Before long, the three members of the Jiuli Sect entered the barrier, followed by that youth.
Bai Zhi followed suit, maintaining a distance of over a hundred meters, tracking them with its psychic force.
It discovered that the four of them had gone to another mountain and entered a temple-like building.
The building's style resembled both an ancient temple and a Western church.
What were they bringing ordinary people here for?
Had they discovered someone with good talent and planned to recruit them?
Outside the temple, another barrier covered the area, preventing Bai Zhi from easily passing through.
Driven by curiosity, Bai Zhi once again extended its psychic force into the barrier's interior.
The moment it crossed the barrier, the psychic force felt like water seeping into a sponge—unable to flow freely, and even less capable of advancing further.
The barrier outside this temple was clearly more sinister than the one at the mountain's foothills.
Although Bai Zhi could not "see" what was happening inside the temple, it could faintly "hear" subtle sounds emanating from within.
In Bai Zhi's ears came screams, sometimes sharp, sometimes faint.
Intermingled with the screams were murmurs, at times manic, at times illusory...
In an instant, its head throbbed with intense pain, as if a steel spike had been driven into it.
Just as its head was about to burst, the psychic force was instantly retracted.
At the same time, the countless chaotic overlapping whispers of myriad voices receded like a tide, the surroundings grew quiet, and the atmosphere became somewhat hazy.
But Bai Zhi's thoughts had already been tinged with psychedelic colors, making it feel dizzy and disoriented.
"Big Sister Bai Zhi, Big Sister Bai Zhi! What's wrong with you?!"
Bai Huahua's worried voice was muffled, the world began to waver unsteadily.
The demon spider's entire body went limp, its vision darkened, and an irresistible wave of drowsiness swept over it. With a *smack*, it collapsed limply to the ground.
...
By the time Bai Zhi awoke again, the sky had already darkened, and it found itself in a room within the Saintess's mansion.
Moonlight streamed through the windowsill, scattering a layer of "silver powder" across the room. Beside it, cool and slippery, lay a small snake in deep slumber.
Perhaps from sleeping too long, Bai Zhi felt some soreness in its limbs and couldn't help stretching.
This roused the little snake awake.
She murmured, "Big Sister, you're awake? You had me so worried."
"I... what happened?"
"You suddenly fainted. Gave us all a fright. It was Nine-Tails who carried you back."
Fainted?
Everything from before the unconsciousness resurfaced before Bai Zhi's eyes.
Its head still ached faintly.
Had it overused its psychic force?
Or was it connected to that temple?
Bai Zhi was puzzled. A thick sense of eeriness and strangeness welled up in its heart. Its intuition told it—that temple was definitely problematic.
It stepped out of the room and arrived at the pavilion in the courtyard, leaping onto the stone table. Delicious desserts and fruits had already been laid out upon it.
On a stool sat a woman with an elegant figure from behind, her waistline impossibly slender, her silhouette stunning.
Yang Shining turned her head and, discovering it was Bai Zhi, hurriedly stood up. "Lord Bai Zhi, are you alright? Has your injury relapsed?"
"It's nothing," Bai Zhi casually replied.
It couldn't exactly say that it had simply been too unrestrained during the day and had fainted directly...
Bai Zhi's left and right forelimbs moved, one side delivering pastries and desserts to its mouth, the other grabbing a mango to gnaw on at the corner of its mouth.
"Hah... anyway, as long as you're fine." Yang Shining let out a breath of relief.
"Do you know what that temple on the southern mountain is used for?" Bai Zhi suddenly asked.
"The southern mountain? Oh, that temple... it seems to be dedicated to a deity. But because it's protected by a barrier, even I can't enter without the Elder Council's permission."
"A deity?"
Bai Zhi suddenly recalled that the Jiuli Sect was organized as a religious order, so it was inevitable that they would establish an internal faith. Otherwise, they couldn't have formed the cohesion necessary to rival the Wu Gu Clan on equal footing.
"That deity is called the Jiuli Thearch. Legend says He bestowed upon our Jiuli ancestors the transcendental path and cultivation methods, allowing us to establish connections with myriad living beings through the method of contracts."
The Jiuli Thearch, huh... Bai Zhi silently chewed over the implications of that name.
"That temple—besides worship, what else does it do?" Bai Zhi probed.
"Hmm... seems like nothing else. I haven't heard of any other uses," Yang Shining answered.
Alright... seems this Saintess truly doesn't know. I mean, you're supposed to be the dignified Saintess! You're not a fake, are you?
Or have you been sidelined by the elders... Bai Zhi couldn't help silently grumbling to itself.
But in truth, it understood that Saints and Saintesses in the Jiuli Sect held little real authority. Their titles were more symbolic, representing that they were candidates to inherit the position of Sect Master in the future, granting them the right to enjoy more cultivation resources.
Additionally, Bai Zhi asked Yang Shining about the strange noises it had sensed near the temple.
Yang Shining, however, said that although she hadn't been there many times, she had never heard the sounds Bai Zhi described. She speculated it might be related to Bai Zhi's demonic body.
"Then have you ever been to the villages down on the plains below?" Bai Zhi asked again.
"I have. Why?"
"What do you think of those humans?"
Bai Zhi was specifically referring to those ordinary people without supernatural abilities.
"Lord Bai Zhi, you would actually ask such a question..."
Yang Shining recalled:
"I remember the Sect Master once said that the Jiuli Paradise is a place cut off from the world, a secret realm unimaginable to humans outside. As villagers of the Jiuli Paradise, what they obtain may not be as much as what humans outside obtain. But likewise, what they can lose is very little."
"And their happiness is something outside humans cannot obtain, something they even dream of."
Bai Zhi understood.
The common folk led a life free from worldly strife. Though unable to enter the mountains and restricted to the plains, with only Jiuli disciples allowed relatively free movement...
Because the demonic creatures in the mountains also could not descend the mountains, the safety of these village residents far exceeded that of the outside world with its Anomaly resurgence.
Yes...
If it were like those people,
Born and raised within the Jiuli Paradise, even as an ordinary, common villager, it wouldn't have encountered so many dangers, and certainly wouldn't have become a spider queen.
Ordinary and ignorance—
How precious these two qualities were...
These two qualities could bring peace to the heart, and peace of heart is profoundly precious—it is, in itself, happiness.