The Real Change

Looking at the three people before him, Yin Yunze felt the urge to kill.

Even by the moral standards he held as a modern man, people who kidnapped children and even planned to kill them absolutely deserved to die.

The only thing standing in his way was that Yin Yunze himself was somewhat reluctant to do it.

After all, however much the three deserved to die, they were still human!

When Yin Yunze bought ingredients for cooking, he always bought them already butchered, let alone living, breathing people.

Reason told Yin Yunze that the best solution now was to root out the evil completely and settle the matter once and for all. But his modern sensibilities made the thought of actually killing someone rather unsettling!

If he could, Yin Yunze hoped these scum would finish themselves off and spare him from dirtying his hands.

Unfortunately, the two who were still conscious clearly weren't considerate enough. They just kept kowtowing and begging for mercy, showing no initiative whatsoever!

"Sigh! Why are they always so oblivious..."

With a sigh, Yin Yunze was just about to act when he suddenly heard Zhao Wan's voice. "Lord Yi Yun, are you going to kill them?"

"..." Hearing Zhao Wan's voice, Yin Yunze realized he had overlooked something: Zhao Wan was still watching from the side!

"Ahem!" Yin Yunze gave a small cough and quietly reflected on himself before changing the subject. "Wan'er, do you know what it means to die?"

"I do." In a thoroughly childlike voice, Zhao Wan spoke of a cruel reality. "Papa, Grandpa, and Grandma all died! When they died, Mama cried so sadly! I cried really hard too! If you kill them, Lord Yi Yun, their families will be very sad too, won't they?"

If another adult had said that, Yin Yunze might have replied that Spirit Medium Wang and Wang Laizi had only each other to rely on, so no family would grieve for them. Instead, once they went down there, the whole family could be together again, neat and complete.

But faced with Zhao Wan, Yin Yunze really couldn't bring himself to say such a thing.

After giving it some thought, Yin Yunze decided to hear what Zhao Wan thought. After all, she was the greatest victim this time. "Wan'er, do you think I should kill them? They wanted to hurt you and your mother this time, after all!"

"They did bad things! But a lesson should be enough, shouldn't it? I was saved by you anyway, Lord Yi Yun!" Zhao Wan thought for a moment, then said softly, "Mama said people should be given a chance to reflect on what they've done..."

Hearing Zhao Wan say that, Yin Yunze remembered that this was her body, after all, and she would see everything he did. Killing people in front of a ten-year-old girl-burning them alive, no less-really wasn't very appropriate.

The world was so filthy; at least in front of a child, let it retain a trace of beauty!

With that thought, Yin Yunze decided to give them a chance.

"For Wan'er's sake, since she pleaded for you, I can spare your lives."

As he spoke, Yin Yunze raised a hand and drew a circle shimmering with golden light around the three of them. "Do not leave this circle before sunset! After sunset, get out of here, and don't ever let me catch sight of you again! If I see you again, you're dead!"

Hearing Yin Yunze's words, Wang Laizi and Zhao Cheng both felt as though they had just made a trip to the gates of hell and back.

"Thank you, Lady Fox Immortal! Thank you, Lady Fox Immortal!"

Ignoring their thanks, Yin Yunze turned and walked toward Clear Creek Village.

After walking some distance, however, Yin Yunze stopped and stood silently in the middle of the road.

"Lord Yi Yun, what are you doing?"

After waiting quietly for a while, Zhao Wan couldn't help asking.

"I'm waiting..." Yin Yunze started to answer, then smiled helplessly. "There's no need to wait anymore."

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

"Ah!"

Suddenly, three screams rang out in the distance behind Yin Yunze.

By the time they reached his ears, they had lost their initial shrillness.

"What happened over there?"

Hearing the commotion, Zhao Wan asked curiously.

"Maybe they weren't watching where they were going and fell! But it has nothing to do with us anymore."

Yin Yunze brushed off the question without telling her the truth.

The Illusion Technique had been upgraded, and Fox Fire naturally hadn't been left behind either.

Besides consuming less and burning hotter, it could now be set in advance, ignited remotely afterward, and activated on a delay.

The so-called circle drawn on the ground as a prison had been a mere illusion from beginning to end. The real point lay outside the circle, where Yin Yunze had quietly planted enough Fox Fire to burn all three of them to death.

If the three really did as Yin Yunze had said and waited until sunset to leave, the Fox Fire would automatically dissipate as a reward for keeping their word.

Conversely, any attempt to leave before sunset would trigger the trap.

If they couldn't even keep their word when their lives were at stake, how could Yin Yunze trust them not to seek revenge later?

What Yin Yunze hadn't quite expected was that they would be even more impatient than he had thought. Judging by the screams that came one after another, the two had hardly hesitated before breaking their word.

But on second thought, that made sense. If their character had been even halfway decent, Yin Yunze wouldn't have wanted to kill them in the first place!

Ending so quickly at least saved Yin Yunze some waiting.

Perhaps because he hadn't seen how they died with his own eyes, killing them no longer felt as real to Yin Yunze as it had at first.

Indeed, three people had died, burned alive by Yin Yunze's Fox Fire.

Yet Yin Yunze didn't feel the revulsion he had imagined beforehand.

It could only be said that sometimes, the greatest obstacle stopping you from doing something was your own emotions.

Once you actually did it, you might find yourself thinking, That was all...

In any case, eliminating those three potential threats at least ensured that Zhao Wan and Sun Qin would no longer be affected by them.

With that thought, Yin Yunze set off on the journey back to the village.

Yin Yunze didn't leave Zhao Wan's body immediately. It wasn't that he had any intention of playing the cuckoo and taking over her nest; he was simply afraid that something else might happen to her on the way.

After all, she wasn't in Clear Creek Village yet, so Yin Yunze couldn't quite put his mind at ease.

On the way back to Clear Creek Village, Yin Yunze didn't dwell any further on Spirit Medium Wang and the other two. Instead, he chatted with Wan'er from time to time while using her petite body to experience everything in this world.

Though, aside from being more run-down and backward, this place was essentially not much different from the countryside where Yin Yunze had grown up.

Still, it was a different world, and Yin Yunze found the journey quite novel.

They reached the entrance to Clear Creek Village without encountering any further mishaps.

But that was only normal.

After all, having three rotten people like Spirit Medium Wang and the others in a single village had already dragged the average down considerably.

Of course, no one had discovered that Zhao Wan had been abducted.

Nothing happening was naturally for the best, so Yin Yunze thought no more about it and stepped into Clear Creek Village.

But the moment his foot landed on Clear Creek Village's soil, Yin Yunze felt as though a spring breeze had brushed against his face, and an inexplicable sense of comfort welled up inside him.

Like a fish returning to water or a bird soaring into the sky, he felt as though he had broken free of his shackles.

At the same time, along with that feeling of comfort, a great deal of information surfaced in Yin Yunze's mind.

The flood of complex information left Yin Yunze rooted to the spot in a daze. Only after quite a while did he come back to his senses.

As he sorted the information into a coherent sequence, Yin Yunze finally learned something.

It wasn't that this version upgrade had no update like the radar chart. Rather, it was a major version update that far surpassed the radar chart.

It was just that the hardware hadn't been up to the task before, so Yin Yunze had been unable to run the new version of the software.

But after Yin Yunze used Spirit Descent on Zhao Wan, with her as the new hardware, he was finally able to learn the true contents of this version update.

First of all, Yin Yunze's current identity wasn't the Fox Immortal he had believed himself to be... or rather, Fox Immortal was one of his identities. More importantly, he had now become the guardian deity of Clear Creek Village.

Of course, to put it more plainly, Yin Yunze's divinity was now that of Clear Creek Village's Land God!