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

The wind and snow were like knives.

This was the third day since Chen Chuan entered the territory of the Jin Kingdom.

The official road was buried under snow, making it impossible to discern directions. He could only rely on the map he had obtained from the old man to follow the mountain range northward. Along the way, he passed villages one after another, all of which were empty.

It wasn't deserted.

It was empty of living people.

At the entrance of the first village, three corpses hung from a crooked locust tree. Chen Chuan paused for a moment, but ultimately did not put them down, because even if he did, there would be nowhere to bury them, as the ground was frozen solid.

He could only keep walking.

In the second village, he heard the sound of a baby crying.

Following the sound, they found an infant still in swaddling clothes curled up in the arms of a woman's corpse in a half-collapsed mud-brick house. The infant's face was blue from the cold, and the cries were barely audible.

The woman was clearly the child's mother; before she died, she wrapped her last few clothes around the child.

Chen Chuan picked up the baby and transferred a breath of spiritual energy to it.

The baby's cries gradually grew louder, its little mouth moving as it instinctively snuggled into his arms.

He wrapped the baby in his Taoist robe and continued north.

In the third village, at the entrance of the village, there was an overturned wheelbarrow, and next to the wheelbarrow was a male corpse, kneeling, still holding a carrying pole in his hand, as if trying to protect his wife and children behind him. His wife and children lay three steps behind him.

Chen Chuan walked past them, his pace slowing down.

He lived two lives, totaling over a hundred years.

In my past life, I taught in a mountainous area and witnessed poverty and suffering.

In this life, I entered the path of immortality and witnessed rogue cultivators killing each other for a spirit stone, and demonic cultivators using living people as sacrifices to refine evil artifacts.

But he had never seen such a sight before.

Entire villages were ravaged by hunger, cold, and murder.

Nine out of ten houses are empty, and white bones cover the fields.

Chen Chuan held the baby and stood in the wind and snow for a long time.

Then he lowered his head, looked at the little face in his arms that was red from the cold, and whispered, "Follow me."

The baby stopped crying and looked at him with its big, dark eyes, as if it understood.

Chen Chuan wrapped him up even tighter and continued walking north.

……

On the evening of the fourth day, he discovered a dilapidated Taoist temple in a mountain valley.

Chen Chuan placed the baby on a makeshift bed made of withered grass, took out the last bit of spirit rice from his storage bag, and cooked a thin rice soup with snow water.

The baby drank the rice water and fell into a deep sleep.

Chen Chuan sat on the threshold, gazing at the wind and snow outside, and took out a map to compare.

According to those old men from the Jin Dynasty, the "Red Sun Lingzhi" was located on Iron Coffin Mountain.

It will arrive tomorrow.

Just as he was about to close his eyes and rest, he suddenly heard a faint rustling sound coming from outside the temple.

His eyes narrowed, and he shielded the infant behind him, gathering his inner energy at his fingertips.

After a while, a thin figure climbed in through the gap in the broken wall.

It's a girl.

He looked about eight or nine years old, as thin as a stick, with messy, tangled hair. He looked at Chen Chuan warily, like a frightened little animal.

Her gaze passed over Chen Chuan and landed on the sleeping baby behind him, where it stopped.

"Is he... still alive?" The girl's voice was so hoarse it was almost inaudible.

Chen Chuan slowly lowered his hand, and the golden light dissipated.

"To live."

The girl was silent for a while, then suddenly her body went limp and she collapsed to the ground.

Chen Chuan took out half a piece of dry rations from his storage bag and handed it over.

The girl took it, but didn't eat it; she just held it tightly in her hand, her eyes still fixed on the baby.

"Grandpa, please save them."

"them?"

"My younger brother, and the other children in the village," the girl's voice trembled. "Those immortals in black would come every three days and choose one child to take away... The children they took never came back."

She raised her head, her forehead bruised and swollen from hitting it: "I ran for a whole day and night, trying to find someone to save them, but everyone outside is dead... all of them are dead..."

Chen Chuan remained silent for a long time.

He came here to gather herbs, but he has not yet found the three medicinal plants. Xiao Jin is still lying in Songjian Gate waiting for the antidote.

If we linger here and something goes wrong, it could cost Xiao'er her life...

"Immortal Master."

The girl's voice interrupted his thoughts.

She looked at him.

"I can show you the way. I know how to get through that cave, when the guards change shifts, and where those black-clad immortals keep the captured children."

She paused, her voice hoarse but incredibly firm.

"If you promise to save my brother, my life is yours."

Chen Chuan looked at her and suddenly thought of Shu'er.

Those who cultivate the Tao should purify their minds and reduce their desires, and be humble and open-minded.

But if one stands by and does not offer assistance, what good is justice, what use is empty rhetoric?

"What's your name?" Chen Chuan asked.

The girl paused for a moment, then said, "Ah Ling."

"A-Ling." Chen Chuan stood up and straightened his Taoist robe. "Lead the way."

A-Ling led Chen Chuan through a grove of withered pine trees behind the dilapidated temple, trudging through knee-deep snow into the deeper mountain valley.

"Those black-clad immortals come to the village every three days to select people," A-Ling whispered as she walked ahead. "At first, they selected, but as the number of children in the village dwindled, it turned into robbery. Whoever hid a child would have their entire family killed."

"My father hid my brother and me in the sweet potato cellar and went out to distract them."

"And then?" Chen Chuan asked.

"Later... there was no later..." Ah Ling said.

Chen Chuan did not respond.

After walking for about an hour, Ah Ling stopped, squatted down, and parted a clump of withered grass.

Ahead was a narrow mountain crevice, with steep, knife-cut walls on both sides, allowing only one person to pass sideways.

"This is it."

"There are two men in black guarding the cave entrance, one in the open and one in the shadows. They take turns every hour. When they switch, the one in the shadows comes out, the two exchange a few words, and then switch places."

Chen Chuan's gaze sharpened slightly: "How do you know all this so clearly?"

Ah Ling paused for a moment, then said, "I've been lying here for three days."

Three days.

An eight or nine-year-old child lay in the snow for three days!

Chen Chuan gently took the baby off his arms and handed him to A Ling: "Hold him and hide behind that rock. No matter what you hear, don't come out or look."

A-Ling took the baby, nodded vigorously, and hid behind a large rock not far away while holding the child.

Chen Chuan straightened his Taoist robe and silently disappeared into the shadows of the mountain crevice.

……

At the end of the mountain crevice, there is a steep stone wall.

A bronze door is embedded in the stone wall, with a stone pillar standing on each side of the door.

Chen Chuan remained hidden in the shadows, his gaze sweeping across the doorway.

The guard in plain sight was a middle-aged man dressed in a black robe, leaning against a stone pillar, idly playing with a jade pendant in his hand.

The one in the shadows was hiding in a crevice in the rock above the left-hand stone pillar.

If Chen Chuan hadn't carefully scanned it with his divine sense, it would have been almost impossible to detect.

Fourth level of Qi Refining.

Both.

Chen Chuan silently calculated in his mind. With his Qi Refining Level 6 cultivation, killing these two in a head-on confrontation would not be difficult.

We just need to wait.

Waiting for the right time to rotate.

About half an hour later, the guard in the shadows suddenly moved.

He leaped down from the crevice, landing silently, and walked to the guard in the open, whispering, "My turn. You can go and rest."

The guard in the open yawned and handed over the jade token: "Why are you here earlier today?"

"The wind and snow are fierce outside, I'm freezing." The man in the shadows took the jade token and said irritably.

The guard laughed and cursed, then turned and walked out of the mountain crevice.

It's now!

Chen Chuan made a move.

It clung to the top of the stone wall like a silent shadow.

His fingertips gripped a very thin crack in the stone wall, and he was suspended in mid-air, looking down at the two people below.

The guard who was changing shifts was walking out of the mountain crevice when he suddenly stopped below Chen Chuan.

He seemed to sense something and looked up.

Chen Chuan didn't give him a chance to look up.

A golden light shot out from the fingertip and silently entered the Baihui acupoint on the top of the person's head.

The guard froze, his pupils contracted sharply, and his lips moved slightly, but no sound came out.

Chen Chuan caught his limp body and gently placed him on the ground without making a sound.

Then he raised his head and looked at the guard who was still standing in front of the door.

Chen Chuan moved like a night owl pouncing on its prey, darting towards the man's back.

The guard seemed to sense something and suddenly turned around.

A hand had already gripped his throat.

"you--"

Click.

Chen Chuan did not give him a chance to speak.

He dragged the bodies of the two guards deep into the crevice and found the dark red jade pendant on the waist of one of them.

Chen Chuan examined the artifact closely and found that the runes on the plaque and the runes on the door were indeed from the same source, indicating that it was a magical artifact for opening the bronze door.

He walked to the door and pressed the jade tablet into a recessed rune in the center of the door.

Perfectly fitted.

A sudden burst of eerie blue light illuminated the bronze door, which emitted a deep hum as it slowly slid open to the sides.

A sweet, fishy smell wafted towards me.

Chen Chuan's pupils suddenly contracted.

Dozens of iron cages were neatly arranged on both sides of the cave wall.

Each iron cage contained a child.

Next to the iron cage, there were several wooden barrels piled up.

The bucket contained a thick, dark red liquid that emitted a nauseating, fishy-sweet odor.

Chen Chuan's hands trembled involuntarily.

Having cultivated for over eighty years, he had seen demonic cultivators and killed monsters. He thought he had long since become indifferent to life and death, and that his Dao heart was as still as an ancient well.

But at this moment, looking at those small figures huddled in the iron cages...

He felt as if a fire was burning in his chest.

Chen Chuan took a slow breath, suppressing the surging anger in his chest, and stepped into the cave.

The children in the iron cage shrank back at the sound of footsteps.

"Don't be afraid," Chen Chuan said in a low voice, "I'm here to save you."