Chapter 5: Both Emotion and Reason Are Valid

Upon hearing Li Lin’s words, Uncle Wu’s face filled with disbelief.

“She wandered off on her own? How could she wander off on her own!”

Aunt Wu also muttered to herself from the side.

“No, that’s impossible. Xiuniang is so sensible and obedient. She never runs around.”

The surrounding people also began discussing it among themselves.

The entire village was so small that one could practically see from one end to the other.

Where could she possibly have gone?

Moreover, the sky was already beginning to darken.

If she did not return home soon, it would become very easy for something to happen to her.

In a low voice, Uncle Zhao asked, “Young Master Li, are you certain she wandered off on her own?”

“At any rate, I didn’t detect any aura of a gui.”

After thinking for a moment, Li Lin said, “Let’s ask the Tree Immortal Lady. She should know where Xiuniang went.”

“Right, right, right!”

A crowd of people nodded in agreement.

The Tree Immortal Lady possessed great supernatural abilities.

She certainly knew what had happened to Xiuniang.

However, ordinary people could not see gui and were unable to communicate with them.

Furthermore, ordinary people feared gui greatly and did not dare interact with them.

Li Lin arrived at the blue stone altar and cupped his hands.

“Tree Immortal Lady, may I ask whether you know where Xiuniang has gone?”

The palace-robed gui appeared and floated in midair.

She made no movement.

Instead, she stared fixedly at Li Lin’s left hand.

Li Lin smiled.

“Too much greed isn’t good for a woman.”

The dull gray pupils of the gui shifted slightly.

She seemed somewhat unhappy.

Nevertheless, she raised a hand and pointed toward the eastern side of the village.

“Did she leave on her own, or was she abducted?”

The corner of the palace-robed gui’s mouth curled upward slightly.

It seemed almost like a mocking smile.

However, she had no desire to continue the conversation and vanished directly.

Li Lin already knew that this gui was willful.

Shaking his head, he left the altar.

The villagers immediately surrounded him.

“Patrol Hunter Li, where did Xiuniang go?”

“What did the Tree Immortal Lady say?”

Li Lin raised his head slightly.

After the villagers had quieted down, he said, “The Tree Immortal Lady said that Xiuniang left on her own and headed east of the village.”

“East of the village?”

The crowd exchanged looks.

Finally, Uncle Zhao said, “Could she be trying to return to Feirong County?”

Silence fell over the crowd.

Because everyone knew that Xiuniang was originally from Feirong County.

When she was young, something had happened to her family.

Afterward, she had been fostered by Uncle Wu’s family.

Over the past decade or so, Uncle Wu’s family had already come to regard her as their own daughter.

At that moment, someone said, “It’s about to get dark. She won’t be able to make it back to Feirong County in time. There isn’t enough time.”

Everyone knew how terrifying the wilderness at night could be.

The moment Aunt Wu heard this, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.

Meanwhile, after standing there in a daze for quite some time, Uncle Wu suddenly dropped to his knees before Li Lin.

He repeatedly kowtowed.

Without saying a single word, he just kept kowtowing.

Each one was heavy.

Seeing this scene, nobody around them spoke.

Everyone quietly watched the situation unfold.

Li Lin was about to refuse.

He was a Spirit Hunter, true, but he did not want to spend the night in the wilderness either.

It was extremely dangerous.

At that moment, two more men knelt down beside Uncle Wu and joined him in kowtowing.

One was a young man.

The other was a teenage boy.

Both were members of the Wu family.

All three men were the silent type.

Not one of them said anything extra.

They simply continued kowtowing.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound continued without end.

Before long, all three had blood on their foreheads.

Mixed with dirt and sand, it looked painful.

The surrounding villagers still watched in silence.

No one spoke because they understood that both sides had reason on their side.

The Wu family was desperate to save someone.

Although there was an element of coercion in what they were doing, their motives were understandable.

If Patrol Hunter Li helped, it would be out of kindness.

If he did not help, that would also be perfectly reasonable.

No one had the right to blame him.

However, seeing blood already appearing on the three men’s foreheads, Li Lin sighed.

“Fine. I’ll go after her and take a look. But I can’t guarantee I’ll bring her back safely.”

“Many thanks, Patrol Hunter Li. If even Patrol Hunter Li can’t bring her back, then that’s simply her fate.”

Old Wu remained kneeling on the ground.

Then he shouted toward a nearby woman.

“You useless woman, stop lying on the ground. Hurry and bring out the donkey from home so Patrol Hunter Li can use it for transportation.”

Li Lin rode the small donkey along the country road.

In truth, the donkey was slower than Li Lin.

However, riding it would conserve his stamina.

Furthermore, if he found Xiuniang and she was willing to return, having a donkey to carry her would be much more convenient.

The Wu family had truly gone all out.

This small donkey was the greatest asset their family possessed.

It could be used to turn a millstone.

It could be used to haul goods.

Even if sold, it would be worth several taels of silver.

The fact that they were willing to use the donkey for this purpose, without caring whether they would even see it again the next day, showed that the Wu family genuinely regarded Xiuniang as their daughter.

The sky gradually darkened.

Heavy clouds hung low overhead.

At this point, the road ahead was already nearly impossible to see.

The surroundings were terrifyingly quiet.

Apart from the sound of the night wind stirring the grass and trees, there was no other movement.

But Li Lin knew very well that this was merely the calm before the storm.

After the donkey traveled for a while longer, the final trace of sunset vanished from the horizon.

The world became completely dark.

One could not see one’s own hand in front of one’s face.

Then, all at once, the entire world seemed to come alive.

Voices were everywhere.

The voices of “people” talking.

Whispering emerged from both sides of the road.

It seemed as though countless invisible people stood there, watching Li Lin, staring at Li Lin, gossiping about him.

Although each individual voice was quiet, there were simply too many of them.

The resulting noise was overwhelming.

He even began experiencing auditory hallucinations.

“Li Lin, it’s me, Wang Shang, your old deskmate. We haven’t teamed up to play games in ages. Come on, let’s play together.”

“Li Lin, it’s me, Liu Ruyan. Why didn’t you read the love letter I wrote to you?”

“Li Lin, I’ve already brought your meal back for you. Hurry up and call me godfather...”

Voices like these flooded directly into his mind.

Li Lin pulled the donkey to a stop.

In the darkness, he listened quietly for a while.

Then a trace of disappointment appeared on his face.

The truth was that he wanted to go back as well.

If possible, he did not want to remain in this damned world for even a moment.

After listening a little longer, he felt a chill penetrating into his bones.

He knew he could not delay any further.

His right hand gripped the white jade token at his waist.

As vitality and blood flowed into it, the white jade token began emitting a red glow.

Very quickly, the chaotic voices around him vanished.

Li Lin pulled himself together and continued onward.

Before long, he heard movement ahead.

It sounded like a woman laughing.

The voice was somewhat familiar.

It was probably Xiuniang.

He continued channeling vitality and blood into the white jade token.

The red glow it emitted became even brighter.

After traveling a bit farther, he saw a woman sitting in the middle of the road.

She appeared to be snuggling up to something invisible, rubbing cheeks and whispering intimately.

She laughed with great happiness.

And with great wantonness.

“This is where I should live, where I should enjoy my blessings.”

Xiuniang swayed her body.

A strong smell of alcohol seemed to radiate from her.

“Young Master Qin, you’re so good to me. I’m going to bear you a whole litter of plump sons.”

“Beauty, your mouth is truly sweet. Let me have a taste.”

A rough male voice sounded out.

Yet no figure could be seen.

Li Lin rode forward and brought Xiuniang into the red glow of the white jade token.

The male voice let out a shrill cry of alarm.

Then it vanished.

Xiuniang’s body trembled.

She regained her senses.

Looking around in disbelief, she immediately stood up and frantically searched for something while shouting.

“Young Master Qin, where are you? Where did you go?”

“Where’s my new home? Where are my beautiful robes? These clothes are too ugly. Someone, come here! Bring me my beautiful robes at once!”

“Young Master Qin, come out. Don’t scare me!”

Sitting atop the donkey, Li Lin looked at the woman, who seemed to have gone mad, and frowned.

“Xiuniang, stop pretending. I can tell you’re not insane. Come back with me.”

Xiuniang’s body froze instantly.

Then she slowly turned around and stared at Li Lin atop the donkey with eyes full of resentment.

“I don’t need you meddling in my affairs!”

She shouted with all her strength.