Chapter 306: 306
As they walked through the town, the villagers came forward to greet them . The children were running around in groups, looking at them with reverence and excitement, gossiping about them and pointing their fingers .
Xue Wei was not too alerted about these children, and he smiled at them while holding Luoluo in his arms, her pet.i.te face looking at all of them with excitement .
She had not met many children in her life after escaping the Forbidden Area, even in Yan Dalu, she had mainly spent her time together with Xue Wei and the others .
Now that she was finally together with a lot of children, her mental age was shown, and her body was struggling in Xue Wei"s arms, struggling to be let down and play with the other children .
Xue Wei hesitated for a moment as he looked at them . He had not forgotten the feeling of unease he had earlier, but at the same time, he could not help but feel that it was necessary for her to play with other children her own age .
Not to mention, it was natural for children to be playing together, and these children were likely very easy to get along with, the adults seemed as if they were at least .
Xue Wei put down Luoluo . "Protect yourself well," he warned her, "make sure that you don"t do something bad, and I will come to find you again later . Do not leave the village, and make sure not to enter the sea . "
Hearing all the do"s and don"ts that Xue Wei was sharing with her, Luoluo grimaced, but her heart was warm . It was indeed the best to have an older brother that cared for her .
While Luoluo ran towards the other children, Xue Wei observed their behavior . Truth be told, he was not too worried about Luoluo . When it came to strength, she was the strongest amongst them all, and although the price she had to pay for her using her powers was high, these children could not require too much of her power to deal with . Even the adults on the island were at most Mortal Knights .
While Luoluo ran towards the children, Xue Wei observed her movements before he finally shook his head with an endearing smile on his face .
He finally turned around when he saw that Luoluo had merged well with the group, her face showing a sweet smile as she was holding onto a ma.s.sive seash.e.l.l that one of the other children had given her .
Continuing into the island, Xue Wei noticed that the villagers were all very friendly and open towards them, but the nagging feeling of something being wrong was still within his heart .
He could not place his finger on it, but he was not the only one who felt like this . His entire entourage was rather alert; the only one who had noticed nothing and was feeling casual and happy was the King .
Bai Tianyi did not even have his trademark sarcastic smile on his face, Hei Gou was frowning, and Lin Xiao was contemplating about something . All four of them could feel that there was something wrong .
The further into the island they got, the more certain Xue Wei became .
"Do you smell this?" he asked with a low voice to Hei Gou, and the celestial dog nodded his head .
"It is the scent of blood," he said affirmatively .
"The further into the village we get, the more prominent the scent is," Hei Gou continued to say with furrowed brows, "there are different scents trying to hide the smell, but it is impossible to cover it completely . A lot of people have died here, and it was somewhat recently too . "
Xue Wei nodded his head absentmindedly .
He started realizing that they had all been spread into small groups, that the crew was parted in groups of three to five each, even the two delegations had been switched into groups .
"Let"s fetch Luoluo," Xue Wei suddenly said . Although he was not worried about her strength, being alone was not a good situation before they knew where this scent of blood came from .
Xue Wei and Hei Gou had fought enough humans to know that the blood they could smell came from human beings . It was clear that it was not something that came from beasts .
Turning around, they found that behind them were a group of twenty villagers, all of them smiling as they reached out their delicacies of food and drinks .
"Guests, please eat," one of them said, "we have prepared some delicacies," they continued, but Xue Wei narrowed his eyes and looked at these dishes with a certain degree of doubt .
The citizens on this island were all rather weak . For them to be able to kill a huge number of people, tricks had to be used, so he dared not touch the food or drinks .
"I apologize," Xue Wei said with a smile on his face, not displaying his distrust at all, "We are looking for my younger sister Luoluo . I am sorry to trouble you to find her for me . "
The villagers looked rather stunned when they heard his words, a slight gleam of panic flashed in their eyes, and although they quickly hid it, Xue Wei managed to catch it .
His heart grew cold, and a sneer appeared on his lips . "There should be no problems, right?" he asked with a raised eyebrow, his words carrying a slight trace of a hidden danger .
The villagers instantly started shaking their heads as rattle drums, they knew that they could clearly not say anything and thus they began to look for Luoluo alongside Xue Wei and the others .
"Why don"t we split up?" One of the villagers suggested hesitatingly, and the eyes of the other villagers shone with excitement as soon as they heard it, "yes, the children can be anywhere, why not split up and look through the village? It is much easier for us to find her that way . "
Xue Wei looked at them with narrowed eyes, a playful smile flittering across his lips .
"Nah, I don"t think we should," he said languidly, "we are fine together, she is not one to be overwhelmed by danger, and her cultivation base is shockingly high, so she is safe . It is much more fun to go together so that we do not get lost," Xue Wei answered, not even caring if his excuse made sense .
Hearing his answer, the villagers exchanged glances with one another, but they quickly returned a smile on their faces, and nodded their heads, "We will look together," they said with smiles, "Are you not thirsty after looking this long? Let us take a short break; we have some delicious sugary water for you to drink . "
"Sorry, we are not thirsty," Xue Wei answered with a cunning smile, and even the King, who had not sensed anything at the start, was starting to feel alert when she saw and sensed that Xue Wei and the other"s had their bodies taut and ready to burst out with energy at any moment .
The King had grown up in Yan Dalu . Although she was used to schemes and underhanded tricks, she had not been in many life and death situations . Fortunately, she was very quick to pick up on the subtle signs that Xue Wei and his friends were showing .
The more they searched, the more things were starting to make them worried . In the beginning, they had still run into members of the crew and delegations, but now the only thing that was left was citizens of the village .
The villagers were leading them around in a ring, they looked at the same places again and again, but saw no signs of Luoluo and Xue Wei started to feel worried .
"So what exactly have you put in the food and drinks?" he asked straight forward after a bit of time, his question stunning the villagers and make them back up filled with dread .
Xue Wei knew that Luoluo was a foodie . If she was offered food, she would eat it no doubt about it .
She had likely already fallen to their schemes, and he was starting to feel worried .
"There . . . There is nothing in the food and drinks," one of the villagers said, but he still backed up in fear .
"Oh?" Xue Wei chuckled slightly as he took a step forward, his arm shot out like a snake and grasped the villager by the throat, "why don"t you drink it then?" he continued to ask, and pulled a gla.s.s of sugary water from the tray, pouring all the drink into the mouth of the villager .
The villager coughed constantly, his face was filled with dread as he tried to close his mouth, but Xue Wei broke his jaw before he poured another gla.s.s into the mouth of the villager .
Before he managed to finish pouring the third gla.s.s into his mouth, the man became limp, his eyes rolling back in his head, and his breathing evened out .
"So it is a sleeping drug," Xue Wei said casually as he pinched the throat of the villager, killing him on the spot .
Seeing the sudden display of cruelty, all the villagers in the surroundings retreated with fear in their eyes . Even the King was slightly uncomfortable .
"Don"t pity them," Xue Wei said, "they have spiked our drinks . They clearly have some ulterior motives to do so, not to mention the stench of human blood on this island is so strong . They must have something planned . "
"For now the most important thing is for us to find Luoluo and the others," Lin Xiao sighed, he too had once been against any unnecessary cruelty towards humans, but having traveled with Xue Wei for as long as he had, he understood now, that humans were not as innocent as he once thought .
Xue Wei flew into the air to get a better overview of the ground, and there he found that a group of villagers were driving three carts that were covered with black fabric .
"I think I found them," he said to the others as he shot towards the carts .
Treading on air, he, Hei Gou and Lin Xiao all rushed to the carts, and the first thing that greeted them was an arm that was visible underneath the black fabric .
The villagers that were pulling the carts were shocked when they saw the three descending from the sky above, their legs started to tremble, and their eyes widened in shock .
They fled away from the carts as quickly as they could, and Xue Wei quickly reached out to remove the fabric, only to see that their crew members and others were stacked like goods on the carts .
There were a full seven carts, and all of them were filled with crew members, delegation members, and even Luoluo was there .
"What do we do now?" The King asked tentatively as she looked at the people, even Xue Wei was frowning .
"Let us all return to the s.h.i.+p," he said after considering for some time, "We need everyone to wake up before we can decide what to do .
"If they do not wake up soon, then we will unleash a ma.s.sacre until they start telling me how to wake them up .
"If they keep their mouths shut, then we will just kill every single person until not one remains, and then we will search their village for the antidote .
"But most likely, this is just a common sleeping drug," he argued, "as a common sleeping drug, they should wake up on their own after a short amount of time . "