As he listened to the villagers' discussions, a thought appeared in Shi Hao's mind - he had suddenly recalled what he was praying for.
"Village Chief, I think I know what had happened," said Shi Hao.
"Uncle Shoushan's wound was treated by the guardian spirit." As Shi Hao spoke, he turned and stared at the willow tree.
The villagers followed his line of sight too.
But the willow tree still looked the same with its rough bark covered in black cracks and the one branch drooping downwards as the only faint sign of life.
"How are you sure that Shoushan was treated by the guardian spirit?"
"When Uncle Shoushan returned and the situation turned serious, I was worried for Uncle's safety so I prayed under the willow tree. The guardian spirit must have heard my prayers and treated Uncle. There's no other explanation I can think of," said the child in his tender voice. He sounded serious and his words seemed reasonable.
"Hey, little guy. How can that pass as a reason? Just because you said so doesn't mean that it's the guardian spirit who was behind this."
"But the guardian spirit had been revived a while ago, so why isn't there a chance that it was the one who treated Uncle Shoushan?" Shi Hao retorted.
He was certain that he was right.
Still, despite arguing for a long time, none of them was able to solve the mystery. In the end, Shi Hao's conjecture was deemed too unbelievable to the villagers. They still saw him as a child and his words as a child's joke or fantasy. In the end, no one paid him any more attention.
Guardian spirits were usually known to protect the village from external threats. No one had ever heard of a guardian spirit healing a person under its protection.
Although they were unable to come to a conclusion, the villagers decided to put the matter aside for now. There was no use dwelling upon it for too long.
Besides, regardless of how it happened, Huang Shoushan's recovery was a happy thing for everyone.
Everyone slowly dispersed and made themselves busy. Night eventually descended upon Stone Village. As they had been interrupted during the hunt today, they had no choice but to eat the leftovers from yesterday.
In the meantime, Ye Yun had finally browsed through the entire system manual.
Why had he not paid much attention to it before? He must have thought that the information provided by the system at the beginning when he had just transmigrated was sufficient so he didn't think that he'd need more information.
But now that he had read the manual, he finally understood the basic principles within which the system operates.
For example, the system did follow principles of human rights - mission content would be based on the host's development and life history. The system would never assign a mission that would threaten the life of the host.
Essentially, Ye Yun could rest assured that the system would always operate with his best interests in mind.
Ye Yun praised the tactfulness of the system, happy and relieved to learn about this.
And he didn't dwell on the mission earlier anymore. After all, he had little to nothing to lose, and more to gain, especially breaking through to the Growth stage.
Ye Yun was starting to get bored so he decided it was the perfect time to cultivate.
Ye Yun exited the system display, slowly closed his eyes, and began to cultivate the Art of Nine Revolutions Essence.
He had already completed the first layer of the Art of Nine Revolutions Essence Great Circle and had essentially developed a Golden Body Protection Form. He would no longer sway along to ordinary winds. But besides these achievements, Ye Yun was still just a blade of grass.
Ye Yun sighed. Even though his roots had extended deeper into the soil and intertwined with those of the Willow Deity, he still had not grasped how to be a blade of grass. It had been a few months and yet he could not move his body as he pleased. How annoying.
Ye Yun decided to turn his frustrations into motivation to cultivate.
Stone Village was silent once again. Beyond its boundaries, a mighty beast with a body as large as a mountain was breathing heavily as it stood somewhere in the mountain forest. Its golden eyes glowed with a swirl of emotions and intentions.
The mighty beast was about to die, but it was not willing to go just like that. Unfortunately, it was unable to change its fate to die.
The mighty beast howled towards the sky with an ear-splitting roar.
It was one of the nine ancient descendants of the Dragon race, Suan Ni, and looked like a lion with a tall and sturdy body like Mount Tai.
Suan Ni lay on its side, eyes gazing at the lake in the middle of the mountain forest.
The night shrouded the moonlight as a thin and cold air blew above the lake.
Suan Ni took a deep breath and exhaled roughly. Only then did it feel the emotions in his heart ease up.
As an ancient descendant, it had lived since the beginning of time, explored all nine layers of the heavens, and roamed the world's greatest mountains and strongest rivers. But now, the past tens of thousands of years were blurring into each other.
Now that it was growing weaker, it had ended up next to this lake in the mountain forest.
It knew that its time was coming that it was about to die. In a few days, its body would fall apart and become much-prized meat for humans.
But it was not willing to go just like that! Its body was carved with ancient runes and flowed with ancient blood essence. It was an unparalleled being! When consumed, its flesh and blood could help cultivators break through in their cultivation.
Suan Ni's eyes narrowed and emitted a ruthless aura.
Even if it died, Suan Ni would not let its body be eaten by other races! Anyone who tried to take advantage of it would be slaughtered along with the person or beast's entire race. Suan Ni was ready to bring anyone else down with it.
As an ancient descendant of the Dragon race, it had to at least die without losing its dignity! It absolutely couldn't allow others to tear its body apart, alive or dead! How could Suan Ni allow anyone or anything to deface such sacred and precious ancient runes and secret treasures?
As such, Suan Ni had devised a scheme before his death.
It knew that its recent actions and behavior in the mountain forest had not gone unnoticed by the desolate beasts and humans.
If they did not come to prey on it on the day it died, it would willingly let things go. But if they did come, Suan Ni would not let them off easily.
Meanwhile, the residents of Stone Village tens of kilometers away from the same mountain forest Suan Ni was laying in had gathered to discuss how to obtain its blood essence.
Even if they could only collect a bean-sized amount of its blood essence, it would be enough to allow the cultivation of the children in Stone Village to advance by leaps and bounds.
This was especially so for Shi Hao, a cultivation prodigy who had long since reached Blood Essence Refinement Golden Stage.
If they were a larger tribe, they would have prepared a large amount of blood essence early on just for gifted children like Shi Hao to temper their bodies with.
Therefore, they had to obtain Suan Ni's blood essence for the sake of the village's future and Shi Hao's Great Dao cultivation.
Huang Shoushan had actually sensed the injured Suan Ni through the chaotic commotion of the desolate beasts in the depths of the forest the day he had gotten injured. He was leading the others towards Suan Ni when they encountered those from other villagers. Suan Ni had also heard the fight and fled elsewhere to avoid getting targetted.
When the Stone Village residents learned of this, they knew Suan Ni's life was coming to an end.
This was a matter of utmost importance, so they had to plan things well. If Suan Ni died, they would have to scramble and fight with the other villages and desolate beasts for the blood and meat.
Disputes were unavoidable, and the group who had previously intercepted them might also do the same again this time.
Now was the calm before the storm. The moment Suan Ni passed would be when all hell would break loose.
Unfortunately, the only thing they could not predict was the exact moment Suan Ni would pass.
If only someone among the Stone Village residents could detect that moment so that they could get a headstart.
Regardless, everyone was simply waiting impatiently for Suan Ni to die quickly.
Suan Ni knew this and it only made it sad but also well-planned. It could already foresee the humans' plans for the moment it breathed its last.
It could sense that its life was dissipating bit by bit as it let out a roar.
Those who had been eyeing it trembled nervously at the sound.
The battle was about to begin and those of the Great Wasteland were already prepping themselves.
Stone Village was no exception.