Chapter 141: The Secret of the Little Village

The temple was in disrepair. If it were not for the rusty, spiky sun-burst emblem hanging dead center on the peak of its roof, probably no one would ever guess that this weed-choked building was the renowned temple of Pelor, the Sun God.

At the corner of the wall, an old man was leaning back, half-clothed, eyes half-closed, enjoying a sunbath with an expression of sheer bliss.

Near the old man's feet, four or five transparent glass bottles were scattered casually on the ground. However, the bottles were impeccably clean, sparkling brilliantly in the sunlight—someone clearly polished them regularly.

"Excuse me, old sir."

Lu Kuan walked up, bent down, and said very respectfully to the old man, "I'd like to buy a magic bottle."

"Mmm...?"

The old man lazily opened his eyes, sized Lu Kuan up for a good ten seconds, smacked his lips, and held out his hand to Lu Kuan. "Fifty gold coins."

Lu Kuan seemed to have anticipated this reaction. He reached into his pocket to pull out the coins, but the novice players watching the spectacle nearby immediately exploded in an uproar.

"What? Fifty gold coins? Holy crap, that’s gotta be a new record!"

"Talk about inhuman... The last time I came to this old man, he only asked me for ten."

"He's totally sizing people up to fleece them. These NPCs nowadays are something else..."

The crowd chattered noisily. A kind-hearted player shouted loudly to Lu Kuan, "Hey! Watch out, don't get ripped off! That old man only dared to quote you such a sky-high price because you're a high level!"

Lu Kuan chuckled upon hearing this, waved back at the speaker to signal that everything was fine, and then produced a small pouch of gold coins, handing it to the old man with both hands.

Without even bothering to count, the old man shoved the money pouch straight into his tunic, casually picked up a glass bottle, and handed it to Lu Kuan. Lu Kuan received it with both hands, but when he looked up again, the old man had already drifted back into a doze.

Lu Kuan smiled faintly, wasted no time, gave the old man a slight bow, and strode away quickly.

The onlookers stared with wide eyes: Fifty gold coins! Just thrown away like that on this old man?

Even if this human Ranger was high level, being able to pull out fifty gold coins without batting an eye was definitely not something an ordinary person could do!

Ignoring the gasps of awe from the crowd behind him, Lu Kuan trotted all the way to the far eastern edge of the village.

Here, a small natural lake had formed, where water flowing from surrounding waterfalls collected before slowly winding its way eastward. To the north of the little lake lay the resurrection point of Whitewater Village, where flashes of white light flickered from time to time as unfortunate players who had died re-emerged.

From a distance, Lu Kuan heard the sound effects of battle. A small-scale skirmish was in full swing by the lakeside.

"Watch your positioning! Keep an eye on the circle of fire at your feet!"

"Agh... You guys are so clumsy! Stop getting burned all the time, I can't keep up the heals!"

In the middle of the clearing, a human female priest was shouting frantic instructions. Her emotions ran a bit high, and her booming voice reminded Lu Kuan somewhat of A-Kui.

You couldn't really blame the female priest for lacking ladylike composure; the capabilities of her three teammates in the battlefield were truly limited. Pitted against them was a small fire element—inherently high in damage, and leaving a trail of burning flames on the ground wherever it moved. If you weren't careful, a large chunk of your health would be burned away.

By the time Lu Kuan arrived, the three players in the arena were in absolute misery. The Rogue, whose health was lowest, had been scorched multiple times consecutively, his backside burning fiercely as he hung on the brink of death.

"Whoosh!" The small fire element saw the hope of victory, threw back its head in a long roar, and the flames on its body blazed even brighter!

"Fall back, fall back! Save yourselves first!"

The female priest screamed anxiously, but retreating at this point was clearly a bit too late. The small fire element only needed to casually wave its hand and hurl a fireball spell to claim the Rogue's little life.

"Swish~"

Just as the group was resigning themselves to their fate, a streak of white light suddenly shot forth from behind. They watched as an arrow struck firmly into the belly of the small fire element, immediately followed by a second arrow, and then a third.

"Bang!"

The fire element, which had been full of vigor just a moment ago, paused mid-action. Its bright yellow body instantly dimmed at a speed visible to the naked eye, then twisted bizarrely before bursting apart entirely, blooming into a gorgeous firework.

The female priest reacted the fastest. While her three teammates were still dazed, she swiftly cast a spell, pulling her companions' dangerously low health bars back to safety.

Turning around, the group finally spotted Lu Kuan walking over from afar, and at the same time, they took in his clearly high-end gear.

"Thank you!"

The four of them quickly gathered around to properly thank Lu Kuan, their eyes darting wildly as they continuously sized up his outfit.

Lu Kuan put away his hunting bow and said with a chuckle, "No worries, but if you guys want to fight this fire element, you should at least put together a full party of five. Doing it this way is way too risky."

"Ah, we know that too~"

A tall Druid player in the opposing team scratched the back of his head and said helplessly, "But everyone else is out leveling up. If we want to fish in this holy pool, we just have to bite the bullet."

"Oh? People from the novice village often fish here?" Lu Kuan asked with some surprise.

"Well, not really. It's mostly just the few of us, hehe~" The Druid player looked a bit embarrassed, scratched his head again, started to say something, but then thought better of it and kept quiet.

Lu Kuan nodded, looked at the group, and said, "Well, what a coincidence. I happen to need players who are good at fishing."

...

For players who loved angling, Whitewater Village fully deserved the title of a "Holy Land."

Not to mention the surrounding natural aquatic environment, the key point was that the aquatic resources in these waters were exceptionally abundant—and much more concentrated compared to the Banyan Prairie. All the way here, the yellow dots on Lu Kuan's map had been non-stop, and those were all prime fishing spots.

However, this holy pool, much like the Sun God temple and the old man in front of it, was something everyone could tell had a story behind it, yet no one could quite articulate the significance of its existence.

Why was the temple dilapidated? Why were the old man's water bottles so expensive? Lush, towering trees grew right beside the holy pool, so why did fire elements respawn there every day?

Behind all these riddles hid a startling secret, and that was the very reason Lu Kuan had come here.

At that moment, Lu Kuan and the four novice players were sitting by the lakeside together, each holding a fishing rod, leisurely casting their lines.

Through conversation, Lu Kuan learned that the easily embarrassed, burly Druid went by the game ID Deep Sea Loach, and the human female priest was his girlfriend in real life, whose in-game ID was Sister Hua.

A rather imposing name.

"Old Lu, were you serious about what you said just now?"

Deep Sea Loach sat right next to Lu Kuan, excitement written on his face as he asked, "Fifty silver coins for a single Silver-Winged Fish?"

"That's right." Lu Kuan smiled and nodded.

"But Silver-Winged Fish die the moment they leave the water. Are you sure you want them?" As if still doubtful, Deep Sea Loach reminded Lu Kuan once more.