Chapter 56 - The Sand Sculpture Father-Daughter Duo and the Cannibal Kitchen

After five days of long and arduous travel, Lu Hong led his companions along back roads, through jungles, and over mountains until they finally reached the edge of the adventurer’s market town.

Although they had encountered many Demon Beasts along the way, none were of high level, and Lu Hong did not need to lift a finger; with a command, a group of students would charge out and tear the Demon Beasts to shreds.

“Brother Tu, up ahead is the adventurer’s market town,” Lock Fan pointed at the town constructed with iron and stone and spoke.

Perhaps due to the rebellion of the Eight Great Families, the entrance of the town was already stationed with hundreds of mercenary group members, questioning every person entering and leaving the town.

“Let’s go; it looks like this place hasn’t been affected,” Lu Hong carefully observed for a moment before he and Lock Fan and the others hurried towards the adventurer’s market town.

“Stop!” The mercenaries guarding the gateway saw a group of naked men approaching from afar and were immediately startled, quickly shouting out.

“Don’t shoot, we’re friends!” Lu Hong saw the mercenaries hastily taking up weapons and aiming at them, and hurriedly called out.

“I’m Bo Kana, captain of the fourth squadron of the War Scar Mercenaries.

Who are you?” The captain of the mercenary squad, Bo Kana, ordered Lu Hong and his group to stop a hundred meters away and questioned them.

“We’re here seeking refuge.

Please, let us in.”

“Where are you from?” Captain Bo Kana continued the interrogation.

“We’re from Tuzhui City,” Lu Hong said the truth straightforwardly; it shouldn’t be a problem.

“Tuzhui City?

What do you do?” Captain Bo Kana seemed to relax his vigilance.

“We are trainee mercenaries, trainee mercenaries,” Lu Hong quickly spoke after a thought.

“Which mercenary group?”

“Black Ancient!” Lock Fan immediately pulled out his father’s name, saying while also taking out an identity plaque: “This is the identity proof that Black Ancient gave us.”

“Everyone, lower your weapons.” Bo Kana gestured to his subordinates to stand down.

Black Ancient Mercenary Group was a famous existence; since they held proof from Black Ancient, there basically was no suspicion.

However, these twenty-plus naked men, tsk tsk.

Bo Kana gestured for Lu Hong and his group to approach: “Your Black Ancient is really brutal, just look at you guys, how come you have so many scars?”

The students bore wounds from battle, both big and small, in no small number, and in Lu Hong’s team, there wasn’t a single healer profession, so these wounds were left to heal by chance, naturally leaving scars.

“Ah, you’re right.

We just recently applied to join Black Ancient and were immediately sent out to train.

We were just about to rest in Tuzhui City, but who could have expected that Tuzhui City would suddenly be attacked?

Fortunately, we ran fast.

Otherwise, our whole group of brothers would have been left behind in there,” Lu Hong said with a cheery smile as he took out a few Gold Coins and stuffed them into Bo Kana’s hand.

Weighing the Gold Coins he received, Bo Kana’s demeanor suddenly became more amiable: “We’re all mercenaries here, and who knows, we might become brothers in the future.

Come on in, you’ve gotten yourselves all dirtied up like refugees.

Hurry into our adventurer’s market town to rest, change into clean clothes, and have a few drinks.”

“Then thank you, Brother Bo!” Lu Hong bowed to Bo Kana, and then motioned to Lock Fan to lead the students inside first.

“Why aren’t you going in?” Seeing that Lu Hong stayed on his own, Bo Kana curiously asked.

“Hehe, isn’t there a war going on?

We’ve lost contact with our mercenary group, so I thought I’d ask Brother Bo about the current situation.”

“This war, let me tell you, the empire is in chaos everywhere, don’t even think about entering the city.

This time, the call to arms by the Eight Great Families has received responses in almost every city.

Moreover, the Eight Great Families are financially strong, having hired the first, third, and fourth mercenary groups within our industry.

In these few days, who knows how many cities have been captured,” Bo Kana casually relayed the news he had heard, then continued, “But rest assured, our place is absolutely safe.

The adventurer’s market town is not a target of the Eight Great Families.

A few days ago, a group of the family’s rebel army rested here, and they left not long before you arrived.”

After listening to the squadron captain’s words, Lu Hong nodded, “Thank you, brother.

If you hadn’t spoken up to guide us, next time we might head straight into a city; that would have been the end of us.”

“Ah, don’t mention it.

As long as you’re here, if you have any problems, just come to me, I’ll solve them!” Bo Kana, smilingly content, tucked away the few Gold Coins Lu Hong handed over and said satisfactorily.

After parting with Bo Kana, Lu Hong also formally stepped into the town.

This small town had very few original residents; most were traveling adventurers and resting merchant caravans.

Merchant caravans had to pay various fees to enter the city, but not here.

Thus, many merchant caravans preferred to deal with their transactions in the adventurer’s market town.

The streets of the market town were wide but few; aside from the main road, there were only four side streets.

Standing in the center of the market town and looking around, one could basically take in the entire view.

Moreover, almost all establishments within the market town were inns; besides those, there were a few shops selling weapons, equipment, and potion supplies.

“Brother Tu, over here.” Lock Fan and the others stood in front of an inn and waved to Lu Hong.

“Why aren’t you guys going in?” Lu Hong asked in surprise.

Could it be that these little brothers were so dependent on the big brother that they needed his decision to dare to enter an inn to stay?

This was the worst batch of underlings he had ever led; they had no self-reliance at all.

“The owner said we can’t enter without money,” Lock Fan said a bit angrily.

Well, he had thought too much.

Due to the sudden incident in Tuzhui City, he had not yet had time to distribute Gold Coins to everyone, so he also forgot about this later.

“Come on, let’s go in together.” Lu Hong pushed open the door of the inn and walked in.

“Didn’t I say?

No money, no stay,” the innkeeper said impatiently upon seeing the group re-enter.

“Is this enough?” Lu Hong took out a few Gold Coins and waved them in front of the innkeeper.

Seeing the Gold Coins, the innkeeper’s formerly gloomy face suddenly bloomed into a smile: “Ah, yes, that’s enough, please come inside!”

“Peqila, prepare rooms for these guests!” The innkeeper shouted, and then a young girl emerged from the side.

Although the girl was dressed simply, it didn’t cover up her youthful freshness and loveliness; Lock Fan couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Ah!

Pervert!” The girl had just walked out from the side door and, seeing the room full of naked men, screamed in alarm and turned to run.

Thud!

The girl turned at the wrong angle and bumped her head against the door frame.

Lock Fan quickly dashed forward to catch the girl who was about to fall: “Are you okay?”

In the gentle voice of Lock Fan, the girl was once again reminded that he was a naked man, and it seemed that she slapped him across the face, “Pervert!”

Slap!

Struggling, the girl escaped from Lock Fan’s embrace, but in her panic, she failed to find the right direction and once again crashed head-first into the door frame, making even more noise than before.

It must have hurt quite a bit.

Thump!

The girl fainted and fell back into Lock Fan’s arms.

“Release my daughter!

You lecher!” The innkeeper, seeing the scene unfolding before his eyes, was enraged to the point of nearly breathing fire, and yelled loudly.

“I…

I’m not,” Lock Fan panicked and let go of his arms to prove his innocence.

The poor girl immediately fell on her backside to the ground, and even in her unconscious state, couldn’t resist moaning in pain, as if making a statement.

“Get out!

You scum!

Get out of my inn!” The innkeeper, seeing his daughter repeatedly injured, braced against the counter, attempting to leap out and evict the trespassers, but unfortunately, he didn’t have the strength.

As his body was halfway up, his hand gave out, and his old face smashed right onto the countertop.

With a bang, the innkeeper lay motionless on the counter, seemingly having succeeded in knocking himself out.

“Fan is so mighty!” his classmates praised him in unison.

“Shut up!” Lock Fan was utterly embarrassed.

“All right, enough.

How did you guys find this kind of ridiculous inn?” Lu Hong calmed his classmates’ jeering and couldn’t help but ask.

“I didn’t want to either, but after asking around, almost all the inns are filled with people fleeing the wars.

This was the only one still vacant, so we had no choice but to come here.”

“Then you guys go upstairs to find rooms to settle down, and I’ll go to the kitchen to see if there’s anything to eat.

Later I’ll wake up these two fools,” Lu Hong said and went in through the side door.

The inn wasn’t large.

Entering from the side led directly to the girl’s temporary living space.

Very simple, with just a bed and a few clothes, nothing more.

Crossing through the door on the opposite side led to the inn’s kitchen.

As soon as he entered the kitchen, an extremely lethal smell hit his nose.

“F*ck!” Lu Hong, hardly able to keep the contents of his stomach down, quickly retreated and firmly closed the kitchen door.

“That was close, nearly died there.” Lu Hong recovered from his shock.

From the flash of the scene before his eyes, Lu Hong could determine that the source of the smell was indeed a dish just cooked and placed on the kitchen table.

What on earth was that dark cooking?

Nevertheless, one thing was certain; he was definitely not going back into that kitchen.

Retreating back to the lobby, Lock Fan was staring blankly at the unconscious girl on the ground.

“What?

Fallen in love?” Lu Hong teased with a laugh.

“No…

no, I haven’t,” Lock Fan stammered as his face instantly flushed red.

“Weren’t you going to the kitchen to find something to eat?

How did it go?” Lock Fan quickly changed the subject.

“The kitchen is off-limits.

How could we just barge in?” Lu Hong replied with seriousness.

“Please, we’ve been eating game meat for days; it’s time for a change.

If you won’t go, I will.”

“Alright then, good luck,” Lu Hong shrugged, watching Lock Fan enter through the side door, and then after a thump, all went quiet.

“Disregard the elder brother’s advice, and you’ll learn the hard way!

I told you, the kitchen is off-limits; don’t just barge in,” Lu Hong put down his giant sword, leaned back in the chair, and showed no intention of helping.

After a while, the students who were tidying up the rooms upstairs all came down one after another and asked, “Brother Tu, is there any food left in the kitchen?

We’ve been hungry since the crack of dawn getting here.”

“Let’s wait for the innkeeper to wake up.

After all, it’s not nice to rummage through other people’s things,” Lu Hong spoke.

“Ah, Brother Tu, what are you talking about?

We can just give a couple more Gold Coins if necessary.

We aren’t stealing.”

“Well then, you guys go check it out if you must, but I still must say, the kitchen is off-limits.

Don’t just barge in,” Lu Hong emphasized once again.

“How come I’ve never heard that before?” Two students ignored Lu Hong’s advice and rushed into the kitchen.

As expected, after two thumps, they stopped making any noise.

“Cor?

Betig?

Are you there?” the other students called out anxiously after hearing the commotion from the kitchen.

Seeing no response, they became frantic, “Brother Tu, could there be an Assassin in the kitchen?”

“No,” Lu Hong shook his head, glancing at the still-unconscious young girl and old man on the floor; indeed, they were still laid out.

“Then let’s go take a look.” Three more weapon-bearing students entered the side door and stepped into the kitchen.

Moments later, sounds of bodies dropping echoed again, turning the other students pale, “Brother Tu!

There must be an Assassin in the back!

What do we do?”

“There isn’t, there isn’t.

If you don’t believe me, go look for yourselves,” Lu Hong waved them off with certainty.

“Alright, then we’ll all go together!” This time, the remaining students rushed into the kitchen en masse.

Not even a minute passed.

“Brother Tu, there’s…

there’s poison!” A student struggled to crawl out the side door, gasping the words out to Lu Hong before fainting.

“F*ck!” Lu Hong smelled a strange odor slowly wafting out from the kitchen, quickly kicked the student who had nearly escaped death back inside, and then firmly closed the side door.

“Now it’s safe.”