82: Chapter 82 Daliu Village

At the entrance of Daliu Village.

An old willow tree, thick enough for three people to embrace, leaned crookedly beside the village path. Its branches drooped all the way to the ground, making it a great spot for the villagers to escape the summer heat.

At this moment, a dozen children were crowded under the tree. Some were sitting on the ground, others were lying on the tree roots, and a few older kids were chasing each other with wooden sticks not far away.

Right in the middle of the crowd, a bald boy was speaking with spittle flying everywhere. One of his feet was planted on a tree root, and he was clutching a willow branch to use as a sword.

"You guys didn't see it! That vicious dog from Funiu County stood taller than me, and its teeth were this long!"

He gestured with the willow branch near his mouth, showing a distance of a full half-arm's length.

"When it charged over, Old Three from the Zhang family was so scared he wet his pants! I didn't take a single step back; I picked up a carrying pole and rushed forward, striking right at the bridge of its nose with a single whack—with a howl, that beast tucked its tail and ran away!"

The surrounding children listened with shining eyes, and a few of the younger ones already had their mouths wide open, their faces filled with adoration.

"Big Brother Daniu is amazing!"

"Even such a big dog is afraid of you!"

"Will Big Brother Daniu be able to become an Immortal Master in the future?"

On the outer edge of the shade, a half-grown teenager wearing a lapel-front cloth tunic was leaning against the tree trunk with his arms crossed, letting out a hum from his nose.

The clothes on his body were made of fine cotton cloth, making him particularly eye-catching among a group of children wearing coarse hemp short jackets. At his waist hung a faded peace talisman, something only tenants of the Wang family possessed.

"Alright, alright, stop listening to him spout nonsense. That vicious dog wasn't chased away by him; it was because the dog's owner heard our village is a tenant of the Wang family, so he shamefully pulled the dog away."

"He was so scared his face turned pale at that time, and his hand holding the carrying pole shook like a sifting sieve. He didn't take a single step back? More like he was too scared to move his legs, right?"

Everyone burst into laughter.

The bald boy's face instantly turned red, his hand clutching the willow branch freezing mid-air, neither moving forward nor pulling back.

A little girl squeezed to the front, a snot bubble on her face popping with a pop. She hastily wiped it with her sleeve and said loudly,

"I... I believe Big Brother Daniu! Big Brother Daniu is so awesome, he definitely beat that dog away!"

The bald boy was stunned for a moment. Looking at the little girl's sparkling eyes, his lips moved.

He slowly put down the willow branch, lowered his head to kick the moss on the tree root, and spoke in a voice so low only he could hear: "Am I amazing? At that time, that dog stood taller than me, and I was actually so scared my legs went soft. If Uncle Lao Zhang hadn't shouted that this was the Wang family's estate, when that dog lunged, I'd probably be a snack by now."

As soon as his voice fell, a child on the outer circle suddenly screamed out: "Look! In the sky! There's something in the sky!"

All the children raised their heads in unison.

Two streaks of light were cutting across the northern horizon, one fast and one slow, flying straight toward the village.

The crimson-gold lightning in front was as fast as a shooting star, while the cyan sword light behind flew crookedly.

"It's an Immortal! An Immortal is here!"

"Why are the Immortals coming to our village? They're flying lower and lower!"

"They're really heading straight for us! Run, the Immortals are coming to catch children!"

It was no wonder they panicked; Daliu Village was too far from Lotus Pier, and the Immortal Masters of the Wang family couldn't visit even once in a few years. Instead, occasionally passing Loose Cultivators would press down their light to enter the village and beg for some food. Those with a good attitude would ask for a bowl of water and leave, while those with a bad attitude would directly carry away a few bags of grain that the villagers had left drying at the village entrance, claiming it was "compensation for the Immortal Master exorcising evil spirits for you."

Two years ago, a child in the neighboring Stone Village was taken away by a Loose Cultivator descending from the sky under the guise of taking a disciple. As a result, the child's parents chased after them for three miles and couldn't get him back, and to this day they still didn't know whether the child was dead or alive.

Ever since then, the children of these few villages would run away the moment they saw escaping light in the sky, running faster than if they saw a wolf.

High up in the air, Wang Qingcheng stepped on her delicate Flying Sword, already able to neatly follow behind Wang Shouren.

She didn't pay any attention to the fact that things had blown up down below, and was looking around with great interest.

In the distance were rolling green mountains, and nearby were large swathes of terraced fields, with a few sesame-seed-sized figures bending over to hoe the fields on the ridges.

She took a deep breath, feeling that even the air was different from Lotus Pier, exuding a fresh and sweet scent mixed with grass and soil.

"Brother, it's so much fun out here!" She pointed at a hillside in the distance covered in wildflowers. "Look over there, so many flowers! They're even prettier than the lotus pond at our Lotus Pier!"

Without turning his head, Wang Shouren reached out and pulled her closer to his side, lest she focus entirely on the flowers and take a headfirst tumble down.

"Brother, do you think even if we can't test our Spiritual Roots, can we stay a little longer? I've never seen how Mortals farm before, I want to go down and take a look!"

Wang Qingcheng tugged at his sleeve, her eyes sparkling.

Wang Shouren lowered his head to glance at her, the corners of his mouth curling up slightly as he was about to say something, when his gaze suddenly swept across the old willow tree at the village entrance below.

The children under the tree had already scattered like birds and beasts. A few of the younger ones ran too hurriedly, tripped over the tree roots, and fell face-first into the mud. Even after getting up, they didn't have time to dust themselves off and ran crying and wailing toward the village.

A few slightly bolder older teenagers hid behind an earthen wall, sticking out half their heads, clutching sharpened wooden sticks in their hands, their faces turning pale with nervousness.

He put away the slight smile at the corners of his mouth, raised his hand to signal his younger sister to quiet down, and then slowed down his escaping light, pressing his altitude to less than three zhang from the ground, hovering above the old willow tree at the village entrance.

Wang Shouren spoke loudly toward below: "The Wang family of Lotus Pier in Baishan County has come to test the spiritual aptitude of children of appropriate age. Everyone need not panic, we are not bad people."

"Bad people never say they are bad people!" Behind the earthen wall, a bald boy shouted at the top of his lungs. As soon as he finished shouting, he immediately pulled his head back behind the wall, leaving only half a bald forehead exposed.

It was precisely that bald Daniu who had been boasting under the willow tree just moments ago.

Several older children nearby also gathered their courage and chimed in all at once.