Chapter 520
It was an overstatement to call that place a village .
After Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing came down from the mountains cautiously, they snuck into the village made of a few dilapidated houses under the guise of night .
Moonlight came down from the clear night sky dyeing everything in sight with a tinge of white . The serenity of the surroundings made them feel as if their narrow escape from the battling gods had happened centuries ago .
The 'houses' were basic wooden huts . Some of them had straw roofs while others didn't even have a roof . When they look into a house, they saw a bed covered with leaves . There were sporadic heaps of ashes near the entrance clearly left behind by previous man-made fires . The door and walls had already been stained black . The few pieces of wood and a saw on the floor hinted that the owner had abandoned them on impulse mid-way through his work .
Most of the houses were empty . However, when Lin Sanjiu reached the last two houses, she noticed a nearly imperceptible sound of breathing . She didn't even have to think twice about how she could find the source of that sound . She stood beside a house that had a hole in its wall instead of a window . She peeked in and quickly surveyed the house . She discovered a person— seemingly a man . He was tall and emaciated . He was lying on his side on a large slab of stone . There was even a piece of tattered, moth-eaten, burlap cloth draped over the stone .
Apart from the man and his stone bed, there was only one cup and a few pieces of wood in the run-down house . It was almost hard to imagine how that man could survive .
Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing exchanged glances and shook their heads . Since they found someone living in this village, they knew they could not stay . This world was too bizarre, so they had decided earlier that they would try their best to avoid others here .
Lin Sanjiu mouthed for her grand prize to follow and started walking away from the village . They had barely taken a few steps without making any sound when they heard a deep murmuring voice from the dilapidated house . They hastened their pace, but they were unexpectedly hindered . They stumbled over something like a fine thread . The sound of a small copper bell reverberated through the silence . A few startled birds disappeared into the night sky .
Ji Shanqing cursed inward and took a step back . He noticed a thread as fine as a strand of hair on the ground . The thread was tied to the door of the house and there was a copper bell hanging from it . Considering how fine it was, it was probably hard for even a deity to spot it in this darkness .
"Crap," Lin Sanjiu muttered however she wasn't really anxious . That tall man was the only person in this entire village . The situation was hardly threatening .
"Hey, who is it? Who's here?"
Just then, they heard these questions coming from the house behind them in a disoriented voice . Apparently, the man had been startled from his sleep and was still incoherent . He put on his clothes and dragged himself to the door . His footsteps rung out distinctively in the quiet night .
"Who are you? I thought my dad came home," the tall man stood at the entrance of the house . He had to lower his head because of the eaves . When the moonlight lit one side of his face, Lin Sanjiu observed that the man had a slow-witted look . His eyes were far apart and his nose was very flat . She had no idea whether those dull eyes of his were just because he had just woken up .
It seemed very obvious to her that that man was a so-called 'inhuman' . She had already seen that slow-witted appearance like his multiple times in the City of Ants . The only difference was that the inhumans which belonged to the Mother Goddess did not have fathers .
"We're just passing by," Lin Sanjiu answered curtly before turning to leave . "We're leaving now . "
The tall man's eyes lit up suddenly, and he rushed toward them abruptly . He seemed to have poor control of his limbs as he stumbled toward them, "Wait! Wait! Don't go!"
"What?" the grand prize looked back .
"My father told me that I can't let anyone leave," When the man stood straight, Lin Sanjiu was only at his shoulders, "Yeah, um, no . My father said that I won't be able to survive if he isn't around . I'm just a dimwit, so my father told me to ask for help if I meet anyone," he uttered simple-mindedly .
He seemed ignorant of the fact that 'dimwit' wasn't a compliment .
"How can we help?" the grand prize asked, cocking his head . He seemed a little curious .
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"What's wrong?" Lin Sanjiu asked fretfully .
"I tried to grow some vegetables behind the house, but they all died . "
"Where is your father?" Lin Sanjiu wanted to leave as soon as possible . "Where did he go? Why don't you just wait for him to return?"
"He went to look for a God," the dimwit answered . Both Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing were stunned by his subsequent words .
"Our village had never received blessings from any God . Without a god, we can't even have proper meals . People either died or left… My father said that he had to go and look for a god . He said he'd look for a place that was blessed by a God and come back to retrieve me . "
The two people listening to him exchanged glances . They saw a similar glimmer in each other's eyes .
"What do you mean by receiving blessings from a God?" Ji Shanqing asked prudently .
"I'm not sure," the dimwit answered truthfully . "I heard people from other places worship their Gods . Their Gods would also visit them often . However, there had never been a God in this village . They said that other Gods don't like to come to this lousy place . "
"That's great!" Lin Sanjiu couldn't believe her luck . In this twisted world, a place that other Gods disliked visiting was simply a sanctuary that could only be provided by a stroke of fortune .
"Sis, we've been in the mountains for almost a whole afternoon . There certainly aren't any Gods around," Ji Shanqing whispered in Lin Sanjiu's ear . "Gods appear frequently in this world, but we haven't seen one in a while . I think there is some truth to what the dimwit is saying . "
The dimwit blinked his wide-set eyes naively .
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"Why don't the Gods come here?" Lin Sanjiu was still worried .
"I don't know," the dimwit sniffled, "Could you give me some food?"
"That's right, it is probably useless to ask him anything that's too complicated," Lin Sanjiu thought to herself . Both Lin Sanjiu and Ji Shanqing considered the situation for some time without saying a word . After a few seconds, Ji Shanqing suddenly asked, "Bring me to your vegetable garden . "
When the man turned and left, Ji Shanqing whispered to Lin Sanjiu, "Let's go take a look . We can judge if he's telling the truth . "
After all, a patch of dead vegetables was something that they could verify . Eventually, what the tall bloke said was proven . The man's father visibly spent some effort on the garden . Besides staple foods like potatoes and carrots, there were also some coriander and chilies in the garden . His father probably grew that to add some flavoring to his son's meal . Unfortunately, all the vegetables were dead . Blackish-green dead sprouts sprawled across the soil . They had all dried up .
"They're dead," the tall bloke emphasized while sniffling as if he was afraid that they would not believe him, "They're inedible . Do you have any food?"
Lin Sanjiu looked at Ji Shanqing and placed her hand behind her back .
"I have some food here," Lin Sanjiu lightened her tone, "How about this? Let us rest in that house, and I will give you some bread every day . "
"What is bread?" the dimwit's widened eyes shifted between the two people in front of him dubiously, "You don't even have any baggage . "
When Lin Sanjiu took her hand out from behind her back, there was already an oily paper bag in her hand . She had bought the bread in her hand when she was in Red Nautilus . The bread was a very popular ration in the Free District of Red Nautilus . The reddish-brown bread was flat and hard and each paper bag had about a dozen slices . To eat it, you had to tear a piece of bread and dip it into wine, milk or water . After mixing, the bread would quickly dissolve into a paste . As it slides down your throat, a delicious cinnamon taste with a salty aftertaste will fill your mouth .
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After she demonstrated how to eat the bread, the dimwit wolfed down a large cup of bread paste greedily . After that, the man's attitude towards the two of them improved significantly . He called them good people while he took the initiative to clear out a room for them . He even insisted that they take and use the only hardened and tattered bedsheet he had . Ji Shanqing turned pale and finally stopped him after rejecting him several times .
Even though the village was small, they were pleased to find a small stream behind the village .
Both of them smelled horrendous especially after Puella spat on them . They were also covered in perspiration and frost . As the grand prize could not take off his clothes to bathe, he could only watch enviously as Lin Sanjiu entered the water . The stream was very cold at night, so she shivered and goosebumps covered her skin the moment she stepped into the water .
Once she acclimatized to the water's temperature, she dived into the stream and immediately washed away the dirt, saliva, and sweat on her body .
Ji Shanqing laid on his stomach by the stream . He washed his long hair, his hands, and his face . In the end, he urged Lin Sanjiu to help him . After Lin Sanjiu took off his layers of clothes until he was left with the last piece which was a white garment . After his eyes went black for five minutes, Ji Shanqing woke up and was satisfied to find himself clothed in new clothes .
They had only been in Salvation of God for two days however they had already been through quite a few near-death encounters . Now that she could relax, she suddenly felt all the other needs she had been ignoring because of her stress . Hunger might not affect the grand prize, but Lin Sanjiu was famished . She called for the dimwit that she set up a fire and cooked dinner in front of their run-down house .
After her experience in Meat Elysium, Lin Sanjiu had almost forgotten how food tasted . She could finally use the large sacks of foods she had prepared when she was in Red Nautilus . The tall bloke's face was lit by the light from the flames as he sat by the fire . He watched blankly as Lin Sanjiu took out different sacks one after the other . He had never seen a sack before .
The first sack was filled with walnuts, peanuts, cashew, and various dried fruits . Just looking at the full sack could fill a person with a sense of satisfaction . Lin Sanjiu opened the sack and poured the nut mix into the pot on the fire . Then, she sprinkled some sugar and a little salt . When the cream in the pot started bubbling, a tantalizing, salivinducing milky fragrance quickly filled the air .
Ji Shanqing was exceptionally useful when it came to matters about their meals . He took a big box of frozen beef slices— at least what the seller claimed to beef— and seasoned them with various spices and sauce . Lin Sanjiu only planned to eat them with pepper . He roasted the beef over the fire for a while . As the box was specifically made for this purpose . Soon, an appetizing fragrant exuded from the meat on the small rack in the box . The meat was so tender that it bounced between their teeth and filled their mouths with savory meaty juices .
Additionally, Lin Sanjiu also had some instant noodles from an unknown world . Lin Sanjiu could not recognize any word on its packaging . After looking at the photos on the packaging and making some comparisons, they finally took out three bowls of black sauce noodles . When red oil bubbles floated to the top of the thick black pepper sauce, the dimwit almost wanted to cry .
While each of them buried their heads and concentrated on eating without sparing any time to talk, Lin Sanjiu took out three bottles of orange juice . When she bought them, the seller had placed them in an ice pile . She turned the bottles of juice into her cards the moment she held them . When she converted them back to their original form, there were still drops of condensation on the bottle . She could still feel the coolness on the surface of the bottle .
Lin Sanjiu gulped down half a bottle of that cool, refreshing orange juice and wiped her mouth . For a moment, she never felt happier . That night, fed and satisfied, they lay beside the bonfire and slept under the star-speckled sky .Please download our sponsor's game to support us!