Chapter 37: The Unsettling Village

Though the young girl wanted no reward, the Assistant Commander insisted on giving one. Those were two different matters.

He had prepared in advance. Soldiers carried over a large chest and set it before the crowd.

Opening it revealed a silver axe, a work of art, forged from pure silver.

Unlike common axes made among the people, this one was slightly lighter, with a broader blade curve. It was suited for prolonged combat and had decent cutting ability.

But it was made of silver. That was strange. More like a collector’s piece than a tool for battle.

At this point, the young girl still didn’t know what properties the axe possessed.

After she refused the gift three times, the Assistant Commander resorted to force, ordering his soldiers to kneel on one knee.

She hated his methods. She took the axe, ending the farce.

She stored it in her dimensional space. The axe vanished into thin air, stunning everyone present.

They had never seen such a miraculous technique. Their expectations of her rose higher.

Before she left, the Assistant Commander wanted to send soldiers to accompany her. She refused twice more.

Those soldiers would be of no help. They might even become sacrifices.

She remembered fighting the fox demon. The caravan leader had fought desperately and nearly died.

Common folk were no match for the monsters and specters.

Better to keep them out of it.

The Assistant Commander did not insist further.

He allowed the post station to grant her privileges so she could use its horses freely.

She did not stand on ceremony. She rode slowly along the road. Somehow, the middle-aged man’s grimy horse followed behind, keeping its distance.

When she rode, it followed. When she stopped, it kept walking, passing her and continuing on alone into the distance.

She rode from morning till evening. Her body grew sore. She dismounted and led the horse for a stretch. She saw the middle-aged man’s horse again, grazing by the roadside.

She did not approach. Seeing that dusk had fallen, she stopped to rest on the spot.

In the shelter built for travelers, she lit a small fire. The weather wasn’t very cold; a small fire was enough.

The next morning, just as dawn broke, she found the horse still there, also resting.

She rode on ahead. Passing by, she might have startled it. After a while, it too set out, trailing far behind her.

Another day of travel. She met only one merchant, passing by in the opposite direction. He did not speak to her.

He seemed afraid of her and sped away.

She continued on.

There was only one road, easy to recognize, no chance of getting lost. And she had traveled this path before, so it felt somewhat familiar.

The deeper she went, the more conflicted she felt. This was the dread of nearing home.

After several days of travel, she reached a familiar place.

There were no forks in the road. Visually, only a straight path lay ahead. But in her heart, another branching road existed – the road home.

She did not return. After a brief pause, she continued along this road on horseback.

She picked up a little speed. Along the way, she reached an almost deserted fortress post station and stayed in the official inn.

This was her first time in an official station. The facilities were indeed more complete and comfortable than civilian inns.

On the eleventh day, she saw the horse that had fallen behind several days ago. It had caught up again.

It stayed far off, beside her.

She camped out again that night. The horse grazed nearby. Unable to resist, she walked over, took out a fruit, and fed it.

It licked it, then ate.

She tried to lead it away, but it grew resistant and agitated.

She let go, letting it be.

On the afternoon of the twelfth day, she reached her destination. There was indeed a village by the roadside, very conspicuous. It was impossible not to see it.

Even from afar, she could sense an ominous atmosphere.

The entire village was shrouded in a sinister black mist. She could clearly see that some great evil lurked within, one that had committed many wrongs.

After these days, she was gradually learning to interpret what her eyes showed about the world.

When monsters and ghosts killed people, their aura changed. The more they killed, the denser the aura became, easily identified by her eyes.

Based on her experience with the fox demon, the great ghost in the Jurchen village had caused more than twice the slaughter. Its power should naturally be stronger.

This didn’t quite match her earlier judgment.

Half a year ago, that unclean thing needed to constantly weaken a victim, absorb their three souls and seven spirits, and only kill when the host was weak enough. The process was lengthy, taking over half a month.

If it truly were a great ghost surpassing the fox demon, absorbing someone’s three souls and seven spirits and killing them should not require such effort.

She recalled the dead merchants she had seen on the road when traveling with the middle-aged man.

A natural guess arose: there was not just one such unclean thing, but many.

The young girl’s brows furrowed almost together.

She looked up again at the pervasive foul aura emanating from the village. Was that the aura of a group of unclean things? Or of a single great ghost?

She couldn’t determine the answer. If it was the aura of a group, she couldn’t handle it.

Because she only had one chance to attack. She could kill only one unclean thing.

Knowing it was foolish to approach, she still decided to go closer.

She tied the horse to a roadside post, took out the copper axe she had bought from the old blacksmith in Baoding, and slowly walked step by step toward the village a hundred zhang away.

As she walked, a strange sensation arose. Her mana flow became sluggish. Her vision blurred slightly.

The distant village never seemed to get closer. There was no sense of approaching.

Puzzled, she turned back. After just over twenty steps, she returned to the spot where the horse was tied.

The middle-aged man’s horse was also grazing nearby. It glanced at her, then lowered its head to eat again.

Strange. What was going on?

She turned again and headed toward the village. She walked over a hundred steps, yet felt no closer. She turned back once more, and after just over twenty steps, she was back at the starting point.

A formation? Was this some kind of formation?

She hadn’t heard from Weiyuan Fort about any formation here. What was happening?

How could the great ghost in the village master something as profound as a formation?

She dragged the copper axe blade along the ground. As she walked backward, she scratched a straight line in the dirt road.

She kept walking, scratching straight lines. When she noticed a curve, she stopped and straightened the line.

After working for about half an incense stick’s time, she broke out in a sweat.

Suddenly, her entire body felt lighter. Mana flowed freely. A refreshing sensation washed over her.

She stopped and turned. She had walked out of the formation. Now she stood at the entrance of the Jurchen village. Two more steps would take her into the dense foul aura. The place was deathly still, and a nauseating stench filled the air.

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