"You Little Girl, you have quite the nerve!"
The gap-toothed Old Man from before, not knowing where he found the strength, suddenly pushed Liu Chen aside and rushed in front of the horse.
He spread his arms, looking as if he were ready to face death without fear.
"If you have the guts, then trample over this Old Man!"
"This world doesn't let anyone live anyway! Better to just die! Even if I become a vengeful ghost after I die, I won't let you off!"
Seeing this, the villagers behind him began to clamor even louder, pushing and shoving as they crowded forward.
"Come on then!"
"If you have the ability, kill the whole village!"
Liu Chen's face turned livid, and he was just about to step forward to stop them.
Clang—!
A clear, resonant sound of a blade rang out.
A flash of cold light grazed the Old Man's scalp and slammed firmly into the trunk of the old locust tree behind him.
It sank deep into the wood.
The end of the blade was still trembling violently.
"One."
"..."
The clamor stopped abruptly.
The gap-toothed Old Man froze in place, a few strands of gray hair drifting slowly to the ground.
He widened his eyes, staring at the horse's hooves inches away, and the expressionless young girl on the horse's back.
Jiang Yuechu lowered her eyes, looking at the Old Man.
"Two."
Everyone was terrified, their faces drained of color, and for some reason, a thought occurred to them.
She truly dared to kill everyone!
The Old Man's legs went weak, and he collapsed to the ground.
And the villagers, like a tide being parted, slowly split to both sides, revealing a dirt path leading into the village.
Jiang Yuechu flicked the reins.
"Enter the village."
The Red-Eyed Colt stepped forward, striding past the Old Man.
Liu Chen watched this scene and swallowed hard.
This girl...
Did she have this kind of confidence because she attained the status of Brigade Commander and the strength of Core Formation?
Or was it because she had this kind of confidence that she was able to achieve today's status and strength in just a few short months?
He quickly snapped back to his senses, pulled the horizontal blade from the tree, mounted his horse, and signaled to his men.
"Follow!"
The group forced their way in, amidst the resentful yet fearful gazes of the villagers.
Upon entering the village, Liu Chen handed over the blade.
Jiang Yuechu took the horizontal blade, sheathed it, tilted her head slightly, and twitched her nose twice.
There was indeed that strange smell No Abstinence mentioned.
"Search."
Liu Chen turned around and shouted to the men behind him, "Search in pairs, don't miss a single corner!"
"Yes!"
The Demon Suppression Guards accepted the order, dispersing like wolves and tigers, rushing into the low earthen houses.
Soon, the sounds of rummaging through boxes and cabinets rang out throughout the village.
The villagers only dared to stand far away at the village entrance, their eyes sinister, yet they dared not offer the slightest resistance.
After arranging his men, Liu Chen turned back to look at Jiang Yuechu, "Miss Jiang, you are now an expert in the Core Formation Realm with keen perception. Have you noticed... anything amiss?"
Jiang Yuechu shook her head.
"No."
She was speaking the truth.
To tell the truth, she was never proficient at delicate tasks like detecting Demons.
It all relied on the instinct of the Blood Food Technique.
Since she couldn't perceive anything, she would just have to go to the source to see.
"Where does that mad Woman live?"
Liu Chen was taken aback, then quickly pointed to a dilapidated earthen house at the east end of the village.
"Right over there. It's the most remote place in the village, and usually, no one goes there."
"Lead the way."
Jiang Yuechu dismounted.
Liu Chen dared not delay and hurried to lead the way.
The two walked one after another, stepping on the muddy dirt path, heading towards that earthen house.
It was an extremely crude earthen house; the thatch on the roof had mostly rotted away, and a wooden door hung crookedly on the frame, on the verge of falling.
"Miss Jiang, this is it."
Liu Chen stepped forward and carefully pushed open the broken door.
A smell of mold and dampness rushed out to meet them.
Jiang Yuechu stepped inside.
The light inside was dim, and the furnishings were shockingly crude.
A broken wooden table with only three legs, and a pile of blackened, rotten straw stacked in the corner, covered with a tattered cotton quilt of indistinguishable color—that was the bed.
The stove was cold and covered in a thick layer of dust.
Clearly, no fire had been lit here for a long time.
"The Woman has always lived here?"
Jiang Yuechu scanned the room with her eyes.
"Yes."
Liu Chen nodded and explained, "I heard from the villagers that this Woman lost her husband years ago, and after the shock, she went mad. Usually, she runs around the village entrance like a madwoman. When she's hungry, she begs for food from the families, and when she's tired, she comes back to sleep on this straw pile."
"She's been mad for many years?"
"They say it's been quite some time."
Jiang Yuechu didn't speak again.
She walked over to the pile of rotten straw.
She didn't reach out to rummage through it, but instead used the un-drawn scabbard to gently lift the tattered cotton quilt.
A sour, foul smell permeated the air.
Underneath it were some rags and tattered clothes, as well as half a moldy steamed bun.
Just as she was about to withdraw her gaze, she paused.
The tip of the scabbard flicked open a dark, tattered piece of cloth.
At the very bottom of the cloth, buried in the dirt floor right against the wall, a small object was half-hidden.
It was a tiger-head shoe.
The workmanship was very rough, using the cheapest coarse cloth. The tiger head embroidered on it was crooked, and because of its age, it had faded to white and was covered in mud and grime.
It was clearly meant for a Child who had just learned to walk.
Jiang Yuechu used the scabbard to lift the tiger-head shoe out and held it up in mid-air.
"Liu Chen."
"Yes."
"Did she have a Child?"
Liu Chen was stunned and instinctively recalled, "No... I haven't heard of that. The villagers all say this Woman is a tragic figure. Her husband died shortly after they were married, and that's why she went mad..."
At this point, Liu Chen's voice stopped abruptly.
His gaze turned to the tip of the blade.
If she had no children and was a widow who had been mad for years.
Then whose was the tiger-head shoe under the bed...?
Liu Chen lowered his head in shame, "When we searched last time, we were only focused on finding the Woman's tracks and didn't... didn't search this thoroughly."
"It was my negligence. If I had been more careful back then, we wouldn't have been deceived by these unruly villagers until today."
Jiang Yuechu shook her head.
"Hidden in such a corner, and covered in years of dust, it's normal that you didn't find it."
"This shoe looks quite old. Although the fabric is coarse, the thousand-layer sole is stitched sturdily; clearly, the person who made it put a lot of heart into it."
She narrowed her eyes, her gaze coldly sweeping across the earthen house.
"A widow without a Child, yet hidden under her bed is a tiger-head shoe for a Child who has just learned to walk."
"Tell me, where did the Child go?"
"Uh... could it be... that she was obsessed?"
Liu Chen spoke hesitantly, trying to provide a reasonable explanation.
"Since this Woman is mad, perhaps in her longing, she stitched a shoe herself and hid it under the bed as a keepsake?"
Such things were not uncommon in the countryside.
Widows who lost their children, or those who were infertile for a long time, eventually holding a pillow and raising it as a baby—he had seen many such madwomen over the years.
The young girl turned around and walked to the dilapidated wooden door.
Outside the door, the sunlight was pale.
The entire village was quiet, with only the rustling sound of the wind blowing through the old locust tree.
"I have, however, discovered something quite interesting."
Liu Chen was stunned and hurried forward, "What did you discover, My Lord?"
Jiang Yuechu leaned against the doorframe, her gaze crossing the low earthen walls and landing on the few villagers in the distance who were still peeking.
"Don't you think this village... is a bit too quiet?"
Quiet?
Liu Chen was a bit confused.
In this remote backwater, there was no market, and the villagers had been scared out of their wits; wasn't it normal for it to be a bit quiet?
"Just now at the village entrance, we only saw the elderly and the able-bodied men. Now, my men are searching the houses, yet there isn't a single sound..."
"There are the elderly, and there are the able-bodied men."
"But in this large Huai Shu Village, there are dozens of households."
"Where are the children?"
Liu Chen stiffened completely, and goosebumps instantly broke out all over him.
Children!
That's right!
Where are the children?!
Ever since they entered the village, they had forced their way in and conducted searches, making such a huge commotion.
In an ordinary village, children would have long since been scared into crying loudly.
Yet now, none were seen at the village entrance, and none were heard in the village...
"This..."
Liu Chen's face turned deathly pale, and he couldn't help but feel remorse in his heart.
He was also a veteran of Jianghu; how could he have overlooked such an obvious flaw?
Since there were able-bodied men and women, there would naturally be reproduction.
The children that were born...
Where did they go?
Thinking back to the tiger-head shoe under the mad Woman's bed.
That was for a Child who had just learned to walk.
It meant that the Woman perhaps once had a Child, or rather, she had seen children.