At Chen Lin's question, Xu Chenxuan looked back through his memories. "I entered by projection. It was a very strange place called something like Guardian Hut Village."
Chen Lin trembled and asked gravely, "Guardian Hut Village? Could you describe the surroundings, Master? As far as I know, Guardians are higher beings of the Nightmare Realm."
He forced down the sudden surge of emotion in his heart and watched the other man.
During the peerage mission, he had used up both Niuniu's Talisman and Xiaohong's mushroom. Grass had also merged into the Thunder God Sword, leaving him without any means of contacting Niuniu.
That was why he desperately hoped the Guardian Hut Village the man mentioned was the one where Niuniu lived.
Xu Chenxuan did not notice the change in Chen Lin's emotions. After a moment's thought, he said, "It was just a small village, but every household's buildings had a different style. When I entered, I appeared on the street, but I couldn't enter any of the homes. I wandered around for a long time before a little boy who looked like a fish called me into his courtyard."
He paused, then continued, "Then he told me to make dried fish. I had to produce one dried fish out of ten fish to complete the task. Otherwise, I would be punished by being turned into dried fish myself."
The anticipation in Chen Lin's eyes grew stronger.
He chimed in, "Making one dried fish out of ten fish sounds like quite an easy task."
"Easy?"
Xu Chenxuan shook his head. "You're mistaken, Fellow Daoist Ye. It wasn't easy at all. The fish he gave me were extremely peculiar. I couldn't even catch them, and they had to be processed alive. I killed all nine fish without successfully making a single one."