409: Chapter 419 Nighttime Movements

The rain at Fengling Ferry finally stopped at midnight.

On the eaves of Yuelai Inn, residual rainwater dripped from the dilapidated tiles onto the bluestone slabs, making a monotonous and dull sound. The air was filled with a thick smell of earth and the sour stench of fermented low-quality fodder.

Inside the first-class guest room, no lamps were lit.

Su Ming sat cross-legged on the somewhat damp wooden bed, his eyes slightly closed. The liquid spiritual energy of the Foundation Establishment Stage moved through his Meridians like streams of deep blue, flowing silently and steadily. He maintained the Breath Concealment Art at an extremely subtle balance point, neither appearing conspicuous nor failing to perfectly blend his aura into this mundane inn filled with the turbid Qi of the Mortal World.

Divine Sense released.

Although in this turbid mundane world, the detection range of Divine Sense was forcibly compressed by thirty percent, it was still more than enough to cover this small inn.

In a corner of the lobby downstairs, several drunk Jianghu travelers were lying sprawled out on benches, snoring thunderously. In the stable, the two Dian horses were snorting uneasily. In the next room, Elder Qingquan's breathing was long and even, clearly sleeping soundly.

Just then, Su Ming's brow twitched slightly.

From the direction of the inn's backyard came an extremely faint sound. It sounded like some kind of withered branch dragging on the muddy ground, ethereal and indistinct, but in the ears of a Foundation Establishment Cultivator, it was as clear as a thunderclap.

Su Ming did not get up; he simply extended his Divine Sense quietly.

Under the eaves outside the woodshed in the backyard, several strings of dried noodles and coarse jerky were hung up to keep dry. These were the crude foodstuffs the inn used to dismiss poor passing porters.

At this moment, three silhouettes as thin as sticks were pressed tightly against the base of the wall, moving bit by bit toward the dry rations under the cover of night.

They were three refugees.

The oldest looked no more than fourteen or fifteen, while the youngest was likely only seven or eight. Their clothes had long since become tattered rags that barely covered their vital areas, and the three children were shivering from the cold.

But their eyes, as they looked at the dry rations, held the gaze of a beast's survival instinct.

The oldest youth gritted his teeth, stepped on the shoulders of another slightly sturdier child, and tremblingly reached out a hand covered in chilblains and grime, desperately trying to reach the string of dried noodles hung a bit high.

Their movements were very light, but their hunger-weakened bodies ultimately could not maintain balance.

"Clatter—"

The child at the bottom slipped and stepped on an old clay pot, producing a crisp cracking sound.

This sound was infinitely magnified in the silent night.

"Who's in the backyard?!"

From the kitchen in the front hall of the inn, a powerful shout immediately rang out. Following that, a series of hurried footsteps accompanied by the sound of a wooden stick dragging on the ground rapidly approached.

The Waiter was awakened. Waiters in this kind of border inn often practiced a few days of rudimentary martial arts, specifically to guard against these petty-thieving refugees.

"Thieves! I'll break your dog legs!"

The Waiter held a thick jujube wood stick, cursing as he kicked open the kitchen door and strode toward the backyard.

The three children in the backyard were scared out of their wits, their Soul Flying Away and Spirit Scattering. The oldest youth yanked down half a string of rations and fell heavily into the muddy water from mid-air. Ignoring the intense pain in his body, he scrambled to grab the rations and pulled his two companions toward the wooden door of the backyard.

However, that dilapidated wooden door had already been tightly locked by the Waiter with a thick door bolt at nightfall.

The three children desperately pushed and pulled at the wooden door, but that heavy door bolt was like a bronze wall or iron bastion to their weak bodies.

The footsteps grew closer, and the shadow of the Waiter holding a torch was already projected onto the backyard wall.

A flash of despair crossed the oldest youth's eyes. He suddenly turned around, shielding his two younger companions behind him, and tightly clutched that half-string of mud-stained rations in his arms like a small wolf driven into a corner.

Inside the second-floor guest room.

Su Ming sat quietly in the darkness. His right index finger was slightly curled, and a wisp of deep blue spiritual energy, a hundred times thinner than a strand of hair, lingered at his fingertip.

With his cultivation, he only needed a single thought to make that Waiter fall into a deep sleep instantly.

But he did not act immediately.

"For an immortal cultivator, the greatest taboo is becoming entangled in mortal Karma."

"War, famine, refugees—these are the Heavenly Dao cycles of Dynasty changes in the Mortal World. You can save one, but you cannot save ten thousand. Forcibly intervening will only bring trouble upon yourself."

Reason rapidly analyzed the pros and cons in his mind. This was the bloodiest jungle Law of the cultivation world, and also the way of survival he had learned over the past five years while walking on thin ice in the Cloud Hidden Sect.

However, his Divine Sense clearly captured the youngest refugee child.

That child was clutching the youth's hem tightly, his face—gaunt from hunger—filled with terror. His lips were bitten until they bled, yet he forced himself not to cry out.

Those eyes reminded Su Ming of the fellow villagers outside Qingshi Town years ago, who had been driven to a dead end because they couldn't pay their taxes.

Su Ming took a deep breath of the cold air.

Reason told him not to care.

But in a corner of his heart, a force was tightly pulling at his finger.

The Waiter had already rushed to the corner of the backyard, the jujube wood stick in his hand held high, the torchlight illuminating the three children's pale faces.

"You little brats, you dare steal from your grandpa!"

The wooden stick swung down fiercely with the sound of wind.

Su Ming's eyes snapped open in the darkness.

That curled index finger, after all, lightly flicked out.

An extremely obscure current of spiritual energy accurately struck the door bolt of the backyard's wooden door.

"Click."

A slight crisp sound.

That heavy wooden door bolt, which had been stuck fast, seemed to be lightly lifted by an invisible hand and slid smoothly out of its slot.

The wooden door, no longer obstructed by the bolt, creaked open a crack under the blowing night wind.

The oldest youth was stunned for a split second. He didn't even think about why the door had suddenly opened; survival instinct made him slam the wooden door open and pull his two companions, like three startled mice, plunging headlong into the pitch-black rainy night outside.

The Waiter's jujube wood stick slammed heavily onto the empty ground, splashing mud everywhere.

He chased out of the wooden door with his torch, looked at the dark and deep alley outside, then looked down at the door bolt that had fallen to the ground, scratching his hair irritably.

"Damn it! Consider yourselves lucky you little brats ran fast!"

The Waiter grumbled as he picked up the door bolt from the ground, relocked the backyard gate, and walked back to the front hall yawning.

The second-floor guest room returned to dead silence.

Su Ming slowly walked to the window and pushed open a crack.

The cold night wind, mixed with moisture, blew against his face.

He looked at the pitch-black alley in the distance; the three thin silhouettes had long since vanished without a trace.

Su Ming didn't know if they could survive this cold night, nor did he know how many more days those half-string of muddy rations they snatched could let them linger on.

He looked down at the lusterless xuantian ring on his right middle finger.

The ring was icy cold and gave no reaction. Lin Yu was still in a deep sleep.