Chapter 61: Lu Yuan's True Heritage, Inhuman

"Can we just ask your grandmother directly?"

Although the young boy named Long Gou'er claimed to know everything, he was simply too young. Even if he knew about events from twenty years ago, it would only be through hearsay from others, lacking accuracy.

Since there were older people around, why not simply ask one of them?

"This..."

Long Gou'er looked at the two of them with a troubled expression. However, remembering that answering a single question paid two taels of silver, he nodded and agreed.

"Follow me."

"Don't go looking around blindly."

With two words of caution, Long Gou'er took the lead.

Seeing that the plan had succeeded, Jing Ye quickly followed in Long Gou'er's footsteps.

Along the way, the system notification sounds for both of them rang continuously.

It was nothing more than certain villagers having their favorability toward them decrease, and even Long Gou'er, who was leading the way, showed a slight drop in favorability.

However, compared to the other villagers, Long Gou'er's favorability toward them seemed to have stopped dropping once it reached a certain threshold.

"Your name is Long Gou'er, right?"

"I have a question I'm quite curious about. Of course, I'll pay for this question just the same. How about it?"

Jing Ye probed cautiously.

"Go ahead."

"I've heard that your village is extremely xenophobic. Whether it's outlanders or people from neighboring villages, you all show an attitude of rejection. Why is that?"

Jing Ye tossed two taels of silver to Long Gou'er. Long Gou'er caught the silver, bit it to test its authenticity, and then weighed it in his hand before joyfully putting it away.

"That's because of clan rules."

"Our ancestors migrated to this land a thousand years ago to put down roots and live, and they established a series of clan rules for us. One of them is to be wary of outsiders, to have no dealings with neighboring people, and to be on guard against those from beyond the heavens."

Long Gou'er withheld some information that could not be revealed, but he still answered the question.

With the sharpness of a veteran story-driven gamer, Jing Ye quickly seized upon the mention of the clan rules in Long Gou'er's words.

Migrated a thousand years ago? Passive or active?

Wary of neighboring people? No dealings with outsiders? What was the reason? There had to be a mystery hidden within.

And most importantly, the last sentence.

*Be on guard against those from beyond the heavens.*

Those from beyond the heavens—wasn't that precisely referring to players?

These NPCs liked to call them players "outlanders," and the players themselves never really minded.

After all, it was just game lore.

However, at this very moment, Jing Ye discovered that this title of "outlanders" seemed to harbor some extremely important hidden information.

They had started laying plot hooks a thousand years ago.

*Whoa*, could there be some massive main storyline hidden here?

*Woohoo.*

She was getting a little excited.

"Why establish such a clan rule? You must know a thing or two about it."

"I can't talk about that."

Discarding his previous attitude, Long Gou'er flatly refused Jing Ye's deeper inquiry.

Before Jing Ye even had time to pull out more silver, Long Gou'er had already turned her down. With that kind of attitude, there was nothing more to negotiate.

Fine then.

"Is it that important?"

"If I say it, both my grandmother and I will be driven out of the village."

"That is absolutely out of the question."

"Never mind then."

"Do you know Lu Yuan? How much do you know about Lu Yuan?"

Long Gou'er suddenly stopped, turned around, and looked at Jing Ye and Dudu.

"Are you two here for that Chief Constable?"

"Yes."

"Matters concerning Lu Yuan do not involve the clan's secrets. You can ask my grandmother about those to your heart's content."

"My grandmother is the oldest and most senior person in the village."

"Back in the day, my grandmother even held him in her arms."

"However, there is one thing: you must never mention Lu Yuan in front of them, especially in front of Second Great-Uncle. You must not bring him up."

"Second Great-Uncle will get angry."

Long Gou'er's expression was dead serious.

"Oh, I see."

"This is your reward."

Jing Ye was extremely generous. Of course, she was doing this to farm favorability; as long as her favorability was high enough, she could extract even more information from this little boy later on.

Especially since this kid also had a sick grandmother.

It was simply the perfect breakthrough point.

"Thank you."

Having received another two taels of silver, Long Gou'er was in an even better mood.

His favorability toward Jing Ye also rose a little.

Dudu, standing to the side, smiled silently.

She knew this was just one of Jing Ye's tactics.

...

Soon, they arrived at an old house at the back of the village.

The two of them were somewhat surprised.

This old house was actually one of the rare gray-brick and tiled dwellings in Upper River Village.

This grandmother and grandson duo clearly held a high standing in the village.

They had originally assumed the two of them were ostracized by the villagers.

After all, an orphan and a sickly grandmother.

That was the textbook recipe for being bullied and having one's property stolen by relatives.

In any other village, they would have been stripped bare long ago.

How could they possibly live in a gray-brick tile house?

"My grandfather was the clan chief before he passed away, and my grandmother is the oldest and most senior person in the village."

"Ah, understood."

"Wait outside for a moment while I go speak with my grandmother."

Long Gou'er pushed open the door, and a heavy medicinal herb scent mixed with an unidentifiable decaying stench rushed out to meet them.

The two of them frowned.

They immediately lowered their olfaction sensory settings to avoid being nauseated to the point of vomiting.

A few minutes later.

Long Gou'er helped an elderly woman with blind eyes walk out from the house.

Although she was being supported, she was able to deftly avoid every tiny bump and hollow in the ground.

She was no ordinary person.

While marveling at this, the two of them instinctively checked the old woman's data panel.

NPC: Li Sanniang [Cursed]
Level: 39 [Rank Seven]
Race: Human
Strength: 20
Defense: 20
Health Points: 8
Stamina Points: 10
Mana Points: 600
...

Huh?

Wasn't this NPC a bit too tragic?

Look at those stats.

Her lamp was running out of oil, and her flame was about to die.

The two exchanged glances, somewhat shocked.

This NPC's cultivation realm was not weak. Being at Rank Seven, she could be considered an expert in the pugilistic world. Even the chief constable of an ordinary county magistrate's yamen would only be Rank Seven.

It seemed this village was not as simple as they had imagined.

The two of them also checked Long Gou'er.

Sure enough, Long Gou'er was no ordinary person either.

He also practiced martial arts. Although his realm was low—only Rank Nine—considering his boyish age... *tsk*, this village was truly crouching with hidden dragons and crouching tigers.

"Are you two the outlanders rumored in the outside world?"

"You truly are different from us."

The old woman nodded in the direction of the two. Even though she was blind, Jing Ye always felt as though the old woman could see her.

What a pity; this damn game's data panel was far too rigid, placing all sorts of restrictions when players tried to check NPC data panels.

Level restrictions, skill restrictions.

Without a sufficiently high favorability rating, you couldn't even view an NPC's skill panel.

Conversely, players didn't have these restrictions among themselves.

Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

Who on earth was this retarded game developer guarding against?

Were players the kind of beasts who would slaughter the innocent at random just to loot skills?

Were they?

They were good people, after all.

...

"Can you see us?"

Jing Ye asked in confusion.

"This old woman is blind, I cannot see."

"Then what did you mean by that just now?"

"When I was young, this old woman practiced a certain kind of martial art. Even without my eyes, I can perceive my surroundings through true qi."

The old woman was remarkably honest; she answered whatever she was asked.

"Is this martial art for sale?"

Jing Ye tossed another two taels of silver toward Long Gou'er and asked.

"Not for sale."

"Alright then."

"Old madam, do you know Lu Yuan?"

"I know him."

"It's said that Lu Yuan is from your Upper River Village. I came here this time simply to learn some things about Lu Yuan."

"No, young lady, you are mistaken."

"That Lu Yuan is not from our Upper River Village."

"He might not even be human."