Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Both Dumby and Flamy were far too big to take the stairs.
Gao Peng led the rest of his familiars up the stairs, leaving those two beneath him.
A couple of heads poked out from the top of the stairs, curiously observing Dumby.
Dumby naturally noticed the little pipsqueaks taking a peek at it in the distance. However, it didn’t pay them any mind.
“That’s a walking skeleton,” muttered one of them.
“It’s a monster,” one of his friends corrected him.
“An ugly-looking one.”
“Ugh, it’s so ugly. It doesn’t even have any flesh!”
“What does a walking skeleton need flesh for?”
“I once picked on this pile of bones,” one of the bigger boys loudly proclaimed.
“Rubbish. There’s no way you would dare do such a thing…”
“What’s there to be afraid of?” The boy picked up a stone and threw it at Dumby.
The stone spun a few times through the air until it landed at Dumby’s feet.
Dumby slowly looked down at the stone, then raised its right foot and stamped down on the stone.
The stone was instantly reduced to dust!
Dumby turned towards the boy who had thrown the stone at it, cold white flames now burning fiercely in its eye sockets.
The boy shuddered. His eyes soon began to redden, and he exploded into tears. Some of the children quickly fled the place.
Ten minutes later, the children came back.
A stocky-looking child walked in front of the group. He must have been their leader. He was holding a rope in his hands, the other end of which was bound around the neck of a 13-foot-tall, 22-foot-long dog.
The huge dog didn’t seem to have any fur on it. Blood vessels could be seen crisscrossing the surface of its body. Its bloodshot eyes were fixed steadfastly on Dumby.
The children threw Dumby dirty looks. Some of them still had tears in their eyes.
“Sic ’em, boy!”
As soon as the leader loosened his grip on the rope, the huge dog immediately barrelled towards Dumby.
Some of the elders had heard the commotion.
“Hey, Lee, isn’t that Wang Cai’s barking?” asked one of them.
“Yeah, it is…” The old woman named Lee quickly got to her feet and shouted, “Wang Cai…”
Suddenly, the dog’s barking stopped.
A moment later, a naked dog came bolting around the corner with its tail tucked between its legs, as if something had scared the living daylights out of it.
“Wahhh…” A child came running after the dog, screaming his lungs out until his voice went hoarse.
After dusting the entire room, Gao Peng came down the stairs, only to find Dumby surrounded by a crowd of angry-looking old people.
Upon seeing Gao Peng come down from his room, an old woman strode over to him and said, “Little Gao, we’ve watched you grow up.”
“That’s right. Even if your parents aren’t around, you should at least call me ‘Auntie.’”
Gao Peng frowned. He didn’t know what was going on. He looked at Dumby for an answer.
Through their Blood Contract, Dumby told him what had happened. After hearing Dumby’s side of the story, Gao Peng nodded to himself.
“My grandson was only fooling around with your…”
An old man helped her complete her sentence. “Familiar.”
“That’s right, familiar. He was only playing around with it. Did it have to give him such a fright?” said the old woman, stroking her grandson’s head as if fearing that Dumby had done something to it.
“My grandson’s a smart and obedient boy. I’m not saying this is your fault, but there’s no reason for you to bring that pile of bones around in public.”
“I’m so sorry. Please do excuse me. I still have other matters to attend to,” said Gao Peng flatly.
He left the place with his familiars.
Nobody else tried to stop him. They simply watched him walk away into the distance.
After leaving the house, Gao Peng stopped by a travel agency and asked about any trips bound for Dali Desert. However, the only answer he received was a resounding no from every travel agency and adventuring party in the agency.
“No, we’re not going to Dali Desert any time soon. That place is way too dangerous. A lot of people have died there. Also, I hear that the army has locked down the place. Anyone wishing to enter the desert will have to register for a special pass. However, if you’re thinking about going anywhere else, I’m at your service,” said one of the travel agents that Gao Peng had approached.
Gao Peng frowned when he heard that a lot of people had died in Dali Desert. It would seem that things were a lot more complicated than the military in Chang’an had let on.
Gao Peng had no choice but to dismiss the idea of entering Dali Desert via official means. However, he still had to see what was going on there for himself without exposing himself to the people in the military.
After leaving the travel agency, Gao Peng saw a couple of shady-looking people loitering outside the agency. Every time someone came out of the agency, they would try to chat him or her up. If the other party had no interest in continuing the conversation, they would simply back off and wait for their next customer.
These people were scalpers, hyenas fighting over scraps left behind by travel agencies outside their doorsteps. Due to the shady nature of their business, these people had to do things with the utmost discretion.
Gao Peng waved a hand at a man in a black jacket who was standing not far away from him.
The man took a long drag on his cigar and blew the smoke out through his nostrils, then threw what remained of his cigar to the ground and stepped on it before walking briskly towards Gao Peng.
Gao Peng took out his wallet and threw a stack of Alliance dollar bills at the man.
“I’m looking to join a group that’s headed for Dali Desert. I’m planning to go there today,” he said.
The man in the black jacket swiftly inserted the stack of dollar bills inside his pocket.
Looking left and right to make sure that no one was looking at them, the man nodded and said, “Follow me.”
Gao Peng followed the man into an alley until they reached a shabby-looking building. The man walked straight into it.
Not at all worried that he might be entering a trap, Gao Peng followed the man into the house.
Suddenly, a black figure streaked past him, barely grazing his hair. Gao Peng was not at all shaken by this. He didn’t even stop to see where it went.
On a shelf on the far end of the corridor, a black snail was coldly staring at Gao Peng.
The snail stretched its neck out from its shell, which was covered entirely with spikes.
Gao Peng looked at it indifferently.
The snail widened its eyes at him. Then it withdrew its head into its shell. The snail seemed to be shuddering inside it…
