A Village's Lifeline

Half an hour earlier...

The side hall doors slammed shut.

The villagers could only wait anxiously. Most of them knew better than to speak out of turn or rashly discuss the village elders inside.

After a brief disturbance, the commotion gradually subsided.

In the end, hardly anyone was even talking.

Chu He watched silently. Suddenly sensing something strange, he turned his head and swept his gaze around, once more observing the mental state of the surrounding villagers.

It was too quiet.

This was not how nearly a hundred people gathered together should sound!

After observing for a while, he shifted his feet and left the corner for the first time.

"Brother Li Si, how are you feeling?"

Li Sihe, who had been dozing against the wall, heard someone call him so familiarly and raised his groggy head to look at the speaker.

The man was a towering fellow, fair-faced and powerfully built. His short, tousled hair gave him an air of surging momentum.

"Who are you?"

Li Sihe shrank back fearfully.

There was no such person in his memory.

"It's me, Chu He. Don't you remember me?"

Chu He patted his shoulder as though they had always been close and smiled.

"Chu He, it's you..." Li Sihe recalled the frail figure in his mind, but looking at the Chu He before him, he could scarcely believe it. "It's only been a dozen or so days. How did you change so quickly?"

"My cultivation technique broke through. A little change is normal." Chu He smiled as he explained. His palm remained on Li Sihe's shoulder, while his qi and blood silently seeped into Li Sihe's body.

"So that's how it is..."

A trace of envy flashed through Li Sihe's eyes.

"You don't look too well. Do you need me to help you somewhere to rest?" Chu He's threads of qi and blood circled through Li Sihe's body, and he discovered that his vital blood was quietly draining away bit by bit with time.

"No, no." Li Sihe waved his hands repeatedly and smiled with a pale face. "I'm not feeling that bad. I can wait until the village elders finish discussing things. You don't need to worry."

Chu He did not answer. A faint golden glow rose in his eyes as he scanned Li Sihe's body again and again. At last, he discovered that Li Sihe's vital blood seemed to have turned into a fine, transparent thread floating above his head, its other end pointed toward the main hall and steadily sending vital blood inside.

He swept his gaze around, likewise veiling his eyes with qi and blood.

The next moment, Chu He froze.

Red threads filled the sky, dancing in the wind. Seventy percent of the villagers had a thread floating above their heads. The threads seemed to use strands of black hair as bridges, funneling the villagers' vital blood into the Land God Temple.

Chu He finally understood where the eerie energy from the statue had gone.

He tried reaching out to seize those strange threads, but like the uncanny, they could shift between substance and insubstantiality. There was no way to grasp them.

"Brother Li Si, let's talk over there."

Chu He came back to himself and abruptly changed the subject. He led Li Sihe toward the outer edge of the Land God Temple, intending to take him away from whatever was inside.

"Hey, hey..."

Li Sihe did not understand, nor did he want to leave where he was. But Chu He was far too strong. With effortless ease, he supported Li Sihe by himself and carried him outside.

Yet the farther they got from the Land God Temple, the worse Li Sihe's condition became. His drowsiness and exhaustion only grew heavier.

So it really won't work...

Chu He's face darkened. He set the sleeping Li Sihe down, gently propped him against a corner wall, and abandoned the idea of taking him away from the Land God Temple.

It was already impossible to drive the villagers away from this place. Their lives were tied to the eerie threads above their heads; if they left, they might suffer a backlash.

The only option now was to enter the main hall, see exactly what was absorbing the vital blood of the villagers present, and then smash it!

Chu He straightened up, then suddenly frowned and turned to look toward the side hall.

Why were there traces of fluctuating qi and blood there?

Could something have happened inside?

Afraid those people would come out early and cause trouble, Chu He quickened his pace. He passed through half the crowd and had just stepped onto the stone stairs when the side door was abruptly shoved open. Several bedraggled figures crawled out through it.

They were the village elders who had narrowly escaped death.

Their hair hung loose, sweat covered their faces, and the moment they came out, they waved at the bewildered villagers outside and shouted in terror.

"The village chief has become uncanny! Everyone, run!"

"Hide! Don't linger here!"

"Run! What are you all standing there for?!"

The villagers looked utterly confused, and many of them found it hard to believe.

The village chief had become uncanny?

Perhaps the word "uncanny" itself was simply too shocking. The crowd immediately erupted into unrest. Panic spread as they scattered like birds and beasts. Even those too tired and worn out wished they could grow two more legs to flee for their lives.

Damn it!

Chu He's expression changed. This was nothing but good intentions leading to disaster.

Once these people left the fixed boundary, with Li Sihe as a warning, those bizarre threads would surely drain them dry of vital blood and kill them.

He could not delay any longer!

The next moment, Chu He moved against the tide of fleeing people, his momentum climbing.

When he reached the entrance to the main hall, he swept his eyes over the scene inside. He saw the rejuvenated village chief staring at him with shadowed eyes. Wu Feng and Han Zhong, who had long vanished, also looked in unison toward Chu He, who had come upstream through the crowd.

Han Zhong's eyes burned with eagerness, but Wu Feng's face changed. "Junior Brother Chu, it's dangerous here. This isn't something you can interfere in. Leave now!"

"Hehe, Junior Brother Chu, I've been thinking about you day and night." Han Zhong grinned, directly abandoning Wu Feng as he prepared to seize Chu He and force out the true secret behind his explosive rise in strength.

"Since you're here, stay."

The village chief also raised his head and shouted coldly, murderous intent filling his voice.

"Two idiots..."

Chu He sneered. The qi and blood throughout his body erupted like a volcano, and the surging blast of air made the hem of his clothes crackle wildly.

He stomped down. The blue bricks beneath his feet let out a shriek and shattered into several pieces.

The village chief drew a deep breath, watching Chu He's overwhelming momentum with a grave expression as he prepared at any moment to receive his heavy blow. But in the next instant, Chu He kicked off the ground, turned, and shot into the Land God Temple like an arrow loosed from the bowstring.

The village chief's expression changed. He shouted, "I'll stop him!"

Clearly, they had guessed Chu He's intentions. They also realized that he had already seen through part of their plan and meant to head to the main hall and cause trouble.

At the side, Wu Feng's expression was a spectacle, filled with disbelief.

They all seemed deeply wary of Junior Brother Chu?

Seeing that Han Zhong also seemed ready to make a move, Wu Feng's face turned stern. Red lines covered his fists and spread across his back as he threw a punch brimming with blazing savagery.

A scorching gale whistled forth, and the air exploded in rapid succession.

This was the third level of the Red Line Fist!

Han Zhong's expression shifted slightly as he answered with a punch of his own.

The two immediately tangled together, fighting fiercely.

On the other side, Chu He had just entered the Land God Temple. The furnishings were no different from last time, and his gaze locked fiercely onto the sole statue in the main hall.

Golden light flickered in his eyes. Countless streams of vital blood converged upon that statue. Whatever was inside it had been absorbing vital blood all along.