Morning light filtered through the thick, oiled paper pasted over the dilapidated window lattice, casting hazy patches of light on the floor inside the room.
Jiu Baiyun’s eyelids felt heavy as he cracked them open a slit. The weariness from yesterday hadn’t fully dissipated; a deep ache seemed to seep from his very bones.
He let out a long, drawn-out “Hmm…,” his voice still hoarse with sleep, and struggled to sit up from the creaking wooden plank bed.
Then, like a rusty puppet, he slowly stretched, his joints emitting faint pops and cracks.
Rubbing away the sleep crust from the corners of his eyes, fragments of last night’s memories gradually sharpened in his mind.
Had he agreed to something?
“Guard the ancestral hall…”
He quickly remembered and couldn’t help but mutter under his breath, his voice still laced with drowsiness.
He shook his head next, trying to dispel the last of the heaviness.
A promise made had to be kept—it was one of the few principles he still clung to.
He swung his legs off the bed with practiced ease, straightened his slightly wrinkled robe, and pushed open the creaking door.
The chill of early morning hit him in the face, making him shiver involuntarily.
It was the turn of spring and winter, with a large temperature difference between day and night. Even with the sun out at this hour, it was still quite cold.
Jiu Baiyun took a deep breath. The icy morning air instantly sharpened his senses. After quickly getting his bearings, he set off toward the direction of the village’s back mountain.
On the village path, there were already villagers up early for work.
Several men carrying hoes were gathered by the well drawing water. When they spotted Jiu Baiyun’s figure appearing at the fork in the road leading up the mountain, their previously boisterous chatter and laughter instantly died down.
Their gazes settled on him, filled with undisguised rejection and scrutiny.
“Tsk, look who it is?”
A man with a coarse voice gestured with his chin toward Jiu Baiyun, his voice low but loud enough for everyone nearby to hear.
“Isn’t that the… lunatic who keeps ranting about Immortals eating people?”
“Exactly, that Jiu fellow.”
A woman next to him curled her lip, her eyes full of disdain.
“Being driven out of Nanfeng City wasn’t enough; he comes back to the village spouting nonsense to confuse people. If it weren’t for the Immortals’ protection, we’d have been eaten by those strange evils long ago. If not for the village chief taking pity on you…”
Before the woman could finish, another sharp-eyed villager suddenly lowered his voice, his tone thick with astonishment.
“Hey, look at the direction he’s heading?”
“The back mountain? Isn’t that the way to the Fox Immortal Lord’s ancestral hall? What’s he going there for? After slandering the proper Immortals, does he want to go cause trouble at the Fox Immortal Lord’s hall now?”
The coarse-voiced man snorted derisively, deliberately raising his volume a notch.
“Hmph, who knows what’s going on in that madman’s head! Maybe his thieving heart isn’t dead yet, and he wants to go steal offerings again!”
“Him? He’s fit to set foot on the Fox Immortal Lord’s grounds? Isn’t he afraid of divine retribution!”
“Exactly! The Fox Immortal Lord has truly protected us before. How can we let a lunatic who slanders the Immortal path like him defile it!”
The murmurs buzzed like flies. Though Jiu Baiyun tried his best to ignore them, they inevitably wormed their way into his ears.
His fists clenched slightly, but he soon relaxed them again.
Honestly, he wasn’t just tired of this kind of plot from reading novels in his previous life; he’d experienced it too many times in this life as well.
At first, it might have been particularly irritating, or made him want to crack these people’s heads open to see what was inside, but now… well, it was already a mad world. Why care so much…
He couldn’t be bothered with the whole “face-slapping” routine. And as for leaving and making them regret it… that was only satisfying when reading novels.
In reality, who had the time to constantly monitor others to see how much they regretted after you left?
Moreover, Jiu Baiyu truly didn’t believe he played such a pivotal role that people would regret his departure.
That was the protagonist’s business. Could a fool like him, who was led by the nose and finally tricked into self-destructing with the Yao Fox Demon Venerable, possibly be the protagonist?
Jiu Baiyun had a clear understanding of his own position.
Save those he could save, and forget about those he couldn’t. His main goal now was still to wait for the next Transmigrator to arrive and hand over the task of saving the world to them!
“Hah… listen, just listen…”
As he walked, the Yao Fox Demon Venerable’s ethereal, hollow voice suddenly rang out, dripping with sarcasm.
“Who was it that protected them from being torn apart by those abominations? And look at the result?”
Jiu Baiyun sighed silently in his heart, but maintained a calm expression.
“Enough, say less. These villagers… they’ve just been deceived for too long.”
He felt a bit sick even saying it himself. After all, there were times he genuinely didn’t care about these villagers’ survival.
But remembering that many protagonists in novels would say this line, and that it could also annoy the Yao Fox Demon Venerable, Jiu Baiyun calmed down.
“Hmph! Foolish kindness!”
The Yao Fox Demon Venerable snorted coldly, seeming extremely dissatisfied with Jiu Baiyun’s answer and even a bit angered by it.
“Just you wait. Sooner or later, you’ll be dragged to your death by these idiots!”
Jiu Baiyun stopped arguing with the Yao Fox Demon Venerable.
Mainly because some words, while they might irritate the Yao Fox Demon Venerable, could also irritate himself. He wasn’t willing to do something that hurt the enemy a thousand while damaging himself eight hundred.
These villagers could do as they pleased. Once the next Transmigrator arrived and he trained them up, he could start living a slacker’s life.
The closer he got to the village’s rear edge, the fewer villagers he encountered, but the oppressive feeling from the pointing fingers and hidden hostility in their gazes didn’t lessen much.
Jiu Baiyun’s steps carried him onto the winding path leading to the back mountain ancestral hall, leaving the village far behind.
The morning mist in the mountain forest hadn’t yet dissipated, carrying the cool, damp scent of grass and trees, which actually helped clear some of the heaviness in his chest.
Before even reaching the ancestral hall, Jiu Baiyun’s gaze, through the sparse trees, caught sight of the not-so-grand but tidy and solemn hall ahead.
Within the fenced clearing, A Ran was holding a broom, diligently sweeping away the fallen leaves from the night before.
Seeming to hear footsteps, A Ran looked up. Seeing Jiu Baiyun, her face immediately broke into a bright smile, and she waved from afar.
“Brother Jiu! You’re here!”
Hearing this, Jiu Baiyun immediately nodded at A Ran, then quickened his pace, passing through the last few clumps of shrubs to arrive outside the ancestral hall fence.
“You’re quite punctual, Brother Jiu!”
A Ran put down the broom, wiped her hands on her skirt, a sincere smile on her face.
She seemed to have truly moved past the incident of him stealing the offerings, remembering only that he had saved her last night.
Jiu Baiyun nodded again, his eyes instinctively scanning the area around the ancestral hall.
The morning mist drifted slowly among the trees, adding a touch of mystery to the solemn hall.
“Yeah, had nothing better to do. What’s the usual situation here?”
“And, is this ancestral hall usually shared by the villagers from the surrounding villages?”
There were indeed quite a few villages nearby, even a newly built one. Fortunately, thanks to Jiu Baiyun not having a habit of wandering around, his own rather unsavory reputation hadn’t spread to all the villages.