Conflict: Your A-rank and mine don't seem to be the same...

As they were chatting, the townsman noticed that there was no sound beside him. After a few seconds, he realized that even footsteps and breathing had stopped. He stopped, turned around abruptly, and saw no sign of his neighbor!

His neighbor disappeared.

Chapter 89 Conflict: Your A-Rank and my A-Rank seem different...

In a courtyard a hundred meters away, a crooked snowman took shape, neither human nor non-human, with a touch of abstract art.

The great artist was quite satisfied with his work, so he started making another one.

Seeing two abstract snowmen appear in her yard, Hua Ling was momentarily stunned. The sight reminded her of a mischievous boy.

"Hey, Hua Ling, don't you really want to go out and see the world with me?"

The girl leaned against the wall, revealing her face, which was as dirty as a kitten's. "Come out with me, let's go out and see the world! My phone says it's lively outside, lots and lots of people, the Sky is so big, so incredibly big..."

"I'm not going." Hua Ling coldly interrupted the other person's fantasy.

This mischievous boy would bother her with this problem every now and then. In order to persuade her, he would even draw on the bluestone slabs in her yard to show the liveliness outside. I don't know where his persistence came from.

"Why don't we go outside?" the girl asked, feeling wronged. "Why does everyone say it's scary outside? It's this place that's scary; there's no freedom here at all..."

Why did Hua Ling respond so coldly?

"Yuan De once went abroad," Hua Ling said with a cold snort, arms crossed. "And look at him now."

He quietly returned, avoiding even mentioning what he had seen outside.

"Huh?" The girl's eyes widened. "Uncle Yuan went out?!"

Hua Ling was so annoyed that she unleashed a blast of air that sent the person flying.

Thump.

The girl fell outside the wall.

"Ouch, Sister Hua Ling, you hurt me!"

The girl jumped up and down on the other side of the wall, yelling, "With a temper like that, you'll never find a boyfriend!"

Hua Ling remained expressionless.

She couldn't possibly go outside, and she hadn't even considered finding a partner.

Memories sneaked into Hua Ling's mind. She was just recalling them, but she already felt her ears were incredibly noisy. That naughty boy was so noisy, talking so much nonsense.

But she hadn't heard that noisy sound in a long time.

It's been over a month now, and looking back, I feel... a little uneasy about the quiet.

It must be because of this snow, because this inexplicable snow absorbed the sound, which is why she felt it was too quiet.

"Ah!"

A scream came from outside the courtyard, not far away, no more than a hundred meters away. The scream pulled Hua Ling from her reverie.

Something happened?

Her expression changed, and without thinking, she leaped onto the roof, tapped her feet, and darted towards the source of the screams.

Ye Jiang relieved her boredom by building a snowman and was about to go back inside when Hua Ling rushed out from under the eaves. She stepped on empty ground, causing snowballs from the roof to fall towards Ye Jiang. Just as Ye Jiang was about to dodge, a black hole appeared above her, swallowing all the snowballs about to hit her. Seeing this, Ye Jiang stopped dodging. She looked up at the black hole as it devoured the snow and disappeared, then lowered her gaze to the young man standing inside the house. The two stared at each other silently.

Just then, the noise outside came over, growing louder and more chaotic, so loud that it interrupted their eye contact. Ye Jiang tilted her head and, after a while, her figure flashed, leaving precisely on the footprints left by Hua Ling on the roof.

As soon as Ye Jiang left, the young man walked out of the house. He went into the courtyard and stopped in front of the two snowmen, staring down at them. The two snowmen were neither human nor non-human, and were identically abstract. The young man stared at them for a long time, then raised his hand and placed his finger on one of the snowmen.

The black void swirled at his fingertips, silently devouring the snow he touched as his fingers moved. The snowman was sculpted and changed little by little, eventually becoming an irregular sphere, like an unfinished, rough snowman head.

youth

He stopped, having only touched one of the snowmen.

In the courtyard, an abstract human-shaped snowman leans against an abstract ball.

The young man watched quietly, then disappeared from the courtyard.

Ye Jiang stopped on the roof of a house. A dozen or so townspeople had gathered on the street below, including Hua Ling. One townperson was repeatedly shouting that his neighbor had disappeared and been eaten by snow. A neighbor nearby questioned his mental state, "Old Zhao, the drug's effects haven't worn off yet, and you've already been Pollution and confused? When you suddenly yelled, I thought something serious had happened, but all I heard was your rambling nonsense. Disperse, disperse! Don't gather here. Go get your medicine quickly, or you'll end up like Old Zhao, completely delirious. Old Zhao too, hurry up and get your medicine; you're in a dangerous state."

A resident surnamed Zhao, as if provoked, shouted, "I haven't been Pollution! It's true! There's something wrong with this snow!"

"There's definitely something wrong. The snow hasn't melted for three days; anyone would notice something's wrong. But saying the snow eats people is a bit..."

"Yes, yes, Old Zhao, don't talk nonsense and scare people, I can't take it!"

Many people expressed disbelief, but it's unclear whether they genuinely didn't believe or were simply afraid to.

Old Zhao's eyes turned red with anxiety, and he suddenly shouted, startling everyone. He really did look a bit mentally unstable. Hua Ling remained silent, her expression grave as she pondered something.

She took a step forward towards Old Zhao and asked, "Uncle Zhao, did you see it with your own eyes...?"

Before she could finish her question, the townspeople in front of her suddenly vanished. Under her watchful gaze, the frantic Old Zhao simply disappeared into thin air. Almost without a time difference, or rather, without her noticing, another person appeared in the spot where Old Zhao had vanished. A thin, pale figure stood there in Old Zhao Zhao's place. She froze, and so did those around her. After several seconds of silence, they stammered, "An outsider?"

Ye Jiang stared blankly at the townspeople around her.

The townspeople sensed something was missing, realized what was happening, and frantically searched around.

"Old Zhao! Where did Old Zhao go?"

"Old Zhao..."

Ye Jiang bent down, and the townspeople searching for her saw her move her foot slightly, revealing... a hand beneath her feet.

She grabbed the hand and yanked hard, snowflakes flying everywhere. She pulled a person out of the snow; the vanished Old Zhao was dragged out from under the snow.

"..."

"..."

The townspeople, in their silence, pieced together what had happened: just moments ago, Xue had devoured Old Zhao, but the speed was so fast that all they could see was Old Zhao suddenly vanish into thin air. But the outsider was different; she clearly saw Xue swallow Old Zhao whole, then swoop down and step on his hand before it could be swallowed.

What is the perspective of an outsider?

They couldn't help but feel a chill run down their spines.

But there was no time for them to think too much. Old Zhao, who had been pulled out, jolted awake from his daze, spitting out the snow in his mouth and exclaiming in horror, "Eating... eating people's snow!"

His words were a wake-up call; no one dared to disbelieve him anymore. This snow was truly eerie, it ate people!

The townspeople were terrified.

A voice called out from the courtyard behind them, "Come inside!"

The townspeople acted faster than they thought, rushing into houses where there was no snow.

Everyone panicked and scattered, but Ye Jiang kept her head down, studying the snow under her feet. Before she could figure it out, Hua Ling grabbed her and dragged her into the house.

Ye Jiang: "..."

A dozen or so townspeople crowded into a room, but no one spoke; they were all still reeling from the strange turn of events.

Several screams echoed into the house, some near and some far. The townspeople's expressions changed repeatedly, realizing that the snow-eating incident was not an isolated case, and similar things had happened elsewhere.

The news had probably spread, and the townspeople who had gone out all went back inside; no one was outside anymore. After the last scream, there was no more sound.

Inside the crowded room, some people covered their faces but could not hide their dejection; a gloomy atmosphere enveloped the room and the entire town.

"I wonder if the Guard know that Xue can eat people..."

"So what if they know? Do you think they'll come out to rescue people?"

"..."

The conversation, which had just begun, fell silent again.

What happens to someone who is "eaten" by snow?

Someone asked in a low voice.

silence.

It's not that no one hasn't thought about this, but they've all kept it to themselves and haven't asked, because asking would expose some issues they wanted to avoid.

Everyone kept their heads down, avoiding eye contact with those around them.

Hua Ling looked at Ye Jiang Ye Jiang, who noticed her gaze and inexplicably understood the meaning in her eyes. Her voice was flat and emotionless. "There's no one else under the snow."

She said, "I couldn't sense anyone else's presence under that layer of snow."

She was just researching this.

Ye Jiang is the only one who can capture the snow-devouring creature, and she also saved Old Zhao from the man-eating snow. Therefore, Hua Ling is curious whether she knows more.

But to Hua Ling's disappointment, Ye Jiang didn't sense anyone else under the snow. Either her abilities were insufficient, or the person eaten by the snow had been moved away, or... they were already dead and had stopped breathing.

An even heavier atmosphere settled over the small house. The townspeople understood what Hua Ling was talking about with Ye Jiang, and Hua Ling's eyes darkened.

There was no snow inside, so it seemed safe, but it wasn't a place to stay for long.

Because of the medicine.

The townspeople need to go get their medicine.

This is essential. Without medication, once the effects of the drugs wear off, they will face the same hellish fate.

The silence didn't last long. Discussion slowly began in the room. At first, it was very quiet, but gradually the voices grew louder and turned into arguments. Some people suggested that they should go to the Guard's camp right now, since Xue couldn't possibly have swallowed them all. Others objected, saying, "Didn't you see Old Zhao being swallowed by Xue? So quickly! No matter how they tried to defend themselves, they couldn't have escaped!"