After disguising themselves once again, the disciples of Sword Peak split up to take action.
Bai Zhirou and her group stepped into the village alleyways once more.
Luopo Village was built along the mountain slope.
Occasionally, a few children could be seen playing and chasing each other through the alleys.
As it was right around noon, wisps of cooking smoke rose lazily from many of the farmhouses.
Passing through the alleys, one could occasionally hear the sound of dogs barking from inside the courtyards.
Bai Zhirou surveyed the area, finding that Luopo Village was virtually unchanged from when she had left.
Fifteen minutes later.
Three disciples who had gone to check the western side of Luopo Village rushed back with secretive expressions, reporting that they had found something anomalous.
Hearing this, Bai Zhirou and the others perked up, their expressions turning serious.
They followed the three disciples to the side of an outhouse in the village.
The moment they arrived, they saw something peculiar:
Several seven- or eight-year-old children were crawling on the ground in bizarre postures, seemingly searching for something in the dirt.
Suddenly—
A little chubby boy picked something up near the outhouse.
Laughing excitedly, he held the object high in the air to show off to his playmates.
Being cultivators, everyone had sharp senses, and they focused their gazes to look closely.
To their surprise, what he held in his hand was... a snail?
Exchanging glances, everyone revealed bewildered expressions.
Chu Qianfeng lowered his voice and said, “Their behavior is indeed a bit odd. I noticed earlier that quite a few households have cured meat hanging out to dry. It doesn't look like they're starving.”
Several female disciples nodded in agreement:
“True, and how much meat could a tiny snail like that even have?”
“And he picked it up near an outhouse...”
Bai Zhirou nodded in agreement as well.
Just then, Jiang Ye's voice rang out inside her mind:
“Yo, who knew we'd run into a snail-devouring celebrity here?”
Bai Zhirou asked in her mind, Senior, do you also think this is abnormal?
Jiang Ye chuckled dismissively. “Is there a possibility that they just haven't gained common sense yet...?”
Bai Zhirou: “?”
The group discussed it for a bit. Though they found it strange, they couldn't reach a definitive conclusion.
Chu Qianfeng couldn't help stepping forward to ask, “Hey kids, why are you picking up snails to eat? Are they really that delicious?”
Hearing the question, the chubby boy with a line of snot dangling from his nose turned around.
With a small twig, he skillfully pried out the dark, gooey lump of meat from inside the snail shell.
Then, he generously offered it toward Chu Qianfeng.
Giving a hard sniff to pull his snot back up, he grinned and said, “Here! My parents said sharing is caring. I spent half the day looking for this snail, so you can have it, Big Brother!”
Chu Qianfeng's face froze, as if he were staring at some terrifying ancient calamity beast.
Stepping back half a pace, he offered an awkward laugh, “N-No thanks... You go ahead and eat it yourself.”
Hearing this, the snotty kid didn't stand on ceremony either.
He popped the dark lump of snail meat into his mouth, chewing as he replied, “Actually, it doesn't have much flavor. I just eat it for the chewiness.”
“Plus, it's meat! My parents say meat is really expensive, so finding it like this makes me feel like I scored a little deal.”
Everyone: “...”
At that moment...
Bai Zhirou finally understood what Jiang Ye meant by "haven't gained common sense yet."
Slosh, slosh...
The dull sound of water sloshing against wooden buckets drifted over from a distance.
Bai Zhirou and the Sword Peak disciples turned toward the sound.
They saw several men dressed in coarse hemp garments carrying heavy water pails on shoulder poles, sweating profusely as they walked toward the outskirts of the village.
Bai Zhirou revealed a look of confusion, “Summer has barely started, and there's no drought. Why do they need to travel so far just to haul water?”
Zhao Ran's eyes darted around, and he expertly adopted a familiar, flattering demeanor before trotting up to strike up a conversation, “Brothers, hard work! Why are you out hauling drinking water in this heat?”
The lead man set down his water pails, wiped away his sweat, and replied in a rough voice tinged with irritation, “Who knows! Our Daniu Village must have pissed off the Dragon King in the sky or something. The village wells started drying up a few days ago, and by now, you can't even squeeze out a drop of muddy water!”
“We had no choice but to come all the way to Luopo Village to borrow water.”
The group exchanged looks, their expressions shifting slightly.
It seemed the problem lay in Daniu Village.
Right at that moment, the team of disciples sent earlier to investigate Daniu Village hurried back, heading straight for Bai Zhirou.
“Senior Sister Bai, there's a situation at Daniu Village!”
...
At the entrance of Daniu Village...
Gu Changqing and the others were already waiting beneath an old locust tree, huddled together in quiet discussion.
As soon as Bai Zhirou landed, she asked impatiently, “Senior Brother Gu, what did you find?”
Gu Changqing knitted his brows, his voice grave, “Daniu Village is bizarre. I scanned it with my divine sense; there's no demonic aura or any tracks left by demon beasts, yet the entire village is eerie down to every detail.”
“First is the water—nearly every well in the village has dried up. Not only that, take a look at this old locust tree.”
He pointed to the massive locust tree behind him.
“The bark falls off at a touch, the leaves are withered and yellow, and even the surrounding patch of grass has entirely died off. It's as though... all the moisture was drained out by something.”
Qi Linger added from the side, “It's not just the plants. Daniu Village has many cattle farmers. I asked around earlier, and the villagers said the cattle have been listless and lost their appetite lately. Yet when the town's vet came to inspect them, he couldn't find anything wrong at all.”
Returning from Luopo Village, Bai Zhirou and her group scanned Daniu Village.
That indescribable sense of strangeness grew stronger and stronger.
Bai Zhirou's delicate nose twitched slightly, and she suddenly spoke in a low voice, “Cooking smoke... It's clearly lunchtime right now, but not a single chimney in the entire Daniu Village is smoking.”
Hearing this, the Sword Peak disciples froze in unison.
A bunch of people who routinely entered secluded cultivation for months without eating or drinking—relying entirely on Fasting Pills to sustain themselves—they really hadn't paid attention to such details of mundane mortal life.
In her mind, Jiang Ye's somewhat bored voice rang out, “Xiao Bai, look at that mongrel at the village entrance. I've kicked plenty of dogs, so I'm plenty experienced.”
“Guard dogs like that love to play the bully and bark wildly at strangers, but with so many of us standing right here, this one hasn't even let out a peep. It's just lying there playing dead.”
“The animals in this village are all wrong.”
Realization dawned upon Bai Zhirou.
She shifted her gaze toward the junior brother in the group who had shouted "Come, Ox!" that morning.
“Junior Brother Zhao, did you bring your mutated old yellow ox?”
Zhao Ran was flattered to be singled out by the True Disciple Senior Sister, nodding repeatedly, “I did, I did!”
But immediately after, he swallowed hard with difficulty.
Because he suddenly remembered Senior Sister Bai's infamous reputation within the sect for loving to eat demon beasts—she even dared to target True Disciples' Golden Core-level demon beasts!
Could it be she was hungry and wanted to indulge her appetite for meat?!
Zhao Ran's hand trembled uncontrollably as he raised it to stroke the lowest-grade beast-taming ring on his wrist.
He had spent a full year's worth of savings to buy it just to conveniently bring along his old yellow ox. After all, this ox was practically a companion he had grown up with.
He spoke with difficulty, his voice choked with tears, “Senior Sister Bai... my yellow ox is old, its meat is tough and stringy... If you're hungry, can I go to town and buy food for you instead?”
Black lines covered Bai Zhirou's face: “...”
Evidently, her reputation was continuing to suffer.
Rate on N.U.
