"Little one, wasn't this Erniu Village? Why is it called Taiping Village now?"
True Martial Heaven, the mortal world.
Qi Haitang, who had come in search of the reincarnation of a cultivator from the Third Watch Observatory, was leaning down to look at the dark-skinned boy walking ahead of her.
This place had once been Erniu Village, in the Great Liang Kingdom of Zhenwu's mortal world.
It was also Xu Taiping's hometown.
By the reckoning of time in the mortal world, more than two hundred years had passed since the catastrophe that destroyed the kingdom.
Few traces of that great fire remained on this land now. Most of its people were villagers who had come from neighboring lands to seek refuge or escape famine, and they knew nothing of this land's past.
Even the kingdom's name had changed from Great Liang to Qi.
The boy adjusted the bamboo basket on his back, turned to glance at Qi Haitang, then explained as he walked:
"My great-grandfather told me that a long, long time ago, our village was actually called Spirit Spring Village. There was a spring in the village that was famous far and wide."
"Then one year, a Fox Ghost suddenly appeared near the village, and the able-bodied men in the village died violent deaths one after another."
"Peace only returned after a Daoist wandering through the area drove the Fox Ghost away."
"Afterward, that old Daoist told the village head at the time to rename the village Taiping Village, saying it would keep the village peaceful for a hundred years."
Qi Haitang was greatly surprised by the boy's explanation:
That wandering old Daoist surely didn't choose the name Taiping at random. Could he have been a cultivator who knew of Taiping's deeds?
As these thoughts ran through her mind,