Zhao looked around, as if he were scared of something, before slowly saying, "I got this from the murderer, Lin Jing." He sighed with relief after speaking.
'Hmmm, the murderer does seem to be connected to a demonic or unorthodox faction. Is that why he has those pills?' Xiao thought to himself before speaking.
"What do you know about Jing, then?" Xiao asked.
Zhao's expression grew intense.
"Anything but that. I'd rather you kill me now than give you anything about that murderer," Zhao said vehemently.
'Hmm, is he soul-bound by something?' Xiao wondered. He didn't press the question further. If Zhao were soul-bound, trying to get him to break the contract would be pointless, death would be the least of his worries.
"Well, tell me about the Zhu family. Why do they act so weird?" Xiao asked, surprised that Zhao would answered so easily.
Zhao, looking defeated, sighed and said, "The Zhu family wasn't always like that. They were a kind family, especially the patriarch, Zhu Liu. Everything changed two months ago when that murderer showed up and started talking to the patriarch." Zhao's expression twisted in fear, as if he might be struck down just for saying too much.
Xiao's curiosity deepened. 'Is it a demon?' Based on his past experiences, it was likely. Xiao who was very curious pressed on.
"How did you learn to cultivate?" Xiao always wondered how a small village like this had cultivators since they usually joined sects and didn't remain in isolated places.
Zhao smiled, but the smile quickly faded, replaced by a frown. He repeated the gesture several times before answering.
"Do you know of the Infinity Hallway?"
Xiao frowned. No way... But to confirm his suspicions, he replied, "Yes. What about it?"
"Well, you probably know it slowly drains qi from cultivators and life force from non-cultivators. It wasn't something the Zhu family owned, but that murderer showed the patriarch a way to gain cultivation from it. The patriarch became greedy. It gives cultivation at a very fast rate, but it ruins your foundation if you use it," Zhao sighed, looking resigned.
"My cultivation is probably my limit as I've been stuck at the 6th stage for a week now. The Zhu family is in a similar situation. The Infinity Hallway seems useful only for us villagers who couldn't cultivate anyway. That's why we haven't thought about leaving."
Xiao pondered. 'What happens to the leftover life force, then?' With over a thousand people's life force being drained, even though the infinity hallway didn't kill them, he wondered how many years had been stolen from their lives.
Just as Xiao was about to ask more questions, Zhao suddenly collapsed. Rushing over, Xiao checked on him and discovered something alarming. Zhao... died.
This shocked Xiao. He hadn't seemed close to death. It wasn't from blood loss, the armless part of his body wasn't even bleeding anymore. And it couldn't be because he talked about Lin Jing, because if someone broke a soul-binding contract, they'd suffer soul-shattering pain first. Xiao had witnessed that process before.
'Then it must be the pill,' Xiao reasoned. It was the only logical explanation for Zhao's sudden death. It could also have been due to qi or life force depletion, but if that were the case, Zhao would've died earlier. Zhao must have been holding on to dear life if the pill took that long to kill him.
'But no matter. I have enough information for now,' Xiao thought as he began searching Zhao's dead body. He was in a hurry to return and check on the Zhu family's speech.
As Xiao reached into Zhao's pockets, he found something, a single pill. Upon closer inspection, he sensed a strong demonic energy emanating from it.
'No wonder he died. Only a clueless fool would take this pill,' Xiao thought, feeling the malicious energy seeping from the pill. It seemed designed with only ill intent for its user.
Xiao knew of some pills that could enhance strength with minimal backlash, but this one was different, it gave power at the cost of a backlash a hundred times greater than normal.
Xiao continued searching the body but found nothing else noteworthy. Zhao seemed to have been completely drained of resources. Even the low-grade spirit stone Xiao had given him earlier was gone.
'Did he trade that low-grade spirit stone for this demonic pill?' Xiao thought, then chuckled, remembering how Zhao had taunted him about trading the stone earlier.
'Heh, who's trading useless things now?' Xiao mused, staring at Zhao's lifeless body. His expression darkened. 'It must be that demon distributing these worthless pills.'
But something still bothered Xiao. 'Why is a demon involved with this group of insignificant villagers?' He wondered. 'Could the demon be weakened or vulnerable?' That would be the only reasonable explanation for why such a powerful being would concern itself with a small village.
'Or maybe it's not a demon. Could it be something else? But what?' Xiao struggled to piece together the final part of the puzzle.
'No matter. I'll figure it out soon enough,' Xiao thought. He glanced up at the sun. 'It's only been 30 minutes since the fight began, but it feels like a whole month has passed.' Xiao sighed, reflecting on how quickly time seemed to slip by.
Before heading to the family head's house to investigate while the head was still away, Xiao knew he needed to restore his qi. So, he sat down, crossed his legs, and began cultivating.
Energy flowed into him faster now, thanks to his expanded dantian.
It took Xiao about an hour to cultivate the qi in his dantian. Once it was somewhat full, he decided to head toward the Zhu family house, suspecting that something the demon was hiding could be inside. But before that, he needed to hide Zhao's body somewhere inconspicuous.
He carried the body outside the village and left it there before heading to the Zhu family house, ready to sneak inside and find everything the Zhu family had to hide.