The Strange

"Sense of security? Aren't we safe now?"

Liu Feng scratched his head, his face full of confusion.

Lin Nan pushed open the window and gazed into the distance. At this moment, faint mist could vaguely be seen beyond the city walls. Then he pointed at the jade talismans hanging from the rafters.

"Our peaceful lives now all come from these jade talismans. But have you ever considered what would happen if, one day, the jade talismans failed?"

The jade talismans failing?

Yu Qianqian and Liu Feng both shuddered.

If the jade talismans truly failed, the countless demons, monsters, and evil spirits in the wilderness would invade the Outer City directly...

Even a master of Master Jie's level probably would not last a single night.

But soon, the two of them laughed it off. Liu Feng continued, "Brother Lin, you're overthinking it. For countless years, us Outer City folk have relied on these jade talismans to drive away demons and evil spirits. It's as ordinary as eating and drinking. How could they just fail out of the blue?"

"Perhaps."

Lin Nan shook his head and did not pursue the subject.

He turned to Yu Qianqian. "Have the procedures for claiming the reward for our Soul-Congealing Flower Dew collection mission been completed?"

"I exchanged it at Fortune and Prosperity Hall earlier. It should be approved within the next couple of days. The total is three taels of silver. When the time comes, we'll divide it as we agreed before—you get sixty percent, and I get forty." Yu Qianqian answered truthfully.

"Three taels of silver?" Lin Nan's brows knitted slightly.

"Why do I remember it being fifteen taels?"

"Ah? A simple mission like collecting Soul-Congealing Flower Dew in Greenwater Village couldn't possibly have such a generous reward, could it?" Yu Qianqian looked puzzled.

"Greenwater Village? What Greenwater Village?"

Lin Nan abruptly stopped eating, his eyes filled with astonishment.

"Didn't we go to Withered Locust Village?"

"Withered Locust Village?"

Now it was Yu Qianqian and Liu Feng's turn to frown.

"Brother Lin, stop joking. When has there ever been a village called Withered Locust Village around the Outer City?"

"No! Tell me every detail of what you experienced during that mission."

Seeing Lin Nan's grave expression and realizing that he was not joking, Yu Qianqian immediately recounted the matter of gathering Soul-Congealing Flower Dew in Greenwater Village that day.

There had been no constable slaughtering a village. The one leading the team had not been Peng Huo, either, but an ordinary constable named Sun Fan.

Lin Nan set down his food, rose to his feet, and swiftly headed toward Fortune and Prosperity Hall. Yu Qianqian and Liu Feng hurried after him.

After reviewing the mission records at Fortune and Prosperity Hall, the result sent a chill through his heart.

The records stated that only three people had taken part in the Greenwater Village mission: Sun Fan, Lin Nan, and Yu Qianqian.

Zhou Yi, Xiong Hui, and the Xu siblings had seemingly vanished altogether, as though they had never existed.

"What exactly is going on?" he muttered, his brow furrowing tighter and tighter.

"Big Brother Lin... what's wrong?" Yu Qianqian asked comfortingly.

"Yeah, Brother Lin, what is it?" Liu Feng asked curiously as well.

"Actually, the mission we went on that day was not to Greenwater Village, but Withered Locust Village. The one leading us was Peng Huo, the Iron-Faced Owl Inspector..."

Lin Nan's expression was solemn as he began briefly recounting the events at Withered Locust Village. But then he noticed that the two stood there blankly, as though none of his words had entered their ears.

"Big Brother Lin... what's wrong?"

"Yeah, Brother Lin, what is it?"

Yu Qianqian and Liu Feng repeated what they had just said to themselves, as if Lin Nan's words had been no more than air.

Lin Nan froze. Stormy waves crashed through his heart.

They can't hear me?!

No, they can't hear anything related to Withered Locust Village! Something is affecting us—it's the thing in that final bank of mist!

Crack.

A series of splitting sounds came from the rafters. The strings of jade talismans hanging there began to crack one after another.

Lin Nan hurriedly shut his mouth and said no more, his scalp tingling.

No wonder the Withered Locust Village mission has been over for so long, yet the Outer City yamen and the two great martial halls never came looking for anyone!

Everyone has been affected—except me!

After a long while, Fortune and Prosperity Hall, as well as Liu Feng and Yu Qianqian, returned to normal, as if nothing had happened.

Over the following days, Lin Nan never mentioned "Withered Locust Village" again.

He merely secretly used Liu Feng's connections to investigate it. Sure enough, just as he had expected, no one in the entire Outer City knew anything about "Withered Locust Village."

It was as though the village had vanished into thin air.

Even the traces of Peng Huo, Zhou Yi, and the others had disappeared as though they had evaporated from the world.

"Our memories have been altered!"

Lin Nan's heart sank. He guessed that if not for the Creation Furnace, he would likely have been like Yu Qianqian and forgotten everything that had happened at Withered Locust Village.

After all, he still had something from Withered Locust Village on him.

That bronze cup from Peng Huo.

Thinking back on it now, Peng Huo had likely also been influenced by something, causing his temperament to change drastically.

"Until my martial cultivation reaches a certain realm, I absolutely cannot investigate Withered Locust Village. If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up."

Lin Nan immediately made up his mind, cast aside his distracting thoughts, and devoted himself wholeheartedly to stance training.

"Train, train, train!"

On the training ground, his back arched slightly and his knees bent as he assumed the opening posture of the Spirit Serpent Stance again and again.

Before long, he slowly lowered his arms from before his chest, and a stream of white vapor rose from his body.

"My qi and blood have become perfectly rounded. The third level of qi and blood is completely perfected."

He looked at the information on the furnace.

[Technique: Spirit Serpent Stance (Not Initiated)]

[Technique: White Snake Stance (Level Three) (Perfected)]

[Fist Art: White Snake Fist Transformation Force (Perfected)]

The proficiency entries after [White Snake Stance] and [White Snake Fist] had vanished. This meant that his White Snake Stance had finally reached perfection.

"Now that both my stance and fist art have reached perfection, the next step is to continue cultivating the Spirit Serpent Stance and begin toughening my skin."

Just then.

A middle-aged man with a full beard entered through the door. It was Instructor Wang, whom he had not seen in many days.

"Lin Nan, you're still here training?"

At the sight of Lin Nan, Instructor Wang's face showed some gratification. Back then, he had watched Lin Nan grow up.

In recent days, news of Lin Nan reaching the third level of qi and blood had also reached his ears. The many disciples of the martial hall had hailed him as the most gifted talent in the past three years, second only to Zhong Jing.

Unfortunately, he had wasted so many years in the past. He was already too old, and only now had begun to exert himself. No matter how hard he worked, his prospects would remain limited.

"Instructor Wang, it's been a long time."

Lin Nan picked up a cloth and wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Why aren't you teaching those disciples today? What brings you over here?"

"I came to take a mission." Instructor Wang gave a bitter smile.

"A mission?" Lin Nan was somewhat surprised.

"You know that I'm getting old. My qi and blood are declining—I'm no longer like you young people. Naturally, I need to earn some money for my retirement."

As Instructor Wang spoke, he pulled a mission strip stamped with a red seal from his sleeve.

"This mission is pretty good lately, and the reward is generous. Interested in making the trip with an old man like me?"

Lin Nan accepted the mission strip and looked it over. The mission was very simple.

[Deliver a confidential letter to Lord Wang Xianpu, a commandant of the Inner City.]

Put simply, he only needed to deliver a letter from the Outer City yamen to Commandant Wang in the Inner City. The reward was two taels of silver.

For an errand-running mission, a reward of two taels of silver could be called exceptionally generous.

Even Lin Nan was somewhat tempted.

Recently, he had used Liu Feng's connections to buy demon flesh on the black market. To keep others from noticing anything suspicious, he had often bought quite a few other items alongside it.

He did not have much silver left now.

So, after considering it for a moment—

"I'm not going."

Lin Nan returned the mission strip to Instructor Wang.

A strange glint flashed through Instructor Wang's eyes. "You won't reconsider?"

"No." Lin Nan shook his head and walked onto the training ground to continue practicing his stance.

North of the city, Blood Blade Sect, Execution Hall.

Tu Kui sat in a grandmaster's rocking chair. Beautiful maidservants stood on either side of him, constantly feeding him fruit.

"Even a mission like this couldn't lure him out?"

"Reporting to Master Kui, it is absolutely true."

A bearded man dressed in a white martial arts uniform bowed and clasped his fists. He was none other than Instructor Wang, who had just been on the training ground!