He was quite surprised. 'How could this ordinary-looking Daoist have such foresight, to declare that a Snake Spirit was hiding in Ping'an Village?'

'Did he just get lucky while spouting nonsense, or does he really possess some Daoist arts that allowed him to see the truth?'

That statement alone was enough to make Tu Xiao'an look at him in a new light. 'Is he a wolf in sheep's clothing?'

The mention of a massive Snake Spirit threw all the villagers into a panic. Everyone feared for their lives.

"Do not be afraid, everyone. With me here, that Snake Spirit won't dare to run rampant. It is already late. Tomorrow, I shall come out to vanquish the Demon."

"Celestial Master, what if the Snake Spirit comes out in the middle of the night to eat people?"

Celestial Master Zhang smiled and shook his head, brimming with confidence. "That Snake Spirit has already been scared out of its wits by me. It would never dare to show itself. Please, everyone, go home and rest easy."

His confidence gave the villagers of Ping'an Village a much-needed morale boost. They thanked the Daoist one by one before dispersing.

"Celestial Master, Divine Doctor, you will stay with me tonight."

The old village chief came over to greet them. He then led Tu Xiao'an and Celestial Master Zhang to a house beside a large pagoda tree. "Many people have died in the village recently, so there are plenty of empty houses," he said. "This one belonged to my brother and his family. Unfortunately, they all died from that strange illness. If only they could have held on for a few more days, until the Divine Doctor arrived... perhaps they wouldn't have suffered such a tragic end."

"My condolences, Village Chief."

The old village chief gave a desolate smile. "You two can pick your rooms and get settled. I'll go prepare dinner."

After he left, Celestial Master Zhang looked at Tu Xiao'an. "A young punk like you, still wet behind the ears... what are you doing in Ping'an Village?"

Tu Xiao'an smiled. "And how did you get here, Daoist?"

"I was wandering the world."

"I was traveling and stumbled upon this place by accident."

Celestial Master Zhang stared at Tu Xiao'an. "I don't think you're as simple as you look. You're no ordinary person."

The villagers' strange malady was both bizarre and terrifying. Celestial Master Zhang had examined it when he first arrived but couldn't identify the affliction at all. He had all but concluded the disease was incurable—that contracting it meant a certain, miserable death.

Yet, this young man shows up, takes out some kind of herbal medicine, and a single dose is all it takes to cure them. That's no herbal medicine; it's practically a Divine Medicine.

"Daoist, you're overthinking things. I am only treating the symptoms. To cure the root cause, we'll have to rely on you to vanquish the Demon."

Tu Xiao'an's words soothed Celestial Master Zhang's ego. Muttering, "Amitabha," he casually picked a room and went inside.

The houses in Ping'an Village were quite crude. As Tu Xiao'an pushed open the door to his room, a musty smell hit him, a sign that it had been vacant for a long time. He walked into the inner chamber and saw a bed. In the corner beneath it was a dried bloodstain. Tu Xiao'an recalled what the village chief had said: this family had also died from the strange illness. The stain must have been left behind after the homeowner passed away.

Staying in the room of someone who had died of the strange illness would normally be considered extremely inauspicious, but Tu Xiao'an had no such concerns. He sat down cross-legged and noticed that as night fell, the presence of the Snake Race in Ping'an Village grew even thicker.

A bone-chilling cold permeated the air, as if it were the dead of winter. Stepping outside would make a person's hair stand on end.

His previous search with his Consciousness Power had failed to find the Snake Spirit, so now he would try his dominance ability.

The moment he activated his dominance ability, no member of the Snake Race within a radius of several miles could escape his perception.

Instantly, an imperious Emperor's Qi erupted from Tu Xiao'an as he sat cross-legged on the bed, surging outward in a vast, unstoppable wave.

Using his dominance ability, Tu Xiao'an perceived the dark, shadowy places throughout Ping'an Village. He found numerous members of the Snake Race hiding there, even within the villagers' homes.

However, these were not the House Snakes that the people of Bai Town were familiar with.

It was simply that the village was located in the mountains, so it was inevitable that wild snakes would seek out cool, dark places to hide.

Tu Xiao'an even discovered a sizable Snake Cave in a dilapidated tomb behind Ping'an Village. It housed over a hundred snakes, including many rare Snake Species.

The tomb's location was just so well-hidden that it was unlikely to be discovered by people.

The tomb was cool and dark, making it an ideal habitat for the Snake Race. Another animal also favored such desolate tombs for making its den: the fox.

There was no special folklore behind why foxes liked to live in tombs. It was simply because, one, foxes are clever, and two, unlike rabbits or mice, they don't dig their own burrows. Therefore, a tomb was a ready-made "house" for a fox.

Furthermore, tombs have always held a sense of mystery for people, which only served to reinforce the idea of foxes being "spirits."

However, in the eyes of the elderly, a fox living in a tomb was actually a good thing, an auspicious omen. Even if a fox moved into an ancestral tomb, people would not only refrain from driving it away but would be pleased to see it.

When Tu Xiao'an was a child, he had heard an old man tell a story about a fox and a wronged ghost fighting over a desolate tomb.

It was said that ghosts and foxes were incompatible; where there are foxes, there are absolutely no ghosts. The two cannot coexist in the same place.

The story went that a wronged ghost once knocked on a mountain hunter's door in the middle of the night. It told the hunter that a pack of foxes had stolen its grave, and it couldn't go back.

It begged the hunter to help it drive the foxes away. The hunter took pity on the ghost and agreed, helping it chase the foxes off.

The ghost then returned to its desolate tomb.

Of course, that was all just a digression. Tu Xiao'an's dominance ability had located numerous members of the Snake Race, but they were all ordinary snakes. Forget a Snake Spirit, he couldn't even find a single First Rank Awakened Snake.

This only made him feel more perplexed. The presence of the Snake Race was clearly pervasive, yet he just couldn't find its source.

Unwilling to give up, Tu Xiao'an practically scoured every inch of the several-mile radius around Ping'an Village, but in the end, he still came up empty-handed.

He didn't stop until the village chief knocked on his door to call him for dinner.

Tu Xiao'an got up and left the house, following the village chief to his home. He had assumed that, being deep in the mountains and with so many people dying, there wouldn't be much good to eat.

But to his surprise, the dinner was a lavish feast. There was chicken, duck, fish, and meat—a full spread.

The old village chief explained that many of the dishes had been brought over by the other villagers to thank Tu Xiao'an, the Divine Doctor who had saved their lives.

Unable to find the Snake Spirit, Tu Xiao'an had no appetite. This was all the better for Celestial Master Zhang, who was wolfing down his food with great gusto, having lost all of his transcendent, immortal-like bearing.

He looked like a hungry ghost who hadn't eaten in three days and three nights.

Between mouthfuls of food and drink, he still declared with great conviction, "I will most certainly vanquish the Demon tomorrow and restore true peace to Ping'an Village."

Perhaps because he knew he had Tu Xiao'an to thank for getting to eat so much delicious food deep in the mountains, the Daoist began to boast about his past heroic deeds of vanquishing demons.

It didn't take much scrutiny to tell that his stories were complete bullshit, but many of the villagers listened with rapt attention, enjoying it as if they were hearing a thrilling novel.

Tu Xiao'an was about to get up and look around outside the village. That damn Daoist's interference had thrown off his rhythm earlier.

But just as he stood up, before he could even step outside, a terrified scream from outside startled everyone.

Tu Xiao'an moved like a phantom, appearing outside in an instant. The moon was high in the sky; it was a little past eight in the evening.

In the moonlight, a man was sprinting for his life, his steps staggering. He kept looking back over his shoulder, his face a mask of terror, as if he were fleeing from something.