Sect Master Lu, you really hold a grudge

"You just said the families in Glory Ancestors Village used to have only sons, not a single daughter?"

"Yes. Everyone envied them back then."

Shen Leyan muttered, "Feudal garbage."

Only sons and not a single daughter? Glory Ancestors Village was an ordinary little village, not the world of some melodramatic novel where a princely household had nothing but sons for a thousand years before the princess consort gave birth to a little princess whom her ten older brothers spoiled rotten. This definitely defied scientific principles.

Either the people of Glory Ancestors Village really had unusual genes, or... the baby girls there might have disappeared for man-made reasons.

He said goodbye to the old man and returned to Lu Yuanyi with the freshly drawn map.

"Sect Master Lu, if mortals with no cultivation commit evil deeds, will they suffer retribution?"

"Everything you do entangles you in cause and effect." Lu Yuanyi unfolded the map. "This way."

Shen Leyan hurried after him. "So that's a yes. Why do I get the feeling there might not be any demons causing trouble in Glory Ancestors Village? Maybe they've simply killed too many people and are suffering retribution."

Lu Yuanyi lowered his gaze. "It's best not to draw conclusions before you've investigated matters thoroughly. It will affect your judgment later."

Shen Leyan paused for a moment, then dropped his smile and said seriously, "I understand."

The old man had taken their money and done his job well. They followed the route on the map using Sword Flight for half a day before spotting wisps of cooking smoke rising nearby.

A stone tablet stood beside the path leading into the village. The writing on it looked old and seemed to record the village's history. Shen Leyan's sharp eyes picked out the words "Glory Ancestors Village."

"We haven't taken the wrong road this time. This should be it."

The village looked rather desolate. There were no ducks or geese raised by the villagers in the stream that circled it, and much of the farmland lay empty. Only about a third was planted with bright green seedlings.

The old man who had given them directions had said many people had moved away, so its desolate appearance was only natural.

"Sect Master Lu, is there any demonic presence nearby?"

Lu Yuanyi shook his head. "There is none for now, but some demons live deep in the mountains and only come to villages to hunt once every few months. If enough time has passed, no trace of their presence will remain."

They walked slowly into the village and saw a woman in her forties approaching with a laundry basin, apparently on her way to wash clothes by the river. Shen Leyan hurried to call out to her.

"Ma'am! Ma'am, we're cultivators passing through on our way to gather herbs in the Southwestern Jungle. We'd like to stay here tonight. Would that be possible?"

As he spoke, he offered her a little broken silver.

He did not tell her outright that they had come looking for someone.

For one thing, he wasn't sure whether demons were still causing trouble in the village.

For another, the woman looked haggard, with a pale face, dark circles beneath her eyes, and a wooden expression. Something about her seemed strange.

At the word "cultivators," the woman's eyelids twitched. She lifted her eyes to glance at him and spoke coldly.

"We have nothing in the village to offer you."

"That's all right. We brought our own food. We just need a room to stay in, and we'll pay you properly."

He turned, caught Lu Yuanyi's sleeve, and boldly pulled him over, making up a story.

"The main thing is that my... my older brother twisted his ankle on a mountain path. He needs to rest and apply medicine."

Lu Yuanyi looked down at the boy's hand tugging his sleeve.

After speaking to the woman, Shen Leyan stole a look at Lu Yuanyi's expression. His face was icy, but his eyes were calm, which meant he wasn't angry.

"He doesn't look as though he's twisted his ankle." The woman tightened her grip on the wooden basin, her tone unfriendly.

"Of course he has!" Shen Leyan pinched Lu Yuanyi through his sleeve. The tip of his little finger accidentally brushed the other man's wrist, which was as cool as cold jade.

Lu Yuanyi bent down and lifted a corner of his robe. He had probably cast an illusion: his ankle looked badly swollen, with a few spots of blood seeping through the fabric.

He took two limping steps.

The woman's expression softened. "Since he's injured, you can rest in the village for the night. I have an empty room you can use."

They followed her farther into the village. It was mealtime, and every household was cooking.

Several women spotted them through their kitchen windows, frowned, then slammed the windows shut with a bang.

Shen Leyan: "..."

Did they really look that much like bad people?

The woman gave them a side room. Though small, it was fully furnished, with bedding laid out on the bed, and had been kept quite clean.

"Get some rest. I still need to wash clothes by the stream. You'd best not wander outside at night. There are a few widows in the village, and outsiders going out after dark can easily stir up gossip."

Once the door closed, Shen Leyan walked around the room.

"I feel like..."

"Something is wrong in this village," Lu Yuanyi said evenly.

"You think so too, Sect Master Lu?" Shen Leyan sat down by the bed. "The clothes on top of that woman's basin were adult clothes, but there were clearly several children's garments underneath. If no children have survived in Glory Ancestors Village for three years, why would there be children's clothes that need washing?"

Although the woman hadn't seemed to be in a good mental state, she had spoken coherently to them. She probably wasn't mentally impaired or insane, washing children's clothes by the stream for no reason.

And there was this room. If it had stood empty for years, the furniture wouldn't have been completely free of dust.

"Are you planning to wait until the villagers are asleep tonight and get up to something naughty?"

Shen Leyan's neck flushed slightly. "...Naughty? What do you mean, naughty? I'm still a kid. I'm not interested in widows—"

[(°ー°〃)]

Lu Yuanyi raised an eyebrow. "...Once the villagers are asleep, we can take a look around the village."

[So that's what he meant.]

"All right." Shen Leyan rubbed the hot side of his neck and answered quietly, "Then once it gets a little darker, we'll sneak out."

Late that night, Shen Leyan leaned against the headboard, yawning with exhaustion. Half asleep, he suddenly felt a chill against the back of his neck. The cold made him jolt, instantly driving away his drowsiness.

"All the candlelights in the village are out."

Shen Leyan glanced at the hand Lu Yuanyi slowly withdrew, then rubbed his neck, chilled by the other man's touch, and eyed those golden eyes suspiciously.

[I have reasonable grounds to suspect Lu Yuanyi did that on purpose.]

He wanted revenge for being pinched and made to pretend he was lame that afternoon.

"Where should we go first, then?"

"The ancestral graves."

"...All right."

[Even if this is a cultivation world, visiting someone else's ancestral graves in the dead of night still feels a little...]

"No need to worry. I'm probably older than everyone buried in Glory Ancestors Village's ancestral graves." Lu Yuanyi narrowed his phoenix eyes slightly, a hint of languid amusement flitting through their dark golden depths. "Perhaps they'd even have to call me... Great-grandfather?"

Shen Leyan: "..."

[Sect Master Lu, you really hold a grudge.]