Chapter 328 Fog Lamp Village, Forbidden Area

Xia Nan could no longer remember how he had developed this habit.

Perhaps it was the green-skinned Goblins that had ambushed the Ragtag Party right after his transmigration, or perhaps it was the immense pressure of the Adventurer profession and his unfamiliar environment driving him to find relief through addictive behavior.

Whatever the case, he had already formed a near-pathological, severe dependency on creatures like goblins.

And he genuinely enjoyed the process from the bottom of his heart.

The beautiful, heavy thud of the Gray-Black Straight Sword piercing flesh and splitting bone; the sheer satisfaction of his Arm Shield smashing into skulls, crushing the facial features of those deformed, ugly creatures and popping them like water balloons; the light, exhilarating thrill of tearing their frail, skinny bodies apart with his bare hands, spilling intestines, blood, and bone all over the ground—

Xia Nan, whose combat style was usually clean and efficient, only displayed his wide variety of sadistic methods when facing these endearing, "cute" little animals.

He even quietly dragged out the battle, just to entertain himself as much as possible.

A boom of thunder resounded across the sky.

The rain fell in sheets, and the leaden-gray light of the sky spilled faintly through the overlapping branches and leaves.

An incredibly thick stench of blood, mixed with the damp, earthy smell constantly rising under the washing rain, filled the air.

Raindrops mingled with blood, trickling down the deep, dark surface of the straight sword.

Xia Nan stood quietly in place, his face tilted upward. Obvious bloodstains splattered his greaves, chainmail, and even the side of his cheek.

The surrounding ground was painted in a grim, bloody hue, paved with severed limbs, shattered bones, and organs.

The expression on his face carried the lingering satisfaction of his enjoyment.

Amid the pattering of the rain, the sharp shrieks of the goblins that had once echoed through the air still seemed to faintly linger.

Out of the nearly thirty green-skinned Goblins that had once swarmed this place, only a single one remained.

It was shivering, curled up like a quail among the corpses of its kin. Enveloped by the towering shadow ahead, it didn't even dare to lift its head.

The cruel, cold-blooded massacre, combined with the suffocating pressure of their vast disparity in strength, had completely stripped this pitiful goblin of any courage to resist, thoroughly shattering its psychological defenses.

Relying solely on its feeble remaining intellect, it hugged its head and faced the ground in self-deception, hoping the powerful creature in front of it would ignore its existence.

"H-Hello..."

At the edge of the battlefield, Dongshu, who was also shivering from the terrifying scene, ignored Aspen's warning gaze. Mustering his courage, he took two steps forward. In an extremely cautious and respectful posture, terrified of causing offense, he lowered his voice. "Th-Thank you for your help. May I ask—"

Before he could finish his words of gratitude, the man turned at the sound, and those deep, cold, pitch-black eyes made him subconsciously shut his mouth again.

Xia Nan's gaze swept over the two figures dressed as hunters, pausing slightly on the wound of the middle-aged man sitting against a tree trunk in the back.

Without offering any explanation, he slowly opened his mouth. "Wait a moment."

After saying that, he turned his head and looked at the last Goblin trembling and playing dead beneath him.

He didn't end its life right then and there like he had done to its twenty-something companions.

Xia Nan gently lifted his leg, planting his mud- and blood-stained leather boot into the creature's bony flank with a swift kick.

"Scree!"

As if electrocuted, the Goblin huddled in the pile of corpses instantly sprang up in a panic, its short, scrawny body snapping rigidly straight.

Ignoring the tall figure watching it from behind, it shrieked and sprinted straight into the dense forest.

At nearly 1.9 meters tall, the efficiency of his two long legs striding forward was naturally far greater than the Goblin's pair of twig-like short legs.

With his sharp Perception, even if he gave his target a few minutes' head start, he could still effortlessly track the traces it left behind in its panicked flight.

A playful smile flashed across Xia Nan's eyes as his plan succeeded. He casually twirled the straight sword in his hand and slowly followed after it.

Behind him, at the edge of the clearing, the two hunters who had barely survived the Goblin siege looked a bit hesitant at this sight.

Perhaps the scattered gore and severed limbs on the battlefield were too glaring, making the falling rain feel exceptionally cold.

The younger one, seeing Xia Nan's figure disappear into the woods, immediately wanted to flee in the opposite direction. However, he was forcefully pulled back by the older man, who quickly mumbled a few hurried words.

Only then did the older hunter struggle to stand. With the young hunter supporting him, he swayed unsteadily and carefully followed.

Xia Nan knew that his luck in this regard had always been pretty good.

He had originally thought that this sudden heavy rain would completely wash away any traces of goblin activity nearby, forcing him to temporarily abandon the search for the Goblin Lair that served as the Association's extermination quest target.

But to his surprise, these two unlucky hunters had stumbled right into this Goblin tribe's hunting party.

Considering the clustering effect of a Goblin Lair, any Goblin group of such scale in the surrounding area was highly likely to be his quest target.

So, after the slaughter, he had deliberately left one alive.

With just a little scare, the green-skinned Goblin—fleeing blindly in extreme terror—would instinctively run back to the place it subconsciously deemed the safest: its lair.

There was no need to deliberately muffle his movements. Following the trail all the way, Xia Nan's target soon appeared right before his eyes.

"Scree—"

A mournful, agonized wail faintly echoed from the bottomless, deep cave ahead.

The excitement and madness that usually filled their sharp screeches had long vanished, leaving only a tragic, bone-deep torment.

Standing shivering in the rain and listening to the sounds echoing from the depths of the cave ahead, Dongshu couldn't help but shudder. Out of pure fear, he subconsciously turned to the middle-aged man beside him and said, "Brother Aspen, why don't we... just run away!"

"This is just too terrifying!"

In contrast, Aspen, who had previously used his gaze to stop the youth from stepping forward to say hello, appeared much calmer.

Sitting on the ground and focused on tending to the wound on his leg, he glared at the younger man in annoyance and asked, "You were acting so reckless just a moment ago, and now you know how to be scared?"

"You're just lucky you dared to go up to him at a time like that. Otherwise, if he had chopped you down right along with the goblins, nobody would have had a word to say."

"So are we going to run or not?" Hearing Aspen's words, Dongshu clearly realized he had been far too reckless just now. Waves of lingering fear surged in his heart, making his tone even more frantic. "What if—"

"Don't be scared," Aspen interrupted.

Aspen, who had been able to make the calmest decisions even in that certain-death situation earlier, naturally hadn't lost his usual composure now that he had finally managed to scrape by with his life.

"With his strength, dealing with the two of us is really no different from dealing with those goblins. If he wanted to kill us, he would've done it already."

"But since he didn't attack us earlier, it means he holds no hostility. We just need to sit here and wait for him to come out."

"Besides, if that Adventurer really had ill intentions, where could you even run?"

"Where we are right now isn't exactly far from the village."

"Since he could follow the goblin to find its lair, he could naturally follow us to find the village."

With the Goblin's mournful screams echoing in his ears, Dongshu couldn't help but violently shudder again upon hearing this. After waiting for about five minutes, the goblin's agonizing wails from within the cave finally ceased.

But immediately following the silence was the sound of gradually approaching footsteps, bringing an even more immense pressure crushing down on Dongshu.

Swallowing nervously, he stared unblinkingly at the cave entrance.

He could only vaguely make out a dark, deep silhouette slowly becoming clear amidst the cold scrape of metal.

And when Xia Nan finally stepped out of the Goblin Lair, the young hunter didn't even dare to look him in the eye anymore.

The unexpected harvest had allowed Xia Nan to thoroughly enjoy himself in the underground lair, so his current mood could be described as exceedingly good.

Though his facial expression didn't show any obvious changes, he looked at the two hunters before him and took the initiative to speak. "You guys—"

Without needing Xia Nan to ask further, Aspen, who had already temporarily bandaged his wound, leaned against a nearby tree trunk and struggled to his feet. With some caution and wariness, he began to introduce their situation.

He explained that they were from a remote little village nearby called "Fog Lamp Village," and they had accidentally fallen into the goblins' encirclement while out hunting.

"Thank you very much, esteemed Lord Adventurer," Aspen said.

"I wonder if we might have the honor of knowing your name, so that we can easily spread word of your selfless help to the villagers once we return."

Xia Nan didn't have any taboos about this. After straightforwardly offering his name, the gaze he used to assess the two people before him became quite intrigued.

"Fog Lamp Village," "fog lamp grass."

He wouldn't believe for a second that these two had no connection.

In fact, when he had previously asked Lady Edwina at the Verdant Crucible for related information, she had also mentioned that there seemed to be a small human settlement on the other side of the Canyon where the fog lamp grass grew.

She had said that if any unexpected situations arose, one could go there to rest and regroup temporarily.

It seemed that this small human settlement was indeed the Fog Lamp Village these hunters spoke of.

However, he remembered specifically asking about the situation back then, but surprisingly, even Lady Edwina—who posted the gathering quest for fog lamp grass every year—didn't know much detail about this village.

She had explained that it was because the village's geographical location was quite peculiar. Being situated at the far end of the Canyon, reaching it required a considerable detour. Furthermore, the Adventurers capable of taking on this quest were basically all veterans who had already obtained a Class Level, meaning they rarely ran into shortages of supplies.

Basically, after entering the Canyon, they would harvest the herbs and head straight back. To prevent the fog lamp grass from wilting on the journey, they were usually pressed for time, so they rarely had the leisure to detour to the village on the other side for a prolonged stay.

Under such circumstances, this small village nestled near the Canyon had gained an air of mystery.

Listening to the other party's introduction, Xia Nan remained silent, his gaze sweeping over the two of them.

The cautious and guarded middle-aged man currently speaking with him, named "Aspen," looked to be about forty years old. He was tall, with weather-beaten bronze skin, and slung across his back was a Wooden Longbow that appeared to have been used for many years.

Further back, the young man who had been a bit reckless earlier—daring to come up and talk to him before the battle had even ended—was now completely silent, carefully hiding in the rear and watching him.

His name was "Dongshu." He looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, and his weapon was a battered, old one-handed sword.

Pondering for a moment, and figuring that since he had run into locals, he might as well see if they knew any specific details he was unaware of, Xia Nan asked the two people before him, "Fog lamp grass—a plant said to grow in the Canyon near your village. Have you heard of it?"

Immediately, Xia Nan keenly caught the shift in their facial expressions.

It was an indescribably bizarre look, a mix of awe and fear.

"What's wrong? Is there a problem?" he asked aloud.

"No, nothing at all—Mr. Xia Nan," Aspen said, forcing his face to remain taut as he explained. "That Canyon is, to some extent, a forbidden area for our village."

"Of course! Only the side closest to the village!"

"It's inconvenient for me to say much more about it, but if you want to harvest fog lamp grass, you just need to enter from the other end of the Canyon. It's very safe over there. Let alone dangerous monsters, even Goblins rarely appear. Sometimes, we also go in there to pick some herbs to sell to passing merchant caravans to supplement our household income."

A forbidden area?

Recalling their strange expressions from earlier, Xia Nan made a few mental connections, but he didn't pry any further.

After all, his only goal for this trip was to gather some fog lamp grass. Any other messy business had nothing to do with him.

Moreover, Aspen's suggestion to pick herbs in the section of the Canyon furthest from the village aligned perfectly with his original plan.

So he simply gave a slight nod and politely declined the other party's invitation to visit their village as a guest.

Of course, just to be on the safe side, Xia Nan still asked Aspen for the exact location of Fog Lamp Village.

Only then did he take his leave.

Watching that dark silhouette disappear into the depths of the rain, Dongshu let out a long sigh of relief.

Beside him, Aspen, who had been completely tense while communicating with Xia Nan, also suddenly relaxed.

He swayed on his feet, and had Dongshu not been quick-eyed and deft-handed enough to catch him, he likely would have collapsed straight into the mud.

"Brother Aspen, were you serious when you invited him to the village just now?"

"What do you think?" Aspen panted heavily, glaring at Dongshu. "At a time like this, would the village chief ever allow an outsider to come in?"

Hearing this, Dongshu couldn't help but shrink his neck back and force a weak smile.

"Don't worry. The only goal these Adventurers have is the fog lamp grass. It's the same every year."

"They'll head straight back as soon as they finish picking it. They won't come to the village."

"Besides, the middle of the Canyon doesn't connect all the way through. It's blocked by a rock wall, so even if he walks further in, he won't be able to cross over."

From every angle, whether for Aspen or for the vast majority of the villagers in Fog Lamp Village, this was undeniably a good thing.

However, right now, the expression on Dongshu's face seemed highly hesitant as he muttered, "If he really could come, then maybe Lillie wouldn't have to—"

"Hmm?"

"N-Nothing, Brother Aspen."