Fu Ling’s expression was filled with shock after seeing Li Yunxian.
She had asked every cultivator who had encountered a marker in the Heaven’s ruins, and never once had anyone else managed to enter.
However, Li Yunxian was indeed a bit different; she was only in the Golden Core stage…
Fu Ling was only halfway through that thought when she suddenly sensed something was wrong.
‘Hmm?!!’
‘Why can’t I sense Li Yunxian’s cultivation level?’
Moreover, that inability to sense it wasn’t the kind where the other party was a normal person.
It was a sense of profound mystery, the feeling one only had when encountering someone with a higher cultivation level than oneself.
Fu Ling took two steps toward Li Yunxian, intending to say something, but her limbs suddenly gave out, and she fell to the ground with a *thud*.
At this moment, Fu Ling was hungry and cold. Her body was far too weak. It was completely different from her constitution as a spirit fusion stage mighty being and the principal of wenwu academy.
Her physical coordination had completely failed her, leading to her direct collapse.
Li Yunxian had gone through this stage when she first traveled back, too. While she didn’t have to be polite to Su Wenjing, she was considerate enough not to laugh out loud at Fu Ling.
She stepped forward, wanting to help Fu Ling up.
Fu Ling looked depressed.
In this moment, having returned to this point in her memory, she was in the state of a completely ordinary person. She could only accept Li Yunxian’s help.
However, when Fu Ling reached out, she couldn’t grab Li Yunxian.
Her hand passed directly through Li Yunxian’s palm.
Seeing this, both of them were stunned.
In the cultivation world, there were many environments with arrays that behaved like this. Li Yunxian immediately understood the current situation.
“It seems I can’t interfere with what happens to you here,” Li Yunxian said.
Fu Ling struggled to crawl up on her own, trying her best to adapt to her former body as she said, “This is a good thing.”
“An important point of absorbing a marker is that you cannot change what happened in the past.”
After all, the goal was to accept the past.
If the past was changed, how could it be called acceptance?
Li Yunxian didn’t have much information, but she was smart. Listening to Fu Ling’s words, she quickly understood the rules of this place.
Then, she frowned and asked, “Since you’ve entered, has your memory returned?”
Fu Ling knew what Li Yunxian was worried about.
If the past couldn’t be changed, then with Fu Ling’s current state, it would be very easy for her to make choices completely different from her original self, ultimately leading to a failure to integrate with the past.
But she shook her head. “No, I still don’t remember anything.”
However, Fu Ling wasn’t discouraged. “After all, if breaking through from the spirit fusion stage to the dacheng stage were easy and without difficulty, there wouldn’t be only one dacheng cultivator in all of Shenzhou.”
Fu Ling knew that mindset was important at any time.
“Let’s just take it one step at a time.”
That was easy to say, but in practice, Fu Ling got stuck on the very first obstacle.
No matter how hard she tried to adapt and adjust her state or control her current body, it just wouldn’t work. Her limbs remained soft and weak, making even walking difficult.
‘Even if breaking through to the dacheng stage is hard, I shouldn’t be stuck like this at the very first hurdle!’
If she were alone, it would be fine, but someone was watching.
Fu Ling felt like the heroic image she had just established in front of Li Yunxian during her escape was about to shatter.
She wanted to scream!
Li Yunxian didn’t think too much of it. She carefully examined Fu Ling’s thin, almost blackened face and uttered a confused sound. “Are you sick? It feels like you have a fever.”
Fu Ling remained silent.
After entering the path of cultivation, things like illness and fevers no longer existed.
Fu Ling had already discarded that awareness from her mind.
But now…
Fu Ling raised her hand to touch her forehead.
There was a clear difference in temperature.
“…It seems I am,” Fu Ling answered, pretending to be calm.
“Then I should be out looking for medicine now?” Fu Ling said uncertainly.
She tried to flip through her memories, recalling how she handled this situation before.
After looking through them, she found that she hadn’t handled it at all.
Fu Ling’s health had always been good; she rarely fell ill.
After all, in a feudal village, medical treatment was practically non-existent.
When one got sick, they essentially relied on their own strength to pull through.
However, Fu Ling’s family hadn’t completely ignored her.
“…No, I should be out looking for water.” Fu Ling touched her forehead again.
During the few times she had been sick, her family would draw a bowl of water from the well and pray to the magic tool in the middle of the village.
After receiving a blessing, they would use the blessed water to dab her forehead, behind her ears, and her armpits while chanting prayers to ward off evil.
This was a very ancient method of treating illness.
Since her family wasn’t here, she had come out to complete this task herself.
Fu Ling pondered what her normal reaction would have been at this time and made a deduction.
So, had she succeeded or failed?
Fu Ling felt like her head was pounding.
With no memories and no information, she didn’t know which choice was the correct one.
It was a fifty-fifty chance.
“Someone is coming,” Li Yunxian reminded Fu Ling.
Fu Ling was currently just an ordinary person, but Li Yunxian’s divine sense was still functional.
Fu Ling’s mind raced, and she immediately made a choice.
She collapsed directly onto the ground.
The point she had been hesitating on was that the entire village seemed empty. If she didn’t save herself, she might just die.
Since Fu Ling hadn’t died and lived until she could cultivate, she must have successfully saved herself.
But Fu Ling’s current physical condition was too poor. Theoretically, she had no mobility.
If not for the fact that Fu Ling’s spirit fusion stage divine soul was incredibly powerful, preventing her from losing consciousness, she would have long since passed out.
Now that someone was coming…
It meant she was saved by these people.
Seeing Fu Ling’s clean and efficient collapse, Li Yunxian was speechless.
She silently went out to check the status of the newcomers.
There were three people. Each of them had multiple wounds. The one in the best condition held a wooden staff with a machete tied to the top.
Another was supporting a more seriously injured person as they slowly approached the village.
Li Yunxian saw that their eyes didn’t turn toward her at all, confirming they couldn’t see her.
Li Yunxian stared at the chipped machete and the residual flesh on the blade.
It was human.
These guys didn’t seem to be coming with good intentions.
Was Fu Ling about to be kidnapped?
Li Yunxian’s mind raced with possibilities, but she didn’t do anything to notify Fu Ling.
The original Fu Ling of this world wouldn’t have known about this, so it was best for the current Fu Ling to have the same reaction.
In reality, the situation was much better than Li Yunxian, who had seen much darkness, had imagined.
After the three men entered the village and shouted without receiving a response, they cautiously stepped further inside.
Then they saw Fu Ling.
And then they treated her.
The fierce-looking man with the machete went to find some herbs, which he used for his companion and for Fu Ling.
“You really can’t judge a book by its cover,” Li Yunxian praised while sitting beside Fu Ling.
Fu Ling, who was forced to listen to Li Yunxian while pretending to be unconscious, thought, ‘…’
Feeling some strength return to her body and the weakness in her limbs fading, Fu Ling drowsily opened her eyes. Seeing several people suddenly appearing beside her, she let out a startled cry.
The three men quickly moved to restrain Fu Ling and hurriedly introduced themselves.
“Don’t be afraid, young miss. We’re good people passing through. Our village is just three mountain peaks away from here,” the three said, trying their best to sound kind.
However, each of them had a gruesome face. The actual effect was no different from a creepy monster being right in her face.
“Pi Ermei from your village is the one who married into ours. We’re all relatives!”
“We came here to ask her for a place to stay. Where is she?”
“It’s already dark. Why are you the only one in the village?”
Fu Ling kept a cold face, looking at them with extreme suspicion. “I don’t know any Pi Ermei. There’s no one by that name in the village.”
The three scratched their heads. “Maybe she changed her name after marrying here.”
“Never mind, never mind. Just as long as you know we’re relatives.”
“Where are your people? Why were you left here alone?” they continued to ask.
Fu Ling knew when to stop pushing. Although she already knew from Li Yunxian that these three were lying, she didn’t linger on the topic.
As if trusting them, she answered honestly, “I don’t know. When I woke up, I was the only one in the village. Everything was a mess.”
Fu Ling shrank back and pursed her lips. She tried to force out tears but couldn’t, finally speaking dryly, “Could it be that those monsters came?”
“No, the guard lamp is still here. Not a scrap of food was left in the village; it must have been those sons of bitches.” The most hot-tempered of the three, who hadn’t spoken before, cursed out loud.
Fu Ling shrank back again.
The one who had been communicating with Fu Ling quickly comforted her for a while before gently asking if there was any food left.
Fu Ling bit her lip, appearing to hesitate for a long time. After being coaxed with a few more words, she reluctantly nodded.
Refusing to let the three follow her, Fu Ling hurriedly ran out of the room.
Once outside, Fu Ling asked Li Yunxian directly, “Where is the food buried in the village?”
Villages that wanted to protect their food would always try to hide it.
And the best way to hide it was to bury it underground.
Fu Ling’s current memories included information on this aspect from her earlier years.
However, every household in the village buried their final life-saving grain in different places every year.
Without those specific memories, Fu Ling didn’t know where it was.
Li Yunxian pointed casually, showing Fu Ling the direction.
“There are other people in the village,” Li Yunxian provided information. “They’re all children.”
“Since those three appeared, they haven’t dared to come out.”
Fu Ling had fainted at noon, and it was now night.
What Li Yunxian meant to convey was that these children hadn’t eaten.
Fu Ling didn’t respond, only nodding slightly.
The subsequent developments went smoothly.
Fu Ling handed over the food she dug up, timidly saying that was all there was.
Looking at the single handful of grain in Fu Ling’s hands, the three men let out a long sigh.
Ultimately, that handful of grain was turned into a small pot of porridge, and the four of them used it to line their stomachs.
Only after Fu Ling saw the food portioned out to her did she seem to make a decision, leading the other children of the village out.
Seeing so many extra mouths that suddenly needed to eat, the three outsiders scratched their heads and finally bared their teeth in a grimace.
“Tomorrow, we’ll go up the mountain to see if there’s any game,” the three said powerlessly.