The villagers of Changning Village all lived in bamboo houses.

Zhang Enning’s family lived in the northwest area, with their backs against a small earthen slope. Several small saplings were planted on the slope, but when heavy rains came, large amounts of mud would still roll down. Fortunately, the slope wasn’t high, and while it caused considerable trouble, it wasn’t enough to wash away their bamboo house.

At this time, dawn was just breaking. Zhang Enning’s mother had already risen and was drawing water from the well in the small courtyard enclosed by wooden fencing, then ladling water to irrigate the small vegetable patch in front of their door. Next to the vegetable patch, they also kept an old hen that was clucking loudly, as if about to lay an egg.

Zhang Shi appeared to be less than thirty years old. Her clothes were very dark in color and had been washed until they were faded white, with many patches sewn on. Only an inconspicuous wooden hairpin adorned her hair bun. Such plain or rather shabby attire still couldn’t conceal her beautiful appearance – no wonder she caught the eye of other men in the village.

Su Zhuyi stood outside the fence watching. The spirit-seeking compass in her hand showed no movement, sensing no spiritual energy near this bamboo house.

At this moment, Zhang Shi looked up and saw Su Zhuyi. Her face immediately brightened with a smile. “Young Master, what brings you here?” After speaking, she suddenly thought of something and hurriedly said, “Young Master, please wait a moment. I’ll go make some vegetarian pancakes.”

Su Zhuyi quickly shook her head. “Thank you, benefactor, but I’ve already had my morning meal.”

“I came this time to thank Zhang Enning. If not for his brave assistance, I wouldn’t have been able to subdue Old Lady Lu.”

Hearing Su Zhuyi praise her son, Zhang Shi felt her face shine with pride, her smile becoming even more radiant. For an ordinary mortal woman to possess such beauty was already quite remarkable, though compared to her former self, there was still a vast difference.

The corner of Su Zhuyi’s mouth curved up in a supremely confident and charming smile.

However, now she was a bald little monk with missing front teeth, leaving only two gaping black holes that leaked air. When she smiled like this, while she felt quite pleased with herself, in others’ eyes she appeared foolishly sweet and innocent.

Zhang Shi cheerfully invited Su Zhuyi inside to sit, and Su Zhuyi managed to draw some information from her conversation.

Zhang Shi’s original surname was Jiang, and she wasn’t originally from Changning Village. In her childhood, she lived in Yongan Town, where her father was a doctor who treated people. Among mortals, their family circumstances weren’t poor. However, one day he accidentally offended a cultivator who knew magic arts. Her father was beaten to death, and her mother hanged herself.

That day, Zhang Shi and her brother had gone up the mountain to gather medicinal herbs. On their way back, they encountered a kind neighbor who told them this terrible news and urged them to flee quickly without returning home. So the two siblings didn’t dare go home and hid in the mountains. Later, her brother was killed by wild beasts while protecting her. She thought she too would die, but was rescued by a female cultivator.

That female cultivator even brought her back and punished the evil cultivator, avenging her parents. Later, she met Zhang Enning’s father. Since she no longer had any relatives in Yongan Town, she followed Zhang Enning’s father and settled in Changning Village.

Speaking of this, Zhang Shi’s eyes were already filled with tears. She suddenly said, “Young Master, do you think I carry misfortune in my fate, which is why I brought death to my relatives? Now Enning and I depend on each other for survival. I don’t want him to suffer any more harm…”

Su Zhuyi carefully examined Zhang Shi’s facial features and saw nothing amiss. In the end, it was simply that mortal lives were cheap in this world. If one accidentally offended a cultivator, death could come at any moment. Su Zhuyi herself had originally killed quite a few people, too. At that time, human lives were merely numbers in her eyes. From time to time, she would hear of demonic cultivators massacring cities with tens of thousands of casualties, beast tides attacking villages, leaving people destitute, or great powers clashing and leaving nothing alive within a hundred li radius…

But now, before her eyes was a living mortal, who had once been the precious daughter of her family, who had desperately struggled and fought to survive…

“Do you know why you’re still struggling at the bottom? Because even after experiencing so much hardship, you don’t blame others, but instead question yourself – whether it’s because you carry misfortune in your fate that you encountered so many disasters and brought death to your relatives…”

Su Zhuyi opened her mouth but didn’t voice the thoughts in her heart. She simply blinked and said, “I don’t see anything wrong with your facial features. I previously learned some feng shui principles from my master. Let me look around your house to see if there’s anything amiss.”

Zhang Shi was immediately overjoyed and hurriedly said, “Thank you so much, Young Master.”

Now, Su Zhuyi could openly wander around Zhang Enning’s house with her spirit-seeking compass. The well was her primary focus, which she examined very carefully for a long time, but the compass showed no reaction. When she circled to the back of the bamboo house, Su Zhuyi discovered a small path on the left side of the bamboo house leading to the back mountain.

Though called the back mountain, it was just a small earthen slope covered with grass, where villagers grazed their sheep. She slowly walked up the mountain, and when she reached the highest point of the slope, she was surprised to discover that stones had been piled into a circle in the very center, with a circular stone platform in the middle. Standing on the stone platform and looking out, she could see exactly that old tree at the village entrance, its branches swaying left and right, moving with the wind.

The spirit-seeking compass in her hand trembled lightly. The corner of Su Zhuyi’s mouth curved up, her eyes twinkling with mirth. It seemed that Ji Wuxin’s legacy was probably buried beneath this spot.

Under normal circumstances, trees would grow more luxuriantly on the side facing the sun, but that thousand-year-old tree was not like this. The entire tree leaned toward the place where Su Zhuyi now stood, and the leaves on this side were also more verdant. Under the sunlight, they resembled jade and emerald stone.

Su Zhuyi was quite short now, and without spiritual energy she couldn’t fly. Standing under the tree, she couldn’t see so much, but now on the mountain slope where she could see far, she finally noticed these details.

The stone platform formed a line with the tree’s leaning direction. Combined with the spirit-seeking compass trembling constantly, plus the lush grass on the mountain, even the grazing sheep appeared quite spiritual. If they lived long enough, they might well cultivate into spirit sheep, except that they were usually slaughtered and eaten before they could cultivate successfully.

Well, now the problem was: how could she dig open this stone platform? With her current small frame, how long would it take to dig? Just as she was feeling troubled, her heart suddenly stirred.

How could she forget that her natal magic treasure was a hoe!

Though having a hoe as one’s natal magic treasure was somewhat embarrassing to mention, it could solve her urgent need right now. Thinking of this, she went down the mountain along the same path and saw Zhang Shi waiting by the roadside, looking at her with hopeful expectation. Su Zhuyi casually made up an explanation: “The stone platform on the mountain is arranged in a circle, and that mountain is low and shaded from the sun, overgrown with weeds. The yin energy gathers inside the circle and can’t escape, so it has some influence on your bamboo house. The weather isn’t good now, so I’ll wait until next spring when the sun is bright and strong to perform a ritual and destroy that stone platform.”

Though the little monk was young, she spoke with authority, and her deeds in Changning Village these past few days were witnessed by all. Therefore, Zhang Shi was extremely convinced, only saying, “Villagers used to worship at that stone platform, saying they were praying to the mountain god. I never imagined it was a place where yin energy gathered.”

Hearing that villagers worshipped there, Su Zhuyi became somewhat worried. If Ji Wuxin’s tomb was indeed there, and he had arranged something to guard the tomb, that thing would have received worship from villagers year after year, especially prayers for blessings and wishes. It might well have nurtured some ghostly monster. Her body wasn’t in good condition now, and she hadn’t planned to start digging graves immediately. She had intended to wait until spring to find a time when yang energy was strong to dig, but now she felt she couldn’t be so hasty.

She needed to restore her health, improve her cultivation level, prepare the sacrificial offerings, and preferably get that book again to read through it, to see if there were any records about this place in the later sections.

Su Zhuyi bid farewell to Zhang Shi, wandered around the village, and then returned under the big tree to see that Zhang Enning had already entered a meditative state. She looked at him with new respect.

This boy certainly had firm resolve.

While Zhang Enning meditated quietly, Su Zhuyi also began cultivating the Meridian Moistening Formula. She sat in meditation until evening, then finished her practice, woke Zhang Enning up, and sent him home.

Over the next three months, Su Zhuyi recovered her health and grew a little taller. Her head was still shaved smooth, and she wore not ordinary robes but a small monk’s robe made for her by the villagers, draped with a red kasaya, making her appear even more adorably pure as ice and snow. The little monk’s popularity in the village grew even greater, with constant incense burning at the temple entrance.

Su Zhuyi: “…”

Instead of working hard to change their fates, they came to seek guidance from her, a tiny little monk. Some even wanted to learn the art of turning stone into gold, and others wanted to have sons. These villagers were truly beyond help, tsk tsk…

During this period, Su Zhuyi drew many talismans. She burned the talismans to ash and secretly mixed the talisman ash water into the villagers’ wells, cursing all the villagers of Changning Village. These were all ordinary mortals, so designing to control them wasn’t difficult. If she truly needed sacrifices on the day of grave digging, she would blow her bamboo flute without hesitation and drive everyone over, making them line up to march to their deaths.

In another month, the merchant caravan would arrive at the village.

She had to finish her business before those cultivators arrived, then leave Changning Village early. At that time, she would pass through the broken forest beyond Changning Village, find a place rich in spiritual energy to hide and cultivate. Then the sea would be vast for fish to leap, and the sky high for birds to fly!

During these three months, Zhang Enning also learned cultivation techniques and could now draw qi into his body. Su Zhuyi had introduced him to the basics, then was too lazy to manage him further. As for how much he could learn following that book, and what kind of mess he might become in the end, these were all beyond Su Zhuyi’s concern. Her only current obsession was the stone platform on the slope.

On this day, the sky was bright and clear, with purple qi coming from the east. Su Zhuyi shouldered her hoe and went up the mountain, lighting candles at the four cardinal directions around the stone platform, then scattering thirty-six copper coins on the stone platform.

Next, she also took out a straw substitute doll, bit her finger, and squeezed a few drops of blood onto the straw doll. If she encountered danger later, this substitute doll could save her life.

After Su Zhuyi prepared everything, she remained still. She sat cross-legged and began reciting the Heart Calming Incantation beside the stone platform.

This was the incantation that Qin Jianglan had recited for six hundred years. She had never learned it before, yet she could easily recite it, as if she had also mimicked Qin Jianglan’s speed and pronunciation. When she recited it now, she even had Qin Jianglan’s speaking cadence. He had indeed influenced her…

Thinking of Qin Jianglan, Su Zhuyi frowned slightly.

Some people lived their entire lives with smooth sailing. Qin Jianglan at this time had just descended from the mountain and was at the height of his confidence and vigor.

But she, even after living again, had to crawl up from the bottom, facing dangers at every turn. Speaking of it, it was truly quite unfair.

When noon arrived, Su Zhuyi directly kicked apart the stones piled in a circle, then shouldered her natal hoe and began digging straight down from the central stone platform.

The hoe was sharp, and before long, she had smashed the stone platform to pieces. Su Zhuyi saw that the candles in the four directions were burning well without being extinguished, and her heart relaxed slightly. She continued digging the pit, and soon had dug a large hole, but there was nothing at the bottom. It seemed she hadn’t dug deep enough. The pit was now almost as tall as her, so Su Zhuyi climbed out of the pit and used spiritual energy to drive her natal magic treasure to continue digging. But as she dug, she suddenly felt something was wrong.

A cloud drifted across the sky.

It completely blocked the bright sun overhead. In the blink of an eye, torrential rain poured down, instantly extinguishing the candles. Su Zhuyi stood by the pit, somewhat stunned. She couldn’t understand at all why the weather had changed so quickly, so fast it was unacceptable.

In that moment of bewilderment, rolling thunder came again. A bolt of lightning descended from the sky, striking directly into the earthen pit she had dug. Her natal magic treasure in the pit was unharmed, but flew out, trembling in fear. However, the lightning had split open a pitch-black hole in the pit, and rainwater poured into the hole like a hidden evil dragon in the darkness, opening its mouth wide to drink water…

This wasn’t right!

The sudden appearance of the celestial dog eclipse last time was like this, and this sudden weather change was the same. She had performed divination and shouldn’t have made such errors, unless… unless the Heavenly Dao wouldn’t tolerate her.

She remembered the records about the Liuguang Mirror in that ancient text.

“Time reversal, defying heaven to change fate, not tolerated by heaven and earth.” Now that she had returned, her every action might change many people’s destinies, so the Heavenly Dao wouldn’t tolerate her and would try every means to create difficulties for her, to eliminate her as an anomaly. However, heaven and earth had righteous qi, and the Heavenly Dao had rules – it wouldn’t harm her without reason, but would only create difficulties for her.

Su Zhuyi felt her head ache a bit.

After thinking, she quickly reacted and stepped back, directly pushing the surrounding stone blocks into the pit she had just dug. At this moment, Su Zhuyi dared not explore that mountain cave – who knew what other trouble might arise? Just as she was about to fill the pit and lie low for a while, she suddenly felt the earth shake and the mountains sway.

Damn it, there was even an earthquake? A large crack opened under her feet. Before she could run away, she rolled directly into that gaping fissure. The bamboo flute in her pocket also fell out, and Su Zhuyi watched helplessly as the flute was crushed by a rock. This meant her prepared sacrifice was gone.

She was hit on the head by stones and immediately felt dizzy and dazed. She stumbled and rolled around, finally falling into that pitch-black cave entrance. As soon as she entered, she felt her body soaking in bone-chillingly cold water. The cold made her sneeze several times in succession, and she cursed hatefully at the damned heavens.

What exactly was waiting for her in here? Su Zhuyi rubbed her hands together, gathered spiritual energy in her eyes, and began looking around cautiously.

Then she saw a point of pale white light not far away…