Damn it! Let's smash the darkness together!-Chapter 565 - 151 Gu Pan: My Home is Gone (Vote for Monthly Pass)

8:30 in the morning, the sky was still early, and the small market outside the city gate had just started setting up stalls.

Many merchants had just arrived, with most people still resting, tidying up, and eating breakfast. From time to time, vendors with mobile catering popped up their stalls or pushcarts and began to hawk their wares. 𝒻𝓇𝑒𝘦𝘸𝑒𝒷𝓃ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝒸ℴ𝘮

Xu Shu found a hidden spot, which in fact was less than two hundred meters from the gate, an abandoned bamboo shed that still bore many footprints left over from last night’s ’monster siege.’ Some were round, some had sharp angles, and there were traces of white mucus.

It was one of the ravaged ruins, not far from the garbage dump, so hardly anyone was around, making it quite concealed and unnoticeable.

Having found a good spot, Xu Shu opened the Tai Chu Scroll and selected the legendary creation mode.

With billows of white mist steaming up, he disappeared into thin air.

In just a few breaths, the mist gradually faded, and it became hard to detect anything special about this place from the outside.

After a while, a woman in her thirties rode over on a small tricycle, dragging a cart laden with handicrafts, and set up shop in this place.

Unfortunately for her, her destination happened to be this bamboo shed.

She brought along a pair of twins, both about twelve or thirteen years old—two timid-looking girls.

One had braided hair, the other wore glasses, their cheeks were rosy, and they hopped down from the vehicle, lively and excited.

"Mom, our shed’s gone."

"It’s gone, so it’s gone, we’ll build another one."

"Mom, Yi’s sword case is missing."

"Then help your sister look for it, Mom’s busy, don’t make noise."

One girl called out after another, and the young woman responded without much attention.

She was busy setting up the stall and had no time to entertain them.

The one calling was Xiao Yun, the younger of the twins, who was clever, fond of reading and painting.

Her sister Yi wasn’t quite as sharp, seemingly a bit slower than her peers.

The missing sword case referred to a meticulously trimmed milk carton filled to the brim with swords, which Yi had carved from thin bamboo strips using a small knife.

Yi, unlike her sister, was neither particularly clever nor a book lover, but she had inherited her father’s talent for woodworking, crafting swords that were exquisite and lively, showcasing a high level of artistic skill.

Being rather slow, Yi didn’t have other friends; her hobby was battling herself.

With a sword in each hand, her palms turned into little independent figures. Left hand against the right hand, she would make ’ping-pong’ sound effects as if dueling at the peak of the Forbidden City.

This sword case was her collection accumulated over several years, a treasure she valued dearly.

But they had left late yesterday, rushed into the city by the garrison for shelter, without time to tidy up the swords they had used, resulting in their absence today.

Hearing their mother’s words, the two girls teamed up to dig under the shed, maybe the sword case was buried there.

Where Xu Shu had vanished, they dug into the ground with little knives, yet nothing unusual happened.

A cobra, slithering slowly from the woods, witnessed all this.

Three meters long, it wandered over to this spot just as the two girls arrived, and it was tempted.

This cobra had accidentally ventured too close to the border two days ago, eventually making its way to the outskirts of the safety zone outside the city gate.

It hadn’t eaten for two days and was very hungry.

It stretched out its monkey-paw-like forelimbs, adjusted the pince-nez on its snout, and after a careful observation, nodded anthropomorphically.

It concluded that these three were ordinary humans, easy targets to kill.

Not just these three—further afield there were many people, all ordinary humans.

The cobra considered itself different from those fools who would rush at humans and bite indiscriminately; it believed it was born with exceptional intelligence and shouldn’t act rashly.

Here it was, a snake among snakes, having endured the most bitter hardships.

Sweetness comes after bitterness, and the time had come to feast!

The cobra crept stealthily, keeping low to the ground.

Somehow, it felt something further away seemed to be drawing it, but that could wait, filling its belly by dealing with the immediate targets was most important.

The young woman was busy setting up her stall to sell, while the twin sisters were busy digging for their sword case, oblivious to the snake’s approach.

Even if they had noticed, it wouldn’t have mattered much—it was an "otherworldly" kind.

They stood no chance of resisting; the cobra could easily swallow all three mortals in one gulp.

Hiss~ Hiss~

The cobra burrowed underground, then emerged, and in the blink of an eye, moved from over a dozen meters away to appear behind the twins.

Its snout pressed against the buttocks of one of the girls, its fangs tore through the girl’s sturdy pants and blue and white undies, sinking into her snow-white skin, piercing the flesh.

The bitten girl felt nothing, appearing unaware of the pain, still intently searching for the sword.

But at that moment, the cobra loosened its bite, rising up suddenly and staring in the direction of the city center, a human-like hesitation in its eyes.

It thought it heard some sound, yet it seemed to hear nothing, causing it to be quite puzzled.

The sound of a horn?

Whose horn could that be?

Why would someone be sounding a horn over there?

The cobra was both surprised and doubtfully intrigued, but it didn’t matter, for it didn’t need to ponder any longer.

It felt surrounded by fire, an invisible, roaring inferno.

Because of its gluttony, it hadn’t noticed at first that it had teleported right into the middle of these flames.