Chapter 72: Where is this place?

  "Where is this?"

  As she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was the thatched roof of a hut with cobwebs hanging from it and spider webs in the corner. Xiaoyao's heart skipped a beat as she subconsciously tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness and weakness washed over her like a high fever above 40 degrees Celsius.

  She rubbed her forehead, calmed down and took a simple glance at the environment she was in now. The room wasn't big, there weren't many things, it was easy to see everything at a glance. At the same time, Zuo Xiao Yao finally understood what "bare walls" meant.

  Low thatched hut, she should be lying on the bed, although when she got up just now, the thing under her body that should be called a 'bed' made a sound similar to 'creak', there was no mosquito net, and by the bedside stood a very simple wooden cabinet, the outer layer seemed to have been painted red, diagonally opposite the bed was the door of the house, at this time the tightly closed door behind which were lined up against the wall five or six black earthen jars of different sizes.

  This was a poor household, and Xue Xiao Yao quickly confirmed this realization in her mind. Although she had never personally experienced such a poverty-stricken living environment before, even when she and her grandmother were going through their toughest days, their living conditions had never fallen to such an extent. So why did she suddenly appear here? And why was she so weak?

  Xiao Yao's memories only went up to the point where she broke free from the sudden and inexplicable situation that had suppressed everyone's divine souls. She then saw a black orb suddenly fly out of her storage bag in her right pocket, and soon after, she was involuntarily controlled by an abnormally strong force. All she felt at the time was Qin Xiao and Qin Lian trying to grab onto her before she completely lost consciousness.

  That black orb was something she had bought on a whim from an antique shop during her first few missions three years ago. It had a very dense aura, but it didn't reveal any spiritual power. During the period when she had just gotten it back, Xiaoyao had also studied it many times, but found that whether she infused spiritual energy into it or tried to sense its spirit, it would accept everything without resistance, and yet she couldn't control it at all.

  After a long time, Zuo Xiao Yao also lost her patience and threw it into the corner of her storage bag, no longer paying attention to it. Unexpectedly, this time it suddenly showed its 'divine power' and didn't even give her a heads up before bringing about this turn of events.

  Thinking of that black sphere, Xiang Xiaoyao immediately thought of the storage bag that originally held it. She looked down and found that fortunately, she was still wearing this set of sportswear without changing out of it. She reached into the right pocket and found that the larger-capacity storage bag she usually used was still there. Suddenly, her heart felt slightly at ease. Unexpectedly, this family turned out to be quite honest and cautious, never privately tampering with her clothes or belongings.

  I didn't notice her abnormality at that time, wanting to pull her down with Qin Xiao and Qin Lian. But what about now? Won't they also be inexplicably "thrown" into a strange place like her? I don't know how the dispute in the Sahara Desert ended, but at this moment, Zuo Xiaoyao is secretly thinking that not only Qin Xiao and Qin Lian are involved, but also Luo Hongtian and Zhuge Jinyu.

  Feeling that her body was too weak, Zuo Xiaoyao didn't even have a thread of usable spiritual energy left inside her. Being unaccustomed to this feeling like ordinary people, she thought of running some cultivation techniques first and planned to ask around about Qin Xiao and Qin Lian after her body and cultivation recovered.

  Unfortunately, a moment later, Zuo Xiao Yao, who was sitting cross-legged on the bed with great difficulty, flashed a hint of shock and panic in her eyes when she opened them again. After trying many times, she couldn't even sense a bit of spiritual energy in her dantian after running the foundation-building stage of her cultivation technique. She had become an ordinary person once again, or rather, an ordinary person without any spiritual root. Even if she ran the initial stages of her beginner's cultivation technique, there was no reaction whatsoever. Her spiritual awareness and mental strength were extremely weak, but still existed, yet they couldn't connect with the Purple Venerable's Three Treasures in her divine sea at all.

  Whether it's the loss of her entire cultivation that can't be restored, or the complete inability to use the three treasures of Zi Zun, encountering either one would be a huge tragedy for Zuo Xiao Yao. But now, both disasters have struck at the same time, and it can almost be said to be a calamity of epic proportions. Of course, this is her understanding before she discovers another tragedy, in a situation where she still doesn't have a comprehensive grasp of her current circumstances.

  Although she felt unbelievable and at a loss at first, Zuo Xiao Yao soon calmed down. After all, she had also experienced many things and knew that when facing sudden crises, emotions such as panic, fear, and retreat were of no use, and could even make the already bad situation worse. It was better to first determine her current environment, ask about Qin Xiao and Qin Liang's news, and then figure out how her cultivation had mysteriously disappeared, and why she couldn't even run the lowest-level magic!

  After making up her mind, she took a deep breath and ignored the weakness in her body and the pain in her right abdomen. She pushed away the worn-out quilt that had been patched countless times but still had several holes, and struggled to get out of bed. As soon as her feet touched the shoes, she tried to stand up, but a dizzying sensation suddenly appeared, almost causing her to fall to the ground. Fortunately, she stretched out her hand in time to hold onto the bedside, barely supporting her body.

  "Oh dear, young lady! How did you get up? Hurry back to bed quickly, if there's anything, just call out for someone, you've been sleeping for three days and three nights, your body must be very weak!"

  She stared blankly at the middle-aged woman who had just pushed open the door and hurried forward to support her swaying body, helping her sit down on the bed. What left Zuo Xiaoyao perplexed was not the woman's rustic simplicity and warmth, which seemed familiar, but rather her clothes and hairstyle - a short top with a long skirt, tied high at the waist with a cloth belt, almost reaching her armpits, all made of dark blue coarse linen; on her feet were greyish-brown round-toed cloth shoes, though also patched up, looked very clean. Her hair was styled in a bun, and this woman was obviously a neat person.

  The tone of the speech sounds like a person from Northeast China, and it seems that she has been to many places. With the influence of TV networks and other media, Xiaoyao can basically understand what the other person is saying in the first time. However, even if she doesn't fully understand modern people's way of life, she is quite certain that this woman, unless she just came back from a movie set, would not dress up like an ancient Chinese woman in everyday life. But looking at the situation in this house...

  Uncertain as to what had gone wrong, after calming down, without deliberately concealing the surprise that appeared when seeing this woman, Zuo Xiao Yao asked somewhat dazedly "May I ask how you are addressed? Where is this place?"

  PS: Thanks to book friends 3 Da Xiao, Liu Li Xiao Xiao and Mi Hu Nu Hai for their support. I stayed up till 4 am last night, but didn't make it through the night and fell asleep at midnight. Got up early today and was busy until now, finally having time to expand from over a thousand words to over two thousand. Will try to update more tomorrow!