Versatile Mage (Web Novel)
chapter-554

Translated by XephiZ

Edited by Aelryinth

The area around Xianchi was always covered in thin sand. Rumors said that the sands would be absorbed by the undead like nutrients after being exposed to the presence of death for some time.

Along the journey, Mo Fan did discover quite a number of undead were collecting the white sand that had stored some energy of the moon and death, like trying to scoop up gold in waves.

These undead were a fair distance away from the outer walls of the city. They were roaming aimlessly, trying to find anything useful for themselves, like scavenging bones and body remains that were chewed up by wild dogs...

"With such an effective way to avoid contact with the undead, doesn't that mean they aren't as scary as we thought?" asked one of the companions of the black silk woman with a thick beard.

"Ash Garlic is harder to find than gold. They simply cannot be planted, as they only grow in bunches at places crowded with undead, relying on the dead as their source of nutrients. Only the people from the villages outside the walls know how to retrieve them. However, the number of Ash Garlic produced every year is limited. If it weren't for my brother here, who's a half-blood from one of the villages, there's no way we could get our hands on them," smiled Shorty.

The muscular man also wore a smile, his eyes sneakily cast a glance at the black silk woman. It was likely that neither of them had ever seen a beauty like her before.

"The Sunny Goat Village is not far ahead. The night is still long, we should rest there for now," said Shorty, pointing at a hill nearby.

"Every village has its rules. You all should obey them if you're planning to enter one," the muscular man reminded them. The group nodded in agreement.

They successfully arrived at the hill. As they proceeded down the hill, everyone was expecting to see a human village right in the middle of the Land of the Undead. However, as they glanced down the hill, all that was left between the rivers and the mountains were piles of logs. There was no sign of a village!

They quickly glanced in other directions, yet all they saw was black soil. There was nothing else, apart from a few lower grounds leading to some caves!

"Are you trying to trick us?" snapped the man with the beard.

"I...I have no idea what's going on!" Shorty seemed dumbfounded, and glanced at the muscular man.

The muscular man's eyes were filled with astonishment, too, as if he could not believe his eyes.

He started running down the slope.

Not a single hut could be seen among the piles of logs scattering across the place, let alone a village!

However, the muscular man acted as if he had gone mad. He completely ignored the zombies that were roaming nearby.

"The map did say that Sunny Goat Village is right here..." said Liu Ru, after she checked the map.

"Yeah, it's impossible that the map is wrong. I swear I wasn't lying!" blurted out Shorty.

"Where's the village, then?"

"I don't know."

"Unless..."

They were easily convinced that Sunny Goat Village was supposed to be here based on the reaction of the muscular man. Yet, the entire village had somehow disappeared.

If there were still fences around the boundary or debris and stuff scattered across the place, it would easily prove the existence of a village prior to their arrival, yet all that was left were some logs, and the rest was pitch-black soil, nothing else.

"Does this mean that the village has fallen victim to the undead, too?" asked Liu Ru.

"Perhaps, maybe the new ruler of the undead didn't bother giving any face to these locals..."

The group headed down the hill and discovered that the place where the village was supposed to be had obvious burn marks. The piles of logs were likely used as the fuel. A soft breeze swept a cloud of ash into the air.

"There isn't any dead body, but there are burn marks everywhere. It's hard to tell what happened here," the bearded man told the black silk woman.

"Even if anything happened, we won't see any corpses here," Mo Fan pointed at the undead roaming nearby.

The villagers would have turned into undead if they were dead. The place was covered in ash, and it was impossible to see any trace of blood.

"What should we do now?" said the black silk woman's other companion.

"We can only head for the next village, but if the next one is also the same..." said the black silk woman.

Shorty nodded as he shared the same thought.

Mo Fan and Liu Ru had no other suggestion, hence they both nodded in agreement.

"Let's go, come, you won't find anything here. It's likely that they have moved, don't lose hope yet," Shorty said to the muscular man.

The muscular man was rational enough. He proceeded to lead the way when he realized that there was no trace of the dead villagers nearby. The group departed for Hua Village.

"It will take us around two days to reach Hua Village from here. We were supposed to rest up at Sunny Goat Village during the night to preserve the amount of Ash Garlic we have… it looks like we'll run out of them on our way to Hua Village," said Shorty sternly.

Obviously, the shortage of Ash Garlic was a very serious problem for the group.

Shorty suggested the group return to the Ancient Capital first and wait until the muscular man could get more supply Ash Garlic from his people. However, the muscular man implied that he would need at least a few months to get more...

"Forget it, it's going to waste too much time if we head back now. Just lead the way," said the man with the mustache.

Mo Fan and Liu Ru had the same thought, too. It was impossible to tell what would happen if they were to drag things on further.

"Don't worry," the black silk woman said. She glanced at Shorty and said pleasantly, "I realize that not all areas are crowded with the undead along the way here. We'll try not to rely on the Ash Garlic later, unless we're surrounded by too many undead at once,"

"That sounds like a good idea," said Shorty.

Mo Fan nodded too, exclaiming inside, It's rare to see a busty woman with a brain!

------

At to the black silk woman's suggestion, the group did not eat any more Ash Garlic during the second half of the night...

When they were around three to four li away from Sunny Goat Village, they could feel the unfriendly gaze from the undead nearby.

The undead was roaming around aimlessly in groups of two or three. They were mostly zombies, nothing extraordinary apart from their terrifying looks.

"Here they come," hissed Shorty.

A zombie who was using a rock to grind his teeth seemed to have scented human flesh. His head rotated stiffly and his green glowing eyes locked onto the black silk woman, who was the closest to him.

The black silk woman's eyes did not show any emotion, not even the usual panic and disgust an ordinary woman would show when facing the filthy creature.

Her companion with the beard stepped forward. An icy Star Pattern appeared under his feet like frost...

"Ice Lock!" As the man raised his hands, the frost produced a thick chain.

The chain lunged at the zombie that was trying to attack the black silk woman and immediately tied him up.

"Bone Husk!"

The man clenched his fist, controlling the ice chain to clench tightly!