Shen Yunshen smiled again, looking as gentle as ever.
This disaster was drawing to a close.
"Take all these slaves away. Over these past three years, I've found a few fairly promising seedlings among them."
As Shen Yunshen spoke, he turned to look at Zhou Yan behind him.
"This one is one of them."
Shen Yunshen withdrew his gaze from Zhou Yan and turned back to the dense crowd in front of the ancestral hall.
Firelight illuminated half his face, while the other half remained hidden in shadow. That gentle curve still lingered at the corners of his mouth.
"Count them. Leave out the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Only take those between sixteen and thirty. You can relax the age limit by a few years for those with strong physiques."
Shen Yunshen continued speaking.
"Young Sect Master, how should we deal with the old, weak, sick, and disabled who are screened out?"
The Immortal Cultivator beside him asked Shen Yunshen for instructions.
The raging fire was nearing its end, and Willow River Village had almost entirely been reduced to ruins.
Sparks and ashes drifted through the air.
Shen Yunshen raised a hand, gently brushed a small flake of ash from his cuff with his fingertips, and then slowly said:
"Kill them."
Chen Yan knew everything that was happening outside.
Several days earlier, on the very day Liu Fanyue disappeared.
The girl who had been born and raised in the village had finally made up her mind.
She went to confront He Wei in person.
"Senior He, you clearly knew those children were killed by an evil cultivator, not by the miasma. Why did you lie to everyone in the village?"
Liu Fanyue looked straight into He Wei's eyes as she spoke.
The usually composed He Wei merely looked