Chapter 1 A Peculiar Village

To be honest, it was rather strange for such a desolate, dilapidated, and isolated place to suddenly have such an enthusiastically welcoming village elder, but having someone to communicate with was much better than being surrounded by a group of silent villagers. As soon as Hao Ren turned on his translation plug-in, he immediately greeted the elder with equal enthusiasm, first stating that he was an international friend traveling through the area and was passing through this place while on a journey, and then began to inquire about the local customs and conditions.

Unsurprisingly, the old man was the village chief. According to his introduction, this village was called "Nalim," a small village with several hundred people and little contact with the outside world. During the conversation, Hao Ren discovered that the degree of isolation of this village was beyond imagination: the old village chief was not even clear about what era it was outside. Whenever he mentioned something about the outside world, the old village chief would vaguely gloss over it, and his most common saying was: "Ah, living in such a peaceful and tranquil place, why bother worrying about the outside world?"

After a brief conversation, Hao Ren brought up the matter of finding someone.

"We're here to find a person named Fernand," Hao Ren described, following the information provided by Hesperides, "a tall, strong man, almost seven feet tall, with a scar near his eye... ah, he may be called by another name, I can't quite remember, he's an old friend of my uncle."

The old village chief frowned, showing a look of recollection, and finally slowly shook his head: "No impression. We don't have anyone like that in our village, nor have we had such a guest. Such a tall man should be very noticeable; I wouldn't forget him if I had seen him."

Hao Ren and Hesperides exchanged glances. Such a situation wasn't too unexpected, but it was still quite regrettable.

"He may have moved," Hesperides muttered softly. "Changing one's place of seclusion is a common occurrence."

"Esteemed guests, it's getting late now, why don't you stay here for the night," the old village chief said again, "It would be better to set off to find someone tomorrow—the night road in the forest isn't safe."

"Oh, no need to be so polite," Lily said, waving her hand. "We have a place to stay, and it's easy to travel on the road."

"You should still stay here," the old village chief insisted on inviting them, his attitude unusually enthusiastic. "Visitors from afar are a big event for us, and it wouldn't be honorable for us to let guests leave from our doorstep in the evening. You can try the muffins we make here with tree fruit; you won't find them anywhere else."

Hao Ren looked at the current time. What the old village chief said wasn't wrong, but he could undoubtedly sense an unnatural and incongruous atmosphere in this village, and as night fell and the old village chief kept extending invitations, this incongruity became even stronger. Just as he was pondering how to find a reason to leave, a sentence from the old village chief changed his mind: "Ah, speaking of which, a few guests who passed by here two days ago haven't left yet either. If you stay tonight, you might be able to leave together tomorrow."

There were others who had found this place?

Hao Ren and his group immediately became suspicious: this village wasn't marked on any maps, and Hesperides believed that this village had almost disappeared three centuries ago. The village was also surrounded by an undeveloped forest. In this situation, who else would visit this village besides his group, who had a special purpose?

Could it be other people trying to find out the whereabouts of Hercules?

The group exchanged their opinions and decided to stay in this place tonight to see what was strange about this village and to meet those mysterious visitors.

There were no hotels in the small village, but there was a large house specifically used to receive guests. This was a two-story wooden longhouse, as old and dilapidated as the other buildings, but it was still solid and clean. The old village chief brought Hao Ren and his group here and then took his leave, mentioning that he would meet everyone at dinner, and the mysterious visitors he had mentioned earlier would also make an appearance at that time.

After the old village chief and several villagers left, Vivian stretched: "This is all so mysterious."

"I always feel like the atmosphere here is weird," Lily also nodded. Although she was a bit of a scatterbrain, her animal intuition was top-notch. "Whether it's the village chief just now or the previous villagers, everyone has a very strange aura about them... oppressive, fake."

"Who else would come to this place besides us?" Hao Ren looked at Hesperides. "Does anyone else know about Hercules' seclusion here? Is anyone else interested?"

"Only demon hunters would investigate this matter, but now that the hunt is over, they have no reason to interfere anymore," Hesperides slowly shook her head. "Perhaps they are just ordinary people who accidentally wandered in. After all, although this village is isolated from the world and full of strange things, it is still physically connected to the outside world. Lost people may also walk in."

Vivian nodded: "We'll observe those 'visitors' carefully later after they appear; maybe they're trapped here. I have a very bad impression of this village. Although everyone here is alive, the village feels like walking into a tomb."

"Sssha—" A tiny voice came from the backpack behind Hao Ren—this backpack was a necessary disguise.

Probably only this little one was clueless about the atmosphere now.

There was still some time before nightfall. Lily, having nothing to do, began to wander around the longhouse. After circling around twice, she seemed to have discovered something and ran back to Hao Ren: "Landlord, landlord! This place doesn't have electricity!"

Vivian casually replied: "Nonsense, such a desolate place, no national power grid can reach it."

"No, I mean there isn't even a wire or a light bulb!" Lily said, with her hands on her hips. "Even if this place is remote, it should still have a small diesel generator or hydroelectric generator, but this place is like it has never had 'electricity' at all. Look, the ones hanging on the wall are still oil lamps."

Hao Ren was stunned for a moment. Although he felt that what Lily said seemed to make sense, he still subconsciously muttered, "Actually, many mountain villages and particularly backward places are really like this..."

"The oil lamps are from three centuries ago, and the furniture is the same," Hesperides stood up and looked around. "There's no trace of modernization or recent times. In fact, the most obvious thing is those houses outside. When I came here three hundred years ago, they were standing here, and they are still the same now. Even if the houses have been renovated and rebuilt, this situation wouldn't occur."

The situation was becoming increasingly strange, but Hao Ren didn't show much nervousness on his face. He just looked at the ancient lamps hanging on the wall with interest and whistled: "Whew—a place where time has stopped, huh."

After more than three years of work experience, Hao Ren could finally stand tall and say to others: I've been through countless battles and seen it all. What kind of strange secret realm haven't I blown up? A mere time stasis is just a drizzle!

"If the time in this village has been frozen, then the villagers here..." Vivian frowned; she was thinking more. "Are they still the people from three hundred years ago?"

Hesperides immediately shook her head: "Obviously not. I can be sure of that."

Hao Ren wasn't surprised by this: "This village was normal when you came here back then, so it must have changed after that. It's normal that you don't recognize the people here."

Vivian also agreed with Hao Ren's view: "Yeah, that must be it. In any case, this village has probably been distorted from a spacetime level. The reason for the distortion is probably related to Hercules, who was living in seclusion here back then. We..."

Lily's ears twitched: "Shh, someone's coming."

Everyone immediately stopped talking. Soon, voices came from outside the longhouse. After a moment, the old village chief and several villagers appeared in front of Hao Ren and his group.

"Sorry to keep you waiting so long," the old village chief said with a friendly smile. "It's time to eat. According to our customs, guests from afar are a good omen for the village. Please come with me; I'll take you to the place where everyone is gathering for dinner."

Hao Ren exchanged glances with the others and decided to follow the rhythm of these strange villagers for now to see how things would develop.

"You said earlier that there were a few guests from outside besides us; are they all there too?" Vivian asked casually.

"Of course," a villager said in a gruff voice. "You'll see them."

Led by the village chief, Hao Ren and his group left the longhouse and came to a large open space in the center of the village.

Preparations for the dinner had already been made here. Heavy wooden long tables had been set out, and bonfires were burning brightly for lighting. The aroma of food wafted through the open space. The villagers seemed to have all gathered in this place. It was noisy here now, and the atmosphere seemed very lively.

Although the overall atmosphere of the village was still strange, it seemed that there was really a bit more liveliness here at this moment.

Hao Ren immediately saw the most conspicuous and eye-catching outsiders among the group of locals.

The old village chief hadn't lied—there really were visitors here besides Hao Ren and his group.

When Vivian saw those outsiders, a strange expression appeared on her face. Then, she looked at one of them and muttered, "Hey, Hao Ren, doesn't that person look a little familiar?"