Chapter 2424: No One Cares About the Insignificant

Mingke Xianren couldn't help but say: "This is Changfeng Valley, would the sect really allow such a monstrosity to roam freely on Duzhi Mountain?"

"The sect sent people to patrol several times, but they couldn't find this monster at all." Shangguan Biao shook his head. "Other fellow disciples also said they had never seen it, and they thought I was crazy."

He looked at He Lingchuan, his tone relieved: "Only when you said you could also sense the existence of the red monster did I realize it wasn't my problem!"

This monster pursued him in the sect's important grounds as if entering an uninhabited realm, yet others claimed it didn't exist, saying it was his own hallucination.

Who wouldn't feel depressed after such an encounter?

Zhu Xiuer whispered: "Could Shangguan Biao have gone mad just like this?"

He Lingchuan pondered: "When did this red monster start appearing?"

"Probably after I came to Duzhi Mountain." Shangguan Biao said gloomily, "Sometimes it talks to me, saying I'm not far from death, just like earlier."

"It just said, 'They won't let you go'?" He Lingchuan asked, "'They' referring to whom?"

"You also heard that?" Shangguan Biao's eyes lit up. "Which master's disciple are you? Would you be willing to testify for me?"

"Testify what, that you're not mad?" He Lingchuan smiled indifferently. "The humble have no weight in speech; even if I testify for you, what of it? Such trivial matters are naturally ignored by everyone."

"The humble have no weight in speech?" Shangguan Biao heard these five words, as if suddenly understanding something, his gaze dimming again.

He had gone from an eagerly anticipated inner disciple all the way down to a menial herb worker on Duzhi Mountain—wasn't that exactly "the humble have no weight in speech"? Whether he was normal or mad, alive or dead, what happened to him was fundamentally unnoticed by anyone.

"But that monster will eventually catch me. I can't keep hiding from it." Since no one else could see the red monster, he would get no help.

"Then you have no choice but to fight it yourself." Mingke Xianren pondered, then blurted out a sentence.

Shangguan Biao, however, followed his words and continued, voice very soft: "Yes, relying on the mountain brings the mountain down, relying on people makes them flee. In this world, only oneself is truly reliable."

He Lingchuan's eyes narrowed as he listened, and the blood demon by his ear chuckled: "Correct! Got the flavor now."

"Does that monster truly want to devour you?" Mingke Xianren tapped the wall.

Actually the material isn't bad, but can this wall and this door panel really block a huge creature?

Shangguan Biao rolled up his sleeves and pant legs, and the two discovered he had a long old scar on his leg, while the two round holes on his arm were quite fresh, the wound not yet fully healed.

"This is what it left me." Shangguan Biao lowered his sleeve, "Over half a month ago, it nearly pierced my heart, but I dodged it."

"You're injured, yet others still don't believe you?"

Shangguan Biao jerked his chin outward: "In the medicinal fields outside, at least a dozen kinds of spiritual herbs can injure people. They only think I got hurt while tending the herbs, which is all too common on Duzhi Mountain. Thirty years ago, there was even an unfortunate herb worker who was drained of blood by spiritual herbs."

Just then, someone knocked on the door outside: "Shangguan Biao, today you go clean the earth mother's nest."

Shangguan Biao furrowed his brows: "Isn't it supposed to be Wang Shixiong's turn?"

Menial workers also have schedules; today shouldn't be his.

"Old Wang was gathering herbs yesterday and accidentally inhaled toxic star spores, now he's bedridden." The person outside was a bit impatient, "Just go when told, why so much nonsense?"

Shangguan Biao asked again: "How is the earth mother? This can at least be said, right?"

"Still the same, tossing and turning with great anger, two people were injured just the day before." After saying that, the person left.

Shangguan Biao stood up: "Both of you, I need to go out."

He Lingchuan asked bluntly: "Isn't the earth mother asleep? How can it still hurt people?"

"The earth mother sleeping" is their long-held assumption, but now they're presenting it as fact to question people.

"It is indeed in a dormant period, but when old wounds flare up, it sleeps very restlessly. We who clean its nest often get injured. The sect has tried many methods, none of which can properly soothe it."

Liu Yisheng from the Screen Secret Realm had also mentioned this. He Lingchuan and Mingke Xianren stood up, bade farewell, and left.

Shangguan Biao also left shortly after, casually bolted the door, and headed deep into the mountains and forests.

"Auntie, you released……?"

Zhu Xiuer: "Released."

It had just secretly placed an eyeball spider on Shangguan Biao's body earlier; this kid's cultivation is mediocre, he wouldn't notice.

Mingke Xianren then stared at the wind-dew golden lotus in the water puddle for a few glances: "Shangguan Biao should have already noticed us, what do you think he'll do?"

The Shangguan Biao he referred to was not the aggrieved newcomer who had just entered the mountain.

He Lingchuan shook his head.

This secret realm is truly elusive; he needs to observe it more carefully.

Zhu Xiuer asked: "Where are we going now?"

"Back to Shangguan Biao's room." The end of the three rows of houses is always quiet; in the time it takes to drink half a cup of tea, only two people passed by. He Lingchuan said softly, "There's something off in his room, I need to observe further."

These three rows of small houses total eighteen rooms. When He Lingchuan passed by, he glanced inside a few—some had people, some were empty, and not all rooms had beds; some were used as small dispensaries for storing medicines and processing spiritual herbs, with several medicine cabinets against the wall. Even in cramped spaces, they managed to fit a square table, with scattered bottles and medicines on top.

Clearly this is the workbench.

He Lingchuan looked left and right, seeing no one, then flashed into a small room, casually opened a medicine cabinet, inside which were neatly arranged various dried medicinal herbs.

He casually took out a segment of huangjing, sniffed it twice—hm, top quality.

He continued strolling around, saw nothing special, and the other cubicles only had simple beds, tables, chairs, and cabinets.

The life of herb workers here is quite simple and austere.

Afterwards, He Lingchuan returned to the cubicle where Shangguan Biao lived. The broken lock on the door guards against gentlemen but not villains, so a villain could easily pinch it open.

"Come in."

The two and the spider returned to Shangguan Biao's room, and He Lingchuan casually closed the door.

This cubicle is very small, holding only a single-person small bed and a chair, leaving hardly any extra space. Earlier, the two big men had squeezed into the corner to dodge the giant eye's pursuit, already feeling quite cramped.

But when Shangguan Biao had previously shut the door to block the giant eyeball from entering, He Lingchuan had already sensed something off behind the door, so after Shangguan Biao left, he had to turn back to investigate further.

Originally, a wide-brimmed straw hat hung behind the door, but Shangguan Biao took it when he left. Without the hat's obstruction, the three of them could now clearly see:

Countless scrape marks on the wooden door behind.

Although this wood isn't ironwood, it is also a particularly sturdy sunk wood that has absorbed ample moisture in this immortal forest, its texture no different from Jin Shi; ordinary knives, swords, axes, and chisels couldn't leave a mark on it. To leave traces here, one wouldn't just need great strength.

A wisp of red smoke rose from behind He Lingchuan's back, lingered on the wooden door for two circles, then returned to its original position.