Another Beacon of Smoke

Out of caution, Ye Wuyou still questioned someone in the village.

"You're asking whether I've seen anyone dressed like you?" The old man at the village entrance stood beside his door, looking puzzled.

He glanced at them, then shook his head.

"It's too dark to make out what you're wearing. Besides, with all the people coming and going through this village, who could remember?"

That was a lie.

Although cultivators came to the Cloudmist Mountains to train, they weren't weeds by the roadside. There couldn't possibly be that many.

Lin Qingqing offered another small purse. "Sir, can you see clearly now?"

"Perfectly clearly, perfectly clearly." The old man cheerfully accepted the purse and put it in a drawer beside him.

With drooping eyelids, he studied them carefully, then shook his head again.

"Haven't seen any. To tell you the truth, we haven't had any outsiders here these past few days. You're the first group this week."

Ye Wuyou was very curious.

Did everyone in this village talk like that? How had they survived dealing with cultivators?

Even a First Realm cultivator had tempered their body through their blood and vitality, and possessed the unique "qi" of their cultivation art within them.

Taking an enemy general's head amid ten thousand soldiers might have been an exaggeration, but facing the old and weak in this village, they would be a wolf in a sheep pen.

Having failed to get the answer she wanted, Lin Qingqing gazed silently at the crimson beacon smoke still rising from the mountain.

Had any other Heavenly Prison guards recently received assignments near the Cloudmist Mountains?

Lin Qingqing thought hard, but her final answer was:

She didn't know.

They had entered the village, the bell had rung, and then they had gone outside and seen the Beacon Smoke on the mountain.

Could it really be such a coincidence?

"Hey, young man, what are you looking at? I've told you everything. You can't take that silver back."

The sudden words interrupted Lin Qingqing's thoughts. She turned to find Ye Wuyou crouching beside the old man, examining something.

Following his gaze, she saw the drawer where the old man had put the money.

"What are you doing?"

Ye Wuyou shook his head and stood up.

Unseen by the naked eye, a spectral blue Ghost Hand slowly withdrew from the drawer and returned to Ye Wuyou's body.

He had just used Ghost to make a quick inspection. The drawer did indeed contain only one purse, along with the loose silver they had given the old man upon entering the village.

The old man at the village entrance probably hadn't lied... at least, it didn't look as though he had.

Ye Wuyou and Lin Qingqing were both considering whether something suspicious was going on, but Xu Fang couldn't wait any longer.

The burly man's voice was loud, his expression utterly fearless.

"What are you still worrying about? Let's head up the mountain first. If they really are our colleagues from the Heavenly Prison, we'll be collecting their bodies if we keep dragging our feet."

With that, he walked out of the village alone.

Bai Changzai sighed and silently followed.

Lin Qingqing stopped hesitating too. After all, they had come to capture the Demon Fox. They would have to go searching eventually.

But as she left the village, Lin Qingqing took out an object and lit it in an empty patch of ground nearby.

Crimson Beacon Smoke, identical to that on the mountain, rose from the spot.

"This signals that we've received their message, and tells them to stay where they are," Lin Qingqing said.

Ye Wuyou was at the rear of the group. He took a few looks and was about to follow when the old man's muttering came from behind him.

"Young fellow... come back early."

The mountain paths were difficult to traverse at night.

Besides, the place where the beacon smoke had risen looked close from the foot of the mountain, but it proved quite a distance away on foot.

"Say, isn't flying on a sword a thing?" Ye Wuyou asked.

For no particular reason, Ye Wuyou just felt that a group of cultivators climbing a mountain in the middle of the night didn't quite seem right.

Xu Fang, who was clearing the way ahead, replied irritably, "Flying on a sword? First, you have to be a sword cultivator. Second, you have to reach the middle three realms and condense a soul manifestation before you can do that."

The middle three realms?

Ye Wuyou raised an eyebrow. He had only just entered the First Realm. That was far too distant.

"That's also why people in the lower three realms can defeat opponents above their realm, but defeating someone in the middle three realms is almost impossible. Never mind anything else-their ability to fly alone already puts them beyond defeat," Lin Qingqing explained.

"Not necessarily." Surprisingly, Bai Changzai, who had remained silent until now, spoke up.

The four of them moved swiftly through the woods, yet Bai Changzai's voice remained perfectly steady.

"As a talisman master, you can fly even without reaching the middle three realms. Like this."

He stuck a talisman onto himself, and as he spoke, Bai Changzai actually floated into the air.

Dressed entirely in white, Bai Changzai drifted through the nighttime mountain woods, truly looking like...

Ye Wuyou suddenly felt that he could try specializing in Talisman Arts in the future.

Look at Zhao Changhe in the Fifth Realm. All he could do was throw punches.

Bai Changzai was only in the Second Realm, yet he unleashed thunder and fire together. And while everyone else had to walk, he could fly.

Now that was a cultivator...

Before long, however, the immortal-like Bai Changzai stumbled in midair and fell onto a tree branch, which tore several strips into his white uniform.

"Sorry. It consumes too much Vital Breath."

Bai Changzai still spoke with complete seriousness.

"All right, stop dwelling on whether people below the Third Realm can fly. We're almost there."

The beacon smoke had already gone out, but judging by where they had seen it earlier, the spot was just a short distance ahead.

Ye Wuyou scanned their surroundings, confusion in his eyes.

Why was it so quiet?

There were no signs of battle, either.

If they hadn't encountered an enemy, and there were no signs of fighting, why had they lit the Beacon Smoke?

"That's not right. It should be around here."

Lin Qingqing stopped and examined the surroundings.

But she found nothing at all.

Had they misjudged the location? Impossible. Of the four of them, everyone except Ye Wuyou was an experienced Heavenly Prison guard.

They could manage a simple estimate of distance.

"What the hell is going on? We came to save people, but now we're here, there's no one in sight." Xu Fang stood on a tree, peering as far into the distance as he could.

Lin Qingqing couldn't work out the reason either, so she could only say:

"Our priority is to contact them. If we really can't find them, we'll have to go back the way we came."

As she spoke, Lin Qingqing took out another smoke beacon and lit it.

"We're nearby now. Once they see this beacon smoke, they'll come find us."

The same crimson beacon smoke ignited, streaming straight up into the sky.

"Hey, you nasty woman. When we accepted the assignment, ours was supposed to be the only team coming to the Cloudmist Mountains, right?" Xu Fang asked.

Already irritated, Lin Qingqing immediately snapped at his words.

"A dog's mouth never spits out ivory! I have a name!"

"I'm not joking with you! Were any other teams coming here?" Xu Fang roared.

Hearing that something was wrong in his tone, Lin Qingqing considered it, but soon shook her head and said firmly:

"I'm not sure about earlier assignments. There might be other teams here... but when we accepted ours, only the Demon Fox assignment was near the Cloudmist Mountains."

"Then what's that at the foot of the mountain?"

The foot of the mountain?

Everyone looked over.

Beneath the night sky, faint lights from the village were barely visible at the mountain's foot.

And in the direction of the village, a plume of crimson beacon smoke rose.

Just like the one Lin Qingqing had lit earlier.