“Little brother, little brother, wake up.”
Mo Yao, who had been resting, was suddenly shaken awake.
Rubbing his sleepy eyes, he saw a somewhat familiar middle-aged man looking at him with worry.
“You’re from Qinglu Village up ahead, aren’t you? Our caravan passed by there this morning and found it had already been reduced to ruins. Not a single survivor. Do you know what happened?”
Taking a closer look, Mo Yao remembered the man was Huang Chengli, the leader of the merchant caravan that occasionally came to the village to do business.
Huang Chengli would sell daily necessities and rare goods from the big cities to the villagers and buy crops from them in return.
Every time he traded, he chatted and laughed with the village elders, so in Mo Yao’s memory, he was a decent person.
“Last night… there was a fire in the village, and I heard a lot of screams. I was coming back from outside the village when I heard them. I got really scared and just kept running until I was exhausted, then fell asleep here.”
Mo Yao omitted the parts about the battle with the cultivators from the village and his transformation.
After hearing his story, Huang Chengli looked at him with pity, spoke briefly with the other members of the caravan, then returned to Mo Yao’s side.
“Little brother, would you like to travel with us to Ningzhou City? Your village is gone now, and traveling alone in the wild could mean running into wild beasts or bandits. Come with us to Ningzhou City and you’ll have a chance to find some work to survive.”
Mo Yao thought it over.
Wandering the wilderness on his own in hopes of stumbling across clues about the Blood Fiend Sect would be nearly impossible.
Ningzhou City was the largest city near the village; if there was any information to be found, it would most likely be there.
He decided to join Huang Chengli’s caravan on the way to Ningzhou City.
Along the road, Mo Yao noticed the cargo wagons loaded with goods meant for sale and asked Huang Chengli curiously,
“Uncle Huang, has business been slow lately?”
Because Qinglu Village was rather remote, Huang Chengli’s caravan always visited other villages first before reaching it.
In Mo Yao’s memory, the wagons were usually only partially full.
This was the first time he had seen them packed so completely.
“Don’t even mention it.”
Hearing Mo Yao’s question, Huang Chengli gave a bitter smile.
“We were originally planning to visit four villages. In the first one, they only bought some coarse salt. When we reached the second village, the whole place felt dead. We went in to check and found the buildings untouched, but every single person had been turned into a dried-up husk. It was downright eerie.”
His eyes filled with deep fear as he spoke.
“We went inside to look around and saw all the villagers reduced to shriveled corpses. We got so scared we ran out immediately and rode hard to get away. Then we reached your village. When we saw it had become ruins, we didn’t stop. That’s when we ran into you.”
Hearing Huang Chengli’s words, Mo Yao immediately thought of the tragic sight of the villagers after Lin Han had activated the array in Qinglu Village.
Looks like the village Huang Chengli mentioned was also attacked by Lin Han and his group.
An Qianhua’s voice sounded in Mo Yao’s mind, confirming his suspicion and making him clench his fists tightly.
Those despicable bastards. How many more lives do they plan to destroy?
While Mo Yao was thinking this, his stomach let out a loud gu sound.
Only then did he realize he had not eaten anything for an entire day.
Seeing Mo Yao’s face turn red from embarrassment, Huang Chengli softened his expression and smiled.
“It’s already noon anyway. Let’s eat.”
He ordered the caravan to stop, had the men distribute dry rations, and everyone rested on the spot.
After a simple meal, the caravan prepared to set off again toward the last village.
Suddenly, a strong gust of wind blew past, causing several people to look in the direction it had come from.
“Look! Someone’s flying in the sky!”
Mo Yao looked where the caravan member was pointing and saw a woman in a green robe steering a small boat-shaped artifact, flying quickly toward them with an anxious look on her face.
Strange. Why has my eyesight suddenly become so sharp?
Mo Yao wondered about his improved senses. An Qianhua immediately replied in his mind.
That’s because magic power has strengthened your body.
The rest of the caravan, seeing the flying woman, looked on with admiration and shouted things like “Immortal Master!”
The woman frowned at their reaction and shouted loudly at them.
“You mortals, what are you yelling for?! Run!”
The caravan members were stunned, wondering why an immortal master would say such a thing.
Mo Yao looked more carefully and noticed a rather large black shadow chasing after the woman.
The next moment, another fierce gust of wind blew past, and several small black dots suddenly shot out from the shadow, flying straight toward the caravan.
“Watch out!”
Realizing the black dots were heading directly for him and Huang Chengli beside him, Mo Yao immediately tackled the man to the side.
Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.
Sharp piercing sounds rang out as several hard brown feathers stabbed into the ground where Mo Yao and Huang Chengli had just been standing, throwing the entire caravan into chaos.
Huang Chengli, realizing he had narrowly escaped death, wasted no time shouting,
“Everyone, get into the forest! Hide!”
While the people scrambled toward the trees, the huge black shadow descended on the caravan with a violent wind.
It was a massive bird-shaped demon beast.
“Tch. These mortals are nothing but trouble for this young miss.”
The woman immediately turned her artifact around and slashed out several wind blades at the giant bird.
“Hey, you stinking bird! Look over here!”
She patted her storage pouch, and a human-head-sized gray bird egg appeared in her hand.
“Your child is right here with this young miss. Don’t chase the wrong person!”
The giant bird let out a sharp cry.
An even stronger gale swept forward, making the woman’s figure unstable and causing the flying artifact beneath her feet to shake violently.
“Ehh, wait! You still have a move like that?”
The woman could not hold on in the gale for long.
The spiritual light on the small boat suddenly vanished, and she plummeted downward.
“Ouch! Damn it! This young miss will make you pay, you stinking bird!”
She immediately pulled a crimson long whip from her storage pouch and lashed fiercely at the giant bird in the air.
Flames surged along the whip with every swing, making the attack look extremely ferocious.
Unfortunately, appearances were deceiving.
When the whip came swinging, the giant bird simply flapped its wings and altered the whip’s trajectory, preventing it from landing a hit.
Fighting such a nimble aerial opponent on the ground with a light weapon like that?
There’s no way she can hit it.
In the Heart Realm, An Qianhua could not help but complain.
“Sister Qianhua, do you think she can beat that demon beast?”
If she could, she wouldn’t be getting chased. Want to transform and help her?
Mo Yao nodded.
Even though the woman had drawn the monster toward them, she had at least warned them of the danger and bought them a little time.
He did not want to watch her get killed by the demon beast.
After confirming no one else was nearby, Mo Yao placed his hand on his chest.
Following his will, the Heart Seed appeared in his hand in a flash of pink light. He softly chanted “Transform.”
The light spread from his chest to envelop his entire body, then vanished in an instant, leaving Shucao in his place.
“No Heart Realm scene this time?”
Hehe, that only happened the first time. Having a little dark-room scene every single transformation would be way too troublesome.
Looking at the giant bird flying nimbly in the sky, Shucao decided to fly up and engage it in the air, creating an opening for the woman’s whip to strike and restrain it.
She circulated her magic power and shot toward the giant bird as a pink streak of light.
The extreme speed slammed the massive creature straight down to the ground!
Weren’t you supposed to fly up and fight it in the air? How did you just smash it down?
“Mm… I suddenly thought of a better way to bring it to the ground. Believe me?”
We should practice flying properly when we have time…
Seeing the pink streak of light knock the giant bird to the ground, the woman was momentarily stunned, then overjoyed.
She immediately charged toward where the bird had landed.
“I couldn’t beat you in the sky, but on the ground it’s a different story!”
The giant bird leaped up from the ground, flapped its wings to fire feathers, and tried to take flight again.
Seeing the feathers coming, the woman flashed to the side of a tree and used it as cover.
She then pulled a talisman from her robe, quickly infused it with spiritual energy, and slapped it into the ground.
“Trying to run?”
Earth spikes erupted from the spot where she had planted the talisman and rapidly closed in on the giant bird.
Several huge spikes then rose around it, trapping the creature and preventing any further movement.
“Hah! Now you know how powerful this young miss is!”
The flame-wrapped long whip whistled through the air.
With fierce, precise strikes, it quickly beat the giant bird to death.
“Wow, this girl is actually really strong. She turned that bird into a spinning top on the ground.”
From the trees on the side, Shucao watched the woman swiftly finish the fight and could not help but admire her.
So strong!
But if we hadn’t knocked the bird down, she might not have been able to win. Guess we’re still the stronger ones.
After dealing with the giant bird, the woman put away her whip, waved at Shucao, and ran over with a smile.
“Daoist friend! Daoist friend! My name is Xiao Simeng of the Xiao Family from Dragon City. Thank you for helping me slay this demon today. If you ever come to Dragon City in the future, the Xiao Family will definitely repay you handsomely.”
Once she got closer, Xiao Simeng looked Shucao up and down, studying her outfit with interest.
“What a unique outfit. It looks like a long dress but different. The sleeves aren’t as wide as normal clothes, and the frilly fabric adds so many layers. These ribbons and knots as decoration are really creative too. And the material on your legs… it feels like silk but clings so tightly to the skin. What is this fabric? Can I touch it?”
Seeing Xiao Simeng muttering to herself and reaching out with her fingers, Shucao was so startled she shrank back and retreated several steps.
Xiao Simeng realized what she had done and said apologetically,
“Sorry. Although there are cultivators in my family, they’re all independent ones. We usually do clothing business among mortals, so I get excited whenever I see clothes I’ve never encountered before.”
“It’s… it’s fine. Anyway, we should deal with the demon beast’s corpse first, right?”
Hearing this, Xiao Simeng immediately turned around and looked at the demon beast’s body.
“Right, right! This should be a peak first-rank demon beast. The materials on it are enough for us Qi Refining cultivators to make several decent artifacts. Let’s talk about how to split them! Eh? Where is she?”
While Xiao Simeng’s eyes were sparkling as she stared at the giant bird’s corpse, Shucao had already slipped away.
When Xiao Simeng turned back, eager to share the spoils with her new companion, she found no one there.
Shucao quickly canceled her transformation and quietly returned to the vicinity of the caravan.
“Little brother, thank goodness you’re okay! We were in such a hurry to run earlier that we only realized you were missing later. I was about to go look for you. You saved my life back there—I have to thank you properly.”
Seeing Mo Yao return, Huang Chengli immediately patted his shoulder with concern.
“Uncle Huang, you’re too kind. You let me join the caravan and are taking me to Ningzhou City. I haven’t thanked you properly yet. I ran pretty far earlier and didn’t pay attention to the direction, so it took me some time to get back. Did the Immortal Master take care of that giant bird?”
“It looks like she did. Unfortunately, the horses panicked earlier and crashed one of the wagons into a tree, flipping it over. Some goods were ruined. This is going to be a big loss.”
Huang Chengli looked helplessly at the goods scattered on the ground.
“Are you the leader of this caravan?”
A figure suddenly appeared beside the two of them like a ghost and spoke.
“Ah, Immortal Master! A pleasure, a pleasure. This one is Huang Chengli, leader of the caravan.”
“Here, take this.”
With that, Xiao Simeng tossed over a heavy pouch.
“This incident happened because of this young miss, and it caused damage to your caravan’s goods. Consider these gold and silver as compensation.”
“Thank you, Immortal Master! Thank you!”
“Hmph. This young miss doesn’t need thanks from you mortals.”
Then Xiao Simeng summoned her flying artifact and left directly.
Huang Chengli looked inside the pouch and immediately broke into a wide smile.
“Wonderful! With this compensation, we’ve more than made up for the losses. We might not even need to work for the next few months.”
He ordered his men to reload the wagons, and the caravan set off once more toward the fourth village and Ningzhou City.