The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 522 - 301 Labyrinth_2

The Chief stood up and walked into the kitchen, retrieving a handful of rice from his pocket and sniffing it carefully. Finding no strange odor, he nodded in approval.

That was the signal of permission. The women, delighted, let out a soft cheer, pulled out their water canteens and washed the rice grains twice before finally taking out a large pot from the kitchen to add water and start cooking.

minutes passed, and a rich aroma of rice began to waft from the large pot; the bonfire was burning vigorously, casting everyone’s faces in a ruddy glow. Ali, too, sat by the fire waiting for the rice to be thoroughly cooked, but she sat a bit away from everyone else, which is why she noticed the smoke rising from the bubbling pot had a very faint tinge of green. Ali had extraordinary senses since childhood, and even she had to struggle to make out the color in the smoke, which was invisible to the others.

To tell everyone or not? She pondered, perhaps the rice naturally looked this color when cooked? If she made a big fuss about it, she would undoubtedly be whipped with a thorny stick again. The villagers were never kind to disobedient, trouble-making children. The villagers were conversing, some sighing, some crying, but all of that was irrelevant to her as she rested her chin on her hands and dozed off.

The rice was cooked. People were beaming with joy, each serving themselves a bowl, including the Chief’s nine-year-old grandson, who was the same age as Ali. Everyone knew he was growing, so they allowed him to pack his rice a bit more tightly.

The taste of the rice was truly fragrant and delicious. Everyone who tried a bite praised it incessantly. It didn’t matter that there was no dish to accompany the meal; the translucent rice alone was tantalizing enough to make one unable to stop eating.

They devoured the rice ravenously, gradually ceasing their chatter and just focusing on eating strainuously, reducing the small camp to nothing but the sound of swallowing.

One man ate the fastest. Seeing the bottom of his bowl, he stood up without a second thought and quickly reached his hand into the pot to get another serving. He was thin and timid, almost to the point of weakness, and was considered a second-class villager in Bantiao Village, never having the right to choose goods first. So, his proactive reach for more rice was quite strange.

Even stranger, however, was the strong middle-aged man, Ding, who was closest to the pot suddenly letting out a low growl that seemed to carry disdain. He smacked the thin man’s arm hard, nearly knocking his bowl out of his hand. The thin man’s hand sizzled against the hot iron pot.

Such an injury should have been excruciating, yet the thin man merely hummed lightly as he retracted his hand, seemingly unaffected by the burn, and gave the big iron pot and Ding a resentful look - his eyes glaring with a pale green light.\

The rice in the big iron pot was quickly fought over and finished. Those who didn’t get a second serving glared with hatred at those who had eaten their fill, their throats making wolf-like sounds.\

A bowl of rice had turned them into this state.\

Ali slept soundly. After all, being only nine years old, she had escaped from the water the night before and had walked all day with the adults. Though her spirits were those of a robust child, her body couldn’t handle it. She dreamt of the flood from the previous night with driftwood and several children her age floating motionless, face down in the water - they could no longer threaten her, which was a relief.\

Ali also dreamt of the boy she met that afternoon. He smiled kindly and offered her a bowl of fragrant rice, but just as she picked up her chopsticks to taste it, the white rice grains suddenly turned terrifyingly green and started wriggling!\

Ali cried out "Ah" and abruptly woke up with wide-open eyes.\

The campsite was eerily quiet. Everyone had collapsed into a deep sleep, looking quite peaceful as if in a pleasant dream, their faces even smiling. But what terrified Ali was their skin faintly emanating a green tint, just like the steam from the large pot, just like what she had seen in her dream.\

This feeling of being the only one awake disturbed her deeply. Ali mustered her courage to shake a black, thin woman who was usually kind toward her, but no matter how hard she shook her, the woman’s face remained smiling and she simply wouldn’t wake up.\ 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

Ali realized something was terribly wrong. Now she deeply regretted not telling everyone about the eerie smoke from the pot earlier. But what could she do now?\

She shook all the villagers on the ground, including the Chief, one by one, but they were deeply asleep as if dead, none waking up.\

What could be worse than a little girl spending the night in the wilderness while all the adults were in a deep, unrousable sleep?\

Yes, there was something worse: the sudden appearance of a demon.\

Ali’s luck was poor. Just as she thought to retreat to the farmhouse, a dense fog slowly drifted in, quickly forming into a human shape, leaving her no time to hide.\

The demon formed from the thick fog had a nose and eyes, resembling a woman but with a somewhat blurred figure and face, and her eyes emitted a faint green glow, reminding Ali of the greenish rice.\

Ali held back the scream that almost escaped her lips and even found time to glance at the pot again. There were a few grains of rice left, indeed green, covered with a thin layer of fuzz. Even though she hadn’t eaten any, she felt a hairy sensation in her throat, almost making her retch.\

The Fog Demon, having formed its body, looked surprised to see her and suddenly spoke, "You’re not asleep? What are you?" The voice was ethereal, inducing drowsiness upon hearing it, but Ali wasn’t affected. She carefully shrank her little body behind the Chief’s body, staying silent.\

The Fog Demon looked her over twice, perhaps thinking she was too small a girl to spoil its plans, and ignored her. Suddenly, it grabbed a person from the ground and dragged him into the farmhouse. (To be continued. If you like this work, you are welcome to visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation tickets and Monthly Tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please visit m.qidian.com to read.)