The next morning, Song Yan hurriedly finished today's shadow puppets, then came outside the tannery, stretched his arms, and yawned.
In the distance, the mountain peaks stood majestically clustered together, as if they had descended halfway from the sky.
The view towards Shadow Puppet Peak's main peak was clear, but the other side appeared to have a strange blood-red haze, which was the blood fog.
Over the past month or so, Song Yan had observed that blood fog frequently; it almost never dispersed, even after several nights of continuous autumn rain, yet by daybreak, the fog didn't subside but instead intensified.
The dense blood fog swirled quietly, intertwining like a crimson python, or a pool of the red sea.
The blood fog encountered during the night at the tannery was quite deadly for the servants but perhaps... it was merely the shallow waves of that red sea at high tide.
No one knew what lay at the center of that blood fog.
Song Yan's gaze could only reach the outside, yet such a scene was enough to send chills through his heart.
But then he remembered that he might be a Ghost Spirit Root.
Then... no problem.
Having a ghost come and go from the body of a mortal for forty years without dying or going insane had cultivated a Ghost Spirit Root, not for nothing.
While he was gazing into the distance, a voice came from beside him.
"Brother Song."
Song Yan turned his head, seeing a man and a woman standing beside him.
The man was about thirty, slightly plump, appearing very friendly.
The woman was around twenty-five or twenty-six, her expression serious.
Song Yan knew both; they were fellow new servants, two of the five who succeeded in "absorbing the Profound Qi Guiding Technique" that day.
The man's name was Sheng Dazhu, and the woman's name was Wen Erniu.
Song Yan returned the gesture.
Sheng Dazhu smiled warmly and said, "Brother Song, we're from the same group, why not go with us to the market at the foot of the mountain, we can look out for each other."
Wen Erniu's serious face relaxed and sincerely said, "The situation at the foot of the mountain is unknown; we should stick together, Brother Song. There's plenty of time in the future, we may even become true brothers and sisters one day, let's make good relations now."
The reasoning seemed sound from every perspective.
However, Song Yan shook his head and replied with a smile, "I don't want to go today."
Sheng Dazhu laughed, "Then... no rush, whenever Brother Song wants to go down, we'll go together."
Song Yan squinted slightly.
He clearly remembered that at night, Sheng Dazhu and Wen Erniu shared a room, and back when they absorbed the Profound Qi Guiding Technique, they weren't as nervous as the usual servants.
Moreover, their manner of speaking and acting was quite unlike their names, suggesting that "Dazhu" and "Erniu" were likely aliases.
As they conversed, Wen Erniu became restless, waving and calling to the tannery inside with a smile, "There should be lots of good stuff at the market; anyone with Contribution Points, let's team up!"
Instantly, many servants rushed out.
The servants already wanted to get close to these "future Official Disciples," plus they were reluctant to go down to the market alone, so they all ran out at once, saying, "We'll go down with Sister Wen," "And Brother Dazhu, we'll go together, more safety in numbers."
However, not all servants joined; some didn't plan to team up and intended to go down alone.
Sheng Dazhu was still grinning at Song Yan, seemingly waiting for his agreement
However... Song Yan decisively declined, saying, "I still have to do some tanning," and walked away.
Sheng Dazhu continued to smile, seemingly unbothered, then turned to the new servants and struck up a conversation in a chatty manner, adding, "Everyone, hurry and finish today's shadow puppets, then we can head down. If anyone's running late, I'll lend a hand."
One servant immediately responded, "We wouldn't dare trouble Brother Dazhu."
Sheng Dazhu chuckled, "No trouble at all; we're all here together, let's help each other, ha ha."
Song Yan returned to his seat.
Qiu Lianyue asked nervously, "Brother Song, you're not going today?"
Song Yan shook his head, sweeping his gaze over the old servants.
He noticed that aside from the newest servants sent in the past two months, the older servants seemed indifferent to going down the mountain; even with Contribution Points, they had no desire to leave.
He glanced again at Qi Yao.
Qi Yao was sitting back-to-back with a new roommate from the previous day, also unmoved.
Among this batch of servants, only five had successfully absorbed the Profound Qi Guiding Technique: Song Yan, Qi Yao, Sheng Dazhu, Wen Erniu... and a tall, strong servant named Xu Changjun.
Xu Changjun hadn't moved either.
Song Yan looked further into the distance.
In the distance, Wang Susu sat amongst the old servants, leisurely crafting leather, her large eyes blinking brightly, seemingly indifferent to the excitement outside.
Song Yan glanced again at those old servants with "no desire to spend" and suddenly felt thoughtful.
...
...
In the afternoon, Song Yan leisurely completed a second ordinary shadow puppet.
After finishing, evening had arrived.
The mist resembled a red demon climbing out from the depths of a chasm, using its sharp claws to scale the precipice, inch by inch.
The servants in the tannery swarmed out in droves.
Qiu Lianyue held the arm of her life-saving straw as she walked toward the house.
However, Song Yan frowned because he realized that the group who went down to the city market after lunch hadn't returned yet, including Sheng Dazhu and Wen Erniu.
At that moment, a graceful figure rushed out from the crowd, quickly reaching Song Yan's side, speaking softly, "Don't trust anyone. If you must go to the city market, go at the crack of dawn, as early as possible. Go early, return early, and don't linger!"
Song Yan turned his head to see.
It was Qi Yao!
But Qi Yao simply walked away quickly after saying these words.
Under normal circumstances, that would be all there was to it.
However, Qi Yao suddenly felt someone grab her hand. Startled, her brows furrowed, and her arm twisted instinctively, a technique common among martial artists.
Yet, she couldn't shake off the person holding her arm.
Qi Yao glared angrily, only to see that it was Song Yan holding her arm.
"What are you doing?"
"Sister Qi, how about... teaming up with me?"
"How shameless can you be?" Qi Yao could hardly believe her ears. She came to warn him out of kindness, and this guy actually held her hand to propose teaming up, which was utterly presumptuous.
Song Yan grinned and said, "Actually, I wanted to say... thank you."
After saying this, he let go of her hand.
Qi Yao was stunned for a moment, snorted coldly, and hurried away.
...
...
At night, in a suspended room, a man sat in the corner, watching Qi Yao guarding the fifth layer of steps, and said, "You shouldn't have warned him. With dual cultivation of Demon Sect techniques, he has long been a little demon."
Qi Yao lowered her eyes and whispered, "He doesn't want to be like this either. When he's with me, he's a good person... I don't want to see him die mysteriously."
The man said sternly, "Eliminating the Puppet Palace means fewer people will die. Your task is to secretly infiltrate the Puppet Palace, providing intelligence for our Sword Sect, in hopes of finding an opportunity to destroy the Puppet Palace entirely!"
Qi Yao said, "I know, many senior and junior students, like me, are doing the same thing..."
The man continued, "And my task is to deliver Profound Stones to you and cover for you! I have an incurable disease, with only two or three years of life left. Dying here would be like dying from dual cultivation with you, which can mislead others and allow you to smoothly become an official disciple of Shadow Puppet Peak."
"Senior Brother..."
"Don't be sad. With your Earth Profound Root, you should have been nurtured by the masters in Sword Sect, yet you voluntarily came here to take on the task of destroying the Puppet Palace. That's commendable."
The man sighed deeply and said no more, followed by a pained groan from the darkness.
Blood flowed from the man's chest, but out fell several strange stones.
Pure as jade, and cold as snow, they emitted a faintly glowing sheen.
These were... Profound Stones.
...
...
"Brother Dazhu, Sister Erniu, what do you mean? It's dark, and we can't return to the mountain. We're staying at the foot of the mountain for the night and agreed to climb together at dawn. What are you doing now?"
"Stay back!"
"How could this happen?"
At the foot of Shadow Puppet Peak, in a hidden camp.
Over twenty servants were nervously watching the surroundings, with only the dense, dark forest around them and sturdy men holding torches.
Those sturdy men were the ones who had been selling goods at a stall in the city market during the day, but now... they surrounded Sheng Dazhu and Wen Erniu.
The two of them wore expressions of mockery, utterly different from how they appeared during the day.
Among the servants, someone seemed to realize something and shouted, "Sheng Dazhu, how dare you collude with bandits? Have you forgotten what the official disciple said?"
Sheng Dazhu smirked and said, "What words?"
The person said, "Don't you fear the Shadow Puppet Peak's retribution for committing crimes here?"
The atmosphere grew quiet, and Sheng Dazhu, Wen Erniu, and the others had strange looks, as if they had heard something incredibly funny, followed by erupting laughter, almost bringing them to tears.
One of the sturdy men respectfully said to Sheng Dazhu, "Boss, these are just fools. They actually believe the words of Demon Sect disciples and still think this is the territory of the Righteous Dao. It's truly no wonder they're dying."
Sheng Dazhu said, "Hurry up and kill them all, then give me their contribution points. I and your second sister have talent, and we've finally mingled our way into the Demon Sect, aiming to become official disciples of the Demon Sect in the future."
Another sturdy man obsequiously laughed and said, "In the future, we'll live high on the hog with the boss!"
Sheng Dazhu waved his hand.
The sturdy men, wielding knives, rushed forward.
After a series of miserable cries and wails, the sounds gradually ceased.