Deduction and Recovery

Eventually, Liu Feng finished with a sigh.

Before listening to him, Shu Dashou and Wen Yingyu held much hatred toward Liu Feng. However, after listening, let alone hatred, they even felt pity for Liu Feng and his situation.

Of course, that wasn't to say that they totally forgave him, but what's done was done. All they could do now was look toward the future.

Even then, Shu Dashou never stopped feeling grateful for such a powerful cultivator's character being so truly humble and down-to-earth. If it was a different cultivator that took his daughter in as a disciple, he might have never seen her again.

"Well, that's the whole story. Once again, I sincerely apologize for accidentally abducting your daughter. If you want, I can even—"

Shu Dashou sensed what Liu Feng was about to say and panicked.

"No, Senior Liu! You can let her stay in the mountain to cultivate. In fact, please let her stay in the mountain."

"Ah? Okay then."

Liu Feng was also relieved.

If Shu Fanrong's father had requested for her to leave the sect and stay in the village, Liu Feng wouldn't have had the heart to say no.

"Oh, that's right. I need to ask about what happened here. Do you have any idea why the beasts attacked your village?"

Liu Feng's words snapped Shu Dashou out of his glee from seeing his daughter again and back into the reality of the village's perilous situation.

"I, I have no idea. About four days ago, beasts started attacking our village in waves. That's all I know."

"Waves, huh." A certain person popped up in Liu Feng's mind. He needed to confirm it first. "Have you noticed anything weird about the beasts attacking the village?"

"The beasts, they didn't bother defending themselves from attacks. They're usually smarter than that."

Shu Dashou had been thinking about it since he killed the tusked leopard earlier. For a cunning beast like that, they would assess whether or not a fight was winnable. If it wasn't, their speed allowed them to get away safely.

That was why it really confused Shu Dashou when the tusked leopard let him get so many hits in without dodging or blocking once, up until its demise.

"Oh, right. Their eyes too, it was a full scarlet red."

While listening to Shu Dashou, Liu Feng recalled some of Jiang Hua's stories to him.

One time, she went on a mission to defend a certain city from the neighboring city's attack. The neighboring city utilized a type of powder that would let beasts be controlled solely by their instincts and attacked the city using those beasts.

Despite being a powerful cultivator, Jiang Hua had some trouble with the numbers of beasts swarming the city she was protecting. In the end, she couldn't stop the partial destruction of the city and was admonished by her master for it!

Remembering the subtle frustration through her expressionless face made Liu Feng chuckle inside.

He went back to the topic at hand.

"Hm, seems like this is truly an orchestrated attack."

Hearing Liu Feng's words, Shu Dashou's expression turned dim. He had expected this, but hearing his doubts being confirmed didn't satisfy him in the least.

"If that's the case, we now need to figure out why someone would attack this village. Has anyone in this village antagonized a cultivator lately?" Liu Feng turned on his thinking mode.

After a period of recollection, Shu Dashou shook his head. "I wouldn't know for sure, but there is none to the extent of my knowledge."

Liu Feng nodded.

"Let's confirm this with the other villagers later. For now, assume that the cultivator's attack on the village has nothing to do with its residents."

He closed his eyes and contemplated inwardly, "If none of the villagers have annoyed a cultivator, then it must be someone who lived in this village before, or has someone important living in this village. Anyway, this village must hold some sort of significance.

"There's also the matter of the attacker instigating spiritual beasts to attack the village as opposed to just destroying it himself. In that case, there's a possibility that the one who used the powder isn't a cultivator in the first place, but considering the strength of the beasts, that's unlikely.

"That means that it's a cultivator who wants to hide their identity."

Liu Feng thought of many reasons why a cultivator would want to hide their identity in this situation. For one, they might be part of a righteous sect and didn't want anyone to know that they were doing heinous acts like attacking an innocent village. It could also be a wandering cultivator whose own identity held an enormous bounty.

"...If it's who I'm thinking it is, then everything fits."

He recalled the black robed cultivator that attacked him last time. If he guessed correctly, that cultivator was a part of the 'righteous' sects that ganged up on the Great Order Sect, monitoring the barrier.

"He must be luring me to come down the mountain with these attacks. After all, I 'showed' him how to enter the sect barrier."

Looking at Shu Dashou intently staring, Liu Feng decided not to tell him what his deductions came to. If he was told that what his entire village amounted to in the eyes of a cultivator was a potential blackmail material to threaten another cultivator, he would end up unnecessarily enraged.

In this case, ignorance is bliss.

Liu Feng continued his train of thought.

"If all my deductions are correct, then I can predict this guy's next movements."

He put it aside in his mind for now and decided to resolve the couple's current problems first.

"Shu Dashou, drink this, and hand the other one to your wife later."

Liu Feng handed Shu Dashou two white pills.

"I'll be leaving now. Ah, if you want to meet your daughter, you can just visit her in the mountain."

After telling Shu Dashou some directions, Liu Feng left the house, quietly adding Shu Fanrong's parents to the barrier's whitelist.

Shu Dashou examined the pills in his hand, rolling them on his palm back and forth.

"Recovery pills, huh."

After a moment of hesitation, he moved to another room and quickly swallowed one of the pills.

At first, there was nothing.

After a few seconds, Shu Dashou felt a warmth growing inside him. This warmth grew hotter and hotter, Shu Dashou collapsing on the floor, barely managing to stay conscious. He exhaled a thick black fog, like he had just smoked a cigarette made of charcoal.

The warmth then spread out Shu Dashou's body, concentrating on his injuries.

His legs were first. The cauterized wounds began to heal quickly. Other various bruises disappeared, like they weren't even there in the first place.

After healing these parts, the warmth accumulated on his back, where the temperature rose higher than before.

Shu Dashou was shocked. He didn't think that the pill would attempt to heal his old injuries!

"But it's no use. I've tried so many pills before, buying from so many acclaimed apothecaries and pillmasters, yet none of them worked."

He calmed down for a bit, waiting for the heat to subside... That was what he thought a dozen minutes ago.

However, the heat hadn't weakened. In fact, it grew even stronger!

Shu Dashou gritted his teeth. The heat this time was pushing his limits—he might pass out at any time now.

"Grr, aghhh!"

He could not suppress his screams of pain any longer.

In a split second, the heat grew to unbearably high levels—with Shu Dashou using his entire willpower to stay awake.

A few seconds later, the heat disappeared like it was never there.

A strong feeling of ease and comfort swept over Shu Dashou. For him, the contrast between suffering and pleasure was too much, so he had directly passed out.

Wen Yingyu, who heard her husband screaming from the other room, rushed to his aid. When she saw him collapsed on the floor headfirst, her anxiety rose to unfathomable heights.