The surrounding houses were all built of wood, mostly single-story, though some had two stories.
The man led me into a house that was relatively larger than the others and locked me inside from the outside. I tried pushing the door, but it wouldn’t open.
There was only one very small window in the entire room, which was probably only large enough for a child under ten years old to crawl through.
A wooden bed, a table, and a chair. Under the table was a box, and there was no other furniture, with some sundries piled in the corner.
The entire village was permeated with the strong smell of salted fish.
I remembered reading about secret realms in the sect’s scripture pavilion.
The books mentioned high-level illusions, and I only recalled one detail: dying in an illusion meant you truly died.
Was I just going to sit here and await my death? Duan Qianyue was the protagonist, so he shouldn’t die in the secret realm.
In the original text, the second door he entered led to a white dragon. After defeating the white dragon, he obtained a spiritual sword, the Dragon Chant Sword.
Even his jade token was lost, and he collapsed near the exit of the secret realm at death’s door several months later. Time in this secret realm passed like years.
Thinking of this, I searched my entire body. Fortunately, the jade token was still there, but my other sword, dagger, silver coins, and the teleportation talisman given by Feng Qiubai had all vanished.
Chen Xiaowu’s protective jade talisman was surprisingly still there.
“Uncle Yu, I’ve come to talk some sense into Xiao Yu.”
The voice from outside sounded a bit like Xu Qinyi, followed by the sound of a lock opening.
The person who came in really was Xu Qinyi. I walked over excitedly, but she gave me a meaningful look, prompting me to keep quiet. Seeing that the man at the door had walked far away, she pulled the door shut.
“The situation is urgent. Don’t ask those questions for now, just listen to me,” she said.
I nodded.
Lowering her voice, she continued, “As soon as he entered, Ye Shihao started shouting that he was a cultivator and all that nonsense. The villagers thought he was possessed by evil spirits, so they tried to exorcise him and forced him to drink some concoction. Unable to take it, he shattered his jade token and left. There is also a Ye Shihao in this village. This Ye Shihao looks just like him, but he is not him.”
Hearing her say this, some of the logic behind the illusion became clear.
She glanced around. There were gaps between the wooden planks of this house, so if anyone was outside, they might notice us. She continued, “I learned from the villagers’ conversations that you are the village chief’s son. You and Duan Qianyue were planning to elope. They tied Duan Qianyue up and made him kneel in the village ancestral hall. This village believes that if a man fancies another man, it means he has fallen ill. Since you are the village chief’s son and someone wants to protect you, they claimed that Duan Qianyue seduced you, and in three days they are going to drown him in the sea.”
I stared at her in shock.
“I’ll go save him,” I said.
“Don’t rush. If you go out now, your village chief father won’t let you leave. They want you to marry me. I think you can agree to it first to make them lower their guard, and then slip away secretly in the middle of the night. Remember, if you are in danger, smash your jade token.”
I thought it over and decided this plan was feasible.
She told me to stay inside the room and then went outside. I heard her say to the village chief, “Xiao Yu agreed.”
The man didn’t seem entirely convinced, taking a few hurried steps to stand right in front of me.
“You agreed to marry the Xu family lass?”
I nodded. He seemed quite satisfied, his fierce expression replaced by a smile as he paced back and forth, finally leaving with a parting remark, “I’m going to tell your mother.”
We exchanged a glance, feeling that everything was going smoothly.
At dinner time, the couple kept piling food onto my bowl, saying that the day after tomorrow was an auspicious date. I replied that it was wonderful and that I would leave everything to their arrangements.
That night, lying in bed and thinking about how to slip away later, I suddenly caught a whiff of smoke.
Sensing something was wrong, I grabbed a scrap of cloth, dampened it with water, and tied it around the back of my head to cover my nose and mouth. Then, I picked up a wooden stick from the corner and quietly stood by the door.
The moment the door swung open and a person stepped inside, I swung the stick. It was a man, taller than me, yet he took the strike as if it were nothing.
With lightning speed, he snatched the stick right out of my hand, used it to pin my neck, and shoved me against the wall. I had no choice but to grab the stick with both hands, otherwise I would have suffocated within minutes.
“Who are you?” I forced out the words with difficulty.
He didn’t reply. His other hand fumbled across my body and pulled out an item, which turned out to be my jade token. The moment he secured the token, he turned to leave. Reacting quickly, I tackled him to the ground. The jade token flew out of his grasp, and I immediately threw two punches at him.
“Who on earth are you?”
“You looking to die?”
As soon as he finished speaking, a dagger materialized in his hand, gleaming silver in the moonlight streaming through the window.
I thought to myself that things were bad. With a flick of his wrist, he had already slashed a cut across my arm. Then, with a fluid movement, he flipped over and reversed our positions, pressing the dagger directly against my throat.
Suddenly, as if he had noticed something, he stood up and left.
Just a moment ago, he had clearly intended to finish me off with a single strike, yet he suddenly changed his mind. I looked at the jade token lying on the floor. He had come to steal the token, yet he didn’t even take it with him. I was clearly no match for him, so why did he let me go?
I picked up the jade token, suddenly realizing that he must have used sleeping powder to knock out the village chief and his wife. Right now was the perfect opportunity for me to go find Duan Qianyue.
I followed the route Xu Qinyi had told me about during the day. At night, the fishing village paths were completely deserted, and a huge moon hung in the sky.
The fishing village ancestral hall. This was the place. I pushed the door open. Duan Qianyue was tied up with ropes, kneeling in the middle of the ancestral hall. Hearing the noise, he looked up at me.
I hurried over to untie his ropes. He looked rather pitiful, and probably hadn’t eaten anything all day. I had forgotten to bring him some food.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
Instead of answering me, he looked toward a shadowy corner to the side. I looked over and saw a person standing there, none other than the very same person who had tried to kill me earlier.
Having heard the commotion, he had initially hidden in the shadows. Now, seeing that the person who arrived was only me and that I was completely alone, he stepped out without any hesitation.
“Our young master wants to protect you, so I won’t kill you. If you know what’s good for you, get lost right now,” he told me.
“Who is your young master?” I asked.
“Don’t ask about things you shouldn’t know.”
At this point, Duan Qianyue spoke up.
“I recognize you. Tang Ying, the chief disciple of the Heavenly Mystery Pavilion, who has already entered the Deity Transformation realm. I wonder why you’ve appeared inside this secret realm, and even more so, why you are making things difficult for us juniors.”
“Stop talking nonsense. Once you make it out alive, you’ll know why.”
As soon as his voice fell, he lunged forward. Duan Qianyue sidestepped to dodge, and the two exchanged blows back and forth. To my surprise, Tang Ying failed to gain the upper hand against him.
Suddenly, Tang Ying abruptly shifted his offensive stance, slipped behind me, and pressed his dagger against my throat.
“I won’t take your life today either. Hand over your jade token to me, and I’ll leave,” he said to Duan Qianyue.
“Don’t give it to him! He won’t do anything to me,” Duan Qianyue shouted, actually using me as a hostage against the protagonist.
“Oh? Is that so? Our young master wants to spare you, but since you don’t know what’s good for you, I let you go earlier and you didn’t leave, so if you die now, you have only yourself to blame.”
As he spoke, he pressed the blade a fraction closer to my neck.
Duan Qianyue pulled out the jade token and tossed it to him.
“I have no use for this thing anyway.”
Tang Ying caught the jade token and truly turned to leave.
I took two steps forward in pursuit. “He just came to steal my jade token, and now he’s after yours. What comes next?”
We exchanged a look. Not good. Senior Sister!
Together, we bolted in the direction where Tang Ying had disappeared.