Chapter 556: 11.82 First Green Star - Punishment World: "Labyrinth" (12)
North Forest
Village Leader"s Treehouse
Lan She, An Yuan, and Chu Mo had picked Han Ya and Zane from the Village Leader"s house. There wasn"t any fighting that had happened in the treehouse as the owner returned their teammates with a smile.
"Welcome to my humble abode!" said a middle-aged handsome fairy in his humanoid form.
Spirit Race rarely aged. Even a few hundred-year-old elders would not look like a wrinkled old man. The only distinction of age is their hair color. Elder had light-shaded hair. Like the one in front of the group, this friendly-looking spirit race person possesses a light red almost pink long hair. His pinkish hair showed his main element as fire and the dullness of hue shows his age. This man introduced himself as the Village Leader.
"You can call me Village Leader or Elder Leafe, esteemed guests."
The Village Leader called Elder Leafe even apologized for the mistake of his subordinates. Tells them that none of this was done under his orders and instead done by those groups of fairies that hate human players for intruding into the village.
"Please take your seat. I had already asked someone to escort your friends over. Some people from our race hate humans so... They had caused such a huge incident. Do let this old man apologize for that." said Elder Leafe.
Elder Leafe explained that there is a certain faction in the village that does not welcome the arrival of the human players. He also pointed out that everything was done by that faction as they were angered by the action Ye Xiajie did when he unreasonably killed fairies that tried to approach him.
Unfortunately for them, none of the three openly accepts his apology. Lan She remained calm wearing a professional smile while An Yuan was looking around as he would sometimes glare at the fairies in front of them.
Chu Mo smirked at them and looked like he was seeing a bunch of idiots. Not even a stupid person would believe this kind of excuse. But since his lover, Lan She is not even retorting their words he chooses to leave everything to his honey. He knew that his lover wouldn"t allow their team to hold the shortest stick.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
Elder Leafe spoke, "Oh my~ it seems they had arrived. Enter!"
While Elder Leafe tried to further explain their sides of the story, Han Ya and Zane were finally escorted over. As soon as An Yuan saw Han Ya he ran over for a hug.
An Yuan yells, "Xiao Ya. Thank G.o.d! you"re safe."
"Hm~ Don"t worry I"m fine, A"Yuan," said Han Ya while hugging back his beloved.
Zane the forgotten third wheel commented, "Hey! I"m also here. Oi!"
Han Ya glares at his friend while An Yuan pulls both of them to the side of Lan She and Chu Mo. Zane was startled upon seeing the two and would have never expected his friend"s teammates to be them. After all, Mr. Reaper is a ranker and Doctor Lan is an infamous rising star.
Zane whispers to Han Ya, "They... Are they really your teammates?"
"Yes. There are also two more. You"ll meet them later if that one is awake when we get there." said Han Ya.
He is talking about Hei Anjing who had been asleep the whole time since he had fallen asleep on the train. If he is still asleep then meeting Ye Xiajie who was by his side 24/7 is impossible. Zane, who couldn"t understand a thing, remained silent and sat on the free couch with Han Ya and An Yuan. The main seat opposite the Village Elder was taken by Lan She and Chu Mo.
Lan She spoke, "Your apology is a bit half-heartedly done. Not only as a leader you had failed to control your people and even took guys from the other race. This is not good don"t you think, Village Elder?"
"Hm, indeed. This old man will fulfill three of your requested items. But do not be unreasonable with your choices." said Elder Leafe with a kind old man smile but one can see the seriousness within those pairs of emerald eyes.
Lan She acted naturally as he understood the hidden threat behind this cunning old fairy.
"Of course. The compensation will be for the three who got involved in the farce. Namely, Han Ya, An Yuan, and this mister here. You will need to give them a decent prop as an apology. Only then this matter would not need to be further involved with the other two members of our team. You know them right. Player Abyss and his wife, Lord Hei." said Lan She smiling with mirth deep within his eyes
The fairies felt terrified of the fact that the strongest ranker of all time happened to be involved with this unexpected matter. They were indeed at a huge disadvantage if that ruthless man gets involved. There are also rumors that his wife is not an ordinary player as well. Or else why would that demon lord fall in love with him.
Elder Leafe grips his wooden cane and said, "The compensation would be rich. This would be achieved. But the matters should be done after this."
"Of course! As long as your compensation is satisfactory."
As expected, Lan She tried to blackmail them for compensation for kidnapping Han Ya and that Vampire Player from before. They had noticed the traces of magic left on the body of the two men and clearly not only light elements but something else was done to them.
It is more obvious to the eyes of An Yuan. The status of Han Ya is greatly different from before and the record of torture was written on the status board. He couldn"t stop himself from glaring at the village chief with violet eyes. At such a sight, most fairies were stunned to see those rare purple irises with hidden ruin flashing within. They instantly recognize this human as the one with the Ancient Human bloodline from the report.
Ancient Human Bloodlines used to be extinct. But now that they saw An Yuan in front of them, they knew that he was the real deal and no longer made it hard for the team. They had surrendered everything Lan She had requested. From Gold coins to elemental stones to spell books and more.
The Spirit Race had given it all. But even Zane who had his memories tempered could see the excited gaze of these fairies when looking at his brother"s lover. He couldn"t help but raise his guard with their actions. Han Ya was even more direct and prevented them from looking as he hugs his beloved and hides him in his embrace.
After receiving the compensation, the group had left unhindered.
Lan She spoke, "This should be the end."
"Indeed. The door is open for you guys. I hope we see each other again in the future." said Elder Leafe but this time his smile is gone and there is only disgust on his face.
Lan She acted like he didn"t see it and smiled brightly this time. He got what he had expected to achieve for this visit.
"We shall, I"m sure. For now, excuse us."
After leaving the Village Leader"s treehouse, Lan She immediately warned Han Ya and An Yuan.
Lan She said, "They"ve learned that An had awakened an Ancient Human Bloodline. I do not know why they are excited but they might target you, An. Be careful."
"I will take note," said An Yuan.
Han Ya spoke, "Did they do something to me and Zane?"
"Yes. A bit of memory manipulation and you might not remember but your body had traces of light elements. It was quite thick and obviously... You must have undergone torture." said Lan She.
Zane and Han Ya"s expressions turned cold and dark upon hearing that. They couldn"t feel any pain in their bodies. Jist thinking they had even forgotten about the fact they were tortured left a bitter taste in their mouth.
Chu Mo hung his arm around Han Ya"s neck and said, "Don"t forget what happened tonight. Revenge is best served cold. After we gathered all the key fragments you are free to do what you wanted to do with that village. Plus we have the hidden mission my She"er had found for us. In the end, we couldn"t have a cordial relationship with their race. We killed too many of them."
Han Ya remembered the scene of Ye Xiajie emotionlessly burning the fairies that dared to come near him. While An Yuan remembers how Chu Mo had killed those stall owners that dared to attack their group as well as those who died in the explosion when the crow imploded to buy them some time to escape. Just seeing these scenes was enough for the Spirit Race to want to kill them more than one time. They currently obviously hated their team to the core.
Han Ya and An Yuan looked at Zane and said, "Zane (Brother Zane) It"s not too late to back out."
Bewildered Zane in his bat form said, "Huh? What are you guys talking about?"
The five of them flew towards the inn which Lan She and Chu Mo had found for their bosses to stay in. But as soon as they arrived they were welcomed by a commotion of both players and spirit fairies by the entrance of the inn.
They even overheard their murmurings.
"Ah~ what happened to these guys!?"
"Aren"t these people all Spirit Kings!? Why did this happen to them?"
"f.u.c.k! Aren"t Spirit King ranked fairies second most powerful Fairies in this Village. How come they become like this?"
"Who did this? Did someone see who?"
"I saw it. There was a beautiful young man even more heavenly than a fairy. He looks so beautiful that it is hard to believe he exists before our eyes. These Spirit Kings suddenly started surrounding the inn saying there are criminals inside.
But suddenly the Celestial stood up before that window... Ah! It"s covered in curtains now. Anyway, that beauty had beautiful silver irises and silky black hair. He was complaining about how noisy these guys are and then... We only saw him blow lightly towards this direction and then... They all instantly turned to ice. They couldn"t even escape as long as one touches the frozen person, he would be frozen as well. So don"t touch those things everyone!!" said a bystander who is a halfling of both human and spirit races.
He is hated by the spirit race but more powerful than them. He was allowed to open up a store in front of the inn as he was an illegitimate grandson of Elder Leafe who is also the Village leader of this place.
Lan She and the rest instantly knew who that Celestial Beauty was foretold in the story. It seems that the one who had been sleeping all this time had finally woken up. They were standing at the entrance of the inn, slightly stunned. They were thinking about how to enter the inn as it was blocked by these gossipers that had gathered before them.
An Yuan spoke, "What should we do? We only bought too little food because of what happened."
"It"s alright. Sir Hei isn"t unreasonable," said Han Ya.
Chu Mo grins and says, "No worries. My honey bought enough sweets for Sir Hei."
"But... We still need to prepare something for dinner," said Lan She as he was thinking if there is a grocery store in the village.
Then suddenly they heard Hei Anjing"s voice from behind them.
"You guys are quite late. I couldn"t wait for you anymore as I saw the festival from outside the window. I dragged my husband to play there and was just about to return. To think we will b.u.mp you here." said Hei Anjing.
When everyone turned around they saw Hei Anjing holding a fist-sized candied apple in his right hand and cotton candy in his left. Following behind him is Ye Xiajie holding a few plastic bags and small boxes in his hands. There is a box of donuts, pizza, cupcakes, and more. Inside the bags are BBQ, grilled corn, and grilled squid. Takoyaki, goldfish, and stuffed toys.
This couple obviously went through the festival without leaving a stall unvisited. Ye Xiajie is still expressionless carrying all those things in his hands but his eyes as he looks at Hei Anjing are so doting that he could even imagine him smiling.
Ye Xiajie said with a gentle tone, "Baby don"t run. You just finished eating a bunch of crepes. You"ll hurt your stomach."
"It"s okay. I won"t run anymore. Let"s go back to our room, my love." said Hei Anjing.
Ye Xiajie was a henpecked husband. He would agree to anything his wife wanted.
"Okay."
Hei Anjing saw the ice statues he accidentally made when he was awakened by loud chaos outside their room. He was half asleep and in a bad mood being awakened that time. He does remember turning them into some ice statues.
"Oh,~ aren"t these noisy guys from before. I forgot to clean them up," said Hei Anjing. With a snap of his fingers, the ice statues exploded from the inside and slowly melted into a blood mist.
Everyone who was watching from the sidelines panicked and ran away afraid of ending up dying such a cruel death. Not even a bone or flesh was left behind. As if the guys inside the ice had been melted to the very last drop of their blood and turned into mist. Moreover, the one who did it is a man who looks so much like an angel or an immortal. Who would have thought that this mischievous smiling beauty would have such a cold heart?
Hei Anjing turns his head to his teammates and smiles, "Follow me inside. We can talk after dinner."