The Gentleman at the End-Chapter 658 - 656 Village and Flowers

The dilapidated car, reeking of a sour stench, wobbled along little-known mountain roads, even making use of some hardly noticeable forest trails.

Clearly, the grime-coated unlicensed taxi driver was quite capable, an old hand in the local black car circles.

Seizing the opportunity, William, who was sitting in the backseat, asked:

"Master, what do you know about Flower Sea Village?"

"You foreigners are really something, speaking Mandarin even better than me... Flower Sea Village, huh? I’m fairly familiar with it, given that most of my income comes from tourists heading to Flower Sea Village.

Flower Sea Village is home to a large number of blue jacarandas, which usually only bloom around May to June.

But Flower Sea Village can make the blooming last all year round, so whenever you go, you can get the best tourist experience.

This has a lot to do with the sea goddess worshipped by the locals. I’ve heard that she’s a beautiful woman who’s very fond of flowers, especially these blue jacarandas that resemble the color of the sea.

Blue flowers drifting down get swept into the sea by the tide, covering the surface—what a sight to behold!

However, about a month ago, a bunch of reckless youngsters hoping to boost their live stream viewership tried to uncover the secret of Flower Sea Village’s year-round blooming, by all means attempting to capture the sacred secrets hidden within the village.

One of them even had been bestowed a ’low-level blessing.’ In the end, they managed to elude the vigilant villagers and located Flower Sea Village’s hidden sites.

As you’d expect, they angered the sea goddess—the group of youngsters, including the one with the low-level blessing, all died. Moreover, no one from the village responsible for guarding the shrine was spared that day.

Subsequently, one innocent tourist after another died, and from what I heard, their deaths were gruesome. Under such pressure, they had no choice but to quarantine the entire village.

The city has dispatched experts to conduct thorough investigations on the village, even stating that some of them encountered dangers during the investigation and had to be rushed back to the city for emergency rescue.

That’s why the village has remained closed for an entire month.

If you want to turn back now, there’s still time, but the agreed price won’t change—it is what it is."

The unlicensed driver purposely portrayed the situation as very serious, hoping to persuade the trio to return, so he could avoid any risks while making a tidy sum.

Unexpectedly, instead of wanting to turn back, William’s interest grew even more. "Do you know how those people specifically died or what they looked like after death?"

The driver rubbed his greasy neck, rolled off a lump of dirt between his fingers, and flicked it out of the car.

"Well... I certainly haven’t seen it with my own eyes, but rumors say that those who go missing in Flower Sea Village end up floating on the sea, their bodies covered in fresh flowers, eventually becoming food for the sea goddess.

If anyone dares to retrieve the flower-covered corpses, they are bound to disappear within a day.

These are just rumors, not necessarily the truth."

"Thanks, Master."

"Aren’t you afraid? You still want to go, right?"

"There’s nothing to fear. Aren’t there experts from the city there now? If they’re okay, we’ll be fine too."

"Alright then."

For some reason, when the unlicensed driver glanced back at the foreign youth through the rearview mirror, he felt something was different, even more dangerous than the thugs he had encountered before, so much so that he didn’t dare to sneak peeks at the beauty sitting beside William anymore.

It took a continuous two and a half hours of driving through mountain roads and village paths to finally bypass the national road and enter into the boundary of Flower Sea Village.

The unlicensed driver was planning to drop off the group of foreigners after one last stretch of mountain road,

but then, something strange happened.

As he drove along the winding mountain path, slowing down through a sharp turn, something bizarre caught his eye,

a woman in a pure white gown was standing at the corner’s edge, waving at the car,

her lips completely purple and smiling,

The woman’s eyes were gone, replaced by blooming blue flowers.

The central pistils were densely packed with tiny protruding granules, each seemingly possessing its own visual capabilities, staring at the people in the car, welcoming their arrival.

The black cab driver was petrified by this scene,

but having driven this route over a hundred times before, he didn’t slam the gas pedal nor forget the steering wheel but instinctively drove on as normal.

It wasn’t until the woman waving in the rearview mirror could no longer be seen that the driver began to gasp for air, yet he still dared not hit the brakes, fearful that she might catch up.

In an effort to calm his tense nerves, the driver rolled down the window and lit a cigarette for himself,

and with the intake of nicotine, his trembling hands gradually steadied, while a layer of even greasier sweat coated his plump, pasty neck.

As time ticked away, the surrounding trees were gradually replaced with the characteristic Jacaranda trees of Flower Sea Village.

Even so, the driver did not stop the car, continuing to drive without asking William and the others in the back if they too had seen that eerie woman, remaining silent.

The cigarette remained clenched in his mouth even though the tobacco had long been smoked away.

Catherine reminded from the side, "William, the driver is acting a bit strange."

"I know, we have to be careful... Try not to breathe in the pollen."

William looked at the driver through the rearview mirror, noticing his facial expression was slightly rigid, with a grain-of-rice-like structure protruding between his pupils. This rice-like structure soon began to sprout, and a purple-blue flower bloomed, nourished by the eyeball.

Even a substance resembling seawater began to flow from the corners of the driver’s mouth,

William could only silently observe all of this, now unable to assist the driver, and not even sure when he had been seeded.

Thinking back on the experience, the most likely time he could have been seeded was while smoking,

as his cigarette was not stored in a box, but behind his ear. It was entirely possible that some pollen landed on the mouthpiece when he rolled down the window, and smoking caused the pollen to be inhaled directly.

There’s another possibility that tobacco might be assimilated by the local flora.

Either way, it was a warning for William and the others.

In the past, William wouldn’t have feared such a thing. Any foreign substance invading the body would be thoroughly thrashed by various pathogens inside him, beaten beyond recognition.

But now his restricted and weakened body had to be cautious,

fortunately, he had absorbed a consecrated ’Fertility Guanyin’ statue on the train and activated his body, regaining about 5% of the Complete Shaper Body, barely able to control his physical form to create a filter-like flesh membrane inside the facial features, blocking the inhalation of pollen.

Catherine formed a mucous membrane of seawater in the same location,

As for Fangfang, she seemed indifferent, as if the pollen couldn’t get close to her Face Magic Cube.

As rows of neatly vegetated residential houses came into view, they had arrived at Flower Sea Village. The black cab driver gently pressed the brake pedal and stopped smoothly.

He turned his flower-bloom-covered face with a smile, even emitting some spore dust from his mouth.

"We’ve arrived at Flower Sea Village, I hope you all have a fun time," he said.

After William and the others got out,

the driver floored the gas pedal, driving the car into the sea with a person inside, his face beaming with happiness as if something joyous awaited him in the water that he had never encountered in his lifetime.

This commotion also attracted nearby Investigators handling village incidents,

providing an opportunity for William and the others to quickly head towards the other side of the village.

Suddenly,

A creak! The back door of a guesthouse opened, and a plump woman in a long dress beckoned the group over, signaling them to approach.

Under normal circumstances, William would not go.

But Catherine seemed to sense something, grabbing William’s shoulder, "Let’s go, check into the guesthouse~ The locals will help us quickly understand the real situation here."

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