854 The Village

Alex stood next to the bubbling volcano, atop the mountain and looked at the village ahead of him through Whisker's eyes. He had already stopped using his spiritual sense to not alert any Saint-ranked cultivator that might be in there.

The village had about 100 different stone houses each with 2 to 3 rooms at most. It was night, so the village itself was silent for the most part.

There were no walls surrounding the village or roads leading anywhere. Even if they were, the roads had already been buried under the snow.

The houses were scattered under the volcanic mountain, on the other side from where Alex had just come.

Alex saw lantern artifacts all over the village glowing in the night, but that didn't say if there were cultivators here. For all he knew, these people could be normal mortals that just acquired lanterns that worked with spirit stones with maybe a person or two to activate it.

The village looked like any normal village that one could find in deep mountain valleys or somewhere a little distant from civilization.

There were gardens to the side growing vegetables, farmland not far away where grains were likely being grown, and animals that slept in their shed at night.

However, there were two things about this village that absolutely stumped Alex, because this should not have been possible at all.

First, there were trees growing in this village. Proper green trees that bore flowers and fruit.

Which led to the second thing that was surprising about this village. There was no snow here at all.

Not a single piece of land in a massive semi-circle around the volcano was covered in snow.

Alex was really curious and wanted to check it out, but he didn't go there at night time. So, he sat by the warmth of the volcano and cultivated for the night.

As his body used the Undying God's physique, Whisker started cultivating as well.

Time slowly passed and it got closer to daybreak. As the village at the foot of the mountain start to wake up, Alex opened his eyes as well.

He couldn't see anything at all, so when he released his spiritual sense to see Whisker, he found out that the little guy had fallen asleep in the warmth of his robes.

Alex chuckled a bit and rubbed Whisker's head a little to wake him up. The mouse opened his eyes and looked around drowsily.

"You can sleep later, we have work to do," Alex said.

He flew the long way around in a circle before slowly dropping down a bit far away from the village.

It was snowing in the morning, and the entire region was cold, save for the brown patch of land near the volcano.

Snow was falling in there, but it didn't remain as snow for much longer. It was melting as soon as it came into contact with the ground.

When Alex entered the unfrozen land, he understood why that was.

The ground was warm, unnaturally warm. Alex wondered if that had anything to do with formations or if the volcano's heat got to this place.

If there were formations, then there must be cultivators living here. But if it was the volcano's heat, that seemed a bit too dangerous to live around.

Alex slowly walked with a white mask on his face and wearing a black robe with golden designs on it.

A few of the men and women looked at him curiously as he looked unequivocally unique.

However, with Alex hiding his cultivation base, everyone believed he was quite weak. At least weaker than them.

Alex didn't move his head, but with Whisker had already jumped out of his robe and onto his shoulder, and had started looking around him.

People slowly gathered up to him, some holding a weapon just in case. They were all wearing the same type of clothes for some reason.

It was a grayish blue robe with white linings. Some of them had fur on them, and a hood to cover their head, but everything was the same color.

Before anyone could say anything, Alex cupped his hands and bowed in greeting.

"My apologies if I have startled you. I come from far away and know not much about these lands."

"I'm looking for a place to stay and was hoping if you could allow me to remain here," he said.

The group of men and women who seemed not too older than Alex started talking to each other to discuss.

"What is your name, stranger?" one man walked forward to ask. He had a body bigger than Alex's and a cultivation base of Organ Tempering 9th realm.

Alex saw his smooth, long black hair flowing down to his quite handsome face.

"My name is Yu Ming," Alex said.

"Where do you come from?" the man asked.

"My apologies," Alex said. "I come from a place very far away in the west that you have not heard of."

"Try it," the man said boldly.

"It's a city called the DawnSpring city," Alex said.

The man frowned a bit. "To the west? Is it in the State of Bing?" the man asked.

"I don't know myself as the city I come from is rather isolated, but when I left there, the people did indeed say that my city lay on the western edge of the State of Bing," Alex replied. He wasn't aware of what this State of Bing was or how massive it was, but that was all he had to go with for now.

"That's quite far away for someone like you. Mind telling us what you are doing here?" the man asked.

"I… I had to leave my home because some people wanted to hurt me. I couldn't go back, so I ran away for a while."

"But now that I have run so far away, I wanted to rest for a while, and I came upon this village," Alex said. "If you do not want me to be here, I can understand. In that case, please point towards the nearest village or city, and I will leave."

"No, no," the man immediately said. "You can stay, but we are just making sure you aren't here to cause trouble for us."

"Oh, I can promise you I am not," Alex said. "I just want a place to rest in for a while now and cultivate."

The man nodded when he listened and stayed silent for a while. He narrowed his eyes and asked, "can you see me through that mask?"

"I was attacked by my enemies and unfortunately lost visions in my eyes. Which is why I wear this mask," Alex said. "But I can see you through this little guy."

Whisker continuously ran around on his shoulder.

"What's that?" the man asked.

"That's a Seeking Mouse I believe," a woman spoke from right behind the man.

"You know this beast, honey?" the man asked.

"Yes, I took care of some when I was in charge of handling the beasts in the sect," the woman said.

The woman was about 30 years old and had long flowing hair that came up to her waist. She wasn't the most beautiful girl he had seen, not even close to the woman that saved the first Undying god, but she was quite decent in her own ways.

She was wearing the same grayish blue robe as everyone, and it fit her quite well too.

"You can use those beasts for scouts I believe, but he seems to be using them as a substitute for eyes," the woman said.

Alex smiled toward the woman who explained this, but no one could see his smile at the moment.

"I see," the man said and turned towards Alex. "You can stay here, but you will have to know that this place is owned by the Frigid Rune sect."

"Which means, you will have to work for them."

"Work for them?" Alex asked.

"Don't worry, it's little work here and there. Are you good at anything? Even if you are not, we can find you jobs like watering plants and such," the man said.

"Oh, I'm good with plants," Alex said. "I come from a farm."

"Great," the man said. "Come, let me show you around."

The man walked up to Alex and put his hands around his shoulders before getting ready to walk away.

"Ah right, I nearly forgot. My name is Fan Yanshi," the man said. "Welcome."