"'Being 'Summoned' here is miserable enough, but now to not even have our bones left—'"

"'Don't say it.'"

The red-faced Immortal Sect disciple was halfway through his mumbling when his senior brother nudged him with an elbow.

Wu Xingxue glanced at them, then turned back to find the commoners looking extremely pale. They stared at the talisman in Xiao Fuxuan's hand, almost in a daze. One of them was even swaying, unable to stand steady.

He probably wanted to bend over to catch his breath, but as he clutched at his thick coat, that heavy scent of offerings diffused out again.

...

The Immortal Sect disciple dashed over in a single stride and supported him.

"'My junior brother has a loose tongue and spouts nonsense all day.'" Fearing the heavy scent of offerings would attract some dangerous things, the disciple quickly said, "'It's not actually that bad, perhaps... perhaps...'"

He "perhapsed" for a long while without finishing his sentence, looking over with a pleading expression, his face red with anxiety.

Wu Xingxue thought, 'Why are you looking at me? I can't "perhaps" out anything good. What I say might be even more frightening than what your junior brother said.'

He remained silent for a moment, then poked Xiao Fuxuan.

Only after poking him did he realize it had been a little too natural of a motion.

Xiao Fuxuan's movements as he inspected the paper talisman paused. He glanced at the poking finger, then turned his head to look at the pleading Immortal Sect disciple.

The disciple's face was written all over with "Please, I'm begging you, say something to change the subject and get me out of this."

And so, High Immortal Tianxiu opened his precious mouth.

He asked the woman, "What are your daughters' names?"

Wu Xingxue: "..."

Add a few strokes to those words, and this was the meaning—your two daughters are probably just like this Zhao Qinglai, inside some boy or girl statue with their names posted on it. Tell us their names, and we'll look for them.

This was indeed the reason those commoners had dragged the Immortal Sect disciples here, so his words weren't wrong...

But he should probably keep that precious mouth of his shut in the future.

Wu Xingxue thought.

The young disciple who had been asking for help broke down on the spot, his face turning green.

The woman broke down even more severely. She staggered to brace herself against the stone wall, her expression completely vacant, her whole body trembling uncontrollably. The other two young disciples immediately went forward to pat her back gently.

She couldn't even bear that light patting; each pat seemed to make her crumble a little more. She bent over, shaking for a long time, then looked up at Xiao Fuxuan and murmured in a hoarse voice, "My two little girls are still young... they're called... called..."

She choked for a long while before finally reciting two pet names: "They're called Ah Yuan, and Ah Tai."

"Ah Yuan..."

"Ah Tai..."

"Wait for me, wait for me, ah."

"Wait for me."

The woman repeated this softly several more times. Even when she fell silent, her lips continued to move. It was impossible to tell if she was comforting those two little girls whose souls were who-knows-where from afar, or comforting herself.

Now that she had given the names, the others no longer held back and began searching along the holes in the stone wall.

As they searched, they discovered that the burial cave was not just this one area but was long and winding. Because of the occasional bends, the light from the oil lamps in the holes was hidden behind the curves, making it seem like a dead end at first glance.

But that wasn't the case. It was built alongside the valley, extremely long, with frequent forks in the path, its layout bizarre.

After a few turns, the group began to lose their sense of direction. The Immortal Sect disciples' compasses were useless here. They passed through several forks in a daze, suddenly realizing they had stopped paying attention to their compasses and were instead following Xiao Fuxuan.

But even Xiao Fuxuan paused for a moment at a few of the forks.

Wu Xingxue took this in and finally asked, "Haven't you been here before?"

Xiao Fuxuan grunted in affirmation. He stopped walking, his long fingers pressing lightly on the stone wall. With a slight exertion of force, he caused a cascade of loose stones to fall.

Wu Xingxue: "Then why aren't you familiar with the path?"

Xiao Fuxuan's fingers probed a crack in the stone. His lowered eyes blinked once as he said, "I didn't enter."

"Didn't enter?" Wu Xingxue was a little surprised. "Why?"

A huge rock blocking a hole was pried open with two fingers and crashed to the ground with a boom, kicking up a cloud of gray dust. Wu Xingxue squinted in the dust and heard Xiao Fuxuan's low voice: "Didn't want to."

An image suddenly flashed through his mind, seemingly of a cold, misty night in Great Sorrow Valley, where a tall figure also stood in the mist, gazing at the massive valley from across a long suspension bridge.

Wu Xingxue was startled.

He should have seen such a scene before, but when he tried to recall it, he couldn't remember it at all.

By the time he came back to his senses, he heard the Immortal Sect disciples say, "Another child statue!"

Along the way, they had found two statues of a boy and a girl, both empty, filled with dried blood. Talismans were also stuck to the statues, inscribed with "Respectfully Offered by Immortal Envoy."

One was named Liu Zhi, the other Liu Mei.

It sounded like a man and a woman, also missing without a trace.

Including the initial Zhao Qinglai, this was now the fourth child statue. They had already formed a habit, subconsciously drawing their swords and slashing. The child statue split into pieces...

Revealing a person.

It was an adult man, but he was folded up in a state as if all his bones were broken. There was a clean break at his neck, and his head was cradled in his arms.

The Immortal Sect disciples were so shocked they retreated several zhang, their backs hitting the opposite stone wall.

After a long moment, they murmured, "Why is this one still inside? Has it turned into a vicious creature?"

Just as they were about to probe with their swords, they saw Yi Wusheng touch the head with the back of his finger and shake his head. He pinched the paper and said, "It's fine, come over."

Wu Xingxue glanced at the state of the corpse and estimated that this must be the first woodcutter who was Summoned.

Tucked among the pottery shards was a paper talisman. On the talisman was the woodcutter's name, written in a very crooked hand.

Before, they had only heard the rumors without seeing the person, so it hadn't felt real. Now, the rumored woodcutter was sitting cross-legged before them, which was not only horrifying but also somewhat unsettling.

The commoners refused to come any closer, huddling together in the darkness far away.

The Immortal Sect disciples looked at the woodcutter with pity, but they couldn't just leave him exposed like this. So one took out a talisman, carefully sealed it on his forehead, and made a mark.

"Let's find the rest first and come back."

***

They continued walking along the stone wall deeper into the burial cave, pondering nonstop as they went.

"Why did the people in the previous three statues disappear, while this one is still here?"

"Perhaps it's because the woodcutter met his fate early."

"He met his fate early, so his spirit-souls were almost completely drained, leaving him unable to move while sealed in the statue. Those who met their fate later had more of their spirit-souls remaining, so they couldn't be sealed."

As for what those who couldn't be sealed would do, it was self-evident—

Find food when famished. Or, unwilling to admit they were dead, find some scapegoats to die in their place. Both were possible.