Chapter 31 Part 2

Li Ruoshui frowned and cast Spring Breeze Rain Transformation Art. Having watered fields in her guise, saving minor Tianhe Grass was trivial. Night breeze brought rain laced with pure spiritual qi; the shriveled herbs revived, swaying in the dusk wind.

The farmers froze, then turned to see Li Ruoshui silently at the field edge. Terror crossed their faces; they knelt and kowtowed.

Li Ruoshui dodged and flicked her sleeve to lift them. “Is this Baiyang Town?”

The coarse-clothed girl trembled. “Honored immortal, yes—Baiyang Town’s Tianhe Village.”

Li Ruoshui said nothing, scrutinizing the girl. Her appearance matched her bone age, but the others looked a decade older—not superficial, but lifespan eroded. Her gaze shifted to the spirit water, sensing its qi; her pupils contracted.

Pure spirit pills could burst foundationless cultivators; excessive spirituality shortened mortal lives.

Mortal water wouldn’t grow Tianhe Grass, but spirit water did—at the cost of turning farmers into consumables, trading life for herbs.

Li Ruoshui pointed at the bucket. “Where does this medicine water come from?”

Villagers exchanged glances, sensing she wasn’t local, but reverence for immortals overrode all.

“Fr-from the county office,” a villager answered cautiously.

Li Ruoshui’s brows knit. “The Tianhe Grass too?”

The villager nodded. It was their lifeline. After tributing eighty percent, immortals protected the village from beasts. The remaining twenty percent sold in town barely fed them.

Li Ruoshui spoke bluntly: “This medicine water reduces lifespan.”

Except for the girl’s terrified expression, the older villagers all wore numb looks on their faces. In the past, they hadn’t known, but gradually, they discovered that the more they came into contact with the medicine, the shorter their lifespans became. But what could they do? If they didn’t plant the herbs as ordered by the county office, packs of wild beasts would trample their fields or even kill villagers. They had no choice.

Amid the villagers’ silence, Li Ruoshui gradually understood.

She had heard from Shi Yu about the Empire’s cultivators, and even a single Redemption Talisman had already displeased her. Now, witnessing the suffering of the Empire’s commoners made her view the Empire even more disdainfully. Perhaps she could intervene to resolve the villagers’ plight, but it would only be temporary. Once she left, if the Empire’s storms swept through again, Tianhe Village would return to its old ways.

Not only could she not free these commoners from their suffering, but she would endanger their lives.

As Li Ruoshui stood on the field ridge, still wrestling with her thoughts, a commotion suddenly erupted in the village. The village, which had been like a stagnant pool of dead water, abruptly surged with several pillars of spiritual energy shooting into the sky. Wails of grief and sounds of kowtowing echoed through the clouds. The numb villagers working in the fields came alive in an instant, their lifeless faces filled with intense emotion as they shouldered their hoes and ran toward the village center!

Li Ruoshui moved swiftly. With a flash of her figure, she appeared in the village in an instant.

She looked up and saw two faceless Daoists clad in golden armor seizing a five- or six-year-old girl. The girl had an excellent spiritual root, pure and exquisite. With Li Ruoshui’s discerning eyes, she instantly recognized the child’s extraordinary potential. Clinging tightly to the girl was a young woman who kowtowed desperately to the two golden armored figures, sobbing, “Please don’t take my child away!”

The villagers clustered around the woman, swinging hoes and machetes at the faceless golden armored men, but they were no match. Several had already been flung away. Even so, the villagers didn’t give up. Their wrinkled, bark-like faces twisted with deep rage and hatred, as if they wanted to tear the golden armored men apart and devour them.

Li Ruoshui’s expression darkened, a surge of displeasure rising in her heart. She didn’t consider herself some righteous hero, but this scene was enough to stir her anger. Before the golden armored men could strike again, she sneered coldly and slapped toward them. The gleaming golden armor shattered with a clang, crumbling into dust that scattered to the ground. Floating in midair was a talisman woven from yuan qi strands—the apparent source of the golden armored men’s power. With a flick of her finger, Li Ruoshui unleashed a Taiyi Blazing Fire Profound Light, instantly reducing the talisman to ash.

But this action was like poking a hornet’s nest. At the center of Tianhe Village, a dazzling radiance a thousand feet tall suddenly bloomed, illuminating the night like blazing daylight. At the same time, four beams of golden light leaped out, carrying a sedan chair adorned in red and green. Atop the sedan sat a god shrine, upon which perched a figure in coronet and robes, sword at their side.

“Bold madman! The Heavenly Venerable is on patrol—kneel at once!”

A crack split open on the faces of the sedan-bearing faceless golden armored men, like lips moving as they boomed in thunderous voices.

The villagers of Tianhe Village huddled together, trembling in utmost terror.

Li Ruoshui watched the patrolling god statue in the sky with an expressionless face. From the Tianyan Mirror, she knew of something called the Edict God Dao. Cultivators of this Dao crafted images of themselves as Heavenly Venerables, sustained by the people’s worship and incense. The statue bore no evil aura, so it was likely left in Tianhe Village by some Empire cultivator. There were countless such images, and Edict God Dao cultivators didn’t monitor them constantly. Instead, they waited until the incense accumulated sufficiently, filling the images with spirituality, then extracted it as fuel for their cultivation.

But what level was this cultivator? To demand that she kneel?

Li Ruoshui’s displeasure was plain on her face, resentment building deep within. After fixing her heart and resolve, acting against her true will would become a future obstacle to her Dao heart. She already bore grudges against the Empire, so she might as well go all in. With a leap, she slapped toward the golden armored Daoists.

Talismans were just talismans, and mud puppets granted a wisp of spirituality to form spirit embryos were still mere clay incarnations. How could they withstand Li Ruoshui’s Universe One Qi Palm? With a boom, before her palm even descended, a blast of qi surged out, smashing the four golden armored Daoists into the woods outside the village.

Li Ruoshui strode after them, unfazed by the brilliant lights flying from the golden armored men. The moment her palm met the glow, it rang like a great bell. The four golden armored men shattered simultaneously. The spirituality in the god shrine’s mud puppet flickered, barely holding on.

Eyeing the painted statue, a playful smile tugged at Li Ruoshui’s lips. She raised her hand, and a Taiyi Blazing Fire Profound Light shot out with a sizzle. The cumbersome mud puppet couldn’t dodge and plunged into the sea of fire. The puppet panicked, its face twisting with human-like terror as protective golden light flared. Li Ruoshui merely raised an eyebrow and urged her law power from her Law Aperture. The blaze intensified.

Unable to break free, the spirituality born from incense tried to escape the flames. Once separated from its mud puppet host, it would return to its true body to report. Li Ruoshui wouldn’t allow that. Her Universe One Qi Palm hovered, endless wood qi weaving into a vast net that trapped the spirituality.

Patiently, Li Ruoshui refined the spirituality until it condensed into a pearl brimming with yuan qi, then withdrew her power. This pearl’s aura resembled Cinnabar Sand and could serve as cultivation fuel. If she hunted down Edict God Dao cultivators’ images and refined all their spirituality, how many Spirit Jade Pills would she save?

The thought flashed, then she dismissed it.

She had grudges with the Empire, but its cultivators wouldn’t hunt her for no reason. Deliberately targeting Edict God Dao images for cultivation would violate the public order among Nine Provinces cultivators, making her no better than an evil path deviant. Not only would Edict God Dao cultivators come for her, but even the Taiyi Sect would deal with her.

Of course, she gladly accepted the spirituality from this foolish mud puppet.

After all, they had spoken first.

Li Ruoshui wasn’t good with words; she could only prove her unyielding spirit with actions.

Brushing away the flying ashes, she leaned against a swaying tree and sent a message to Shi Yu: “I’ve found a promising cultivation seedling in Baiyang Town’s Tianhe Village. Come quickly.”

Offending the Empire was something the alliance would surely enjoy. With Feng Qing in seclusion, her minor Heart Fixing cultivator’s power was too weak—she definitely needed backup to clean up the mess and take the blame.

Shi Yu: “I’m coming right away. But Fellow Daoist Shangshan, why are you in Baiyang Town?”

Li Ruoshui: “?” Hadn’t Shi Yu said Baiyang Town had a Return to Ruins Gap?

Shi Yu seemed to guess her thoughts and added, “I meant Baiyang Town.”

Li Ruoshui: “……”

What a case of heading in the opposite direction. So no reliable people here?

She had already struck, so Li Ruoshui couldn’t just abandon the mess. Besides, Shi Yu had agreed to come.

Though the East Sea Alliance had established a sect, their numbers were few. They couldn’t scour the entire Nine Provinces for cultivation seeds; they mainly poached from within the Empire.

When Li Ruoshui returned to the village, the villagers hadn’t dispersed.

Some stared blankly at the sky, others wept with heads bowed.

When they saw her, they shrank back, fear resurfacing on their faces.

“What were those golden armored men?” Li Ruoshui’s gaze swept the crowd, finally settling on the woman holding the little girl. She was likely the child’s mother, her face still etched with shock and despair.

“They are the immortal’s messengers, come to our village to select the qualified. They chose Little Grass,” the woman forced herself to calm down and answered Li Ruoshui’s question.

Li Ruoshui saw their fear and kept her distance, raising an eyebrow. “What’s wrong with going to a great clan to cultivate?”

“What’s good about it?” A furious voice surged with endless hatred. “They erase memories, change names and surnames. Even if you meet again, they’re strangers without family ties. If the kids had a future, we’d accept it, but what life do they lead in the prefecture city? Treated like oxen and horses by those people?!”