Chapter 1: Wusao Ridge (Part 1)

Below Wusao Ridge,
Guo Shier said, “This mountain looks like a shoe—cliffs on three sides and a steep slope on the other. Strange, why is it called Wusao Ridge? ‘Shoe Ridge’ would be more appropriate…”
Yade Lan replied, “Wusao… it doesn’t refer to the shape of the mountain. Wusao is a particularly deadly venomous snake. The Wusao snake is quite famous in the Karabaza alleys. This ridge is rich in Wusao snakes, that’s why it’s called Wusao Ridge.”
Guo Shier laughed and said, “Oh, I see. So Wusao is a snake… Well, whether it’s a snake or a spider, our task is to take control of Wusao Ridge. This is our first robbery—everyone, be serious… Hey, why are you laughing?”
Ezekiel couldn’t help but sneer. He said, “Of course I’m laughing. With your skills, just go up and fight directly. Why go through all these extra steps? It’s annoying…”
Guo Shier said with a wry smile, “Didn’t I just tell you to go? Be the vanguard!”
Ezekiel replied irritably, “You’re so annoying… Just these little bugs—do I really need to kill them? Sigh, I’m starting to miss home. At least there, I had some evenly matched opponents. Here… it’s too weak.”
Guo Shier smiled maliciously and said, “Oh? Really? I know someone got stabbed by these weak little bugs…”
Ezekiel jumped up in shock, like a tiger whose tail had been touched, shouting, “Shier, you bastard! You… didn’t you say… not to mention it? You…”
Guo Shier rolled his eyes and said calmly, “I was referring to someone else, not you… Why are you jumping?”
Cough!
Ezekiel coughed violently. “Cough… You… didn’t you mean me?” After only recently developing human-like thinking, he was confused by Guo Shier’s tricks.
Guo Shier said, “Of course. If you insist on identifying yourself, I can’t do anything about it…”
Yade Lan quickly turned around, covering her mouth with her hand, her shoulders shaking violently. She almost died of laughter, venting her anger inwardly. At the same time, she realized one thing: even though Ezekiel was strong in combat, he couldn’t beat Guo Shier—clearly, he was Guo Shier’s subordinate.
Ezekiel forced a smile and said, “Hehe, of course I didn’t…”
Guo Shier interrupted him, “You’re the vanguard. Are you going or not?”
Ezekiel replied, “I’ll go, I’ll go! Of course I’ll go.” For some reason, he was increasingly afraid of Guo Shier and really didn’t dare disobey his orders.

The handsome old man smiled inside the altar and said, “You always know how to bully honest people…”
Guo Shier said, “Handsome old man, Ezekiel isn’t an honest person. He’s a humanoid abominable beast. I’m not bullying him—I’m teaching him how to be a human.”
The handsome old man snorted and said, “Hmph, I’m too lazy to argue with you kid.”
Ezekiel floated upward, slowly rising to the treetops before flying away. Yadelan and the others watched enviously—this was a top-tier skill. They still had many doubts, wondering why these two great masters, Guo Shier and Ezekiel, would come to the Karabaza Trail to trouble a group of bandits.
Eisen asked, “Should we follow them?”
Guo Shier said, “Let’s go. We’ll go up together. There are two paths—are everyone in position?” He had prepared ambushes from the start, not for a surprise attack, but to prevent the scattered bandits from fleeing around. With a few people in ambush, they could capture them all at once.
De Da said, “They’re already in position. Let the monkeys handle it.”
Guo Shier nodded and said, “Hmm, then let Bannilu take care of it.” He didn’t fly but led Yadelan, Eisen, De Da, and dozens of others up toward Wushaoling.
As soon as they reached the hillside, they saw Ezekiel flying back. Guo Shier asked in surprise, “What happened?”
Ezekiel said, “Is this ridiculous… There’s no one on the mountain except for some ruined houses and dozens of skeletons. Nothing else. It seems… we arrived a step too late. Someone else got there first.”
Guo Shier said, “There’s such a thing? Alright, let’s go up first. You guys hurry up and follow.” He and Ezekiel flew up toward Wushaoling.
At the end of the path up the mountain was a very small pass with extremely steep terrain. Cliffs flanked both sides, and a narrow path led upward, resembling a fish’s spine. Beyond the pass was a small open area, about a thousand square meters in size. Several stone houses had been built along the outer cliffs, most of which had collapsed. There were also many skeletons on the ground, emitting a foul stench.
Guo Shier landed, and Ezekiel said, “There are about seventy or eighty corpses…”
The scattered corpses on the ground were pitiful, many of them decapitated or cut in half. Guo Shier casually sent out a thin purple talisman rope and flipped through the corpses, finding some broken weapons like knives and spears.
Seeing Guo Shier flipping through the corpses, Ezekiel couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Hey, Shier, they’re all dead… They’ve been dead for days—useless to eat…”

Guo Shier was so angry that he cursed, “You bastard, you should be the one to eat it!” Not to mention stinky corpses, he wouldn’t even eat fresh ones.
Ezekiel smiled and said, “I don’t eat rotten stuff. I only eat fresh food, preferably alive… Live ones are the best.” He was in high spirits at having managed to disgust Guo Shier; he had been suppressed by Guo Shier all along and was also very annoyed.
Guo Shier shook his head helplessly, sighing inwardly. Even though Ezekiel had taken human form, his animal nature hadn’t changed—eating people posed no burden to him at all.
Before long, Yadelan, Eson, and others arrived. Guo Shier ordered, “Spread out and search. See if there are any clues in the village…”
Yadelan brought over more than fifty of her best men. She instructed, “Spread out and search. Remember… don’t keep any valuables for yourself. Report anything you find immediately. Also, report any clues right away!” Her men quickly dispersed and searched the damaged houses.
Eson asked, “I wonder who did this?”
De Da felt a chill in his heart. The people who died here were likely as strong as him, and it was rare to see so many die at once, even in the alleys of Karabaza.
A moment later, someone came to report that they had found an underground warehouse. Guo Shier asked, “Is there anything inside?”
The man replied, “There should be. We didn’t dare go in, so we came back to report.”
Guo Shier nodded. “Good. Let’s go.” They were only about a hundred meters away from the warehouse—a collapsed building that had been cleared. The collapsed walls had created a small crack in the partition of the underground warehouse, which is how it was discovered.
Following a downward passage, Guo Shier and the others went down. At the end of the passage was a wooden door, guarded by a man. Seeing Guo Shier and the others arrive, the man said, “It’s here. We didn’t dare go in.”
Yadelan said, “Good. You can go up. There’s no need to stay here.”
Ezekiel smashed the thick wooden door with a slap and stepped in. Guo Shier followed closely behind. Yadelan said, “This seems to be a food warehouse…”
It was a small stone cave with thick wooden planks on the floor, which made creaking noises underfoot. Neatly stacked around were linen bags. De Da used a knife to cut open one of the bags and said, “It’s flour…” The room was filled with flour.
Yadelan said, “Pretty good flour. Too bad we can’t take it away.”

Guo Shier found that the people here seemed to have no storage space. He took out a talisman bag and quickly put the flour inside it. Yade Lan covered her mouth, staring in shock at the flour disappearing so fast. Eson and De Da were also dumbfounded; they couldn’t understand where all the flour in the room had gone. Actually, they already had a vague idea of the answer, but with their limited knowledge, it was beyond their imagination. After putting away the flour, Guo Shier tossed the talisman bag to Yade Lan and said, “The flour is now in this bag. Keep it safe.” He knew that the Karabaza market didn’t produce food—most of the food here was stolen or obtained through hunting, so food was a very precious resource. Yade Lan held the talisman bag blankly for a while before asking, “How… how do I use this?” She examined the bag closely; it was covered with tiny runes that formed patterns like flowers. Those who understood runes knew what they were, but she couldn’t decipher them and thought they were just embroidery. Guo Shier paused for a moment before realizing that the people here were different from those on the Talisman Continent—they couldn’t understand runes. After thinking for a while, he quickly tapped her forehead. It was so fast that Yade Lan didn’t even have time to dodge. In an instant, a transmission was sent to her—instructions on how to use the talisman bag. Yade Lan almost collapsed at that moment. After all, she wasn’t a professional from the Talisman Continent, and her soul was quite weak. That brief transmission nearly shattered her soul. Aizek immediately recognized it as a transmission. Seeing Yade Lan trembling and sweating profusely, he couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Sigh, so weak…” It took some time before Yade Lan stopped trembling. Holding her head, she exclaimed in surprise, “You… what did you do… I…” Guo Shier said, “You’d better think it over carefully.” At that moment, De Da said, “There’s another door here…” With her eyes closed, Yade Lan had already noticed changes in her memories—new memories she didn’t know about, so clear as if they were from her childhood, repeating endlessly and imprinting directly into her mind. She studied them carefully, and moments later, she understood how to use the talisman bag. However, she wasn’t sure if she could actually use it, as this method was vastly different from any skill she knew.

She went through the entire process in her mind and began to try using the token bag. Since this was the simplest way to use it, she mastered it quickly. Suddenly, a bag of flour appeared on the ground before vanishing again. Yadelan was overjoyed; this thing was truly amazing, and she played with it happily nonstop.
Guo Shier smiled and said, “Hmm, not bad, you’ve mastered it.” But he also grew wary—the souls here were too weak. This was merely the inheritance of using token bags. On the Continent of Talismans, even ordinary people could accept it, but the experts here almost had their souls shattered. This showed that they simply couldn’t handle more complex inheritances. If forced to accept them, deaths would likely occur.