Chapter 40: The Search For Water Begins! Part-2.

"Are you sure this is the right place?"

Looking at the massive house made of gigantic stones, Zephyr felt goosebumps appear on his body from the eerie vibe of the place.

There was a small wooden fence around the house, and it was decorated with giant skulls and bones; the place was clearly not something that a regular person would want to ever visit.

"Hmph! Of course this is the right place! Do you take this princess for an idiot or what?"

"I told you, there is a massive pool of water in the hidden underground floor of this house. It’s up to you whether you want to believe me or not; I will go inside on my own if you don’t want to."

Hearing those words, Zephyr frowned a bit and asked in confusion,

"How do you know all that? Me going for water does seem reasonable, but what would you go inside this dangerous-looking place for?"

At his question, Xinran smiled meaningfully and cracked her knuckles before saying in an arrogant tone,

"Hehe, of course, it’s because I have to settle some score with a certain old witch. It would be worth looking at that bewildered face after I tell her that I killed all of the giants she was raising in captivity, keke~"

"I am very familiar with this place, as this isn’t my first time coming here to make a mess out of things..."

Although Zephyr wasn’t inclined to believe Xinran, as he still hadn’t forgotten that she had tried to finish him off not too long ago, he had no other choice but to put himself in danger.

Despite searching so many huts, Zephyr didn’t manage to find a single drop of water anywhere.

Even the river that was supposed to be located near the town was completely dried up, and there was no water in it for Zephyr to drink.

Xinran was a vampire, and she could just drink the blood of the chicken or any other creature to quench her thirst; she needed no water whatsoever. Thus, Zephyr was the only one stuck in a desperate situation.

He had no choice at the moment but to take a gamble and explore the stone house, which he had been avoiding until now.

"Well, we are already here. No point in hesitating now... let’s go in."

Shaking his head in helplessness, Zephyr took a step forward and entered the front yard of the stone house through the big wooden door.

The wooden door of the fence was stained dark red from dried blood and was wide open as if it were openly inviting prey to step inside and fall into a trap.

The moment Zephyr stepped inside, a weird feeling suddenly assaulted his heart as his eyes unconsciously started staring at the dark sand-filled yard with a frown on his face.

’What is this feeling...’

Zephyr’s intuition told him that the ground in this place was likely not normal and there was hidden danger here.

Moreover, he had a feeling that this ground was somehow ’alive’ and was staring at him.

’How weird...’

There were too many bizarre phenomena in this world, so Zephyr wasn’t even surprised anymore that something was wrong with the ground here.

He had already seen lasers raining from the sky and piranhas flying in the sky; nothing could shock him more at this point.

"As expected of you, you easily shrugged off the mind pollution of that ’thing’... Even I can’t do that."

Hearing Xinran’s sudden praise, Zephyr was startled for a second and glanced in her direction only to realize that she was using her wings to fly in the air and was clearly avoiding the ground.

As if noticing Zephyr’s confusion, Xinran smiled and pointed her small index finger at the ground before explaining.

"The thing you are standing on is not ground; that’s a broken piece of a tentacle that the old witch residing in this castle broke off of a powerful monster and placed here..."

"Those giants you saw outside were actually living cells of this broken tentacle that had grown into fully grown giants after years of being separated from the tentacle..."

"This thing has a powerful mind-eroding capability; anyone who steps on it gets their mind destroyed and their body gets assimilated into this weird tentacle..."

"I almost fell prey to it the first time I came here but thankfully I survived because of an artifact I have..."

Hearing those words, Zephyr finally understood why the place was giving him such a creepy feeling.

"Urgh, you made me stand on rotting monster meat that oozes out giant living creatures from its body?"

Xinran patted Zephyr on the shoulder as she giggled in satisfaction.

"Keke, this act is revenge for calling me an old hag. Well, I already knew that you were immune to mind attacks, so this thing is pretty much harmless to you, but I like that irritated look..."

"It makes you look kind of cute... hehe, poor little Zephy, got tricked so easily~"

Ignoring Xinran’s annoying voice, Zephyr shrugged off the instinctive disgust he felt in his heart when stepping on this weird ground and hurried toward the giant stone house instead.

"By the way, that stone house is actually also made from the bones extracted from this piece of tentacle... the creature’s bones turn into stone once they get extracted apparently..."

Hearing those words, Zephyr couldn’t help but question the architectural taste of the person who made this house.

"Why would anyone want to live in a house that oozes out weird monsters and blasts off powerful mind pollution waves everywhere!? The person living here must be out of their mind!"

Xinran nodded her head at those words.

"Indeed, that old witch does have a few screws loose in her head. By the way, her favorite food is spider meat..."

"If you see spiders inside the house, kill them to piss her off more keke~"

At those words, Zephyr made a mental note that he should avoid killing spiders inside this house, as he didn’t want to get in trouble with someone who could be considered a regular enemy of Xinran.

The other party was likely just as strong as Xinran if she was still alive even after Xinran had come over to fight her many times.