My words have become law; I truly have no desire to display my divine power before others.

Another voice quickly intervened to smooth things over: "Alright, alright, Old Liu, stop arguing. The oil seller is dead, we all saw it. Those guys are not to be trifled with, let's discuss what to do."

"What to do? Just let it be!" Old Liu's voice was still trembling.

"I've been selling melons on this street for hundreds of years, and I've never been afraid of anyone. But that Taoist priest... he's strange. You know the old oil seller's skills; he died without even fighting back. Who among you is confident?"

No one answered.

"That settles it then. Let's just stay put and wait for them to leave."

"What if they don't leave?"

"Not leaving? That's even better. That person hasn't made a move yet. If they really walk to that door, that person certainly won't stand idly by."

After a while, the still-shaken voice rang out again, barely audible, like a mosquito's buzz.

"The cloth seller, the flour seller, the flower seller...didn't they all say they were going to make a move? Why haven't we seen a single one of them?"

"Even if you see them, you won't," Old Liu sneered. "Didn't you see they ran faster than you?"

"I...I didn't run away!"

"You didn't run? You ran all the way from the butcher shop to under the locust tree, you even lost your shoes in the process, did you think I didn't see you?"

The voice stopped speaking.

Just then, a small, childish voice floated down from the highest branch of the locust tree.

The sound was very soft and crisp, like the sound of ice cracking, or like the sound of a candied hawthorn being bitten into pieces.

All eyes were turned in that direction.

A child was sitting on a tree branch.

She was very young, only three or four years old, wearing a red bib, with two pigtails sticking up in the air. Her face was round and chubby, fair and rosy, like a doll in a New Year's painting.

But his eyes are not right.

Those weren't a child's eyes, but an old person's eyes—cloudy, grayish-white, and carrying an indescribable chill.

He looked down at the dark figures under the tree, and a slow smile spread across his face.

"They're all useless."

His voice was still that of a child, crisp and clear, but his tone was more mature and old-fashioned than Old Liu's.

The shadowy figures under the tree did not fly into a rage as expected.

Hearing these insulting, childish voices, not a single person stood up to refute them.

Because they knew that this child's strength far surpassed their own.

The child didn't move.

He sat on a tree branch, swinging his legs back and forth. He wasn't wearing shoes on his toes, which were bluish-gray with long, black nails.

He looked down at the dark figures below, chuckled, and revealed two rows of fine, closely spaced teeth that looked like shards of glass.

Then it jumped down from the tree branch, floating lightly, and landed on the ground without making a sound.

With his hands behind his back, chest puffed out, and head tilted back, he looked at the much taller figures with disdain.

"You all watch closely. I'm going to meet them." He turned around and walked towards the street.

After taking a few steps, he stopped, turned his head to the side without looking back, and his voice was still that crisp, childlike voice, but there was something in his tone that sent chills down your spine.

"Don't follow me. You'll be in my way."

......

Ye Qingfeng walked ahead, his steps still slow and steady, his gray-blue Taoist robe fluttering gently in the night breeze.

Lu Yang followed behind him, his hand no longer resting on the sword hilt.

His hands hung naturally at his sides, swinging gently with the rhythm of his walk.

Miao Gui carried a bundle on his back, with a chubby baby squatting on it. The chubby baby had already finished eating the skewer of roasted mushrooms in his hand, leaving only a bare bamboo skewer.

He couldn't bear to throw it away, so he held the bamboo skewer in his mouth like a pipe, his eyes half-open and half-closed. He was sleepy, but he refused to go to sleep.

Shen Zhaoyue walked at the back, her steps unhurried. Her sword was still in its sheath, her hand resting on the hilt, her fingers tapping lightly, as if she were keeping a rhythm.

At this moment, Lü Yang's lips were curled up in a wide smile.

"Immortal Master, these strange occurrences aren't all that great."

Miao Gui was adjusting the position of the chubby baby behind him and didn't even look up when he heard this.

"If it weren't for the immortal master's intervention, you would have died long ago."

Lu Yang chuckled awkwardly and scratched the back of his head.

"Well, I still have some skills, at least I'm not like I used to be."

Miao Gui held the chubby baby in his arms and glanced at him: "You used to be afraid of even snakes."

Lu Yang choked for a moment, opened his mouth, but couldn't say anything.

He thought of the giant snake and how disheveled he looked when he crawled out of the hole, and his ears burned.

He coughed lightly, straightened his chest, pretended not to hear, and turned to walk towards Ye Qingfeng.

The chubby baby perched on Miao Gui's shoulder and stuck out its tongue at him.

The street is getting narrower and narrower.

The eaves on both sides almost touched, squeezing the sky into a thin, winding line.

The moonlight leaked through that thin line and fell on the ground; it wasn't white, but gray, like a thin layer of ash.

There are fewer lanterns now, only one every long distance, and the light is dim and doesn't shine very far.

Further away lies an impenetrable darkness, like a gaping maw, open and waiting.

After walking for the time it takes for an incense stick to burn, a small square appeared ahead.

The square is not large, and the bluestone slabs are worn smooth and shiny.

In the center of the square stands an old locust tree, even larger than the one at the village entrance. Its trunk is so thick that it would take three or four people to encircle it, and its canopy blocks out the sky, completely obscuring the pitiful moonlight overhead.

Something is moving under the tree.

It wasn't the wind; something was bouncing around, jumping and landing on the ground with a soft "thump, thump" sound.

Lu Yang squinted, trying to see what it was.

It was too dark; the old locust tree cast a very thick shadow, completely obscuring that small area, and you couldn't see anything.

Only the "thump, thump" sound, one after another, slowly and steadily, like bouncing a ball.

Ye Qingfeng didn't stop and walked straight over.

Lü Yang followed behind, looking around.

On the contrary, the chubby baby seemed to have seen something surprising. His face showed some fear, and he shrank behind Miao Gui, not daring to show his head.

There were no shops, doors, or windows around the square, only bare, gray walls that looked like expressionless faces in the moonlight.

There are no lanterns on the wall, so where does the light come from?

In the shadow of the old locust tree, that thing was still jumping around.

"Thump, thump, thump," the sound grew clearer and closer.

Lu Yang's heart suddenly skipped a beat.

A gut feeling—something's about to come out!

The ball rolled out from under the shade of the tree.

No, it was kicked out. First, there was a "bang," a crisp sound, like being kicked in something hard.

Then the ball rolled out steadily, following the cracks in the bluestone slabs, and rolled right to Lü Yang's feet.

Lu Yang looked down and froze.

It's not a ball.

It's the head.

The human head.

His hair was long, messy, and covered in dirt, grass clippings, and some dark red, dried stuff.