Seven Valleys Town

Two days earlier, Seven Valleys Town.

The rain fell without cease. The waning moon, veiled by the heavens, slowly sank as dawn approached.

Dark, damp, cold, and dilapidated, fewer than a thousand households in the town still showed signs of life.

Just one month ago, Seven Valleys Town had still been a large town with over a hundred thousand residents.

"Th... the twenty-third day..." Wan Kuo lay on the bed, groaning weakly.

He lay on a battered wooden plank bed in this room.

After the dining table had been left with only a dozen or so hardened coarse-grain steamed buns,

people had kept dying in town. There were barely any officials left either. It was not a plague, nor was it man-made calamity—it was an unseen, untouchable horror.

The town mayor had long since vanished. Now, only one steward remained in town, barely keeping things running.

There were fewer than ten constables left in the entire town, yet someone from the authorities came every day to check on Wan Kuo.

Seven Valleys Town seemed to have become an isolated forbidden realm. The townspeople had either died or fled.

Those who had survived until now had basically all shut their doors and windows before the sun set,

then thoroughly sealed the cracks in their homes with a warding liquid distributed by the town.

This was the method the town had worked out only after more than half a month. The daily death toll had gradually dwindled, but the villages and towns around Seven Valleys Town were beyond saving.

Fortunately, the warding liquid was extremely cheap to make, and a Buddhist master skilled in such arts was helping in town, allowing it to be supplied every day.

The Buddhist master was someone who had seen great storms, and he had soothed the unease of the remaining few dozen households.

The Buddhist master had experienced the uncanny before. He told the townspeople that horrors of this level generally did not last long.

If it failed to kill anyone for a period of time, it would not persist for much longer. As long as everyone diligently maintained their defenses, they only needed to hold on for another month at most before the horror dispersed on its own.

Working with the authorities, the Buddhist master had placed an incense burner in an open area at the center of town. Before nightfall each day, they lit a stick of warding incense.

If the warding incense had not vanished by the next day, it meant the horror could no longer hold on. If the incense had not even gone out by morning, it meant the horror had completely disappeared.

Wan Kuo sat up, grabbed a steamed bun from the table, dipped it in water, and slowly chewed.

"What miserable days these are." Wan Kuo let out a heavy sigh.

Three years ago, he had come to settle in Seven Valleys Town, making a living as a day laborer and taking on whatever grueling work he could find.

The lease on this ramshackle house in the slums had originally expired last month. But when the horror broke out, no one even knew whether the landlord was still alive, so Wan Kuo got to stay for nothing.

His water was nearly gone. Wan Kuo drew a bucket from the courtyard, then hurried out to collect the warding liquid.

The sky was gloomy. The clouds above seemed frozen in place, hanging overhead for more than a month. Even during the day, only a faint glimmer of light remained to help people tell direction.

The warding liquid was distributed collectively each morning. Those who arrived late would not have their share withheld, but they would still receive a scolding from the steward.

Everyone waited in the open space outside the yamen, each discussing the recent situation.

No one came to bother Wan Kuo today. He quietly waited for the authorities to distribute the warding liquid.

"Creak!" The door slowly opened. Steward Zhou Xiangrong and the Buddhist master carried a small vat of warding liquid before the crowd.

Zhou Xiangrong was no ordinary man either. In barely twenty-odd days, he had shouldered such a heavy responsibility, and the surviving townspeople greatly approved of Steward Zhou.

"Going outside now carries a certain degree of danger. The sky seems to be growing darker and darker. I fear the horror may be able to harm people even during the day, so everyone should go out less often for the time being."

Steward Zhou paused, then continued:

"Buddhist Master Ji and I stayed up through the night brewing it, and we finally managed to make this small vat of warding liquid.

Each person will receive one small jar today, enough for roughly ten days. Please store it properly and stay hidden in your homes.

Do not let any oversight cost you your lives.

In ten days, we will send someone to notify everyone to come collect more warding liquid."

After everyone lined up and received their warding liquid, they returned home.

Wan Kuo carried his jar of warding liquid back toward his house, frowning.

Distributing so much warding liquid all at once meant the Buddhist master had surely noticed something.

Could the crisis truly be lifted safely after a month? Wan Kuo shook his head uneasily.

He had been out for more than half an hour. The fire in the earthen stove had long since gone out.

That Buddhist Master Ji seemed rather extraordinary.

"Eleven steamed buns left. How am I supposed to last a month?" Wan Kuo sighed.

Most households still had some food stores. If they made flour-based food to preserve, they could hold out for a month or two.

But Wan Kuo was different. He was penniless, with nothing stored away. Only a dozen or so steamed buns remained. Even if he rationed them, eating two a day, he would not last many days.

"I should find an empty wealthy household and scrounge up some grain."

Wan Kuo acted as soon as he thought of it, relying on his memory to find the gate of a once-wealthy household in town.

This had once been one of the town's great landowning families—the household of Landlord Wang. They owned half of Seven Valleys Town's fertile fields, several thousand mu in all.

Most of Wan Kuo's work had been odd jobs for Landlord Wang's family.

Now, on the third day after the horror arrived, the family had moved out en masse. Whether they had escaped beyond the town's boundaries, no one knew.

If they had ridden out on fine horses at full gallop, there should have been no problem. Unfortunately, Landlord Wang had brought his entire family along.

They had used every horse cart and donkey cart they had, carrying dozens of large bundles as they left. Trying to get out of town like that was truly difficult.

Wan Kuo was not the first person to come looking for a little extra gain at Landlord Wang's residence, nor would he be the last.

Perhaps because the steward had just given his warning, no one had come here at this time. Besides, nearly a month had passed; anything that could be found had probably already been stripped clean.

Wan Kuo found a low wall and climbed over it, then made his way toward the house from memory.

Wan Kuo had once helped renovate and organize one of Landlord Wang's storage cellars, so he knew the layout of the estate better than most.

"Perhaps no one has found that cellar yet." Looking at the chaotic house, Wan Kuo comforted himself.

Arriving at the room from his memories, Wan Kuo found the hidden compartment and pressed inward. A wooden board sprang up.

Wan Kuo breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed no one had indeed found the cellar. He just did not know whether Landlord Wang had taken everything before leaving.

Wan Kuo found an oil lamp on the way, lit it, and entered the cellar.

The entire cellar was small enough to take in at a glance.

"Looks like Landlord Wang took almost everything with him."

Only two large wooden chests remained, sitting lonely in the corner.

Wan Kuo walked over, picked up the hammer he had prepared, and struck the lock on one chest with all his strength, smashing it open.

The other wooden chest was secured with a large iron lock. The small hammer in Wan Kuo's hand looked utterly powerless against it.

Wan Kuo opened the chest. Inside were only a book and a jade bottle.

"Hmm? Li Huo Art? Could this be some immortal technique?"

Wan Kuo nodded in satisfaction. "This trip was not in vain, not in vain."