Chapter 967: Chapter 967: Sleeping Beauty 1

—- The season was early autumn.

The scenery around was half green and half yellow, revealing the bleakness of autumn, yet the air was crisp, dry, and chilly.

Countless thorny vines grew along the castle walls, dense and tangled, casting mottled, rust-like colors in the sunlight.

Tan Xiao reached out and picked at the rough exterior of the plant. It was really hard, and spiny as well; climbing out using the vines was nearly impossible.

After he walked into the beam of light, it didn’t take long for him to get here. Then, two pieces of information automatically surfaced in his mind:

[Quest: Retrieve the King’s sword.]

[Rules: No killing.]

Tan Xiao, of course, knew he had to find the sword, but the place was so vast, where to start looking? Where were the others?

He looked around. The place was like an abandoned castle, with a vast garden and towering turrets. Some paths were taken over by the thorny vines. Originally, he wanted to climb up high to get a clear view, but the prickling here and there, hedgehog-like, made it impossible to step anywhere.

Tan Xiao scratched his head and sat down by an overgrown flowerbed, somewhat at a loss.

Previously, when he played the game, either Shen Mo would be leading the team, or Bai Youwei would be commanding. What to do and what not to do, everything would be clear and arranged. Now, without anyone to organize him, he was truly… perplexed.

From his pocket, he took out a wrinkled piece of chewing gum, unwrapped it, and started chewing.

After chewing for a while and blowing a bubble, he suddenly heard a thumping sound of something being chopped.

Tan Xiao quickly stood up and looked around, spotting a middle-aged man in a knitted hat wielding a sword to chop at the thorny vines on the road!

Although the man wasn’t a teammate, the sight of a living person was exciting enough. Tan Xiao ran over to greet him, “Hey! —-”

The man in the hat immediately tensed up!

Almost instinctively, he raised the sword in his hand, but then seeming to remember the game’s rules, he slowly lowered the sword again.

The hat man asked hostily, “What do you want?”

“Where did you get that sword?” Tan Xiao was not at all polite, asking familiarly, “Aren’t we not allowed to bring weapons into the game?”

The other man didn’t want to bother with him and continued chopping at the vines.

Tan Xiao muttered beside him, “You brought a weapon into the game secretly, I’m going to report you! This is cheating!”

The hat man was inwardly speechless and said annoyed, “Didn’t you see this is a castle?! Go look around nearby, you can take the swords from any of those soldiers!”

Tan Xiao was taken aback.

He did indeed see a few dead soldiers earlier, some wrapped in the vines with only half a head or an arm sticking out, as if merged with the plants.

But anyway, since the game’s rules prohibited killing, it didn’t matter whether he had a weapon or not.

Tan Xiao’s thoughts returned to the man in the hat before him.

“Hey, man, why are you chopping the vines?”

As the other man raised his sword and chopped down again, he replied impatiently, “None of your business! We’re not on the same team, don’t try to cozy up to me! Get lost!”

Tan Xiao’s face darkened, and he rolled up his sleeves, “Hey, watch how you talk to me!”

“Crazy!” The hat man sheathed his sword, turned around, and left, going elsewhere to look for clues.

The vines he had chopped open with knife marks, oozing out a semi-transparent brown-green liquid, but in a moment, they healed like living things.

Tan Xiao almost dropped his jaw in shock, and hurriedly followed the hat man, “Hey! Hey, hey, hey! Did you see that? The chopped vines healed themselves! Holy shit, are these tree spirits?!”

The hat man retorted irritably, “This is exactly why I thought these plants were strange, so I decided to chop them to test! Stop following me, dammit!”

“I’m monitoring you, not following you!” Tan Xiao declared righteously, “What if you hide clues? I’m telling you, under Brother Xiao’s watch, don’t even think about playing tricks!”

The hat man muttered a curse under his breath, not wanting to waste time with Tan Xiao, and continued towards the deeper parts of the castle.