Wang Ziming guessed that a Weirdness had sneaked into the convoy.
A Weirdness was not something that could be judged by common sense. J
ust because it appeared in the Black Mist did not mean it could never leave it.
There might very well be types that could exit the Black Mist and blend into a crowd.
He warned himself not to fall into the trap of habitual thinking. Habitual thinking could get a person killed.
However, he had no intention of alerting the enemy just yet. Instead, he prepared to test the waters slowly.
On the other side, Su Frost was practicing her throwing. After several days of practice, her accuracy had significantly improved.
She was basically steady within 10 meters, and she had about a 60% to 70% success rate at 15 meters.
The Points she had exchanged using that Ghost Crystal over the past few days were used for three gacha draws. Her luck remained good, as all three draws yielded useful items.
The first item was a Tang Dao.
The blade was slender, its cold glint restrained, and the handle was wrapped in thick black cotton rope. It felt heavy in the hand but not cumbersome.
This blade was given to Mu Yingying. She used to use a steel pipe, which was good for smashing, but its lethality was ultimately limited.
After switching to the Tang Dao, she practiced alongside Su Frost every day, focusing on her horizontal slashes.
She dropped her usual careless attitude and performed each strike with serious precision.
Since she already had experience in close-quarters combat, her swings were powerful and fierce.
The second item was a Soul Strengthening Potion. After White Night drank it, the range of her soul’s activity expanded from being tethered to the bike’s frame to 20 meters.
This meant she could now leave the bicycle and move freely within a 20-meter radius.
The third item was a javelin.
The shaft was made of some dark gray alloy, thinner than a standard javelin but heavier. The tip was sharp enough to reflect light.
This item was practically tailor-made for Su Frost. Although she had great strength, she was still working on her accuracy.
A javelin was longer than a stone and straighter than a steel pipe. Its trajectory was more stable when thrown, allowing her accuracy to reach a new level.
Su Frost’s eyes lit up the moment she felt the weight of the javelin. However, to avoid damaging it, she had not yet tested its full power. Weapons were precious, and as a woman who knew how to manage a household frugally, she continued to practice with stones for now.
White Night also noticed that the number of people in the convoy was decreasing. She was a meticulous person and counted the surrounding vehicles and people every day. After the numbers failed to match for several consecutive days, she immediately informed her two aunties. This was one of the reasons they were training even harder. If a Weirdness really could leave the Black Mist and hide among the people, they had to be ready to fight at a moment’s notice.
By noon, the sun was at its fiercest. The three of them were practicing in the shadow of a row of roadside trees. Su Frost was practicing her throwing, using a severed utility pole 15 meters away as a target. The pole had already been battered to pieces by her. After repeating the motion dozens of times, her forehead was drenched in sweat.
Mu Yingying was practicing her blade nearby, slashing at a withered tree strike by strike until the bark was nearly stripped bare.
White Night stopped under the shade, but her attention was not on the practice. She heard a commotion in the distance. Things were getting lively over there. Passersby were walking in the same direction in groups of two or three, muttering things like “Brother Wang is giving out food” and “one bag of instant noodles per person.”
Mu Yingying stopped her blade and frowned. “What is he playing at? I don’t believe for a second that Wang Ziming is that generous.”
She wiped the sweat from her face with her sleeve, watched the growing crowd in the distance, and then turned to consult Su Frost and White Night. “I bet he also noticed that people are disappearing. He’s probably gathering everyone while the sun is strongest to see if he can sniff out that Weirdness.”
“I think so too,” White Night spoke into their minds. “Let’s go take a look. We should see what exactly is causing trouble.”
“Since it’s been hiding its head and showing its tail, it probably isn’t too strong,” Su Frost analyzed as she put away her javelin. “But a Weirdness lurking in the shadows is indeed a headache. A spear in the open is easy to dodge, but an arrow in the dark is hard to defend against.”
“Then let’s go.”
Mu Yingying nodded, and Su Frost pushed White Night toward the crowd. They weren’t short on a bag of instant noodles; they mainly wanted to see if the Weirdness could be dragged out.
Everyone in the convoy had arrived. Wang Ziming did not hand out the food himself. Instead, he had his subordinates stand there and distribute the bags one by one. He stood not far away, calmly scanning every person who stepped forward to receive food. He had a smile on his face, but his eyes didn’t miss a single expression or subtle movement.
Everyone received their food. Mu Yingying took hers, Su Frost took hers, and White Night was pushed through the line as well.
The short-haired woman named Xiao Qian was also in the crowd. She waited quietly in line, carefully accepted the noodles, and even said a grateful “Thank you, Brother Wang” before returning to her small car, which was covered in privacy film.
There was nothing unusual. Neither Wang Ziming nor White Night could find any flaws in her. The thing was hidden among the people, looking no different from a real human.
Wang Ziming’s frown deepened. He had secretly investigated the vehicles of the missing people; the food and valuables had not been touched. If the motive wasn’t profit, then what was it? Furthermore, the fact that a Weirdness could remain undetected in a crowd even under the blistering noon sun was extremely troublesome.
He didn’t expose his thoughts. Instead, he gave a typical speech about how “everyone needs to stay united” to win over the people before dismissing the crowd.
Once the others had wandered off, he walked over to Su Frost and Mu Yingying. He pushed up his glasses and lowered his voice. “You’ve noticed it too, haven’t you?”
He got straight to the point. “Something is causing trouble in the convoy. People go missing every night; this is definitely not normal. Have you found any clues?”
“No,” Su Frost shook her head, her expression unchanging.
Wang Ziming fell silent for a moment, a flash of solemnity appearing in the depths of his eyes. “It seems we can only keep watching. Everyone, stay alert from now on.”
He turned and left, his pace neither fast nor slow, showing no signs of anxiety. However, White Night noticed that after he returned to his car, he sat in the passenger seat for a long time, his fingers constantly tapping on the steering wheel.
“Wang Ziming values his own life very much. He might go crazy and start killing suspects at random,” Mu Yingying speculated.
“That’s very possible. He really would do something like that,” Su Frost analyzed. “But probably not for the time being. After all, if he does that, he’ll end up being a commander without an army.”
“Yeah, Auntie Frost is right. If he starts killing innocent people, who would want to stay in the convoy?”
“But if there’s a huge threat to him, he might actually start a massacre,” White Night added her analysis.
“Still, he’s wary of us, and he won’t suspect us,” Mu Yingying shrugged, not particularly concerned.
“Mm, we still need to focus on the hidden Weirdness,” Su Frost said.
Mu Yingying and White Night both nodded in agreement.
—
Night fell.
White Night made a decision. Her soul’s range had expanded to 20 meters, allowing her to move freely away from the bicycle. Tonight, she planned to go on patrol herself. She would use Soul Invisibility to sneak around the convoy and see exactly what was haunting the night.
She told her plan to her two aunties.
Su Frost’s brow immediately furrowed. “It’s too risky. What if you run into a Weirdness that can harm a Soul Body?”
“Exactly, Little White Night. Better safe than sorry,” Mu Yingying disagreed as well. “If something happens to you, how are we supposed to save you?”
“I know. But we can’t keep going on like this,” White Night’s tone was calm. “That thing is eating people every night. If we don’t find it today, it will keep getting stronger. Eventually, it might be our turn. I guess its strength isn’t that high. A truly high-level Weirdness wouldn’t hide like this; it would have the power to wipe out the entire convoy directly. The fact that it’s hunting people one by one proves it has weaknesses and is restricted by rules.”
The two aunties looked at each other. White Night’s words made sense, but they were still worried.
“Then we won’t sleep.” Su Frost picked up her javelin and gripped it tightly. “You patrol outside, and we’ll watch you from the car. If anything happens, we’ll jump out immediately.”
Mu Yingying also drew her Tang Dao and rested it on her knees. She adjusted the angle of the driver’s seat to ensure she could see both the outside and White Night’s direction. “Go ahead, Little White Night, but come back immediately if there’s danger.”
White Night gave an affirmative response, and her soul floated out of the bike’s basket. She used Soul Invisibility and blended into the night.
The convoy was silent in the deep of the night. About a dozen vehicles were scattered across the Wilderness. White Night’s soul wandered soundlessly around the cars. She made a few rounds, passing several vehicles. Someone was snoring, someone was tossing and turning, and someone was talking in their sleep. Everything seemed normal.
She also noticed a faint light inside Wang Ziming’s SUV. Looking through a crack in the window, she saw that Wang Ziming wasn’t sleeping either. He sat in the car, holding a night-vision device against the window to observe the outside, occasionally changing his angle. He was also secretly watching. Of course, he couldn’t see White Night.
White Night continued her patrol. Just as she was about to float toward the rear of the convoy, a sound came from the distance. It was faint and indistinct, like someone’s Hawking.
White Night stopped. The sound came closer, gradually becoming clear.
“Sharpening scissors — grinding kitchen knives —”
“Needles, threads, buttons, and fasteners — come and take a look if you need them —”
It was a street cry. It was the kind of Hawking heard only from Traveling Merchants who roamed the streets in the very distant past. The tone was long and drawn out, the final notes lingering for a while. It drifted through the silent night, making the back of one’s neck go cold.
Some people in the convoy were startled awake. Some peered out of their car windows, while others pulled their blankets tight, too afraid to move. Everyone held their breath.
White Night saw the source of the sound. On the dark Wilderness, a figure was slowly walking along the edge of the convoy. He carried a shoulder pole with two large wicker baskets hanging from each end, filled with various small goods. Scissors, combs, fire starters, copper buttons, cloth insoles — all sorts of odds and ends were piled to the brim.
He wore a set of coarse cloth clothes that had been washed until they were pale, covered in patch after patch. On his feet were a pair of traditional cloth shoes with thick soles that were worn thin, making almost no sound as they stepped on the gravel ground. Yet his Hawking reached everyone’s ears with perfect clarity.
His face was that of a young man. But on that young face were the marks of an era that didn’t match his age. His skin was dark, his nasolabial folds were deep, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes looked as though they had been carved by wind and sand. Those eyes looked as if they had been walking for a very, very long time.
His Hawking was extremely practiced, as if he had called it out ten million times. Every syllable’s pitch, pause, and breath were flawless.
No one dared to respond. Everyone huddled in their cars, watching through the cracks of their windows as this Traveling Merchant, who clearly didn’t belong to this era, walked slowly past the convoy.
There was no Black Mist here. There was a moon in the sky. Yet the Traveling Merchant just strolled over boldly. Inside his car, Wang Ziming gripped his binoculars so hard his knuckles turned white.
White Night, floating in mid-air, was also stunned by this scene. Then, she discovered an even more terrifying thing. The Traveling Merchant was walking straight toward her.
His Hawking didn’t stop, and his pace didn’t quicken. He just walked toward White Night’s direction slowly, steadily, one step at a time. White Night instinctively backed away. The Traveling Merchant adjusted his direction to follow.
She floated to the left; he walked to the left. She floated to the right; he walked to the right.
He could see her.
White Night had hidden her soul’s form; no one else present could see her. But this Traveling Merchant, with his weathered eyes, was looking straight through the night at her with unerring accuracy.
White Night’s soul felt a wave of cold. She wanted to retreat into the car, but she was afraid of leading this thing there.
Just as she was caught in a dilemma, the Traveling Merchant stopped walking. He stood about five or six meters away from White Night and set down his shoulder pole. The baskets landed gently on the ground without making a sound.
Then, he smiled. It was a very gentle, hearty smile, like someone who had traveled a long road and finally met the person they were looking for.
“Little girl, don’t be afraid.”
He spoke. His voice was completely different from his previous Hawking. It was no longer drawn out but was instead a normal, somewhat rustic way of speaking.
“Come see if I have anything that suits you. I’ll sell it to you.”
The strange thing was that the Hawking coming from his mouth did not stop. The cries of “sharpening scissors and grinding kitchen knives” continued to echo from him, but his voice speaking to White Night was on another channel that only she could hear. What everyone else heard was still that unchanging street cry.
White Night froze in place, not daring to move. The Traveling Merchant just stood there, smiling at her.
Inside the car, Su Frost and Mu Yingying saw the Traveling Merchant walking toward White Night’s position. They couldn’t see White Night’s Soul Body, but they knew she was in that direction.
Su Frost was the first to lose her patience. She threw the car door open and jumped out, gripping her javelin. Mu Yingying followed immediately, her Tang Dao already unsheathed. The two of them rushed to White Night’s side in a few steps, flanking her and blocking the way in front of her.
White Night didn’t have time to stop them. She could only watch helplessly as her two aunties shielded her.
The Traveling Merchant looked at the two women who had rushed out and smiled. He didn’t show any hostility. He lifted his foot and took a step.
It was just one step. But when that step landed, he instantly crossed the intervening distance using Shrinking Distance, standing steadily in front of the three of them. The shoulder pole was still balanced firmly on his shoulder, and the small items in his baskets didn’t even wobble.
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