Night gradually wove itself across the sky. Stars slowly emerged, and moonlight spilled over the little mountain village ringed by mountains. The green bamboo surrounding the village began to glow with a faint emerald light.
This was Green Bamboo Village's specialty bamboo, and the village had been named after it.
Yet no one admired such beautiful scenery. Instead, waves of footsteps rang out through the village.
"Quick, quick! Night is about to fall, and the gray mist is coming. Go patrol according to the groups assigned today."
The speaker was a stern-faced middle-aged man dressed in martial attire, a long spear strapped to his back and a torch raised in his hand as he shouted at the Patrol Team members standing in the open space.
He was the village guard captain—Qu Yong.
At Captain Qu Yong's command, the village patrol members swiftly sprang into action, hurrying off in pairs toward the areas they were responsible for.
"Brother Wang, I heard your daughter is already sixteen. Do you think I'd be suitable as your son-in-law?"
"Get lost. Joining the Patrol Team means having one foot in the gates of hell. With that short-lived face of yours, you want to marry my daughter?"
The two men speaking were members of the village Patrol Team. The one with streaks of white in his hair was Wang Qiang, while the one eyeing Old Wang's daughter was Liu San.
Today, the two of them had been assigned to patrol the straw fields southeast of the village.
They could be considered veterans of the team. Though they were shooting the breeze, their hands never left their weapons, and they remained alert to every rustle of grass and stir of wind around them.
Listening to Old Wang, Liu San knew Brother Wang was telling the truth. Joining the Patrol Team meant eating well and drinking well, but one also had to shoulder the responsibility that came with such a privileged life. This work required not only care, but luck as well—it was a living earned on the blade's edge.
Just as Liu San was mulling over Old Wang's words, Old Wang noticed that something was off about the rice fields tonight.
They had walked for so long, yet Old Wang had not heard a single sound from any living creature. He hurriedly warned Liu San, drawing his blade with his right hand.
The instant Old Wang drew his blade, something flickered in the corner of his eye. It seemed as though a scarecrow had moved.
"Liu San, did that scarecrow just move?!"
Hearing Wang Qiang's grave tone, Liu San's heart jolted as he turned toward the scarecrow.
"Brother Wang, something really is wrong. Why does that smile on the scarecrow's face look so creepy?"
The moment Liu San finished speaking, the scarecrow's body abruptly moved. At the same time, the rice ears in the field stirred as well, surging toward Liu San and Old Wang like ocean waves.
"Liu San, don't panic. Send the Signal Talisman. I'll hold it back for a while. We absolutely cannot let it enter the village."
With that, Old Wang slapped the Talisman Paper onto his blade. Yellow talisman light flared across the blade, and Old Wang charged at the scarecrow with his sword in hand.
The scarecrow ignored the yellow Talisman Light and lunged straight at Old Wang.
When Old Wang reached the scarecrow, he flashed aside and dodged its attack, then slashed at its arm.
The blade enhanced by the Talisman Paper cut into the scarecrow's arm, instantly leaving a deep wound. But as the rice ears from the nearby fields poured into the scarecrow's body, the wound on its arm healed in an instant.
Old Wang's eyes widened. Before he could react, he was swallowed by the rice ears swept up by the scarecrow.
Liu San had just sent out the Signal Talisman when he saw Old Wang, with whom he had shared a good relationship, swallowed by the rice ears. His eyes split with rage. He gripped his blade in both hands and charged at the scarecrow, having actually forgotten to attach a talisman.
Without a talisman attached, his blade struck the scarecrow's body with a clang like metal against stone. The stunned Liu San was then struck on the head by the scarecrow's palm, which shattered his skull.
Not long afterward, a beam of red light suddenly appeared in the sky southeast of Green Bamboo Village.
Qu Yong, stationed at the village entrance, knew someone had used a Signal Talisman when he saw the red light. He immediately sprinted toward the site of the incident.
"Bold indeed!"
Having just arrived, Qu Yong saw endless rice ears preparing to devour and bury Liu San's corpse. After swallowing Wang Qiang's corpse, the rice ears covering the scarecrow seemed to have been dyed with a layer of blood!
Qu Yong drew his long spear. Vital Energy stained both spearhead and shaft red as he thrust at the scarecrow.
Sizzle! Sizzle! Sizzle!
It sounded like water being poured into boiling oil.
Three holes appeared in the scarecrow's body. Nearby wheat ears rushed toward it, trying to heal its wounds, but the Vital Energy clinging to the holes made them difficult to mend.
"So it was a strange creature on the verge of transforming into Crimson Grade. No wonder they died at your hands."
As he spoke, Qu Yong stepped forward again, intending to finish off this strange creature in one burst of momentum.
At once, the rice ears in the field stopped flowing toward the scarecrow and instead lunged at Qu Yong. Qu Yong grew wary. Though he was a Vitality Realm martial artist, one realm above this scarecrow, the abilities of strange creatures were difficult to guard against. Quite a few martial artists had capsized in the gutter because of them.
When the rice ears came within a foot of Qu Yong, he moved. His spear swept out, and the wall formed from rice ears before him shattered instantly. Yet the scarecrow behind that wall had vanished without a trace.
"This is troublesome. That scarecrow is about to advance into the Crimson Realm. No, I need to notify the village chief and the talisman master."
With that, he picked up Liu San's corpse, which the scarecrow had not had time to fully devour, and returned to the village entrance.