up in my heart.

Only because I'd walked out the door, gradually moving away from that wooden house, I felt unconsciously relieved.

Behind me, impassioned music rang out.

Tim, originally standing in place, suddenly sheathed his sword and turned to flee.

Compared to that ghost-like figure melding with the night before, right now in broad daylight, although his speed was somewhat faster than ordinary people, it was completely within the range that Alton and I could keep up with.

Whoosh—

Three figures at extremely fast speed disappeared at the end of the road.

Inside the house,

The teacup sat quietly on the table, hot steam curling upward.

A withered, thin hand gripped the cup handle.

Lifting the cup, blowing air.

Taking a light sip.

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