It was very strange.
But when Xu Xianqing turned around, she saw Wan’er.
She felt that Old Huai Village was even stranger. The female corpse she had seen yesterday morning had come back to life in another place that afternoon.
Xu Xianqing glanced at the sky. Si Niang had packed some food and taken a water bottle with her before leaving.
Leaving Wan’er and Xu Xianqing at home, Xu Xianqing couldn’t stop thinking about how strange it all was, so she found an excuse to go out.
“I’m going to take a look around the village.”
Without waiting for Wan’er to speak, she ran out on her own.
She went to see the Spirit Beast Horse first, then wandered around the village. These people seemed to have no problems other than being a bit too enthusiastic.
Xu Xianqing searched the village all day but found nothing unusual.
Looking at the 1% progress bar, she thought for a moment and decided to return to Si Niang’s house to continue her investigation.
After arriving at Si Niang’s house, Xu Xianqing saw Wan’er washing clothes in the courtyard—a red robe.
It looked very much like a wedding dress. Xu Xianqing stopped in her tracks, not daring to rush forward.
Wan’er looked up at her, paused for a moment, and then smiled. “Are you hungry?”
“No,” Xu Xianqing shook her head. But mentioning food, she asked, “I walked around the village today, and I noticed… there don’t seem to be any chickens or ducks being raised in the village.”
Wan’er’s expression was somewhat vacant. After a moment, she nodded. “Indeed. I’ve been here for three years, and I really haven’t seen anyone raising chickens.”
“Why is that?” Xu Xianqing asked. “Raising a few at home would always provide eggs. Eating eggs every day would be nutritious, wouldn’t it? Why not raise them?”
She also wanted to ask where that dead rooster in the pot last night had come from. Si Niang had said it was from a dead person, and Xu Xianqing felt that Si Niang hadn’t been lying. But where had it come from in the end?
Because she had seen Wan’er’s corpse, she suspected they might not be the same person, but they looked identical. Therefore, she was extremely wary of Wan’er.
“I don’t know either. I’m an outsider too, and I never paid attention to these things before.”
Wan’er spoke casually. It sounded like a very normal answer, but the words were extremely eerie.
In such a remote little village, why wouldn’t a woman living a domestic life consider these things? Why hadn’t she noticed?
Xu Xianqing was also an outsider, but she had noticed something was wrong after just one walk through the village.
Therefore, the truly abnormal one was Wan’er and everyone in Old Huai Village.
Xu Xianqing stayed in the village for another day. There were no changes here; it was so peaceful that it seemed to make one forget the strangeness of the place.
Xu Xianqing even felt a growing sense of complacency, no longer wishing to investigate Wugen Village.
Someone like me, she thought, could perhaps live and work here in peace. It wouldn’t be a bad life.
A voice continuously echoed in her mind, urging her to stay. Stay here, and all your troubles will vanish. You won’t have to deal with the chaos of the outside world or endure any more pain.
Xu Xianqing woke abruptly in the middle of the night. She gazed at the moon hanging in the sky, its full orb casting a cold, sterile light.
Wiping the cold sweat from her forehead, she reached up to touch the inner core she wore around her neck.
It was Ye Ming’s inner core.
Just now, it had burned with a sudden heat, jolting her awake from a beautiful dream.
Xu Xianqing scrambled out of bed, packed her things, and fled Old Huai Village under the cover of night.
Though she was leaving a strange village in the dead of night, no supernatural incidents occurred. Instead, she rode her Spirit Beast Horse all the way without incident.
By the time she reached Wugen Village, the sky was just beginning to lighten.
Before she could even dismount, the village bell tolled three times.
From her horse, she looked down at a funeral procession approaching from the distance.
The sight made Xu Xianqing’s scalp tingle with dread.
She had stayed in Old Huai Village for three days, never expecting to encounter another funeral procession upon arriving at Wugen Village. Moreover, it seemed no different from the one she had seen before.
This time, Xu Xianqing didn’t avoid them. She simply dismounted and stood by the roadside, just as she had three days ago.
However, the procession showed no signs of anything unusual this time. The group passed by her as if they hadn’t even seen her.
After a moment’s thought, Xu Xianqing found a nearby tree, tethered her Spirit Beast Horse to it, and followed the procession from a distance.
She remained vigilant the entire way, occasionally opening her System Panel to review the items she had acquired, drawing a sense of security from them.
When she followed the procession up the mountain and reached the halfway point, Xu Xianqing’s eyes widened at the sight of the scattered graves.
These graves were too familiar. Not that she had been here before, but she had a strange sense of déjà vu, as if she had stood in this exact spot.
The layout of the graves mirrored the arrangement of the houses in Old Huai Village. She could even tell which grave corresponded to each household in the village.
“Lower the coffin—”
At the command of the old man leading the group, the men began to lower the coffin into the prepared grave pit.
Old Daoist Feng Kun and his young acolyte watched from the side. As Xu Xianqing’s gaze swept over him, she noticed the old Daoist smiling at her repeatedly.
Yet the old Daoist himself was shrouded in secrets. Even though he had helped her, Xu Xianqing dared not lower her guard.
“Guide the wronged soul on its journey!”
The old man scattered a handful of joss paper and then chanted a funeral dirge.
Meanwhile, the others began shoveling the prepared earth into the grave.
Xu Xianqing focused on the scene, unaware of when the old Daoist had appeared beside her.
“Why are you still here, Benefactor? Have you grown fond of Old Huai Village?” The old Daoist smiled, stroking his beard.
Xu Xianqing narrowed her eyes and turned to look at Feng Kun. The sight made her heart leap in surprise—she didn’t know when his cultivation level had risen again, breaking through from Foundation Establishment Stage 8 to Stage 9.
His cultivation value had also changed to 903.
“I came to trade for some dried rations.” Xu Xianqing took out a low-grade spirit stone, but Feng Kun refused to accept it.
Feng Kun looked at her and sighed. “Leave as soon as possible. This is no place for you to linger.”
“Daoist,” Xu Xianqing said, following closely behind him, “there are some things I wish to ask you.”
Feng Kun didn’t even turn around, merely saying, “It must not be spoken. It must not be spoken.”
Xu Xianqing had no cultivation level, yet her body was brimming with spiritual power. This was why she had only looked travel-worn after such a long journey; in reality, a short rest was all she needed to fully recover.
But today, after walking just a few steps here, she felt utterly exhausted.
The villagers had just finished digging a new grave and were now preparing to pack up and return to their village.
Xu Xianqing looked up. The sun was just about to reach its zenith—it was nearly noon.
These villagers actually spent the entire morning on this, she thought. And… one person dying every three days in a single village is indeed as strange as Si Niang said.
Xu Xianqing surveyed the graves. The villagers said nothing, each busy with their own tasks, chatting about the delicious food their wives would have ready for them back home.
“Let’s go!”
The Elder called out again. The villagers formed a line just as they had when they arrived, following him away one by one.
The Daoist was among them, leading his disciple at a leisurely pace.
Xu Xianqing did not leave immediately. After everyone had gone, she circled the graves and approached the one newly dug that day.
The inscription on the new grave read: “Ayun, daughter of the Song Family of Tongzhou.”
Beside this woman named Song Ayun, another grave was inscribed: “Liu Wan’er of Yilin Prefecture.”
Xu Xianqing stood before Liu Wan’er’s grave. She thought of the female corpse she had seen, and then of the Wan’er she had been living with under the same roof for the past three days.
Goosebumps erupted all over her body.
What is going on?
Xu Xianqing no longer cared that Feng Kun refused to sell her dried rations. She wanted to return to Old Huai Village immediately to investigate. The arrangement of these graves, in particular, mirrored the layout of the houses in Old Huai Village.
Could it be that the dead here are all villagers from Old Huai Village?
Xu Xianqing was lost in thought, her mind racing with unanswered questions, when she suddenly tripped and fell. A stone had appeared out of nowhere.
As she prepared to get up, she looked up and saw another grave before her. It read: “Ye Ming, Eldest Young Lady of the Ye Family of Solitary City.”