"An outsider?"

"You brought an outsider into the village?" The moment Qing Cao finished narrating, Mei Ling couldn't help but shout in disbelief. Not only her, but the rest of the girls were in a similar state of shock. For a moment, their mind almost stopped working. Who would have thought that Qing Cao would be stupid enough to bring an outsider into the village? Especially after what happened the last time an outsider was here.

"The pill… was it poisoned?" Mei Ling immediately bent her back as she began to retch, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't throw up.

The rest of the girls had unfriendly expressions on their faces as well. It was as if they were meeting Qing Cao for the first time.

"How… how could you?" Xiao Lian, as well as A-zhu, kept on looking at Qing Cao as if they were meeting her for the first time, whereas the leader of the group, Yan-er, didn't say a word, but her eyes seemed to be lost.

"Do you have any idea the danger you have put the entire village into?"

"How could you be this stupid?"

"Did you forget what happened the last time an outsider came here?"

"We lost our families, and every adult."

"And now we have been cursed to live till only sixteen."

One after another, the girls kept on complaining to Qing Cao with faces full of anger. If not for the fact that they were like sisters and she was a part of the team, they all would have taught her a lesson. To them, what Qing Cao did was no less than betrayal. Bringing that outsider here was akin to putting all their fates in his hands.

"Silence." It was at this moment that Yan-er finally spoke in a firm voice while raising her hand, signalling them all to stay quiet.

In that instant, silence enveloped the room, as the girls kept on looking at Qing Cao, intending to teach her a lesson.

"Do you think he can help us?" Ignoring the three girls and their disgruntled expressions around her, Yan-er asked in a soft voice. Unlike the three girls beside her, she can not give in to her emotions, no matter how ridiculous the situation is. She was the one in charge of this group and this village; she needed to look at the bigger picture.

When her grandmother, who was the previous village chief, used to tell her that 'one day she would have to make a decision for herself and others', she didn't understand at that time, but now… now she understood what her grandma meant by that.

"I… I think so." Qing Cao replied in a soft voice, her gaze fixed on the ground, not daring to meet the others. "We all have seen how strong he is. Our arrows can not even scratch him, much less harm him."

"If he were to help, we could definitely escape from this place."

"....."

"....."

Her words instantly quietened the three girls who were about to raise their voices. Even Yan-er's expression changed upon hearing it. But she soon regained her calm before speaking a single word.

"HOW?"

"I.. I don't know." Qing Cao replied with a flustered face before adding further. "But I have a feeling that we will be able to escape this place."

"You sure do have a lot of trust in the person you met for a day." Mei Ling once again let out a cold snort as her eyes darted towards Yan-er.

"What do you think?" Even though she was scolding Qing Cao for trusting a stranger, her voice had a hint of nervousness as she asked Yan-er. It would be a lie to say that she wasn't tempted to get out of this place. God knows how many times they have tried and failed. And now that there was a chance to get out… it was impossible for her not to feel moved at all.

Not only her, but the rest of the two girls looked at Yan-er with a questioning gaze as well. They too similarly wanted to know what she was going to do next. But from the longing expressions on their faces, it was already clear what they wanted.

"....." Yan-er first took a deep look at Qing Cao and then at the rest of the three girls before releasing her clenched fists and speaking in a soft voice.

"How…"

"How can we help?"

Her words instantly made Qing Cao's eyes light up in excitement. After her talk with the boy, she was still hesitant as to whether to tell Yan–er and others about the presence of Yang Ze. The best course of action would have been to stay quiet and work their way out in silence. It would have been much better to simply execute the plan without their involvement. But she couldn't…

The thought of hiding something so important from her friends and keeping them in the dark was something that she couldn't do. So she chose to tell them the truth regardless of the consequences in hopes that they might see what she was trying to accomplish.

She wouldn't have complained had they rejected her proposal outright, but thankfully, they didn't. She chose to believe them, and they chose to believe her.

Yang Ze, who was watching it all from the sides with the help of a clone, couldn't help but let out a gentle smile. This was the first time he saw the good in this world. Friendship and unconditional trust… something that he hadn't seen before.

After seeing them trying to come up with a plan, he just smiled in response as his clone disappeared.

The girls kept on clamouring for a long time. All of them were coming up with a different set of ideas. One wanted to simply rush in and talk with the boy, one wanted to first take precaution against him and so on.

It wasn't until almost an hour passed that they finally agreed on one thing.

"We will go and have a talk with him tomorrow morning." Yan-er finally clapped her hands as she made a decision.

"...." The rest of the girls merely nodded in response, but their nervousness and excitement were clearly visible to the naked eye.

After making a decision, they didn't disperse immediately but stayed together. Mei Ling was even beginning to take measures and prepare herself for the worst-case scenario. In case the outsider suddenly turned on them, she needed to have a way to fight back.

An entire night passed in the blink of an eye. While the five girls were getting ready to have a proper conversation with Yang Ze, Yang Ze, on the other hand, was in the state of enlightenment… Now that he had stepped into the first realm of the Mystic Nether Art, Realm of Mortal, he had been trying his best to step into the second realm… Realm of Earth.

To step into the Realm of Mortal, one needed to visualise one hundred mortal objects to create a ring in their sea of consciousness.

But to step into the Realm of Earth, one needs to visualise ten natural phenomena… they could be anything from earthquakes to storms to rain to avalanches or even a volcanic eruption.

When he first started practising, this was the realm he wanted to reach the most. Just imagining the scene where he would be freely able to control the world around him… words weren't enough to describe the excitement and longing Yang Ze felt.

But now that he had finally started to practise towards the second realm, he realised just how naive he had been.

The first natural phenomenon he chose was that of rain. After all, as a person from the modern world, he knew how rain occurred in nature.

The water evaporates from the surface, rises to the sky, where it cools down and then falls in the shape of rain.

A simple but complete process.

But the moment he tried to visualise it, he realised the absurd difficulty in it.

In the state of Enlightenment, he would always be in a state of trance, ridding him from any distracting thoughts and allowing him focus on one thing. In the state of Enlightenment, he would automatically find the most correct answer, and the speed at which he would comprehend things would be outrageous.

Others might take years or even decades to match the progress of his fifteen minutes of enlightenment.

And yet, after spending an entire night in the state of enlightenment, he wasn't able to progress in the slightest.

When he tried practising the Mystic Nether Art, he found himself in an empty void with nothingness.

And then…

Then he was stuck.

To make rain, he needed water vapour, and for that, he needed water.

But the problem was that there was no water in his surroundings.

It was completely empty.

Now the question was how to make water.

"What a mess." Opening his eyes, Yang Ze couldn't help but rub his temples. He had been trying to visualise the rain and water for an entire night, and yet couldn't. It was as if there was something very basic… very fundamental that was missing. No matter how hard he tried, no matter what he did, nothing seemed to make any difference.

"Ugh… Let's just focus on increasing my cultivation first." Since he was stuck, there was no need to waste his time and energy on this. He might as well try to cultivate and increase his realm. Even though without the 'Milk', the progress he made was abysmal, there was at least some progress, unlike the Mystic Nether art, where he was completely stuck.

Exhaling a mouthful of air, Yang Ze was about to enter another session of cultivation when he realised that it was already morning.

"Eh! So soon?" He couldn't help but click his tongue in wonder. Every time he entered the state of Enlightenment, time seemed to pass in the blink of an eye.

Standing up, he stretched his body for a while before looking at the nearest tree.

"Let's see how it goes." Speaking till here, he looked at the sign-in panel that had a cooldown of approximately four to five hours left before whispering to himself.

"Inherit the Withering Year Mark."

The moment Yang Ze spoke, he felt his body being enveloped by a warm sensation that soon disappeared.

Yang Ze once again checked the talent description just to make sure that there were no changes, and sure enough, there were none.

[Withering Year Mark(Gold): For every one day passed, lose one hundred days of life, condensed into a life gem.]

This time, he wasn't as panicked as before. Instead, he felt a sense of nervousness and excitement.

Facts have proven that he couldn't sign in the same talent from the same person, but he could sign in the same talent from a different person.

Now he was curious as to what would happen if he used his sign-in for the same talent on two different people.

Without any hesitation, he rushed to the nearest tree, looked at its personal panel and whispered in a soft voice.

Sign in to Withering Year Mark"

The moment Yang Ze spoke, the screen seemed to freeze for a while.

"Ummm!?" Looking at the screen that didn't seem to have changed, Yang Ze's heart almost jumped out of his throat. He had never seen his own system freeze before. It was as if it didn't know what to do.

"Did I break it?" Just thinking about it, Yang Ze felt like his buttocks were on fire. It would be a disaster if he somehow screwed his own system.

And just when he was getting more and more anxious, the screen in front of him finally flickered before a message popped up.

[Sign In successful.]

And with this message, a newly added layer of text appeared behind his newly gained golden talent, Withering Year Mark.

[Withering Year Mark(Gold)(1/10)]

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