34: Brainless and grumpy

"Young hero, you have had a long and tiring journey and need to rest early. I won't linger any longer and delay you from enjoying your meal."

Walking to the door, the village chief seemed to remember something, turned around, and said to Zhou Yan.

"If you cannot hold your liquor well, young hero, there is a large vat outside the room filled with clean water from the old well in the village. It is incredibly refreshing and can quench your thirst."

Seeing that the village chief had finally left, Zhou Yan began to check the dishes on the table and the jar of turbid wine without any restraint.

【Casserole Fish Head】: Experience +200, Lifespan +1 month.

Description: Expertly prepared Spirit Fish; eating it can beautify the skin and prolong life.

【Grilled Fish】: Experience +150.

Description: Expertly prepared Spirit Fish; eating it can soothe the mind, aid sleep, and promote digestion.

【A Plate of Appetizers】: A plate of appetizers.

【Inferior Turbid Wine】: Some inferior wine. Consuming it all will induce a dizzy state, with the effect lasting for 5 minutes.

The food was legitimate, the wine was legitimate, and even the appetizers were as normal as could be.

Could it be that I was just overthinking things?

Opening the side quest again, there was still no completion notification.

Zhou Yan recalled the village chief's Qi Refining Rank 2 cultivation, which also seemed fine.

Then this quest must still be related to that Strange Wolf.

It seems I will have to use the mini-map to find it tomorrow and take care of it.

Although the food in front of him looked, smelled, and tasted good, it was ultimately far inferior to the cuisine of Blue Star, and even worse than a decent meal.

Combined with having tasted the food in the imperial palace and the delicacies of the Qingxu Grotto-Heaven, his palate had become picky, and he couldn't be bothered to eat.

Thinking about having to run around the map to catch the wolf tomorrow, Zhou Yan simply used the panel to consume the food.

With a tap of his finger, the table full of food turned into "standard" leftovers, with fish bones and thorns neatly placed inside the casserole and on the plates.

Soon, Zhou Yan felt the sensation of fullness in his stomach and saw the small progress increase on the experience bar.

Immediately after, a strange sensation washed over him. Following the dizzy effect, Zhou Yan lay down on the bed without even taking off his clothes; this was the peculiar effect of the wine.

The main thing was that this 5-minute dizziness was actually quite interesting, and it would be a pity not to experience it.

However, the dizzy effect did not make him fall asleep, but rather plunged him into a strange black-screen state.

This feeling was very strange. It seemed he could break free if he wanted to, but he didn't do so, intending to just go to sleep instead.

Zhou Yan just lay there in the black-screen state, boredly looking at the mini-map, waiting for the status to end so he could go to sleep.

The night was deep.

Two strange figures, one fat and one thin, both wearing black cloaks, entered the guest room where Zhou Yan was staying.

"Boss, he is sleeping so soundly, should we make a move now?"

"Wait." The tall, thin cloaked figure leading them stopped him.

He first turned around to check the dishes and the corners of the room, and finally, his gaze settled on Zhou Yan, who was half-lying on the bed.

"There is no hidden food in any of the corners, so it seems he has eaten everything. The aura he is emitting now is definitely stronger than when he first entered the village."

"Then boss, should we now..." The henchman urged again, as if worried about something.

"Why are you in such a rush? That cautious guy Yi Sanyi won't dare to come until at least the second half of the night."

As he spoke, he reached out a hand from his cloak and placed it on Zhou Yan's wrist.

That hand was webbed and slimy, just like a frog's hand.

"Heart rate is steady, sleep is normal; he really isn't faking it."

"But how is his absorption efficiency so high?"

This tall, thin man was Code Name, who had come to target Zhou Yan tonight.

At this moment, he already assumed that the sleeping potion he had administered earlier was taking effect, but what he didn't know was that Zhou Yan had only eaten the food, not the medicine.

Of course, it could also be that the medicine was of too low a Rank to be identified and consumed by the panel.

Zhou Yan's current state was simply that he had drunk the wine and was inside his little dark room experiencing the effects of the special status.

Code Name was currently feeling smug about his own cleverness.

Before he came, Yi Sanyi had approached him and suggested going together.

Of course, the meaning of this "suggestion" was that Yi Sanyi had cornered him and brought it up for discussion.

He had come to Zhou Yan's place early, keeping it hidden from Yi Sanyi. As for the reason?

Judging by his attitude when making that proposal, Yi Sanyi would most likely renege on the deal and claim Zhou Yan for his own jurisdiction. If he couldn't make up for the stock then, he would truly be draining the pond to catch the fish.

Forget it, never mind that for now. Perhaps this kid just has a good Physique? In any case, it's good that he fell into a deep sleep after eating.

After confirming Zhou Yan's state, the two of them, one carrying Zhou Yan and the other following behind, kept looking around, terrified of running into Yi Sanyi.

At this moment, on the roof of a house, Yi Sanyi was watching this scene unfold.

"Ding, there are monsters wandering nearby; you cannot sleep right now."

Just after Code Name confirmed Zhou Yan's state, the two of them developed deep malice toward Zhou Yan, and at the same time, their icons on the mini-map changed from neutral to red enemy icons.

Originally, in the black-screen state, Zhou Yan could only boredly fiddle with the mini-map. Now that two enemies had suddenly appeared, he naturally woke up immediately.

However, feeling his body being carried and realizing there was no immediate danger, Zhou Yan chose to feign sleep, wanting to check their panels first before deciding whether to directly fight back.

Because both of them had physical contact with Zhou Yan, he could directly view their panels without needing to open his eyes.

【Elite · Code Name】 【Rank: Qi Refining Rank 3】 【HP: 1700 / 1700】

【Half-Fishman】 【Rank: Qi Refining Rank 1】 【HP: 1100 / 1100】

Feeling the slimy sensation under the cloak, and seeing his own position on the mini-map constantly moving toward the edge of the village.

So, there really is a problem with the village, isn't there? I almost thought it was just a clichéd quest.

However, these two guys' HP was higher than ordinary Qi Refining cultivators. That guy named Code Name even had a longer HP bar than Zhou Yan despite only being at the early stage of Qi Refining.

Then, before confirming there are no other dangers, Zhou Yan needed to bide his time.

Smelling the stench of dead fish on the other person, Zhou Yan kept his expression unchanged and his breathing steady. This was thanks to the martial arts foundation he had built before Qi Refining.

"Boss, why aren't we taking the main entrance? If we took the main entrance, wouldn't we have already returned to Sea City by now?"

"You idiot!" Code Name couldn't help but despise his henchman.

"By now, that Yi Sanyi has probably already come out of the guest room. If we go straight to Sea City now, do you want to race against a Qi Refining Middle Stage cultivator?"

"That secret passage is rarely known even among our own; it has always been used by our people."

"He won't know we went there, and as long as we enter my jurisdiction directly from there, I doubt he would be stupid enough to cause trouble in my territory."

Looking at the boss's confident appearance, the henchman didn't know why, but ever since the boss decided to take the secret passage back to Sea City, he had a foreboding feeling.

Zhou Yan, with his eyes closed, had been listening quietly to what they were saying. It seemed the waters in this village ran too deep; should he just run away?

Feeling the jolting stop, the mini-map now showed that they were at least a dozen miles away from the village.

"Alright, let's go in."

Feeling the movements of the person carrying him, he felt a brief moment of weightlessness before landing on the ground. It seemed they had entered the secret passage.

The mini-map had now switched to the underground section, and what came into view was a vast and complex terrain map.

The "Wilderness" label originally written under the map had also changed to "Underground Sea City."

My goodness, is this what they call the iceberg effect?

Looking at the corner of the map that had only lit up a small area, Zhou Yan felt that the village chief was still being conservative.

He was fully capable of being called a Mayor. Oh, no, here it should be called a Prefect.

Isn't this just a literal cultivation version of Tase Village?

"Snap." Experience +3, Karma +6.

Zhou Yan casually took care of his "temporary mount" from the journey from behind. After performing a jaw-dislocation maneuver on him, Zhou Yan pulled out his head along with his spine.

It was a bit bloody, but he was a qualified mount, though not much of a person.

Even looking at the 6 Karma points he dropped, maybe he really had been a person—the kind of person cooked with green onions, ginger, and garlic.

"Keep moving, why are you standing there?"

Hearing that there was no more movement from behind, Code Name frowned and turned around, about to reprimand his henchman again.

As a result, he saw a massive Sword Qi appear before his eyes.

The Sword Qi was too fast; so fast that it was only when his field of vision widened that he realized he had been split in two from the middle.

"You're lucky; I've only swung my sword finger twice, and you've already won the prize."

These were the last words Code Name heard, and now there was only one thought left in his mind.

"If there is a next life, I want to be a good citizen and never be a 'Nine-One' again."