Did the Top-Ranked Girl Get Exposed Today? [HoloVerse] - Chapter 18

The villagers below chattered endlessly, yet after much discussion, they couldn’t come up with any useful ideas.

Feng Xiaoxiao hadn’t held much hope for them to begin with, she’d only asked in passing. No clues were acceptable, but any leads would naturally be better.

Amid the confused villagers, only the woman who had first stepped forward to beg Feng Xiaoxiao to save her child hesitantly raised her hand again.

“Speak.”

The woman looked uncertain, her lips trembling for a long moment before she finally whispered, “When I was young, I accidentally wandered into the forbidden zone deep within the valley. I brought back a flower from there, and I heard the high priest say its name is ‘Night Wanderer’…”

Feng Xiaoxiao’s eyes lit up, but just as she was about to press the woman for more details, another female voice cut in faster.

Sasha’s voice was urgent, her eyes blazing with anger and blame directed at the woman holding the child. “You actually entered the forbidden zone! That place is off-limits to everyone except the high priest and the chieftain!”

“Wen Li, you disturbed the mountain god in the forbidden land back then, that’s why your child was cursed from birth!”

Wen Li, as Sasha called her, looked panicked and bewildered as she glanced around. The villagers who had heard her earlier words now shunned her like the plague, afraid of suffering the same “curse” as her.

Feng Xiaoxiao frowned in disapproval but didn’t know what to say at the moment.

Although she didn’t believe in gods or ghosts, this was a game, creatures and spirits unseen in reality existed here.

She didn’t know what taboos the villagers associated with the “forbidden zone,” but since Wen Li had spoken up, she had to go and investigate no matter what.

Over there, Wen Li was still being accused by the crowd. Sasha looked furious, and to avoid angering the “mountain god,” she and the villagers huddled together, chattering heatedly.

In the end, they decided to throw both Wen Li and the child Feng Xiaoxiao had just saved into the forbidden zone as sacrifices!

Feng Xiaoxiao: ?

It was the dead of winter, with frost and snow chilling the air. Without fire or food, the child would freeze to death in one night, and Wen Li wouldn’t last more than a few days.

She raised her hand and waved at the villagers who were fervently discussing, her expression puzzled. “Um, isn’t the mountain god you’re talking about right here?”

She pointed at herself, quite comfortable with this new identity.

Clearing her throat lightly, Feng Xiaoxiao straightened her posture and spoke magnanimously, “I’m not even holding it against her for entering the forbidden zone and offending the ‘mountain god.’ What are you all afraid of?”

Hearing her words, the villagers exchanged uncertain glances. A few seemed about to speak but were silenced by a look from Sasha.

Sasha maintained her respectful demeanor. “Even if you don’t mind, we cannot allow her to offend you.”

“She hasn’t offended me at all…”

At a signal from Sasha, several people restrained Wen Li and began dragging her away. Feng Xiaoxiao tried to step forward to stop them but was blocked by a wall of villagers.

She couldn’t help but frown, turning to survey the people obstructing her path once again.

Among those stopping her were many whom she had recently treated and healed with her own hands.

She looked directly at Sasha, who appeared respectful on the surface but truly held the power to command the villagers, and asked in confusion, “You keep defying my wishes, aren’t you afraid I’ll get angry?”

Sasha bowed her head, still wearing that respectful expression. “We have waited for the mountain god’s return for three hundred years. How could we dare to anger you and make you leave us again?”

Three hundred years?

Feng Xiaoxiao was stunned. Could humans in the game live that long?

Even if we were to stretch the imagination and say they had somehow lived for three hundred years, just looking at Sasha before her, she couldn’t be older than thirty or forty at most!

How could there be humans who could live for three hundred years without aging or dying?

Or perhaps these mountain dwellers living in the snowstorms only had human forms but weren’t actually the humans she thought they were?

With Sasha’s interruption, Wen Li and the child she desperately shielded in her arms had already been dragged away, disappearing without a trace.

Sasha blocked Feng Xiaoxiao’s line of sight and spoke gently, though her tone left no room for doubt: “The Mountain God must be exhausted after expending so much divine power today. I’ll have someone take you back to your former dwelling to rest.”

Two sturdy women stepped up on either side of Feng Xiaoxiao. After comparing the thickness of her own arms to theirs, she wisely chose to follow without resistance.

After the three had left, Sasha stared at Feng Xiaoxiao’s retreating figure, her expression unreadable.

“Chief…” someone beside her began hesitantly, “Is she really the Mountain God? But the Mountain God has long since…”

“Shh.” Sasha signaled for silence, her gaze sweeping over the excited mountain folk gathered around the sacrificial altar. “Whether she is the Mountain God or not doesn’t matter. What matters is that we need a ‘Mountain God’ right now.”

…

“So this is ‘my’ former residence?”

Inside the long-sealed temple, dim light faintly illuminated a headless statue.

Feng Xiaoxiao brushed her hand against the thick layer of dust accumulated at the statue’s hem, her fingers instantly coated in grime.

Judging by how poorly the mountain folk had maintained the statue, it didn’t seem like they held much reverence for the former Mountain God.

Just as Feng Xiaoxiao was wiping the dust from her hands, the long-silent system chimed, issuing a task notification.

[System Notification] Detected current status, Mountain God of the Snowstorm Valley (False). Detected current location, Snowstorm Temple. Task automatically triggered!

Feng Xiaoxiao: ?

[System Notification] Special Encounter “Restore the Statue” activated. Please retrieve the statue’s head within three in-game days. During this period, due to special circumstances, your attack skills will be restricted, and logging out will be prohibited!

[System Notification] Current side quest progress: 15% (???). Please continue advancing the side quest!

Feng Xiaoxiao: “…”

The demon king’s request was still unresolved, she had lost the Imperial Homeland, and now she was barred from logging out and saddled with a side quest.

Was she Nezha, with three heads and six arms to handle everything?

Feng Xiaoxiao sighed wearily, drawing puzzled looks from the two mountain women who were ostensibly accompanying her but were actually keeping watch.

Exchanging a glance, one of them stepped forward and addressed Feng Xiaoxiao.

“You’ve been absent for so long, and the temple has been neglected. Please bear with these conditions for a few days. Once the sacrificial rites conclude in three days, we will arrange a better place for you.”

Her words only deepened Feng Xiaoxiao’s confusion. Relying on her feminine intuition and sharp instincts honed from years of gaming, Feng Xiaoxiao sensed that this “better place” might not be as favorable as they claimed.

She lifted her eyelids, scanning the temple’s interior, cobwebs hanging from the eaves, dust swirling in the air, and remarked flatly, “So you’re having the Mountain God rest here?”

“Gods have no need for mortal comforts.”

The woman threw Feng Xiaoxiao’s own earlier words back at her.

Feng Xiaoxiao: “…”

Slapping herself in the face with her own words stung a little.

Seeing that she had nothing more to say, the two women positioned themselves on either side of the only exit, firmly shutting the door, making it clear that Feng Xiaoxiao was to be confined here.

Feng Xiaoxiao, who remained before the deity statue, stroked her chin and silently assessed the gap between her current strength and that of the two guards.

Along the way, she had passed hundreds of dwellings, and many who hadn’t attended the sacrificial ceremony had poked their heads out to observe the newly emerged “mountain god.”

She had no idea what the women here ate to grow so strong. Aside from a few who were ill or injured, the rest were all robust and looked as though they could kill a tiger with a single punch.

Feng Xiaoxiao admitted to herself that without her skills, her lethality was no match even for a tabby cat, at least the little tabby’s agility and reflexes were far superior to her restricted self.

She couldn’t confront them head-on. The area was too close to the dwellings, and even if she managed to defeat the two at the entrance, it would likely draw more people.

By then, these mountain villagers would probably cast aside all pretense, no longer caring about her status as the mountain god, and further restrict her movements while making greedy demands.

Pacing back and forth before the deity statue, Feng Xiaoxiao brainstormed frantically for a way to break the deadlock.

Logically, the game system shouldn’t present her with an impossible situation. Since it had specified a three-day time limit, there should be some hint or clue to help her escape.

Otherwise, stripped of her offensive abilities and left with only self-healing, Feng Xiaoxiao was far too passive!

Just as she was deep in thought, her peripheral vision suddenly caught a glimpse of a fluffy, snow-white tail peeking out from behind the deity statue.

Feng Xiaoxiao: ?

The headless deity statue stood in a posture of sprinkling rain, one arm cradling a weathered stone figure whose features were no longer discernible, the other hand poised mid-air, fingers delicately holding a flower.

Right where the head should have been, a fluffy head suddenly popped up, two small ears twitching.

A white cat!

Feng Xiaoxiao’s spirits lifted, this was almost certainly the game’s guidance system at work!

The white cat seemed to notice the woman’s gaze and, as if understanding the situation, refrained from meowing to attract outside attention. Instead, it gracefully leaped down from the statue, its soft paws landing lightly on the stone.

The moment its paws touched the ground, they were instantly dirtied by the floating dust. Was it Feng Xiaoxiao’s imagination, or did she actually see an expression of “disgust” on the cat’s face?

Enduring the filth, the cat took a few steps forward. Seeing that Feng Xiaoxiao wasn’t following, it turned its head and swished its tail from side to side, signaling for her to hurry.

Keeping quiet, Feng Xiaoxiao cautiously followed the little cat, which left a trail of tiny paw prints in the dust, leading step by step behind the deity statue.

No longer pristine, the cat’s paws patted the abandoned lotus pedestal behind the statue, indicating that Feng Xiaoxiao should sit on it.

Complying, Feng Xiaoxiao endured the grime and sat cross-legged on the lotus pedestal. The little cat nimbly leaped onto her shoulder, coiling its tail neatly.

For the sake of its guidance, Feng Xiaoxiao ignored the dirty paw prints now adorning her shoulder.

The pedestal beneath her trembled slightly, sensing her weight as dust scattered around.

Just as Feng Xiaoxiao wondered if the lotus pedestal would take flight and carry her out of the temple, the space beneath her suddenly gave way. Her vision spun, and a sense of weightlessness washed over her.

This was the second time she had fallen today.

The lotus pedestal abruptly flipped over, sending Feng Xiaoxiao plummeting into the darkness below without a sound, like a dumpling dropped into boiling water.

Expressionless, Feng Xiaoxiao quickly grabbed the little white cat, which was also falling. She felt no appreciation for this game’s method of progressing through levels and even felt like flipping the bird at the sky.

Enough already.

She fell for what felt like an eternity, so long that Feng Xiaoxiao considered closing her eyes for a nap, until her back landed softly, as if she had fallen into something strange.

Opening her eyes, she found herself in a dimly lit underground tunnel where the soil was damp, and clusters of glowing blue mushrooms grew along the edges and corners, serving as the only faint light source in the place.

Flecks of pale yellow fireflies danced around slightly decaying patches of grass, only to be startled into a flurry by the rustling descent of Feng Xiaoxiao.

For a moment, the gloomy space was filled with countless “stars,” accompanied by the dreamlike glow of the fluorescent mushrooms.

If it weren’t for the still-blocked communication channels with the outside world, Feng Xiaoxiao might have been able to calm down and appreciate this beautiful scene.

Yeah, right.

With an impassive expression, she jumped off the large fluorescent mushroom she had crushed with the force of her fall, stepped on the oozing mushroom juice, and strode forward, clutching a restless, struggling white kitten in her arms.

Behind her, a trail of glowing footprints slowly began to take shape.