"You two look like new faces. From outside Yunmeng Marsh or another village?"
At the village entrance, an old woman basking in the warm sun smiled as she looked at Chen Baiqing and Cui Hao, who had just arrived.
This village was the nearest one the tiger demon knew about.
The tiger demon was being watched by Lu Lingyi nearby. Wang Chuan and Li Zhuhua were following the weasel demon that Cui Hao had tricked away—first to see whether the weasel demon had truly been fooled or had sensed something wrong and was preparing to report it.
Second, to figure out the relationships among the demons in this area.
Going around in circles like this, they'd naturally know which lucky target to go after when the time came.
Chen Baiqing and Cui Hao were here to check out the village and see who this batch of wish-power belonged to.
Yunmeng Marsh had been developing for nearly a thousand years. The relationships within must be extraordinarily complex. It was best to find a thread first and plan gradually.
Chen Baiqing hadn't chosen to sneak in. Instead, she walked directly up to the old woman sitting at the village entrance, sunbathing.
Cui Hao didn't quite understand Chen Baiqing's choice.
But even if he didn't understand, Cui Hao wouldn't dare raise any objections.
Besides, Chen Baiqing wasn't the reckless type.
Hearing the question, Cui Hao smiled and stepped forward:
"Would anyone from outside Yunmeng Marsh dare to come in?"
The old woman smiled at this and nodded slowly:
"Naturally. The Marsh God's glory isn't something everyone can bathe in."
Cui Hao smiled in agreement, his gaze lifting to the simple wooden village gate. Above the gate hung a plaque—Huaze Village.
The plaque's material was still relatively new, with a stark color contrast against the old village gate.
The gate was old. The plaque was new.
The old woman held a walking cane lightly and asked with a smile:
"Where did you two run out of options? If that's the case, come here. There'll always be a meal to eat."
Cui Hao lowered his gaze, as if understanding something:
"There's a way to survive here?"
The old woman's smile remained:
"Isn't this old woman the answer? At my age, I'm still living well, aren't I?"
Chen Baiqing listened to the conversation, her expression gradually cooling.
The reason was simple—there was only one old person in this entire village, barely a handful of people total, and one of them was sitting at the village entrance, stopping people.
"However…" The old woman's voice suddenly dropped. "This place is only for you young people to rest your feet temporarily. When you grow up, grow old, you can only rely on yourselves. You can't rely on the Marsh God anymore."
Cui Hao looked at the old woman with considerable surprise, then tentatively asked:
"Actually, we've heard there's a way to survive outside Yunmeng Marsh. We want to go outside."
The old woman smiled and shook her head:
"Some people have gone out before, but they always come back in the end. Either you weren't born in Yunmeng Marsh, or you'll never leave it in this lifetime."
Cui Hao asked: "Why?"
"Young man, I can see you're handsome, and no one's chatted with me in a long time. It's fine to talk a bit more today."
The old woman patted the stones on either side that served as chairs, gesturing for them to sit.
Cui Hao hesitated slightly, then sat down. Chen Baiqing did not.
The old woman didn't mind and continued:
"Born in Yunmeng Marsh, raised in Yunmeng Marsh—we're different from people outside."
"Outside, without divine protection, there are floods, droughts, disease, and suffering. I've heard there are also cruel officials exploiting people, eating them without spitting out the bones."
"But inside Yunmeng Marsh, you only need to revere the gods as if they were present."
"And what we do is different from what they do outside. They can't understand us, and we can't understand them."
"Outside, we wouldn't be considered normal people. We'd seem like crazy, superstitious lunatics."
"What traps us isn't this place—it's that indescribable thing planted in our hearts."
Cui Hao was silent for a moment, then asked:
"You seem to have been outside before?"
"Yes, when I was young." The old woman smiled, squinting her eyes. "Outsiders can't stay in Yunmeng Marsh, and people from Yunmeng Marsh can't stay outside."
"So people from inside and outside the marsh are obviously different. You can even tell just by the smell."
Cui Hao smiled: "We don't have the incense smell on us, right?"
The old woman nodded straightforwardly:
"Yes. You're probably not from outside the marsh either. Are you two from the great world? Are you the legendary cultivators?"
Cui Hao didn't answer. Instead, he looked toward his senior sister.
Chen Baiqing looked at the old woman calmly:
"You should understand that knowing less is sometimes the key to living longer."
The old woman chuckled, her gaze drifting as she looked at Chen Baiqing:
"You two are cultivators. If you didn't want me to know, you'd have plenty of methods. Since you're meeting me, why wouldn't I dare to ask?"
Chen Baiqing smiled lightly at this:
"No wonder you've lived this long and can sit so leisurely at the village entrance."
The old woman nodded in agreement: "So besides knowing less and living longer, useful people also live long."
"Go tell your Marsh God we have a cooperation to discuss with it."
Chen Baiqing lowered her eyes, pulled a translucent crystal from her spatial ring—a faint red energy swimming inside it—and continued:
"This is what we're offering for cooperation. If it wants to cooperate, it should stay at its own temple here. When the time is right, I'll come find it. If it's not there when I arrive, the opportunity is void."
"Additionally, it should also know that people outside have already started making deals with other gods in Yunmeng Marsh."
"Opportunity only comes to those who are prepared."
As she spoke, Chen Baiqing handed the crystal to the old woman.
She had personally participated in Incense Divine Path matters before. Grand Ancestor Zhou's use of wish-power was far more advanced and outrageous.
It was later said to be related to Principles. However you looked at it, it should be superior to this crude Incense Divine Path.
Chen Baiqing had analyzed it before. Though she didn't understand the underlying principles, imitating the Dao resonance within it was achievable.
In short, this was a complete fake.
After all, she didn't actually have the real thing, and even if she did, she wouldn't hand it over.
But this was enough. She was currently at late Nascent Soul cultivation.
An ordinary Nascent Soul certainly couldn't see through it. Even a Spirit Transformation would be confused.
As for Integration demon beasts above that level who also cultivated wish-power—their influence probably wouldn't extend to such a desolate place that even a tiger demon would dare to look twice.
If she truly wanted to find concrete information within Yunmeng Marsh, she'd still have to rely on these demons who proclaimed themselves gods.
And the most reliable approach was naturally cooperation, and the conflicts that arose from that cooperation.
Small demons had their uses, and great demons had theirs.
Chen Baiqing's gaze passed over the old woman, and there was still a trace of disgust in her eyes.
Deep-minded, dark, and profound.
Seemingly sincere, but actually generalizing from a biased perspective.
The old woman took the crystal and was about to speak again, but the two people who had just been in front of her had completely vanished.
She slowly lowered her head to look at the crystal. Whether it was an illusion or not, she seemed to be able to sense the power inside it through the crystal.
The old woman's hand rubbed the crystal over and over.
Only then did she reluctantly put it away.
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