Chapter 177: [Transplantation] Enlightened with Wisdom
Wen Xing had been carrying that lantern earlier, but as she walked along, she suddenly noticed Bai Cha had vanished into thin air.
She spent a long time searching through the crowd, yet ultimately failed to locate a single trace of her.
This could only prove one thing: Bai Cha had likely slipped into some kind of specialized space.
With the descent of night, danger had naturally followed right on its heels.
Wen Xing’s brows knitted tightly into a knot.
Didn’t she claim her skill was A Lucky Star Shines Bright? How could she just vanish so abruptly while walking along perfectly fine?
Sure enough, the words coming from a soft, delicate girl like her were as deceitful as a ghost!
She lowered her head to look at the decorative lantern in her hand, giving it a gentle shake.
“Hey! Kid?”
The lantern remained completely motionless.
Wen Xing let out a tsk.
Tricky.
She wasn’t particularly brave by nature; whenever she encountered strange things, she would feel scared, and being scared triggered a reflexive combat attack.
This had led to similar situations unfolding in practically every instance she had entered since joining the game.
Certain NPCs were actually supposed to provide crucial clues, but because they appeared utterly horrifying at times, her instinctive attack upon being spooked usually caused them to refuse to give any information altogether.
Of course, occasionally, beating them a bit more violently would draw out the clues anyway.
This worn-out lantern, however, looked as though it were on the absolute verge of shattering.
Just as Wen Xing was hesitating over whether to get physical, a earth-shattering, wailing cry suddenly erupted from over by the road.
She instinctively turned her gaze toward the sound.
There sat the child Bai Cha had released earlier, straddling the body of a young boy, one hand yanking his hair while the other tugged wildly at the candy clutched in the boy’s grip.
Truth be told, that child Bai Cha let out looked terrifying beyond belief.
His face was as chalk-white as porcelain, painted with two bright red circles of blush, wearing a small red ensemble, eyes pure black, and a small melon-cap resting atop his head—an exact replica of a traditional Golden Boy.
Yet the surrounding NPCs didn’t seem to harbor much of an opinion regarding this child, likely because he was a boy.
It might have been a completely different story had he been a Jade Maiden instead.
In any case, the little Golden Boy was currently beating someone up.
Seeing that the boy refused to hand over the candy, he yanked on his hair with all his might, plucking it out patch by patch.
Consequently, strands of black hair danced wildly through the air for a moment.
It was excruciatingly painful.
Which was why the young boy exploded into earth-shattering wails.
Even so, he clung to his candy with a death grip regardless.
Getting impatient, the little Golden Boy simply bit down hard on the boy’s head.
This time, the boy finally loosened his grip. The little Golden Boy hurriedly snatched the candy, leaped down at lightning speed, and bolted away carrying his lantern.
The boy sat on the ground crying his heart out. His father rushed over moments later, so infuriated he immediately set out to chase after the little Golden Boy.
The surrounding villagers began pointing and whispering in disapproval as well.
Rolling his pitch-black eyes in a circle, the little Golden Boy locked his gaze onto Wen Xing, running straight over to hide behind her back.
This woman is together with that female scammer! That female scammer is super formidable, so this woman must be super formidable too!
Wen Xing’s courage was paper-thin, however.
Feeling a ghost child run straight behind her back, Wen Xing instinctively reached back, grabbed the little Golden Boy, and slammed him violently onto the ground.
The candy in the little Golden Boy’s mouth was knocked loose by the impact.
He froze in utter shock for a second, then burst into racking, blubbering sobs as well.
The scene descended into absolute, chaotic mayhem in an instant.
The other players crowded over as well.
Facing this scene, none of them quite knew what to say.
“This child is…”
“Wait, shouldn’t the ghosts in this instance be young girls?”
The players were unaware that this was a physical transformation of Bai Cha’s item, merely finding it strange; moreover, the lantern in the little Golden Boy’s hand looked vastly different from the local decorative lanterns here.
Just as the players were exchanging hushed discussions, the air suddenly turned bone-chillingly cold.
The icy chill seemed to creep upward from the earth, spreading from the soles of their feet until it chilled them to the core.
The surrounding structures appeared to produce double images.
A dark mist surged through the air, blotting out the bright decorative lanterns one after another.
The players immediately raised their guard.
So did the NPCs.
They looked around at the sudden transformation in utter, helpless confusion.
Right at this moment, a man unleashed a blood-curdling shriek.
The sound resembled a chicken being squeezed by the throat.
Everyone instinctively looked toward the source of the noise.
At the spot where the man stood, a pair of tiny hands thrust upward from the soil.
Immediately following, a child crawled out—bald, clad in white robes, her skin ash-gray and covered entirely in dense, web-like black blood vessels.
She grabbed the man directly.
“Daddy! Liar! Daddy, it hurts so much!”
This was merely the beginning.
More and more children materialized.
“Daddy! I really can meet Daddy!”
“Daddy! Daddy, why did you push the blame onto me?!”
They began seeking out their blood relatives.
Some of the men were already well into their advanced years, only to be suddenly entangled by a child out of nowhere, collapsing onto the spot from sheer terror.
Yet for a far greater number of children who had died long ago, their immediate parents were nowhere to be found; still, as long as the bloodline persisted, it was by no means impossible to track down descendants who shared their lineage.
Accompanied by the appearance of these children, a spherical object woven tightly from pale yellow vines surfaced before everyone’s eyes.
The little Golden Boy ceased his crying.
Glaring at that spherical object with eyes dripping with venomous hatred, he bounced straight into the air.
Big scammer! She actually let someone else beat him up!
Regrettably, before he could draw any closer, a little girl stepped up to block his path.
“You are a boy—why are you dead too?”
The little girl looked at him with a face full of curiosity.
The little Golden Boy bared his teeth aggressively.
“What’s it to you?!”
Tilting her head, the little girl looked at him, then shifted her gaze to the lantern held in his hand.
“Were you made into a decorative lantern? So boys can be made into decorative lanterns too?”
She suddenly began clapping her hands in wild excitement, her head tilted to one side as her gaze locked onto a screaming, fleeing young boy.
“Hee-hee! Decorative lanterns! Make decorative lanterns! Turn the boys into decorative lanterns! Turn Daddy into a decorative lantern too! Light up the room!”
Her mouth split open into a massive, terrifying grin as she lunged forward in pure euphoria.
Being young in age, these children naturally imitated those around them; seeing this, they all began shouting in unison that they wanted to make decorative lanterns too.
The little Golden Boy shuddered inexplicably.
Being made into a sky lantern hurts so badly.
He suddenly didn’t want to be out here anymore; he wanted to return to the inventory space.
This world was far too terrifying.
And he had dropped his candy on top of it.
Waaah…
Observing his actions, Wen Xing deduced that the person inside those vines was likely Bai Cha.
She immediately sprinted over, tapping gently on the vines.
“Taozi?”
The dodder vines slowly dispersed, revealing Bai Cha curled up inside—her face deathly pale and covered in blood.
Wen Xing was startled out of her wits, hastily helping her up.
“Taozi, are you alright? Taozi?”
The little Golden Boy glided over as well, a look of gloating delight surfacing across his face.
“Hee-hee…”
Then, he took a solid punch straight from Wen Xing.
Clutching his face in agony, the little Golden Boy zipped back into his lantern in a flash.
The crimson human-skin lantern fell to the ground beside Bai Cha.
Bai Cha raised her hand with great effort, storing the lantern away.
“I’m fine, just flared up with internal heat. Sister, are you worried about me?” As she spoke, Bai Cha raised her hand, wiping a smear of blood off her face with her sleeve.
It was mostly nosebleed.
Truth be told, it wasn’t much of an issue, and she would recover very quickly.
She then flashed another wide grin at Wen Xing.
Wen Xing: “…”
“You fucking…”
Closing her eyes, Wen Xing suppressed the surge of temptation to land a punch on her as well.
“What on earth is going on here?”
Zhang Jia-ning suddenly stepped over as well, her eyes fixed intently on Bai Cha.
“How did everything turn into this all of a sudden?”
