Chapter 37: The Courtyard

“This is the place!”

Larry’s heavy breathing had finally leveled out, and he spoke with a face full of excitement.

By now, the party had ventured even deeper into the forest.

As the buildings appearing in the roadside bushes grew increasingly dense, they finally arrived at their destination.

“Is this where that adventurer found the wooden plaque?”

The half-elf, Hean, held a longbow, his silver-gray eyes carefully scanning the surroundings, a look of intense curiosity on his face.

It was a sprawling courtyard.

Unlike the ruins and broken walls they had encountered on the road, the courtyard itself was remarkably intact; most of the architectural structures remained in a well-preserved state.

This allowed Xia Nan to carefully observe everything about the building while cross-referencing it with the knowledge from his previous life in his mind.

The layout was symmetrical along the central axis of the main gate, with houses neatly arranged on both sides, orderly and aesthetically pleasing.

It featured classic black tiles and white walls, with roof eaves as agile and light as birds in flight. The surfaces of the beams and columns were coated in black lacquer and adorned with exquisite cloud patterns. The doors and windows mostly utilized complex and delicate openwork structures, though the window paper that originally covered them was badly damaged, leaving only a few scraps clinging to the corners.

“It’s exactly the same,” Xia Nan muttered to himself.

At the same time, his gaze sweeping across the courtyard suddenly paused, as if sensing something strange.

In his memory, the manors where ancient high officials and nobles lived often featured ponds or pools, large or small. Whenever someone walked by, the schools of koi fish kept in the ponds would swim toward them, gathering to beg for food.

This courtyard was naturally no exception.

There were high-arched double-sided empty bridges, winding and quaint corridors, and even a classical stone pavilion extending straight into the center of a lake.

Everything seemed perfectly normal.

That is, if you could ignore the lush shrubs and long grass growing beneath those pavilions and corridors.

Forget lakes or ponds—there wasn't even a small puddle in this entire courtyard!

Despite the construction appearing to be only a few months old, there was no trace of water beneath the arched bridges or the lake pavilion.

It was as if they had been built directly upon a meadow.

Seeing this bizarre scene, Xia Nan became even more certain of his previous thought—

These buildings definitely did not belong to this world!

“Huh?”

A cry of suspicion came from Larry near his ear.

Xia Nan followed his gaze and saw him standing before a rockery, his chubby face filled with astonishment.

Following the man's line of sight, Xia Nan’s expression also turned strange.

“Clipping?”

On the upper left side of the rockery, the jagged, pale stones were eerily fused with the branches of a nearby oak tree.

The gray, rough stone was interlaced with emerald-green leaves, the two materials weaving into one another in a way that was both contrasting and perfectly fitted, as if they had been born that way.

It looked exactly like a bug caused by colliding models in the poorly made games of his previous life.

Except that in the real world, it appeared even more natural.

It was like a spectacle created by forcibly shifting something from another world into this space, regardless of the consequences.

Meanwhile, the half-elf and Wood on the other side were not paying attention to this.

They were performing a final confirmation of their mission objective.

“Young Master...”

Withdrawing his gaze from the architectural decorations he had already compared countless times, Wood slowly shook his head toward the half-elf beside him.

“It’s confirmed. This is not the style of the Matriarch's tribe.”

Although the various elven clans had unique styles due to factors like living environments, different sub-species, and lifestyle habits, there was one universal and unchanging commonality

Integration with nature.

Whether it was green leaves and thorns or glowing algae and fungi, elven architecture was often closely integrated with the surrounding natural environment.

The houses before them, though they utilized various woods and bricks to a masterful degree, were fundamentally different from the artistic style of the elven race.

Upon hearing this, a clear look of disappointment appeared on Hean's face.

But that was all.

Having already prepared himself mentally, the half-elf, having received verification from Wood, let out a relieved sigh as if a burden had been lifted from his heart.

He called Xia Nan, Larry, and the others over and said with a sincere expression

“The mission is over.”

“I have obtained the results.”

“We have stayed in the forest for many days. If there are no objections, we can head back now.”

Larry and Doris had grown up in towns; while not pampered, they certainly hadn't endured much hardship. Having spent so many days in the Misty Forest, seeing adventurers and encountering magical beasts, the two were already satisfied.

Naturally, they had no reason to oppose Hean's suggestion to return.

Xia Nan, however, did not respond immediately, his face showing some hesitation.

The reason he had joined Hean's team wasn't primarily for the reward, but because he wanted to uncover the origin of the wooden plaque held by the half-elf.

Now, as they had ventured deeper, the familiar architecture had kept appearing; the truth seemed to be right before his eyes.

To turn back now...

Sensing the hesitation on Xia Nan's face and mistakenly assuming it was about the payment, Hean immediately added

“Don't worry. Although the mission result is different from what I expected before I left, your 100 gold will definitely not be short.”

As soon as he finished speaking, Larry patted his chest with a grand air

“I'll pay the reward!”

“If it weren't for you, I'd probably have died in the mouths of those Rust Monsters last night.”

“What's 100 gold? I'd be willing to pay 500!”

Since it involved Xia Nan's greatest secret—his "transmigration"—he couldn't explain much.

He cast a glance toward the depths of the forest beyond the courtyard.

He thought to himself

Although they were still on the outskirts of the Misty Forest, they were approaching the boundary.

Any further in, even with professionals in the party, safety could hardly be guaranteed.

And based on the pattern of the buildings appearing along the way, if he wanted to figure out the origin of the plaque, he had to go deep into the Misty Forest.

With his current strength, it was too dangerous.

“Perhaps, I'll come back later?”

The thought lasted only an instant.

Facing the enthusiasm of the others, Xia Nan stopped hesitating. He nodded to Hean, Larry, and the rest, agreeing to return.

Much like tourists at a scenic spot in his previous life, no matter how uninterested they were in the surrounding attractions, they would often buy some local souvenirs to prove they had been there.

At the very least, they would take a few photos.

Having experienced what might be a once-in-a-lifetime "Misty Forest trip," Larry and Doris naturally wouldn't go back empty-handed.

Seeing that the return was decided, their eyes instinctively began searching the surroundings for convenient souvenirs.

“Whoa! This stone statue is quite well-made, much more detailed than the craftsmen in the city!”

Larry looked delighted as he pulled a stone statue of a venomous snake from some unknown corner.

It was as thick as an arm, with every scale carved exquisitely. The snake's body was coiled, its fangs slightly exposed in a posture poised to strike.

It was lifelike.

But Xia Nan couldn't help but frown.

This stone statue did not look like the style of Eastern civilization in his memory.

“Hey! Come here, everyone, come here!”

“There's even a statue of a Rust Monster here! It looks exactly like the one we met yesterday!”

Hearing this, something seemed to click.

Wood, who had been standing behind Hean, suddenly darkened.

His figure blurred, and in the next second, he had moved to shield the half-elf behind him.

He let out a low growl

“Alert!!!”