Early March brought the spring with a sudden, bitter chill, and the children all came down with the flu. Perhaps due to their remote location deep in the mountains, this outbreak was unusually severe, triggering complications like high fevers and dysentery, and even striking down many of the young, strong villagers.
Without the two specific herbs needed to cure the flu entirely, she could only leave behind remedies to treat the symptoms. She taught the villagers how to decoct the medicine and instructed them to administer it to the children three times a day.
Because little Ping'an was a newborn, her immune system was weaker, and her illness struck with even greater ferocity. Tang Li left behind a safety lock infused with Spiritual Power to nourish the child's body before she finally set her mind at ease and ventured deep into the mountains in search of herbs.
Along the way, the Egg had witnessed everything Tang Li did.
Tang Li, who had always suffered from a severe fear of heights, was now scaling sheer cliffs and precipitous walls for the sake of those children, all to gather scarce medicinal herbs. The Egg was now certain that Tang Li must have had her own reasons for setting out to kill the protagonist and the villainous cannon fodder.
At that, the Egg quietly breathed a sigh of relief. Tang Li was not some heinous, irredeemable villain. Nor did it need to live in daily terror, guarding against her destroying the world.
Tang Li was confident in her pharmacological knowledge; she knew the prescription she left behind would at least allow the villagers to hold out for a month until she returned.
Because of little Ping'an, Tang Li's plan was to return within ten days. Time was pressing, and the deep mountains were vast, so she had no choice but to keep her spiritual sense wide open every single moment to perceive the presence of the herbs.
Finally, on the seventh day, she discovered the herbs inside a snake den.
The cave was coiled with dense masses of snakes. The Snake King was nowhere to be seen—perhaps it had gone out in search of food, or perhaps it was watching her from the shadows.
Tang Li had to admit that she was, at heart, a terribly cowardly person. She was afraid of heights, ghosts, and snakes alike. Especially when she thought about a Snake King lurking in the dark and watching her right now, a sudden chill ran down her spine.
She cautiously surveyed her surroundings; aside from the rustling of bamboo in the wind, there was not a sound.
Gritting her teeth, she released the coercive pressure of the Golden Core Realm, hoping to frighten the serpents away. However, she overdid it: the snakes that had been writhing everywhere instantly collapsed flat onto the ground, not daring to twitch a muscle, looking precisely as though they were dead.
Steeling her heart, Tang Li walked in with trembling steps, pulled the medicinal herbs out by the roots, and brought them outside.
Just as she emerged from the cave and before she could even exhale a breath of relief, she heard a hiss from behind. She instantly rolled to the side, narrowly dodging an attack from the Snake King.
She had no desire to fight. Several consecutive days of high-intensity use of her spiritual sense had drained her Spiritual Power to a critical degree.
Thus, she could only release her coercive pressure, hoping to force the Snake King to back down. After all, in this world where the path of cultivation had fallen into decline, someone in the Golden Core Realm could serve as an elder in any sect whatsoever.
The Snake King neither retreated nor attacked. It simply sized her up, as if weighing something in its mind.
Generally speaking, those of higher cultivation could detect the true strength of those below them. Right now, Tang Li could not sense the true power of this Snake King, and she was certain its strength was no way inferior to her own.
Whichever of them managed to take down the other would find it immensely beneficial to their own cultivation.
Spiritual beasts that stepped into the Golden Core Realm would condense an inner core within their bodies—a rare and precious treasure for any pill alchemist.
Tang Li thought to herself that if she could manage to take it down, she might even be able to retake her Golden Core.
Yet her strength and the Snake King's were evenly matched. If they truly fought, Tang Li was confident she could win, but it would take a great deal of time, and little Ping'an could not afford to wait that long.
After weighing the pros and cons, she made up her mind to return for the Snake King's core at another time. Right now, the most important thing was to take the medicine back to save lives.
She observed that the Snake King had stopped its attack purely because of the eggshell pendant hanging from her belt. The Egg had told her to wear it at her waist, claiming it would be of great use to her.
She removed the eggshell and held it up in one hand, while holding up the medicinal herbs in the other. Two minutes later, she hung the eggshell on a protruding rock inside the cave, stepped back to her original position, and summoned her sword.
Her meaning was entirely clear: an exchange of goods. If the Snake King disagreed, she would resort to force.
The Snake King lingered in stillness for a dozen minutes, likely weighing the pros and cons as well. Finally, it slithered back into the cave, signaling its consent.
Tang Li broke out in a fine sweat of tension. Seeing that the Snake King no longer pursued the matter, she let out a breath of relief, turned around, and hurried back to Xiaozhu Village without a moment's rest.
She traveled through the night, finally reaching the village before dawn. Yet what greeted her was not adorable children nor kind villagers, but a scene of utter ruin—ruins with earth soaked in blood.
The Egg, upon discovering that the item it had given her was missing, had just opened its mouth to scold her when it beheld the scene before its eyes. It fell silent at once, merely watching Tang Li's emotions with anxious caution.
Tang Li stood frozen in place, at a loss, before she finally forced herself to move.
With the remnants of her reason, she gathered clues about the perpetrators. In the process, she picked up little Ping'an's safety lock, which was stained with a large patch of blood.
She kept a tight rein on her grief to keep her mind from shattering, spending an entire day carrying all the bodies to one spot before cremating them.
Amidst the roaring flames, she took out the flute she used to teach the children and played "Returning Home" for them one last time.
The tune was out of key, lacking its usual melodic sweetness, because it was mingled with unspeakable tears.
She played through the entire night.
The second day, she collected everyone's belongings and erected a cenotaph for them. After sitting quietly in front of the mound for a while, she made to leave when she noticed the Snake King watching her from not far away.
A flash of divine intuition struck Tang Li, and she felt certain the Snake King must know something.
She walked toward the Snake King, and only when she came within ten paces did it turn and begin to crawl away.
It led the way in front, and Tang Li followed behind.
As it turned out, behind the mountains of Xiaozhu Village lay yet another hill, shielded from view by the overlapping peaks in front. It was entirely invisible from the outside; only those who had been here would know it existed.
The outermost perimeter of the hill was shrouded by a barrier—a dense forest of towering green bamboo reaching into the heavens, thick fog winding through them. Only by following the Snake King could Tang Li avoid getting lost within.
At the very center of the hill stood an ancestral hall. Stone-carved divine beasts guarded the left and right sides, but sadly, the hall had already been burned down, and the stone statues smashed. Judging by the marks, these events must have occurred just a few days ago.
Once the Snake King led her there, it coiled up on the open ground, signaling for her to go inside while it waited outside.
Tang Li pushed open the door and stepped in. The interior was a wasteland; flames were still licking at a few spots, and every single ancestral spirit tablet had been burned to ash.
She searched meticulously through every corner, finding an arrow head and an exquisitely embroidered sachet. Inside the sachet was a miniature painting accompanied by a poem written alongside it: "Quiet Night Thoughts."
Tang Li furrowed her brows tightly, laying out the clues she currently possessed and sorting them into a clear sequence.
First, she was now certain that she was not the only modern person who had come to this world.
Second, it was at least connected to Yuncheng; Liu Yiyi had stated that she was from Yuncheng.
Third, those who crossed over knew that the world would reset, because before leaving, Liu Yiyi had said to wait for her to come home. Her meaning was not that her mother, Liu Fang, was waiting for her to return home, but rather that she was telling Tang Li to wait for her to come back so they could go home together.
This was the conclusion Tang Li had reached after much thought.
Fourth, the people who had crossed over recently only assumed the world would reset, remaining completely unaware that the reset had already been canceled. The world had altered the reset into reincarnation.
Therefore, Tang Li could not be certain whether the world would permit an otherworldly entity like Liu Yiyi to reincarnate.
She dragged the Egg out and asked with a stern expression: "Do you know how many people in this world came from the same place I did?"
The Egg scratched its head in a daze and spread its hands, indicating that it had no idea either.
Tang Li did not believe it, but she did not press it for honesty either. Though they were ostensibly partners, both sides harbored secrets kept hidden from the other.
She exhaled a long breath of pent-up air and walked outside.
The Snake King returned the eggshell to her.
She asked: "Do you know who did this?"
The Snake King nodded.
She looked at the egg in her hand and asked again: "You want me to help you take revenge?"
The Snake King nodded once more.
"Your strength is no less than mine. Why didn't you go yourself? Was the culprit so powerful that even you couldn't beat them?"
The Snake King felt her questions were rather excessive and finally broke composure, stumbling through stammering human speech: "Metamorphosis, before, cannot, leave, will, die. Graces, to repay, egg, return to you, help me, take revenge."
Tang Li nodded, piecing its meaning together: "You cannot leave this place before your metamorphosis, or you will die. The people of Xiaozhu Village showed you kindness, and you returned my eggshell because you want me to help you take revenge."
"Mm."
"Then do you know who the culprit is? And why didn't you stop them when the incident happened a few days ago?" Tang Li looked at it, puzzled.
The Snake King raised its injured tail: "Wore, black clothes, very, powerful, couldn't beat, wanted to, capture me, I hid."
"How many of them were there? Did they have any distinct features?"
"Thirteen, black clothes, leader's, mount, Red Ape."
"You mean, on the day of the incident you tried to stop them, but the other party was too powerful, you couldn't beat them, and they even tried to capture you, so you had no choice but to hide. There were thirteen of them, all dressed in black, and their leader rode a Red Ape."
"Mm."
Tang Li pondered for a moment, then took out the medicinal herbs to help the Snake King treat its wounds.