The Lively Village

At first glance from outside the village, the village was very quiet. Not only were there no people, even the sounds of chickens croaking and dogs barking could not be heard. But now as Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin followed the dark-faced man along the village path, they discovered more and more people in the village.

Originally every household had their doors closed. But as they walked from the foot of the mountain towards the top, the people of each house they passed opened their doors, and some came out.

The people who came out greeted them with smiles, then followed behind them, accompanying them up the mountain. They walked behind them, walked on the road, walked at the roadside. The number of people gradually increased, and some began talking, with low hubbub behind them. The village seemed lively.

"Perhaps the villagers are afraid of the demon beast?" Li Shiyin thought.

Previously no one was in the village because the villagers were afraid and did not dare to come out, hiding in their homes. Now that they had come, the villagers were not afraid anymore, so they all came out. The villagers had smiles on their faces and were very enthusiastic.

Suddenly someone came over to inquire, "Are you immortals from the Hengduan Mountains?"

Li Shiyin nodded.

Someone came over to give information, saying, "The daughter-in-law of Li Ergou's family cried all night last night, and this morning she was gone. Li Ergou is not even home. I reckon she must have been taken by the monster."

Someone else asked, "Do the immortals know what kind of demon this troublemaking monster is?"

"It's probably the Rat-Catching Demon Spider," Li Shiyin said.

As soon as she said this, the low hubbub in the crowd by the roadside suddenly grew louder, as if they were laughing? Li Shiyin could not hear very clearly, but she felt uncomfortable with their laughter.

Then someone asked again, "Are both immortals sword cultivators?"

Li Shiyin nodded again.

The further up the mountain they went, the more households they passed, the more people opened their doors, and the more villagers followed them. Li Shiyin occasionally looked back and saw that there were dozens of people behind them on the roadside, including both men and women, trampling the snow by the road until it melted.

These villagers, some wore thick cotton clothes, some were wrapped in quilts, some strong men wore only single garments, very rustic. They babbled, asking questions here and there, quite noisy.

Li Shiyin occasionally answered them, always with a faint smile on her face. But as they went deeper into the village, she also felt that something was wrong.

Stepping on the clean snow on the road, Li Shiyin's group quickly reached the middle of the village, the village chief's home.

The village chief had been waiting at the door early, an old man with white beard wearing a dog head hat. He bowed at the door, smiling fully, and cried out to Tian Wenjin and Li Shiyin, "I beg the immortals to save me!"

Tian Wenjin and Li Shiyin walked over and bowed back first. Li Shiyin was behind, holding her sword vigilantly, with her sword hilt in a position where she could draw it out at any time; Tian Wenjin was in front and asked, "Elder, please tell us all the clues you know, and we will definitely save you and slay demons. "

The village chief led Tian Wenjin and Li Shiyin into the room and let them sit in the seats of honor. He closed the door, knelt down with a thud in front of Li Shiyin and Tian Wenjin, and cried, "I beg the immortals to save me and let me out!"

Li Shiyin noticed that the old man had shouted "save me" both times instead of saving Da Shan Ridge. She was a little contemptuous in her heart. The so-called village chief was actually so selfish, cowardly and afraid of death.

She also looked around the room and felt it was rather bleak, unlike a place where people lived regularly, as if it had not been smoked by fire for a long time.

"Don't worry anymore with us here, Elder," Tian Wenjin stood up and walked towards the village chief to comfort him, "Elder, just tell us the location of the Rat-Catching Demon Spider's cave, and we sisters will slay the monster in no time."

"No time at all?" Li Shiyin looked at Tian Wenjin when she heard this, frowning slightly. This was not something Tian Wenjin would say.

As Tian Wenjin spoke, she reached out to help the village chief up.

But just as her hand was about to touch the village chief, the door was suddenly smashed open from outside. The dark-faced man from before walked in, pulled the village chief up with one hand, and apologized to her, "I just found out that the village chief was mentally disordered from excessive fright, I'm afraid he can't tell us anything coherent."

Before Tian Wenjin could react, he had already dragged the village chief out and handed him to a young man outside. Without a word, the young man covered the village chief's mouth and dragged him into the crowd.

The dark-faced man came back in again and closed the door quietly, blocking the scene outside.

He bowed to Tian Wenjin and said, "I just heard someone say that the village chief's daughter-in-law, Li Ergou's wife, was brutally killed by the monster last night. The village chief witnessed it happen and has gone mad from fright."

Tian Wenjin felt sad and said, "How pitiful."

"That monster was originally a monster from the Hengduan Mountains. It is a giant black spider that came to Da Shan Ridge seven days ago," the dark-faced man told Tian Wenjin about the details, "It has killed more than a dozen of our villagers since, hiding in the Peach Blossom Cave on the back mountain..."

"Xian Mu Qi Yuan"

As the dark-faced man continued speaking, Li Shiyin frowned and started reckoning.

She had been influenced by two extremely cunning people in Danfeng, so she had learned to be suspicious.

She quickly recalled all the unreasonable things before and after entering the village:

First, this was a hunting village, but there was not even the sound of dogs barking in this village;

Second, there were people in the village, but the snow on the village path was untouched, with no footprints;

Third, this dark-faced man clearly knew the details, yet still led them to the village chief;

Fourth, when they found the village chief, he quickly said the chief had gone mad;

Fifth, the village chief shouted "save me";

Sixth, when this dark-faced man burst in just now, even though Li Shiyin had refined her primordial spirit, she did not notice it;

Seventh...

Li Shiyin felt there were still many unreasonable things, but with her level, she could not figure them out.

Most importantly, she could only notice and observe these unreasonable things, but could not put them together to analyze the reasons behind them.

"It would be great if Master was here," she thought. "If Master was here, he would definitely see through what was going on at a glance."

After the dark-faced man finished speaking, Tian Wenjin pondered briefly and said to Li Shiyin, "Let's go to Peach Blossom Cave on the back mountain first to take a look. It would be best to kill that Rat-Catching Demon Spider directly."

"Hmm? Go directly?" Li Shiyin frowned even tighter.

She realized Tian Wenjin was acting strange, ever since earlier, Tian Wenjin had been a little off. If she was really calm and prudent, then following Qin Ran's thinking, they should never rashly go to the enemy's main base at this time.

"It's just a first rank demon beast. With our abilities, there is no need for it to behave so arrogantly," Tian Wenjin said.

As she spoke, she put her sword straight back into its sheath behind her back. She strode forward and jumped out the door to find the way to the back mountain.

Li Shiyin first gazed at the dark-faced man, looking him up and down. She had studied medicine and knew about human meridians, acupoints, the strengths and weaknesses of the human body... She now discovered that this dark-faced man's body was somewhat unusual and uncoordinated.

But Tian Wenjin had already gone ahead to the back mountain, and Li Shiyin was worried about her safety. She could not investigate what exactly was going on with this dark-faced man in detail, so she had to chase after Tian Wenjin first.