“Hmm? Who are those people?”

A villager who was digging trenches at the border of the village squinted his eyes in confusion as he noticed the group of men slowly approaching on horseback.

“Are they inspectors from the city?” another villager asked with a spade in hand.

“No, that doesn’t look like it. They look too young, and they are not wearing official robes either,” the first villager disagreed. “Could it be...?”

“Could it be what?” the second villager continued asking.

“I... I think our request for help might have been heard!” the first villager exclaimed in excitement. “Quick! We need to go inform Village Head Fu!”

With that, the first villager threw down his spade and rushed into the village. The second villager was still feeling confused, but followed right behind nevertheless.

The Mystic Cavalry slowed down their pace the moment East Stream Village came into view, reducing their fast gallop to a leisurely-paced walk.

“It seems like they have noticed us,” Pu Feixiang said.

As cultivators, they had far better senses than ordinary mortals.

Although the villagers could only make out their general outline and clothes at this distance, they were able to see even the tiniest details about the villagers.

They naturally saw the villagers run into the village after seeing them.

Even then, they did not pick up the pace, taking their time to slowly approach.

And as they got nearer, they could see that more and more villagers were starting to gather near the entrance of the village.

East Stream Village looked like a typical rural village, with shabby-looking wooden fences lining the borders of the establishment. They might be enough to keep out small animals, but a predator would probably be able to leap past the fence easily.

A large wooden gate marked the entrance of the village, just wide enough to allow through two chariots driving side-by-side.

Beside the open gate was a wooden sign with the words [East Stream] neatly carved on it.

A huge crowd had gathered by the time they neared the entrance, numbering almost a hundred. Among them were men and women of all ages, some of whom brought their kids along as well.

Considering the size of the village, this seemed to be quite a considerable number of people.

As they neared the open gate, a bald man who looked to be in his fifties walked out from among the crowd and approached them.

“I am the head of East Stream Village, Fu Du,” the bald man promptly introduced himself. “May I know if you are great cultivator sirs who have come from the Black Tortoise Sect?”

“That’s right,” Mo Mian nodded. “We received information that there is a demon problem, and are here to investiga-”

“It’s true! They are great cultivators from the Black Tortoise Sect!” Fu Du immediately turned to the crowds and shouted.

“Great cultivators!” the villagers cheered in unison.

The villagers quickly got down on their knees and started bowing to the Mystic Cavalry in reverence.

“Welcome to our village, great cultivators!”

“We are saved! Our saviours are here!”

“Long live, great cultivators!”

Even the village head Fu Du, despite his obviously weak body, struggled to get down on his knees and bowed to the Mystic Cavalry.

“Village Head Fu Du represents East Stream Village to thank the great cultivator sirs for gracing us with your presence!” Fu Du shouted with a trembling voice.

Pu Feixiang could not help but look over at Zhao Yunxiao, who promptly looked back upon noticing his gaze.

Pu Feixiang made a subtle gesture with his eyes, as though saying, ‘I told you so’.

Indeed, this was a common experience that cultivators would come across whenever they visited communities run by ordinary mortals.

After all, due to their numerous abilities, cultivators held an extremely high status in the hearts of most ordinary mortals.

Those who never had many opportunities to interact with cultivators might even see cultivators as immortals and gods, beings who were on a completely different level from themselves!

This was exactly the reason why Pu Feixiang had asked Zhao Yunxiao to mind his expressions earlier.

Despite being cultivators, they were only human.

When faced with such an exaggerated reaction, it was not uncommon to get carried away and let their expressions betray how good they truly felt.

But at the same time, most cultivators were prideful individuals as well, and did not want to reveal just how easily influenced they were.

Of course, there were also cultivators who did not mind showing their true feelings, but the Mystic Cavalry preferred not to, so that they could maintain a more professional stature.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Over time, they discovered that maintaining a certain level of power distance was usually the most efficient way to complete such missions.

Sometimes, being too amiable could end up implicitly encouraging others to take advantage of their kindness.

“We appreciate the warm welcome. Please rise,” Mo Mian said with a faint smile.

Hearing that, Fu Du and the rest of the villagers finally stopped shouting and got to their feet.

“You must have travelled a long way from Purple Plum Mountain. Why don’t we get you settled in your lodgings first?” Fu Du suggested. “Xian He!”

Upon hearing his call, a young man quickly ran out from the crowds to stand beside Fu Du.

He looked to be in his late teens, probably around Zhao Yunxiao’s age, and had a messy head of long black hair.

“This is my attendant, Xian He,” Fu Du introduced. “I would love to personally settle you in, but unfortunately, my old and ailing body might make the process a little too slow for your liking. If you don’t mind, is it all right for Xian He to represent me and bring you to the inn? I will personally come visit you at the inn after you are settled in to have a chat, as well as to answer any questions that you have.”

“It can’t be helped if your body is unwell, so don’t worry about it,” Mo Mian waved it off nonchalantly. “In fact, you don’t have to come to us either. It is fine for your attendant to settle us in before bringing us over to your place to have our talk instead.”

“No, no, how would I dare to do that?” Fu Du hurriedly waved his hands in trepidation. “It would be far too rude of me to have you great cultivators come visit me at my place instead of going over myself!”

“As I said, don’t worry about it. This is a small matter,” Mo Mian assured. “Let your attendant bring us over after we settle in. That will also give us an opportunity to take a look around the village.”

“That... all right then,” Fu Du answered hesitantly. “Did you hear that, Xian He? Settle the great cultivator sirs down at the inn before bringing them to the village hall. Make sure to treat them with the utmost respect and take care of everything that they ask for, understood?”

Xian He merely nodded slightly in response.

“This... pardon the kid. He is not the most fond of speaking, but he definitely doesn’t mean to be impolite,” Fu Du said awkwardly. “Well then, shall we?”

“Let’s get going,” Mo Mian agreed. “We will see you at the village hall later.”

“Please,” Fu Du stepped to the side and gestured towards the depths of the village. “I hope you great cultivator sirs don’t mind the accommodations that our lowly village has to offer. Once again, welcome to East Stream Village, and please let Xian He know of anything you need. We will definitely try to fulfil all your requests to the best of our abilities!”

“Mm,” Mo Mian nodded in acknowledgement.

With that, Xian He started to lead the way into the village, and the Mystic Cavalry promptly followed on horseback.

The crowds split apart as they did, opening a direct path for the Mystic Cavalry to enter the village.

Though they had stopped cheering, Zhao Yunxiao could still see the look of reverence and joy on the villagers’ faces as they watched the Mystic Cavalry ride past them.

It would appear that these villagers admired them from the bottom of their hearts, and were truly thankful for their arrival.

The houses in East Stream Village were all made of a combination of wood and mud.

Individually, the architecture of the houses might look relatively simple, but they were still sufficiently effective in keeping out the weathers.

But collectively, it was obvious that the houses had been constructed in a manner that was completely devoid of any organisational planning. There was no semblance of proper roads or paths, with the houses seemingly constructed wherever there was space to do so.

East Stream Village was not considered large by any measure.

Considering the winding path and having to follow Xian He’s walking pace despite being on horseback, it did not take long for the party to arrive at the accommodations.

The two-storey inn was completely empty when they entered, but the interior looked surprisingly decent.

In terms of size, it was not much different from the mountain inn that they had taken a break at the day before, but the furniture and overall decorations were definitely much better maintained, looking like they had been cleaned on a regular basis.

“Is there no one here?” Pu Feixiang asked curiously. “Where’s the innkeeper?”

Xian He pointed outside the inn in response, at a chubby middle-aged man who was running over while wiping the sweat that dotted his forehead and neck.

“Huu-! I’m sorry for being late, great cultivator sirs! Huu-!” the middle-aged man exclaimed while panting.

“Are you the innkeeper?” Pu Feixiang asked.

“T... That’s right, that’s right,” the middle-aged man was huffing and puffing as he arrived at the doorstep. “I... I am the innkeeper. Let me... let me show you to your rooms, great... great cultivator sirs.”

Zhao Yunxiao recognised this man – he was among the crowd that had received them at the village entrance earlier.

It would appear that he had decided to leave his inn completely unattended, just so that he could go to the village entrance to receive them.

Then again, seeing that there was no one else around, perhaps there had been no real need to attend to the inn anyway.

“Why don’t you catch your breath first? We are not in a hurry,” Pu Feixiang felt bad seeing the innkeeper being all breathless.

“It... It’s okay,” the innkeeper wiped his sweat while going behind the reception counter to retrieve some keys. “It’s upstairs. Fo... follow me, please.”

The members of the Mystic Cavalry exchanged glances for a moment and, with Mo Mian taking the lead, followed the innkeeper as they headed up the stairs.

There were six rooms on the second storey, all of which were empty.

Because of that, each member of the party was given a room of their own, assigned at random since the rooms were almost exactly the same.

“How much will the rooms cost?” Mo Mian asked after the assignment of the rooms had been completed.

“No, no, how could I ever think of charging you for the rooms, great cultivator sir?” the innkeeper hurriedly waved his hands in declination. “You are here to help us after all! It is nothing but my honour to be able to host you here at my lowly inn!”

“Is this really the time to act all generous?” Pu Feixiang came from behind Mo Mian and asked with a raised eyebrow. “From the looks of it, business isn’t the best here. Won’t you starve at this rate?”

“Great cultivator sir sure has a keen eye,” the innkeeper let out a bitter smile. “As you can see, East Stream Village is rather secluded. So, our usual customers have always been the villagers who come for food and drinks. We used to get travellers at times, but that has not been happening at all for a while now, ever since news spread that our village is being plagued by a demon...”

“What do you know about the demon?” Mo Mian asked. “Have you seen it before?”

“The demon? I guess anyone in the village will have the same answer – it is a disaster, a terror, the worst thing that has ever happened to the village!” the innkeeper let out a loud sigh. “I would love to tell you more, but perhaps it would be better to hear from Village Head Fu first. After all, he should be the clearest on the subject. If you great cultivator sirs still have more questions after returning, I will definitely try to answer whatever I can.”

“I see, that makes sense as well,” Mo Mian nodded. “Thank you for the hospitality then. We’ll get going for now. As you said, we will ask you again if we still have any other questions upon our return.”

“Of course, I will be right here, awaiting the return of the great cultivator sirs!” the innkeeper agreed without hesitation.