Wild cultivation begins with wielding the Taiyin talisman.

Lin Ye's struggles gradually weakened. He clutched his head with both hands, his face contorted in pain, his chest heaving violently, clearly reacting to the Ice Cleansing Curse.

Ning Che released him and stood up.

Lin Ye lay on the ground, not getting up. His shoulders were trembling, his fingers were digging into the rammed earth, and his fingernails were filled with dark brown powder.

Zhong Hongyao stood aside, silently watching everything. She didn't say anything, but simply looked away.

Ning Che didn't look at Lin Ye again; he turned to Lin Xiuer.

"What did you say came at night? Has no one seen it?"

Lin Xiuer shook her head: "No, I only heard sounds. Um... a woman crying, and dragging noises, that's all."

Ning Che nodded thoughtfully, then suddenly leaned down to look at the girl who had been staring at him: "Little girl, what's your name?"

Lin Xiuer suddenly looked flustered. She stood up and tried to stop Ning Che, but Zhong Hongyao stepped in and stopped her, saying, "Your child is sick, isn't he? I'm a pharmacist in the city, I can treat illnesses."

At the same time, the girl showed no surprise or fear and quickly replied, "My name is Lin Caiwei."

She was also surnamed Lin, and the Lin surname was much easier to find in Black Rock Village than the Shi surname in Stone Pillar Village. Ning Che hadn't actually decided how to say it yet, but the girl kept looking at him, which made him a little curious.

He then repeated his question: "Have you seen that thing from that night?"

"Never seen it before." Lin Caiwei shook her head in confusion.

Ning Che looked at her. The child's eyes were clear and innocent, not like she was lying. But he noticed a detail—when Lin Caiwei spoke, her gaze unconsciously drifted towards her mother. It was brief, as if she were confirming something.

He didn't ask any further questions.

His tone softened: "How long have you been in this house?"

"It's been a long time." Lin Caiwei counted on her fingers, "From the time the village started to have fewer people, my mother would lock my brother and me in the house and not let us go out. Sometimes my mother would go out and come back with food. Later, there was less and less food."

At the same time, Zhong Hongyao took the boy from her. The boy struggled and sobbed as he was separated from his mother's embrace.

Chung Hong-yao suppressed her disgust and lifted his clothes to examine him.

Ning Che continued to ask, "When your mother went out, was it during the day or at night?"

"I didn't go out until it was light in the morning," Lin Caiwei said. "My mother said it's safe during the day, but we can't go out at night."

Ning Che nodded, stood up, and looked at the boy. Zhong Hongyao took out a silver needle from the blue cloth bag at her waist and pierced his wrist, creating a bulge on the other side, which almost made Lin Xiuer gasp.

Soon, Zhong Hongyao pulled out the silver needle and looked at it against the light. The tip of the needle had a very faint grayish-white tinge.

"The Yin energy has invaded his body and entered his meridians." Zhong Hongyao looked up at Ning Che and said, "If he had come a few days later, he wouldn't have been able to hold on."

Lin Xiuer's eyebrows furrowed, tears welling up, but she forced herself to hold them back and was about to kneel down.

Ning Che helped her up.

Two children and a woman have survived in Blackrock Village until now. Everyone else, including the two ninth-rank mountain guardians, is dead. It's truly difficult to explain this with mere luck.

Either they did something right unintentionally, or they have some hidden secrets.

Ning Che remained calm and simply asked, "Can it be cured?"

"It's difficult. The biggest problem is that there's no medicine available right now," Zhong Hongyao shook her head.

Ning Che remained silent for a moment.

This moment was so unbearable for Lin Xiuer. Her gaze lingered between the boy, Ning Che, and Zhong Hongyao, her eagerness barely concealed.

Ning Che finally spoke, his voice calm, just like every other sentence before: "You said one mountain guard died at the outpost, and the other is missing. How did you know the situation at the outpost?"

Lin Xiuer's body stiffened slightly.

"I... heard it from the villagers." Her voice was a little lower than before. "After the accident, while there were still people alive in the village, they would pass on the news to each other."

"Who spread this?"

"I don't remember. Things were too chaotic back then."

Ning Che looked at her. He didn't press further, but he remembered her reaction.

"Let's go." He turned around. "Let's go check out the outpost."

Zhong Hongyao put away the silver needles, settled Lin Xiuer and the two children, and quickly followed.

Lin Ye was still on the ground, holding his head and looking at the sky. His face had become much paler, but his eyes were bloodshot.

Ning Che squatted down again, extending one hand: "Can you get up?"

Lin Ye didn't grab his hand. Instead, he straightened his chest and abdomen, flipped over, and jumped up.

The three of them headed west of the village to the place where the two mountain guards had their accident.

The further west you go, the colder it gets. Even though it's morning, the sunlight seems to be filtered through a layer of dirty water, casting a dim and weak glow.

Ning Che suddenly spoke, his voice very low.

"Zhong Hongyao, what exactly is Zhong Siqi's cultivation level?"

"Ninth rank, he's been a cultivator for over ten years." Zhong Hongyao lowered her voice as well. "He specializes in barrier techniques. His combat strength isn't particularly strong, but his defense and perception are top-notch among those of the same rank."

She didn't continue.

"Where is Lin Dayou?" Ning Che asked Lin Ye.

Lin Ye's voice was hoarse: "He's been a ninth-rank official for three years. He's good at archery, but not so good at close combat. I even had a drink with him before I left. He said he'd teach me a series of rapid-fire arrows when I came back."

Ning Che said thoughtfully, "Neither of them are reckless fools who would recklessly throw their lives away, right?"

Lin Ye's face darkened, and he remained silent. Zhong Hongyao nodded in agreement.

Ning Che said, "Either that thing is powerful enough to instantly kill two Rank 9 cultivators, or—they were completely unprepared when they died."

Zhong Hongyao paused for a moment.

"you mean……"

"The lack of preparedness suggests only one possibility. The attacker wasn't a demon, but a human. Moreover, it was someone they didn't perceive as needing to be wary of."

Ning Che's gaze swept over the two adjacent houses in front of him.

"For example, a child."

Zhong Hongyao was stunned. Lin Ye also stopped in his tracks.

"A child?" Lin Ye's voice was filled with disbelief. "You mean Lin Caiwei? How old is she? Just over ten. How could she possibly kill two ninth-rank officials?"

Ning Che didn't answer directly. He squatted down and pointed out the drag marks on the ground to them:

"These drag marks extended from the doorways of different houses and eventually flowed towards the outpost. Caiwei said that her mother went out to find food during the day but never went out at night. But she didn't say whether she herself had ever gone out."

He stood up and continued walking forward.

"Furthermore, Lin Xiuer just said that she heard the news of the mountain guards dying at the outpost from the villagers. But she said before that everyone panicked after the incident and only knew how to run. A group of villagers who only knew how to run, who would go to the outpost to check on the lives of the two mountain guards and then come back to spread the news?"

"More importantly—" he paused, "she said that when her man went missing in the middle of the night, she heard footsteps coming from the direction of the outpost. But she didn't say whether the footsteps were coming or leaving."

Zhong Hongyao's pupils contracted slightly.

"You mean... that night, it wasn't something that came to her house from the outpost. It was something that went to the outpost from her house."