"Little friend, you know about outside?" Wu Ling gave a slight smile. Combined with his A+ beautiful-boy charm, his approachability rose straight to the maximum.
Allie looked at the handsome Wu Ling. Her little face reddened, and she lowered her head, no longer quite daring to look him in the eye.
"Mm... ever since I was little, those grandpas have told me stories. They told me about the outside world. I think it was called the Star Bean Forest or something?"
"You mean Star Soul Forest," Wu Ling corrected.
"Right. That one."
After Allie confirmed it, Wu Ling kept smiling and asked, "I got lost in the forest and accidentally came here. Could I rest at your home for a while?"
"Of course, in exchange, I will tell you some things about the outside. How does that sound?"
The moment she heard about the outside world, Allie's excitement immediately overwhelmed her shyness. "Really?"
"Really."
"Okay, okay! I will lead the way. My house is on the outer edge of the village. We will get there after walking for a little while."
"Oh, right. Is Goldie coming too?" As she spoke, Allie looked at the weasel still hanging from Wu Ling's hand.
Wu Ling thought for a moment. Then he set the weasel down and waved his hand as if shooing away a small animal. "All right. Nothing else to do with you. You can go. Take care. I will not see you off."
Before Allie or the weasel could say anything, Rose began objecting inside Wu Ling's mind from within his shadow. "No. Primary, you cannot let it go. This is an excellent research sample. Why is this creature so similar to that Blue Planet legend? Even its lines are the same. Primary, are you not curious?"
"Does not matter. The world is vast, and all kinds of strange things exist. What is so special about a talking weasel? Besides, the main person is right here. Whether we have the weasel or not is the same. We can just ask Allie later."
After watching the weasel step into the forest while looking back every few steps, Allie took Wu Ling's hand. She looked like a child eager to go to an amusement park, tugging at her parent's hand to urge them to hurry.
Wu Ling let Allie pull him along and chatted with her at the same time.
"Allie, can you introduce your village to me? That way, if I happen to meet anyone, I will know what to watch out for."
Allie thought for a moment, then replied, "Mm. First Grandpa is amazing. He ties all kinds of straw dolls for me to play with. Then there is Second Grandpa. He makes me all kinds of little boxes. Even my bed was made by Second Grandpa."
"Third Grandma is very pretty. She gave me many little toys that I really like. Third Grandma can also change faces. Every time, she changes into someone completely different. If not for her voice, I would not recognize her at all."
"Then there are Grandpa Hear-No, Grandpa See-No, and Grandpa Speak-No. The three of them are brothers, so every time they appear, they appear together. Just like their names, they use cloth to block the organ they do not use."
"Big brother, if you meet those three grandpas, do not be scared. Especially Grandpa See-No. I almost cried the first time I saw him."
"After them, there is Grandpa Knife, Grandma Needle, Grandpa Saw, and lots more. But I have not met some of them. First Grandpa told me about those."
"Right, Allie. That note you gave the weasel, the one you gave Goldie, did you write those words on it?"
"Yes, yes. First Grandpa told me a story about weasels, but I did not understand the part later about cultivation virtue. First Grandpa did not understand either, so I changed it and gave it to Goldie."
"How was it, big brother? Did it scare you?"
"Yes. When I heard it, I was definitely startled."
When Allie heard that she had scared Wu Ling, she felt a little proud. "Hehe. That was just one story First Grandpa told me. I have many more. If you want to hear them, I can tell you. But since I talked so much, I want to hear about the outside too."
"All right. Then each of us will tell one story. As for the outside, I will start with something related to children like you..."
About ten minutes later, before Wu Ling had even finished his first story, they walked out of a small patch of trees and a village appeared before his eyes.
Wu Ling's tone paused. He pointed at the village ahead with a strange look. "That is your village?"
"We are here, we are here. Big brother, tell me more later. First Grandpa said that when we are inside the village but outside the houses, we have to keep our voices down."
Wu Ling nodded and followed Allie into the village. But the moment he stepped half a foot inside, a strange feeling came over him. Rose's voice also suddenly rang out.
"Wait, Primary. Something is wrong here. Shut down the Spirit Power circuits, now."
The Spirit Power circuits were a passive ability with only benefits and no harm, but to be safe, Wu Ling had asked Rose to design an on-off function.
When he heard Rose's warning, and when he himself also felt something wrong, Wu Ling immediately sent Spirit Power to stimulate a certain point inside his body. In the next instant, the feeling of constantly absorbing Spirit Power disappeared.
After shutting down the Spirit Power circuits, Wu Ling examined the houses from another angle.
If the rural houses on Blue Planet were usually broad and low, then the houses here were narrow and tall. Simply put, one was a rectangular block lying down, while the other was a rectangular block standing upright.
And these houses were all pitch black. Aside from one horizontal house in the farthest front, every other house stood lengthwise. Those lengthwise houses were lined up so neatly that they looked like one general leading a group of soldiers.
Wu Ling counted with just a glance. There were ten houses in each row and three rows in total. Add the horizontal house at the very front, and there were thirty-one in all.
"How should I put this? There is something I am not sure I should say. Why does this place look like...?"
Before Wu Ling could finish muttering, Allie called to him quietly. "Big brother, come here. My home is here."
Allie pushed open the door and pulled Wu Ling into her house. Only after the door closed did she return to her normal voice.
"Ta-da! This is my house. Pretty, right?"
Then she pulled Wu Ling around the house and introduced everything to him. But after a while, when she did not hear Wu Ling praise anything, Allie turned back and found him standing beside her bed, staring at it.
"What do you think, big brother? Second Grandpa made my bed by hand. Is it not very pretty?"
Wu Ling could not quite bring himself to agree. As a bed, this thing with half-meter-high boards on all four sides was simply too wrong.
"By the way, Allie, I still do not know what this place is called."
"First Grandpa said this place is called Silent Mausoleum."
Wu Ling's expression stiffened. He confirmed again, "Do you mean Silent Village, Silent Ridge, or Silent Mausoleum?"
Allie insisted, "Mausoleum. It is Silent Mausoleum."