A Few Months Ago

The Black Goat had been dealt with exceptionally cleanly. Nothing had been left behind. The Locust tree forest was like a gigantic maw of the abyss, insatiably greedy, capable of swallowing every drop of blood and every strand of fur until not a trace remained.

Old Yang had seen and heard plenty. Since he was certain there would be no future trouble from handling it here, the others naturally had nothing to say.

Yet no one could feel happy.

The Locust tree forest, which had shown no changes all this time, had clearly grown stronger.

To enter or leave the village, one could either go by Cècè's side or pass through the Locust tree forest.

Yu Ziqing had always wanted to ask: although the village was surrounded by mountains on all four sides, with the mountains enclosing it, given the physical abilities of the villagers, climbing over them should not have been especially difficult.

Why did everyone, including outsiders entering and leaving the village, have to use this one and only passage?

But after seeing more and more strange things and learning about more and more miraculous matters, Yu Ziqing no longer wanted to ask.

There was certainly a reason they did not take the other routes. Since everyone said this was the only entrance and exit, then naturally, it was.

The group stood there and watched for a while. When the Locust tree forest fell silent again and the swirling baleful wind dispersed with it, they prepared to leave.

Yu Ziqing had already turned around, but the Village Chief was still looking at the Locust tree forest. He spoke as though to himself.

"There were already some locust trees here originally. There just weren't this many."

Yu Ziqing stopped and walked back to the Village Chief's side.

He had never asked about the Locust tree forest, nor had he asked about Cècè. No one in the village ever discussed these things in private. When he had still counted as an outsider, he could not poke his nose in. Now that the Village Chief regarded him as one of their own and even intended to let him gain the authority to speak for the village, there was no need to ask.

If the Village Chief felt it could be told, he would certainly tell him.

And that time had come.

Yu Ziqing said nothing. He simply stood there and waited quietly. A trace of reminiscence appeared in the Village Chief's eyes.

"Before the weather became this bad, small wild beasts often appeared outside. Some locust trees also grew here, and every year, before the weather became too hot, they would grow strings of white locust blossoms.

The villagers would even pick the locust blossoms to celebrate, because it was difficult for anything else to grow in the village. They were one of the few things we could eat.

But this year, these locust trees never bloomed white again. There had originally been only a dozen or so, but now there were no other trees left in this forest. They were all locust trees.

Everything that entered the forest disappeared without a trace. We could never eat the locust blossoms that came each year again.

Even now, we still don't know why this change occurred."

As he spoke, the Village Chief glanced to the right, his expression growing even more complicated.

"When you came in, you took this side, didn't you? You should have seen her too?"

"Mm." Yu Ziqing nodded.

"I knew that if you were able to come in, you definitely hadn't passed through the Locust tree forest. And since you could come in from her side, I had already determined that you harbored no ill will and weren't the Shepherd. The Shepherd could never have come in alive from her side."

Yu Ziqing glanced at the Abyss of Despair belonging to Cècè, and suddenly understood why the Village Chief had dared to let him settle in without asking a single question when he first arrived. Later, the Village Chief had shown no suspicion either. From beginning to end, he had actually been quite kind.

"A few months ago, no one knew what had happened outside. Countless refugees began pouring into the village without stop.

There were also many animals that were natural enemies of one another, even demon beasts. They seemed to have gone mad. Instead of attacking each other, they all fled, and some even charged into the village.

If that had been all, it would not have mattered much.

But among those refugees, some were not poor families who could no longer afford food at all. There were all kinds of people among them, and the village suddenly became chaotic.

Some had merely passed through the village and wanted to keep fleeing, but within a few days, they all returned. More and more people gathered.

I decisively quelled the chaos. I killed quite a few people, including cultivators. But I never expected another disaster to follow.

One night, an earth-shaking quake collapsed the mine, killing many more people. Quite a few of them had been the village's main forces. Er Han's older brother also died inside.

The mine collapsing would have been bad enough, but the problem was that the cave where the Jinlan Mushrooms grew collapsed too."

The Village Chief slowly closed his eyes, and even his breathing became somewhat labored.

Yu Ziqing hurried forward to support him, but the Village Chief pulled his hand away and shook his head.

"I'm fine."

"At that time, all our food came from the Jinlan Mushrooms, and they had to be fresh Jinlan Mushrooms.

I led people to excavate the place again. Only after we dug down did we discover that the original cave had become an Abyss Rift, and every Jinlan Mushroom had vanished.

We ran out of food.

Some people began fleeing. But after those who had escaped had been gone for no more than a day, the people who followed them discovered that they had all died outside.

Frozen to death, killed—every one of them was dead.

They returned to the village again, hoping to find food and endure the winter until spring arrived.

Unfortunately, nothing was left.

The underground river changed course, and the riverbed dried up. The insects that often appeared beside the river vanished. In less than ten days, among all the living things we could find, only one kind remained."

The Village Chief opened his eyes. Sharp, icy light shot from them. His tone began to carry murderous intent, and fury started to erupt, yet beneath that fury was a deep helplessness.

"When I discovered the first person stealing White Meat, it was already too late.

Those who had been driven mad by hunger were no longer human. They had lost their reason, lost everything, and thought only of taking one bite so they could stay alive.

It was like a plague. It spread in a single day. Large numbers of people began losing their minds, slaughtering and devouring one another. In just one day, more than a hundred people died.

The air was filled with the stench of madness and blood. We wanted to control it, but we could no longer do so. More than half of us who still possessed our reason had already starved to death, and those who remained had no strength even to speak. They simply lay in the Earth Dens and waited to die.

When we saw those madmen drag the people from the Earth Dens outside, all we could do was watch. We did not even have the strength to shout."

Yu Ziqing's breathing slowed. Just listening made him feel despair. How desperate must the people back then have been?

On one side were people clinging to life with only half a breath left, already on the verge of death. On the other were cannibals—mad, yet full of strength.

"What happened afterward?"

"Afterward, enough of those who would rather die than take a bite had starved to death.

For some unknown reason, they all became Starvation Ghosts. They could no longer be starved to death.

They came to find those who had eaten them and took their revenge."

The Village Chief laughed, his laughter carrying a hint of mockery while his face was filled with sorrow.

"More and more Starvation Ghosts appeared. They neither slept nor rested, battling those cannibals for an entire day and killing every cannibal among them.

We had already been waiting to die. To see all those cannibals dead before we died was at least one final consolation.

Who could have imagined that the Starvation Ghosts would not attack us at all? Using their bare hands, they dug out one passage after another leading downward. They found a new underground river and gave us water.

Then they dug underground and found another place where Jinlan Mushrooms grew. They fed them to us and kept us alive.

Before hunger could drive them mad as well, they all left the village and burrowed underground, vanishing without a trace.

From their appearance to their disappearance, only three days passed. By the time we had recovered a little strength and could stand again, the village had become what it is now."

As he finished speaking, the Village Chief suddenly took a step forward and entered Cècè's Abyss of Despair.

Yu Ziqing was shocked and reached out to grab him, but the Village Chief had already vanished. He glanced at Er Han, who was constantly sniffing back his mucus and holding back his sobs, yet showed no reaction. Then he also took a step forward and entered the Abyss of Despair.

The Village Chief stood there, looking at Cècè within the Abyss of Despair. His eyes were filled with tenderness and pain.

"She was a good child, and very strong. She escaped to the village alone with her child. Whatever she did, she was never inferior to anyone else. Most importantly, she brought a child to the village.

When I discovered that the turmoil was spreading like a plague, I told her to flee. If she fled, there would at least be a sliver of hope that she could survive. Otherwise, she and her child would certainly have been the first to be harmed by those people.

I just never expected that when everything in the village was over, I would learn that she had failed to escape as well. Instead, even after death, she remained trapped here.

She never stopped the people from the village, nor did she harm anyone from the village. But afterward, whenever refugees came from outside, those who harbored ill will were stopped by her outside.

Young Master Yu, I want to ask you for a favor. Is that all right?"

As he spoke, the Village Chief began to bow.

Yu Ziqing was startled and hurriedly supported him.

"Village Chief, what are you doing? We're all one family, eating from the same pot. What is there to ask or not ask? Are you saying I'm not one of your own?"

The Village Chief shook his head, stubbornly insisting on bowing.

"It's different. What I want to ask of you isn't for my sake, nor for the village.

I want to ask you—if you gain the ability in the future, could you see whether there is some way to save her and set her free?

I'm not forcing you to accomplish it. I only need you to remember that there is such a matter."

The Village Chief had already put it that way. What else could Yu Ziqing say?

"Village Chief, stop being so stubborn and get up. I promise you this. I'll remember it and look for a way in the future."

The Village Chief glanced once more at Cècè as she threw the swaddled infant in her arms over the cliff. He painfully closed his eyes, turned, and took one step out, leaving the Abyss of Despair without the slightest obstruction.

Yu Ziqing considered himself not especially kindhearted and rather hard-hearted, but even though this was not the first time he had seen it, he could not bear to watch such a scene again.

He understood that a child held enormous significance for the village.

He also understood why, after he had squandered most of the medicinal value of the Jinlan Mushrooms until they could only serve as food to fill one's stomach, the villagers—including the Village Chief—had still placed him high upon a pedestal.

Food that could be produced and stored by themselves meant far more to the village than he had imagined. It was a kind of significance he might never be able to truly empathize with.

"Don't worry. There will be a chance in the future." Yu Ziqing gazed from afar at Cècè on the mountainside and murmured to himself. He turned and left the Abyss of Despair. This time, he likewise felt not the slightest obstruction.