Chapter 17: Following the Vine to Find the Melon

When An Ran saw the situation, he furrowed his brow. Such a large flaw wasn’t like this child’s usual skills.

Just as he was about to step in to help, he heard a long howl, and the Azure Dragon soared into the air. With a mighty roar, it directly knocked the figure behind Xia Chen Yu several meters away.

“You finally showed up,” Xia Chen Yu said, having already figured out the Azure Dragon’s patterns. It would only appear when he was in danger.

The Azure Dragon heard the implication in his words and angrily shouted, “You brat, was that intentional?”

While dealing with the incoming crowd, Xia Chen Yu called out, “Why don’t you come help already?”

The Azure Dragon let out a few low growls, and then countless lights appeared in the sky. In the blink of an eye, they densely rained down, transforming into blades of light as they fell.

With a few whooshing sounds, the light blades pierced through all the walking corpses, causing them to fall to the ground.

The dark crowd was pinned to the ground by the light blades, writhing in struggle.

Xia Chen Yu stopped his movements, preparing to finish them off one by one. Meanwhile, the Azure Dragon looked on with a smug expression.

However, it didn’t take long for the crowd to shakily get back up.

The Azure Dragon was slightly surprised, puffing up its cheeks and glaring, “What’s going on here?”

Xia Chen Yu laughed, “They’re controlled by demonic energy. They’re no longer human, so killing them won’t work.”

The Azure Dragon snorted disdainfully, “What’s so hard about that? Your method is too troublesome.”

After saying that, it threw its head back and howled. Suddenly, a massive blue light orb appeared in the sky.

The orb rapidly expanded, and in the blink of an eye, it engulfed the entire village, covering the area of the formation.

The walking corpses surrounding Xia Chen Yu suddenly froze, and black mist began to rise from them, drifting toward the sky and slowly dissipating.

As the black mist dispersed, the entire crowd collapsed to the ground, unmoving.

Xia Chen Yu looked at one of the bodies at his feet. The red spots on its skin had vanished. When he opened the eyelids, the eyes had returned to normal.

But the person was already completely dead.

“What was that just now…?” he asked.

“Purging demonic energy,” the Azure Dragon answered in a light tone, as though a bit drained.

Xia Chen Yu was surprised, “You can do that?”

The Azure Dragon didn’t respond but instead looked exhausted. It suddenly vanished, leaving a heavy echo in the air: “Brat, you owe me one this time.”

The enemy was easily taken care of, but Xia Chen Yu was still in a daze. After a moment, he regained his focus and was about to turn back when he heard a child’s voice, “Big brother!”

It was the same child from before, still looking disheveled but now with an excited expression, running toward Xia Chen Yu.

“You… can speak?”

The child hugged his waist and nodded vigorously, lifting their dirty cheek, with black pupils sparkling.

Xia Chen Yu hurriedly checked, “Are you better?”

“We’re all better now.”

The elderly person who had earlier asked for help came forward, holding Xia Chen Yu’s hand and repeatedly expressing thanks.

Not far away, An Ran clenched his fists. He hadn’t expected that the Azure Dragon’s spiritual power also had the ability to purify. Not only had the demonic energy controlling the walking corpses been dispelled, but the formation that had sealed the village also disappeared with it, and the villagers gradually returned to normal.

Now, Xia Chen Yu no longer had to kill them, and over a hundred lives were saved.

Thinking about this, An Ran, who should have been angry about the plan’s failure, couldn’t summon any rage.

Still with doubts, Xia Chen Yu asked, “Old man, what happened to your village?”

The elder sighed deeply, his voice raspy and frail as he explained.

A year ago, a group of people from a sect called Tian Luo taught came to the village. They gave everyone a kind of talismanic water, claiming that drinking it would not only prevent illness but also reforge their spiritual roots, allowing even ordinary people without cultivation talent to practice.

“You all believed that?” Xia Chen Yu asked in confusion.

“Yes,” the elder shook his head helplessly. “At the time, a child who drank it was tested, and they said the child had a top-quality golden spiritual root. Everyone believed it then.”

Being able to enter a cultivation sect was the best hope for people who were trapped by the cycles of birth, aging, sickness, and death.

“When they first drank it, there was no change, but after a month or two, red spots began to appear on their skin, and their eyes gradually became clouded. The process of change varied from person to person, but those whose changes were slower, like us, still maintained some consciousness, though we couldn’t speak.”

An Ran heard everything clearly. This explained why, in the original timeline, Xia Chen Yu had encountered a village full of fully corrupted people. Now, with the event happening earlier, there were survivors.

He furrowed his brow, wondering if he had come just a little earlier, would those people have survived?

After hearing the elder’s story, Xia Chen Yu gritted his teeth and asked, “Where are these Tian Luo Sect people now?”

The elder shook his head, “Once all the villagers drank the talisman water, they left.”

“I know,” the child tugged at Xia Chen Yu’s sleeve. “Big brother, I know where they are.”

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