Peach Haven Village (18)

After entering the mountain, Ding Shi began organizing his luggage.

He raised the bundle with one hand and formed a hand seal with the other, obtaining a Luggage Card. Then he started sorting out his items.

Everyone only had four item slots. First, the Bell Card could not be removed. The Bell Card could lure ghosts, and it could not be kept on his person; otherwise, it would jingle all the way, instantly turning Ding Shi into Tang Sanzang and attracting countless demons and ghosts.

The Luggage Card was also essential. Only someone with a broken brain would carry thirty-five pounds of luggage up a mountain.

He had not learned talisman paper yet. Although it could be carried on his person, it was too valuable, so he had to reserve a slot for it.

His remaining items were sweet potatoes, water, cigarettes, matches, a flashlight, and a claw hammer.

Ding Shi tried putting the sweet potatoes and water into the luggage, but the system refused to turn them into cards. The reason was that the luggage had been packed by the village chief and could be regarded as a single item unit. Players could turn a bag into a card, but they could not fill the bag with things and then turn the bag into a card. This was to prevent players from exploiting loopholes. For example, a card album could hold hundreds of cards.

However, this rule did not apply to small items. As long as identical items could be held in one palm, they could be turned into cards. For example, Many Earthworms Card, Many Small Stones Card, and so on.

If his hand could hold two sweet potatoes, he could turn the two sweet potatoes into a card. The concept of holding meant that the hand covered more than fifty percent of the objects.

If one hand could lift or support a single item, such as a stone, then the stone could also be turned into a card.

The mechanics of card conversion were relatively complicated. Even though Ding Shi spent quite some time studying them, he still did not fully understand them.

Before the sun set, Ding Shi found a spot to eat one sweet potato, turned the second sweet potato into a card and put it away, then stuffed the third into his left pocket. His right pocket held cigarettes, matches, and water. With the claw hammer tucked into the back of his waistband and a flashlight in hand, Ding Shi set off.

This mountain path was less than thirty centimeters wide, and the long blades of grass stretching in from both sides practically covered the path. Every season, White Cloud Daoist traveled this path to the village. The village chief would prepare food, vegetable seeds, and other daily necessities for White Cloud Daoist to take away.

Thinking of this, Ding Shi greatly admired the seventy-year-old White Cloud Daoist. A round trip between White Cloud Temple and Peach Haven Village took six hours, and he had to carry dozens of pounds of supplies.

Conclusion: this Daoist had plenty to be fleeced for.

With his mind made up, Ding Shi picked up his pace. After walking for around half an hour, night had completely fallen. The sky full of stars showed that the moon would not appear anytime soon, so he could only rely on his flashlight to travel.

Then, without warning, a fork appeared ahead. Ding Shi immediately pulled out his claw hammer. According to the village chief, Peach Garden Mountain had only one road—a road leading to White Cloud Temple. If he had guessed correctly, he had encountered a mountain sprite.

What kind of bullshit leisure dungeon was this?

The insects in the grass were unbearably noisy at night. Ding Shi listened quietly for a minute, but he did not hear anything unusual nearby.

Which path should he take?

Ding Shi chose to turn back the way he had come.

Ding Shi's reasoning was this: first, the way back was safe. Second, once he retreated, the mountain sprite would face the problem of whether to follow him. If it followed, it would be unable to maintain the fork-road illusion it had set up. If Ding Shi turned around and sprinted back, he could pass through this area before the mountain sprite could set it up again.

The mountain sprite was evidently a little smarter than Ding Shi had expected. After he walked about twenty meters back the way he had come, he found another fork in the road. The fatal part was that the two paths looked exactly alike, like twins.

Ding Shi thought of a problem: Blind Zhao had never told him how many mountain sprites were in the mountain.

Sure enough, assholes were everywhere.

Ding Shi turned around and continued forward. After twenty meters, he returned to the fork. The left path led into darkness, and so did the right. Mountain sprites were also hiding in the grass on both sides. Once he chose the wrong path, he would be led to barren graves and trapped by evil ghosts.

Ding Shi crouched at the fork and grabbed a handful of Yellow Earth from the left path. With a snap of his fingers, a Yellow Earth Card appeared in his hand. Interestingly, the card's image showed many small blades of grass, yet Ding Shi's eyes had not seen any grass on the path. Therefore, the left path was wrong.

But was the right path correct? Ding Shi repeated the process, and the Yellow Earth from the right also contained some grass. This meant both the left and right paths were wrong.

In folk custom, this situation was called ghost-blinded eyes. A ghost covered your eyes and only let you see part of what was there. In Ita World, it was a mountain sprite's illusion.

Ding Shi reached toward the grass in the middle of the fork, pressed his palm into the soil, and grabbed a handful. After turning it into a card, he could see that this Yellow Earth Card contained no grass at all. In other words, the correct path had been concealed by the illusion. Whether Ding Shi chose left or right, he would be led to the barren graves.

This thing really was ghostly!

While Ding Shi was playing with dirt, a mountain sprite in the grass on the left slowly approached him from behind. A mountain sprite's combat strength was close to that of an adult. But what if it launched a sneak attack? What if it was two against one?

When the mountain sprite came within half a meter of Ding Shi, Ding Shi suddenly turned around. His right hand swung the claw hammer down ruthlessly at the mountain sprite's crown.

With a crack, the mountain sprite's skull shattered. It fell to the ground with a scream. Ding Shi pounced on it, gripping its throat with one hand and raising the claw hammer with the other. He smashed it into the mountain sprite's forehead again and again, only standing once it showed no signs of life.

Only then did Ding Shi pick up the flashlight that had fallen to the ground and inspect the mountain sprite.

It had an ugly monkey-like face and some muscle, but nowhere near that of a chimpanzee. Ding Shi flipped the mountain sprite over with his foot and looked beneath it. Male. He now had a clear measure of the mountain sprites' combat strength.

Ding Shi did not like mountain sprites that wore no clothes. That meant they did not have anything valuable on them.

Had Ding Shi forgotten there was another mountain sprite? Of course not. Mountain Sprite B had fled after seeing Mountain Sprite A's skull smashed, and only then had Ding Shi pounced on Mountain Sprite A. Mountain Sprite B had run away in fright, but it might come to its senses and return to support Mountain Sprite A. The reason Ding Shi had acted so decisively was to kill Mountain Sprite A before Mountain Sprite B could possibly return.

Then how had Ding Shi discovered Mountain Sprite A?

A mountain sprite weighed around seventy pounds. Though it moved through the grass, it was agile, so in theory it would not make much noise. The insect cries filling the night also concealed their movements. Unfortunately, the mountain sprite had forgotten one thing: its presence would cause the insects in the surrounding grass to stop chirping.

When the mountain sprite came within five meters of Ding Shi, he had already noticed the problem. The mountain sprite's strategy of approaching slowly gave Ding Shi time to think and act, allowing him to cripple it with one successful blow.

If it had been an ordinary person facing a pincer attack from two mountain sprites, there would basically have been no chance of survival.

Not everyone could decisively swing a full-force hammer blow. Not everyone could pounce without hesitation and kill a mountain sprite completely, without caring about blood and brain matter splattering over their body and face.

The mountain sprite's death gave no experience points, but the correct path appeared. As Ding Shi traveled, he pondered a question. Theoretically, no players would take this route. Whether mountain sprites or the ghosts at the barren graves, their appearance rate was extremely low.

To put it in Earth terms, the developers had invested a great deal of resources into Peach Garden Mountain, yet its utilization rate was extremely low. It was a terrible bargain. Then why invest resources in Peach Garden Mountain?

Ding Shi thought of Zhang San and Zhao Liu. Both had timed tasks. Zhang San lit a stick of incense every morning, while Zhao Liu delivered a jar of pickled vegetables every morning. In addition, Li Si belonged to the Night Patrol Team, and Sun Qi faced no punishment even if she could not complete her task.

In other words, all four of them had ample time to explore the dungeon world. But the players lacked this concept. Forget entering the mountain to explore—they were unfamiliar even with the village itself, living there in an extremely passive manner.

Ding Shi had gone up the mountain this time because the task required it, not because he wanted to. If Li Si and Zhao Liu had not courted death, he would never have known there was a Blind Zhao in the village, never have come into contact with Third Lady Temple, and certainly never have climbed Peach Garden Mountain in the middle of the night.

Conclusion: exploring dungeons was important and something that had to be done.