Chapter 12: The Mystery at Anshan

After leaving the Anlezhou stagecoach post, the caravan continued along the road for a while. They set up camp by the roadside that night.

Nothing happened tonight. It was a peaceful night.

The next morning, the caravan turned onto a narrow path. The path was barely visible under the snow. There wasn’t even any animal droppings.

Every year after the snow melted, some merchants would take this path. Some walked, some drove carts.

This shortcut reached the Central Plains faster. It was essentially a straight line. Those who took it were either in a hurry or wanted to avoid the chaotic areas controlled by the Nüzhi.

The girl’s caravan had taken the detour for the second reason.

They were willing to risk losing some goods to take the small path. That meant the losses on the main road would be even higher.

The scenery changed that day. The trees on both sides were no longer orderly. Occasionally, a tree grew in the middle of the road, forcing them to go around.

Sometimes the cart would get stuck in the snow. They had to push it.

On the small path, the number of slopes increased tenfold. They often had to push the carts or apply manual brakes.

The girl did nothing the whole way. She sat at the back of the cart, swinging her legs, watching the humans laboriously push the carts, occasionally glancing at the monotonous scenery in the distance.

One thing that caught her attention was a river. The surface was frozen. The caravan carefully crossed the ice.

An accident happened. The rear cart followed the tracks of the front cart. The ice couldn’t bear the weight and cracked a bit.

The good news was that the cart was close to the shore. The water was shallow.

No matter how much they whipped the horse, it couldn’t pull the loaded cart out.

They had to unload the goods and empty the cart. Everyone worked together to push the cart and finally rescue it from the ice.

This was the benefit of traveling in a caravan. People helped each other.

After crossing the river, there were no more major difficulties.

On the twelfth day after leaving Anlezhou, the caravan finally reached Anshan, also known as Anshan Post Fort.

This was the most prosperous place the girl had seen. Four or five traveling merchants were leaving, and several merchants on foot or driving carts were entering.

The girl even saw ordinary people for the first time. A hunter in furs.

Once inside the fort, everything felt new.

There were stalls set up by ordinary families along the road. There was even a seafood stall. That was very novel.

The girl couldn’t resist jumping off the cart to look at the marine creatures.

The caravan leader noticed she had left the group. He quickly followed and told the others to find lodgings first.

It was obvious that the girl was very interested in the seafood. She had an undisguised smile on her face.

Even the caravan leader was momentarily stunned.

Of course, many nearby people also noticed the girl with white hair and golden eyes. She stood out among these mortals.

Seeing her point at a strange creature with many tentacles, the leader explained, “That’s a shrimp.”

She pointed at another strange creature with two big pincers. The leader continued, “This is a jiashi.”

The stall owner laughed and chimed in, “We don’t use fancy names like scholars do. This is called a crab.”

The leader scratched his head. “I only know a few characters. I’m no scholar.”

The girl thought the crab’s claws were fun. She stuck her finger in.

Then it pinched.

Ah, that hurt!

The leader and the stall owner quickly pried open the crab’s claws. It took a while. The girl’s finger had a tiny bit of blood. No big deal.

The girl continued to look at the other seafood. This time, she didn’t dare stick her hand out randomly, even though she really wanted to touch the extremely flat fish she saw.

The caravan leader had some guesses about the girl’s background. He inferred that she might be from some hidden mystical sect, perhaps out on a training trip.

After visiting the seafood stall, she set her sights on a goat seller. She touched the wool and then the horns. The goat butted her, but it didn’t hurt. It was just fun.

The leader felt like he was babysitting as he accompanied the girl from the east side of the road to the west side.

Fortunately, Anshan Post Fort was only three times larger than Anlezhou. It didn’t take long to walk around.

If this were a town north of the river, it would have taken a whole day to explore.

Back at the inn, several other merchants were staying there. They exchanged news from the road.

The leader took the girl back to her room and then went to purchase supplies. There was still a long way to go.

After reaching Anshan Post Fort, the journey would become more prosperous. It wouldn’t be as hard to resupply as in Anlezhou.

The caravan would rest here for two days. Everyone could relax.

That day, they had another good meal. Shrimp and other seafood.

Now that they had finally made it here, why eat mutton? Of course, they had to eat seafood.

The girl ate seafood for the first time. She wasn’t used to it. The taste of those strange things wasn’t particularly good to her, but it wasn’t bad either. The meat had a novel flavor. She had never tasted anything like it before. And there was enough salt.

Her hand hurt a bit. The crab had broken the skin, making it hard to peel the shell.

The leader was thoughtful and peeled one for her.

She enjoyed the meal. But she still didn’t feel full. All the food turned into magical energy.

The caravan members cleaned themselves comfortably and went to sleep, hoping to shake off the fatigue of nearly half a month’s journey.

It got dark. They closed their eyes.

It got light. They opened their eyes.

“Hey, where’s the leader?” The others waited a long time in the morning, but the leader didn’t show up. They went upstairs and saw he wasn’t in his room. They asked the innkeeper, who said he hadn’t seen the leader leave the inn.

A living person, just gone?

A familiar feeling surfaced. Everyone quickly searched.

He wasn’t near the inn.

He wasn’t on the street.

They asked the soldiers guarding the fort gate. The leader hadn’t been seen leaving.

They went back to his room. His belongings were still there. He hadn’t taken anything.

With no leads, they could only wait.

When it got dark and he still hadn’t appeared, they reported it to the soldiers. The soldiers had no solution either. They treated it as a missing person case for now.

To be honest, reporting a missing person in this frozen wasteland basically meant the person was gone.

The caravan lost its leader. Everyone discussed what to do.

In the end, they decided to continue buying supplies the next day, stay one more day, then head back north the morning after.

But then, at noon the next day, the leader returned.

He looked terrible. His hair was a mess. He looked like a homeless wanderer.

When they asked where he had been, he replied, “I went to Liaoyang.”

Huh? Are you crazy?

He didn’t want to. That night, after they had eaten seafood and returned to their rooms to rest, he woke up to find himself in Liaoyang, about fifty li from Anshan Post Fort.

It was like running into a ghost!

Fortunately, a merchant passed by there, and he hitched a ride back from Liaoyang to Anshan. Those fifty li took a whole day and a morning. He camped out in the wild with the merchant for one night.

Speaking of the incident, the leader was still shaken.

He had never encountered something so supernatural. He fell asleep and ended up fifty li away, moved without anyone knowing.

This method was too extraordinary.

If the other party wanted to kill, the leader and the innkeeper at Anlezhou would surely be dead. Why didn’t they kill, but instead do such things?

Maybe it wasn’t done by a person, but by some artifact. Who carried a strange artifact?

To test this guess, everyone in the caravan changed clothes. They wrapped up their old clothes tightly. They hid all their accessories, not wearing any.

The caravan continued on its way.

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