Taoyuan Village—its name was certainly poetic, but no matter how Xuan Mo looked at it, he found it strange. The village was small, with only a few dozen households. The houses were crude, the villagers plainly dressed, and every one of them wore an expressionless face, looking like a group of puppets on strings. A bizarre fragrance permeated the air, so sweet and cloying that it made his throat ache. After inhaling it for too long, he felt dizzy and light-headed.
"Master, this place... is kind of creepy." Wang Zhong hunched his neck and followed closely behind Xuan Mo.
Xuan Mo shot him a sidelong glance. "Coward, what are you afraid of with me here? The examiners of the Ascension Ceremony wouldn't actually torment us to death, would they? If anything happens, I'll just tear this lousy scroll apart!"
He sounded bold enough, but he was far from confident inside. Taoyuan Village was truly bizarre, with everything seeming like a trap. He casually picked up a bright red fruit by the roadside and was just about to take a bite when Wang Zhong snatched it away.
"Master! You can't eat that fruit! I heard several examinees at the village entrance say that eating it turns people into idiots!"
Xuan Mo raised his eyebrows and examined the fruit in his hand with great interest. "Oh? Is that so? Then I have to try it even more."
As he spoke, he took a bite. Juice splattered everywhere. Wang Zhong's face went white with fright, and he was about to wail in despair when he saw that Xuan Mo's expression remained unchanged. He even smacked his lips a few times. "Not bad. A little sour, though."
Wang Zhong: "..."
Just then, a pretty village girl approached and curtsied gracefully to Xuan Mo. "Young