Chapter 23: The Eve of the Grand Wedding

"Hurry, over here..."

"Raise the left side a bit higher, yes, good, just like that."

Nearly a year had passed since the beginning, and during this time, Langya Pavilion had finished arranging the vast majority of affairs and was now conducting the final site preparations.

Three days from now would be the joyous wedding day of the Langya Pavilion's Pavilion Master and Vice Pavilion Master, so naturally, not the slightest bit of carelessness could be tolerated.

Many representatives of factions who had traveled from afar had already been invited in advance to the restaurants specifically booked by Langya Pavilion.

Everything was ready; they were just waiting for the east wind.

However, just as the crowd of Disciples were busy preparing for the wedding, the Langya Pavilion's Elder group was currently burning with anxiety. Their own Pavilion Master had actually gone missing again.

But this time, he hadn't been lost too thoroughly; at least he had left behind a letter promising to return on the day of the grand wedding.

"What is wrong with this guy again?" Ye Jianxin paced back and forth in the room, saying anxiously.

"I'm afraid something might happen again."

However, faced with Xiao Han's disappearance, Yi Huang was very calm.

"No need to worry, he will definitely come back."

"Do you know where he went?" Seeing Yi Huang like this, how could Ye Jianxin not know that Yi Huang had everything in mind? Otherwise, she wouldn't be so calm.

After all, this concerned her lifelong event; once Xiao Han was truly lost, or failed to return before the wedding, Yi Huang would become the laughingstock of the entire continent.

"Of course, how could I joke about such a thing."

"What on earth did he go to do? To leave at such a juncture." Ye Jianxin said with a face full of confusion. "What matter is so important?"

To this, Yi Huang only smiled. When Xiao Han told her about this the day before yesterday, she only then realized that the once high-spirited youth could have such a deeply engraved experience.

Jia Ma Empire, at the foot of the Magical Beast Mountain Range.

A dilapidated and decaying village, overgrown with weeds, had already obscured its original appearance.

The broken stone tablet at the entrance of the village could vaguely be seen with the two characters "Shanqian"... Shanqian Cun, a plain and ordinary name.

A youth in white robes walked with heavy steps, walking forward step by step.

It was precisely Xiao Han.

At this moment, he was no longer the high-spirited person in front of others; he was neither the Ice Venerable who was invincible among his peers in the Central Plains, nor the peerless genius of the Jia Ma Empire.

But merely a weak youth feeling timid as he approached his hometown.

Yes, hometown. Where my heart is at peace, there is my home.

In Xiao Han's hundred-plus years of life, this was just an ordinary mountain village where he had lived for a few months. But it was the period of time that gave him the most peace of mind.

The villagers here were kind and simple, warm and hospitable; although their highest cultivation was only at the Dou Qi stage and their lives could barely provide enough food and clothing, they still faced everything with a smile.

The killing intent and danger that filled the Dou Qi Continent at every moment seemed incompatible with this place... perhaps it was that this place was incompatible with the Dou Qi Continent.

Back then, Xiao Han was attracted by the peaceful atmosphere here and settled down in this place for half a year.

This was the only place he had encountered in many years that was extremely similar to the atmosphere of his previous life.

However, it was also precisely because of his existence that the tranquility of this mountain village was broken.

At that time, he was only sixteen years old, and this was also the first place he arrived at after coming out of the Magical Beast Mountain Range when he began traveling the continent.

Having experienced half a year of thrills in the Magical Beast Mountain Range, endless loneliness, having to guard against sneak attacks from the shadows at every moment, sometimes even experiencing dozens of battles within a single day.

He did not know how much slaughter he had experienced; his white robes were stained with blood, and his whole body radiated a fierce aura.

At that time, he could truly scare a Rank 1 Magic Beast to death just by relying on his killing intent.

His whole body's muscles were tense, his Dou Qi was circulating incessantly, ready to welcome battle at any time.

Due to this half-year experience, Xiao Han's mental state was also very dangerous; his killing nature was too heavy, and he was even almost influenced by the baleful aura within his body, with even his eyes being blood-red.

It was also at this time that he came to this village; upon first meeting, those villagers were also very afraid of this murderous youth.

They all stayed far away from him. Xiao Han was happy to be left alone; in his perception, the people here were weak enough to be negligible, posing no threat at all.

He didn't have any dangerous thoughts either, just wanting to rest here for a period of time before starting the next adventure.

Just like this, he and this village coexisted for half a month without interfering with each other. Xiao Han would occasionally use his Dou Qi to perform some small shows for the children.

Gradually, the villagers got used to seeing this youth in white, and Xiao Han also became accustomed to the frolicking of the village children.

Finally, a villager plucked up the courage to let their own child invite him to eat.

Just like this, back and forth, Xiao Han became quite familiar with the people in the village; he had originally thought that staying for a month would be enough, but he ended up staying for half a year.

Xiao Han would beg for meals at every household and would occasionally help the villagers hunt some game to improve their lives.

That period of time was the most relaxed time for Xiao Han. Heaven knows how he had lived his days since transmigrating to the Dou Qi Continent.

Cultivation had no difficulty, the novelty wore off in less than half a month, and what followed was boredom.

He also had to face the trouble of a bunch of Xiao Clan elders urging him to cultivate. Finally finding some leisure, he had to face the harassment of a group of peers. A group of young children, yet they had so many little schemes.

This was also the reason why he went out to roam the continent right after he came of age.

And the atmosphere here was just right; although the villagers knew he had great strength, no one cared about this point.

It must be said that the fact that Xiao Han's aftereffects could be so easily resolved was inseparable from these villagers.

However, the change in events appeared during the only long-distance trip Xiao Han took in those six months.

That experience was not worth caring about at all for him at the time, yet it left him with a lifelong regret.

That time, on a whim, Xiao Han followed the village's procurement team to a small town called Qingfeng, located a hundred miles away from the village.

Seeing a mercenary with a lewd smile on his face preparing to rape a woman, his inner "chuunibyou" soul erupted, and he unhesitatingly staged a scene of a hero saving a beauty.

He casually slaughtered that trash who was only a 3-star Dou Zhe. Then he left the scene without a care. Yet he never expected that this scene was seen by people from the same mercenary group.

Actually, for Xiao Han, even if they saw it, it didn't matter; with his powerful strength at the peak of Dou Ling, only the so-called ten great experts of the Jia Ma Empire might be able to deal with him.

But clearly, this small mercenary group did not have such experts. However, Xiao Han overlooked another point—he was not alone.

That scumbag mercenary was the biological younger brother upon whom the mercenary group's leader depended for survival; upon receiving the news of his brother's death, he was instantly overcome with rage and pursued the whereabouts of his brother's killer with all his might.

Knowing that clashing with Xiao Han given his own strength would be like throwing an egg against a rock, he decisively changed his strategy, wanting to take revenge on others to vent the hatred in his heart.

Since that was the case, the mountain village where Xiao Han had stayed was an extremely suitable target.

And it was also that time that made Xiao Han understand what the consequences of one's actions meant.