Guiding the Way

True Name: An Yue. Considering that this was not his first time visiting Jinlan Village and that he had an official identity in Great Qian, it was most likely his real name.

Identity: Unknown.

Origin: Unknown.

Cultivation Method: Unknown.

Specialties, Trump Cards: Unknown.

Yu Ziqing pulled up the list, took one look, and gave up immediately.

That was why, despite having an external aid that seemed incredibly powerful at first glance, he rarely treated it as his first choice in his daily life.

An Yue would be leaving in a few days. In a closed-off village like Jinlan Village, with no one especially familiar with An Yue, Yu Ziqing could never dig up enough essential information within a few days to trigger the judgment.

And if the two of them came into direct conflict, he had no ability to resist at all.

When Old Yang heard that someone from Great Qian had come ahead of time to arrange a trade, he decisively decided not to leave the Earth Den for the next few days. Though that was necessary caution, Yu Ziqing felt that, in all likelihood, it really might have something to do with Old Yang.

Ever since An Yue arrived, the daily activity of Yu Ziqing and Er Han going to the Back Mountain to practice their punches had also been tacitly canceled by the two of them. Neither had mentioned it again.

An Yue spent all day like a street loafer. He was either sitting on the hillside overlooking the village or wandering around it, and the range of his wandering was gradually expanding. Once, he even wandered as far as the entrance to the cave.

Otherwise, when he had nothing to do, he would strike up conversations with people in the village, seemingly intentionally and seemingly unintentionally.

Three days passed. Everything looked peaceful, and nothing unexpected happened.

On the fourth day, just as everyone was preparing to finish breakfast and go to work, Yu Ziqing, who was standing behind the big pot serving everyone food, keenly noticed that An Yue greeted every single person he encountered along the way.

The village was not large. Yu Ziqing had never counted how many people lived there, but since he cooked every day, he had a rough idea of how many people came to eat.

A little over a month ago, the village had at most three hundred people. Afterward, the flock had added more than a hundred.

As the head chef and the person who served everyone their portions each day, even Yu Ziqing would not dare say he knew every single person. Yet after coming for three days, An Yue seemed to have memorized everyone's names. He could even chat with each person about something they were interested in.

Yu Ziqing did not dare keep staring at him. While serving food, he merely kept watching from the corner of his eye.

Any cultivator who was even slightly capable would sense it when someone's gaze rested on them.

After getting his food, An Yue, like everyone else, squatted to the side with a bowl in his hands and began wolfing it down. Today, he had even changed his clothes. No one knew where he had put away that eye-catching vermilion cloak. He wore only a black martial outfit tinged with a little green, with no accessories at all. At first glance, he truly seemed to be making an effort to blend into the village.

Yu Ziqing silently calculated.

While waiting in line for food, An Yue had actually greeted eighty-eight people. Only twenty-eight of them were original villagers. The remaining sixty had all arrived a little over a month ago.

With each of those twenty-eight original villagers, he had said no more than two sentences at most.

With the newest villagers, he had spoken to one person for as many as eight sentences.

The old and new villagers were interspersed among one another, and with so many people arriving at mealtime, no one would notice. Apart from Yu Ziqing, who was facing everyone as he played the role of a cafeteria lady, everyone else's attention was on their food.

People could lie, but statistics could not.

If An Yue had not done this deliberately, Yu Ziqing would twist his own head off right then and kick it around like a ball.

Er Han had said that An Yue had not come to Jinlan Village for the first time. The odds that he had come alone to plot something against Jinlan Village were low.

The odds that he had come looking for Old Yang were now at least fifty percent.

Today, he had already greeted all sixty of the new villagers and chatted with them. And now, the place where he was squatting lay along the only route Yu Ziqing had to take to return to the Earth Den.

Yu Ziqing knew that this fellow would definitely greet him later.

If he said no more than three sentences, that would be fine. But if he went beyond three sentences and the topic strayed outside the village, then the probability that he had come looking for Old Yang could be raised to seventy percent.

By the time everyone had gotten their food, with some people already finished and carrying their tools down into the mine shaft, Yu Ziqing finally had time to serve himself a bowl.

He carried his wooden bowl back, deliberately taking the path behind An Yue.

An Yue turned his head first and looked toward Yu Ziqing, then naturally waved in greeting.

"Young Master Yu, thanks for the effort. Your skills are truly remarkable. With your cooking, you could open a restaurant in the Great Qian Imperial Capital."

"You flatter me, you flatter me. I was just messing around. Mainly, the ingredients were good. Anyone could make the same thing." Yu Ziqing recalled Er Han's naturally harmless, honest, foolish smile and copied it as he smiled.

Seven parts honesty, two parts embarrassment, and one part faint pride at being praised.

Yu Ziqing gave himself nine out of ten. He had copied it fairly well.

Yu Ziqing replied, but his footsteps did not slow. It was obvious that he had no intention of continuing the conversation with An Yue.

An Yue acted as if he had not noticed and naturally continued the exchange.

"I heard Young Master Yu used to be a head chef. May I ask where you learned your skills? I've traveled far and wide for many years, but I've never seen the methods used in these dishes. And yet, the flavors are exceptionally good."

"I'm no head chef. I learned these country methods from a traveling village cook. I was just boasting before. How did people actually take it seriously?"

"That must be true. I heard that when the Shepherd caught Young Master Yu before, it was thanks to your cooking skills that you avoided suffering." An Yue paused, then took a cookbook from his sleeve. Looking somewhat embarrassed, he said, "To be honest, I'm a glutton, and I cook in private from time to time. I've wanted to learn Young Master Yu's skills, but I was too embarrassed to say so. I have a cookbook compiled by a famous Great Qian culinary master. I'd like to give it to you, Young Master Yu. I hope you won't mind teaching me."

Yu Ziqing thought about it. The persona of someone who liked studying cookbooks seemed to be something he had stopped maintaining in public ever since arriving at Jinlan Village.

When had this fellow found out so much?

The new villagers had all previously been turned into sheep. Each had been muddleheaded and dazed, and even Old Yang had only barely maintained his self-awareness. Even Old Yang had been affected when he reached the Locust tree forest.

As for the others, they certainly knew very little.

If he had to force an explanation, perhaps the last few people to turn into sheep knew a little more. But what they knew was essentially nothing worth concealing.

No.

Someone among them knew that Yu Ziqing had an Old Yang there.

The old villagers would not gossip, but among the new villagers, perhaps someone had let something slip... No, someone definitely had.

Otherwise, An Yue would not know so much.

As his thoughts raced, Yu Ziqing slightly widened his eyes and fixed his gaze on the cookbook. Only then did he smile rather sheepishly.

"It's just learning a dish. It's not some... Well, why are you giving me a cookbook? Fine, I'll teach you when I have the time."

The corners of An Yue's lips lifted slightly. Without giving him a chance to refuse, he stuffed the cookbook into Yu Ziqing's arms.

"Young Master Yu, don't be so polite. It's only a cookbook. It's not worth much."

Yu Ziqing chuckled constantly, looking very happy. Of course, his happiness had nothing to do with the other man. He was simply delighted to have a new book. In Jinlan Village, one could not see even a single book, so there had been nothing for Yu Ziqing to mess around with even if he wanted to.

However, in An Yue's eyes, that smile meant something else entirely. Taking advantage of the moment, he continued.

"If your skills were poor, how could you have escaped those barbaric Shepherds? Still, those fellows deserved it. They actually all died."

"That's right. They all died. They died horribly."

"What? Young Master Yu, you saw it at the time?"

"I did. We were almost at Jinlan Village then. They wanted to turn me into a sheep, and then..."

"What happened?" An Yue replied unhurriedly, looking as though he was waiting for Yu Ziqing to continue.

Yu Ziqing recalled the scene from back then, as well as the sensation when that power surged forth.

"Then, there was someone very fiery—someone as hot as if he were on fire. He killed them all with one blow each. They stood no chance against him. Anyway, he was incredibly powerful. When he stood there, I couldn't even feel the cold anymore."

An Yue watched Yu Ziqing's expression, catching the look of recollection on his face. He smiled and said, "They deserved it. If they had been in Great Qian, they would have died eight hundred times over. What happened afterward?"

"Afterward? I don't know. I never even saw his face. I only suddenly felt cold, and then I was the only one left standing there."

"That's a shame. At least you survived."

"It's still a shame that so many people died. The elderly couldn't hold on after they arrived here. They had been tormented by evil arts for too long. But before they died, they at least turned back into people, and they had a place to be buried in peace. Alas..."

"Natural disasters plague the Wasteland. There are many things no one can do anything about..."

Yu Ziqing sighed and bid An Yue farewell, then carried his wooden bowl back to the Earth Den.

He handed the wooden bowl to Old Yang and told him to eat first, then continued speaking on his own.

"He's quite troublesome. He doesn't mind the effort, and he can lower himself enough to investigate everyone one by one. But I pointed him in a direction. If he goes there, then he's definitely here looking for you.

"That's why I said you should have taught me some self-defense methods sooner. I've only managed to make ten pounds of Spirit-Confusing Medicine so far. My methods are too limited, and it might not even be useful.

"But, Old Yang, if he really is looking for you, do you think there's any chance he isn't here to kill you?"

"No." Old Yang was utterly calm, with not the slightest sign of nervousness. "I don't know him. So as long as he's trying to find me, he must be trying to kill me."

"Forget it. I can't count on you. I happen to have gotten acquainted with a Hungry Ghost recently, and we get along fairly well. I'll go ask whether he can summon some people. Better to be prepared."

That night, dark clouds hid the moon, and between heaven and earth, one could not see one's hand before one's face.

The people of Jinlan Village had all gone to rest.

An Yue emerged from the Earth Den without making a sound. His dark-green martial outfit blended completely into the night, making him look like a nocturnal cat as he headed silently toward the Back Mountain.

He arrived at the large graveyard in the Back Mountain. A faint glimmer flashed in his eyes. With one sweeping glance, he distinguished the old graves from the recent ones.

He came to a grave and held a sharp sword in his hand. With a light slash, the grave mound split down the middle. The cut was smooth, and not even a speck of soil fell away.

He glanced at the person inside the grave—a gray-haired old man whose corpse had not decayed much because of the cold.

He shook his head, then waved a hand and controlled the grave mound as it slowly closed, making everything look exactly as it had before.

For more than two hours, he not only inspected every new grave, but, to be safe, also split open every grave whose mound looked less than fresh. Only after confirming the people inside with his own eyes did An Yue shake his head and sigh.

"Looks like there really isn't anyone. That makes sense. The people above never had much hope that I'd find anything here. I was only passing by..."

Just as An Yue secretly slipped into the Back Mountain under cover of night, Yu Ziqing also left his Earth Den to relieve himself.

He glanced in the direction of An Yue's Earth Den. The hillside was utterly tranquil, and no one could be seen. Only snores rose and fell here and there.

It looked as though An Yue had gone to rest as well.

But Yu Ziqing knew that he had gone out.

Because that bastard Er Han was sneaky in the worst way. He had forced An Yue into a position where he could neither complain about the poor conditions nor make himself sleep in sheep droppings, so An Yue had never rested in the Earth Den at all.