The legend begins with becoming a white deer.

Deep within the vast mountains, a mountain village called Guiqiao Village sits quietly in a mountain valley.

To the outside world, this manor is a trading company dealing in leather goods and mountain timber.

The villagers dressed as merchants, driving mule carts back and forth along the mountain roads, and the nearby mountain people thought it was a thriving mountain goods store.

Very few people know that behind these high walls and locked wooden doors lies a den of child traffickers who specialize in kidnapping children.

In the courtyard, Zhou the Scarface was drinking with braised food. The faint, intermittent sobbing of a child could be heard from the inner room, which annoyed him.

"Damn it, couldn't they have at least made the soundproofing in this lousy house better?!"

Zhou the Scarface spat out a mouthful of wine, grabbed the leather whip beside him, and kicked open the door to the inner room.

The room was dark and damp, crammed with more than twenty children.

The youngest was only three or four years old, and the oldest was no more than ten. They were all dressed in rags, with tear stains on their faces.

Hearing the door open, they all shrank back in fright and squeezed into the corner.

"Cry! Cry some more!"

Zhou the Scarface raised his whip and lashed it across several crying children. The pain made them shudder, but they bit their lips tightly, afraid to make a sound.

The girl's body trembled violently, and a bloody welt immediately appeared on her fair arm.

She gritted her teeth, raised her head, and remained silent.

"You brat, you've got some nerve."

Zhou, with a sneer, stepped forward, grabbed her hair, and pulled her head back.

"You think your brother can get away? You brat, wait until our people bring him back, then I'll see how I deal with you two. I'll see if you still have any backbone then."

"Brother Zhou, be gentle!"

Several men walked in and hurriedly advised, "These goods can't be seriously injured. We haven't even collected enough for this month. If they die or are maimed, we'll be in deep trouble if the higher-ups blame us."

"Okay, okay, stop nagging."

Zhou the Scarface shoved the girl back and was about to walk out when a scream suddenly came from outside the village, followed by a loud rumbling sound, as if something had collapsed.

"What's going on?!"

The group's expressions changed, and they rushed out immediately.

Upon entering the courtyard, everyone froze in place.

The large trees in the village, each as thick as a person's embrace, seemed to have come alive at some point. Their branches twisted and stretched out, entangled the patrolling villagers one by one, either suspending them in mid-air or slamming them hard to the ground.

On the tree trunk stood a large white deer, its entire body snow-white, its antlers gleaming with a golden-green light, its golden eyes looking down at them as if they were a group of ants.

"What...what is this?"

The group of men were terrified. They were all outlaws who had lived in the mountains for years, never reading newspapers or caring about the world. How could they possibly know anything about mythical beasts?

Just then, a figure flashed across the courtyard wall. Xu Ling, carrying the little boy on his back, used his lightness skill to leap over and land, panting as he said, "Lord White Deer, you're too fast! I almost lost you..."

"Brother monk, this is it!"

The boy on her back had a bright look in his eyes. He pointed to the inner room, his voice trembling with excitement.

"My sister is inside! And there are lots of other children locked up here!"

Xu Ling was immediately overjoyed, turning to look at Qi Ji with eyes full of admiration: "Lord Bai Lu, your nose is incredibly sharp! You found the human traffickers' hideout so quickly!"

Qi Ji didn't respond to him. His golden deer eyes shifted slightly, sweeping across the entire manor.

Thanks to the passive perception of the [Breath of Life], Qi Ji could clearly sense the faint yet vibrant life force in the inner room, even through the walls.

There were over twenty questions, some easy and some difficult, all undoubtedly from children.

"This is it."

Qi Ji's mind stirred slightly, and the branches of the trees in the courtyard suddenly sprang up.

Several thick branches shot out like long snakes, instantly wrapping around Zhou Scarface and his companions, suspending them upside down in mid-air.

The men struggled desperately, swinging their knives to cut, but the blades only left shallow white marks on the branches. Instead, the branches tightened around them, making it hard for them to breathe, and their faces turned bright red.

Qi Ji carefully sensed the surroundings again, confirming that there were no other survivors in the village, before lowering his head and letting out a soft cry to the spirit, nodding his chin towards the inner room.

Qi Ji was too big, and the doorway was too low and narrow for him to enter, so the task of saving people had to be done by this little monk Xu Ling.

The spirit understood and quickly carried the boy inside.

He kicked open the locked door, and the children inside shrank back in fright.

When they realized it was a bald little monk, not one of those fierce-looking human traffickers, they were all taken aback.

"elder sister!"

The boy slid off the back of the spirit and rushed towards a girl who was a few years older than him, crying.

The girl leaning against the wall suddenly looked up and saw it was her younger brother. Her eyes instantly reddened, and she rushed over to hug him tightly, her voice trembling, "A-Dou? Why are you back? Didn't I tell you to run away? Run far away..."

"Sister, I met a kind monk brother, and a big white deer!"

The boy wiped away his tears and pointed outside.

"They're amazing! They took down all the bad guys!"

The spirit led the children out of the house one by one.

More than twenty children, each one thin as a skeleton, with more or less whip marks and bruises on their bodies.

When they came out and saw the huge white deer in the yard, and then the human traffickers hanging in mid-air, they were all so frightened that they shrank back. The younger children even covered their mouths, afraid to cry out, their eyes filled with fear.

They had been terrified during this period and had become extremely sensitive, fearing that the giant beast before them was also there to harm them.

Only the ten-year-old girl, though pale-faced, pulled her younger brother along and bowed deeply to the spirit: "Thank you, little master, for saving our lives."

Her voice was still trembling, but she tried her best to stand up straight.

"No need to thank me, it was Lord Bailu who found this place."

Xu Ling quickly waved her hand, then turned to look at Qi Ji, her voice filled with barely suppressed anger: "Lord Bai Lu, these human traffickers have gone too far. Look at these children, they're covered in injuries. These traffickers have been using violence to control them."

As Xu Ling spoke, she squatted down and gently picked up a little boy who looked to be about four years old.

The child had several bloody whip marks on his arm, and his body trembled with pain, but he bit his lip tightly, not daring to shed a tear. His eyes were full of fear, and he was obviously terrified. Even though he was rescued, he dared not make a sound.

Qi Ji looked at the group of children huddled together, covered in injuries, and a cold glint flickered in his golden eyes.

He didn't speak, but his antlers twitched slightly.

The Breath of Life

A ring of golden energy ripples spread out like water, gently sweeping over each child's body.

It's like a spring breeze sweeping across frozen earth, like a warm current flowing into a cold pool.

The whip marks and bruises on the children's bodies faded and healed at a visible speed, and the broken skin became smooth again.

The body can influence the mind.

As that warm energy seeped into my body, dispelling the chill and pain, the suppressed and tense fear in my heart gradually melted away.

I don't know who burst into tears first.

Then, the children, who had been suppressing their emotions for so long, seemed to have finally found an outlet and burst into tears.

Some cried for their parents.

Some cried out of fear.

The cries blended together, but they were no longer the suppressed, fearful sobs of before; instead, they were the relaxed, carefree weeping.

The ethereal being watched this scene was both surprised and delighted.

He only knew that Qi Ji could accelerate the ripening of plants, control trees, and unleash energy antler-shaped attacks, but he never expected that he also had the ability to heal other people's external injuries.

"Okay, okay, it's alright now, don't cry, don't be afraid."

The spirit quickly reassured them in a soft voice, "The bad guys have all been caught. You're safe now. No one here will hurt you. Don't be afraid anymore."

As the children's crying subsided, Xu Ling suddenly remembered something and asked, "By the way, do you know where these human traffickers are taking you?"

Xu Ling wasn't stupid; he knew that this manor was probably just a transit point. After capturing so many children, they must be sending them to a larger base.

Now that we've run into them, we can't just take down one small hideout and call it a day. We have to follow the trail and expose the forces behind it all.

The children looked at each other, completely bewildered.

At this moment, the ten-year-old girl raised her head and whispered, "I heard them say... that they're going to send us to a place called Blackstone Fortress."