Chapter 9: There's Actually a Place Like This?
The woman with small bells hanging from her waist walked across the snow, leaving no footprints in her wake. With each flicker of her figure, more frost gathered on Su Xiao's hands, and the heat within his body grew more intense.
He needed to find a way out quickly. Su Xiao's thoughts raced. He was about to trigger the lethal effect of the dangerous entity, and on its home turf, under such circumstances, the lethal effect was unavoidable.
Of course, Su Xiao had chosen to come here after thorough investigation and preparation. He had deliberately provoked the enemy earlier to draw the spearhead to himself, preventing Bubu Wang and Baha from being taken down here. The enemy's lethal effect was soul-based.
[Warning: Your health is rapidly decreasing under the erosion of 'Frigid Snow of the Cold'.]
[Warning: Your health has dropped to 95%.]
[Warning: Your health has dropped to 90%.]
[Because you are in the enemy's rebirth ground, you are about to suffer a soul instant death effect (this ability has a probability-based instant death).]
[Luck attribute being judged...]
[Warning: Due to your currently low fortune, you will suffer the soul instant death effect.]
[Tip: The Hunter's soul strength is 500 points! The instant death has been forcibly resisted!]
[Tip: Blade Grandmaster Lv.20 Ultimate Ability · Soul Blade (Passive) has resisted this soul instant death effect.]
[Because you have performed a double resistance, the enemy will suffer backlash.]
[The enemy has temporarily lost the soul instant death ability. Expected recovery time: 3 natural days.]
...
Boom!
A shockwave spread out with Su Xiao at its center. In the flying snow outside the door, the bell woman suddenly exploded, leaving behind a bitter, despair-inducing wail in the air.
"What's the point of living?"
Lola laughed bitterly, pulling out a short knife for self-defense, making as if to slit her own throat.
Slap!
Su Xiao delivered a heavy slap, spinning Lola in place a few times. This field agent was still useful. She hadn't accepted the dangerous entity's power but had merely cooperated to deal with it, showing she wasn't a rigid person, suitable for handling dangerous entities in various places. It was because she didn't know how to flatter that she fared poorly in the not-so-well-disciplined field unit.
"I'm a waste."
The poet wiped his tears, making as if to hit the wall. Tide Hunter kicked him aside.
"Commander, I..."
Lola tilted her head, as if she had a stiff neck.
"It's fine. That dangerous entity slapped you, and I've already driven it back."
"Thank you, Commander."
Lola was relieved to be alive, but her face hurt and her neck ached.
"My waist."
The poet huddled against the wall, one hand on his lower back. Lola was alarmed and quickly went to check on him—this concerned her happiness.
"Injured your waist? Is it serious?"
"Not serious."
"Good, it's not serious. As long as your waist is fine."
Lola breathed a sigh of relief, while the poet's face turned pale. He hadn't been weak before, but ever since he and Lola had that indescribable extra relationship, he'd been getting weaker and weaker.
"Stop showing off your love. Tell us, where is that thing's lair?"
Baha shook the frost off his feathers. Bubu Wang was fine; he had blended into the environment. Although his body wasn't injured, his 'spirit' had taken a critical hit of true damage. He felt that thing looked like a female ghost. Having just escaped the 'bone ash box,' he now encountered a female ghost directly. Bubu Wang's little heart was trembling.
He was never afraid of bloody, terrifying monsters, but when it came to ghosts, spirits, and the like, his 'resistance' was negative. Every hit was a critical blow to his psyche.
"Her lair is at the Red Pool Hot Spring. It's a hot spring run by Granny Qian's family for generations. It's on the west side of town, the row of buildings backed against the snow mountain."
Lola helped the poet, her heart uneasy. Normally, dealing with dangerous entities required cannon fodder, and she was worried she'd be that fodder.
Su Xiao walked out of the house. The sky had been clear just moments ago, but within ten minutes, the entire Winter Spring Town was covered in snow, turning into a silver-white world.
He waited in the snow for a while, and a figure approached—it was Amu, coming to meet up.
"Amu, you weren't teleported into the sea?"
"Moo."
Amu hadn't been teleported into the sea. This time, it had fallen into a swamp.
Amu had successfully joined up, but Beini was out of contact, completely beyond communication range. Even delayed communication of a few days was impossible. Beini might not even be on the continent, perhaps on a sea voyage.
Su Xiao walked along the town's street. The once-bustling street was now empty. Pairs of bloodshot eyes stared at Su Xiao through door cracks and curtain gaps.
Tide Hunter came to a door and knocked.
"Hehehehehe, you saw it, you saw it. Come join us, hehehehehe."
A mad laugh came from behind the door. Who was Tide Hunter? A female powerhouse who maintained her position as the first beauty of the Tianba Clan through sheer strength. She thrust her hand through the door, grabbing the person inside by the neck.
The moment she grabbed the town resident's neck, Tide Hunter felt a wet, cold, slippery sensation in her palm. She pulled her hand back and saw white worms crawling on it.
Seeing this, Tide Hunter almost cut off her own hand. She was strong, but she had a major weakness: she was extremely disgusted and nauseated by these soft, cold worms, even a bit afraid. She wasn't afraid of death, but she was somewhat afraid of worms.
"Lady, calm down. You're a Tianba."
"There are no such filthy things in the Divine Village."
Tide Hunter shook off the worms on her hand and washed it in the snow for a long time, her brows still tightly furrowed.
"You weren't afraid of the Dead Silence Descending, but you're afraid of this?"
Baha was very surprised. When facing the power of Dead Silence, Tide Hunter hadn't flinched; she had been the first to counterattack.
"Bird, don't you have things you detest?"
"Yeah, I'm afraid you'll shoot me with your arrow."
"My arrows are not filthy."
Tide Hunter took out an arrow, indicating that her arrows were clean. Besides being lethal, there was nothing to dislike about them.
Ignoring Baha's teasing of Tide Hunter, Su Xiao continued forward. There was no peaceful coexistence. All the residents of Winter Spring Town had been assimilated or eroded by the bell woman. That was the nature of dangerous entities, even if some had high intelligence.
To put it simply, would people feel guilty about eating the meat of livestock? In the cognition of most dangerous entities, living beings were just food or energy sources.
Every house on the street was closed, with bloodshot eyes watching Su Xiao and the others. An ordinary person would have turned and fled, escaping this place that exuded a strong sense of strangeness and horror.
Over ten minutes later, Su Xiao stopped in front of a three-story wooden building. The building was large, and a sign beside the door bore the character 'Turbid'—of course, in this world's script. This was the Red Pool Hot Spring.
Su Xiao hesitated whether to throw an Apollo in first to warm up the bell woman. But considering the various characteristics of dangerous entities, although Apollo was effective, throwing it in directly like this probably wouldn't do much.
The reason Su Xiao came directly here was that he had just severely wounded the bell woman, and this was a rare opportunity.
Su Xiao realized he had a major advantage in this world: he could resist soul-killing.
The lethal effects of dangerous entities generally fell into a few categories: targeting the body, spirit, or soul. Su Xiao was completely unafraid of soul-based attacks. As for the body, due to his four-attribute development, his resistance was also strong. As long as he didn't encounter a spirit-type lethal effect, his resistance to dangerous entities was very high.
It could be said that the [Berg Heart (Immortal Rank)] was a divine artifact in this world. Su Xiao even regretted not spending a great price to strengthen this equipment, but thinking about it now was pointless.
He pushed open the wooden sliding door of the Red Pool Hot Spring and entered the lobby. An old woman, about 1.3 meters tall with her hair coiled up, stood behind the counter. She seemed to be standing on a chair.
"Guest, would you like to stay?"
Granny Qian spoke with a smile. She was the operator of this hot spring.
"..."
Su Xiao examined Granny Qian for a moment. She didn't seem like a living thing, but she was different from the things outside. Her mental fluctuations were more active.
"Yes."
"This way, please, guest."
Granny Qian, hunched over and holding a tobacco pipe, led the way. Every few steps she took, the sliding door ahead slammed shut.
"My guests all have strange tempers. Please forgive them."
Granny Qian spoke as she stepped onto the wooden stairs. On the second floor, she stopped in front of an open sliding door. The room was laid with tatami mats.
Just as Su Xiao was about to enter the room, he saw a small head peeking around the corner of the wooden corridor. When the little boy noticed Su Xiao's gaze, he quickly pulled his head back.
"Guest, how many days will you stay?"
"One day."
"The hot spring is in the inner room on the first floor. I won't disturb your rest."
Granny Qian brushed past Su Xiao. Su Xiao's right hand clenched, catching a small paper ball.
Entering the room and closing the sliding door, Su Xiao opened the paper ball. It was a small note that read: 'Unknown strong one, save her. We are already the dead, but she is still alive.'
The meaning of this note was not entirely clear, and who 'she' was remained unknown.
As for the information on the dangerous entity, the Bell Woman, it was as follows: