Trouble in the Mountain Village
Just when Xiushui Village was bustling with activity...
Han Weishu and Tong Jialiang, who were traveling from the southernmost part of the Pusi Kingdom eastward, encountered some problems on their journey.
To save money, they mostly took back roads.
Most of the trails lead between villages, so there's no need to keep going into the county town to repair the trails. You can just stay in the village for a few coins, which is much cheaper than staying in the town.
Furthermore, some cities also collect city fees.
Therefore, the two of them would only grit their teeth and go into the county or prefectural city if they absolutely had to pass through, and then find a shack to spend the night in.
Fortunately, Han Weishu had been dressed as a man for many years, and her speech and behavior were not like a girl's. In addition, she smeared ash on her face and tied dry grass to her hair, making herself look quite disheveled, so no one would pay attention to her.
The two had a relatively smooth journey.
They did not enter the city today, but instead crossed the mountains.
Once we cross this mountain, we'll be almost at the border of Hufang Province.
However, they underestimated the vastness of the mountain; by the time the sun had completely set, they hadn't even made it halfway.
The two wandered around in the dark for half a day, and luckily, they came across a small mountain village.
This kind of mountain stronghold was not a bandit's den, but a small village established by mountain people living in the mountains.
The mountain people living in the mountains are mostly former migrants without household registration, but the government is aware of their existence, but just turns a blind eye.
The villagers in this mountain village were very simple and hospitable. Seeing that Han Weishu and Tong Jialiang, two young people, had traveled for so long, they quickly invited them into the village to rest.
Han Weishu observed these mountain people with great curiosity.
Although she often sneaks out of the mountain gate to wander around the cities of mortals, she has actually not had much contact with many people.
She probably had the most contact with street thugs and hooligans.
She particularly enjoyed standing up for the weak in the county town near their Clear River Sect.
So her reputation was so great in that county that she started sneaking out frequently. In the two years since then, almost all the hooligans and thugs in the county have disappeared.
However, two years later, the only person she knew and interacted with in the county was Tong Jialiang.
They were greeted by the wife of the village chief, a woman in her early thirties.
The woman was very kind to them. She said she also had a son about their age, but he worked as an apprentice in town most of the year and could only come back once a year for holidays.
There is only one baby girl in the family now.
The woman also brought her several-month-old baby girl to show them.
Looking at the fair and tender little bundle in the woman's arms, Han Weishu and Tong Jialiang dared not touch it, for fear of hurting her.
The village consists entirely of bamboo houses, which are relatively easy to build, so there are plenty of houses available to accommodate them.
As night deepened, the entire mountain stronghold fell into complete silence.
Han Weishu and Tong Jialiang each had a room, and after a long day, they fell into a deep sleep.
To everyone's surprise, around midnight, there was a faint noise outside the mountain stronghold. The noise was quite strange and did not resemble any natural sounds from outside.
Others couldn't hear it, but Han Weishu, Qi Refining First Layer cultivator who had been practicing for over ten years, could hear it quite clearly.
So she opened her eyes.
But instead of getting up immediately, she summoned the Earth Spirit Qiuqiu and sent it to carefully observe the situation outside.
As long as the Qiuqiu doesn't make a sound on its own, its movements on the ground are completely silent.
Therefore, no one outside realized that they were being watched by an Earth Spirit; they were only busy blowing sleeping potions everywhere.
After blowing the sleeping potion into each house, they waited quietly for a while, then took out bundles of hemp rope from their Storage Bag at their waists. They went into each house and tied up all the children, ranging in age from six or seven to fifty or sixty.
Although she didn't know if the drug would work on her, Han Weishu held her breath and didn't inhale it.
The Earth Spirit directly relayed what it saw to Han Weishu.
Upon seeing this, Han Weishu felt a surge of anger, but then she realized that these people were very likely cultivators.
Because each of them actually had Storage Bag.
Thus, although she was very worried about the mountain people, she dared not move. She only summoned the Earth Spirit back to conceal her presence.
Earth Spirit are quite powerful on the ground; concealing the aura of a mere Qi Refining cultivator like Han Weishu is no problem at all.
Then Han Weishu thought of Tong Jialiang, who was sleeping next door. Seeing that those people were about to walk towards their house, Han Weishu had no choice but to hide under Qiuqiu's cover.
They planned to find a way to rescue A-Liang later.
She gathered all the bedding on the ground into the Storage Bag in her arms, then ran to a corner in the shadows and squatted down. Qiuqiu came over and unfolded a large round ball, covering her completely without leaving a gap.
Then she heard someone walking towards them open the door to the next room and whisper:
"Senior brother, there's still one person here."
As he spoke, the owner of the voice tied up Tong Jialiang, carried him out, and threw him to the ground.
Then he walked towards Han Weishu's room, only to find it empty, so he went out again.
Seeing him leave, Han Weishu, who was hiding in a corner and concealed by the Earth Spirit, secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Then, still completely covered in the Qiuqiu, he climbed out of the window and found a relatively high spot to secretly observe what the group of people in the mountain village below were up to.
Before long, these people tied up most of the people in the mountain stronghold, carried them out, and dumped them in the open space in the middle.
There were five people in total. One of them stood in the middle with his arms crossed, like a stone statue, watching the other four people work.
When one of them came out of the village chief's wife's house, he asked the leader:
"Senior Brother, there's a little baby in that room, do you want him?"
The leader, referred to as the "senior brother," asked in a rather somber voice:
Can you walk?
The man shook his head.
"No way, it's only the size of two palms."
The leader gave him a deep look, then turned away without answering.
The man knew this meant they didn't want it, so he turned around and followed the others, taking out the antidote and sprinkling it on the mountain people lying on the ground to wake them up.
The mountain people, upon waking, were initially unaware of what had happened. They looked around in the dark, their eyes still blurry with sleep, but could see nothing clearly.
Then they heard a strange voice calling out from the darkness:
"Stand up, everyone, let's move!"
As the sound faded, the mountain people felt themselves being pulled forward by a tremendous force. They were forcibly pulled to their feet and then dragged forward.