Secrets, Part One

Inside Wushan Prefecture.

Zhang Rongfang walked slowly in the direction of the sound.

Walk through the blocks, through large areas of deserted residential houses.

Then we came to a White Two-Story Building that seemed to have been abandoned for a long time.

The buildings here seem to have a special style.

Between the floors, in the very center, there is a railing shaped like a crescent moon.

On the Incense Burner stood an Incense Burner taller than a person, covered with countless black birds.

The birds' eyes were all blood red, which was quite strange. They stood together without making a sound, like sesame seeds scattered on the ground.

"Come"

The sound was coming from this building.

Zhang Rongfang looked up at the doorplate outside the building.

On the right side of the entrance, there is a hanging iron sign with a solid dark blue butterfly fixed to it with iron nails.

Below, written in Ling Script, is the word: Wish.

"Here." Zhang Rongfang took a deep breath, and his eyes suddenly cleared.

He felt a chill run through him, realizing that the temperature around him was completely different from that of the entire Wushan Prefecture.

He clearly remembered that the temperature at home was only in the thirties, but the temperature here was so cold that he felt cold. He took a step back and had no idea when or how he got here.

He didn't remember having such a house next to his own.

He clearly felt that his pace wasn't fast when he left the house, but now... Zhang Rongfang took two steps back and looked around.

Both sides of this House of Wishes were shrouded in white mist.

Only from a distance can one vaguely see that the houses on both sides have the same structure.

"Here..." Zhang Rongfang felt a little uneasy.

Immediately close your eyes and then open them again.

The expected Attribute Panel suddenly appeared.

What gave him a jolt was...

In the Attribute Panel, the Intuition Warning had been dormant for a long time reappeared.

'Intuition Warning: Something is approaching. Approaching.'

The warning message was brief, but the handwriting had turned a deep, blood-red color, as if it might bleed at any moment.

'This is troublesome,' Zhang Rongfang quickly calmed down.

If he had known earlier that improving his Civilian Skill would enhance his sensory acuity and allow him to directly encounter such troublesome beings, he might not have improved them so much so early.

But it's too late to regret it now. Since the Refining Spirit Perfection was Master Yue's initial requirement, it means that this realm must have some special features.

'Is it a human or a ghost? Let's find out!'

Zhang Rongfang looked up and gently pushed the gate of the building with both hands.

The creaking metal gate was slowly pushed open, sliding to both sides like open black, hollowed-out wings.

Zhang Rongfang strode into the courtyard.

The courtyard was empty and sparsely furnished.

There were all sorts of dead butterflies scattered on the ground.

All of these butterflies are the same color—blue.

A clear blue, just like the sky.

Squeak.

The main entrance to the building was also unlocked and was gently pushed open by Zhang Rongfang.

Inside were large patches of hazy white spider webs.

The thick spider webs, like a white veil, almost completely covered and submerged the entire hall.

Through the gaps in the spider web, Zhang Rongfang could vaguely see a White Dress Woman standing at the entrance to the wooden staircase at the deepest part of the staircase.

She wore a palace dress, her waist was very slender, her hands were folded over her abdomen, her face was as white as pink, and she had a smile on her face.

Her long, jet-black hair was neatly combed and tied up, giving her a dignified and elegant air.

Through the layers of spider webs, the woman smiled at Zhang Rongfang from afar.

"Come"

She opened her mouth slightly and made a sound.

Hehehe.

Suddenly, a soft chuckle came from behind Zhang Rongfang.

He suddenly turned around and looked.

There was nothing behind him.

Then he quickly turned around and looked in the direction of the woman again.

There's nothing left at the wooden ladder.

Zhang Rongfang took a deep breath, picked up a broken chair leg from the ground, and kept knocking away the spider webs as he moved forward.

Large patches of white ash remained on the spiderweb, slowly dissipating and drifting with the swirling backflow of air.

The air became foggy.

Soon, he arrived at the wooden stairs and looked up.

The woman was at the top of the stairs on the second floor, her back to him, walking step by step deeper into the second floor.

Zhang Rongfang quickly went upstairs, and in the blink of an eye, he turned around and chased after her.

In the small hall on the second floor, there were rows of clocks on the floor, their hands constantly turning.

These clocks look as if they are very old, with a blackish-brown body, and they occasionally make a rusty clicking sound as the hands turn.

The White Dress Woman stood at the deepest part of the clock, leaning against the window, smiling at him from afar.

"Come"

She spoke softly.

"Who are you!?" Zhang Rongfang did not approach any further.

It's not that he doesn't want to.

But he sensed that something was wrong.

At this moment, the Intuition Warning on the Attribute Panel had turned into a dark blood color that was about to solidify.

The handwriting was still the same line, unchanged, but a chilling aura emanated from it, making Zhang Rongfang feel increasingly cold.

"Come here," the woman said to him again with a smile.

"What do you want to do by bringing me here?" Zhang Rongfang asked again.

He believed that the other party would not have led him here for no reason.

"Aren't you coming over?" The woman's tone finally changed.

"What exactly is your purpose?! And where is this place?" Zhang Rongfang was ashen as he stared intently at the other person.

"Aren't you coming over?"

"Then I'm coming over!!"

Suddenly, the woman's voice rang out from behind Zhang Rongfang.

The White Dress Woman vanished from his sight in an instant, but behind him, a chilling coldness suddenly emanated, sending shivers down his spine.

Without thinking, Zhang Rongfang swung his palm backward.

But he didn't get a chance to hit anything.

A hazy white spider web descended from above, completely enveloping him.

A strong feeling of drowsiness washed over him.

"Playing tricks!" Immediately, the Blood Lotus on Zhang Rongfang's back bulged out and Blooming.

His violent blood and qi burned and boiled like flames within his body.

At the same time, it seemed to be accompanied by a deep, beast-like roar.

Countless spiderwebs were broken and scattered.

Zhang Rongfang's vision suddenly became clear.

His pupils suddenly trembled, and his head seemed to be spinning and swirling like a vortex, with a deep sense of dizziness quickly subsiding.

Everything around me began to clear. From blurry, it slowly zoomed in, and then became clear.

What am I doing?!

When he finally saw everything clearly, Zhang Rongfang was shocked.

At this moment, he was not in any small building at all, but was still sitting cross-legged in his own home.

There were no cobwebs around, only a ray of sunlight shining in from the window, falling on him.

Zhang Rongfang blinked and quickly looked at the Intuition Warning in the Attribute Panel.

Intuition Warning: The danger has passed; some unknown entity has departed.

"Really!"

Zhang Rongfang was startled.

An ordinary person might think it was just a dream, an illusion.

If he didn't have the ability to access Attribute Panel, he might have just thought it was a dream.

But now, his Intuition Warning clearly told him that what had just happened was not a dream. Standing up, Zhang Rongfang looked around and confirmed that he was indeed still in his own home.

Not much time had passed around them.

It's still similar to his previous meditation.

The little tennis ball in his mind was no longer as active as before.

"As expected. Once you enter the Refining Spirit Realm, you'll encounter all sorts of things beyond common sense. Spirit General are truly different from ordinary people now."

Standing up, Zhang Rongfang stretched his legs, intending to go out and investigate whether the small building he had just seen actually existed in this Wushan Prefecture.

But as soon as he stood up, he suddenly froze and quickly turned his head.

"This... I clearly remember storing it already?"

He looked at the Blood God Statue behind him, and a sense of unease and uncertainty arose in his heart.

The Statue was now placed upright behind him, gazing at him with a benevolent expression.

On the ground in front of it, there was a tiny, almost invisible speck of white ash.

Zhang Rongfang stared silently at the speck of white ash, paused, and then carefully examined the Blood God Statue.

No abnormalities were found.

Then, he approached, reached out, gently touched the white ash to his fingertip, and picked it up to examine it.

The ash still faintly carried the scent of the spiderwebs he had encountered in the small building.

Could it be...?

Zhang Rongfang's expression was unpredictable.

He quickly got up, went out, and headed towards Qing Su's side.

In Wushan Prefecture, he had plenty of manpower, so he could thoroughly investigate the origins of the White Dress Woman he had just seen.

Both the abnormality of the Blood God Statue and the reminders in the Attribute Panel clearly told him this.

That wasn't a dream! *** Ding Yu groggily woke up from her deep sleep.

He remembered being completely smitten with someone before.

Moreover, the people who were so infatuated with him seemed to be locals from Dan Province.

He felt dizzy and disoriented, as if his head had been hit hard by something heavy, and the back of his head was in excruciating pain.

He opened his eyes and found himself lying in a dry haystack in the woodshed where haystacks were stored.

The dim sunlight outside shone through the mist and fell on the ground at his feet.

The air was filled with the smell of cow dung.

The faint sound of a girl's giggles could be heard from afar outside the door.

They were speaking a dialect that I couldn't understand at all, and they seemed to be joking and having a lot of fun.

Ding Yu raised her hand and looked at her wrist. It was bound with several layers of thick hemp rope.

These layers of ropes might be very powerful for an ordinary martial artist, making it impossible for them to break free.

But for him, that's all there is to it.

He was weak all over, as if the effects of the medicine hadn't completely worn off. He couldn't muster any strength.

Squeak.

The door to the woodshed opened.

A fair-skinned woman wearing a navy blue round hat walked in with a smile.

"You're awake? Are you hungry? Would you like something to eat?" The woman asked Ding Yu, her bright eyes wide open.

"Who are you? Why did you drug me?" Ding Yu asked in a deep voice.

"My name is Xiao Jing. My family is short of a strong laborer, and I want to have a son. You look so strong, you can definitely give birth to a very good son," the woman replied earnestly.

"..." Ding Yu was taken aback. "You'd just grab anyone off the street and bring them back to have a son??"

"Why wouldn't I dare? You're my property now, and everyone in this village knows that. You can't escape," Xiao Jing said with a smile.