When they set out, Xu Muhai had repeatedly stressed the importance of ensuring Li Hengsheng’s safety. Yang Tiantian had indeed not noticed any villages in the distance earlier, but now one had appeared, which she found somewhat suspicious.

However, it was also possible that she had simply overlooked it earlier. After walking for a while, the village came into clear view.

The rugged path led to the entrance of the village, gradually becoming easier to traverse. At the entrance of the village, an old yellow ox was chewing on dry grass, seemingly uncurious about the arrival of these two strangers.

“Sister, it seems we’ve arrived,” Li Hengsheng said, looking at the rows of houses in the village. Smoke was rising from many of the homes, indicating that meals were being prepared.

“There’s only one village around here, so this must be it,” Yang Tiantian said, sensing her surroundings. She didn’t notice anything amiss.

Just then, an old man emerged from the village. He was carrying a basket of herbs, and his steps were unsteady. He placed the herbs on a cart at the entrance of the village.

Wiping his sweat, he suddenly noticed Yang Tiantian and Li Hengsheng.

“Who are you?” the old man asked curiously, “Are you disciples from Dao Mountain Ancient Land?”

“Old man, we are disciples from Dao Mountain Ancient Land. We heard that something strange happened in your village, so we came to check,” Li Hengsheng said, observing the old man.

“Great, you’re finally here,” the old man said with a smile, his face wrinkling with joy.

Yang Tiantian, out of habit, observed the old man closely, even his wrists and the hollow of his palm.

He seemed to be an ordinary person with no cultivation, which somewhat reassured her.

“What’s your name, old man?” Yang Tiantian asked.

“What a lovely girl,” the old man said with a smile, “I’m the village chief of Pengfei Village. You can call me Uncle Peng.”

“You’re finally here. Several young men from our village went into that cave and haven’t come out yet. We don’t know what happened to them,” Uncle Peng said, his face full of worry, “Their mothers are crying their hearts out. Two of them have even fallen ill.”

“Uncle Peng, let’s go check it out now,” Li Hengsheng said, “You can tell us about the cave on the way.”

“Alright,” Uncle Peng agreed, placing the herbs on the cart, “Follow me, I’ll take you there.” The three of them left the village from another side and headed towards the deep mountains.

On the way, Uncle Peng told them about the mysterious cave. They listened, but their eyes were also scanning the surroundings.

“Junior brother, be careful,” Yang Tiantian whispered.

“Okay,” Li Hengsheng replied slowly, “Although there’s smoke in the village, we hardly saw anyone except Uncle Peng. It’s mealtime, but no one came out to fetch water. Also, when we entered the mountains, we heard many insects and birds, but now it’s much quieter. Something is off.” Li Hengsheng’s words made Yang Tiantian’s eyes light up, and she laughed, “Good job, junior brother. I thought you weren’t alert at all. Well done!”

“Anyway, let’s be careful,” Li Hengsheng said, feeling that something had been off since they saw the village.

Uncle Peng kept talking to himself, leading them further and further away. Finally, a cliff appeared before them. Below the cliff, on the mountain wall, was a pitch-black cave.

“Here it is,” Uncle Peng pointed at the cave. The two of them walked up to the dark cave, which looked like an ordinary cave with no special aura emanating from it.

There wasn’t even a hint of blood smell.

“Be careful. If there’s any danger, get out immediately,” Uncle Peng warned. Yang Tiantian and Li Hengsheng looked at each other, then leaped onto a narrow platform on the opposite cliff.

“Junior brother, stay behind me,” Yang Tiantian said, stretching her neck before leading the way.

Li Hengsheng didn’t argue and followed her into the cave. The cave was eerily quiet, with only the sound of water dripping from the ceiling.

“There’s no wind, so this cave must be a dead end,” Yang Tiantian said, touching the stone wall next to her and looking at her fingers.

“Something’s not right,” Li Hengsheng suddenly said, his expression strange.

“What’s wrong?” Yang Tiantian turned to look at him. Li Hengsheng pondered for a moment but couldn’t pinpoint what was off. He just felt that something was wrong, but he couldn’t figure out what it was.

“Let’s keep going. We just need to be careful. If anything happens, you leave quickly,” Yang Tiantian said cautiously to Li Hengsheng.

“Okay,” Li Hengsheng agreed, and they continued forward. Drip, drip. More water droplets fell. Li Hengsheng reached out to touch one, feeling its icy coldness.

They walked a long way without seeing any traces of anything. No Spirit Beasts. No wild animals. No sense of a secret realm. More importantly, the deeper they went, the more serious their expressions became. It seemed like there were no traces of anyone having been here.

Weren’t there supposed to be villagers and disciples from Dao Mountain Ancient Land who had entered? Why were there no signs of human activity?Was that old man Peng deceiving them? Was Pengfei Village also tricking Dao Mountain Ancient Land? As they were pondering, the two discovered that the path ahead was a dead end.

They had reached the end of the cave, and there was nothing at the end of this cave. It was empty, with only a stone wall.

The two were somewhat dumbfounded. Was this really the end? Looking around, it didn’t seem like there were any secret passages.

“It seems like we’ve been played.” Yang Tiantian was somewhat angry, “That old man Peng is making a fool of us, isn’t he?” Li Hengsheng touched the stone wall around him, trying to see if there was any hidden space or something. However, after only a few steps, he suddenly stepped on something.

He looked down and saw a golden dagger on the ground. The dagger was very beautiful, with intricate patterns on it, making it look very valuable.

Li Hengsheng subconsciously picked up the dagger.

“Hmm?” Li Hengsheng suddenly frowned, feeling as if his fingers had been bitten by something.

“What’s wrong?” Yang Tiantian also noticed Li Hengsheng’s hum.

“I…” Li Hengsheng shook his hand and said, “I found…” Li Hengsheng extended his hand, wanting to show Yang Tiantian the dagger in his hand, but the next moment, Li Hengsheng was shocked.

There was nothing in his hand. Where had the golden dagger gone? It was clearly in his hand just now. Li Hengsheng looked down to search for it, but it was not on the ground either.

Was he seeing things?

“What?” Yang Tiantian looked at Li Hengsheng in surprise, there was nothing in his hand.

“It’s nothing.” Li Hengsheng dismissed it as a mistake, but the strange feeling was getting stronger.

“Sister, I have a feeling that we shouldn’t stay here for long. We should leave as soon as possible.” Li Hengsheng felt his heart pounding, as if something bad was about to happen.

Yang Tiantian felt the same way. She had experienced countless life-and-death battles when she was a hunter, but none of them felt as eerie as this.

She decided to ask old man Peng about this after they left. The two retraced their steps and successfully exited the cave, only to find that old man Peng, who was supposed to be guarding the entrance, had disappeared.

“That old man actually ran away.” Yang Tiantian said angrily, “Let’s go, let’s find him in Pengfei Village! I’ll break his old bones.” Seeing Yang Tiantian’s angry look, Li Hengsheng couldn’t help but find it amusing.

However, Li Hengsheng was also curious about what was going on, so he followed Yang Tiantian back to Pengfei Village.

On the cliff, a young girl slowly closed her eyes. She leaned back, and the shadow quickly came over to support her, “Protector, are you okay?”

“It’s nothing.” The girl extended her hand, and the little fox climbed back up.

“It’s just overconsumption.” The girl kept her eyes closed, “Tell the bishop not to worry, that young man is as good as dead, even a god can’t save him. Also, tell the bishop to help me think of a way to deal with the Ji family.”

“Yes.” The shadow quickly responded.

“Notify Xue Ye to clean up the mess. It wasn’t easy for the Longevity Sect to infiltrate Dao Mountain Ancient Land. We must not expose ourselves. It’s not worth exposing Xue Ye for a young man.” The girl said leisurely.

“Don’t worry, Protector, Xue Ye will take care of himself.” The shadow said, “He has been hiding in Dao Mountain Ancient Land for a long time, always careful. You rest here, according to Xue Ye, this young man has an extraordinary comprehension. Once he roars, he should be a good ‘key’. I’ll go and retrieve him.”

“Rest assured, he won’t survive. You go ahead, but be careful of that girl.” The girl’s voice was very weak.

The wind blew through the leaves, and after the rustling sound, the two disappeared from the cliff. When Li Hengsheng and Yang Tiantian returned to Pengfei Village, they were stunned by the scene before them.

“Where’s Pengfei Village?” Yang Tiantian looked incredulously at the ruins before her. This was indeed the location of Pengfei Village, but now it was just a deserted village.

The houses had collapsed, and there were broken walls everywhere. Many places even had traces of fire. It was completely different from the village they had seen before.

The old yellow ox at the entrance of the village was also gone.

“What on earth is going on?” Li Hengsheng also found it unbelievable. It was as if they were in two different worlds.

Just then, Li Hengsheng saw a robust hunter walking by in the distance, carrying a wild rabbit in his hand.

“Uncle.” Li Hengsheng quickly walked over. The hunter looked at Li Hengsheng in surprise when he heard someone calling him, “Young man, what’s up?”

“I want to ask, wasn’t there a village called Pengfei Village here?” Li Hengsheng pointed to the distance.

“Oh, Pengfei Village, yes, there was.” The hunter said, “But half a year ago, on a rainy night, lightning struck and ignited the houses. A big fire burned down the entire village.”

“The fire was particularly fierce. It’s said that more than 130 people in the village didn’t survive. It was a tragedy.” The hunter shook his head.

Upon hearing this, Li Hengsheng was stunned. Pengfei Village had ceased to exist long ago? It was burned down by a big fire half a year ago?

“We were under an illusion.” Yang Tiantian came up from behind and said solemnly, “Everything was an illusion.”

“Illusion?” Li Hengsheng suddenly remembered that he had felt something was wrong when he was in the cave.At this moment, he finally understood what was wrong.

“It’s the water droplet,” Li Hengsheng murmured, “The rhythm and timing of the water droplets falling to the ground in two places are exactly the same, without any deviation. How is that possible! So, the cave is also fake.”

“Never mind that, let’s go back to the sect first and ask what’s going on,” Yang Tiantian decided to go back and thoroughly investigate this strange mission.

“Okay.” Just as he finished saying the word, Li Hengsheng’s face suddenly changed. He fell straight to the ground.