Chapter 43: The Astonishing Effect of Charm Attribute
In a place this dangerous, blindly charging forward was clearly asking for death, but Su Xiao wouldn't keep evading forever either. If he encountered a suitable enemy, he would definitely kill one to see what benefits he could gain.
In the perilous Dead Silence City, Bubu Wang's abilities were clearly superior to Su Xiao's. It had specifically tested earlier—neither the black-haired little girl nor the old holy cultivator could detect its presence.
The heavy responsibility of scouting fell on Bubu Wang. The first thing it did was explore, checking whether the surrounding houses contained beings similar to the old holy cultivator, in order to gain information or benefits.
Bubu Wang first checked the two rows of houses along the street. However, most houses contained residents of Dead Silence City with tattered clothes and dark gray skin. Even more terrifying was that inverted cross church—inside was a massive serpent, one seemingly composed of black mud.
Bubu Wang's original words were that when it saw that thing, its hind legs started trembling uncontrollably. Fortunately, it kept its legs clamped tight, or else it would have nearly pissed itself.
After some exploration, the results showed that neutral residents like the old holy cultivator were very rare, while all kinds of monsters were countless. Bubu Wang had confirmed eye contact with those monsters—two or three of them were ones Su Xiao couldn't handle either.
"What do we do? Are we going to stay here forever? That dead child blocked our retreat. Maybe we should go negotiate with her? Give her some food and let her let us back?"
Veronica held up her pants with one hand—this was the result of her previous painful experience.
"If we feed her your head, she might let us pass."
Su Xiao certainly wasn't planning to go back. A place this interesting, he would definitely explore.
About ten minutes later, Bubu Wang returned. After disengaging from its environment concealment, it shook its head at Su Xiao, meaning it hadn't seen the old divine stick's corpse or remains. The other party was likely still alive, and there were no neutral residents nearby.
"Any clues about the Birth Hall?"
"Woof~ (Didn't see any)."
"Is that so? Then choose a relatively safe path and head toward that tallest building."
"Woof."
"Mm, makes sense. If that's the case, then over there might be the Birth Hall."
"Woof~"
"Alright."
Su Xiao's conversation with Bubu Wang ended, leaving Veronica beside them dumbfounded. She almost blurted out a question: Duke sir, were you a dog in your past life? Your conversation is so smooth.
Bubu Wang, after blending into the environment, lightly bumped into Su Xiao so he could see it, then walked toward the back of a wooden house.
According to Bubu Wang's observations, the number of Tree Spawn was quite large. About every two minutes, a Tree Spawn would patrol by on the street.
Now Bubu Wang was leading Su Xiao through the gaps between houses. Although this path wasn't safe either, it could at least avoid encountering enemies they couldn't fight.
Moving through the gray-black houses, Su Xiao noticed that all the window glass was covered in grime. Some wooden fences had black cloth strips hanging on them, looking like clothes being aired out. This indicated that Dead Silence City had once been inhabited by living beings before being eroded and assimilated.
Moreover, after entering Dead Silence City, Su Xiao found one very strange thing—the ground here was stone. He hadn't seen any soil at all. Even when battle traces left dozens of meters deep craters, the bottom of those craters was entirely gray rock.
The only place where soil could be seen was in the large clay pots in front of and behind each household. Inside was a kind of light black soil, and the plants that had been planted there had long since withered. Soil seemed to be a very rare thing in Dead Silence City.
After advancing several hundred meters through the gaps between houses, Su Xiao stopped. Bubu Wang ahead had sent a message—something was off. It told Su Xiao not to make a sound and to approach slowly.
Su Xiao jumped onto a house roof, carrying Veronica on his shoulder, who was responsible for blocking sound, vibrations, and so on.
After advancing about fifty meters, Su Xiao saw an open space. Bubu Wang was crouching inside, and a few meters in front of it was a small stall. Behind the stall sat a white-haired old woman.
Su Xiao leaped down from the roof. After confirming there were no enemies nearby, he slowly approached the old woman.
"Living one, do you want to buy my things?"
The old woman smiled at Su Xiao. Su Xiao didn't feel a strong sense of danger—not because the old woman was so powerful that he couldn't perceive the threat, but because she truly wasn't that strong.
Su Xiao examined the items on the stall. The result was: half a rotten apple, a bottle of already greenish fresh water, and half a bottle of alcohol.
The items on the stall surprised Su Xiao somewhat. This old woman... seemed to be a 'colleague.'
"Your things aren't worth anything."
Having found someone he could normally converse with, Su Xiao naturally wanted to gather information.
"You are a living one, you don't need my things. Only they need them. No, wait—why haven't you been assimilated? Why weren't you assimilated? That's not fair. You should be assimilated too..."
The old woman grew more agitated as she spoke. Su Xiao gripped the hilt of Dragon-Slaying Flash, ready for battle.
"Living one, do you want to buy my things?"
The old woman's expression returned to normal, and when she smiled, she revealed her only remaining two teeth, one on top and one on bottom.
"..."
Su Xiao frowned, but soon, the black mark on the old woman's forehead caught his attention.
"You are... Queen Ruisi."
"Ruisi!"
The old woman was struck as if by lightning. She immediately covered her wrinkled face with her hands and said urgently, "I'm not, I'm not Ruisi. The king wouldn't have an ugly woman like me. The king's woman is the most beautiful woman. Not me."
The old woman scrambled to her feet and fled toward the depths of Dead Silence City.
"What do we do?"
Veronica was asking whether Su Xiao wanted her to block the sound.
"Follow."
Just as Su Xiao was about to move forward, a spatial fluctuation suddenly appeared. With a crack, an arm covered in blood emerged, threw down a bloodstained piece of parchment, and then the arm was dragged back into the alternate space.
"Old divine stick."
Su Xiao recognized the owner of this arm. He picked up the parchment from the ground and opened it, discovering it was a map—a map of Dead Silence City, and it even had small words marked in blood.
In that brief gap, the old woman, Queen Ruisi, had already run far away, disappearing around a corner. Su Xiao could recognize her because of the portrait in the palace and the mark on her forehead.
Queen Ruisi, once hailed as the empire's most beautiful woman, had now become an old woman selling rotten apples. It could only be said that the world was unpredictable.
Su Xiao came to the edge of the open space and began examining the map that the old divine stick had somehow sent.
Most of the text on it, Su Xiao couldn't recognize, but at the very center of the map, the old divine stick had marked four buildings in blood.
'Birth Hall, Treatment Institute, Sacrificial Altar, Supreme Sanctuary.'
On the Treatment Institute and Supreme Sanctuary, there were two X marks drawn in blood, clearly meaning that the old divine stick was warning Su Xiao never to approach those places.
Su Xiao observed the surrounding terrain and compared it with the map, determining that the tall building he had been using as a landmark was the Supreme Sanctuary, and not far behind it was the Birth Hall.
Still with Bubu Wang scouting ahead, Su Xiao began advancing toward the Birth Hall. But before he could even cross the square filled with sculptures, a figure about two meters tall, holding double hook blades, and clad in full black armor blocked his path. The other party's aura intensity was similar to the black-haired little girl's—no, it should be slightly stronger, but far less eerie than hers.
That black-haired little girl was so eerie that both Su Xiao and the old divine stick didn't want to confront her head-on. It wasn't that they couldn't win, but the cost of victory would be too painful—painful enough that they would have to leave Dead Silence City immediately.
"Woman, how many suns are there?"
The black-armored guard stared at Veronica.
"One."
Although Veronica didn't know what was going on, she answered immediately.
"Extreme cultivator, how many stars are there?"
This time, the black-armored guard looked at Su Xiao. Clearly, the Charm Attribute was showing its astonishing effect at this moment—though as a debuff.
"..."
Su Xiao leaped backward and drew the long blade at his waist. If he could fight, he generally didn't waste words with enemies. Seeing this, Veronica immediately retreated to the side, blocking all sound and vibrations within a hundred meters.
"Those who do not obey the will of heaven are heretics. Heretics must be sentenced to the punishment of severance."
The black-armored guard's body was wreathed in gray smoke as he slowly walked into the sculpture-filled square.