Unlike the barren area midway the mountain was weirdly covered in a greenery, surrounded by the mysterious mist, tall trees covered the sky, lush grass covered the land, yet a trace of a living being could not be seen anywhere.
OH! Of course that was not mentioning the strange squirrel.
.....
Squeeak?
Arthur looked at the smokey-grey squirrel standing on Charlotte's shoulder, tilting its small head as if asking him, " What are you looking at? ".
Arthur's lips twitched, " By the way, what is it that you like in this .... thing? ".
" Young lord, What is there to dislike in such a small and cute creature! ", a well-hidden flash of amusement lit Charlotte's eyes as she asked in return.
Not to mention it the squirrel didn't do anything much,
earlier it attacked him because he stepped on its food first, and in the end, it was blown back by a painful smack from Arthur's sword, luckily as the latter was defending hastily he used the side of the blade and not the edge, otherwise with its strength it would have been in a worse situation.
" What is it anyway? It's too smart for a normal monster, but not strong enough to be considered a wild beast," he asked.
" My Young lord, it's a spirit beast, I believe it evolved from a monster to a spirit beast after consuming a treasure from this forest. ".
As if understanding the duo were talking about itself, the squirrel jumped, climbed in Charlotte's hand, and started rubbing its head on her palm affectionately.
Meanwhile, Charlotte stretched her other hand and plucked a fruit dangling from a nearby tree, after inspecting at it for a moment, she roughly cleaned it and tried it out,
Sometime later, she plucked another one and handed it to Arthur, " Young lord, I just tried one, they are sweet, would you like one? "
" Thanks!.... "
…..
…Time passed, and similarly, the duo continued descending and stopping once in a while to look at anything that grabbed their interest, as their stops increased the number of fruits in Charlotte's hands increased, and in the end, she had to put some in her bag as well.
Four hours later, the sun was on the horizon, with the sky turning red, as it was amidst handing its celestial duty to the moon, for a moon-lit night to start,
" Finally! We are out! " Arthur said as he walked out of a bush of tall grass.
" Young lord, We have to prepare for the night. " Charlotte said as she came from behind the bushes.
" Right, but let's search for a human settlement first. ".
The duo started moving, half an hour later, Aldrich turned his head as he looked at the mountain behind him.
" Come to think of it, the mountain's top is quite barren and desolate, while the rest of it is covered in plants and trees, isn't that weird?, there also was no living creature in the area near the peak!" Al thought as he looked at the barely visible peak, the mountain itself was covered in a hazy cover of mist that obstructed others from seeing it.
As the latter was deep in thought, Charlotte's voice brought him out of his state,
" I can see small buildings in the distance. "
Arthur's face lit up! As he turned around,
" Where? " he asked,
Charlotte lifted her hand, pointing in front of them, slightly to the left.
It didn't take long for two people to reach their destination when one of them sprinted at his fastest while the other kept on following at the same pace.
As the duo reached their destination, the small buildings turned out to be a group of simple houses made of straws and mud, people of various ages could be seen moving around,
On quick estimation, the village had more than 50 people with more than half of them being cultivators.
" Who are the two of you? " a gruff and old voice resounded from behind Arthur.
Turning around, Arthur looked at the middle-aged man who had just spoken, he wore a shabby pair of clothes, held an axe in hand and had long messy hair, and unkept bread. Lastly, the man smelled like he just taken a bath in poor-quality alcohol.
While he exuded no aura, the fact that he appeared behind the duo with neither of them noticing….
Arthur looked at Charlotte who had a stronger cultivation than him, the Nascent soul realm wasn't much the compared to her original cultivation, neither was it much in the Myriad Dao world, but all in all, when judging the environment here, a nascent soul realm should be more than enough,
" Travellers, We are just passing by. " Arthur replied.
" Travellers? Huh, so you are new here? " the man asked
" ….? Yeah, it's our first time visiting this mountain, we wanted to ask for directions as we seem to be lost! "
" Hahaha " the man started laughing, " Lost? ….Yeah, in a way we all are... You should meet the village head! " the man said as he walked away.
" Thanks, I guess? "
"Let's go inside," Arthur said,
Accompanied by Charlotte who was a beauty in her own right, above the fact of the duo being unfamiliar faces, almost everyone outside gave them a glance or two, with the men taking longer glances at Charlotte, to the point both started feeling annoyed,
However, it all was solved with a cold gaze from Charlotte and a subtle sweep of her aura at the Nascent soul realm that gave them the chills.
Now that they were in close proximity, Arthur could feel the multitude of auras these villagers exuded, and although they were weak, with his experience and managed to fairly gauge their levels,
most of the younger ones were in the mid to late stages of the Mortal realm, some older ones surpassed the Mortal Awakening realm and exuded the aura of the Martial realm,
A young girl suddenly came running and stood near the duo,
" Hello sir and ma'am " she in her childish voice,
" Grandpa Village head wants to see you! "
" Where is your Grandpa? " Arthur asked.
" There " the girl said as she pointed to a house in the centre of the village,
There, a hunched old man, stood supporting himself with an old wooden cane.
Arthur followed the girl, and Charlotte followed them silently.
– it was normal for Arthur to be the one taking the action, unless she judged that the situation was far above his abilities, she would not be the one making the decision. –
" Young man! I have been waiting for you to arrive for a very long time!..."
" Waiting for me? I think you got the wrong person "
" Haha…Let's go and talk inside. ", as the old man spoke he opened the door and invited the duo inside.
Minutes later, the duo were sitting on a couch as the young girl from before gave them water to drink, along with fruits to eat.
The old man sat on a chair near them and received a cup of water to drink.
Taking a deep breath, the old man looked at Arthur.
" Young man, belated but allow me to say…"
"... Welcome to the mist mountain's village…".
" …....".