Chapter Eleven: Yin Energy

  "What instructions does the young master have?!" Chen Qing Shan saw Wang Guan Lan's resolute attitude and did not say anything more.

  "You've been in Jianghu for a long time, you're knowledgeable and experienced, shouldn't you know something about the relationship between martial artists and Taoist priests?!"

  Chen Qing Shan couldn't help but smile wryly, "No need to laugh at me, sir. I've always been stuck in the lower rungs of the Jianghu with my senior brother until we entered the Ning Wang Fu. That's when I got to see a warrior in the Yu Qi period for the first time. You're the first Daoshi I've ever met, so..."

  He didn't say Wang Guanlan was clear, but just smiled and said, "No need to see it, should have heard the rumors of Jianghu?!"

  "The Taoist priests in the rumors of Jianghu are very mysterious, so mysterious that they make people respect and keep a distance from them. As for the relationship between Taoist priests and martial artists, there is really nothing legendary to say!"

  "I understand!" Wang Guanlan knew at once that he couldn't get anything valuable out of Chen Qingshan, so he waved his hand and let Bihe take Chen away, while he himself fell into deep thought.

  Ning Wang Wang Bizheng once said that a well-prepared Taoist can easily defeat a high-ranking martial artist. This statement was verified when he used the Five Elements Reversal Formation to deal with Qing Xiang and the black-clothed woman, and it also formed an impression in Wang Guanlan's mind that Taoists are more powerful than martial artists.

  Today, Luohan overturned his understanding of the relationship between Taoist priests and warriors with irrefutable facts.

  A cultivator of the Seventh Layer of Qi Refining, Leng Han stood there without moving at all, and with just his aura alone, he completely suppressed him. His spiritual awareness had completely withdrawn into his sea of consciousness. In such a situation, not to mention using magic, even if he were to let his spiritual awareness probe out again, it would suffer a devastating blow.

  Perhaps this can be explained by the fact that his position is too far apart from Leng Han's, but instinctively, Wang Guanlan felt that it was not just a simple suppression of status, but rather a congenital restraint. This kind of martial artist's innate restraint over a practitioner, he had never heard of before, nor had anyone ever told him about it.

  "Never mind, I'll just go ask Xiao Han tomorrow!" Wang Guanlan thought for a moment, didn't get any leads, and put down his thoughts, went back to his room, started practicing, the doubts in his heart, he decided to find Xiao Han to answer them the next day.

  At the same time, by the Nu River, a thin and sinister figure was gazing at the distant Broken Cloud Mountains with a bewildered look.

  "Who's so desperate to steal the spiritual energy of ordinary people!!" The sordid middle-aged man withdrew his gaze, squatted by the river, took a mouthful of water and drank it down, then wiped his mouth with his sleeve covered in dust. "I've run all over the southwest three states, half of the Duan Yun mountain range, but still haven't found any news about the 'One Thought Creates All Things' symbol. I didn't expect that as soon as I got back, I'd encounter something so interesting. Is it a mountain spirit, an evil specter, or a sorcerer at work? The Ning Wang Fu just eliminated the Bai Du Men, and now they dare to do this kind of thing in the southwest three states - are they crazy?! Suddenly, his heart moved, and a sly smile appeared on his face. "Heh heh, my good nephew seems to want to get involved too. Not bad, not bad, let me see just how much potential you have!!"

  The next morning, Wang Guanlan called Chen Qingshan up. Luo Han had originally brought two Hu Liang guards and added Han Fa to the group, making a total of six people, and they set off directly for Qingshi Village.

  Qingshi Village is over thirty miles away from Yicheng. After leaving Yicheng, we walked about five miles on the official road before turning into a small mountain path. At this time, it was already deep autumn, and the weather in the southwestern three states still felt humid and hot. The wild grass by the roadside did not wither and turn yellow, but instead remained green and swayed gently in the wind. The path to Qingshi Village is a small road that, although not as wide as a main road, is relatively flat due to the large number of people who walk on it. It appears to have been carefully maintained, with a thin layer of bluestone gravel covering its surface. Occasionally, there are one or two cart tracks visible, indicating that every now and then, a single-wheeled cart would pass by.

  The path wound its way, like a thin snake, into the Duan Yun mountain range. Among the six people, four were martial artists in the Condensing Qi stage. Wang Guanlan's cultivation had already reached the third layer of Condensing Qi. Only that bailiff named Han Fa, who had practiced martial arts, was at the first layer of Cultivating Qi. Along the way, he couldn't keep up with the pace of the other five and was struggling to follow. Finally, Chen Qing Shan couldn't bear it anymore and supported his body, increasing their speed by a large margin.

  "Look ahead, it's Qing Shi Village!!"

  Supported by Chen Qing Shan, the speed had picked up, but Han Fa wasn't feeling too great either. After turning a mountain corner, he panted heavily, pointing to a faintly visible green stone path ahead.

  "That's Qing Shi Village!!" The group slowed down their pace, looking in the direction where Han Fa was pointing.

  "What a huge piece of bluestone!!!!"

  That piece of bluestone, about thirty or more zhang high, stood upright beside the road, visible from several li away.

  "This bluestone is backed by a vast expanse of open land, with mountain streams flowing horizontally, and the products are also rich. So more than 100 years ago, our ancestors chose to settle here and formed the present Qing Shi Village!" Han Fa said, pointing at the bluestone.

  "The location is not bad!" Luo Han raised an eyebrow and said, this bluestone lies in the middle of the mountain road, leaving only one path that can accommodate two people walking side by side, it's a good place to defend but hard to attack, of course, that's just for ordinary people.

  At this time, at the entrance of the village, a man in his fifties was leaning against a bluestone, waiting.

  Seeing this line of people coming from afar, the man went far ahead to welcome them.

  "Qingshi Village's Han Zhongyi pays respects to the 14th Young Master, Luo Tongling!"

  "Did you know we were coming?!"

  "Yesterday evening, I received a message from County Master!" Han Zhongyi said, and then showed gratitude to Luo Han's face, "Thank you, Commander Luo, for lending a hand and rescuing the old and young in my village!" After finishing speaking, he bowed again.

  "It's just a small effort!" Hong Han still had that distant and unapproachable demeanor, but Wang Guanlan helped up the fallen Han Zhongyi instead. "Less idle chatter, lead the way ahead! Although the illnesses of your villagers have been lifted, as long as the source of the calamity is not eliminated, you will find it hard to stand firm under Mount Duan Yun!"

  "Yes, yes, yes! The Fourteenth Young Master is right! Please, please!"

  Han Zhongyi nodded repeatedly and led the six people into the village.

  As Han Fa said, after bypassing the big green stone, it is a vast expanse of open land. However, this piece of open land is not large, and behind it is a mountain slope extending from the Duan Yun Mountain Range. The slope is lined with strange rocks, no grass grows, and people cannot live there. A stream about one zhang wide flows down from the mountains, forming a river that divides the open land in two. On both sides of the river, dozens of households are scattered, forming a small village, which is Qing Shi Village.

  According to Han Zhongyi, the villagers who fell ill after entering the mountain began to recover slowly from yesterday afternoon. Calculating the time, it should be what happened after Luohan's loud shout in the backyard of the county government office. That loud shout not only saved the patients in the county government office but also those in Qingshi Village.

  "Looks like a timid guy!" After figuring out the situation, everyone's confidence increased a bit.

  "We won't look at people, you see which direction we should enter the mountain!" After a few words of persuasion, Wang Guanlan declined Han Zhongyi's invitation and chose to enter the mountain directly.

  Out of Qing Shi Village, the six people chose the mountain path that the villagers usually took the longest to walk on. Han Fa still led the way as they entered the vast and majestic Duan Yun Mountain Range.

  As soon as you enter the mountain, your eyes are met with a narrow and long valley. Because locals often come to the mountain, the shrubs in the valley have been cleared out cleanly. On both sides of the valley, one side is mainly composed of rocks, except for some plants that can be seen between the cracks, all other places are bare and stretch all the way to the top of the mountain, which isn't very nice to look at. The other side is different, with trees ranging from sparse to lush, stretching out as far as several miles, all dense forests that seem to have no end. This is where the villagers of Qing Shi Village go to chop firewood, pick herbs and hunt, but their activities are limited to within a 20-mile radius. Beyond 20 miles lies the deep mountain area, where the venomous snakes and ferocious beasts are not something ordinary villagers can withstand.

  "Normally everyone is active in this forest, nothing has ever happened!" As expected, after walking for a while, Han Fa pointed to the forest on a mountain slope.

  "This forest is quite dense, Shi Shao, you're a practitioner with strong spiritual awareness, perhaps you can discover some clues!" Kuo Han stopped in his tracks near the edge of the forest and said to Wang Guanlan.

  Wang Guanlan nodded, all the way here, because of Luo Han's existence, Wang Guanlan had to completely withdraw his spiritual awareness, just in case Luo Han suddenly went crazy and released that terrifying aura. After getting used to the benefits of releasing his spiritual awareness, now that he has completely withdrawn it, relying solely on his eyes and ears to explore the situation around him, he really felt a bit unaccustomed.

  Now that he heard Leng Han say so, he was overjoyed and immediately released his spiritual awareness, extending it towards the forest.

  "Huh?!!" Not long after Wang Guanlan's spiritual awareness was released, his expression changed because he found that his spiritual awareness couldn't expand out of the dense forest at all, and could only maintain a range of over ten zhang.

  "The natural world has its own spirit, not like the cities of human society, where spiritual awareness can be freely expanded!" Lu Han said suddenly in a light tone, "Although the spiritual awareness of a practitioner is wonderful, one cannot blindly believe in spiritual awareness. What is truly reliable are still one's own eyes and ears!!"

  Wang Guanlan's eyes moved slightly, and he nodded, "Thank you, Commander. Wang Guanlan has learned from it!"

  Luo Han still had no expression on his face as he led the way into the forest, followed by two flower fox guards. Wang Guanlan hesitated for a moment before turning to Han and saying, "You go back to the village and wait. If we don't have any news by tomorrow, you immediately return to Yi City to call for reinforcements. By that time, Ning Wangfu's reinforcements should have arrived!"

  "Fourteen Shao!" Han Fa was about to say something else, but when he saw the expression on Wang Guanlan's face, he swallowed his words again. "Subordinate obeys orders!!"

  Send away Han Fa, Wang Guanlan and Chen Qingshan also followed Luo Han and others into the forest. This forest is a familiar forest, where you can see the remains of trees that have been cut down by mountain people everywhere, as well as some traps, animal bones, and no special place. However, Luo Han observed very carefully, and seemed to be observing some stones and trees with a purpose, as if looking for something. After a while, Wang Guanlan finally couldn't help but ask, "Luo leader, what's the discovery?"

  "This is a timid fellow, it seems I startled him yesterday!" Luo Han said calmly, "The mountain people should have had an accident around here, but now they have been cleaned up, leaving only some yin energy!"

  "Yin energy!" Wang Guanlan's heart moved, and he began to carefully sense with his spiritual awareness. Soon, he felt that on several trees and stones, there was a thread of cold yin energy lingering, and these trees and stones were exactly the ones Luo Han had just checked.

  !，。