Wan Qianxin, as smart as he was, was still a child. Being so directly exposed by Wan Lei, he couldn't help but feel flustered, his face turning a deep shade of red.
"Are you guys communicating via sound transmission?"
Seeing Wan Qianxin's embarrassed state, the withered old man cast an unfriendly glance.
"No, no."
Wan Lei and Wan Qianxin both waved their hands.
"Hmph, you're definitely hiding something. Wan Qianxin, I'm going to tell Mother that you bullied me."
"My cousin won't hit me."
"Wan Qianxin!!!"
The withered old man charged towards the dejected young man in anger.
Soon, the group arrived at the small island.
After landing, they strolled leisurely along what seemed to be a non-existent path, for there were no houses or anything of that sort. The memes, naturally, wouldn't bother to build roads.
As they walked, they were frequently eyed with curiosity by the Weiyang tribesmen. However, to Wan Lei and his companions, these people looked like mental patients, their actions and demeanor erratic and frenzied.
Looking at the island's appearance, it didn't seem like a place for transactions.
Could the protagonist's halo intuition be wrong?
Wan Lei felt a pang of unease. He had no way of knowing if his protagonist's halo was activated or not; the rhyme he'd recited was just something he'd made up on the spot.
As they neared the center of the island, three Weiyang tribesmen with relatively intact clothing appeared in the distance.
One middle-aged man and two young men, though human in form, Wan Lei and his companions could clearly sense the disordered, distorted force field of memes emanating from them.
The middle-aged man sized up the group with a wary gaze.
"Are you here for a trade?"
Wan Lei nodded silently, saying nothing.
The less said, the less likely to err. Silence was the safest option.
"From the positive dimension?"
Wan Lei looked at the other party with a look of surprise and disdain.
What kind of idiotic question was that? They were all humans, how could they be from a negative dimension?
"From the Black and White Forbidden Zone?"
Upon hearing this, Wan Lei and the others were overjoyed. They had excellent luck, finding their contacts so soon after arriving.
Wan Lei nodded silently again.
"The passphrase."
Passphrase? What passphrase? Was there such a thing? How was one supposed to guess it?
Squirrel transmitted a message privately, urging everyone to prepare for action.
Wan Lei tentatively asked,
"From the south comes a Lama?"
As soon as Wan Lei spoke, everyone present readied themselves for action. However, the three individuals before them visibly relaxed.
"From the north comes a mute. Yes, the passphrase matches."
The middle-aged man stated.
This actually worked?!!!
A sense of absurdity washed over everyone.
"As per the agreement, when the contact meets you, you need to act like a mute and not speak the passphrase. The passphrase is the 'mute' tongue twister. Your actions and the passphrase are both correct. Alright, follow me."
The three turned and walked away.
Damn it, so the passphrase was just a tongue twister? Are the Weiyang tribesmen all this eccentric?
Wan Lei dared not speak, and they had coincidentally matched everything perfectly?
"Kid, confess honestly, were you plotting something with them?"
"Do you believe me if I say it was all a guess?"
"Do you believe my guess?"
Actually, Squirrel did believe him. If it were anyone else, they wouldn't, but the people present, whether Wan Lei or the four little ones, knew each other too well. They were incapable of betraying the positive dimension.
Moreover, they wouldn't have had the opportunity to do so.
The group followed the three Weiyang tribesmen ahead. After walking a short distance, a large tree blocked their path.
"Get out of the way."
The middle-aged Weiyang tribesman shouted. The large tree was uprooted and moved to the side.
How magical.
Only then did everyone clearly see that beneath the tree was a passage.
The three Weiyang tribesmen leaped down and disappeared in the blink of an eye.
Wan Lei and his companions, with their courage and skill, followed suit and jumped down.
Despite the complete absence of spatial fluctuations, as soon as they entered the passage, they found themselves in a room.
Therefore, it was easily explained: the passage itself was a meme.
The question now was whether this room was also a meme.
Everyone had, to varying degrees, seen or heard of memes, and they knew that some houses were memes that, once entered, would not allow exit, gradually transforming people into furniture.
Upon arriving in this room, the three Weiyang tribesmen pushed open a door and walked out. The group followed them out and discovered that there were indeed quite a few people here.
There were Weiyang tribesmen, humans, and even demon races. However, seeing that the humans were without armor and were extremely vigilant, they must have been scavengers who had illegally entered the Sea of Suffering to seek fortune.
Well, Wan Lei didn't know what scavengers did, but from the name and the attire of these people, couldn't it be inferred?
To everyone's surprise, there were even a few demon races here!
Could humans and demons coexist so peacefully?
Or perhaps...
"This is a black market, provided by the Weiyang tribe, for those human scavengers to trade amongst themselves or with demons. All sorts of people are here, and their strength is generally not high. Usually, no one makes a move here, as there are not many places in the Sea of Suffering that offer rest and trade for scavengers.
The demons also wouldn't kill them; these people are not soldiers and pose no threat to the demons. Instead, the demons can trade with them for items salvaged from the Sea of Suffering.
After all, the Sea of Suffering is formed from cosmic collapses, and those previous universes might have been high-level planes, still containing many remnants of good things.
Whoever can salvage them gets rich, hence the many desperate stowaways willing to risk their lives to scavenge in the Sea of Suffering."
Squirrel transmitted.
"Understood. What's important for us now is to find out who is trading with those criminal organizations. I suspect these three Weiyang tribesmen are not them; what use do they have for the Black and White Folios? They can't enter the positive dimension."
"Could it be factions from other universes wanting to buy them? Or the demons? What would the demons do with the Black and White Folios? They can't be used on a large scale during major battles, as these items don't distinguish between friend and foe."
"They could be used for surprise attacks on camps."
While they were talking, the three Weiyang tribesmen ahead pushed open a door. After they entered, they saw three demon races sitting inside.
Heh, as expected, it was the demon race.
After the three Weiyang tribesmen brought them in, they didn't leave but stood in the room watching, possibly as witnesses or security.
"Heh heh, you've finally arrived. You kept your word, but why did you make us wait for a full half a year!"
The leading demon asked with a cold smile.
Wan Lei could sense that these three demons were all at the Taiheng realm strength, meaning they were high-level Demon Lords.
These three little杂虫 (maggots/scum), Wan Lei and his companions could crush them without Squirrel's intervention.
"Something came up, it caused a delay."
Wan Lei replied directly.
After all, the four little ones were children with little experience, Squirrel and Gouzi were pets, and Dada wasn't eloquent. He could hack people to death, but diplomacy was out of the question for him.