The Eerie Cheng Family
Song Wen watched Qiulu's shy departure, a hint of amusement in the depths of his eyes.
Honey trap!
Cheng Ruidá's plan was ingenious.
He used a woman with no cultivation to distract himself.
In the eyes of Foundation Establishment cultivators, a weak woman like Qiulu, who has no cultivation, is nothing more than a plaything that can be controlled at will.
The weaker one's strength, the easier it is to be overlooked.
This would lower their guard and reduce their vigilance towards her.
However, often, danger does not come from powerful enemies, but rather from seemingly harmless and weak beings.
With a smile on his lips, Song Wen stepped into the guest room.
I went to the back of the room and opened the window.
The well-ordered spiritual fields come into view.
A gentle breeze blows across Huo Yangyin, and a thin mist dances like ribbons in the Lingtian field, creating a scene reminiscent of a paradise on earth.
Unfortunately, behind this beautiful scenery lies a chilling and terrifying murderous murderous intent.
Six Sacred Beetle Gu flew out of Song Wen's mouth, silently heading towards various corners of the Cheng Family.
To avoid alerting the enemy, Song Wen did not directly use his Divine Sense to investigate the Cheng Family, but instead used the Sacred Beetle Gu to search for the Cheng Family.
Soon, Song Wen received the message from the Sacred Beetle Gu.
Three hundred meters directly in front of his small building, there is an artificial lake with a steep and towering artificial mountain in the middle, and there is a world inside the artificial mountain.
This artificial mountain, which is over ten meters long and wide, is hollow inside and contains an array that conceals the presence of any living beings within it. Clearly, someone is monitoring Song Wen.
In the Cheng Family's courtyard, there are ten Alchemy Chamber. In one of them, Spiritual Qi and wisps of heat are emanating, presumably because Zuo Shuiyun is refining the Demon-Luring Powder.
Cheng Ruidá returned to the main hall of the Cheng Family and was meditating with his eyes closed.
Soon, Qiulu walked in.
The Sacred Beetle Gu wanted to continue spying, but Cheng Ruidá was quite cautious in his actions.
He raised his hand and waved, and a protective array barrier rose up, enveloping him and Qiulu within it.
The Sacred Beetle Gu, which was outside the array barrier, immediately lost its sense of the two and could only leave dejectedly.
"Reporting to Father, Elder Wu has moved into a guest room, and Cheng Five and Cheng Seven are keeping an eye on him."
Inside the formation, Qiulu bowed and reported back.
"Did he have any suspicions?" Cheng Ruidá asked.
"Probably not. He asked about the time when the Blood Demon appeared and when his people began to die, but he didn't ask anything else."
Qiulu paused for a moment, as if gathering her thoughts, before continuing.
"This man should be a very righteous person. His daughter seduced him with her beauty, telling him that his family had all died in the mouth of Blood Demon. He immediately declared that he would slay the demon for the Cheng Family."
Cheng Ruidá nodded. "Well done. Have Cheng Five and Cheng Seven keep a close watch on him. Make sure he doesn't discover anything he shouldn't."
"Yes, Father."
The Sacred Beetle Gu, finding nothing of value in the Cheng Family's courtyard, all retreated to the Cheng Family's backyard.
The Cheng Family's backyard was entirely inhabited by cultivators.
After searching the entire backyard, Song Wen discovered a problem.
The Cheng Family has very few Qi Refining Stage cultivators. Regardless of gender or age, there are only a little over one hundred people in total, ranging from the Qi Refining Level One to the Qi Refining Ninth Layer.
What's even more puzzling is that cultivators in the mid-to-late stages of Qi Refinement make up more than half of the group, while those in the Early Qi Refinement Stage, who should be the largest group, number less than fifty.
This situation seems somewhat strange.
Of course, this could be due to the rampage of the Blood Demon, which slaughtered a large number of low-level cultivators.
The Cheng Family cultivators were mostly holed up at home, with some even hiding in secret chambers beneath the houses. It was rare to see any cultivators wandering around outside.
Clearly, the Blood Demon's rampage caused great panic among the Cheng Family cultivators who were in the Qi Refining Stage.
After exploring the backyard, the Sacred Beetle Gu flew to the front yard of the Cheng Family.
The front courtyard of the Cheng Family was inhabited entirely by ordinary people. Unlike cultivators, they could not be served three meals a day and could hide in their Yu Household.
Many people are busy working outside.
On both sides of the stream, large fields have been cultivated, filled with various grains, some of which are planted with spirit rice.
Most people were in a hurry, looking rather uneasy.
A question arose in Song Wen's mind.
Blood Demon ravaged the land, drastically reducing the population.
This place is not far from the mortal world, so why don't these mortals leave the Cheng Family and go to live in the secular world?
Although life in the secular world might be a bit tough without the protection of the Cheng Family cultivators, it's still much better than living in constant fear and uncertainty.
Could something be trapping them here?
The Sacred Beetle Gu darted among the houses of these mortals and soon discovered something interesting.
Inside a three-room brick house, a seven- or eight-year-old boy was lying on the ground convulsing.
He scratched wildly at his body with both hands, and even as he broke his skin and drew blood, he showed no sign of stopping.
"It itches, it itches so much!"
The boy screamed loudly.
His voice startled his mother, a peasant woman not yet thirty, who ran into the house next door.
The farmer's wife was terrified when she saw her son's appearance.
Instead of comforting the child immediately, she ran to another room and began rummaging through drawers and cabinets.
Soon, she found a porcelain bottle.
The peasant woman, carrying a porcelain bottle, came to the boy's side.
He hurriedly poured out a black pill and stuffed it into the boy's mouth.
Seeing the boy swallow the pill, the peasant woman's panic subsided somewhat.
She lay on the ground, her hands tightly gripping the boy to prevent him from hurting her further.
The boy struggled desperately, but he was too weak to break free from his mother's hands.
"Mom, let me go! I'm itchy, and my whole body feels uncomfortable!"
Seeing her son's distressed state, the peasant woman's eyes welled up with tears, and her voice trembled as she spoke.
"Little one, the itching will stop soon!"
After about an incense stick's time, the boy's struggling strength gradually weakened.
Then, as if he had been tormented to the point of exhaustion, he gradually fell asleep.
The peasant woman carried her son to the bed, her eyes filled with heartache and confusion as she looked at the bruises all over his body.
When will these days of fear and unbearable pain finally end?
Unbeknownst to the peasant woman, a small insect crawled into the porcelain bottle she had casually placed aside.
After noticing the scent of the pills in the porcelain bottle, the Sacred Beetle Gu flapped its wings and flew out of the peasant woman's house.
Soon, the six Sacred Beetle Gu began searching the homes of various mortals.
A little over fifteen minutes later, Song Wen came to a conclusion.
Almost every ordinary household has such a porcelain bottle, each containing anywhere from a few to a dozen pills.
In other words, these pills are some kind of antidote, and all the ordinary members of the Cheng Family, regardless of age or gender, are poisoned.
This antidote is necessary for survival.
This may be the real reason why they cannot escape the Cheng Family.