Translator: Henyee Translations  Editor: Henyee Translations

On the barren muddy road, dust was rising. There was a nest that was one meter in diameter hanging on a huge black tree.

“Creak, creak, creak…”

A few birds with black feathers were competing for food, which was a pale human head with disheveled air. Its eyes and face had been pecked into a mess, and blood was dripping from the nest.

On the top of the nest, an even bigger black bird was perching. Its bloodthirsty eyes, filled with vigilance, were gazing at a red carriage that was rumbling by with four yellow horses hauling it.

“It's a Black Blood Crow, an Extraordinary Rank-3 creature. It's no threat to us!”

At the window of the carriage, Li Qing put away the Excellent Rank-9 Excellent pistol that was transformed from the Stone of Civilization he was rewarded with.

“Are you sure we're moving in the right direction?”

He turned around and asked the scout of the Yellow Turban Army.

“Yes, absolutely!”

The scout, named Li Dayan, replied with sweat on his forehead.

“This is the way we came by. We ran into a bunch of hungry wolves in this place and lost two of our men. The human head in the bird nest belonged to Li Er, who was killed yesterday. I remember how he got the scar next to his ear…”

Then, he looked at Ji Ye, who was familiarizing himself with the Great Mighty Heavenly Dragon with his EXP at the center of the carriage, and said cautiously and uneasily, “Deity, I'm sure that Guobei County is not far away ahead. It's only a kilometer away!”

He had every reason to feel cautious and humble!

The previous night, when Ji Ye killed the three Yakshas that hunted him, he flew in the sky and traveled underground like a G.o.d.

The golden carriage that he took today awed him even more. This whole carriage was purely made of gold, and it was much more s.p.a.cious than it looked from the outside. It wasn't crowded at all even when it accommodated a dozen pa.s.sengers and some materials.

Nevertheless, he didn't understand why this “deity” carried the enormous carriage a dozen kilometers away and drove to Guobei County in the same route as he did when he came from the Black Mountain even though the deity had located Guobei County with miraculous techniques.

“Guobei County…”

Hearing the name, Nie Xiaoqian, who was seated in the inner part of the carriage and separated from others by a curtain, had curiosity in her eyes.

She wasn't exactly nervous.

It was because she had lost the memories of her old ident.i.ty after her death. Although she learned what happened to her from the players such as Su Nongying and Shang Yan, she didn't remember much about Granny Tree Demon or Guobei County!

She had come to this place only because she was worried that Ji Ye would feel inconvenient when he didn't have someone to serve him.

At this moment, Li Dayan saw the pictures that the Mirage Dragon Pearl projected and said excitedly, “We're almost there. We'll see Guobei County after the next turn!”

Exactly as he said, after they took a turn, a ragged ancient city that didn't even have wall emerged in the eyes of the travelers from Dragon City.

“Attack!”

The moment the four yellow horses hauled the modified golden carriage into the city, roars burst out, and a bunch of brawny men marched out from the two sides of the main street with weapons in their hands!

“Not good!”

“This is an ambus.h.!.+”

“Protect the City Master!”

Inside the golden carriage, several Iron Buddhas stood up, and one of them even controlled Li Dayan who was dumbfounded.

However, they were all stunned the next moment.

Ting! Ting! Ting!

It was because those people didn't come for the carriage. They were fighting each other on the street.

“Kill him!”

“Which one of them is the fugitive?”

“The one with a beard!”

They were truly killing each other brutally. More than five of them had fallen to the ground.

“Just as I expected, it's the Guobei County from A Chinese Ghost Story…”

Seeing the scene, Ji Ye confirmed that the city was from the world in A Chinese Ghost Story, not from the real history or the Strange Tales of Liao-Zhai.

“Stop! Stop right now!”

However, after several men died, those people all stopped their actions.

It was because even though the golden carriage was covered by red wood on the surface, it was still too large, and its luxuriousness could not be completely hidden.

Naturally, it raised the attention of those bandits.

“Hey, I lost my saber. Did anyone see it?”

“I dropped my silver. Hey, is it underneath your carriage? Move away! I need to search for my silver!”

“I think these are the horses that I lost yesterday!”

After a quick look at each other, the bandits roared and raised their weapons greedily!

There were only two men who were driving the carriage that was much larger than normal ones.

One of them was Dian Wei, who was holding a rein and had canceled his brutal vibe.

The other was Li Yuanba, who looked like a teenager. He was playing a silver PSP devotedly.

The b.l.o.o.d.y battle a moment earlier and the provocations at this moment couldn't even make him raise his head. Instead, he quickly pressed the b.u.t.tons with his eyes focused on the PSP.

In fact, after he transformed his Soul of Civilization into this piece of “magic equipment” thanks to the suggestion of the young players who joined the settlement the previous day, Li Yuanba soon got addicted to it and had played twelve hours in a row.

Because of his Infinite Stamina, Li Yuanba didn't have to sleep at all, so he was definitely matchless in a game marathon.

The only reason he sat outside of the carriage was that the people inside disturbed him while he played the game.

However, unlike his combat ability, which was almost unparalleled, his talent in games was obviously subpar.

After nine hours of playing, Kratos was still wandering in the initial temple map in the “Easy” mode.

“Those people are all above Ordinary Rank-7. Some are Extraordinary. But none are above Extraordinary Rank-5!”

Inside the carriage, Li Qing remarked.

Those bandits looked much stronger than the players.

That was normal. After all, A Chinese Ghost Story was a world where G.o.ds and ghosts existed, and the warriors could be very strong too.

Yan Chixia, who was the best swordsman in the world, and Zuo Qianhu, who was bold enough to attack two Bodhisattvas in the sequel, were much stronger than the guys in real history.

“d.a.m.n it, I died again!

“Get the h.e.l.l out of here! I'm going to kill you if you yell again…”

When Kratos was killed by “easy” Medusa yet again, Li Yuanba burst into outrage and yelled at the bandits of Guobei County.

“What? Did he just tell us to get the h.e.l.l out of here?”

“Ha, this boy is still wet behind the ears, yet he's trying to scare us off. I don't know what to say!”

The bandits were stunned at first when they heard Li Yuanba's roar.

Then, they all laughed out aloud as if it was a joke.

After all, unlike Dian Wei who had an intimidating body size, Li Yuanba was a skinny child who didn't seem to be a threat at all.

“This carriage is enclosed so tightly. It must be carrying some fugitives. Brothers, let's tear apart the carriage and deliver the fugitives to the authorities!” a man shouted greedily.

He couldn't stop himself from das.h.i.+ng forward and slas.h.i.+ng the machete at the carriage.

“I said that whoever continues making a fuss will die!”

Bam!

In the next moment, the machete that was more than one meter long and made of pure iron was crushed.

Then, the man fell apart into pieces too. His exploding blood splashed a dozen meters away and dyed the street as well as the shops on two sides red!

“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”

Several other bandits were hit by the broken pieces of the machete and fell while screaming.

“…”

The previously noisy street became quiet all of a sudden.

The bandits who were greedy at first all changed their expressions, with sweat rising on their foreheads.

“Ew!”

Some of them even had blood and broken flesh all over their faces. They simply vomited.

Even though they were no strangers to death, they were still frightened when someone had been blown up by one punch.

“M-Monster!”

“We're outnumbered! Everybody, let's retreat!”

“Let's go!”

Then, they quickly carried their injured partners on the ground and fled away.

The whole street became empty in the blink of an eye.

However, not everybody had the time to escape. For example, someone was unlucky enough to be crippled by a piece of the machete, and he could only crawl on the ground.

“Speak. Who are you?”

Dian Wei walked to him and picked him up with one hand as if he were a chicken.

Faced with the brutal vibe that Dian Wei was releasing, the skinny captive s.h.i.+vered and said, “My… My name is Song Ming. I'm the seventh commander of the Ferocious Tiger Gang!

“Y-You can't kill me! The Ferocious Tiger Gang has seven hundred members. We're as powerful as the Flood Dragon Gang in Guobei County!”

Inside the carriage, a player stared at the captive through the window, with his eyes covered in a glow.

“He's lying. There are only seven members in his gang, and every one of them is a ‘commander'. However, the Flood Dragon Gang he mentioned is truly the biggest force in Guobei County. It's even more powerful than the local authorities!”

He was a beta tester that had been reborn on the Twin Dragon Island. He was a microexpression master on Earth, and his talent skill was Mind Reading. He could read the mind of whoever he was looking at.

“The Flood Dragon Gang is even more powerful than local authorities? Huh, Chief Dian, let him take us to the local authorities!”

Naturally, Ji Ye didn't care if the guy was telling the truth.

If the travelers from Dragon City were really determined to kill them, not just a gang with several hundred members, even one with thousands of gangsters couldn't possibly resist Li Yuanba and Dian Wei, who were both Extraordinary Rank-9, if they didn't have enough experts!

However, the travelers from Dragon City had come to Guobei County to establish a branch, and they would rather try subduing those people first.

It was not the best choice to kill them all. In fact, Ji Ye had reminded Li Yuanba not to kill randomly before they came!

However, the problematic young man, addicted to the game, had apparently forgotten his reminder in the outrage.

Fortunately, killing some of the locals to intimidate the rest was part of the plan.

It shouldn't be a problem to take down a small county with both carrots and sticks.

Whoos.h.!.+

Ji Ye extended his hand and grabbed a stone that he had picked up randomly from the ground.

Then, his fingers emitted a golden light. When he let go of the stone, it had turned into gold!