Chapter 163 – Eternal Range (V)

Chapter 163

Eternal Range (VI)

It was about ten days after Xi Zhao broke through, and once we finally dislodged ourselves from a rather hilly terrain, I saw them–the mountains.

Honestly, they looked more like a wall since more than half of them were covered in a thick layer of mist and haze. Nonetheless, at the very least we can finally see them–even if we’re still roughly a week away from their base.

Accordingly, the more north we travelled, the chillier the weather got.

These past two days, in fact, were rather bad; we hadn’t seen the sun even once, it rained practically all day long yesterday, and I could smell it, that scent of winter that would appear around late September or early October back on Earth.

That specific, almost metallic smell that I used to loathe.

It was back.

The terrain, too, reflected the change in ‘seasons’; we went from rather green fields with small hillsides and a lush forest to our right to a far less saturated blend.

A river, its banks rocky and shallow, cut through, by its side a small village–our last stop.

As far as Wan Lan knew, there weren’t any ‘roads’ to the Eternal Range, only paths the locals were somewhat familiar with. Besides, even she wasn’t really certain how to cross it, so it was probably up to me to figure it out.

Regardless, after waiting for the kids to stop staring at the mountain range, we walked over the small hill and into the village. Smoke billowed from practically every chimney, and the dirt roads showed traces of old snow at their edges, likely from having been piled up while they were clearing the paths.

Everyone we saw was wearing clothes made out of thick fur and at least a couple of layers on top of that and were just as wary of us as all other villages were.

No, seriously, you’d think we came in with clothes bloodied scarlet and wielding machetes while screaming ‘DEATH TO THE CHILDREN’. They really were just that against the strangers.

At least, however, unlike practically all other villages, this one had a functioning inn–a two-story building made out of an ashen stone of some sort, with a rather pleasant scent wafting out from its main doors.

Under the locals’ scrutinizing gazes, I took the kids and we entered, welcomed by an older woman almost immediately. Checking her out with Creator’s Eyes revealed… nothing.

She was just an ordinary mortal, with a single trait of ‘Clever’.

“Welcome guests, welcome,” she said, smiling and bowing. “My name is Shen Lan.” No, your name is Meng Huang. “And I am the inn’s host.”

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“How many rooms do you have available?” I asked. I didn’t mind if we piled into one, to be honest, but I’m pretty sure the growing teens like their freedom and privacy. I know I did.

“We have three rooms that might suit the guest’s needs.” Hmm, she probably means that she’s got plenty of, ‘Hey, I just need a room so as to not get wet’, but only three rooms.

“We’ll take them,” I said. “How much?”

“Just twenty coins per room, per night, guests,” I didn’t actually have that much ‘mortal’ currency, as it was called here–mostly these old, copper and silver coins–and most of what I had actually came from the Fire Sun Sect people, believe it or not.

“Hm,” I tossed over sixty copper coins; she took them and showed us up to the rooms. There were no keys or identification tokens or anything of the sort–just raw-dogging it, as it were.

Nonetheless, we settled into the three rooms quickly–girls took one, boys took another, and one was exclusively for me.

It was a simple room–just a bed, a nightstand, and an oil lamp hanging by the door. The bed itself wasn’t particularly comfortable–even the padding in our tent was just about–but it did restore some sense of normalcy.