Chapter Six : Hurry Up, Brother!

Xu Yao, who was on Mo Ke's mind and was once the main protagonist of the story, is currently making his way slowly uphill into the only town nearby. It is increasingly difficult to scour for food and other resources in the wilderness lately with the ongoing war within the human territories. 

They live in the relatively remote border area and already have their hands full surviving in this dangerous zone. The mountains behind them were filled with high-level ferocious beasts whereas the 'unholy grounds' located in the wilderness around their town area has a high infection risk to the inhabitants nearby. 

Now, war refugees with no other ways to survive have even resorted to gamble with their lives and move towards this sturdy border town area. This area is considered a neutral zone between the various races of this world, the beast race, the human race, the half-bloods, the mixed bloods, the mystic race and others. Therefore, it is considered a taboo to attack or incite war here. A big reason of this is the constant threat of the unholy grounds. 

If more deaths occur in this area, more contamination will happen in the unholy grounds. It is rumored to be where the dead souls of the deceased accumulate and result in the birth of irregularities which could possibly endanger the whole living realm.

That is also why priests will be sent here at least twice a year to patrol and cleanse the unholy grounds ; to prevent any mishaps. Knowing that gave Xu Yao and Mo Ke more confidence to survive in the wilderness instead of moving into the slums area or trying to get into town.

They had no backer after all, and it was much more convenient to forage when you live in the wilderness. Sometimes, they even pick up precious minerals that could be sold in town worth a lot of coins.

Xu Yao finds himself thinking about his younger sister back home. She is more than 6 years old yet still so small and weak. Moreover, she still has such a mysterious ability and a terrifying side to her. he recalled how she had made a group of ill-intentioned people threatening them to fall into craziness and even ran away like the wind the next time they saw the siblings. 

Also, although no deaths had occurred, some of them became crippled and some even completely lost their minds. Even so, he was unwilling to abandon his sister.

He owed his life to her, after all.

Xu Yao finally reached the walls surrounding the town area. He recalled the rumours he had heard among the slum-dwellers when he last came into town. There was a shady factory hiring workers in town. The pay was really high but they only want the occasional part-timers instead of a regular worker.

Even weirder was the fact that all the hired part-timers will lose their memory and a considerable amount of weight after working there for a few days. The longest period one was hired is a week. Even so, they were many struggling families that would approach and volunteer to work for the factory from time to time.

The boss behind the scenes was also described as omnipotent and powerful. They would never hire the same person more than 3 times, and even if investigations are conducted in the factory, there will be no evidence of any shady or sinister dealings in the factory.

Xu Yao sighed. If it wasn't for the intense competition he had faced while foraging for resources due to the influx of war refugees, he would probably never resort to working for such an ominous employer.

After entering town, Xu Yao could hear his own stomach rumbling. He only brought a boiled potato with him as his travel rations and left everything else to his sister. It had been more than a few hours since he had eaten anything.

Xu Yao asked around a bit for the accurate location of the factory and headed there decisively. It was still very early in the morning and the sky had just brightened.

The only people wandering on the streets were slum dwellers that might not even have a roof over their heads, a few new refugees and some peddlers peddling food and medicine on the side of the streets. The guards had also started their patrol but most of the townspeople are still not out and about.

Xu Yao was walking carefully into the street where the factory was located when he caught a whiff of a delicious scent. It smelled so good that the rumbling in his stomach became even more aggressive.

A store near the end of the street at the opposite side of the factory has its door partially opened. The sweet and fragrant waft of freshly-baked goods, pastries and bread was coming out from there. Other than Xu Yao, some other people who were passing by also had an expression of being intoxicated by that mouth-watering scent. 

Xu Yao swallowed a few times. He knew there was a bakery in town famous for its delicious baked goods and heartwarming soup but he had never tried them before. He could have afforded it when he sold a few mineral ores before but he never got the chance to buy any of them because the goods were always sold out before long. Furthermore, the owner of the store was an extremely fierce-looking and stoic man.

Many said that he was once part of a mercenary group and hunters that had hunted ferocious beasts in the mountains before retiring and settling down here. That is also why nobody dared to mess around with him or his store.