With half a game of chess, I vanquish all demons!

In the courtyard, the woman was tied to the doorway of the main room, with ropes wrapped around her body, bound like a silkworm cocoon.

She tilted her head, her disheveled hair partially obscuring her face, and kept repeating the same sentence:

"Child, run! Run fast!"

This face does look somewhat familiar.

Zhao Yao frowned, squatted down and got closer, carefully examining the woman's face and searching his memory for details.

He had only been in this world for a short time, and the number of people who had left an impression on him could be counted on one hand. Who were they?

As he thought about it, he looked again at the ropes binding the woman.

Round and round and round, yet loose, unlike the others who were bound by Song Angran, it was more like she bound herself up.

"Child, run! Run fast!"

The woman tilted her head timidly, then suddenly cried out again, her voice trembling.

That one sound made a face pop into Zhao Yao's mind.

It's that doll!

The woman and the silly child tied to the buffalo's back looked very alike; both had small round faces and big eyes.

Realizing the connection between the woman and the doll, Zhao Yao re-examined the ropes binding the woman and recalled the situation when the doll was tied to the water buffalo's back. He seemed to understand something and tried to reconstruct the truth in his mind:

A woman who realized she was being corrupted by magic, or who saw the villagers being corrupted one by one, tied her child to the back of a water buffalo in order to protect her child, and let the buffalo carry the child out of the village that was about to fall.

Then, in her already confused state, the obsession with not harming the child began to take effect, and the woman tied herself up with rope again and again.

Zhao Yao didn't know if his guess was correct, but he did recall the incident of a child being tied to the back of a water buffalo.

—Yan Rouyun had told him that when they were chasing him before, they tied the child back to the back of the water buffalo.

"Logically speaking, Song Angran has already reported it to the Heavenly Dao Division, so you should all be fine. Yan Rouyun is also a kind-hearted woman, so the child will definitely be alright. I don't need to interfere..."

"Hey, it's not good to keep worrying about this. Let's give it a try, I don't know if it will help you."

When Zhao Yao thought of the baby and saw the woman's dry, chapped lips, he couldn't help but feel annoyed and decided to try to help.

"Yuan Qi, join forces!" 』

He silently recited a mantra, and as the primordial energy possessed him, he drew his dagger, cut his finger, and blood instantly gushed out.

Then, he reached out and grabbed the woman's hair, turning her head so that it faced him, and shoved his bleeding finger into her mouth.

In an instant, the woman's eyes lit up, and she bit her finger and began to suck on it desperately.

Despite the pain, Zhao Yao carefully observed her changes.

As the blood essence entered her stomach, her complexion visibly became rosy.

A large amount of pure primordial energy was injected into the woman's body. Only when the primordial energy began to dissipate from her body did Zhao Yao withdraw his finger and retract the possessing primordial energy doll.

He glanced inside and discovered that the vital energy within the jade chess piece, which had surged after consuming the pills looted from the village, had been completely depleted.

"So be it. The ill-gotten gains obtained from you will be used back on you. It's karma."

Seeing the woman's expression return to normal, her eyes close, and her fall into a deep sleep, Zhao Yao sighed, gently helped her to the ground, cut the ropes for her, and stood up.

Even lower-grade blood essence could help Yan Rouyun awaken her phoenix blood, let alone these purer primordial qi.

Zhao Yao infused the woman with his primordial energy, hoping to use this pure primordial energy of high rank to perform a powerful exorcism and righteous restoration.

Now it seems that the symptoms caused by the demonic possession on this woman have subsided, and her vital energy must have been effective.

Her current slumber is merely a self-protective state entered as the incredible power of the demonic influence fades, the damage it caused reappears, and she begins to be healed by the primordial energy.

Zhao Yao gave her a deep look, then turned and left the courtyard.

squeak~

He gently closed the courtyard gate, left the village, and headed towards Shanyin Village.

The courtyard was quiet. As time passed, the sun rose higher and its rays shone on the woman's face.

"uh-huh……"

The woman closed her eyes, her breathing became heavy, and she frowned.

She lay on the ground, instinctively raising her hand to shield her eyes, turning to the side to avoid the light, and slowly opened her eyes.

She blinked quickly to adjust to the light, feeling an unprecedented sense of comfort in her body. She looked somewhat bewildered at the scattered and severed ropes binding her.

"……child."

She uttered a sound, her eyes suddenly focusing, and a look of worry appeared on her face.

Without wasting time thinking or hesitating, she immediately stood up, rushed out of the courtyard, and ran down the mountain.

……

In Shanyin Village, Zhao Yao, holding a bottle of pills he had just plundered, stepped out from behind a wall and silently watched the woman's back as she relentlessly headed down the mountain.

"Good luck."

He gave the woman a blessing, and Zhang swallowed the pill.

The medicine took effect quickly, and wisps of primordial energy rose out and were incorporated into the chess pieces by the jade figure.

Zhao Yao closed his eyes and entered his inner vision, watching with his own eyes as the primordial energy of the third flame layer within the jade chess piece jumped upwards by a fraction, rippled slightly, and then stopped.

"So little..."

He opened his eyes helplessly.

Then, after thinking it over and over, he looked up at the mountain peak, decisively got up, and started walking up the mountain along the path.

There are three villages in Huangyan Mountain.

We've already looted Shanyin and Shanyao villages, but there's still Shanyang village left.

Along the path, Zhao Yao diligently practiced the Warrior Breathing Technique, his steps never faltering, and soon he reached the mountaintop, where he could see Shanyang Village on the other side of the mountain in the distance.

He withdrew his gaze from Shanyang Village, stood still, observed the surroundings, chose a path that seemed to lead to Shanyang Village, and began to walk along it.

Before long, Zhao Yao was surprised to find that he was lost.

"...Why is there no road ahead?"

Zhao Yao stood speechlessly at the end of the path, stopping among the strangely shaped trees with their branches and twigs.

wow~

wow~

A bird that looked like a crow landed nearby and let out a mocking cackle at him.

"Go... this place should not be far from Shanyang Village."

Holding a grudge, Zhao Yao picked up a stone, threw the bird away, and rejected the idea of ​​"going back to the mountaintop and trying another path."

He leaned against a large tree, recalled the location of Shanyang Village from the mountaintop, estimated his current position, chose the approximate location of Shanyang Village, and charged straight up.

As it turned out, his choice was correct.

He stumbled through the woods, his steps uneven, and before long, he saw Shanyang Village again ahead.

He looked at Shanyang Village and breathed a sigh of relief. He was about to hurry up and get to the village when, after taking a few steps, his vision suddenly opened up and his body froze.

Ahead, there's a pit.

The pit was filled with dried-out corpses!