Wild cultivation begins with wielding the Taiyin talisman.

Ning Che suddenly heard a soft, cracking sound, as if something was cracking inch by inch.

The wind seemed to carry a rotten smell, and with just one gust, the lush branches and leaves in the eastern woods visibly lost their vitality, turning yellow and withered, and fell to the ground in a flurry.

Someone, seemingly out of nowhere, let out a piercing scream, the frantic cry breaking the stillness: "The Azure Heaven's Lesser Yang is destroyed! Calamity has come! Calamity has arrived!"

First, sporadic screams rang out from all over the village, but in just a few breaths, it was like sparks falling into boiling oil; the entire Stone Pillar Village instantly erupted into chaos. Under the natural disaster, everyone was terrified.

Ning Che dropped his martial arts and, with the speed of the wind, immediately ran towards the center of the village.

Those dark green and almost black colors resembled some kind of living monster, rampaging through the plants. The wood was still unrecognizable, but the herbaceous plants and leaves had already withered, turned black, and broken.

The scene on the road was even more tragic than he had imagined.

One after another, the wooden doors of the earthen houses were smashed open, and many men, women, and children rushed out of the courtyard like madmen. Some stumbled and ran towards the large granary in the east of the village; some knelt on the ground and kept kowtowing towards the sun; some desperately stuffed food into their mouths, even though their abdomens were already obviously swollen.

The dried wild vegetables that the villagers had laid out to dry in their yards, which had been neatly stacked in winnowing baskets the night before, were now speckled with dark green. Grains and other grains were not spared either, but fortunately, everyone had prepared in advance and stored some dried meat, so they were not yet starving.

But many villagers still couldn't accept it; after all, it was the grain they had painstakingly grown, gone in an instant, leaving them devastated. They cried and wailed, feigning madness.

On the way, Ning Che could still occasionally hear them wailing:

"Seeds! My seeds! All the seeds for next year's planting have rotted!"

"That damned calamity! It's going to kill our whole village!"

The cries followed Ning Che's footsteps all the way to the outside of the granary, where Ning Che stopped.

The granary was made of woven wheat straw and bamboo strips, and covered with cow dung. It was roughly cylindrical in shape, about three or four meters in diameter, supported by a wooden frame and more than a meter off the ground. The grain storage section was about two meters high. There was a ladder next to it, and Shi Ying was already standing on it.

A blue light flowed between her fingers and palms, and her magical power rained down into the granary. It was unclear what kind of magic she was using, but it seemed unlikely to last long.

Ning Che asked directly, "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Shi Ying understood what he meant and shook her head without saying a word.

He didn't insist and continued running towards the center of the village. They had previously arranged to meet the three mountain guardians at the village chief's residence.

But just then, he felt a wave of fatigue, muscle soreness, and a burning sensation in his lungs, similar to the pain of finishing a five-kilometer cross-country run. It had only been about two hundred meters; even if he had run a little faster, it shouldn't have reached this point.

Is this also an effect of the drought?

The original owner of this body hadn't experienced the calamity, and Ning Che didn't really know the specifics; he only knew from hearsay. He had to slow down and regulate his breathing, and he still hadn't fully recovered by the time he saw the village chief's mansion.

Outside the door, several villagers had gathered and were shouting something like, "Use the Rejuvenation Talisman to save the grain."

Ning Che squeezed through the crowd, went straight to the main room, and knocked on the door.

An old voice called out from behind the door, "Come in."

Ning Che pushed open the door and entered, only to find that the atmosphere in the main room was already tense and ready to fight.

Shi Gu sat in the main chair, his withered fingers twirling his white beard, his brows furrowed. Shi Yong sat to his right, his left hand tucked into his lower abdomen, his right hand gripping the armrest of the chair, veins bulging on it as if he wanted to break it off.

Cheng Cai paced back and forth in the room like an ant on a hot pan, his head covered in sweat, muttering to himself, "It's over, it's all over now."

"What about the three mountain guardians?" Ning Che asked.

Shi Yong slammed his hand on the chair: "Who knows what they're doing!"

At this moment, the waiting was undoubtedly agonizing. Moreover, for some reason, more and more people were gathering outside, and the screams and cries were getting closer and closer, until they could see shadows outside through the door.

Cheng Cai couldn't hold on any longer and asked Shi Yong, "Where's the shaman? Why hasn't he used the Rejuvenation Talisman yet?"

Upon hearing this, Shi Yong also became furious: "Idiot! There's only one Rejuvenation Talisman, and you used it at the very beginning. What are you going to do later?"

Cheng Cai retorted angrily, "Isn't that because..."

"Enough," Ishitani interrupted him. "What's the use of saying all this now? Let's think about what to do next."

Shi Yong knew exactly what the village chief meant by interrupting him. No one knew better than him: of the original three Rejuvenation Talismans, two had been used on Ning Che to save his life. Therefore, only this last one remained, a truly desperate situation.

Hearing the sounds outside the door, he gritted his teeth and said, "I'm leading a hunting party. If we set off now, we should be able to solve some of our immediate problems."

Ning Che had been standing at the door watching, and suddenly said, "The urgent need is not just for food. I think I know what those three mountain guards are doing."

All three looked at him. He took two steps forward and spoke eloquently: "The calamity has only just begun, and there was prior notice, so it's impossible that no one was unprepared. In addition, given the prestige of the village chief and the headhunter in the village, they wouldn't cause trouble here or even break into the courtyard at this time."

Therefore, this matter is likely orchestrated by someone.

Shi Gu naturally understood his meaning, and the air in the main room instantly froze. Only Cheng Cai retorted, "How could that be? The villagers wouldn't listen to them..."

"I've said enough!" Shi Gu glared at Cheng Cai, who immediately shut his mouth and dared not say another word.

Shi Yong was stunned for a moment, then reacted, slamming his massive fist on the table, making the teacups rattle loudly: "These sons of bitches! I knew they were late, were they stabbing us in the back?!"

He was already filled with guilt because of the Rejuvenation Talisman, and the villagers' wailing outside the door made him even angrier. Now that he learned that the mountain guards were not only failing to protect the land, but were also inciting the villagers to cause trouble behind the scenes, his old and new grudges surged up, and he got up to pick up his knife and go find the three mountain guards to settle accounts.

"Sit down." Shi Gu said in a deep voice, his aged voice carrying an unquestionable authority: "I will handle this matter personally, and the issue of food rations must be resolved as soon as possible."

"Shi Yong, based on the previous situation, demons should have appeared around the village. Are you confident?"

Shi Yong immediately replied, "I have. I've killed two demons, as you know, village chief."

Ishitani looked at him: "I mean, what if you faced two at once?"

Shi Yong remained silent, and Ning Che, seeing this, said, "I can stop one for now."

Shi Gu looked at Ning Che, paused for a moment, and nodded, saying, "Then let's do it this way. You take the hunting team and try to catch a big one to bring back for the villagers to see."

"Then, village chief... there are three of them after all," Shi Yong said worriedly.

"It's alright. Although I'm injured and old, I was once a Qi Master in my younger days." Shi Gu stood up, his sleeves fluttered, and the door was pushed open by an invisible force, casting a horizontal beam of sunlight across the doorway.

He stepped into the light, his white hair flying and shimmering faintly.