The Weather Has Changed

Liao Pantu was about to say something else when he suddenly seemed to sense something. He frowned and said, "This is bad. That evil energy seems to have grown thicker."

Sitting opposite him, Lin Xiao had clearly sensed it as well. He immediately stood up and said, "I'll go out and take a look."

Liao Pantu also stood up, shrinking his body back into the Soul-Nourishing Wood until only his head remained, then popping his legs out as he said, "I'll go with you."

The two of them immediately left the room.

As soon as they stepped outside, they saw the sky, which should have been clear, visibly darkening before their eyes.

The temperature, which had been rising day by day, suddenly began to plummet. The increasingly warm spring and summer breeze seemed to be suddenly wrapped in a layer of frost, biting into their skin.

Lin Xiao felt a sense of deja vu about this scene.

But he could not recall where he had seen it before at that moment.

Without time to overthink, he hurried to the cultivation room.

Over at the cultivation room, everyone had suddenly noticed that the surrounding spiritual energy had become much denser, almost double the original amount! They were excitedly preparing to seize the moment and cultivate.

Sun Yigao, who was meditating, suddenly sensed the anomaly. He came out to check and also discovered this bizarre change.

Worried about his parents at home, he wanted to rush back. Realizing that apart from Liu Yunan, everyone else's families were also in the village, he immediately went back inside to inform them of the situation outside.

Therefore, disregarding the spiritual energy that had suddenly doubled in density, the crowd immediately hurried down the mountain.

Lin Xiao, who had just arrived in a hurry, went down the mountain with them.

Only Yang Jinshu and her two children remained on the mountain.

Watching this sudden turn of events, Yang Jinshu frowned, seemingly recalling something. She suddenly stood up and called Liu Yunan and Liu Shengsheng to go chop wood with her.

Meanwhile, down the mountain in Xiushui Village.

Resting with his eyes closed on a lounge chair under the shade of a tree in his courtyard, Patriarch Hu, Hu Deli, shivered from the sudden drop in temperature.

Opening his eyes, he saw that the sky of this originally clear morning had suddenly turned completely dim.

The cloudless sky seemed to have been covered by a layer of pitch-black mesh, gloomily shrouding the heavens and the earth below.

Looking at the scene before him, Hu Deli was stunned for a moment. Then, his expression drastically changed. He immediately got up, his aged body displaying unprecedented agility. He quickly went into the house, grabbed an iron pot and an iron ladle, and then stumbled out of his home.

Walking down the road, he held the iron pot in one hand and struck the bottom of it forcefully with the iron ladle in the other. As he banged on the pot, he shouted with all his might in his hoarse, aged voice:

"Hurry and chop wood! Fellow villagers, come out quickly! The weather has changed! Go chop wood!"

Hearing the old patriarch's shouts, every household was a bit confused at first. They wanted to come out and ask what was going on, but as soon as they opened their doors, saw the color of the sky, and felt the plummeting temperature, they all turned pale with fright. They quickly grabbed their machetes and bamboo baskets, rushing up the mountain to chop wood.

This was only within the residential area of the Hu family.

In the residential areas of other surnames in Xiushui Village, almost the exact same scenes were playing out.

Several patriarchs and the village chief were shouting vigorously in all directions, notifying the villagers who were staying at home.

Many elderly people who lacked the strength to chop wood also helped by running throughout the village to spread the word.

The villagers working in the fields had long noticed the situation. The younger generation was still a bit clueless, merely thinking that the drop in temperature meant it was going to rain.

However, in the village, anyone who was older turned pale with shock at the sight. They threw down their farm tools, ran home to grab their woodchopping knives, and rushed up the mountain to chop firewood.

Some confused youths wanted to ask a few questions, but they were dragged by their elders toward the woods at the foot of the mountain, leaving no time for questions.

Going early meant they could still gather some dry firewood; if they went late, the trunks on the outskirts would surely be stripped bare, forcing them to go deeper and waste precious time.

Even the children were ordered by their elders to gather as much dry grass as possible to take back.

If all else failed, they were told to gather armfuls of leaves.

In an instant, the entire Xiushui Village was in a frenzy.

While Lin Dayou and his two sons were hurrying back to the old residence, with Liao Pantu following behind them, they ran into Old Master Lin and several others leading the family to chop firewood.

Lin Xiao quickly went up to meet them and said, Grandpa, do not panic. I have a lot of wood here.

Lin Dayou went straight up and took the chopping knife from Old Master Lin's hand and the bamboo basket from his back, standing beside him.

Seeing Lin Xiao and the others, Old Master Lin seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. He shook his head and said, Keep the wood you have. What if it is not enough? Right now, we need to hurry and gather more firewood, lest we run into trouble if we fall short later.

Thus, Lin Xiao could not argue and simply followed them toward the woods.

Then I will go with you all.

As they walked, Lin Xiao introduced Liao Pantu, who was trailing behind him, to the rest of the family.

The Lin family members, initially startled by Liao Pantu's appearance, calmed down slightly after hearing the explanation.

Besides, under the current circumstances, no one had the mind to feel any fear toward Liao Pantu's strange appearance.

No fear could compare to the dread they felt from the current situation.

On the way, with his hands empty, Old Master Lin walked a bit faster with his hands behind his back and had the energy to speak. Looking at the increasingly gloomy sky, he sighed and said:

To think, it has been eleven years. I thought we would never see this wretched weather again, but I never expected it to return... I do not know what kind of terrible luck has befallen our villages—

Hearing him say this, Lin Xiao finally recalled that eleven years ago, it had been exactly like this.

Suddenly, the sky and earth changed color, and the temperature plummeted.

Overnight, a heavy snow completely changed the color of the land.

And then, it took his mother away.

At that time, many white mourning banners were hung up one after another in the village, and news of deaths came from the neighboring villages from time to time.

The sounds of wailing and mourning lingered in the village continuously for over a month.

Lin Xiao looked up at the dark, hazy sky. His expression grew cold, and his heart was filled with gloom.

Observing his expression from the side, Liao Pantu pondered for a moment before whispering in his ear, This should not be a natural weather phenomenon. I reckon it is caused by that evil qi.

Hearing this, Lin Xiao could not help but clench his fists.

With his brows tightly knitted, he pondered for a moment and whispered back to Liao Pantu:

It is obvious. I just set down the spirit vein, and the moment the spiritual qi became dense, this evil qi thickened along with it, immediately followed by this sudden drop in temperature. It must be that this wretched thing of unknown origin is extremely sensitive to spiritual qi.

Furthermore, I sensed its aura when I went to visit the graves earlier, although it was very faint at the time. It seems this thing has been lying dormant near our village for a long time.

I just don't understand why it attacked our villages eleven years ago. Back then, there were no cultivators around here, nor was there any dense spiritual energy.