A sage master under the pine tree imparted the Dao and taught longevity.

Xiao Jin turned around, not returning to the palace, but instead went straight through the mountain gate and down the mountain through the snow.

He needs to know...

He needs to know!

What has become of that traitor who murdered his brother to seize the throne?

……

Outside Qingxi Town, on a barren slope.

Hundreds of Jin Dynasty refugees took temporary shelter here.

They built low huts with withered branches and rags. The roofs of the huts were covered with a thick layer of white, densely packed on the slope, looking like a patch of gray moss from a distance.

As Xiao Jin walked to the front of the slope, several local soldiers on duty recognized him and quickly clasped their hands in salute.

"Master Xiao".

Xiao Jin nodded slightly, his gaze sweeping over the shacks, and said calmly, "I want to find a few refugees from the Jin Kingdom to question. You go and pick a few older, knowledgeable ones and bring them to that tree over there."

The local militia obeyed and left.

Before long, three old men, supported by local soldiers, walked shakily to Xiao Jin.

All three were dressed in rags, their faces were sallow and thin, and their beards and hair were covered with ice crystals, clearly having endured the wind and snow for a long time.

Upon seeing Xiao Jin, the three hurriedly knelt down and addressed him as "Immortal Master".

Xiao Jin raised his hand to help him up and said gently, "No need for formalities, stand up and talk."

The three of them then stood up cautiously, still bowing their backs and not daring to look directly at each other.

Xiao Jin didn't mind and went straight to the point: "You're from the Jin Kingdom?"

The old man in the middle hurriedly replied, "Replying to the Immortal Master, my ancestral home is Nan'an Prefecture of the Jin Kingdom, while these two are from Linzhao Prefecture. We are both from the south."

"Nan'an Prefecture..." Xiao Jin's eyes flickered slightly.

That was a prefecture located right next to the former site of the Qingfeng Sword Sect.

He suppressed the surging emotions within him, keeping a calm expression, and asked, "What is the current situation in the Jin Kingdom? Why have you fled here?"

The three old men exchanged a glance, their faces all filled with bitterness.

It was the old man in the center who spoke again, his voice hoarse like a broken gong: "Immortal, you may not know, but the Jin Kingdom is no longer the Jin Kingdom it once was."

He wiped his eyes with trembling hands and slowly began to speak.

"When the late emperor was alive, although the taxes were heavy and life was hard, at least there was a way to survive. But since three years ago... alas, three years ago, Sun Jingshan suddenly launched an attack, colluding with a group of cultivators from who-knows-where, and stormed into the Forbidden City overnight..."

Xiao Jin's breath hitched.

Sun Jingshan.

Sure enough it was him.

Another old man chimed in, "That's right! That night, the Forbidden City was filled with the sounds of battle, and the firelight illuminated half the sky. The next morning, news spread that the late emperor had passed away, and that scoundrel Sun Jingshan helped an eight-year-old emperor ascend the throne, while he himself took the position of regent."

"He's called the Regent, but he's really just the Emperor Emeritus!" the third man spat, indignantly. "Those in the court who obey him prosper, and those who oppose him perish. Two years ago, Vice Minister Zhou of the Ministry of Revenue submitted a memorial requesting that he return power to the Emperor, and the next day he was found hanged in his own study. Everyone knows he did it, but who dares to utter a single word of dissent?"

"That's all well and good," the old man in the middle sighed. "We are just ordinary people. What does it matter to us who sits on the throne? As long as we can survive, who cares what the emperor's surname is!"

He raised his head, his eyes filled with despair: "Ever since Sun Jingshan took power, I don't know what evil he's been possessed by, but he's been collecting young boys and girls on a large scale, claiming he wants to refine elixirs for those 'immortal masters' who helped him seize the throne..."

"My grandson..." His voice choked, and he couldn't continue.

Another old man chimed in, "Not only are they catching children, but the taxes have also increased several times over, supposedly to support the 'immortal master' and build a temple. The people can't survive anymore. At first, they fled in small groups, but later they fled in large numbers."

"This year's heavy snow has only made matters worse."

The third person said, "The crops froze to death, the livestock froze to death, and even the grass roots and tree bark were almost completely eaten away. We people all crawled out of the gates of hell..."

He paused here, glancing cautiously at Xiao Jin, and dared not continue.

Xiao Jin remained silent for a long time.

Collecting young boys and girls...

Offering to the Immortal Master...

He recalled the day the Qingfeng Sword Sect was destroyed, and the black-robed man who stood on the edge of the battlefield and shattered all his relatives with a single sword.

Is this the so-called immortal master?

"Those 'Immortal Masters'"

Xiao Jin asked, "What is their background?"

The three old men shook their heads in unison.

"We mere mortals have no idea about the origins of these immortal masters."

He was about to ask another question when suddenly—

A rapid gong sound came from afar.

"Bang—bang—bang—"

Xiao Jin suddenly looked up.

In the southeastern sky, a plume of black smoke rose straight up like a pillar, standing out starkly against the backdrop of the snow-covered landscape.

Then, the second one.

The third way.

The fourth one!

One smoke billow after another rose along the border between the Great Wilderness Mountain and the Jin Kingdom.

Xiao Jin's pupils suddenly contracted.

All sixty-two fortified villages and sixty-two smoke signals were lit.

problem occurs!

He didn't have time to ask any more questions. With a swift movement, his feet moved like the wind, and he became a blur as he sped towards the nearest fortified village.

Behind them, the three old men looked at each other, wondering what had happened.

……

On the stone wall of the fortress, dozens of local militiamen stood, their faces pale and their eyes filled with fear.

Upon seeing Xiao Jin arrive, the village chief hurriedly stepped forward, kneeling on one knee, his voice trembling: "Immortal Xiao! You've finally arrived!"

Xiao Jin grabbed him and pulled him up, saying in a deep voice, "What's the panic? What happened?"

The village headman pointed towards the pass, his lips trembling, and after a long pause, he managed to squeeze out a sentence: "Refugees... refugees! Countless refugees!"

Xiao Jin released him, strode up the stone wall, and looked into the distance.

In an instant, his breath caught in his throat.

Beyond the pass lies a long, narrow valley.

At this moment, a dense mass of people surged into the valley, like a flood bursting its banks, heading towards the Great Wilderness Mountain.

The crowds stretched as far as the eye could see, covering the entire mountainside.

Xiao Jin's brows furrowed tightly.

He leaped down the stone wall and strode toward the group of refugees, followed nervously by dozens of local militiamen armed with fire grenades and crossbows.

Those at the front of the refugee procession stopped in their tracks when they saw someone coming to greet them.

Xiao Jin approached, his gaze sweeping over the crowd, and asked loudly, "Where do you all come from?"

From the crowd, a middle-aged man mustered his courage and stepped forward, kneeling down in the snow and kowtowing repeatedly: "Immortal Master! Immortal Master, save us! We are fleeing from the Jin Kingdom, and countless people have died along the way... Please, Immortal Master, take us in! Please, Immortal Master, give us a way to live!"

Behind him, a dense crowd of people knelt down in unison.

"Please, Immortal Master, take me in!"

"Please, Immortal Master, save my life!"

The cries of anguish shook the heavens and echoed endlessly through the valley.

Xiao Jin's face was ashen. He raised his hand and gestured for everyone to be quiet.

"I am Xiao Jin, a disciple of Songjian Sect."

"I ask you, who told you that the Great Wilderness Mountain would take you in?"

The middle-aged man raised his head, looking bewildered, and said, "It's...it's that people along the way have spread the word that Immortal Chen Chuan of the Great Wilderness Mountain is kind-hearted and will definitely help us. They also said that there is food and land here, and that we can survive if we come...Immortal, is it...isn't that true?"

Xiao Jin's heart sank suddenly.

Someone is relaying a message?

Is someone guiding you?

This was not a spontaneous escape; it was deliberately orchestrated.

who is it?

He suppressed his doubts and said in a deep voice, "Do you know that before you, thousands of disaster victims have poured into this place, and the granaries of the five towns are almost empty?"

The crowd immediately stirred.

"What? There's no food?"

"Then we came for nothing?"

"So many people died along the way, and we finally got here, only to find out we have no food?!"

"We don't believe it! You must be deliberately making excuses to avoid taking us in!"

Someone in the crowd shouted loudly.

People started pushing forward.

The militiamen nervously raised their fire bombs and aimed them at the surging crowd.

Just then, someone in the crowd suddenly raised their arms and shouted, "Fellow villagers! These immortals are high and mighty, they don't care about the lives of us mortals! If they won't give it to us, we'll take it ourselves! Charge in, seize the granary, and only then can we live!"

"Yeah! Steal it from the hell!"

"Charge!"

Several strong men rushed out first, followed by a group of incited refugees, surging towards the pass in a dark mass.

Xiao Jin's eyes turned completely cold.

He suddenly moved.

With a light touch of his toes, he leaped up like a large, dark bird, heading straight for the burly man who was leading the clamor.

The man only saw a dark shadow flash before his eyes, and before he could react, a cold hand had already gripped his throat.

"you--"

He uttered only one word.

Click.

The sound of the throat bones shattering was exceptionally clear in the wind and snow.

Xiao Jin casually flicked his wrist, and the man's corpse flew several feet away like a tattered sack, crashing heavily into the snow.

Everyone was stunned.

Immediately afterwards, Xiao Jin moved again, weaving through the crowd like a ghost. With each move, a burly man who had been causing trouble fell down.

Three breaths.

Five breaths.

When he landed back in his original position, there were seven more corpses on the snow.

The bright red blood seeped into the white snow, a shocking sight.

The refugees were stunned.

They never expected that this boy, who looked to be only ten years old, would be so decisive and ruthless, killing without batting an eye.

That's seven lives!

The once surging crowd instantly fell silent.

Xiao Jin slowly raised his right hand, his gaze sweeping over everyone.

"Anyone who dares to take another step forward will die."

No one dared to make a move.

Even the baby's cries were tightly muffled by the mother, who dared not make a sound.

Just then.

In the crowd, a gaunt old man, huddled in a corner and inconspicuous, slowly raised his head.

He stared at Xiao Jin's retreating figure, a sinister glint flashing in his murky eyes.

A withered hand, resembling a chicken claw, quietly reached into his robes and pulled out a black bead the size of a thumb.

The bead was entirely black, with countless tiny runes engraved on its surface.

He silently recited a few incantations.

The runes on the black bead suddenly lit up, emitting a faint dark light.

He set his sights on Xiao Jin.

A gentle flick...