Chapter 1513: Chapter 1513: Strangeness

The silent cold wind blew across the low dwellings.

In the gently drifting snow, some emaciated people clad in thicker clothing were quickly clearing the snow covering a collapsed shelter.

Boom——

With a tremendous noise, the collapsed shelter was breached from behind, fragile wooden boards along with thick snow shattered together, turning into countless scattered fragments.

And those who were repairing the shelter were also impacted by this immense force, thrown out, landing on the ground.

Behind the loud noise, a tall armored soldier stepped through the mixed fragments of snow and wood.

He lifted his head, glancing at the low shelters around and the emaciated figures just knocked away.

At this moment, these people lay on the ground, curled up, emitting weak, low moans.

“You blocked the boards here intentionally, trying to hinder our work?” The tall soldier scanned the few feeble figures around, speaking coldly.

Bang, bang, bang——

Meanwhile, several muffled sounds came from behind him, two soldiers of similar stature and armor walked over.

“Sir, we were just fixing the house,” one of the feeble figures lying on the ground immediately struggled to turn around, crawling and trembling, “We never wanted to block you!”

“Why do I not feel that?” The tall soldier sneered, directly ‘shing——’ drawing the sword from his waist, thrusting it into the snow beside the feeble figure, the sharp blade just three fingers away from the figure’s neck.

The feeble figure shivered in fear, unable to utter a word.

“It’s true! It’s true!” At that moment, not far away, a thin elderly man leaning on a cane ran over, holding a small animal skin bag, handed it to the tall soldier, “Sir, they really were fixing the house, only rashly collided with you, please forgive them?”

“Huh,” the soldier accepted the animal skin bag, tugging it open.

A mixture of flour with a large amount of bran and crushed stones appeared before his field of view.

“You lowly people love to make trouble when there’s nothing to do,” the tall soldier closed the animal skin bag, tossed it to the soldier behind him, withdrew his sharp sword, knocking it on the ground, “Behave yourselves, next time this happens, I’ll kill you.”

“Yes, yes, thank you, sir.” The figures crawling on the ground around immediately nodded.

“Old man,” meanwhile, the tall soldier had already turned his gaze to the elderly before him, directly said, “Lead the way.”

“Yes, yes.” The elderly turned around, leaning on his cane, guiding the soldier to a narrow shelter.

This shelter had no door, only a little over a meter wide, inside laid a narrow and long piece of animal skin.

Hanging inside the shelter were simple bows and arrows, below which sat a little girl with disheveled hair, wrapped in an animal skin, holding a wooden box, lifting her head, her light gray eyes gazing at the figures outside the shelter.

“This girl is good,” the soldier nodded at the little girl’s slightly emaciated cheeks.

The elderly looked at the soldier, slowly introduced, “Sir, this child has a bitter fate, her mother died during her birth, her father went hunting and on the first day of this snowstorm, died, she is without relatives now, dazed all day, for the past few days, anyone with food shares some with her···”

“Don’t worry,” the soldier laughed heartily, directly leaned into the shelter, “When she works for the noblemen, she’ll have endless bread and roast meat, and might even help you all someday.”

The little girl watched the soldier reach out his hand, immediately turning her body, wanting to dodge.

But her body was so frail and slow, before she could make a move, she was grabbed by the soldier and lifted up.

“Let go of me! Let go of me!” The little girl clung tightly to the wooden box, her legs kicking in the air, her voice weak and hoarse, “My father is coming back soon.’

The tall soldier ignored the little girl’s words, directly holding her, as if clutching a small beast caught in the snowy wilderness.

The elderly leaned on his cane, silently watching everything.

The soldier looked at the elderly, continued, “Next one, lead the way.”

“Yes, yes, I’ll take you.” The elderly forced a slight smile, nodded, and led the soldier forward, “Recently, too many people have gone missing, everyone says there are monsters eating people wandering in the city in the snowstorm, everyone can’t sleep well now, Sir, you···”

“These matters, noblemen and governors will naturally find solutions,” the tall soldier said coldly, “You just need to complete your tasks.”

“Yes, yes.” The elderly nodded, leaning on his cane, continued forward.

——

He Ao walked through the lengthy alleyway, stepping on roads with some lingering snow.

Beside him came the light ringing sounds, those were the sounds of repairing wooden shelters.

He Ao lowered his head, glanced at his feet, the snow on the ground ahead was less than elsewhere, revealing a large section of neat and clean ground.

It seemed just cleaned.

And with his steps, individual figures around turned their heads too, cautiously gazing at him.

At this moment, most shelters were tightly closed, with windows covered by thick animal skins, seemingly to block the sunlight.

So those watching He Ao were not many.

And He Ao did not mind these gazes, his eyes looked forward, scanning the buildings along the street.

A faint orange-gray glow flashed across his eyes.

Before sweeping over the surrounding buildings, he first looked downwards, surveying the deepest lines of the city, all was so calm, seemingly indistinguishable from the outside.

The base layer of the world unfolded in his view, the underlying structure of the whole world was exceedingly normal and stable.

Since entering this city, he vaguely sensed a certain ‘disharmony’ in this city’s essence.

The feeling at first was barely perceptible, but as he left the palace and walked through the city, the longer he stayed in the city, the stronger this feeling became.

Yet he could not precisely determine the source of this disharmony.

Gathering his thoughts, calming his mind, He Ao began observing the world’s underlying lines around the houses.

The time-space swirling fluctuations he just sensed seemed to be nearby.

The underlying world lines here appeared ‘normal’, yet slowly, as He Ao ‘gazed’, faintly, there seemed to be extremely subtle lines, undergoing minimal, almost imperceptible disturbances.

If it weren’t for He Ao standing in this area now, with Super Memory enhancing his memory sensitivity to change, he might not have detected this disturbance.

He slowly moved forward, arriving at the region corresponding to this disturbance.

It was a narrow, doorless shelter, roughly a meter wide.

Currently laying inside was a thin young man, above the young man’s head hung unused bows and arrows, seemingly belonging to some hunter.

Now this youth was organizing a narrow piece of animal skin, seemingly preparing to make a curtain for the door.

He sensed a shadow blocking the sunlight at the doorway, his hand’s movements abruptly paused, lifted his head, looked at He Ao standing at the door, his body trembled, softly asked, “Sir···, anything you need?”

“Where did the previous owner of this house go?”

He Ao looked down, scanned this room.

The youth himself possessed no Extraordinary Power, unmatched with the faint disturbances remaining in the room.

And in the seams of the animal skin laid on the ground, one could vaguely see some slender hair strands, these hairs seemed not like the short-haired youth, more like they belonged to some short-statured little girl.

“She was taken away by other sirs,” the young man, head down, murmured.

“Other lords?” He Ao was slightly taken aback.

“Yes, a few lords in armor,” an elderly man leaning on a cane walked over, looking at He Ao, his gaze sweeping over He Ao’s thin clothes, respectfully giving a bow.

He Ao turned his gaze towards him.

The elderly continued, “Those lords often come here to select slaves for the noble lords. If chosen, they can live a good life with the noble lords for the rest of their days.”

“Is that so?” He Ao glanced at the young man sitting beside him on animal skin, “If those taken away have really made it big, why do you still divide their property?”

Hearing this, the elderly was slightly taken aback, then responded awkwardly, “She will be close to the noble lord in the future, surely she wouldn’t care for these things.”

He Ao gave him a glance, saying nothing. The thoughts that surfaced in the elderly’s mind already provided him with an answer.

Those who were ‘taken away’ never returned.

He Ao continued to ask, “Which way did they go?”

Hearing this question, the elderly fell silent with some dread.

He Ao glanced at him again.

Then he raised his head, his gaze swept forward, and quickly vanished from the spot.

The elderly had already conveyed the direction in which the soldiers left through his ‘thoughts’.

—-

Three soldiers trudged against the drifting snow, walking down the narrow alley, one carrying a child on his shoulder.

“Boss, the ones we took this time aren’t bad, the lord will surely reward us, right?” The soldier on the left grinned, revealing a mouthful of yellow-stained teeth, “The wine the lord rewarded us with last time was simply exquisite.”

“First do your job, the lord has his own decisions to make,” the tall leading soldier’s cheeks were dusted with a thin layer of snow, “It’s not something we slaves should worry about. If the lord rewards you, it’s a grace; if not, it’s rightful. Those who demanded things from the lord never reappeared alive.”

“Yes, yes,” the left-sided soldier seemed to have thought of something, shivered, and quickly nodded, “The lord giving us slaves food and drink is already an immense grace.”

He bowed his head, daring not to speak further.

“Boss,” the right-sided soldier slowly opened his mouth to ask, “what exactly are we taking these kids for?”

“Don’t ask what they’re for,” the tall soldier replied coldly, “the lord needs them, just take them over, that’s all. Don’t think too much about anything else.”

“The lord said to have us select people to make them slaves,” the right-sided soldier said softly, “but we’ve never seen the kids we took before ever again.”

Hearing this, the tall leading soldier abruptly halted, turned around, and looked at the right-sided soldier, “Are you discontent with the lord?”

The right-sided soldier immediately knelt on the ground with a slap, quickly exclaimed, “I’m willing to die for the lord!”

“That is what you should be,” the tall soldier glanced at the right-sided soldier, turned around, raised his steps, and continued forward, “just because you haven’t seen them doesn’t mean they’re not around. What if the lord keeps them in the innermost part of his house, showering them with affection? Would they come back to thank a slave like you for the lord’s favor?”

The right-sided soldier got up and followed the tall soldier, remaining in silent contemplation.

“Boss, when do you think this perpetual daylight will end?” This time, the soldier on the left looked up at the shining sun in the sky, changing the subject, “Isn’t it nighttime now?”

“It’s now July,” the tall soldier glanced at the sun gradually rising above the swirling snowstorm, “from May to July is when the Sun God rests. By the end of July, when the Sun God awakens, they will regulate the sun, and it will naturally set.”

“I heard the sun in the south doesn’t hang around like ours,” the left-sided soldier pondered, “their sun rises and sets every day.”

“The earth is round,” the tall soldier glanced at the left-sided soldier, “if you place a candle above your head, can it only light a little bit? A single sun can only illuminate a small area; the southern sun is not eroded by perpetual snowstorm, so the Sun God doesn’t need to rest, understand?”

“Got it, got it, boss, you’re really knowledgeable!” the left-sided soldier immediately praised.

The tall soldier seemed quite pleased with this compliment, but he still managed to keep a stern face, saying coldly, “Stop asking so many damn questions. Didn’t your father teach you these when you were young?”

“My dad is coming back soon.” A sudden voice unexpectedly sounded on the tall soldier’s shoulder, “Let me go back! My dad will worry if he doesn’t find me!”

Following that was fierce struggling.

“Why’d she wake up again?” The tall soldier spat, lifting up the messy-haired little girl he was carrying on his shoulder, looking at the struggling little girl, “Didn’t you hear the old man say? Your dad died a month ago, he’s never coming back, crazy girl!”

His words left the little girl in a daze.

After a moment of silence, the little girl clutched a wooden box, struggling fiercely, “You’re lying! You’re lying! My dad came back! He just left again! You didn’t see him, so you say he’s dead!”

“Crazy girl!” Watching the fiercely struggling little girl, the tall soldier’s expression turned cold completely, he glanced around nearby.

A dried-up well by the roadside came into his view.

But after a brief hesitation, he turned his head, looked at the figure ahead to the left, and directly threw the little girl toward that direction, “Do you have a way to calm this crazy girl down?”

The figure gently caught the little girl.

The little girl wanted to struggle, but falling into those arms, she found herself unable to exert any strength.

She then seemed to feel a bit sleepy, yawning, her mind settled into a calm state, curling up in He Ao’s arms, no longer causing trouble, just looking up at He Ao.

“You’ve got some skills, kid.” The tall soldier, seeing this scene, smiled and nodded.

Then he lifted his steps and quickly moved forward, “Stay alert, we’re almost there.”

The three figures behind him followed his pace.

He Ao walked at the rear, looking at the little girl in his arms and the wooden box she held tightly.

“What’s in your box?” he asked softly.

“It’s something my dad left,” the little girl hugged the box, looking at He Ao with some surprise, “Can you see this box?”

“Of course, I can see it,” He Ao smiled, starting to talk with the little girl as if they were friends, “They said your dad passed away?!”

“No, they’re lying!” the little girl immediately said, “They said Dad died in the snowstorm that day, but Dad actually came back, they didn’t see him, it’s just that Dad left the second day.”

As she said this, she wrinkled her nose, “He left without telling me.”

He Ao and the little girl’s voices were not small, but the soldiers ahead did not react, seemingly not hearing anything at all.

“Is this box the thing your dad brought back the day the snowstorm started?” He Ao asked softly.

“Mm-hmm,” the little girl nodded, holding the wooden box tightly, “Dad will definitely come back.”

“Then may I have a look at your box?” He Ao asked gently.

The little girl looked up at He Ao, seeming a bit hesitant. She seemed a bit tired, softly yawning.

“Why don’t you take a nap first,” He Ao smiled, “Think it over, and answer me when you’re ready?”

The little girl stared at He Ao, after a brief contemplation, nodded lightly.

She clutched the wooden box in her arms, then fell into a deep sleep.

He Ao lifted his head, a wide multi-level stone house came into view within his orange-gray glowing eyes.

The three soldiers in front had stopped before this stone house.

A peculiar ripple, deep-rooted in the world’s foundation, wreathed around this expansive stone house, also entwining the three soldiers standing before the house.