Cheng Qian had just walked two steps out of the valley when he suddenly tilted his head and stretched out his hand to grab something in the air. He heard a cry of "Ouch!" and a burly young man rolled down from a big tree at the exit of the valley.

The man landed first, but the bag on his back was a step slower and hit him on the head. The bag was filled with some heavy object, and it made a loud thump when it hit the man's head. The young man rolled his eyes and fell backwards with his legs up in the air, as if he had died before he even started.

Cheng Qian: “…”

Although Cheng Qian didn't know anyone in the valley except the Valley Master, there was no doubt that this unique style came from the Valley Master's disciple.

Just as he was about to leave, the young man who had fainted for a moment slowly woke up. When he saw Cheng Qian, his face was almost filled with joy. With a fist-sized bump on his head, he suddenly threw himself at Cheng Qian's feet and shouted, "Senior! I've been waiting for you here for half the night, senior!"

Cheng Qian felt that this was a bit awkward, a bit like they had agreed to elope, and one of the scumbags had broken the appointment.

He coughed dryly: "You're welcome...well, don't call me senior."

The young man was stunned. "Oh, then it's Elder Cheng. I'm planning to go out for a trip, so I'd like you to take me with you... Uh, you don't like to hear 'elder'? What's his name? Uncle Cheng! No, I remember now! Cheng... Cheng... Master Cheng! How about I just take you as my master?"

Cheng Qian: “…”

Seeing that the young man was about to kneel down and scoop up a handful of yellow soil to offer tea and worship as a disciple, Cheng Qian quickly raised his hand to lift him up: "No, I don't plan to accept a disciple for the time being. Who is your master in the valley?"

The young man said carelessly, "No one, I just kept practicing with the Valley Master. The Valley Master is my father, he won't mind me becoming someone else's disciple."

After hearing this not-so-surprising answer, Cheng Qian couldn't help but mockingly said, "Oh, no wonder, he's really better than his teacher."

The young man was delighted to hear this and thought that this was a compliment to him, so he quickly said modestly: "No, no, I still have a lot to learn."

"..." Cheng Qian pinched his brows weakly and asked, "What's your name?"

The young man puffed out his chest and answered in a sonorous voice: "Nian Da Da!"

No matter how hypocritical a person is, he cannot praise this name against his will. At this moment, Cheng Qian was finally sure that Master Nian’s brain must have been dug out by something.

Cheng Qian refused to accept him as his apprentice, but Nian Dada didn't care. He shamelessly picked up his bag and chased after him, becoming Cheng Qian's follower. As he chased after him, he asked with a drooling face, "Uncle... Master Cheng, where are we going?"

This was obviously just making small talk, Cheng Qian was too lazy to pay attention to him and pretended not to hear. Nian Dada didn't care. Without waiting for a reply, he asked himself, playing two roles: "Nonsense, of course I'm going to the Fifteenth City - Uncle Master, what do you think the monsters in the Fifteenth City are?"

This time he did not expect Cheng Qian to pay any attention to him, so he simply answered himself: "No matter who it is, it is unacceptable for it to bring disaster to the village. We must deal with it!"

Cheng Qian finally turned around and interrupted his monologue, asking, "Did your father give you the nod before you left the valley without permission?"

"My father doesn't care," said Nian Dadao. "Uncle Master, don't worry. We in the valley are free as long as we become masters."

Cheng Qian felt a little annoyed, wondering what kind of "master" could let this guy out.

Nian Dada understood his expression for once, and explained hesitantly, "Master has been in seclusion for many years, so he may not know that the rules of our sect have always been 'It doesn't matter if you have a high level of cultivation, just a little is enough, as long as you don't cause trouble when you go out... and don't report it to the sect even if you do.'"

Cheng Qian was suddenly speechless.

Nian Dada continued, "In short, when you travel, you have to eat, drink, and have fun, and kill demons and monsters at the same time - oh, of course, you only kill those you can defeat, and those you can't beat should be left to more powerful seniors."

Cheng Qian looked down at the sword given by the Valley Master and understood - it turned out that this was for him to pawn for money to eat, drink and have fun on the road.

Suddenly, he thought of something and couldn't help but smile to himself.

Nian Dada suddenly became a drake with its neck strangled, and was stunned.

Normally, fellow disciples in the valley would gather together and talk about Elder Youtan. What kind of person could stay in seclusion in the Ice Pond for decades? Would he not even be able to speak after coming out?

Who could survive so many natural disasters and remain unscathed?

He is simply not a human being!

Although Nian Dada was talking to himself in front of Cheng Qian very excitedly, he was actually very nervous because of his inexplicable admiration for this young elder. His calves had been trembling under his robe for a long time.

Cheng Qian saw his dull expression and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"

Nian Dada hurriedly pinched himself: "I, I, I...ah, that, that..."

"Don't be nervous. I just thought of our head brother. He looks a bit like your father," Cheng Qian said, as he was rarely in the mood to talk. "Oh, of course I mean the ideas are similar. My brother is pretty capable."

Nian Dada was busy flattering him with a smile: "Impossible? How could he be similar to my father? Then how could he train someone as powerful as you, uncle?"

Unfortunately, this time, his flattery hit the horse's leg.

Cheng Qian was startled when he heard this, and then the slight smile on his face disappeared in an instant. He lowered his head and walked towards the village in the distance. After a long while, he whispered with mixed feelings: "I don't know, maybe... I'm just unlucky."

Although Cheng Qian did not explicitly say that he wanted to take him with him, Nian Dada had finally found a strong supporter, so he followed him shamelessly.

Less than half a mile away from the village, Cheng Qian felt something was wrong. He calmly concentrated his true energy in his eyes and saw that the surrounding villages and towns were shrouded in a layer of blood.

It stretched straight to the gloomy sky, rolling up a large group of ominous dark clouds.

Cheng Qian frowned, this was very unusual - he didn't believe that someone with this kind of power could be a lonely ghost that was easy to deal with.

You know, the higher the level of the cultivator, the more he can turn everything into gentle rain. As for reaching out and pulling out the heart of an unarmed mortal in front of him, that behavior is no different from that of a beast. Even a true demon cultivator would not do such a shameful thing.

Could it be that the culprit here deliberately created some kind of illusion to make everyone in Mingming Valley believe that this so-called "evil ghost" is just an insignificant casual cultivator?

In this way, there is no need to use a butcher knife to kill the chicken. If Cheng Qian had not happened to encounter them while rushing down the mountain, the Valley Master would probably have sent a Taoist boy with average cultivation and little experience to solve the problem.

So… then what?

Cheng Qian's mind raced, and suddenly an idea came to his mind - the target of this hidden murderer here might not be these mortal villagers, but the cultivators in Mingming Valley!

He immediately suppressed his breath, and in an instant, the icy pressure from the Yuanshen cultivator all over Cheng Qian disappeared. He and Nian walked together, and at first glance, they looked like a pair of brothers with similar levels.

Nian Dada was probably a man with a broad mind. He neither noticed the bloody aura that enveloped the village nor noticed any changes in Cheng Qian. He still led the way with great interest, "I came here to play once when I was a child. Uncle Master, do you see that side? It seems like the villagers are coming to greet us!"

They saw that Liu Lang, who had returned before them, had been waiting for a long time. When he saw the two of them, he hurriedly strode forward to greet them. However, Liu Lang never expected that the person who came was Cheng Qian. He was so flattered that he almost lost his mind and couldn't even speak for a while.

"Is the body still there? Take me to see it." Cheng Qian had no intention of being polite. He let him pass and walked towards the village.

Liu Lang came back to his senses and hurriedly caught up with him: "Here, here, Immortal... Um, please sit down for a moment, I'll ask someone to pour you a pot of tea..."

Cheng Qian waved his hand: "No need, I'm not used to drinking hot water, let's go and take a look first..."

His voice stopped abruptly, shocked by the desolation of the village.

This place was so dilapidated that when they heard that an immortal was coming, almost all the villagers came out to watch. They saw that all these people had pale faces and were wearing tattered clothes. In such a big village, there was not even a decent tiled house. Some of the thatched houses had signs of being hastily rebuilt after being demolished. Even the few dogs that occasionally ran by were skinny and had wild eyes like wolves.

They didn't dare to get close to Cheng Qian, so they stared at Nian Dada with vigilant and fierce eyes all the way.

This dog must have eaten raw food and seen blood.

Although Cheng Qian had not been in society for a hundred years, he was born in a remote and poor village, and the Cheng family was penniless. They were very poor, but even so, this place still broadened his horizons.

Liu Lang explained at the side: "The Immortal Master has probably rarely left Mingming Valley. There were natural disasters in the past two years, and then there was the rebellion of Prince Anping. The war lasted for more than three years. The court imposed labor service and taxes... It hasn't slowed down yet. Maybe we didn't entertain you well enough. Please don't blame us, Immortal Master..."

Cheng Qian shook his head, feeling somewhat complicated.

Until this moment, he had a feeling that a hundred years of turmoil had passed and he had entered a new world. For a moment, he felt that the "Chanchan Sword" in his hand that was flaunted in the streets seemed prickly. Cheng Qian secretly made a hand gesture and hid the sword.

At this moment, something triggered his spiritual consciousness that he had inadvertently released. Cheng Qian turned his head abruptly, and there was nothing but mottled shadows of trees behind him.

Nian turned around and asked carelessly, "Uncle Master, what are you doing? Why aren't you leaving yet?"

Cheng Qianxin thought: "You're being targeted, you idiot."

But even though he cursed in his heart, he did not show it on his face. He simply withdrew his spiritual sense, pretended to be unaware, and continued walking forward in silence, following Liu Lang all the way to the place where the bodies were placed.

Nian Dada came forward and said, "Uncle Master, I heard my fellow disciples talking about it, and they all said that it was done by a demon cultivator from the ghost sect!"

"The Soul Devouring Lamp? It is true that the Soul Devouring Lamp needs the blood of young boys when refining ghosts," Cheng Qian said slowly, "but I have heard that the blood needed for the ghost lamp sacrifice must be freshly drawn from a living person. Not much, so it won't kill a person in one go. But if it happens again and again, the person will die, and the blood in this person can no longer be used. So people who die from the Soul Devouring Lamp will not die like them, completely losing their blood - and the Soul Devouring Lamp is the most yin thing in the world, how can there be so many of them?"

Nian Dada was filled with admiration for a moment: "Uncle Master, how do you know everything?"

Cheng Qian met his ignorant big eyes and suddenly felt that this guy was not even worth entertaining - he was really too annoying.

It was the hottest time of the summer, and the corpses that had been left for several days had already rotted and started to stink. When the shroud was removed, flies were buzzing around inside. They flew to Cheng Qian, and then all of them were frozen away. Under Nian's admiring gaze, Cheng Qian casually put his hand on the body of a child. In an instant, a black gas jumped up from the corpse, soaring into the sky, and turned into a pitch-black ghost face in mid-air. When it saw Cheng Qian, it immediately fled in panic.

Cheng Qian frowned slightly, and chased after him in a flash.

Nian Dada might have been a little slow in reacting, and it took him a while to let out an "Ouch!". When he tried to chase him again, Cheng Qian was nowhere to be seen.

He hurriedly took out a heavy sword from the package, stuffed the rest of the things into Liu Lang's hands, and was about to fly after him, shouting, "Uncle Master! Uncle Master! Wait for me!"

But there was no trace of Cheng Qian. Nian flew around with his sword, then fell back to the spot dejectedly. He scratched his hair and said to the villagers listlessly, "I lost him."

Liu Lang hurriedly said, "Master, can you take me with you? I grew up here and I know the roads well. I can take you to the place where the white shadow appeared."

Nian Dada looked at him awkwardly. This young man was not very skilled. He was already good enough to fly his own sword, but he couldn't lead anyone. Hearing this, he was too embarrassed to tell the truth, so he had to pretend to cough dryly, put away his heavy sword, and made an excuse: "Okay, but it's easy to make mistakes in the sky. It would be bad if I miss my uncle-how about we just walk on the ground?"

After saying that, he rummaged through his package and pulled out two cinnabar yellow paper talismans. Although this thing does not consume much true energy to make, it requires very sophisticated materials and can only be used once. It is usually prepared in advance by elders when their useless children are not around.

Nian Dada picked and chose, and saw the pair of eyes as cross-eyed. Then he picked out two speeding talismans from the middle, pasted one on his own leg and Liu Lang's leg respectively, and shouted: "Go!"

Liu Lang's face suddenly turned pale, and he was dragged away by him at lightning speed.

Neither of them noticed that a golden cicada that had been lying motionless on a large elm tree next to them for a long time pretended to chirp for a while, then flew down from the tree silently and chased after Nian Dada and Liu Lang. However, it had not chased for more than three or four miles when it suddenly seemed to hit something and its body paused.

I saw the golden cicada circling twice by the roadside, then it fell to the ground and turned into a leaf. The leaf split in the middle, and a stream of fresh air floated into the clear sky and flew away, all the way to a hillside less than fifty miles away from here.

Among the Ten Thousand Mountains in Shu, a young man and a young woman were standing on a hillside looking down. These two people were the watering hole that Li Yunhe had visited most of the way around Jiuzhou.

Shuikeng said, "My eldest brother asked me to tell you that he has gone to visit Valley Master Mingming first. After all, it is someone else's territory. We came here, so it would be bad not to say hello."

Li Yun nodded and was about to ask something when he suddenly heard a faint buzzing sound. He looked up and saw his crystal clear golden cicada flying back and landing on Li Yun's shoulder obediently.

"Golden Silk Cicada?" Shuikeng asked curiously, "Could it be possible that it found the demon cultivator so quickly?"

Li Yun waved his hand, and the golden cicada suddenly disappeared into the air. A deserted village immediately appeared in front of the two of them. A young man in tattered clothes led two monks into the village.

The young monk walking in front just came into Jin Sichan's sight. He seemed to notice something and turned back abruptly. Then, the whole image disappeared.

Puddle: “Ah…”

"Nothing." Li Yun was not surprised at all, and said, "This person must be a master above the Yuanshen level. I don't know why he has hidden his cultivation. Yuanshen cultivators are extremely sensitive, and they can be detected if they look at him for a second. With such a powerful person, Jin Sichan may not dare to open his eyes for this section of the road."

As soon as he finished speaking, the scene reappeared - this time it was a thatched cottage with a row of corpses under the eaves. The person who almost discovered the golden cicada was gone. Another young monk kept calling "Uncle Master" or something like that for a long time, flew around with his sword, and was then persuaded by a young villager. He took the young man with him, and the two of them left together with the speed talisman attached to them. The scene in front of him moved with them for a moment, and then the cicada seemed to have encountered something and suddenly stopped following, and the scene disappeared.

Li Yun took the cicada into his palm and said, "It feels that place is dangerous, so it doesn't dare to follow... Well, wait for Senior Brother to come back, and then we'll go check it out."

"Wait!" Shuikeng grabbed Li Yun's shoulder and said anxiously, "Second Brother, watch it again, the first part, I want to see the person who appears at the beginning!"

"What's so good about it? It passed by in a flash, and I couldn't even see it clearly," Li Yun asked puzzledly, "Didn't the noisy boy just now call me 'Uncle Master'? I guess he must be an elder in his sect, right? What happened?"

"It's that blurry profile," Shuikeng said, "I think... he looks a bit like Third Senior Brother."