Li Muyang passed through the variously sized and scattered stilted buildings within the fort and arrived at the gates.
Stepping out of the gates, what struck him the most was the forest ahead on the big road.
On the twisted branches of each tree hung numerous corpses in tragic states of death.
These bodies, exposed to the wilderness, seemed to have been hanging for a long time, yet no scavenging creatures had come to peck at them.
As Li Muyang waited by the roadside for a while, he saw a carriage emerge from the forest laden with corpses.
The coachman, clad in black robes with even his face hidden beneath a hood, looked sinister and mysterious.
After he stopped the carriage by the roadside, Li Muyang saw that there were three grimy children sitting in the carriage.
The children were all terrified and helpless, huddled together in the carriage, motionless.
The black-robed coachman glanced at Li Muyang and said in a hoarse voice,
"The lambs you requested from Black Cloud Fort."
Among these three children, Li Muyang keenly identified his target.
[Little Wild Grass]
A huge, pale-yellow health bar floated above one of the children's heads.
She wore thin and filthy hemp clothing, her hair a mess, her face smeared with mud, seemingly no different from the other children.
But without a doubt, she was Li Muyang's target, the heroine of this cultivation game.
What followed was a smooth handover and payment of money. Li Muyang counted the children and paid the coachman, then led the three children back into the fort.
The three half-grown kids, about ten years old, shrank back and followed Li Muyang like frightened birds, seemingly too scared to do anything but obediently follow.
As Li Muyang walked through the fort with the children, he couldn't help but feel like a shepherd for a moment.
However, the Refinement Demon Sect really raised actual goats, albeit somewhat strange ones, but they were indeed beasts.
The "lambs" before him, on the other hand, were real humans...
Looking at the three trembling children and listening to the villagers laughing and pointing by the roadside, Li Muyang curled his lip.
In this day and age, people are still practicing traditional demonic techniques...
Look at the Refinement Demon Sect, a leading power occupying hundreds of cities, that has already developed new methods of demonic cultivation, abandoning the inefficient practices of killing and extracting bones to refine souls.
Such a waste to kill people.
The Refinement Demon Sect simply abandoned the traditional method of killing for cultivation, instead breeding two-legged beasts and monsters like the Goat Demon to replace human sacrifices.
As for the mortals living under their domain, they all had to pay taxes to the Refinement Demon Sect, do labor, and work hard, the exploitation creating far more value than simply putting them to death.
Li Muyang, as a demon cultivator of the new era, naturally despised these traditional methods of the game's dungeon.
But he wasn't too concerned about it.
After all, the worldview within the game dungeon was bound to be different from reality. In the last tutorial he cleared, the Tianyuan Dynasty hadn't seen a demon cultivator in a thousand years...
Li Muyang brought the three half-grown children to find Steward Wu and handed over the pouch of money.
Steward Wu counted the Silver Taels in the pouch and glanced at Li Muyang.
He said, "Choose one. You're in such a ghostly state, don't go up the mountain anymore, lest you die up there."
"Choose one of these three lambs to take home. You're responsible for their care; just don't feed them to death. From now on, you can move freely in the fort."
As Steward Wu finished speaking, a dialogue box popped up in Li Muyang's view.
[...Me? Steward Wu, please don't! I can continue to go up the mountain!]
[(Fall to the knees and beg for mercy immediately)]
"...?!" The two dialogue choices that popped up in his view left Li Muyang dumbfounded.
What's the deal, having a game character choose a child to take home and raise... Why does this seem like a matter of life and death?
These three kids looked harmless and timid, what is Leng Aqi so afraid of?
Li Muyang fell silent for a moment and chose the first one.
After Li Muyang had made his choice, the game character immediately pleaded with Steward Wu.
But after hearing out the game character's pleading, Steward Wu's eyes remained as cold as ice.
"Leng Aqi, don't play dumb with me here. You either choose one to take home or get out of the fort; those are your only options,"
The steward's attitude was extremely unpleasant, and Li Muyang fell silent for a while.
A new dialogue box popped up in his field of vision.
[Choose a child to take home]
Li Muyang turned around and looked at the three children in front of him again.
One boy and two girls, all around ten years old, dirty and seemingly like homeless disaster victims.
There seemed to be fear in their eyes.
But for some reason, perhaps influenced by Steward Wu's words, Li Muyang now felt a hint of danger when looking at the three children again.
—These three kids, don't seem as simple as they look.
He looked hesitantly at the three children and eventually chose "Little Wild Grass" who had a light yellow health bar above her head.
"Her, I choose her."
Li Muyang pointed at the dirty little girl. Since it was a nurturing game, there must be only one choice, and this girl was to be taken home.
If he lost this opportunity for adoption, then the game would inevitably end in failure.
Li Muyang thought so, but the moment he spoke and chose the little girl, she did not say a word, her head bowed, shrinking back.
However, the light yellow health bar above her head instantly turned into a red enemy health bar full of hostility.
This is frickin'...
Hostile now? Just because I chose you?
Li Muyang stared at the little girl speechlessly, fully confirming that these three brats were not as simple as they appeared.
These aren't three harmless little lambs, they are clearly three little monsters in sheep's clothing!
And after Li Muyang had made his choice, Steward Wu went straight inside, fetched an iron chain made of fine steel, and threw it out.
"Remember to tie her up before you go to sleep, keep her a bit away from you," Steward Wu glanced at Li Muyang and said, "But don't tie her too far away, if she can't absorb your Yang energy, she will go mad."
I'll be damned...
Li Muyang wanted to throw the iron chain at Steward Wu's head after hearing this.
So these three little brats indeed were not easy to deal with; after bringing them home, he had to chain them close to absorb his Yang energy?
What in the world was going on in this fort, buying such eerie children?
Li Muyang was full of doubts, but Leng Aqi obediently picked up the chain and walked away.
And "Little Wild Grass," with the red health bar above her head, followed Li Muyang closely.
She did not even need Li Muyang to call out to her, as she had already sensibly followed him.
Such a docile-looking little girl should have been endearing.
But looking at the red health bar above her head, Li Muyang felt speechless.
This damn kid is really good at pretending...
Thankfully it's just a game with hostility alerts; if he encountered such a terrifying dead kid in real life, Li Muyang feared he would have been deceived by her seemingly innocent facade.