It was not until the third day that, aside from the village leaders, everyone else had the dream—especially those young people who were unwilling to spend their entire lives trapped in the village.
They had heard of the world beyond from traveling merchants, but in the end, they lacked the courage to venture out. Now that their ancestors had sent them a dream, their hearts naturally began to burn.
Only the village leaders sensed that something was amiss. This village was a small kingdom unto itself. Those who could become its leaders were naturally different from ordinary villagers. Most of them could read, possessed family learning passed down through generations, and had inherited much information from their forebears. They had at least heard of Daoist arts.
Some of them had even developed murderous intent over this matter.
Though Daoists possessed wondrous abilities, they were still made of flesh and blood. If this truly was the Daoist's doing, then he had to be killed.
Otherwise, once people's hearts began to change, this enormous village would likely fall apart.
Thus, the core figures immediately began gathering warriors and forming a force, intending to kill the Daoist the moment he showed himself.
Yet the person of Heavenly Mandate mentioned in the ancestors' dream never appeared. Instead, a heavy rain caused a somewhat dilapidated ancestral shrine in the village to collapse outright.
This shrine could be said to belong to the village's common ancestor. However, his direct descendants had already died out, so it had gradually fallen into disrepair. Though people still made offerings there, few ever repaired it.
Over the past several centuries, such things had happened more than once.
But this time was different. After the ancestral shrine collapsed, a stone figure was unearthed from a corner of its wall. The figure