Chapter 2

As the black mist surged forth, the two pheasants, which had been plump just moments before, suddenly turned gaunt and withered, as if they had been air-dried.

Jiang Chen skillfully picked up the two carcasses and walked outside; behind him, the entire courtyard appeared incredibly eerie.

Within the yard, not a single blade of grass grew, and the soil was so severely parched that it had cracked into countless fissures, devoid of any sign of life and completely out of place with the rest of Holy Soul Village.

Whether it was the death of the two pheasants or the bizarre state of the courtyard, it was all his own doing.

Few things could withstand the aura he inadvertently emitted; the weak died instantly, while the strong would fall deathly ill, and even the earth itself had been cracked by his presence.

The labels of "God of Plague" and "Jinx" had come about precisely because of this.

Although he had lost two chickens, Jiang Chen was naturally optimistic and quickly brushed off the unpleasantness, heading outside the village to lay the birds to rest.

After finishing this, he did not return home immediately but instead ran toward a river not far from the village; since the two pheasants he had caught yesterday were gone, he would simply catch a few fish to bring back.

He was currently in a growth spurt, and he wouldn't be like that fool Tang San, who only knew how to bury his head in cultivation and neglect his own body.

Compared to Tang San's thin and weak frame, Jiang Chen's muscles were full, and he had developed quite sturdily.

He was already extremely familiar with wading into the water to catch fish, and half an hour later, he walked back carrying three large fish in his hand.

The fish were large and fat; he had threaded them through the gills with straw and had to hold them up to his chest to keep their tails from dragging on the ground.

As he passed the small hill where Tang San practiced, he paused, happening to run into Tang San, who was coming down after finishing his session.

"Hey, Tang San!"

Tang San had also spotted Jiang Chen from afar, and when he heard Jiang Chen call out to him, he forced a smile onto his face.

"Jiang Chen, you're up early too!"

Jiang Chen walked over, approaching Tang San, but Tang San's small face twitched, and he stumbled back several steps.

"Don't—don't come any closer." Tang San waved his hands repeatedly, a hint of fear in his eyes.

It wasn't just the adults, children, and livestock in the village who had suffered at Jiang Chen's hands; even he, protected by the orthodox Mysterious Heaven Skill of the Daoist sect, had nearly come to grief.

He had once felt the cold, sinister aura suddenly radiate from Jiang Chen's body, an aura that tried to burrow straight into his own; if not for the protection of his Mysterious Heaven Skill, he reckoned he would have fallen deathly ill as well.

What was most infuriating was that one morning, as he was heading up the mountain to practice, he had caught Jiang Chen sneaking down from the summit red-handed.

After Tang San went up, he was so angry his nose nearly went crooked; the hill was only a hundred meters high, yet after Jiang Chen had been there, the flowers, grass, and trees at the summit and twenty or thirty meters down the slope had all withered yellow, as if their life force had been drained away.

For a long time after that, the spiritual energy Tang San obtained while practicing at the summit was significantly less than before, and it took several months for the hilltop to recover.

Jiang Chen curled his lip, knowing that Tang San was thinking of that incident on the summit again.

He swore he really hadn't done it on purpose; at the time, he had just wanted to see what was so magical about the place where Tang San secretly practiced every day. As a result, he had tried to cultivate there for a moment, and his internal aura had accidentally leaked out, leading to that tragedy.

Having ruined someone else's cultivation spot for no reason, he felt somewhat embarrassed.

"Here, I caught a few fish; I'll give you one." He didn't continue toward Tang San, simply tossing a fish over.

Tang San's right hand shot out, catching the straw with agility and precision, and he steadied the fish, which weighed nearly ten pounds, with ease.

"Thanks," Tang San said.

At this moment, the two were only five meters apart, and Jiang Chen's eyes, dark as black gems, suddenly brightened; his gaze, filled with aggression, stared fixedly at the healthy-toned skin of Tang San's neck, and he couldn't help but gulp as he swallowed his saliva.