Chang Yuan began teaching Er Sheng magical arts.

He could only teach through words, not demonstration. But Er Sheng was naturally clever and quickly grasped what Chang Yuan taught. With one teaching earnestly and the other studying diligently, plus the spiritual energy she had accumulated over the years as aid, Er Sheng’s progress was remarkably fast.

Chang Yuan was an ancient divine dragon with extremely high cultivation. To him, what he taught Er Sheng were merely basic defensive techniques, not realizing that these arts would make contemporary cultivation sects look up in admiration.

Er Sheng didn’t know how fortunate she was to learn these things. She only knew that catching insects had become easier, that she could slip past Second Pig’s mountain-like body when he tried to bully her, and that she could thoroughly suppress the village children…

Every day while learning arts from Chang Yuan, she would tell him everything she had done—how many insects she caught, how many children she made cry—reporting every detail big and small. Chang Yuan never tired of it, always listening carefully as Er Sheng spoke. He was used to this way of interaction because it was the same when he stayed with Siming in the Void of Ten Thousand Heavens—Siming would speak, and he would listen. The difference was that Siming mostly told stories she wrote, while Er Sheng told stories she experienced.

After Er Sheng finished speaking, Chang Yuan would occasionally comment, saying something was too excessive or too unkind. Er Sheng would take everything to heart and not repeat those mistakes.

The two got along exceptionally well. Er Sheng told Chang Yuan about worldly matters, while Chang Yuan taught Er Sheng about human nature, even though his knowledge of human nature came secondhand from Siming.

And so Er Sheng’s life continued, both boisterous and peaceful.

She calculated daily that it was now early May, and after July 23rd when she turned fourteen, she could marry and have children. By then Chang Yuan’s wounds should be healed, so they could set a date in August for Chang Yuan to marry her. She wanted to prepare a dowry for herself and make new clothes for Chang Yuan.

But where would the money come from? She couldn’t ask to buy new clothes on credit.

Before she could worry too much, something happened in the village. It was a change she had never imagined.

That morning, when Er Sheng woke up, her wooden house’s windows didn’t let in the usual cheerful sunlight. Everything was misty as if the miasma from the forest behind the village had spread over. She pushed aside her blanket, washed up with the cold water drawn in the house, and was about to go find Chang Yuan as usual. But when she pushed open the door, she was frozen by the scene before her.

Many… people? Had appeared in the village. They wore old, tattered clothes, their exposed skin completely rotted and festering. Their eyes were lifeless and empty as they wandered through the village.

Even more terrifying was that they held bloody limbs and body parts in their hands—an arm here, a chunk of flesh there, or a head. When Er Sheng saw Teacher Lao’s head being thrown past her, rolling by with a clatter, she shuddered and vomited a mouthful of clear liquid.

The village was deathly silent, making her retching sound particularly jarring. Those zombie-like people heard the noise and stiffly turned their heads, their pale, cloudy eyeballs all fixing on Er Sheng.

Even the usually brave Er Sheng felt her legs go weak. Seeing those people slowly walking toward her, Er Sheng’s heart turned cold. She leaped out through her house window and ran wildly toward the forest. The scenes she saw along the way made her blood run even colder—she knew all the people lying on the ground. Just yesterday, she had been with them, all of them alive…

She dared not stop, her mind filled with Chang Yuan’s image. It felt like if she could just reach his side, she would find salvation. Although she knew clearly that Chang Yuan was severely injured, she just felt that she would be safe by his side.

The path to the forest had never seemed so long. Er Sheng felt like her lungs would burst, yet Chang Yuan still seemed so far away.

Just as she was about to enter the forest, suddenly a hand covered in sticky fluid grabbed her neck from behind and pushed her forward. Er Sheng fell hard to the ground as the person opened their mouth to bite her neck. Er Sheng turned around with lightning speed, her palm aimed at the person’s face, instinctively forming a hand seal. There was a flash of golden light, and the person’s head exploded, splattering Er Sheng’s face with foul-smelling brain matter.

Er Sheng had no time to feel disgusted. She wiped her face twice and scrambled to her feet to continue running into the forest.

However, before she could take two steps, something grabbed her foot hard from below, making her fall again. She hit an exposed rock on the ground that knocked out one of her front teeth, blood immediately gushing out and filling her mouth with the taste of iron.

Er Sheng covered her mouth and looked back, only to see that the person whose head she had just exploded was still gripping her ankle tightly.

More zombies were approaching behind him. Er Sheng was almost crying with fear, her mind blank as she desperately tried to pry off the rotting hand. But before she could break free, a putrid breath wafted by her ear. She turned her head in panic to see another zombie’s bloody maw right before her eyes—she could see its meat-like tongue and sharp yellow teeth.

“Ah!” Unable to contain her terror any longer, Er Sheng screamed.

A brilliant silver light flashed past Er Sheng’s ear the next instant and entered the zombie’s forehead. Time seemed to freeze—the zombie’s mouth remained wide open, motionless.

Er Sheng was stunned for a long while before realizing that the zombie had been killed by that white light. She looked dazedly toward where the light had come from—a white robe with blue flowers billowed in the wind, its wearer floating in mid-air. The woman’s cold features were as ethereal as an immortal as she cast Er Sheng a glance before looking distantly toward the village shrouded in death energy.

With a light flourish of her silver sword, she gave a merciless command: “Kill!”

Blue light flashed all around, and Er Sheng finally noticed a row of people wearing similar white robes with blue flowers behind the woman. At her command, they instantly vanished.

“Im… immortals?” Er Sheng mumbled in a daze.

Suddenly her ankle was gripped tight again. Her hair stood on end as she remembered there was still a zombie holding her. She kicked frantically with both feet until she finally shook off the hand, stood up, and stomped hard on the zombie twice: “Damn you, damn you! Almost got your lady eaten!”

After venting her fear for a moment, Er Sheng looked at the woman who had landed on the ground and gave an awkward bow: “Thank you, Immortal Lady, for saving my life.” Then she turned to walk into the forest.

“Wait.” The woman called to her, “The zombies aren’t cleared yet. Don’t wander around.”

“I need to find someone in the forest.”

“There are still people in the forest?” The woman thought for a moment, “I’ll go with you.”

Having someone protect her was naturally a good thing, so Er Sheng nodded.

When they saw Chang Yuan, even the cold and composed woman was taken aback—first by the man’s appearance, and second by the devastated environment around him. Within ten meters of the giant tree was complete desolation, zombie limbs and remains scattered everywhere, truly a scene from hell. Yet near the man, the white velvet flowers still bloomed beautifully.

He seemed to sense their approach and slowly opened his eyes. Though his face was still pale, the killing intent in his black eyes made the woman’s blood run cold, causing her to stop in her tracks, frozen in place.

The rotting stench made Er Sheng nauseous, and thinking of the zombie brain matter still on her face, she retched again, throwing up acid water. The sound of vomiting was particularly jarring in the silence.

The killing intent gradually faded from Chang Yuan’s eyes, but his brows furrowed: “Er Sheng, come here.”

After patting her chest, Er Sheng felt better after vomiting. She called out softly to Chang Yuan, her speech whistling slightly through her missing front tooth, and ran toward him with a slightly wronged expression.

“Wait.” The white-robed woman stopped Er Sheng, “He’s not human.”

Er Sheng was startled at first, looking toward Chang Yuan with some surprise, but Chang Yuan’s expression remained unchanged, quietly watching her as usual. After a moment’s silence, Er Sheng pushed away the hand blocking her path.

“What does it matter?”

The answer came so naturally that it left the woman somewhat stunned.

When she reached Chang Yuan’s side, Er Sheng saw that his face was frighteningly pale, and when she touched his hand, it was much colder than usual. Er Sheng’s eyes immediately reddened: “Chang Yuan, what’s wrong?”

“It’s nothing.” He suppressed the bloody taste rising in his throat. “Your tooth…”

At the mention of this, Er Sheng’s tears immediately fell as she opened her mouth with the missing front tooth and began crying uncontrollably. In thousands of years, Chang Yuan had never seen anyone cry like this before him, and he became somewhat flustered, “Uh… does it hurt terribly? Is it very painful?”

Er Sheng shook her head, then nodded, and after a while finally said unclearly: “Front tooth… won’t grow back, can’t eat… can’t eat anything… I’ll starve… I’ll starve to death…”

Hearing this, Chang Yuan’s expression changed, but he quickly calmed down and asked Er Sheng seriously: “Is it that serious?”

Er Sheng nodded.

“Is there any way to fix it? I’ll help you find one.”

His serious expression showed he had completely accepted Er Sheng’s theory that missing a front tooth would lead to starvation.

The white-robed woman listened to this conversation in silence for a while before finally speaking up: “It’s just a missing tooth, no need to cry like this. The urgent matter is to leave this place—the poison from the zombie remains is harmful to humans.”

Hearing this, Er Sheng quickly wiped away her tears: “Can Chang Yuan walk?”

Chang Yuan looked at her tooth again, then shook his head: “My injuries haven’t healed. I can’t walk.”

The woman was secretly shocked at these words—this person had been severely injured, yet could kill so many zombies without moving… She didn’t know that it was precisely because of killing these zombies that Chang Yuan had exhausted the divine power he had only just managed to gather.

Er Sheng didn’t think as deeply about it. Hearing that Chang Yuan couldn’t walk, she could only look helplessly at the white-robed woman.

The woman thought briefly, then curled her forefinger to her lips and blew. A clear whistle pierced the air. Shortly after, a silver light flashed through the sky, landing precisely before the white-robed woman. As the light dissipated, Er Sheng saw it was a handsome young man in blue robes. He grinned and gave an awkward bow to the white-robed woman: “Master-Aunt Ji Ling, I’ve finally waited for you to give me something to do! Tell me what it is—no matter what, Chen Ru will risk his life to do it well!”

Ji Ling pointed at Chang Yuan: “Go help carry that person, and let’s quickly leave this place.”

The young man turned around, first seeing the scattered remains and getting startled, then looking at the disheveled Er Sheng, and finally at Chang Yuan. His face fell: “Master-Aunt, you just called me here to carry someone… Another mindless physical task, when will I ever get to do something great for Wufang Mountain!”

“Will you help or not?”

“Yes, yes, yes.” Seeing Ji Ling’s cold expression, the young man immediately agreed and ran toward Chang Yuan.

Er Sheng helpfully helped Chang Yuan sit up halfway: “Thank you, young immortal, please support him here.” However, when Chen Ru was still about ten feet away from Chang Yuan, he suddenly stopped. Er Sheng asked curiously, “Young immortal?”

Chen Ru heard her call and stepped back two more paces.

Ji Ling frowned: “Chen Ru?”

“Ah…” He responded softly, then hesitantly took a few steps toward Chang Yuan. When he met Chang Yuan’s gaze, his legs suddenly went weak, and for some unknown reason, he had the urge to run away. This person… this person’s aura was too intimidating.

Hearing Ji Ling’s questioning voice, Chen Ru could only steel himself and force himself to walk forward. When he touched Chang Yuan’s body, he couldn’t help but tremble, as if touching something he shouldn’t.

Er Sheng was unaware of Chen Ru’s inner struggle. Seeing someone was helping, she was overjoyed: “Immortal Aunt, let’s go.”

Ji Ling nodded: “I’ll escort you to town first.”