"The air is so quiet."
The last rays of the setting sun stretched their shadows long across the ground as the banyan tree spirit trotted close behind Yao Ranran, glancing nervously at the surroundings.
Yao Ranran nodded in agreement.
Unlike the villages they had passed earlier, every house here had its doors shut tight. There was not a single tree in sight. Even the weeds showed clear signs of being pulled out by the roots.
The world of cultivation truly was strange.
Halfway through the village, she finally spotted an old woman sitting beside a small bonfire, gnawing on some unidentifiable flatbread.
"Granny, may I ask if there is a county nearby? How do we get there?" Yao Ranran put on a sweet smile and asked politely.
The crumbs fell from the old woman's mouth.
She rubbed her eyes. Was this the descent of a celestial maiden from the Ninth Heaven? Or a malicious spirit come to claim her life?
"Are you a demon, or an immortal?" the old woman asked.
Yao Ranran and the banyan tree spirit both froze. She answered, "I'm human. He's a tree spirit."
"Tree spirit?" The old woman glanced at the banyan tree spirit puffing his chest with pride. Her expression suddenly changed. "Go, quickly! Where did you come from? The sun is about to set, you must not stay in this village!"
The urgency in her tone startled both Yao Ranran and the tree spirit.
"Is there something wrong with this village?" Yao Ranran asked.
The old woman moved too abruptly and strained her back. She sat back down on a stone stool, her face lined with sorrow, her voice heavy.
"All the villages within miles have been cursed. Only our Longyin Village still has a few elderly who haven't left. You must leave. There is filth here. When the sun sets, it spews black mist that devours the bodies of the villagers."
"Black mist?" The banyan tree spirit blinked.
That sounded exactly like the ghostly fog they had encountered earlier.
Yao Ranran thought quickly. If the old woman was telling the truth and most people nearby were already gone, then this might be their only source of information.
Seeing that they had not moved, the old woman stood and snatched up her cane, shooing them away with a whack. "Go, hurry! Leave this cursed place at once!"
Yao Ranran's attempt to take out the black pearl was interrupted, but the banyan tree spirit's quick eyes and longer reach did the job for her.
"Granny, is this the black mist causing trouble in your village?"
The old woman froze. When she got a good look at the bead, she stiffened. "Yes… yes! It's that thing! Those eyes, I've seen them before!"
Her shoulders trembled as she stared at the pearl, then at Yao Ranran. "You… you killed that monster?"
"Mother! Your son has been training outside for fifty years and has finally returned! Our great revenge will be avenged, and the monster will die!" A white-bearded old man stood at the entrance to the village, silhouetted against the light, sword in hand, tears glimmering in his eyes.
The old woman clutched the black pearl and suddenly wondered if sending this child away to cultivate all those years ago had even been necessary. "Son! I have missed you so much!"
The white-bearded old man threw himself into her arms, weeping. "Mother, I will kill the monster that has tormented our village, avenge Father, and avenge all the villagers who have died!"
"Well…" The old woman wiped her tears and pushed him away. "Let me introduce you. This is our savior. The monster is already dead."
"What?" The old man sniffled, wide-eyed. "Is she a Fairy from the Ninth Heaven?"
Yao Ranran raised a hand. "Let me clear that up right now. I'm not a Fairy. Just an ordinary little beauty, sigh." She shook her head.
The banyan tree spirit gave her a sidelong look.
The white-bearded man didn't understand what she meant by "clear that up" but grasped the important part — the monster was dead. He drew in a sharp breath. "You are also a cultivator?"
Yao Ranran tilted her head, pressing a fingertip thoughtfully to her lips. "Hmm… I suppose so. Why wouldn't I be?"
The banyan tree spirit rolled his eyes so hard they nearly spun.
The old woman took the white-bearded man's hand, and together they dropped to their knees. "Savior, please accept the bow of the five hundred souls of Longyin Village!"
Before their heads could touch the ground, a vine coiled around them and gently held them in place.
Both mother and son froze.
"It's too early to say that," Yao Ranran said. "The monster might not be the only one. Let's see what happens after tonight."
"The savior is right. Mother, let's tidy up the house and invite them to stay!" The old man squeezed her hand gratefully.
The old woman wiped her eyes, her voice trembling with hope. "Yes, yes! Our village is saved!"
They entered the house. After a round of conversation, Yao Ranran learned the truth of the place.
The village was called Longyin. A hundred years ago, it had been the most prosperous settlement in the area. But one day, when the old woman's own mother had just married into the village, a family of four suddenly vanished. No one knew where they had gone.
The village chief lamented that the couple had only just had a child late in life, only for them all to perish without a trace.
Five years later, the ghost mist appeared. In the ruins of the Li family's house, someone found a longevity lock engraved with the name of the Li family's young son.
The very next night, someone was swallowed by black mist and reduced to nothing, not even bones left behind.
Rumors spread that the Li family's son had returned for vengeance. Terror consumed the villagers. Over the next century, many Daoists came to exorcise the spirit, but all were devoured by the ghost mist. Hope withered.
One by one, people fled. Nearby villages withered away.
Longyin Village was no longer what it had been.
"Now there are only the five of us elders left here, and my son," the old woman, Zhang Nainai, said.
Jiang Shengxiang lit an oil lamp and sighed. "By my generation, no children would stay here. To save my life and avenge our people, fifty years ago Mother sent me, at the age of eight, to the nearest Yanlong County to study under a Taoist. I cultivated for fifty years, but when my sect declined, I returned home to exact revenge.
But I did not expect to meet our savior, who has already slain the monster." He looked at Yao Ranran with heartfelt gratitude.
Yao Ranran rubbed the back of her head, a little embarrassed. "I just happened to run into it. It tried to eat us, so I killed it."
She herself had not known she was capable of such a thing before she acted.
From what they said, this ghost mist was supposed to be quite formidable.
The Nine Lotus Ring was a magic artifact the original owner had kept in her dantian. Even when her cultivation had been stripped away, it had never been forced out.
She had only discovered this when she began secretly cultivating again.