Chapter 91
Chapter 91
The moment the soulbug saw Xiao Huai, its crying stopped abruptly. Like a puppy, it threw itself at his leg.
Xiao Huai tilted his head and looked at the soulbug’s green shell.
How strange.
He had no wounds on him now, so why had he suddenly attracted a soulbug?
And in broad daylight, no less.
He bent down, pinched the soulbug by its antennae, and lifted it in front of his eyes.
Although it carried a faint fragrance, the scent was not strong.
“Do you want blood?” Xiao Huai asked softly.
As if responding, the soulbug shook its legs repeatedly, though he had no idea whether that meant yes or no.
Xiao Huai set it back on the floor. “Go back where you came from.”
Rule Five said soulbugs could not be killed casually. Whether that rule was true or false, he had little interest in killing an insect that posed no threat.
This soulbug, however, seemed determined to cling to him.
Every time Xiao Huai put it on the floor, it settled beside his foot.
Finally rendered speechless, Xiao Huai hid it inside his clothes.
Once concealed there, the soulbug became completely still and silent. If Xiao Huai had not checked on it from time to time,
he might truly have thought it was dead.
His fingertip gently rubbed its green shell. It trembled and pressed its antennae against the tip of his finger.
Oh. It did not want to be touched anymore.
At that moment, excited shouts came from outside.
“I found it! I found it!” shouted a man whose face was covered in pimples.
He celebrated in the lobby with a sheet of paper in hand, his eyes shining.
Cheng Shan was not far outside the door. At the sound, he called to Sun Xingye.
“It sounds like they found something.”
Sun Xingye was still inspecting the houses in the village for traces of the witches’ nightly roaming.
There was no debris from fireworks or firecrackers anywhere. The village was just as it had been when they first arrived: desolate and covered in dust.
He looked up at the inn. “Let’s go see. There isn’t even a corpse here. We won’t find any information.”
The pimple-faced man’s booming shouts drew the other players over one after another.
They craned their necks and asked, “What did you find? A clue?”
The pimple-faced man raised the paper. “Something even better. I found a treasure map.”
“A treasure map?” Everyone’s eyes widened slightly. Finding one during a treasure-hunting mission was the perfect stroke of luck.
With it, locating the treasure should be effortless.
“Let me see! Let me see!”
Everyone crowded closer to examine the treasure map.
Once they saw its contents clearly, their initial excitement quickly gave way to weary discouragement.
They returned the map to the pimple-faced man. “We don’t recognize any of the places written on this map. Besides, the area drawn here isn’t this place at all, is it?”
“What do you mean?” The pimple-faced man had finally found a useful, crucial clue, only for the others to dismiss it almost immediately.
Extremely displeased, he raised the treasure map and was about to argue further.
Sun Xingye abruptly poured cold water on his excitement. “Don’t assume you’re the main character. You found a scrap of wastepaper and started treating it like treasure.”
The first step toward growth was admitting one’s own mediocrity, and most people could not do that.
Everyone thought they were the protagonist of the story, blessed with extraordinary luck, and that anything they happened to find must be useful.
Such words from anyone else could have been ignored. But Sun Xingye was a member of the Foxslayer organization, and possessing a supernatural ability proved he was no ordinary man.
Moreover, Cheng Shan, who also belonged to the Foxslayer organization, had demonstrated his strength in the desert.
The pimple-faced man immediately felt that everything he had done was pointless. His head drooped, and he could not even find an outlet for his anger.
Just then, a pleasant, magnetic voice reached the crowd.
“May I see it?”
Everyone looked behind them. Xiao Huai was strolling lazily toward them from a distance.
The pimple-faced man raised his head in confusion. What did this NPC want? Was he also searching for the treasure?
The map had already been dismissed as wastepaper and seemed to hold no value, so the man said nothing and dejectedly handed it over.
Xiao Huai smiled lightly as he accepted the treasure map.
“Impressive.”
The pimple-faced man’s pupils widened. “Huh?”
He praised me?
The NPC praised me?
Some of the landmarks on this treasure map had different names from those on Xiao Huai’s Topographic Map of the Pudu Desert.
But judging from the terrain, this map depicted the Pudu Desert.
Even more intriguing, the map contained the names of many cities, scenic areas, and parks.
What did that mean?
Had there once been a lost kingdom in the desert?
If so, what had caused that kingdom to disappear?
After praising the pimple-faced man, Xiao Huai left.
Once he was gone, everyone became quietly excited.
“A-Zhuolang definitely knows something! Not bad! You must have found a crucial clue.”
“This is great. With this map, our chances of completing the collective mission might increase!”
The pimple-faced man had never expected everyone’s opinion of him to reverse again after Xiao Huai appeared, and he felt inexplicably pleased.
Sun Xingye stepped forward. Xiao Huai’s words had caught his attention as well.
He might have been the one to pour cold water on the man earlier, but now he was also the one asking to borrow the map.
Although the pimple-faced man was somewhat reluctant, the special nature of the collective mission compelled him to hand it over.
Sun Xingye studied the map for a long time, then pointed at one location. “This should be where we are now.”
“Huh? How can you tell?”
The others looked at Sun Xingye in confusion.
Before Sun Xingye could answer, Lu Zhi, who had been quietly standing unnoticed in the crowd, blurted out,
“The terrain. We’ve been traveling west this whole time, and the ground here has clearly been getting lower, almost like a giant pit. This is most likely where we are.”
Sun Xingye glanced at Lu Zhi. The boy had said essentially the same thing he had intended to say.
He had not expected someone with so little presence to be so sharp.
“But this treasure map really isn’t useful.” Sun Xingye returned it to the man. “Where did you find it?”
He added the question after a moment.
A trace of anger showed between the pimple-faced man’s brows. “In the inn’s basement. I found the entrance, and after I went down, I discovered this map.”
Sun Xingye raised an eyebrow. The man had actually found a basement.
“Take us there.”
“Wait. First explain why my treasure map is useless. It literally says ‘treasure map’ on it, and the location of the treasure is marked. All we have to do is follow the map to find it.”
Ji Yelin suddenly approached the crowd with a smile.
“Idiot. Do you even know whose treasure is marked on that map? Don’t forget whose treasure you’re actually supposed to find.”