Chapter 1

The bone-chilling wind was blowing while heavy snow kept falling.

Le Xaan opened his eyes, finding himself in a yellowish-gray horse carriage. The carriage was trembling as it pulled along the road. Soft whispers from a little girl floated over.

Incessant noises sounded from outside the vehicle.

Some vendors were hawking, and some gawkers were hollering appreciatively. And the laughter from some children.

Lee Xaan let out a long sigh.

He was originally a civil servant on Earth, sitting around every day while working. In the wake of a hangover, he transmigrated into this world five days before, and he knew he would be unable to find his way back.

He sniffed a little and detected the fragrances of wine and fried doughnuts mixed with that of pancake.

"Oopsie! The Orchid Winery's wine smells as good as ever! "

Inside the cabin, Qiki, his little maidservant, said in a childish voice.

Qiki had just turned twelve this year. Her features gave a hint of her lovable innocence, and her size was rather petite, making her look nothing different than a ten-year-old girl. She was wearing a green cotton dress, her face chubby and her cheeks rosy. Now, Qiki was rubbing a ponytail holder with her small hands, which was for Lee Xaan's use.

This hair tie was made of some type of expensive bark, giving off a faint, pleasant smell. Its only flaw was that when the weather turned cold, it would harden and call for someone to rub it from time to time.

Le Xaan smiled without a word.

The horse carriage pulled up.

He lifted the cabin's flap, got out of the carriage, and stepped onto the greenish stone pavement.

The street was bustling with horse carriages and passers-by.

There were hawkers and some beautiful girls who were laughing heartily.

Le Xaan looked up at the winery's sign.

Rectangular in shape, it read, 'Orchid Winery'.

"Young Master Le, here you are!" an attendant walked over and greeted Le Xaan. "Please come in! The best room was still kept in reserve for you!" A waiter shouted while walking over.

Le Xaan, adopting the demeanor of a scion of a wealthy family, took a folding fan with a gilded edge from Qiki and opened it, which displayed a picture of rolling mountains and a meandering river, as well as an elegant verse.

He was then ushered into the winery by the waiter.

The winery had two floors. Many patrons were now listening to a song in the first one.

The singer was a green-clad girl, her voice melodious and ethereal, accompanied by a woman playing the flute.

The song told a sorrowful story about the romantic relationship between an ancient marshal and a fox spirit.

It was too bad that most of the patrons present were too vulgar to marvel at the story. Some scholars were probably able to grasp its meaning, while the rest were turning a blind eye to the singer. Thus, the show received only a small amount of tips.

Le Xaan paused in his steps and found an empty table to sit at and enjoy the ballad.

"Who orders the song?" He asked the waiter casually.

His status here was considered elevated. If the Orchid Winery was a high-end entertainment club, then he would surely be the most valued VIP client, spending at least hundreds of thousands of dollars enjoying its services.

Anywhere in Gourian City, or even across the entire Northern Realm, such an amount of expenditure would turn Le Xaan into a noble customer.

"It's Young Master Choure." "Choure Kayee," The Waiter replied in a low voice.

Le Xaan waved his hand, signaling for him to leave.

He and Qiki took seats side by side. His eyes scanning the crowd around, Le Xaan soon spotted a thinly-built young man with a pale face. The young man was dressed all in white and swinging a golden folding fan slowly.

"He must be getting hooked on that singer." Lee Xaan remarked while shaking his head.

"Young Master, you have just warned him not long ago! He is truly a bad egg!" Qiki pouted indignantly.

Le Xaan smiled without a word and was captured by the sweet-sounding tune.

Dishes of delicious food were soon served on the dark red table. Le Xaan ate a mouthful of the fragrant food before drinking a sip of the sweet wine. The wine had a flavor of floral aroma, tasting like some type of fruit juice.

"A life of luxury, carefree, having a beautiful maidservant. Who doesn't desire such a decadent life?" Sometimes, Le Xaan thought, why not allow himself such a lifestyle for the rest of his life, since in his previous life, this was something he had been longing for?

He ate another mouthful of the dish and then drank wine.

Then he opened his mouth to eat the Saltwater Iced Shrimp peeled by Qiki.

Iced Shrimp was a specialty in the Northern Realm, where in an ice hole, you could fish out a large amount of this type of transparent shrimp.

The so-called Iced Shrimp.

Iced Shrimp was half the size of a normal shrimp, but it had a fresh taste beyond comparison. It would melt in your mouth, quite the delicacy.

Yet its price was rather expensive. For ordinary people, it was extravagant to eat Iced Shrimp once a month, while Le Xaan could afford to have it every day.

While enjoying the tasty food and wine and listening to the song, he was also thinking about something.

He had arrived in this world for quite a period of time, and he could tell some peculiarities of this world. In the beginning, he figured that he had traveled back in time to ancient times, but it was proved wrong later.

The customs, festivals, and climate here were far different from those of any territory at any time on Earth.

While Le Xaan was absent-minded, the winery's door was opened once again.

A few men in tight-fitting combat clothing walked in and sat down around a table close to a corner.

These guys looked nothing like the locals and were probably from the Central Land. Their bearing and conduct were not that rough and barbarian, anyway.

"Alas."

One among them, a bald man with a face full of harsh lines in brass earrings, sighed, "We can't go on with this!"

"Elder Brother, what are you worrying about? Even though we can't take the path through the Inkacoo Village, we can just go around it by going through the Chankacoo Village." Another man among them said with a frown.

"What do you even know? When I came over to gather with you, I have been to the Chankacoo Vilage. Its situation was no less dangerous than the Inkacoo Village. Many villagers died there." The bald man's facial muscles twitched, and his expression grew gloomy.

"What was happening there on earth? Edler Brother, tell us and open our eyes.." A third man urged him.

The bald man let out a sigh, "I don't know too much, either. I only know that many villages around the Swerin Lake are incurring some weird things.Probably caused by river spirits."

"River spirits? How could it be?"

Le Xaan wasn't far from them, so he was able to listen to their talks clearly. He had never expected them to talk about something ghastly and weird like that.

His family, the Le family, was one of the wealthiest in Gourian City, the equivalent of a billionaire family on Earth.

Over the past few days, he heard many stories about ghosts and demons in the winery, but mostly legends. Today was the first time he had listened to someone talking about their personal experiences.

Thus, Le Xaan focused on overhearing their conversations. Fortunately, that man didn't bother to conceal their chat. They talked on and on with no regard for other clients around.

"i have seen that river spirit with my own eyes. Nine foot three tall, a ugly green face and grim fangs. Many aquatic weeds was draped over his body. If I hadn't run away enough fast, you wouldn't be able to see me now. " The bald seemed to be frightened from recalling.

"Elder brother, is there really something like river spirits?" One of them appeared unconvinced of the bald man's story.

"Elder Brother, you make it all up, right?" Another man asked while giggling.

Le Xaan was also amused, and he believed that the bald man was fabricating a story.

He had seen a lot of braggarts like him over this period of time.

After finishing his eating and drinking, he ordered a waiter to give him a song list and browsed it.

He decided to choose a song that was more joyful and lively.

Bang!

Right at this moment, the hairless man smacked the table with his palm with a flushed face.

"Do you really think I'm bragging? Look, and tell me what this is! This is a bone that the river spirit left behind! After the incident, I went back to that location and picked it up! He carefully took a jade-like piece of green stone out of his bosom and placed it on the table.

"Isn't this some type of low-grade jade?" One among his associates laughed out loud.

"Low-grade jade? This is low-grade jade? What the fuck are you even talking about?"

The bald man barked with a burning red face.

"Bro, may you let me have a look."

Suddenly, a calm voice rang out.

Le Xaan walked up to this group of people, casting a glance at the stone.

"Do you dare to touch this thing? It's something left behind a river spirit, after all." The hairless man questioned in awe. He had already planned to throw it away after showing it off to his buddies since it was too inauspicious and might bring him some bad luck. If this unlucky piece of stone attracted a river spirit, he would pay a heavy price.

"I don't care. Just have a look." Le Xaan didn't believe in superstitions but was drawn by the stone's exquisite appearance.

Average low-grade jade could be purchased even in street stalls and was nothing valuable. But, when he laid his eyes on this stone, he smelled something fishy.

The bald man sized up Le Xaan and was awe-struck by his refined aura and luxurious dressing style.

He was wearing a pale green robe inside, a white fox fur coat outside, a bejeweled hat on his head, and a silver-thread-stitched pair of black shoes with a rolling-cloud pattern emblazoned on them. His outfit would cost an average family's living expenses for several months.

"If you really want it, we can negotiate ... probably, a silver coin!" The brawny man hesitated for a moment before laying out his demand.

"Deal." Le Xaan signaled for Qiki to place a silver coin on the table.

"Alright. It's yours now!" The man quickly put the jade-like stone in Le Xaan's palm. Then, this group of men exchanged glances among themselves before leaving swiftly.

Without a word, Le Xaan watched as the gang of men left. While pinning the stone with his fingers, he studied it carefully.

"When it comes to the purchasing power, a silver coin is the equivalent of two hundred dollars, or something like that, roughly. I have never squandered money in such a generous manner until I transmigrated to this world.

He shook his head. A silver coin was nothing. According to his memories, this body's former owner would use up a hundred silver coins every month, at least. Sometimes, his expenditures per month would exceed a thousand silver coins. The equivalent of two hundred thousand dollars!

When he recalled this, he couldn't help but scold himself for the extravagant lifestyle. While holding the piece of jade, he left the winery with Qiki for the horse carriage outside, paying no attention to the surrounding people's gazes at him.

Halfway out of the winery, he was thrown into a daze, discovering the piece of jade was now melting in his palm.

It was originally hard in quality, but now, within a few seconds, it was turning into a pool of dark green mucus. And Le Xaan seemed to be hearing shrill screams from it.

Oops!

The mucus exploded into a cloud of green smoke and gradually dissipated before him.

Le Xaan stood on his spot in bewilderment and then lowered his head to gaze at the stone, only to find out that its green color was already gone.

"What is that all about..." He was in a daze, with his thoughts focused on the scene just before.

"Young Master? Young Master?" Qiki called him continuously from beside him.

Le Xaan jolted back to his senses. When he glanced at the stone again, he discovered that it had already become a plain-looking pebble, nothing like a jade.

He was weirded out and vaguely knew of something.

"Now back home!"

Qiki was blinking and still had no idea what was going on. "Understood... "

The two of them got into the carriage, and then the carter whipped the two long-haired black horses. The carriage started moving.

Inside the cabin, Le Xaan gazed at the pebble in his hand silently.

Just then, Qiki also noticed the stone's change in quality.

"We've got tricked once more!" She thought. But she didn't say it out loud. Fortunately, it was just a silver coin. Previously, they were scammed out of a thousand silver coins by buying a so-called antique. That time, Le Xaan's father was almost pissed off to the point of insanity.

This time, they just lost a silver coin, which couldn't cover even the expense of a single meal for Le Xaan.

The horse carriage was heading for the Le Mansion. When it went past the city gate, Le Xaan heard someone shouting,

"... I heard that the river spirit has already been eliminated! A wandering monk did the job, saving those fishing villages from the crisis!

"Has the royal court sent some men to solve it? "

"The court's team has arrived long before! But I heard Sheriff Otika from the city's government almost died there while eradicating the river spirit!" Fortunately, the wandering monk came along. With a wave of his hand, a beam of golden light shot out, and the river spirit exploded into a pool of green mucus! Then, a thick cloud of smoke took place and dissipated, and the river spirit was gone! "

"So it wasn't the court's men who killed the river spirit?"

"Of course not!"

Le Xaan knew it was the city gate's guardians who were talking.

These guardians were well-informed and liked to brag about what they had recently known.

"Quite a coincidence, isn't it... " Le Xaan thought inwardly. When he thought back to that piece of jade-like stone, he was a little on edge.

Gradually, the carriage drew close to Roskew Street, the most vibrant and bustling street in the city.