Chapter 117: The Ruined Village
Chapter 117: The Ruined Village
Almost in the blink of an eye, as Li Si spoke, only one of the strange creatures before him remained, and even that one appeared faint and likely to flee at any moment.
This frightened Li Si, and he quickly hummed a song he didn’t even recognize himself.
Yes, he hummed it.
He had only hummed a few notes earlier, and for some reason, it attracted these creatures. He believed even more were watching him.
It was very strange.
Halfway through humming the song, the round creature’s body became mostly visible, seeming to enjoy it. Far away, other creatures showed tiny bits of their bodies. Yes, they had bodies—solid ones—but they made no sound when landing, left no traces when moving, and could speak. They loved listening to songs.
“Hey, big guy, where’s the treasure you promised?” Li Si asked.
But the chubby creature didn’t reply. It just looked back at him, blinked, and then hopped away into the depths of the wilderness.
What could Li Si do? He had no choice but to follow.
Along the way, roughly every half hour, the round creature ahead would make him sing, so Li Si would hum something random.
At first, Li Si thought the creature was teasing him, but later he realized it wasn’t. After hearing Li Si’s humming, the creature would become much more energetic. But after walking a distance, it would grow tired, its body fading as if about to disappear.
From midnight until dawn, they walked. The dark mist dispersed, and daylight appeared. Li Si took off his Mist Demon cloak and found himself deep in the mountains. The surrounding peaks looked like stranded humpback whales, terribly desolate.
As for his exact location, he was long lost.
Still, Li Si wasn’t too panicked. He just wanted to see where this creature would lead him.
“We’re here,” the creature ahead suddenly said.
It turned a corner around a mountain, and a small, hidden, abandoned village appeared before Li Si.
The entire village was naturally devoid of any human presence. At a glance, all he saw were crumbling walls and ruins, starkly desolate in a monochrome landscape.
It was a peculiar feeling.
Looking at desolate wilderness or barren deserts didn’t evoke much emotion, but standing in a desolate village, that sense of loneliness and desolation felt intensely real.
“Sing one more. I can’t hold on much longer. I want to sleep. When I wake up again, I’ll probably forget everything from this life.”
The round creature curled up in a corner of the ruins like a ball, looking very comfortable and natural.
Like an old dog returning home, it had found its familiar spot.
Li Si quickly hummed another song, and the creature revealed a smile that couldn’t have been more twisted.
“I stayed here for two thousand years.”
“In the last five hundred years, I made a human friend here.”
“Every day, I curled up here, watching the sun rise and set, watching the seasons change, watching the wind, rain, and snow.”
“My friend played the qin. It sounded lovely. I listened to it for five hundred years.”
“Then he died.”
“He never spoke to me. His smile was gentle.”
“At first, there were many people here, probably thousands. Gradually, they dwindled. My friend was just a child at first.”
“When his hair turned white, only six people remained.”
“When the other five died, only he and I were left.”
“He played the qin; I listened.”
“Later, he died too, and could no longer see the sun, moon, or stars.”
“Until the very end, he never spoke to me, and I never spoke to him. But we were friends.”
“Could you gather his bones for me? He held a Land Deed Seal in his hand. Consider it your reward.”
The round creature’s words were a bit muddled and chaotic, but Li Si listened very seriously. He sensed no malice. He only asked one question.
“Why me?”
“Your singing has flaws, but I can smell similar emotions. Besides, I can’t find any other humans. I’m about to fall asleep. When I wake up, my memories will be gone. I can’t bear to part with such a friend. I want to do something for him.”
After saying this, the chubby creature squeezed out another twisted smile. Its body slowly faded until it completely vanished.
Li Si stood in place for a long time, then looked toward a pile of ruins not far away.
From the creature’s position, that should be the place where that person died.
That person must have been a Cultivator, and this place must have been a refuge for a Cultivator sect. Sadly, their sect didn’t have a True Immortal-level expert to protect them. So, from thousands of people, they became hundreds, then dozens, then a few.
Finally, only he remained.
Li Si could imagine the scene.
A man with white hair, gaunt and bony, his wrinkles filled with dust and weariness. He was probably a Nascent Soul Realm expert; otherwise, he couldn’t have lived for 500 years.
But in the end, his Magic Power dried up, his cultivation plummeted, and he became an ordinary mortal.
He was unfortunate to be born in this era.
But he was fortunate to have met a creature willing to listen to him play the qin.
Of course, all this was meaningless.
In his final moments, playing the qin became his last obsession, perhaps his final dignity as a Cultivator and as a human.
The qin’s sound was muffled and dull, certainly not pleasant to hear.
But he must have found peace in his last moments; otherwise, the creature would have been scared away, not fixated on gathering his bones.
Li Si extended his hand, recited a spell, and the collapsed bricks, stones, and rotten wood on the ground floated up one by one. Strange grass that had just sprouted was silently crushed.
Thousands of bricks and stones floated in the air, revealing a pile of scattered bones and a nearly rotted ancient qin. Its original form was almost unrecognizable.
Li Si gathered and released the bricks and stones, letting them land gently. He looked at the bones but didn’t approach. As usual, he recited the Calamity-Dispelling Curse, Heart Cleansing Curse, Heart-Interrogation Mantra, Spirit Stabilization Curse, Devil-Sealing Curse, and Golden Radiance Chant in sequence.
Only after confirming there were no issues did he take out the Fiend-Piercing Spearhead and dig a pit in the ground for this fellow Cultivator—to let him rest in peace.
As for the Land Deed Seal, he didn’t see it. It must have been lost or vanished upon his death.
It didn’t matter. He had no interest in a Land Deed Seal from such a remote place.
After building a grave for this unnamed Cultivator, Li Si walked around the abandoned village. He confirmed there were no hidden tunnels, secret rooms, or useful treasuries left.
This was normal. This sect must have exhausted all resources before everyone died. Even if anything remained, under the corrosive power of the Evil God and the contamination of the Dark Mist, it would have long been useless.
Just as he was about to leave, something stirred in his heart. He glanced back at the spot where the round creature had curled up. A gust of wind blew, scattering the yellowed leaves there, and a cube with sides of ten centimeters suddenly appeared.
He hadn’t noticed it before.
“Ugh,” Li Si shook his head. Playing these mind games with someone as sincere as him—alas, even the hearts of creatures were no longer simple.
With a casual gesture, he used the Artifact-Control Incantation to summon the Land Deed Seal into his hand.
It was also a Hundred-League Law Seal, but it contained no Fortune at all. In other words, it was just an empty shell, worse than an empty company.
But the advantage was precisely that it was an empty shell. It had a name, didn’t require a Heaven and Earth Decree, and was already on record.
“Yunhua Sect, Xu Changsheng? A good name.”
Li Si looked at the name engraved on the Land Deed Seal. Actually, it wasn’t engraved; it formed when the seal first condensed, like his Hundred-League Law Seal and Idol of Fortune…
“Interesting!”
Li Si held the Land Deed Seal, which felt like stone and showed no reaction. He tried injecting a portion of White Fortune into it—this was the basics. The Land Deed Seal didn’t accept Black Fortune or Gray Fortune.
Instantly, the Land Deed Seal hummed, and intricate patterns lit up on its surface, but it still wasn’t enough.
After waiting a second, information appeared.
“Obtained an unclaimed Land Deed Seal. As one of the Twelve Major Deities decreed by Heaven and Earth, you have absolute authority to use and activate it. Estimated requirement: 100 portions of White Fortune to fully activate. After activation, an Idol of Fortune will automatically form in the Hall of Fate.”
Looking at this message, Li Si hesitated. 100 portions of Fortune meant 10,000 units of White Fate Firewood. Paying that would be quite a strain for him.
He checked the Fate Forge: 1,000 units of Golden Qi Luck Firewood, 2,021 units of White Fate Firewood, and 320,000 units of Black Fate Fuel.
Damn, all his spare resources combined weren’t enough.
So, reluctantly, he decomposed one unit of Golden Qi Luck Firewood, obtaining 100 units of Azure Fate Firewood. After refining, it became exactly 100 portions of White Fortune.
Ah, he suddenly missed that rich Unknown Deity/Demon buddy.
Injecting 99 portions of White Fortune into the Land Deed Seal, Li Si immediately began fine-tuning it.
This was very important.
His identity as the Kaoshan Patriarch was discovered purely because, when he first obtained the Land Deed Seal of Kaoshan Town, his cultivation was only at the Foundation Building stage, so he couldn’t even control the Land Deed Seal.
He wouldn’t let that happen again.
As his mind focused, holding the Land Deed Seal, Li Si immediately saw scenes from the Yunhua Sect over the past few hundred years. These were all recorded on the seal. Then he saw an illusion of Xu Changsheng, who bowed slightly to him before turning into a stream of light and vanishing.
Without hesitation, Li Si preserved Xu Changsheng’s image. In the future, the Divine Idol could be made in this likeness, complete with the name.
“Huh? This is actually a Five-Hundred-League Law Seal.”
Li Si shook his head. Five hundred leagues? Even a hundred leagues felt like too much.
After fine-tuning the Land Deed Seal, Li Si casually tossed it onto the ground. It instantly transformed into exquisite cloud patterns, merging into the earth like a Formation Array.
“Wait, this really is a Formation Array. No, not exactly—it’s more like the base of the Heaven-Simulating Array similar to the Floating Cloud Sect’s.”
Li Si was astonished. This little-known Yunhua Sect had such skills?
Well, he was too ignorant to judge.
With a thought, the cloud patterns on the Land Deed Seal regenerated. This… just the completion level of this Land Deed Seal was a hundred times better than his own Hundred-League Law Seal.
This was the first time he realized that a Land Deed Seal could be refined to such a state.
So far, this Land Deed Seal exhibited three functions.
The first was the basic function, same as his Hundred-League Law Seal.
The second was like the base of the Heaven-Simulating Array, equivalent to the Hongmeng OS operating system from his hometown. With this, you could install various Formation Array apps—yeah, that’s the idea.
But he hadn’t had time to learn the ways of formations from Xu Shen lately, so he could only grasp the surface. In short, it was impressive, but probably not a match for the Floating Cloud Sect’s Heaven-Simulating Array…
Right? It must be like that.
Li Si recalled when the Floating Cloud Sect relocated, moving those 9,999 blocks of Great Evolution Divine Stone. Looking at this—direct one-click installation via the Land Deed Seal…
Ah, beginners shouldn’t worry about such things.
Otherwise, why did the Yunhua Sect decline while the Floating Cloud Sect survived?
Oh, and this Land Deed Seal currently had one more function—cultivation methods, Dao Techniques, Divine Abilities, and all kinds of legacies were stored here. Then he thought about the Floating Cloud Sect’s big iron chest.
Li Si silently threw the Land Deed Seal into the ground. Instantly, within a hundred leagues, everything appeared clearly in his mind.
Unfortunately, within this hundred leagues, there was nothing.
It was miserably poor.