The Plum Tree Withers in the Peach Tree's Place
Sang Ying had long heard that cultivators treated mortals poorly and rarely involved themselves in mortal affairs. In any mortal town without a sect's protection, life was hard for the people who lived there.
The original book had described this as well, but only briefly, so Sang Ying had never had a clear understanding of it.
Not until she came down the mountain for this trial did she truly understand the position these mortals were in.
She had met Lin Niansheng in White Foothill City, where he had been wandering the streets in despair. Every time he encountered a cultivator, he begged them to come home with him and take a look, saying that disaster had struck his family and a demon was going to eat people.
But the cultivators paid him no heed. For one thing, they figured a demon that preyed on mortals probably wasn't particularly formidable, and someone else would deal with it even if they didn't. For another, helping mortals brought no reward and would only take time away from their cultivation.
Thus, no one was willing to take on such a thankless task. At most, they gave him a few talismans, but those treated the symptoms rather than the root cause and would do little good.
Besides, Lin Niansheng was a mortal. Even if he had talismans, he couldn't use them without Spiritual Qi.
As it happened, Sang Ying's cultivation had hit a bottleneck, and she needed a trial to temper herself and improve her State of Mind. Seeing how hard Lin Niansheng was trying to save his family, and how he had even dared enter a city of cultivators as a mortal, she figured he must have been at the end of his rope.
Sang Ying took pity on him. Thinking that helping him would count as accumulating merit, she followed Lin Niansheng to Listening Willow Village.
She had not expected that the first problem she encountered on coming here to eliminate the demon would be caused by her own face.
Sure enough, like Auntie Lin, the Su family grew somewhat suspicious of Sang Ying.
But the Su girl couldn't afford to worry about that. She was about to be married to the demon, and Sang Ying was her only hope. She was willing to trust Lin Niansheng and take this gamble!
So, regardless of what anyone else thought, the Su girl gritted her teeth and knelt before Sang Ying. "Please, Fairy, save my life and rid Listening Willow Village of that demon!"
Next was the Su girl's older brother, Su Ping'an. Seeing his sister kneel, he hurriedly knelt as well. "Please, Fairy, save my family's lives!"
Watching these people kneel before her one after another gave Sang Ying a headache.
She hurriedly helped them all up. "Since I've already taken this matter on, I'll do everything I can to resolve it. The immediate priority is for you to tell me the whole story. Lin Niansheng's account was in bits and pieces, and I need to know more about what happened."
At that, Lin Niansheng scratched his head in embarrassment.
As soon as he had heard that something had happened to his younger sister, he had hurried away from home to seek help. He knew only what he had heard from others and had no idea about the rest.
When Sang Ying asked, the elders exchanged glances. With nothing left to lose, they could only try to treat a dead horse as if it were alive and tell her everything they knew.
Although Listening Willow Village was a mortal village, a formidable cultivator had once come from it. As a Rogue Cultivator, he had ascended to immortality, shocking the disciples of many major sects and securing some protection for Listening Willow Village.
Thus, although Listening Willow Village had never joined any sect, it had survived safely outside White Foothill City for hundreds of years.
Now that the immortal had been gone for so long, his descendants had all but forgotten his legend. Seeing that no other formidable figures had appeared in Listening Willow Village, people began setting their sights on its mortal inhabitants once more.
The demon was said to have arrived on a gust of black wind. Under cover of night, he hung a red lantern outside the home of a girl he had taken a fancy to and left a marriage contract, unilaterally declaring the match settled.
When everyone first found the two items, they took them for a prank. To their surprise, the demon came that very night. When the girl's family woke the next morning, they found their daughter gone.
The lantern had vanished as well, leaving only a contract bearing the girl's bloody handprint.
From then on, a girl in Listening Willow Village would be chosen every so often. No matter how her family hid her, she would always be gone by the next morning.
The demon didn't limit himself to unmarried girls, either. He wouldn't spare young married women.
A bold young man had once disguised himself as a girl in an attempt to find out what was going on, but in the end, the girl was abducted all the same, while the young man's corpse was thrown back into the village.
After this happened several times, the villagers no longer dared resist. They tried to leave the village and move to a town under an immortal's protection, but strangely, only the men could leave. The women couldn't take even half a step outside Listening Willow Village.
If a family brought their daughter along, none of them could leave the village.
Some people, unwilling to remain trapped there for life, heartlessly abandoned their wives and children and left on their own. But more were like the Su family, willing to face it together with their daughters.
Then, not long ago, Auntie Lin's Xin'er was chosen too. Unwilling to sit and wait for death, Lin Niansheng left the village to seek an immortal's help.
But the day after he left, his younger sister was taken by the demon.
This time, the demon seemed more eager. Only three days had passed before he set his sights on the Su girl.
Fortunately, Lin Niansheng had some luck on his side and managed to bring an immortal back before the demon appeared.
After hearing all this, the "immortal" Sang Ying said little and quickly made a circuit of the village.
Her father was a sword cultivator, but her mother was a formidable formation cultivator.
Although Sang Ying had loved learning the sword since childhood, her mother's influence had led her to dabble in formations as well.
Now, one look was enough to tell her that a formation had been set up around the entire village. It was this formation that had trapped all the women inside.
When Auntie Lin heard this, she immediately said, "Then can you break this damn formation, Fairy? That way, we can hurry and get everyone out before the demon comes!"
The others nodded hurriedly, all praising Auntie Lin's suggestion.
But Sang Ying said, "We don't know when the demon will come. Even if I break the formation now, it will probably take time to notify the whole village and get everyone to move. If he comes while you're leaving, notices something wrong, snatches people away and never returns, I'm afraid we'll never find the girls he's already taken."
Everyone thought she made a great deal of sense, and their spirits sank once more.
"But rest assured, everyone. Doesn't he want a bride? I'm a young woman too, so I should meet his requirements. Today, I'll take Miss Su's place. Once I've infiltrated his lair and investigated the matter, your village will be free of these troubles," Sang Ying added.
The Su parents thanked Sang Ying through tears and laughter. Had she not stopped them in time, they would probably have knelt before her again.
Unlike her excited parents, Miss Su asked worriedly, "If you go in my place, Fairy, won't you be in danger?"
Sang Ying gave her a gentle smile. "Don't worry, Miss. I'm a cultivator, after all, and I have a few things with me to protect my life. Even if I can't catch him, I can still escape. Then I'll break the formation around the village. Once you've all escaped, there won't be anything the demon can do."
Only after hearing Sang Ying's words did the Su girl feel somewhat reassured.
They made the substitution at once. Before long, when Sang Ying and Miss Su came out of the room again, Sang Ying had changed into the red wedding dress.
To make the dress fit better, Sang Ying had even altered her figure.
When the two of them came out, they looked exactly alike, save for their faces!
After making a few simple arrangements for everyone, Sang Ying sat down on the edge of Miss Su's bed and quietly waited for the "groom" to arrive.