This village looked so beautiful and peaceful. How could anything possibly be wrong?
“Why do you always have to ruin everyone’s good mood?”
“What could possibly be wrong here? There’s absolutely nothing wrong, okay?”
“Do you sense any YaoGuai? You don’t. And look at the people here—everyone has such kind, cheerful smiles on their faces. There’s no way anything’s amiss.”
Lin Xiao had never believed in the goodness of the world. Even when he saw something beautiful with his own eyes, he couldn't bring himself to trust it. And now, although he couldn’t explain exactly what was wrong, he still couldn’t shake the unease.
“It’s true I don’t sense any YaoGuai presence here,” he admitted, “but something about this place just feels off.”
Liu Hai didn’t take Lin Xiao’s warning to heart. He simply felt calm and at peace in this village. It gave him a strange desire to stay, to stop wandering altogether.
Zhang Nu felt the same. He figured it was just because he’d been too tightly wound lately—maybe he just needed a proper break. By tomorrow, he thought, the strange feeling would be gone.
But what they didn’t realize was that the most dangerous snares weren’t the ones that struck swiftly. The cruelest traps boiled their prey slowly, like frogs in warm water. By the time you realized it, you were already a fish in someone else's net.
“Forget it, Lin Xiao. Let’s just rest here for a while,” Ling Xi said gently. “I don’t sense anything strange either. Maybe you’re just overtired from everything lately.”
Hearing that, Lin Xiao could only nod helplessly. If everyone else thought nothing was wrong, then he had no reason to keep his guard up alone. So, the group stayed for a few more days.
On the first day, Zhang Nu still circulated some of his internal energy. From that black mist, he’d acquired another martial technique—
Soul-Stealing Finger.
The moment Zhang Nu saw the name, he understood how that Black Mist had managed to control so many villagers. Their very souls had been taken, making them completely subject to the black mist’s will. Thankfully, they’d managed to save everyone in the end.
Zhang Nu never intended to cultivate the technique. In fact, he wanted to keep it hidden. This dangerous martial art shouldn't be allowed to fall into anyone's hands.
By the second day, though, Zhang Nu had completely lost the will to train. All he wanted was to relax and enjoy life in this peaceful village. He seemed to have forgotten why he came here at all.
Liu Hai felt the same, but he didn’t have Zhang Nu’s mental discipline. On the very first day, he had already started enjoying his “retirement.”
Only Lin Xiao remained vigilant. He couldn’t believe anything in this world could be that perfect. He saw through the illusion. As for Ling Xi, young and inexperienced, she still believed everything around her was real. She, too, was unaware of the village’s strange influence.
By the fourth day, Lin Xiao finally noticed something was seriously wrong.
“Have you noticed how lazy Zhang Nu and Liu Hai have gotten?” he said. “At the very least, Zhang Nu used to train every day. But now, all he does is sunbathe or nap.”
When Ling Xi heard that, she began to realize something wasn’t right either. Zhang Nu was always diligent when it came to cultivation—he never slacked off.
“You’re right,” she said. “Something about this doesn’t feel right. Zhang Nu and Liu Hai have grown lazier by the day. If this keeps up, maybe they’ll never want to leave.”
Lin Xiao nodded in agreement. They decided it was time to talk to Zhang Nu and Liu Hai.
But before they could, a loud commotion erupted outside, the first disruption this peaceful village had seen. The noise roused Zhang Nu and Liu Hai, who looked up irritated. The ruckus had awakened nearly the whole village, and everyone seemed annoyed.
“What’s going on? We should take a look,” Zhang Nu muttered.
The four of them stepped outside to investigate. What they saw surprised them—it was a mischievous young boy, shouting in the village square.
He was strikingly handsome, his features carrying a hint of rebellion. He looked completely out of place in this village.
“Stop trying to force me! I don’t want to spend my days lying around and sunbathing! I’m still young—I want to go out and see the world!”
But his family, upon hearing this, reacted as if he’d committed a great offense.