Chapter 130: Ghouls

Jiang Yan remained entirely unaware that his "influence" had driven so many disciples across various sects to cultivate with such fervor. It was another day perfectly suited for idling away, and he lay languidly on his recliner, letting the warm sunlight wash over him while he leisurely cracked sunflower seeds.

However, Jiang Yan's slothful moment was soon shattered by the sudden vibration of his communication jade.

As soon as he connected, Ji Chuxue’s anxious voice rang out: "Little Six, come to the Qilin Hall at once! Your Second Senior Sister has returned, but she is severely wounded. According to her, your Fifth Senior Sister has fallen into the hands of corpse demons..."

Jiang Yan sat bolt upright, the sunflower seed shells slipping from his fingertips. His voice turned grave: "Eldest Senior Sister, I am on my way!"

Before the words had even faded, Jiang Yan had transformed into a streak of light, streaking toward the Qilin Hall with such velocity that he seemed to tear the sky asunder. Yun Li, the little dragon, Yunyun, Whitey, and Black Flower all followed suit, trailing closely behind.

The moment Jiang Yan stepped into the Qilin Hall, he saw his Fourth Senior Sister, Wen Yue, hurrying toward one of the rooms. He followed instinctively, a wave of foreboding rising in his chest.

Inside the room, Qin Feifei lay on the bed, her face as pale as parchment. Her eyes were wide, the depths of her pupils reflecting boundless terror. Her lips trembled slightly as she forced out broken, fragmented words: "Qianqian... captured... corpse demons... terrifying..."

Seeing his second disciple in such a state, Lin Qi could not help but let out a long sigh: "Alas, Feifei and Qianqian—who would have thought they would encounter such a calamity? Little Four, hurry and examine Feifei."

Witnessing the wretched state of his Second Senior Sister, Jiang Yan felt a sharp pang of pain. The dignity and commanding presence she once possessed had vanished, leaving only a body and soul exhausted to the core. Perhaps this was the ruthless reality of the cultivation world—a place where the strong prey upon the weak, and power reigns supreme. In this world, the weak are merely trampled underfoot by the strong. That Qin Feifei had managed to escape such unknown danger was a testament to her giving everything she had.

Wen Yue walked slowly toward the bedside, her eyes involuntarily reddening. Though she usually appeared cold and aloof, her heart was, in truth, remarkably tender. She hurriedly channeled her healing spiritual energy, focusing intently on treating Qin Feifei.

Time slipped away in silence. Two hours passed, and the room was so quiet that the drop of a needle could be heard. Everyone maintained a tacit silence, unwilling to disturb the treatment. It was not until the color began to return to Qin Feifei’s face and her wounds eased under Wen Yue’s meticulous care that Wen Yue finally exhaled and withdrew her hands.

Seeing this, Xie Lingzhou could no longer suppress his silence, his voice heavy with concern for Wu Qianqian: "Second Senior Sister, what exactly happened? Where was Fifth Junior Sister taken?"

Qin Feifei spoke with great difficulty, recalling that horrific experience: "We... we were in the midst of our training when we stumbled upon a strange village. The villagers there—every one of them had a complexion of an eerie, ghastly purple. They didn't look like living people..."

According to Qin Feifei, the villagers could only emit vague, guttural "ah-ah" sounds. The only one capable of speaking clearly was a small boy, also with a face of ghastly purple. He called himself Shi Luo, and their village was known as Longevity Village.

Two hundred years ago, the villagers of Longevity Village were merely ordinary folk, entirely ignorant of the path of cultivation. They lived simple, peaceful lives until a figure claiming to be an "immortal" descended, bringing with them a mysterious pill said to grant long life.

Initially, only a few elders on the brink of death took the pill. With their lives already spanning over eighty years, the desperate craving for longevity led them to swallow the immortal medicine without hesitation. After taking the pill, they noticed no immediate changes. But when those elders passed the age of ninety, the rest of the villagers, hungering for the same longevity, could no longer resist.

Their wish was granted, and their lifespans were extended, but the price behind it was heavy. They discovered that they had lost the ability to reproduce, and their bodies were frozen forever at the moment they consumed the pill. Beyond their skin turning an increasingly deep shade of purple, their faces remained unchanged; they would never age again. This meant that the little boy, Shi Luo, had actually been living in this world for over two hundred years.

Qin Feifei and Wu Qianqian had been skeptical of Shi Luo’s story. The villagers indeed appeared to lack any cultivation, but for Shi Luo to reveal the secrets of Longevity Village so readily to two strangers was deeply unsettling. Even more eerie was how the pill had grotesquely altered the villagers' features, leaving their skin an unnatural, bruised purple, and stripping them of their ability to speak, making them appear more like ghosts than the living.

Jiang Yan suddenly interrupted her narrative, frowning as he asked: "Second Senior Sister, the 'corpse demons' you mentioned earlier—you don't mean those villagers, do you?"