The next day, Meng Chen quietly left Xiahe Village and returned to Notting City.
“Uncle, is there a carriage going to the Star Dou Great Forest?”
In a carriage-hiring agency, Meng Chen asked the manager while not forgetting to display the gold coin in his hand.
This sight of a child carrying gold through a bustling market instantly caught the manager’s attention.
Looking at the gold coin in Meng Chen’s hand, a flash of greed crossed the manager’s eyes, and he hurriedly nodded and said:
“Yes, of course there is.
Wait here for a moment, Uncle will arrange it for you right away.”
After speaking, the manager turned around and walked into the coachman’s room.
Before long, he led out a rather robust coachman with a scar on his face.
Seeing the gold coin, the scar-faced coachman also showed a look of greed.
He exchanged a glance with the manager and nodded.
Immediately, the manager smiled and said to Meng Chen:
“Little friend, this uncle will take you to the Star Dou Great Forest.
Just follow this uncle.”
Although he didn’t know why a child wanted to go to the Star Dou Great Forest, as long as he could make money, who cared about that.
“Right!
Uncle guarantees to deliver you safely to the Star Dou Great Forest.”
The scar-faced coachman also smiled and nodded, looking at Meng Chen as if he were looking at a fat sheep.
Meng Chen didn’t care at all.
He wore an entirely harmless smile and followed the scar-faced coachman onto his carriage.
Seeing Meng Chen obediently getting into the carriage, the manager showed a triumphant smile and excitedly whispered, “I can make a small profit again…”
The carriage drove out of Notting City, but before long, it began to deviate from the main road.
After driving into a small woods, it gradually came to a stop.
The scar-faced coachman pulled out a dagger from his waist with a ferocious grin.
He turned around to open the carriage door, and before he could see the situation inside, he sneered:
“Brat, don’t be so flashy in your next life.
Uncle will send you on your way early!”
However, awaiting the scar-faced coachman was a uniquely shaped, dark purple Soul Guidance pistol.
The dark purple muzzle accurately aimed at his forehead.
Although there was still half a meter of distance, it made the scar-faced coachman feel an unprecedented sense of crisis.
Meng Chen smiled slightly at the scar-faced coachman and said, “Is that so?
Then I’m truly sorry.
But Uncle, couldn’t you send me to the Star Dou Great Forest first?”
Along with his words, with a “bang”, a Soul Guidance bullet entwined with wisps of lightning was fired.
The scar-faced coachman’s head was pierced on the spot, and the ferocious grin hanging on his face instantly froze.
After swaying for a moment, the coachman’s body fell from the carriage, crashed to the ground, and stopped moving entirely.
“Hoo~”
Blowing away the nonexistent smoke from the muzzle, Meng Chen walked out of the carriage, looked down at the coachman’s corpse, shook his head, and sighed regretfully:
“What a pity, you could have lived.”
From the moment he took out the gold coin to tempt the manager, Meng Chen had already guessed the ending.
His initial purpose was never to have the coachman take him to the Star Dou Great Forest, but simply to use human greed to acquire a carriage.
Of course, if the coachman wasn’t greedy and took him to the Star Dou Great Forest, Meng Chen would be willing to give him the gold coin as well; after all, he wasn’t a bloodthirsty person.
It was just a pity that the coachman’s greed was insatiable.
“Let’s go, horse.
Take me to the Star Dou Great Forest, and I’ll reward you with premium forage when we arrive.”
As for where the Soul Guidance pistol in his hand came from?
Of course Ye Xishui helped him make it.
Ignoring the coachman’s corpse, Meng Chen patted the rump of the carriage-pulling horse and drove the carriage to continue advancing toward the Star Dou Great Forest.
Then…
“What the hell, is this map fake?!
Even swindling a child, is there still any justice left!”
As the sun set, beside some unknown official road, Meng Chen stood by the carriage.
He violently slammed the map bought in Notting City onto the ground, his little face suffused with anger as he stepped on the map and cursed loudly.
As meticulous as Meng Chen was, he had considered many things along the way, thinking he might encounter danger on the road or that the carriage horse might strike.
But he never expected that a map costing only two bronze coins could also be fake.
This was simply too unreasonable!
Even with Meng Chen’s strong mentality, he was completely broken down by this fake map.
Looking at the desolate area around him, where there was no one in sight and not even a bird could be seen, Meng Chen was both angry and speechless.
What the heck, where did this bring me!
Meng Chen picked up the map he had stepped on a few times.
Looking at the fake map, he calmed down.
A trace of helplessness appeared on his little face as he couldn’t help but complain:
“Sigh, if I had known it would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have killed that coachman.”
Putting away the fake map, Meng Chen wasn’t going to let it go just like that.
Once he hunted his first Soul Ring, he would go back to settle accounts with that profiteer.
Swindling even a child—executing him ten times wouldn’t be excessive!
Just as Meng Chen turned around to get on the carriage, his ears twitched slightly, hearing the sound of hooves trampling and wheels rolling against the ground from not far away.
Another carriage was coming!
Meng Chen immediately stopped and looked at the rising dust not far away.
Sure enough, a rather exquisite carriage pulled by two horses was driving over at a steady speed.
As it approached Meng Chen, the carriage gradually came to a stop.
Obviously, the people in the carriage had also noticed him.
The carriage stopped in front of Meng Chen.
The carriage window opened, and a girl’s head poked out.
The girl had silver-gray hair and looked to be around twelve years old, with an immature, pretty, and exquisite face.
Pointing at Meng Chen by the roadside, she turned her head and shouted, “Mother, it really is a child!”
“Is that so?
Our Lingling has such good eyes.
Come, let’s go down with Mother and take a look.”
A gentle voice of praise rang out from inside the carriage.
Immediately afterwards, two figures, one large and one small, walked down from the carriage.
Meng Chen looked closely and saw that it was a mother and daughter pair.
The little girl’s mother had a peerlessly gorgeous appearance, with smooth black hair hanging down to her waist, a delicate melon seed-shaped face, and gentle facial features.
Between her brows exuded a trace of compassionate kindness, and the vivid begonia flower painted between her eyebrows added an even greater touch of holiness to her.
A white dress outlined her mature, proud, and plump delicate body.
Her breasts were full and surging, making her toes invisible when looking down, resembling a fully ripened peach that would secrete sweet juice if pinched lightly.
It looked extremely cloying!
Holding her daughter’s hand, the beautiful woman in white slowly walked up to Meng Chen.
Seeing that there was only Meng Chen alone, and he was wearing coarse hemp clothes, her dark eyebrows furrowed slightly, and her beautiful eyes revealed a hint of confusion.
She bent down slightly, instantly bringing a strong impact to Meng Chen.
Afterwards, Meng Chen heard the beautiful woman in white ask:
“Little friend, why are you alone here?
Where is your father?”
“I have no father.” Meng Chen shook his head decisively.
Ye Cixin paused slightly, and she said again: “Then where is your mother?”
“I have no mother either.” Meng Chen continued to shake his head.
This completely stunned Ye Cixin.
For some reason, she suddenly had the urge to slap herself twice.
“I really deserve to die!”
Seeing that the other party was an orphan with no father or mother, a trace of guilt appeared in Ye Cixin’s beautiful eyes, and she said softly: “Then how did you end up appearing here?”
“I’m going to the Star Dou Great Forest to hunt a Soul Beast, but I bought a fake map and then got lost.”
Meng Chen did not hide anything and truthfully informed Ye Cixin.
In his view, there was nothing to hide about this.
On the contrary, he could use this to arouse the other party’s sympathy and curiosity, thereby taking him away from this godforsaken place.
After listening, Ye Cixin’s pink lips parted slightly, and her gentle face showed an expression of surprise.
This child must have just undergone his Awakening for his Martial Soul, right?
How could he dare to go to the Star Dou Great Forest alone to hunt a Soul Beast?
He must have been fooled by someone