Chapter 157

Chapter 157: Entering Peach Source Village

Yun Xi’s words made the other three feel their scalps go numb. They were about to ask questions when they heard Liu Hao Tian say, “The entrance is here.”

Liu Hao Tian took one step forward, and his figure vanished in front of them. The other three didn’t have time to talk either. With a flash of movement, they disappeared from that same spot.

Before entering, Yun Xi adjusted her cultivation down to early Foundation Establishment. Among the four, she had the youngest bone age, the most youthful face, and the shortest height. That level fit her best, and she planned to play weak and strike hard.

Mostly, she worried the bronze mirror would sense she was a Golden Core Master and stop making trouble. If it didn’t make trouble, how were they supposed to catch it?

When the four gathered again, they found themselves in a paradise. It looked exactly like the Peach Source Village Yin Yong had described.

Seeing the Peach Blossom Grove blooming in front of them, everyone felt dazed for a moment.

Yun Xi narrowed her eyes and said, “The scenery’s nice. Let’s go in and take a look.”

“Let’s go. We’ll check it out.”

Liu Hao Tian put away his compass and led from the front. Yun Xi walked second, with Yu Qing Cheng and Xia You behind her.

After the four of them passed through the brilliant Peach Blossom Grove, they saw houses scattered in a pleasing pattern. The houses weren’t fancy, but they had a charming countryside feel.

Yun Xi blinked, then gently touched Dian Dian, who was sleeping inside her robe, and sent a voice transmission. “Dian Dian, sniff around. Is anything strange here?”

Dian Dian poked its head out of Yun Xi’s collar. It rubbed its eyes with a paw first, then wrinkled its nose. After a long moment, it sent back, “Master, there’s a very strange smell. It’s neither good nor bad.”

“Dian Dian, you don’t smell any evil aura?”

“There’s a trace, but it’s very faint, faint to the point it’s almost nothing. It’s like an evil cultivator stayed here before. That’s all I can tell.”

“Let’s go. We’ll take a look inside the village,” Liu Hao Tian said first.

The four of them headed toward the village. Their steps looked casual and unhurried, but in truth they moved quickly.

“Please wait, the four of you!”

A voice suddenly came from behind them, successfully making them stop.

When Yun Xi turned around, she saw a white-haired old man with a bundle of firewood on his back. He leaned on a thick wooden staff and hurried toward them.

When the old man reached them and caught his breath, Xia You asked, “Old sir, what is it?”

“That’s what I should be asking you. Why have you come to Peach Source Village?” As he spoke, he looked them up and down, extremely wary.

Yun Xi smiled. “We’re outsiders. We bought an ancestral house from someone, and it’s in your Peach Source Village. We’re here to take possession.”

“An ancestral house? I’ve never heard of anyone in the village selling their ancestral house. Isn’t that forgetting your roots?” the old man said with a displeased face.

Yu Qing Cheng rolled her eyes. “Old sir, we paid real silver and gold for it. We have the deed too. And he sold it to survive. A house is dead, people are alive. If he does well, he can come back and rebuild his ancestral house anytime. If you don’t know the situation, don’t throw accusations around.”

That was already quite rude.

The old man’s face flushed red. He sputtered “You…” for a long time, but couldn’t say a single word.

Liu Hao Tian couldn’t even be bothered to speak. He just turned and left. The other three followed, leaving the old man behind, hopping and fuming in place.

At the same time, Yun Xi sent a voice transmission to the other three. “That old man feels like a gatekeeper.”

Yu Qing Cheng replied, “He sure likes to stick his nose in. Good thing you came up with a solid excuse.”

Xia You said, “They’re hostile toward outsiders. That’s not right.”

Liu Hao Tian said, “Once we’re in the village, be careful.”

As they exchanged voice transmissions, they slowly walked into Peach Source Village.

It was afternoon, and the sun wasn’t strong. A group of children were playing and roughhousing. When they saw strangers, they crowded over in curiosity.

“Who are you? What are you doing in our village?”

Yun Xi had the most youthful face among the four, so she stepped forward to talk. “We want to see the village head. Can you tell me where the village head lives?”

“Pretty big sister, come with me. I’ll take you to see the village head,” the boy leading the group said shyly.

“Okay. Thank you.”

Under the “escort” of a bunch of little kids, the four of them went to the village head’s home.

The village head was a man in his fifties, dark-faced, clearly a farmer who worked year-round. He even held a long-stemmed dry tobacco pipe. When he saw the four of them, he looked surprised too.

After inviting them inside, the village head said politely, “It’s been a long time since Peach Source Village has had honored guests. May I ask why you’ve come here?”

Liu Hao Tian said, “We bought a house in Peach Source Village from someone. Our elders in the family plan to retire here, so as their children, we naturally need to get everything in order.”

The village head frowned first, then asked, “Which family’s ancestral house did you buy, and from whom did you buy it?”

“We bought it from a man named Yin Yong. He said all his family had passed away, so he sold his fields and went out to make a living. He only left behind an ancestral house and entrusted it to the village head to manage.”

The village head froze, then immediately asked, “You’ve met Yin Yong?”

“Yes.”

“Where is he?”

Liu Hao Tian looked at the village head, then replied unhurriedly, “That wouldn’t be convenient to say. He said that after selling the ancestral house, he had no face to return, so he asked us not to reveal his whereabouts.”

The village head let out a long sigh. He knocked the bowl of his pipe against a table leg, then said, “Honored guests, I’m afraid you’ve been deceived.”

“How so?”

“Yin Yong’s family is alive and well. Not long ago they split the household. The Yin family’s eldest and second sons both built their own houses. The old house is currently lived in by Old Mr. and Mrs. Yin. How could he possibly sell the ancestral house?”

“But we already registered the deed.” Liu Hao Tian calmly took out a brand-new land deed from his sleeve pouch and slid it to the village head.

The village head looked it over and shook his head. “That wastrel. He must have stolen the family’s deed. I was wondering why Third Son Yin split the household. In the village, families rarely split while the parents are still alive. So they’d already expected this day would come.”

Yun Xi saw the village head didn’t seem to be faking it, so she said, “Even if Yin Yong lied, the deed is real. And the silver we spent is real too. It can’t just vanish. Even if we take this to the officials, the house still has to be cleared out for us.”

“Honored guests, don’t be anxious. Yin Yong did wrong, but his parents are good people and won’t deny the debt. I’ll call the old couple over, and we’ll sit down and discuss how to handle it. I won’t let you suffer a loss.”

Liu Hao Tian spoke for the four. “Fine. We’ll wait.”

The village head then sent his little grandson to fetch them.

In less than a quarter hour, a crowd rushed into the village head’s courtyard.

The village head knocked his tobacco pipe on his door plank, displeased. “Go do what you’re supposed to do. Stop crowding here to watch the excitement!” Then he had his son drive the onlookers out of the courtyard.

Only then did he say to a man and woman in their fifties, who looked somewhat stiff and cautious, “Come in.”

Once the Yin family members entered the room, the village head introduced them. “These are Yin Yong’s father and mother. That is his eldest brother Yin Shan and his family. Over there is his second brother Yin Chuan and his family. Yin Yong is the youngest. When he left the village, he still wasn’t married.”