Changling’s heart heavily “thudded.”

These villagers might not necessarily “transform” after dark, but if they heard the bell sound, that would be terrifying.

Not to mention that Ye Qi alone couldn’t avoid the siege of green-eyed monsters—cultivating superior mental cultivation techniques was never something one could stop at will or cease whenever desired. If he happened to be at a critical juncture and was forcibly interrupted—there would be no need for others to tear him apart; he would first go report to the King of Hell on his own.

At this moment, her face was pale, her heart filled with regret—if she had known this would happen, she should have stayed by his side. Even if someone came up the mountain looking for trouble, there would be two more people to block them.

Several more bell sounds came from the mountain, the sounds rising and falling one after another, each strike piercing the heart. While using lightness skills to ascend the mountain, Jiagu said, “Wasn’t that ancient bell hanging in the mountain temple? Who moved it up the mountain?”

Changling had no time to analyze the bell problem. At this moment, their figures were as fast as fleeting shadows. In less than half a tea’s time, they swept to the mountainside. Jiagu, seeing her anxiety, had just comforted her with “maybe those villagers haven’t transformed yet” when in a blink, he saw several green-eyed villagers charging toward them menacingly.

“Pretend I didn’t say that.” Jiagu and Changling suddenly leaped up, barely avoiding this wave of assault. Where they had just stood, behind them were bushes, and one tree after another was knocked down with a thunderous crash by those people.

Without the tombstone, Jiagu couldn’t play the role of “Yanling Village Ancestor” and was treated equally, being chased around. Unlike the previous night, tonight’s green-eyed monsters were scattered. With their skills, it wasn’t difficult, but what if the waterfall area was still quiet, and they rashly led people there—would that backfire?

Jiagu and Changling thought of the same thing. He hesitated about whether to split up and carry that “evil-warding tombstone” up the mountain. “Martial Nephew, may I…”

Before he finished speaking, Changling suddenly shouted loudly, “You may not!”

Jiagu was stunned for a moment, thinking: How did she know what I wanted to ask?

In truth, Changling hadn’t heard Jiagu asking her anything at all. During this rush, her mind inexplicably conjured bloody scenes of Ye Qi being torn into seven or eight pieces. Thinking of that sickly fellow, elegant as clear wind and bright moon, dying with his intestines scattered everywhere, she couldn’t help but shout “you may not.”

You may not.

If he died so inexplicably like this, then she… she would…

What would she do? Changling herself couldn’t say. She involuntarily pushed her lightness skills to the extreme. The last time she ran desperately without catching her breath like this seemed to be on the mountain road to Taixing City to save her eldest brother.

“Don’t, don’t worry so much,” Jiagu said, seeing her so frantic he nearly couldn’t keep up. “Perhaps they didn’t go to the mountaintop…”

Unfortunately, this “jinx” of a martial uncle always spoke in opposites. In half a moment, the two saw that ahead was crowded with green-eyed monsters, rushing up the mountain without looking back.

And this path led to the waterfall pool.

This scene instantly chilled Changling’s heart completely. She almost forgot to dodge the monsters charging at her. Jiagu swept away a large swath with one palm strike and forcefully patted her shoulder. “Pull yourself together! Even if my disciple dies, we still need to collect his corpse!”

Changling jolted awake and forcibly steadied her mind. Borrowing the surrounding grass and trees, she leaped up, stepping on the villagers’ heads all the way toward the water pool—this method was extremely reckless. If any green-eyed monster was quick enough to grab her ankle, they could probably tear it right off.

Jiagu watched from behind with his heart in his throat, while using tree leaves as projectiles to ward off danger for her, he shouted loudly, “Martial Nephew! Watch your feet when you fly!”

Changling didn’t listen to him at all. In mid-air, she performed the Ethereal Steps, unpredictably “gliding” over the crowd. With such skill, naturally no one could intercept her, though occasionally one or two would be quick-handed and dangerously grasp her foot—Changling exerted force from the sole of her foot and kicked away a circle of green-eyed monsters, losing one shoe in the process.

She gracefully leaped onto the high cliff, impatiently looking down at the waterfall, secretly hoping in her heart that he wasn’t there.

But he was there.

However, what appeared before her eyes was not the imagined siege and crisis—the cascading waterfall splashed into waves like galloping wild horses sweeping between both banks, forcibly circling the mindless villagers within the water waves, unable to advance or retreat, only able to spin madly in place.

The waterfall falling from high altitude was constantly torn apart, yet constantly merged and gathered. The countless water droplets permeating the air were both weapons and like an “iron cloth shirt” woven from water curtains, tightly wrapping him in the lake pool’s curtain cave, preventing anyone from getting close.

Changling stood dazed in place for a moment.

He… had actually mastered the first level of the Myriad Flowers Manual in just one day?

Whether from excessive fright the moment before or excessive joy this moment, Changling swept forward directly through layers of mist, jumping into that powerful water curtain—Ye Qi originally thought a green-eyed monster was coming and subconsciously was about to strike with his palm. When he saw clearly who it was, he withdrew his hand in time. An opening suddenly appeared in the vortex, and Changling easily leaped into the cave. Taking two steps toward him, the corner of her mouth curved into a smile.

Ye Qi was so frightened by her action that his scalp tingled. He immediately put away his smile and said anxiously, “You should have let me know before jumping in! What if I had accidentally injured you?”

Changling laughed with a snort. “It’s only the first level of Gentle Township—how could it injure the ninth level of Hero’s Tomb?”

Even though the full moon hung in the sky, the light inside the cave was dim and he couldn’t see her face clearly, but he could see her eyes were very bright. He wanted to be angry but couldn’t. “Even if it’s just a scraped skin or losing one or two strands of hair, I would still…”

Ye Qi originally wanted to say “feel distressed,” but after the words circled in his mouth, they forcibly changed to “…not be able to afford to offend you.”

Changling didn’t know about all his inner struggles. Seeing that he had not only kept his life but also mastered this extraordinary skill, she was naturally extremely pleased. “Regardless, congratulations.”

In that instant, Ye Qi forgot to continue channeling energy for defense. Jiagu, seeing those green-eyed people about to break through the restriction, hurriedly stirred up a large wave—wherever there was water, for the Jiagu master-disciple pair, it was like a living mechanism. Combined with his superior internal energy and greater force, most of the villagers were directly swept down the mountain by wave after wave. The scene was nothing if not spectacular.

“I was in a moment of urgency and suddenly grasped some key points,” Ye Qi said, hearing Changling’s praise. He pressed his lips together, trying hard not to appear too proud. “However, just now I heard a bell sound on the mountain. I imagine someone deliberately lured them up here… I was worried something had happened to you both. Now seeing you’re fine, I’m relieved.”

Only then did Changling have spare attention to care about another problem—who the hell brought these people up the mountain? After thinking in circles, she suddenly looked up. “Could it be the village chief?”

“The village chief?” Ye Qi was even more confused. “Why would he do that?”

Changling concisely explained how she and Jiagu had joined forces during the day to expel corpse gu and save the villagers. “We clearly tied up the village chief. How did he escape?”

Jiagu swept across the lake pool and stood on a rock in the pool’s center, wearing down the villagers. Even though his internal energy was abundant, endlessly “rolling up the pearl curtain” made his hands sore. He finally couldn’t bear it anymore and said, “You two heartless people, can you help me drive these people away first before chatting? I haven’t even eaten dinner tonight, alright?”

The two looked at each other and smiled, moving together. Ye Qi used water to help his master sweep away people. Changling, without even giving notice, decisively left them and headed straight for the mountaintop cemetery to move He Yanzhen’s tombstone just as she had done before. However, she unexpectedly encountered the village chief huddled in the cemetery.

As soon as the village chief saw Changling appear, like seeing a savior, he hid behind her and pointed at a pair of menacing green eyes in the bushes. “Miss, quick, quickly save me…”

Changling focused her gaze. When she saw the person’s face clearly, she was shocked—Abbot Liaozhen?

Master Liaozhen held a bronze bell as large as a water vat in both hands, grinning at them, his entire body radiating a smile that said “I will see you off to your death.”

“Ah, I forgot to expel his gu.” Changling reacted. “I thought his injury was too severe and he surely couldn’t move. I didn’t expect he could still carry the bell… This corpse gu is truly formidable.”

Someone like the village chief, who had been a green-eyed person but had never seen one, was already scared out of his wits upon first seeing this scene. Fortunately, he still knew the legend of the tombstone warding off evil, though since Liaozhen wasn’t a descendant of the He family, this trick naturally had no effect on him.

Seeing Liaozhen nimbly pouncing over while lifting the bronze bell, Changling pushed the village chief away with one hand. Her entire body rose abruptly, spinning half a circle in the air, one foot stepping down on the bell cauldron—this one move of “Shimo Thousand Catty Drop” could increase the weight of whatever was under her foot by more than tenfold in an instant. With a “boom,” the bronze bell heavily crashed to the ground, half the bell body sinking into the earth, firmly trapping Liaozhen inside with less than four feet of space remaining.

Liaozhen inside the bronze bell seemed to still want to struggle hard. Changling stepped on the “Thousand Catty Drop” again. This time only the top of the bronze bell remained—one could imagine Liaozhen was now trapped in the middle, occasionally howling, wanting to drill out but unable to.

“Let’s leave it like this for now. After daybreak tomorrow, we’ll find someone to dig him out.” Under the village chief’s dumbfounded gaze, Changling pulled up the tombstone and turned back. “After we drive all your lovely villagers down the mountain, we’ll come back to question you. If you don’t want to be torn apart, don’t run around.”

Perhaps due to fear of natural wind and rain, after wave after wave of “stormy seas” washing, the ferocity of the green-eyed villagers had greatly diminished. By the time Changling arrived carrying the tombstone, the remaining half of the people naturally turned and fled.

After all, they were still living people. Even if they had lost their reason, there were still things they feared.

Only then did Ye Qi and Jiagu come forward to meet her. Before Jiagu could open his mouth to complain, Changling said first, “The village chief is still at the mountaintop. As for what exactly happened tonight, we may need to personally ask him.”

When the three of them climbed to the mountaintop, the village chief was still there. Learning that the green-eyed villagers had all gone down the mountain, the nearly fifty-year-old village chief had mixed feelings and didn’t know where to begin for a moment.

Jiagu sighed. “Should we go back to the house first, heat up the soup, and chat while eating?”

The pot of soup Changling stewed at noon was still there. Jiagu confirmed the food hadn’t spoiled and actually started a fire to heat the pot, casually sprinkling in some salt.

After Ye Qi and Changling heard the village chief’s account of the circumstances in the house, they were both somewhat bewildered. Changling thought about it but still couldn’t understand, so she asked again, “It was truly You San who untied the ropes for you and wanted you to lure all the villagers up the mountain?”

The village chief nodded, his expression extremely ugly. “He said you intended to seize important items and then destroy Yanling Village entirely. Now that the three of you are separated, this is the perfect opportunity to deal with… Young Master Ye. He also had me bring Liaozhen and repeatedly urged that we must wait until night to transform into monsters before we could kill you… So we…”

“So you brought that bell along?” Ye Qi couldn’t help but mock coldly. “But you never expected that today my master and the others truly expelled the gu poison for Village Chief. So even when the bell sounded and everyone else transformed, you still didn’t change.”

“I… it’s true I judged others by my own small-minded standards. But how could I have thought that something even our ancestors and Monk Shenle couldn’t accomplish, you would…” The village chief choked up. “Moreover, that man surnamed You originally came together with you. I always thought you were in the same group… That’s why I believed his words.”

“What about Xu Laifeng?” Ye Qi asked. “Did you see him?”

The village chief shook his head. “Only You San was alone. He, he didn’t mention Young Master Xu either. Later, before the bell sounded, he left first. This time I don’t know where he’s hiding.”

Changling and Ye Qi exchanged glances—You San had always been an image of someone with lightness skills but no brains, at most just Xu Laifeng’s lackey. They had even thought he was already dead. Who would have expected he could still plot such an internal conflict? This was truly unexpected. But if he was only following Xu Laifeng’s orders, why didn’t Xu Laifeng appear personally? Or why didn’t Xu Laifeng directly take action to obstruct Ye Qi’s practice? Wouldn’t that be more appropriate than summoning a group of green-eyed people?

Ye Qi suddenly thought of something. “The village chief just said ‘important items’… But initially, You San clearly spoke repeatedly of ‘treasure’…”

Changling paused. “Important items and treasure—is there a difference?”

“If he’s just an assistant fooled by Jing Wuwei, logically he should be like Gao Kui and Gao Xuan, thinking there’s treasure like a hoard in Yanling Village. When a person’s mind imagines gold, silver, and jewels, naturally they would add the character ‘treasure’ to this thing,” Ye Qi said. “But You San said ‘important items,’ which means he knows there’s no treasure here…”

Hearing this, the village chief couldn’t help but raise his guard again. “You, you—how do you know there’s something in our village… Who exactly are you people?”

Only at this point did Ye Qi remember he hadn’t formally introduced himself. He pulled an antique token from his pocket and handed it to the village chief. “Actually, my surname is He. My grandfather was called He Yanzhong, who was also the blood brother of your village’s ancestor He Yanzhen… Speaking of which, if the village chief is also surnamed He, we should have some blood relationship.”

The village chief took the token and carefully examined the character “He” on the plaque and the inscription carved on the back. His fingertips trembling slightly, he said, “He Yanzhen was my uncle…”

How should one address great-great-grandfather’s brother’s nephew… This question… momentarily stumped Ye Qi. He simply skipped over it and said, “Village Chief He, to be honest with you, before we came, we didn’t know about the relationship between Yanling Village and the He family. We only accidentally discovered through investigation that there might be half a fan in this mountain. This half fan originally belonged to this young lady. That’s why we came following the trail. Now it seems perhaps we were mistaken…”

Hearing “half a fan,” the village chief’s head suddenly lifted, his expression changing drastically. He stared intently at Changling, that gaze like seeing a ghost. Ye Qi subconsciously moved in front of Changling. “Village Chief, if you have something to say, please speak plainly.”

“You just said the fan belonged to the young lady…” The village chief said word by word, “May I ask if the young lady’s surname is Yue?”

Changling was shocked and blurted out, “How do you know?”

The village chief didn’t answer but asked again, “Does the young lady… have a ring jade?”

Now Ye Qi was also stunned. He couldn’t quite determine what the village chief wanted to say. Changling nodded. “Yes.”

The village chief asked in a trembling voice, “May I… may I take a look at it?”

Changling had always worn the ring jade pendant around her neck. Not afraid the village chief would snatch it away, she pulled it out from her collar and showed it briefly before the village chief’s eyes—the ring jade had a lustrous sheen. Though it didn’t look much different from ordinary emerald jade, the village chief recognized it with just one glance. “It’s it! It’s definitely it!”

Ye Qi vaguely guessed something but wasn’t in a hurry to ask. He saw the village chief stand up and slowly walk a few steps, looking out the window and saying in a deep voice, “What you’re looking for—could it be the folding fan passed down by Wu Run?”

Changling was shocked. “You know about Wu Run’s folding fan?”

“How could I not know?” The village chief also pulled out a ring jade from his waist pouch that looked exactly the same as the one in Changling’s hand. “Grandmaster Wu Run only took two disciples in his entire life. One was my uncle He Yanzhen, and the other was Yue Rugou. Miss… you must be a descendant of Yue Rugou, right?”

Author’s Note:

Fellow villagers meeting fellow villagers, eyes filled with tears~~

Some people don’t remember the Hero’s Tomb reference. Hero’s Tomb is an alternate name for the Shimo Scripture. Chapter One mentioned: “But upon seeing this technique, one becomes a tomb on the spot—all heroes under heaven are no exception.”

The question of whether Gentle Township or Hero’s Tomb is more powerful is equivalent to asking whether Nine Yin Manual or Nine Yang Manual is more powerful… Whoever practices it better is more powerful. It’s like mathematicians summarizing so many formulas—top students glance at them briefly and get nearly perfect scores, while poor students can’t pass even with tutoring.

So currently, Sister Ling still wins decisively.