Li Family Village

The next morning, Shen Hui finished his morning devotions, packed up, and headed toward the mountain gate.

Jingming was already waiting there.

She wore a gray-blue Daoist robe, a belt washed pale white tied around her waist, and her hair bun was immaculate.

When she stood in the morning snow, a thin layer of pure energy seemed to envelop her, lending a touch of color to the withered branches and fallen snow behind her.

Shen Hui approached and bowed: "I trouble you, Senior Sister."

Jingming didn't reply, only nodded slightly, turned, and walked down the mountain.

Shen Hui quickly followed.

The two trod on fresh snow, passed through the leafless forest, and followed the path Shen Hui had taken on his way up.

After walking for a while, Jingming suddenly spoke: "Do you know any spells for tracking demons or hunting ghosts?"

Shen Hui was taken aback, then honestly shook his head: "No."

Jingming kept walking, her tone flat: "Then how do you plan to subdue the demon?"

Shen Hui thought for a moment: "I intend to first go to Li Family Village and ask where those people were killed. Once I know that, I'll head to that place."

"And then?"

"Then..." Shen Hui withdrew his gaze, looking toward the distant, faintly visible mountain ridges, "use myself as bait."

Jingming paused mid-step and turned her head to glance at him.

"Use yourself as bait?"

"That's right."

Shen Hui nodded, "Since that Wolf Demon has already eaten people, it won't fear humans anymore. And these days, the villagers haven't gone up the mountain, so it must be short on blood and flesh. If someone were to barge into its territory at a time like this..."

He said no more, but a cold glint flashed in his eyes.

"Aren't you afraid the Wolf Demon will eat you?" Jingming asked flatly.

"With Second Senior Sister backing me up, what do I have to fear?" Shen Hui said with a carefree smile.

Jingming gave a noncommittal snort but didn't refute him.

They walked a bit further, and then she spoke again: "I know the art of observing qi. When the time comes, I can identify the flow of demonic aura to track that beast's trail."

Shen Hui's eyes lit up, and he decisively gave a thumbs-up: "Then it's even more secure. Senior Sister is formidable."

Jingming ignored him.

The two continued on.

Li Family Village lay at the southern foot of Deer Rest Mountain. From the mountain, it took about an hour or so to descend.

By the time they could see the village's outline in the distance, it was nearly noon.

The sky was still gray, and snow continued to fall, fine and dense, piling thick on rooftops, treetops, and the stone mill at the village entrance.

The atmosphere in the village was off.

Every household had its doors and windows tightly shut, not a single footprint in the snow before them.

Occasional wisps of cooking smoke rose from the roofs, only to be scattered by the cold wind.

Just as Shen Hui and Jingming stepped into the village, they saw a few people gathered ahead.

It was a half-collapsed earthen house. The roof beam had snapped, half a rafter sticking out, tiles shattered all over the ground.

A few men had set up a ladder, carefully prying off the intact tiles and passing them down to those below.

Beside them was a pile of broken rafters and beams, the fractures fresh, as if the collapse had just happened.

One man was tossing a broken beam onto a stack of firewood when he looked up and caught sight of Shen Hui and Jingming.

He froze, his gaze landing on their Daoist robes, and his eyes suddenly lit up.

"Dao... Daoist masters?"

At his shout, the others nearby turned around.

Once they saw the Daoist robes on Shen Hui and Jingming, they dropped their work and crowded around.

"Are you masters from Clear Wind Temple?"

That shout was like poking a hornet's nest.

Doors nearby creaked open one after another, and people poked their heads out.

In no time, the two were surrounded.

An old woman wrapped in a tattered padded jacket stood on tiptoe to look their way; a woman holding a child squeezed to the front only to be pushed back; a few half-grown kids wriggled between adults' legs, only to get smacked on the back of the head by their fathers and shrink back again.

Finally, a white-haired Village Elder was helped through the crowd to the front.

He was stooped, his face lined with wrinkles. He squinted, sizing up Shen Hui and Jingming for a long while, then suddenly slapped his thigh:

"Ah! Truly masters from Clear Wind Temple!"

He said, tottering toward Jingming: "Immortal, years ago when you came down the mountain with Daoist Ji Chen, this old man caught a glimpse of you from afar!"

Jingming gave a slight nod, acknowledging the greeting.

After the Village Elder's face recognition, the gathered villagers burst into commotion, voices clamoring all at once:

"Are you two masters here to deal with that Wolf Demon?"

"That beast has brought us nothing but misery!"

"Masters, please come into the village, warm yourselves by the fire and shake off the chill..."

All kinds of noise surged forward at once. Shen Hui's head ached from the din, so he quickly raised a hand to press them down: "Fellow villagers, don't rush. This Humble One has a few things to ask first."

But the moment he finished speaking, the white-haired Village Elder went limp at the knees and dropped straight to the ground.

"Oh, masters~"

Shen Hui was startled, not yet grasping the situation, when the old man's next wail followed right on its heels—

"We can't go on living~"

Shen Hui hurried forward to support him: "Elder, you mustn't! Please get up, let's talk things out properly..."

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But the old man didn't take the chance to stand. Instead, he leaned into Shen Hui's helping grip and slumped down, planting his backside directly in the snow.

He tilted his face up, slapped his withered hands against his thighs, and let his voice rip in full-throated wailing:

"Oh, Daoist master, you don't know—several people in the village have already died! My grand-nephew's wife's second uncle went to Cat Ridge to gather firewood the other day and never came back! Later, the villagers went looking and only found half a body—even his backside was carried off by that beast..."

Shen Hui was a bit bewildered.

How did this turn into a funeral lament?

He tugged hard at the old man's arm, pulled twice, but couldn't budge him.

The old man looked skinny, yet his rear end seemed rooted to the ground.

"Elder, please get up first, let's talk slowly..."

"Can't get up!"

The old man slapped his thighs, but no tears could squeeze from his eyes, though his dry howls grew louder by the second.

"This old man's heart is bitter! The whole county town knows about it—the storyteller even gave that beast a name, called it 'Road Lord.' Our Li Family Village's reputation is ruined!"

The Village Elder grew more worked up as he spoke, grabbing Shen Hui's sleeve: "The other day, my grandson was about to marry! The betrothal gifts were already sent! Twenty catties of white flour, five feet of cloth, and a pair of silver earrings, but then..."

Here, he finally managed to squeeze out two tears.

"Then when Liu Family Hollow heard it was our Li Family Village, they wouldn't even show their faces! They sent word calling off the marriage! My grandson waited half a year with hope, never even held her hand, and his wife was gone! And they kept the betrothal gifts too!"

Shen Hui's head throbbed as he listened. He was about to speak up to soothe him when a voice suddenly cut through the crowd:

"Kept them? The Liu Family Hollow folks aren't stupid—who'd marry their daughter to a fool?"

The crowd burst into laughter, the atmosphere in the snow turning lively again.

The Village Elder's face stiffened. He scrambled up from the snow, twisted around, and cursed: "Which son of a bitch is spouting donkey-fart nonsense? If you've got guts, step out and say it!"

The crowd parted, and a scabby-headed man swayed out from the back, shaking his head.

"I said it. So what?"

He looked about thirty, wrapped in a greasy, tattered cotton jacket worn open, revealing a dusty gray undershirt beneath. The cuffs were rubbed shiny, who knew how many days since they'd been washed.

The moment the Village Elder saw him, his beard trembled with rage: "Three Scab! What kind of stinking dog-fart are you spewing! My grandson is just honest, how is he a fool?"

"Honest?"

Three Scab snorted. "Your idiot boy eats chicken shit—and you call that not a fool?"

Someone nearby couldn't hold back a laugh.

The Village Elder's face flushed red as he pointed at Three Scab's nose: "What do you know, you donkey-ball! My grandson is sincere!"

"Sincere?"

Three Scab spat on the ground. "That's called being brainless!"

"You're the one who's brainless! You're just burning up inside 'cause you can't get a wife yourself, so you're here farting nonsense. A rotten, smoke-belching piece of trash!"

"Me, rotten? Your idiot boy shit in the village well at the east end and made the whole village drink his crap soup—and you call me rotten?"

"What proof do you have it was him? Does the shit have his name on it? Or did someone see him do it? Call them out to face me!"

"Face you? Fine! Two Dullard, you come out and say it!"

A scrawny man in the crowd quickly shrank back: "No, no, no, I didn't see anything, nothing at all..."

The Village Elder, emboldened, pressed harder: "See? No one saw it! Stop slandering good people here! If you ask me, maybe you were the one who did it, and now you're playing thief crying 'thief.'"

Three Scab stomped his foot in fury: "Fine, you old bastard, throwing your seniority around to bully people, huh? What about last time, when your idiot boy peed in the village millstone? Plenty of people saw that."

The Village Elder froze, then stiffened his neck and said: "Kids don't know any better—what's wrong with a little pee? You wet your pants when you were a kid too."

"A kid? A kid can be that big? A kid can eat three big bowls in one meal?"

The two went back and forth, each word sharper than the last, the quarrel growing fiercer by the moment.

The Village Elder was no longer frail; he rolled up his sleeves and charged forward, only to be yanked back by someone beside him.

Lai Zitou refused to back down either, flinging his tattered cotton jacket to the ground to reveal a gray cloth shirt patched over with patches, and thumped his chest as he shouted:

"Come on, come on, you old bastard, just try touching me!"

The crowd instantly dissolved into chaos.

Some tried to mediate, others pulled people apart, and a few, who relished the spectacle, egged them on from the sidelines.

Shen Hui stood amidst the clamor, feeling his temples throb violently.

He took a deep breath, turned his head, and looked at Jingming.

Jingming stood there, her expression unchanged, as if she hadn't heard a thing.

When she noticed him looking, she merely cast a bland glance back, her eyes clearly saying: You took on this mess, you clean it up.

Shen Hui had no choice but to turn around, gather his breath, and speak in a low, firm voice:

"Everyone—"

The crowd fell silent for a moment.

Seizing the opening, Shen Hui strode quickly between the Village Elder and Lai Zitou, raising his hands to separate them.

He first looked at the Village Elder: "Elder, your grandson's marriage—we'll discuss it later. What's most urgent now is that Wolf Demon."

Then he turned to Lai Zitou: "Brother, I heard everything you said just now. Let's settle the main business first, deal or no deal?"

Lai Zitou curled his lip but ultimately didn't say another word.

The villagers quieted down a bit as well.

Shen Hui cleared his throat and finally steered the conversation back on track: "May I ask, has anyone here seen that Wolf Demon with their own eyes?"

The once-boisterous crowd fell into awkward silence.

A man shook his head and spoke up: "Only a few have seen it from afar—they say that beast stands taller than a man when it rises up, and its front paws can claw at rocks to push them down..."

Shen Hui nodded at this and pressed on: "And where exactly does the Wolf Demon strike when it harms people?"

Another middle-aged man cut in eagerly: "Right on the ridge! That beast has claimed that path—whoever walks it meets disaster!"

Shen Hui turned and followed the direction the man was pointing.

What met his eyes was a vast expanse of white snow, with two neighboring peaks jutting up high, looking just like a pair of cat ears.