On the hillside, at the treetop.

A Sheng fearfully shrank into Chen Xu's embrace, at the same time, in the village below the mountain.

On the north bank of the great river that surged and flowed, a grand temple with carved beams and painted rafters was situated therein.

But see this temple's halls rise layer upon layer, with upturned eaves, magnificently decorated, extraordinary in every place.

Such a conspicuous building, in this remote small village, stands out as much as it possibly can.

The Puppet Daoist Soldier made its way into the village without needing much inquiry, spotting this temple at a glance.

Chen Xu was multitasking, directing the Daoist Soldier to go around to the front of the temple from afar and look up. He was first startled by the words on the temple's plaque:

River God Temple—

It was not the "River God" that was startling, but the three characters themselves, their strokes twisting like a dragon or a snake, inherently possessing a mystical power that seemed to connect with heaven and earth.

Although Chen Xu was only viewing through the Daoist Soldier's eyes from a distance, this one look was as if he suddenly saw a great river rushing towards him.

Its source unknown, yet seemingly from the dawn of time itself.

It was a long river rushing forth from the depths of the earth, having weathered countless ages, with rain and wind converging, rocks collapsing.

And over endless years of winds and rains, as spring went and autumn came, figures toiling relied on the river to irrigate fields, the cycles of life and death building up over time into a Divine Spirit...

Divinity and spirituality manifest as the "River God."

This revelation descended upon Chen Xu's heart with an overwhelming awe.

He could almost feel that this remote gaze had invoked an irresistible mystical power, poised to leap towards him out of thin air!

The Tribulation Mirror had already reacted, and instinctively activated.

But this time, the Tribulation Mirror instead "missed the mark."

It wasn't that the Tribulation Mirror failed to ward off this strange impact, but rather, in the instant the impact came, like lightning flashing or a meteor falling—

The indescribable mystical power inexplicably vanished into the void of its own accord!

As if you had gathered all your strength, waiting for the opponent's ultimate move, only for the opponent to suddenly fall mid-execution.

Boom!

The dissipation of that invisible force made no sound, but Chen Xu seemed to hear a lament from ancient times.

Woo—

The sound of antiquity faded, and when looking back, the "River God Temple" was still the same "River God Temple."

The strokes of the characters on the plaque remained unchanged, but the strange and shocking feeling was gone.

Only an ineffable divinity seemed to linger among the characters on the plaque.

This divine nature extended throughout the entire temple, causing the Puppet Daoist Soldier standing not far from the temple to hesitate, not daring to directly enter the temple.

But not entering was not an option, Chen Xu speculated that if Wei Yuan were in danger and trapped in this village, it would be unlikely for him to be anywhere else.

There was a ninety percent chance he was in this River God Temple!

As Chen Xu was silently pondering how to command the Daoist Soldier to infiltrate the temple, little did he know that deep within the temple, in a dark room, an elderly woman with chicken-skin crane-hair was leaning over a copper bowl.

In the copper bowl, there was clear water, eight-tenths full.

And now, reflected in the clear water, the old woman looking down saw a scene.

It was the scene of Chen Xu and A Sheng hiding among the treetops.

And the specific perspective of the scene seemed more like A Sheng's own view.

At this moment, A Sheng was nervously nestled in Chen Xu's embrace, his voice trembling with fear as he said, "Big brother, it's so scary, what should we do?"

Of course, the old woman at this moment couldn't hear the sound emanating from within the copper bowl, only see the scene and judge the conversation through the lip movements of the people in the image.

The young scholar in the blue robe then raised one hand, hesitated for a moment out of a bit of unfamiliarity, and lightly placed it on A Sheng's head.

Like a soothing pat, Chen Xu said, "Don't be afraid, just wait a bit longer."

Wait for what?

In the forest, Man Cang, lying on the ground, now had no limbs, left with only his head and trunk, like a maggot.

This head was still crying out in pain, "Help! Save me, ah—"

Tsk tsk tsk!

His abdomen was then directly split open from within by a pair of bloody little arms, and then a strange blue head poked out.

That thing had no hair, but was covered with dark brown scales.

It opened a blood-red little mouth full of sharp teeth and began gnawing at Man Cang's belly.

As it gnawed, its body slowly extended outward.

From the blue head to the scale-covered shoulders to the chest full of strange patterns...

Bit by bit, bit by bit.

Who could say this scene wasn't terrifying?

The surrounding villagers were so scared their legs were trembling.

But strangely, faced with this situation, they were panicking and frightened, yet not one of them turned to flee.

They were merely surrounding the area at a distance, discussing amongst themselves, "The Jade Child is born, Man Cang can't live, but this Jade Child isn't full term, what do we do?"

"The Immortal Witch said that for a Jade Child not yet full moon, to fully develop its body, someone must donate foul blood, otherwise we..."

"What do you mean we? You go, you go, I just donated foul blood recently, I can't go again!"

The speaker is an exceedingly emaciated villager.

Chen Xu had observed earlier that the villagers were roughly of three types.

One was emaciated like a stick, looking as if they could die at any moment, yet were extremely strong;

Another had swollen abdomens, with fat heads and big ears, pregnant-looking;

Then there were those with flushed faces, as if with a furnace inside, seemingly smoking at any moment.

Besides those, the Daoist Soldiers had seen white-haired elderly villagers in the village...

Not to mention the elderly in the village, the three types of villagers before him all appeared bizarre. Only the A Sheng in his arms seemed to be the only normal one.

A Sheng clutched at his clothes, sticking tightly to him.

Although comforted by him, he continued to tremble and say, "Big brother, how long are we going to wait? Can we escape from here or not?"

He pressed closer, burying his face in Chen Xu's chest, so Chen Xu could not see the expression on his face, which was filled with excitement and thrill instead of the fear his tone conveyed.

His voice trembled with panic, yet his hidden face was brimming with excitement and fervor.

Similarly excited and thrilled was the elderly woman with crane-like hair hiding deep in the River God Temple.

The old woman leaned forward, her wrinkled old face almost touching the surface of the copper bowl's water.

She seemed to be savoring some fragrance through this water surface.

"Such pure vital energy, such vigorous Qi Blood, and, and the scent of a great scholar!"

The old woman slightly closed her eyes, muttering something, her tone gradually turning wild.

"It's not easy, truly not easy, for such a person to breach our He Xi Village."

"Should I eat now? Or wait and investigate his background? After all, such a person must have an extraordinary identity."

"No, no, I can't wait, I can't hold back anymore..."

She suddenly opened her eyes, unconsciously putting her smooth white hands, utterly unlike her chicken-skin and crane-hair, into her mouth.

The old woman began to gnaw on her own hands with a crunching sound.

And right across from the copper bowl, a table held an iron cage covered with blood-red runes.

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