Chapter 8: This Immortal Sounds a Bit Weak

"Whoosh, so refreshing!"

Feeling the winter sun warm his skin, Feng Xue adjusted the position and angle of his solar power bank, thoroughly at ease as he continued on his way. He had to admit, the ghost girl's service was exhausting—and with memory suppression, this one night had completely purged all the pressure and resentment he'd accumulated since his transmigration.

Watching Feng Xue like this, the white snake could no longer hold back and spoke up:

"How did you even manage that?"

"What do you mean, 'manage'?" Feng Xue, delighted to finally have someone to talk to after the white snake had been silent since turning into a ring, casually replied while scanning the ground beside the ruined temple for traces of a path.

"Those two evil ghosts! They successfully possessed you, yet not only did your yang energy not deplete—not a single drop of your primordial yang was lost! Your blood and qi are normal, and you didn't even set up an altar. Are you some ancient great demon? But that doesn't make sense—if you were a demon, the mouth seal shouldn't have worked at all… Wait! Now I get it! That's why you could turn into a ring! This isn't a mouth seal at all—you're using demonic arts!"

"Huh!" Hearing the white snake's increasingly excited muttering, Feng Xue's eyes lit up. Hadn't he risked offending demons just to get a portable cultivation guide?

Now it seemed this white snake truly knew a lot.

"Blood and qi, ritual altars… Is this the human cultivator system in this world? I wonder if this little snake has any detailed Cultivation Techniques."

A strong sense of joy rose in Feng Xue's heart, but he immediately suppressed it.

Though the recent mouth seal experiment had successfully tested his golden finger and the mouth seal system, and delivered a warning, it had also created enemies. Now, even if she knew, she probably wouldn't tell him—and even if she did, he wouldn't dare practice it.

After all, Cultivation Techniques—if even a single character is wrong, or if the meaning is slightly misunderstood—even if every word is correct—the consequences can be catastrophic.

Fortunately, the past half-month of counting down the days since his transmigration had greatly strengthened his mindset. After a moment, he calmed his inner restlessness and desire, and said:

"I'm not a demon. I'm just an ordinary person."

"Liar!" The white snake didn't believe a single word of Feng Xue's earnest words:

"An ordinary person couldn't possibly endure two evil ghosts纠缠 all night!"

"They were just too greedy. If they'd only wanted a sip of broth, they might've succeeded. But why did they come aiming to kill?"

The white snake found Feng Xue's vague answer utterly unbelievable, but she didn't argue back. Seeing her fall silent, Feng Xue turned the question around:

"Alright, I answered your question. Don't you think it's your turn to answer one of mine?"

"My life's in your hands—why waste words? Just ask what you want!" The white snake spoke bluntly, though she didn't even realize her tone mirrored exactly the defiance Feng Xue had shown when she'd grabbed him by the collar yesterday.

Feng Xue didn't overthink it—he was still checking the ground before the ruined temple, speaking slowly:

"About evil ghosts, ritual altars, blood and qi—where did you hear all this? From elders at home? Ancient scrolls left by predecessors? Or is it inherited memory?"

"I'm not from the demon race. I heard this from other demons." The white snake saw no need to hide this, but it gave Feng Xue another key term—

"Demon race."

"So this world has a complete cultivation system. The demon race must be those born as demons, and the white snake is probably one who awakened her spirit later in life."

He quickly analyzed this in his mind, then shifted his gaze—instead of pressing further on the origin of demon cultivation techniques, he realized: even if he got them, would they even be useful? And more importantly, such core secrets, the white snake surely wouldn't reveal.

They were still in the early stage of communication. Best not to ask sensitive questions yet.

With that, he fell silent and continued picking at the weeds on the ground. Logically, before this temple fell into ruin, there must have been a path running past it.

In his previous world, many young people born in cities might not understand what a rural dirt road was—not a crumbling cement road, nor a gravel path, but one formed entirely by constant foot traffic.

And such a path, if left unused, would quickly be covered in weeds. But no matter what, ground compacted by long-term trampling would always be less hospitable to weeds than loose soil. As long as time hadn't passed too long, traces would still be visible.

And this world didn't seem to defy common sense. Soon, he found a faint path hidden among the weeds.

"Hey, do you know how this road became abandoned?"

When he asked this, Feng Xue expected the demon snake to reply, "First, don't call me 'hey.'" But she seemed completely unfazed by the term, responding naturally:

"It used to be the road villagers from the north took to the county market. Then the village disappeared, so fewer people walked it. Later, those two evil ghosts came, killed more people, and no one came anymore."

"North… so south is the county?" Feng Xue checked his compass, skipping the obvious question about why the village vanished, and asked the more fundamental one:

"How do you know about humans?"

"That temple used to be called the Fox Immortal Temple. A fox immortal lived there and told stories of the human world to demons in the nearby mountains… She even taught methods like the mouth seal."

The white snake's tone carried a hint of nostalgia. Feng Xue's ears perked up at the word "Immortal," but seeing the temple now occupied by evil ghosts, he frowned:

"Did those two evil ghosts drive away the fox immortal?"

"Impossible!" The white snake's voice shot up like a startled cat:

"Fox Immortal Grandma is a great demon who cultivated into an immortal! Those two newly turned evil ghosts couldn't possibly be her match. Years ago, humans invited her away to become a protective spirit and enjoy comfort—that's why the two evil ghosts took over."

"Protective spirit… Out-Ma Immortal? That's a lowly rank!" Feng Xue thought to himself, but he was deeply intrigued by the phrase "great demon cultivated into immortal," so he asked:

"Since the demons in these mountains owe her favors, didn't anyone come to drive out the evil ghosts?"

Hearing this, the white snake's voice dropped from its earlier volume to a flat tone: "Demons who've achieved cultivation have long gone to enjoy life among humans. What's left in the mountains are those who haven't transformed yet. The evil ghosts can't harm us, and we can't harm them. The temple itself has no divine power—who'd bother?"

"Evil ghosts and minor demons can't harm each other? Those two ghosts only seem to have abilities like inducing sleep or dreams—no direct influence on reality. So demons are immune to ghostly illusions? Come to think of it, the white snake's phrasing when mentioning evil ghosts is odd—this isn't a general term for 'ghosts,' is it? More like a cultivation realm, similar to Foundation Establishment or Jin Dan?"

(End of Chapter)