Disaster Relief Down the Mountain

Yellow earth stretched endlessly, dust and sand blotting out the sky.

A blurry figure on the official road gradually became clearer. Only when she drew near could they see it was a girl in Daoist robes, carrying a Book Box on her back. Her long skirt was spotless, two weapons hung at her waist, and she clinked and clattered like a moving rack as she walked, muttering to herself.

"If I'd known, I wouldn't have brought smoked meat down the mountain. Food is everywhere, nutritious and delicious."

With that, Bai Yujun stretched out her slender jade hand, swiped through the air a few times, and caught a handful of locusts. She stuffed them straight into her mouth and swallowed without even chewing. Back in her hatchling days, she had eaten plenty of grasshoppers. Their rich nutrition had kept Bai Yujun alive instead of starving to death. When she had first broken out of her shell, she had been no thicker than a chopstick and could only eat such things. The taste of locusts had left a deep mark on her young heart.

A little poison was nothing worth mentioning to a snake.

The weather was dry. Whenever a strong wind blew, it kicked up a sandstorm, along with locusts filling the sky.

She shifted the Book Box on her back to make her shoulders more comfortable.

There were figures beneath a tree ahead. Bai Yujun headed straight for them...

After coming down the mountain, all Chunyang Disciples had been assigned to various places. Bai Yujun, Yang Mu, and Xu Ling were stationed in the same county. Several Lingxu disciples skilled in treating illnesses also followed Xu Ling in her work, while Bai Yujun and Yang Mu were responsible for dealing with evil beings that took advantage of the chaos to commit wickedness. The elders and senior disciples had already combed through the entire region. There were only two or three minor ghosts and monsters left; the larger ones had all been killed. Ghosts and evil things sprang up quickly—wild grass could not be burned away, for the spring wind would bring it back to life—so disciples could only be assigned to watch over them. Each of them managed several towns, which was not too tiring.

When she reached the tree, she saw a family of three lying beneath it, roasting rats over a bonfire.

What was strange was that they neither killed locusts nor ate them. They could eat rats, grass roots, and tree bark, yet refused to eat locusts. They turned a blind eye to the black clouds filling the sky. In such dry conditions, even if they merely lit a fire, they could use the smoke to drive the locusts away, yet they did nothing. Bai Yujun found it hard to understand. Wasting food was wrong.

"Elder, why aren't you killing the locusts?"

There was nothing wrong with that suggestion. On modern Earth, locusts were exterminated whenever they were spotted. In the Hundred Thousand Mountains, problems like this were solved with their mouths. Yet here, everyone remained unmoved.

Originally, the old man had been delighted to see a young female Daoist approach. He had even prepared to stand and greet her. But the moment he heard Bai Yujun's words, his expression changed. He became furious, as though this Young Daoist before him had said something utterly wicked and outrageously ignorant.

"Don't speak nonsense!"

Bai Yujun froze. Could this fellow's personality have twisted after eating too much rat meat?

"Those locusts were scattered by the Empress of Heaven! It's all because that emperor in the Capital City disrespected Heaven, refused to heed his loyal ministers, and behaved improperly, angering the heavens and causing them to release the locusts! How could we dare drive them away?"

Huh? What did locusts and drought have to do with that old emperor? If he had that ability, why would he still be emperor? Wouldn't it be better to become an immortal outright?

That explanation made the entire snake feel bad.

Her snake brain turned, and only then did she realize that someone was deliberately spreading rumors to Deal With the emperor. They were using the countless mouths of the people to strip the emperor of his credibility first, then slowly plot further moves. It was an obvious scheme, stabbing him openly in broad daylight.

Looking again at the old man, she could vaguely make out that he wore a Scholar's Robe. Well then, she had run into an old pedant—one of those ultimate old pedants who spent all day saying that the Son of Heaven did not speak of strange powers and spirits, yet believed in punishments sent down by Heaven.

Bai Yujun did not believe this story had originated from the old pedant lurking beneath this tree.

"Who told you that? Those storytellers in the entertainment houses?"

The old man's eyes widened.

"Nonsense! Scholar Zhang and Steward Ma both said so! They're scholars!"

At that, she understood everything. Someone wanted to rebel. How truly tragic. With disasters everywhere and the common people displaced from their homes, these Important Figures and great heroes did not think of ways to resolve the calamity. Instead, they planned to rise up in revolt, follow some heavenly mandate, and become emperors. They truly lived up to the saying that heroes emerged in Chaotic Times.

Shaking her head, she left.

"The real demons aren't in the wilderness. They're in people's hearts..."

With the Book Box on her back, she walked step by step toward the abandoned village.

The sky was growing late, so she would spend the night here. She found an unoccupied Thatched Hut and tidied it up. Releasing a trace of her fierce snake aura, she scared away the rats and Stink Bugs living inside. She set down her Book Box and weapons, spread out a blanket, then took out a scripture and lay on the broken bed to study it.

Snakes liked cool shade, so she did not even need to light a fire. Outside the window was utter darkness, and the chirping of crickets seemed to ring beside her ears.

A Wild Dog howled in the distance.

The full moon rose, its light shining through the hole-riddled window onto Bai Yujun's face as she read. Animals possessed night vision, and her snake eyes reflected an eerie glimmer beneath the moonlight...

The area around the village was peaceful. For the moment, she had not caught the scent of any demons or evil spirits. Such leisure was rare.

Late at night, Bai Yujun held the scripture in her hand and could not resist her drowsiness, drifting into dreamland...

Several shadowy black shapes floated into the courtyard, intending to enter the house. But after drawing close, their Black Qi surged violently, and they turned and fled without a trace.

Morning.

Warm sunlight streamed into the Thatched Hut and slowly crept across her pretty face. The light gently brushed her features; her eyelashes trembled slightly as she woke. After coming down the mountain, she could sleep in now.

She casually tossed a Cleansing Technique over her face and hair, put away the blanket, slung the Book Box onto her back, picked up her weapons, and went outside.

There were still people in the village. Elderly people, along with the few remaining women and children, stayed behind and struggled to survive. The young and strong had either been taken by bandits or conscripted by the authorities. A group of skeletal people stared at Bai Yujun, their eyes numb and lifeless. If it still did not rain, they too would die one by one, just like those wandering ghosts from last night.

That was right—ghosts. Last night, several wandering ghosts had drifted through the village and come outside the house Bai Yujun had borrowed for the night.

Ordinary wandering ghosts were not worth worrying about. The Qi and Blood of a twelve-meter-long snake demon was dozens of times more vigorous than that of an ordinary person. Her powerful Qi and Blood kept those Ghostly Entities from daring to approach, unless they were malicious or vicious ghosts.

Bai Yujun had work to do today.

Outside the village.

Not far away lay a mass graveyard. New graves and old graves overlapped in dense layers, while even more bodies had simply been wrapped in straw mats and thrown there without care. Rotting corpses fed countless Wild Dogs and enormous rats, and bones were scattered everywhere from being pawed about.

Several Wild Dogs watched Bai Yujun from afar. Having eaten human flesh, their eyes were blood-red, and saliva thick with bacteria and disease dripped from the corners of their mouths.

Caw—caw—!

A withered Big Tree was crowded with crows. They waited here to fight the Wild Dogs for food.

Bai Yujun swept her gaze across the vast mass graveyard before her and sighed. This was a major job. She did not know whether she could clean it all up in two days. Setting down her Book Box, she put on a homemade mask, picked up her weapon, and entered the graveyard...

Clearing evil things from mass graveyards was also part of her mission.

When too many people died, malicious and vicious ghosts could easily emerge. A grievance that could not be swallowed down would come back out to cause harm. Some corpses might also, through a twist of fate, become zombies. This was a world of immortals and martial heroes—anything could happen. What Chunyang Disciples had to do was eliminate these low-level evil things. Even disciples who had entered the sect less than a year ago could handle such work, and it was naturally no challenge for Bai Yujun.

During the day, she first had to inspect which graves carried the heaviest resentment and check whether any zombies had taken form. Bai Yujun held a small, simple compass as she Searched through the foul-smelling burial ground.

In years of famine, there were many who died unjustly. The method of handling them depended on the weight of their resentment.