Senior sister, stop working and go home for dinner.

Chapter 380 Covering the Sky

When several villagers who were repairing the fence at the village entrance saw Qi Lan and Shen Zui approaching, their faces turned pale instantly, and the tools in their hands clattered to the ground.

"A monster..." One of the young men trembled and backed away when he saw Qi Lan's beast ears and vertical pupils.

"They're not monsters." Qi Lan stopped and forced a smile, trying to appear friendly. "We came from those mountains over there." She pointed in the direction of Yunyin Mountain. "Someone went there yesterday and should have seen those houses."

The villagers looked at each other, their fear mixed with confusion. Those who had fled back yesterday had indeed described the "strange building that suddenly appeared," but no one dared to mention what exactly had happened.

"Where is Shi Laosi?" Qi Lan asked.

A slightly bolder woman pointed tremblingly to the most dilapidated thatched hut in the center of the village: "The village chief is inside... The immortal master from Qingyang Valley just came by..."

Qi Lan nodded and walked straight towards the thatched hut. The villagers dared not stop her, but followed from a distance, their eyes filled with vigilance and unease.

The door to the thatched hut was ajar, and suppressed sobs could be heard coming from inside.

Qi Lan pushed open the door and went in.

In the dim light, Shi Laosi slumped on the muddy ground, a thin girl kneeling beside him, sobbing softly. The girl was pale and thin, with dry, yellow hair, but her features were delicate, and her eyes were red from crying.

Hearing the noise, Shi Laosi looked up sharply and saw Qi Lan and Shen Zui, especially Qi Lan's beast ears. He trembled and instinctively shielded his granddaughter behind him: "Who...who are you?"

"They're from the mountains." Qi Lan glanced around the bare house, her gaze settling on a half-empty sack of grain in the corner. "The people from Qingyang Valley just now demanded thirty catties of spirit grain from you?"

Shi Laosi's lips trembled, and he didn't dare to answer.

Shen Zui stepped forward, his tone gentle: "Old man, we are not from Qingyang Valley. Yesterday, several Golden Core cultivators came to the mountain to cause trouble, but we drove them away. People from Qingyang Valley were among them."

These words brought a glimmer of light to Shi Laosi's cloudy eyes, but it quickly dimmed again. He lowered his head and murmured, "So what... you are all cultivators... all cultivators are the same..."

The dim light in the room fell on Shi Laosi's hunched back, his figure seeming to have been standing there for so long that he didn't even dare to look up at people anymore.

Qi Lan did not refute.

She simply walked over, squatted down, and positioned herself at eye level with Shi Laosi.

"I am indeed a cultivator," Qi Lan said calmly, "but it's not the same."

Old Shi's hand, which was protecting his granddaughter, trembled slightly, but he didn't say anything.

Shen Zui stood by the door, not going in. His gaze swept over the room, which could almost be described as "bare-bones".

The half-empty sack of grain in the corner looked pitiful. There was a crooked wooden table, a few rickety stools, and old straw mats and quilts piled on the earthen bed.

"Grandpa..." The girl peeked out from behind Shi Laosi, her eyes red and swollen, looking timidly at Qi Lan's inhuman ears.

Qi Lan ignored the girl's gaze. She took out a small cloth bag from her bosom, which she had taken from Fatty Li that morning. Inside were a few golden-brown baked biscuits and a small packet of icing sugar. She placed the bag on the ground and pushed it over.

"Have something to eat first. The legendary author, Qianfanwang from Wangchuan, has joined Cola Novels with his new work, 'Senior Sister, Stop Working, Come Home for Dinner!'"

Old Shi stared at the cloth bag, his Adam's apple bobbing, but he didn't move.

"Qingyang Valley requires thirty catties of spirit grain, which you can't deliver, right?" Qi Lan continued to ask.

"...We can't hand it over." Old Shi gritted his teeth and finally spoke. "The best land in the village was destroyed by monsters last year. The remaining land...the grain grown from it, not even one pound out of ten pounds is qualified 'spiritual grain'. This spring's cold snap froze half of the seedlings to death." He gave a bitter laugh. "Thirty pounds...even if you scraped all the food supplies from the entire village, you still couldn't gather enough."

"So they want your granddaughter?"

Old Shi's body trembled violently, tears streaming down his face. He didn't speak, but simply hugged his granddaughter behind him tighter, as if she would disappear if he let go.

Outside, villagers gathered at a distance, but dared not approach, only peeking through cracks in the doors and windows.

Qi Lan stood up and walked to the door.

"Do people from Qingyang Valley come here often?" she asked a middle-aged man outside the door who was hunching over.

The man trembled with fright and stammered, "They come every... every month to collect spiritual grains. Sometimes they also collect 'children,' saying they'll send them to work in the mines, or... or to serve as servants for the immortal masters."

"Has anyone come back?"

The man shook his head, his eyes filled with utter gloom.

Qi Lan didn't ask any more questions. She turned and went back into the house, looking at Shi Lao Si: "Before the people from Qingyang Valley arrive tomorrow, take your granddaughter and the villagers and hide in the mountains for a while."

Old Man Shi suddenly looked up, his eyes flashing with terror: "Hide? Where can we hide? This area for hundreds of miles is all Qingyang Valley's territory! They... they have immortal magic, they can track us..."

Shen Zui couldn't help but ask, "What about the Great Qian Dynasty? What about the imperial court? Don't they care?"

As Shi Laosi listened to Shen Zui's question, a smile that was more like a grimace stretched across his face, which was etched with the marks of time and hardship.

"The imperial court?" His voice was hoarse, as if each word had exhausted his strength. "The imperial court... their own people are the greatest 'immortals.' Which official in the prefecture isn't affiliated with a sect, and which family doesn't have several disciples who cultivate?"

A middle-aged woman who had been silent all along suddenly spoke up, her voice filled with suppressed grief and indignation: "Forget about tax collectors and officials, even newborn children..." She choked up, "...if they're found to have any signs of cultivating immortality, they'll be taken away immediately, whether they want to or not! They call it 'destiny for immortality,' but how many of those children who are taken away ever come back? And of those who do return, how many still remember their parents, remember that they are human?"

The young man who first recognized Qi Lan as a "monster" now had only an empty, numb look in his eyes. "Mortals have no way out in this world. The sky has long been covered by countless 'immortals'."

"The sky has long been covered by immortals."

That last sentence weighed heavily on everyone's heart.

Shen Zui opened his mouth, but found his throat tight and he couldn't say anything.

He came from an era that, despite its conflicts, at least had order, where law and morality remained a fragile protective shell.

Here, this shell has been completely torn apart, revealing the naked, cruel law of the jungle.

Qi Lan's amber-colored vertical pupils contracted slightly in the dim light. She had lived for a long time, seen the wickedness of people's hearts, and witnessed five hundred years of changes, but the way the world systematically trampled an entire social class into the mud and treated them as ants and resources still sent a chill down her spine.