“Exactly,” Li Tianyan nodded, and then said tentatively, “My wife and I wanted to stay here for a few days. I wondered if there was a place to stay nearby.”

“The two doctors wanted to stay overnight? I thought you had horses, so it would be better to walk a few more steps to a nearby town,” the village chief replied. After finishing, he was afraid that the other party would mistakenly think he was chasing guests, so he hurriedly added, “In front of our Hejia Village is Qiluan Mountain, the closest place from our village. There’s often a strange cry, and I’m worried you two might be frightened if you stay here.”

“To be honest, we just heard about this and wanted to come and have a look,” Li Tianyan smiled and told him.

The village chief suddenly realized after hearing this and secretly thought to himself that the young man was indeed very daring people. But he didn’t forget to remind them, “If you want to stay overnight, there’s an old house behind the village that’s vacant. But ah, you two better staying here to listen, don’t think about going in. There are cannibals in the mountains.”

“Cannibals?” Li Tianyan looked at him puzzled, “Could the village chief explain in more detail?”

“Before, many warriors liked to go hunting in the mountains, and some young men in the village occasionally went with them to help handle prey. But since the strange statue appeared on the mountain, I watched each warrior go in but never saw them come out,” the village chief explained sadly. “The warriors entered the mountain, but none was coming back.”

The village chief’s wife couldn’t help but interject, “Let me tell you, the screams coming from the mountains recently have made people panic. Don’t believe those who say there are treasures in the mountains. I think there are monsters. Really, all the warriors who entered must be eaten by monsters.”

“So many warriors died, and the government ignore it?” Li Tianyan asked in confusion.

“If there’s something that can’t be solved by warriors under the jurisdiction of an Immortal Sect, the big family will send a message to the Immortal Sect and ask the cultivators to handle it. But in this place, there is a court ahead and no Immortal Sect. How could the court care about such a thing?” the village chief explained.

“The government has always only cared about the affairs in the Capital. Unless warriors join the army and serve the court, they don’t care about the life or death of others. Our area is all mountainous, and we can’t grow much food to pay taxes. As long as no lives are lost, the government doesn’t care,” the village chief added.

“Although life in the village was not rich in the past, young men could still follow the warriors into the mountains to earn some money to support their families. Since the incident in Qiluan Mountain, Hejia Village has become more like a pool of stagnant water, and the lives of the villagers have become increasingly difficult,” the village chief lamented.

The people chatted for a while, and then the village chief led Li Tianyan and his wife to see the empty house in the village. The house was built at the back of the village closest to Qiluan Mountain, and was separated from other houses where other villagers lived by some distance. It was once prepared for warriors who went into the mountains to hunt, but now it had not been occupied by anyone for years.

The villagers’ own houses were very dilapidated, so they couldn’t bother to repair an empty house that no one lived in. So, the house looked a bit bad. There was a big hole in the roof, and the mud walls had collapsed several times. There were cracks everywhere. The village chief looked quite embarrassed when he saw this situation, “I’m afraid this house can’t accommodate anyone.”

Li Tianyan was quite satisfied with this place. Being far away from other villagers, they could observe Qiluan Mountain more clearly. “My wife and I can live here. I hope the village chief won’t mind use staying here.”

“But… but this…” The village chief couldn’t help but look at it a few more times, always feeling that the house was going to collapse at any time.

“When my wife and I were traveling, we had lived in all kinds of places. We could just repair this house a little bit,” Li Tianyan said to the village chief with a smile, noticing the confusion on his face.

“Well, if you think it’s okay, just stay here. If you need any help, you can come to my home at any time,” the village chief responded, seeing that they didn’t mind.

.

The figure of Tan Eyu appeared just after the village chief left. Cheng Qi saw the satisfied look on her face and asked suspiciously, “You are not attracted to the things in the water and you gave them…”

The water ghost just now had disheveled hair, and Cheng Qi couldn’t tell whether it was a boy or a girl. Could it be that Tan Eyu chased it into the water and found it was a handsome male ghost, so she gave herself to him?

“That guy looked really delicious, so I swallowed it. It really tasted good,” Tan Eyu replied, licking the corners of her lips.

Cheng Qi stared at Tan Eyu for a while and suddenly felt that she looked a little more enchanting than before. He couldn’t help but turn to look at Li Tianyan inquiringly.

“That evil ghost has a living person’s life on his hands. It’s okay to eat it, but remember not to eat indiscriminately,” Li Tianyan warned, despite knowing Tan Eyu had always been protective of other little ghosts.

“I know, I don’t look down on any ordinary ghosts,” Tan Eyu assured before getting into the soul-nurturing tree to digest the evil ghost in her belly.