Novels online

Chapter 486: Fiend

The city's defensive array did not issue an alarm for Bai Mo's intrusion, and without much effort, he appeared in an unoccupied alley within the city.

It was the depths of winter, with fine, continuous snow falling, yet the main streets were still bustling with people. The cries of vendors, hawkers, and shouts of applause rose and fell, creating a lively atmosphere in many areas.

The air was filled with the lingering scents of wine, flatbreads, and fried pastries—all incredibly enticing aromas in the winter, drawing passing customers to linger at the stalls.

Unfortunately, Bai Mo, like a block of wood, paid no attention to these things, for he had even forgotten how many years it had been since he had personally eaten anything with his mouth.

Only during the time when his original body had not awakened its memories did he maintain the habit of three meals a day, like a normal person. But whether those could even be considered true memories was a question in itself.

Many years ago, Bai Mo had already acquired a myriad of ways to absorb energy.

Wind energy, light energy, thermal energy... Even if the Spirit Qi concentration in the environment was insufficient, he could still directly devour and utilize most forms of energy to sustain his existence.

And now, if anyone could carefully observe the airflow around him, they would find that the air near Bai Mo was completely still, sharply contrasting with the biting, whistling cold wind in the distance.

The kinetic energy in the airflow near his body was almost entirely absorbed by Bai Mo unconsciously.

The Spirit Qi concentration in this world was much lower than on Earth. The stark disparity, coming from a high Spirit Qi environment to a low Spirit Qi world, made him feel somewhat unaccustomed.

However, it was only a temporary discomfort, far less severe than a common person's altitude sickness.

"According to the rate of Spirit Qi decline on Earth, it will probably reach a state of equilibrium in another twenty or thirty years. By then, it should be similar to the situation here..."

"Big Brother, do you want to buy some tanghulu?" A childish voice, still unrefined, pulled Bai Mo out of his world of contemplation.

He lowered his head and saw a small boy who, even standing on tiptoes, barely reached his chest, tugging at his clothes.

The little boy spoke while simultaneously exhaling warm air onto his hands.

"Xiao Yun, don't tug at other people's clothes! What kind of behavior is that!" An old man with temples streaked with gray pulled the boy back.

"The child doesn't know any better, young sir, please don't take it to heart." The old man pulled his grandson behind him and apologized to Bai Mo in an almost fawning tone, even lightly slapping his little grandson's hand a few times.

This strange behavior made Bai Mo pay a little more attention to the two of them.

They seemed to be a grandfather and grandson, selling tanghulu by the roadside.

Unfortunately, the season they chose was truly not ideal. In the dead of winter, most people preferred something warm; piping hot jianbing guozi were selling like hotcakes, but the tanghulu, despite being hawked for a long time, had only sold a few sticks.

To consider what he should say, Bai Mo paused for a moment. For a very long time, his interactions with others had almost exclusively been in a commanding tone, forcing them to obey unconditionally, without needing to consider anything at all.

But now, things were a bit different. To put it bluntly, he was purely visiting this world as a tourist, with absolutely no mandatory objectives to achieve.

Of course, if possible, connecting the Land of White to this spatial layer could tentatively be considered an optional task.

"It's fine." Both sides stared at each other in silence for several seconds before Bai Mo could only manage these two words.

"Thank you, young sir, for your leniency, thank you, thank you." The old man, hearing Bai Mo's reply, breathed a sigh of relief and quickly thanked him repeatedly.

The other party's unprovoked fawning made Bai Mo even more bewildered, but he didn't dwell on it too much; after all, he was never one to care much about the thoughts of others besides himself.

"Give me a stick of tanghulu." Seeing this interesting pair of grandfather and grandson, he suddenly wanted to taste the tanghulu.

"Alright!" The old man handed over a stick, his hand trembling slightly—whether from the biting cold or some apprehension, Bai Mo couldn't tell.

"Keep the change." Bai Mo casually grabbed a handful of mystic coins from his pocket, stuffed them into the old man's hand, then walked away indifferently.

...

"Grandpa, why wouldn't you let me get close to that Big Brother?" the grandson, standing to the side, asked with a wronged expression after Bai Mo had left.

"People who can casually walk around in a single layer of clothing in this weather, none of them are simple. Especially that young one, his eyes don't look like a normal person's at all," the old man mumbled to his grandson, tightly clutching the mystic coins in his hand, explaining his reasons, regardless of how much he could understand.

"Are you saying that Big Brother isn't human?"

"Grandpa didn't say anything!" The old man quickly covered his grandson's mouth, fearing that Bai Mo, who had already walked away, might hear.

It was said that some powerful fiends who had intentionally transformed into human form were very sensitive about this.

"In this world, with demons and monsters running rampant, it's best to take each day as it comes." After putting the money in his inner pocket, he began to pack up his things, preparing to leave.

The handful of money Bai Mo had casually grabbed, the old man estimated after weighing it lightly, was enough for the two of them to live in the city for over half a year. Let alone one stick of tanghulu, they could buy a whole cartload.

The wealth of the entire village, plus the mystic coins carried by dozens of black-clothed men, had all fallen into Bai Mo's hands, so naturally, he wouldn't care how it was spent.

However, the old man did not make a fuss, because from the young man's gaze and actions when taking out the money, the old man had already deduced that the other party simply didn't care about the actual amount.

Decades of life experience gave the old man some conjectures about Bai Mo's origins, but in such a chaotic world, it was better to avoid trouble.

Many young people who were too curious hadn't lived to his age.

...

"The growth rate of humans in this world seems to be somewhat faster than on Earth. My current body is actually less than six years old, but it already looks like a twelve or thirteen-year-old youth on Earth."

Bai Mo, biting into his tanghulu, was gravely contemplating such profound questions about the human race. He wondered if it was due to a lack of refined sugar technology, as the tanghulu's sweetness was a bit faint.

He deduced from the progress of the terraforming project on Earth that the time flow rates of the two worlds were not different, while he himself had spent about five years to completely break the seal on his memories.

"Around ten years old, one enters adulthood for humans here.

However, in this chaotic world where foreign races are still powerful, if humans don't mature earlier, there will likely be a risk of their race being wiped out.

What are the people who came with me doing now?"

As Bai Mo thought about it, he suddenly recalled the multitude of souls on the Void Worm, who also seemed to have arrived in this world.

"With so many of them, will they be engaging in the whole 'farming, tech climbing, mass production of soldiers' routine in this foreign world?

This world, with its strong ancient aesthetic, I wonder if it will ultimately be turned upside down by modern technology?"