"": 200,
"": "",
"": "Another shadow darted up. It was another gray-white rat, much more delicate and petite, pressing close beside Fourth Master Gray.
Gray-black rats surrounded the boat, bracing against its hull and preventing it from leaving.
Liu Shuisheng's scalp prickled. Trembling, he said, "Great Immortal Gray, if you won't let this old man leave, there's nothing I can do. They're doomed... no, they're already dead. The people standing at the town entrance, the people standing in the water-none of them can come back. They're dead..."
"Squeak, squeak!" Fourth Master Gray's cries were shrill. He showed no willingness to negotiate.
Inside a house in town.
The house consisted of a front room, a central courtyard, and a rear room.
Luo Bin, Bai Xian, Bai Wei, and Liu Shengqi were all inside.
The door was shut tight, and the street outside was visible through the window.
Everything was very quiet.
People walked along the street. Without exception, most wore blank expressions, showing no emotion whatsoever.
Old houses, vacant-eyed passersby-everything was steeped in deathly stillness.
Bai Wei suddenly turned toward the curtain between the front room and the courtyard.
The curtain was partly lifted. A woman in her twenties stood there, haggard and listless.
Seeing the three of them, she showed neither surprise nor nervousness. The curtain fell again, and faint footsteps receded.
Liu Shengqi stared for a couple of seconds, then turned to Luo Bin and the others with a sigh. "My mom's completely numb. It's fine."
Luo Bin frowned slightly, studying Liu Shengqi's face.
Liu Shengqi looked to be in his twenties too. One was the son, the other the mother?
Numb?
That was an apt word. Every person they had seen after following Liu Shengqi into Auspicious Qi Town was numb, without the slightest trace