Everyone froze, silently looking around.
Before they entered the city, the style of the walls was completely different from that of the Human Race. The Human Race, after all, didn’t have steel city walls.
But upon entering the city, they found the architecture here was identical to that in Qii Country. It was like an old city district: dark-colored walls and roofs, buildings of varying heights, and the ground paved with flagstones or simply hard-packed earth. It was somewhat familiar, but also possessed a hollow strangeness.
They couldn’t hear the crowing of roosters or the barking of dogs, nor could they see people coming and going.
Everything was shrouded in a thick fog.
It had the appearance of a city, but not the pulse of life.
"You mean..." Wang Buku had a feeling there was more to Li Qingxian’s words.
Li Qingxian said, "What I mean is, even if the Deceit is powerful, this is still the Myriad Phenomena Map. It’s still within the Celestial Fate Sect’s sphere of influence. The Celestial Fate Sect is certainly no match for this many Deceits, but I refuse to believe their power is completely useless here. Perhaps something that can help us resolve the Deceit is hidden here."
"Do you have a plan?" Wang Buku asked.
"The problem is, I don’t know much about the Celestial Fate Sect," Li Qingxian said helplessly.
"Do you have a token from the Celestial Fate Sect or anything?" Songg Baige asked thoughtfully.
An idea struck Li Qingxian. He scanned the crowd and asked, "Do any of you? Does anyone here, or anyone in your family, have a connection to the Celestial Fate Sect?"
A Martial Cultivator said helplessly, "If we had connections to the Celestial Fate Sect, we probably would have led our own teams long ago."
"Yeah, we’re probably the weakest team here. The major powers joining this Myriad Phenomena Cyan Cloud Examination aren’t just Marquis Nanxiang, Excellent Young Master, and Eastern Peak Lin Zhenyuan. I’ve heard that several major factions have already entered the fray. And that’s not even mentioning the Demon Sect’s Bone Filth Child. I also heard the Underworld sent an ’Impermanence’ from Wuchang Mountain. The Evil Sect must have sent someone too, right?"
Everyone looked toward Luo Jing of the South Star Sect.
Luo Jing nodded and said, "The Evil Illumination Sect sent a ’Grave Carver’."
The expressions on everyone’s faces changed slightly.
Wang Buku said with a dark expression, "Luckily it’s just a Lower Grade Grave Carver. If it were a Middle Grade or even an Upper Grade, we’d be in real trouble. Once the gravestone is revealed, it won’t be buried until it’s filled with the names of the dead."
Luo Jing said, "Don’t celebrate too soon. This particular Grave Carver is rumored to cultivate both Demon and Evil arts. They might be even stronger than Bone Filth Child."
"Lately, the convergence of the Demon Sect and the Evil Sect seems to be faster than usual," Songg Baige said meaningfully.
"I’m just a minor Evil Cultivator, I don’t know anything," Luo Jing said.
"I heard the Sword Cultivators sent a ’Sword Scabbard.’ The Evil Demons shouldn’t dare to be too reckless."
"Did they really send a ’Sword Scabbard’? How come I haven’t seen them?"
"With a massive crowd of over thirty thousand people plus over thirty thousand children gathered together, never mind you, even I haven’t seen them. It’s just a rumor I heard."
"It’s good that a ’Sword Scabbard’ is here, but their minds are a little... off. Let’s just hope the game doesn’t play us to death."
"Enough about that," Songg Baige said. "Unless the game allows us to fight, there’s no need for us to do so even if we run into them. Our main objective right now is to play the game and complete the test."
"Do we split up to search, or search together?"
"Splitting up offers a better chance but is dangerous. Let’s stick together. I don’t want to leave Ye Han."
"Let’s stick with Ye Han."
The group quickly came to a decision. Li Qingxian led them in a direction that seemed safe, took Fangfang’s hand, and asked, "Where do you guys usually play games?"
"We play everywhere."
Li Qingxian asked, "Everyone, let’s brainstorm. Where do children usually play games?"
"Near the schoolhouse."
"In the empty lots near the residential areas."
"Around the market."
As everyone chattered away, Li Qingxian suddenly stopped.
Everyone else turned toward the sound, while Guanzhou, the only one without a child, nervously followed their gazes.
There, on an empty patch of yellow earth by the street, stood a semi-enclosure of three snow-white walls.
On the centermost snow-white wall, a large, crude face was drawn in charcoal. It was about two feet tall, with a few strands of hair, eyebrows, eyes, and a mouth, but the place for the nose was completely empty.
Six children were clapping their hands and singing a nursery rhyme.
"Pin, pin, pin the nose! Can’t smell a thing without a nose! With a nose, your food tastes great! Pin, pin, pin the nose..."
It was only when he looked over that Guanzhou finally heard the children singing, but the sound was indistinct and ethereal.
Guanzhou’s expression turned grim.
"It must be a new game. It doesn’t look too hard!"
"Take a closer look before you say that," Li Qingxian said in a low voice.
Everyone hurriedly looked closer and saw that where the six children’s noses should have been, their faces were flat, with no bridge and no nostrils.
Everyone gasped.
"Come play with us!"
The six children suddenly turned in unison, beaming as they looked at Li Qingxian’s group.
"Okay!"
The twenty-three children, Fangfang among them, rushed over before Li Qingxian could say a word.
One of the children handed a red nose that looked like it was molded from dough to Fangfang and said, "You can go first."
"Okay!" Fangfang giggled, took the nose, and walked to a spot behind a horizontal line. She was facing the large charcoal face on the wall, about thirty feet away.
Fangfang pinched her own nose with her left hand while holding the red nose in her right. She then threaded her right arm through the loop made by her left arm and her face, resting it in the crook of her left elbow. Then, another child blindfolded Fangfang with a white cloth, tying it securely.
"Pin, pin, pin, pin the nose! Can’t smell a thing without a nose! With a nose, your food tastes great..."
The other children hopped and skipped as they sang, while Fangfang, her eyes closed, spun quickly in place in that strange posture.
After everyone had sung the nursery rhyme three times, two children steadied the wobbling Fangfang and turned her to face the large face on the wall.
"Pin the nose!" all the children shouted in unison.
"Too easy!" Fangfang yelled. She let go of her nose and lurched sideways, her steps messy and her legs weak. Before she even reached the wall, her legs gave out, and she fell to the ground with a THUD.
"Hahahaha..." The children burst into cheerful laughter.
Even the nervous examinees couldn’t help but chuckle.
Fangfang groggily got up and stumbled forward in a daze, but instead of heading for the wall, she walked toward the children on the opposite side.
"Wrong way! Wrong way!" the children shouted.
Only then did Fangfang force herself to turn around. She ended up dazedly rushing toward the blank left-hand wall and slapped the nose on randomly.
"I pinned it!" Fangfang shouted.
"Take off the blindfold and see!" the children jeered playfully.
Fangfang quickly took off the blindfold. She squinted at first, then slowly opened her eyes wide. She looked blankly at the wall that now had only a red nose on it, then looked over at the dark face on the other wall, and couldn’t help but burst out giggling.
Her round little face was brimming with an innocent smile.
"Oops, I lost..." Fangfang giggled, her body swaying from side to side as she walked away.
Li Qingxian walked over and took Fangfang’s hand. Fangfang, still dizzy, leaned against his leg like a drunkard, giggling foolishly.
Suddenly, Li Qingxian’s gaze snapped to the left-hand wall where Fangfang had stuck the nose.
He saw the red nose slowly transform into a small, real nose. Then, the wall rippled like water, and one by one, noses of all sizes began to emerge from the pristine white surface.
On the right-hand wall, noses of all sizes also began to emerge.
Innumerable noses grew on the two side walls.
Some were running with snot, some twitched gently as if sniffing something, and others hummed softly.
Li Qingxian looked down again and saw that the nose on Fangfang’s face had vanished.