Song Xiaohe still thought he was asking for a beating.
However, with the presence of the Cold Heaven Sect members, Song Xiaohe didn’t want to argue with him, lest she embarrass the Immortal Alliance.
She pouted at Shen Xishan.
"I came here to help everyone find a way out. If you wish to leave, you might want to listen to what I have to say," Bu Shiyuan turned around, her gaze sweeping over the crowd.
"What makes you think you can lead us out?" a young man in the crowd said. "We don’t even know who you are."
"Let’s go inside first and discuss this properly," Bu Shiyuan said calmly, turning and leading the way into the temple.
As the group of demons carrying iron dragon lanterns and beating gongs ran off into the distance, disappearing from the streets, everyone else followed suit and returned to the temple.
In the center of the fire sat three people—two men and one woman.
Bu Shiyuan walked over slowly and sat down by the fire, casually straightening her robes, appearing completely at ease.
Song Xiaohe glanced inside and recognized one of the middle-aged men. She knew he was a Heavenly Rank hunter from the Hunt Division of the Immortal Alliance, named Luo Ren.
The Heavenly Rank hunters were the most powerful fighters in the Immortal Alliance, and their numbers were few. Song Xiaohe had seen each of them many times, so they all looked familiar.
Her presence in the Immortal Alliance was minimal. Aside from the disciples from the back mountains, only those from the Hall of Healing Immortals knew her. Although this man likely had never seen Song Xiaohe before, she didn’t dare approach him. Instead, she sat far away in a corner.
Every team needed a leader, and the three sitting by the fire were the leaders of this mission for the Immortal Alliance and the Cold Heaven Sect.
Bu Shiyuan joined them and began speaking in a low voice.
She claimed she could lead them out of the city and made a simple request: to take her and Song Xiaohe along on their journey to the Netherworld.
Despite appearing frail and sickly, Bu Shiyuan straightforwardly pointed out the predicament they were in and their destination.
The three leaders were not fools and quickly realized that her divination skills were genuine and could indeed be of great help.
In this place, one’s background and origins mattered little, so the discussion concluded in just half an hour, and the two sides reached an agreement.
When Bu Shiyuan returned, Song Xiaohe was stuffing a meat pie into her mouth, her cheeks bulging, seemingly unconcerned about choking.
"Are you done talking?" Song Xiaohe asked after swallowing.
Bu Shiyuan nodded. "They’ve agreed to let us join them."
Song Xiaohe was puzzled. "You’re coming too?"
Bu Shiyuan lay down on her side, curling up as she said softly, "I want to witness the death calamity I predicted with my own eyes."
Song Xiaohe let out an "oh" and continued munching on her meat pie, completely unfazed by the death calamity hanging over her head.
After finishing the pie, she licked her lips and glanced around.
Outside, it was still dark. Most people in the temple sat idly, while a few meditated or rested. The firelight cast flickering shadows on the walls.
Su Mulin, still with a talisman stuck to his forehead, sat obediently by the wall.
Shen Xishan leaned casually against the wall, lazily reading a book.
Song Xiaohe, full and sleepy, yawned and lay down on the ground, imitating Bu Shiyuan. She quickly fell asleep.
The eerie sandstorm lasted an entire day, forcing everyone to take shelter in the temple.
When night fell and the moon rose, the wind suddenly stopped.
Song Xiaohe was deep in sleep when Bu Shiyuan shook her awake. She groaned unhappily, still feeling incredibly drowsy and wanting nothing more than to sleep.
Suddenly, a finger tapped her forehead, and a gentle voice said, "Wake up."
Instantly, Song Xiaohe felt her consciousness clear. She opened her eyes to see Bu Shiyuan looking down at her.
She sat up and noticed the fire in the room was still burning brightly, but everyone else was sprawled on the ground, asleep.
The sound of a door opening caught her attention. She turned to look.
Shen Xishan stood by the door, moonlight streaming in and illuminating his tall, strong figure.
Su Mulin crouched nearby, craning his neck to peek outside, looking suspicious.
The night was quiet, with only the occasional snore breaking the silence.
Bu Shiyuan gestured for her to follow and then walked out.
Song Xiaohe followed, and the four of them stepped outside the barrier.
The moon hung high in the sky, but there were no stars, just an endless black curtain. The streets were covered in sand, the aftermath of the day-long sandstorm. Each step left a clear footprint, muffling their footsteps.
The road was empty.
Song Xiaohe glanced at Shen Xishan’s retreating figure and asked Bu Shiyuan, "What’s going on? What are we doing?"
The people in the temple were all skilled. First, it was unlikely that everyone would fall asleep at the same time; someone should have been on night watch. Second, the sound of the door opening should have woken someone, but no one stirred. Clearly, their sleep was unnatural.
Bu Shiyuan walked ahead and said, "Do you know what’s trapping them in this city?"
Song Xiaohe replied, "Of course not."
"It’s a demon called a mole cricket. It gained sentience in this city and, after the city was abandoned and no mortals remained, it stayed here to cultivate. Over the years, it has trapped those who wandered into the city, using them as nourishment."
"Then why did you stop them from killing those demons during the day?" Song Xiaohe asked, confused.
"The Dragon God Festival must not be interrupted; it would be disrespectful to the Dragon God," Bu Shiyuan explained. "Besides, there’s only one mole cricket demon in the city. All the demons you saw today were actually mortals who were trapped here over the years and turned into puppets."
Song Xiaohe was shocked. "All of them were mortals?"
The sheer number was staggering. She wondered how many years the city had existed to trap so many people.
"The mole cricket demon set up a demonic array in the city to trap people. The array causes mortals to fall asleep at night, slowly transforming their bodies into mole crickets," Bu Shiyuan said. "But the demon itself is very weak. It usually hides and only appears at night. If we find and kill it, we can break the array and leave the city."
"If it’s that simple, why haven’t the experts in the temple figured it out?" Song Xiaohe asked.
"Demonic arrays are fundamentally different from the arrays humans use. Moreover, the array covers the entire city, making it difficult for them to see the truth," Bu Shiyuan explained. "They assume that whatever is trapping them must be incredibly powerful, but in reality, the mole cricket demon is extremely weak. That’s why they haven’t discovered it."
Song Xiaohe understood. "So what I need to do now is find the mole cricket and kill it?"
Bu Shiyuan nodded. "They’re searching the east and south. You and I will take the west and north."
Before they parted ways, Song Xiaohe wanted to ask why Bu Shiyuan didn’t wake everyone in the temple. Wouldn’t it be faster if they all searched together?
But seeing Bu Shiyuan’s frail appearance, she quickly realized that waking Shen Xishan, Su Mulin, and herself had likely drained too much of Bu Shiyuan’s spiritual energy, leaving her unable to wake the others.
Besides, too many people might alert the mole cricket demon, causing it to hide.
Once she understood, Song Xiaohe split off from Bu Shiyuan.
The city had been abandoned for who knows how many years. The houses along the road were cracked and crumbling into ruins.
Song Xiaohe took out a glowing pearl to light her way. Walking alone in the vast emptiness, she felt a bit nervous. She gripped the wooden sword at her waist, ready to strike at any moment.
Although the mole cricket demon was weak, Song Xiaohe knew she wasn’t exactly skilled. If she encountered the demon, she might still have to struggle in a fight.
She recalled the sword techniques her master had taught her, feeling increasingly insecure. Truth be told, she hadn’t practiced much in her daily life.
She drew her wooden sword and swung it a few times, trying to summon some courage. Feeling slightly more confident, she continued forward.
For the next two hours, Song Xiaohe wandered alone through the abandoned city.
She felt the overwhelming emptiness and darkness. The intersecting streets and familiar scenery seemed endless, with no sign of an exit. Apart from the soft crunch of her footsteps on the sand, there was no other sound.
It was so quiet, as if she were the only person left in the world.
After a long and exhausting search, even the ever-energetic sixteen-year-old Song Xiaohe finally felt the weight of fatigue. She sat down by the roadside, her wooden sword propped against the ground.
The city was too vast, and finding a single mole cricket seemed an almost impossible task.
Liang Tan often lectured Song Xiaohe, saying she was only suited for simple tasks and that anything difficult was beyond her. When she got tired, she should just give up.
So, Song Xiaohe decided to rest. She pulled a pear from her storage jade bracelet and began munching on it, the crisp sound echoing in the quiet.
She had barely taken two bites when a young voice piped up beside her.
"What are you eating?"
Song Xiaohe was so startled that she jumped to her feet, choking on the juice and coughing violently.
When she finally looked up, she saw a boy, about seven or eight years old, standing in front of her. He wore simple cloth clothes, his face soft and pale, with strikingly dark eyes. He tilted his head, looking at her with an innocent curiosity—or more precisely, at the pear in her hand.
"Where did you come from? You scared me half to death!" Song Xiaohe coughed for a while before finally calming down.
"What is this?" the boy asked, though he quickly answered his own question. "It's a pear."
"Yep," Song Xiaohe said, sitting back down. She generously pulled another pear from her bracelet and handed it to him. "Want one?"
The boy hesitated, eyeing her warily before timidly reaching out to take the pear.
Seeing that Song Xiaohe genuinely meant to share and harbored no ill intent, he mustered some courage and sat down beside her.
He was dirty all over, except for his clean little face. He held the pear tightly and took big bites, his face lighting up with satisfaction.
"How long have you been here?" Song Xiaohe asked casually.
The boy paused mid-bite and glanced at her nervously.
But Song Xiaohe’s tone was purely conversational, with no hint of accusation. If anything, it carried a touch of warmth.
"Three hundred years," the boy said.
"Three hundred years?" Song Xiaohe repeated. "All by yourself?"
The boy nodded.
It turned out this mole cricket had been living alone in this desolate city for three hundred years, while Song Xiaohe had only walked under the moonlight for four hours and already felt overwhelmingly lonely.
After a moment of thought, she pulled another pear from her bracelet and handed it to him, her eyes filled with pity. "Here, eat up, poor thing."
The boy happily accepted it, taking bites from both pears, one in each hand.
The two sat side by side, chatting occasionally like siblings.
When Shen Xishan arrived, he was greeted by this oddly harmonious scene.
Moonlight spilled over them, casting their shadows on the ground. Song Xiaohe’s shadow was normal, but the boy’s shadow was that of a fully grown mole cricket, its sharp forelimbs raised high above Song Xiaohe’s head, as if poised to strike.
A faint aura of demonic energy had already wrapped itself around Song Xiaohe without her noticing.
Yet she seemed completely oblivious, enthusiastically recounting a story from when she was seven—how she had been tied to a tree by her master as punishment for stealing food, only to fall asleep and wake up hours later.
Shen Xishan watched the amusing scene unfold, not bothering to intervene, and instead enjoyed the spectacle with a smirk.
Song Xiaohe absentmindedly twirled her braid as she gazed up at the sky, reminiscing. "You know, when I was little, I was just like you. I lived in a vast place, but it was incredibly remote. At first, it was just me and my master on that mountain peak."
"My master was always busy or spending time with my mistress. By the time I was three, I was playing alone on the mountain. Whenever my master left, I felt like I was the only person in the world. No matter how far I walked, I could never leave that mountain. No one to talk to, no one to play with."
"But it gets better when you grow up," Song Xiaohe said, patting the boy’s head. "Now I can go wherever I want. My master didn’t even want me to leave the mountain, but I ran away anyway and made new friends."
The boy looked up at her with wide, innocent eyes. "So, when I grow up, I’ll have friends too, right?"
"Of course not," Song Xiaohe replied with a gentle smile, as if about to offer some comforting words. "You’ve been alive for three hundred years. You’re already an ancient monster. What are you waiting to grow up for?"
