A figure snuck out from the shadows, a bundle of straw clutched in his arms. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed Fang Ming.
"This should be enough," Fang Ming said, piling the straw at the base of the ancestral hall's courtyard wall. He also arranged a pile of firewood nearby for fuel.
Fang Ming looked up at the situation above. The courtyard wall near where he was standing had the eaves of a house. As long as the fire was strong enough, it would definitely spread into the ancestral hall.
He observed his surroundings, finding no one around. Fang Ming took out matches from his pocket, struck one, and crouched down carefully to light the straw.
Flames quickly engulfed the entire bundle of straw. The surrounding firewood, aided by some oil, also began to burn rapidly. In just a few minutes, a raging inferno started spreading outwards along the courtyard wall.
"Hmph, this time I'll burn you to ashes," Fang Ming declared, hands on his hips, watching the blazing fire. The searing heat on his face only made him more excited.
"Help! The ancestral hall is on fire!" Suddenly, a terrified shout rang out from a distance. Fang Ming heard someone discover the fire and immediately turned to run, determined not to be seen by the villagers.
...
"Clang!"
The gate of the village chief's house was suddenly smashed open. The village chief was still sound asleep in his bed, startled by the sudden intrusion.
"Village Chief, it's bad! The ancestral hall is on fire!" the villager who burst in exclaimed in a panic.
"What?!" The village chief was shocked. Without a second thought, he threw on a jacket and ran out of the bedroom.
Seeing the village chief emerge, the villager felt a sense of reassurance and quickly said, "Village Chief, it's bad. The ancestral hall suddenly caught fire for some unknown reason, and the flames are already out of control!"
"What exactly happened?" the village chief demanded angrily. "How did the ancestral hall catch fire? Where are the guards? Are they dead?"
The villager stammered, "It's barely dawn, and the guards Bai Cheng and Wang Cai only rushed over to find the ancestral hall ablaze. It's too late to save it!"
The village chief hastily pushed the villager aside and ran towards the ancestral hall.
If anything happened to the ancestral hall, the entire village would be doomed!
Others might not know the current situation of Baimu Village, but how could the descendants of generations of village chiefs not understand? The ancestral hall was the lifeblood of the entire village; it could fall into ruin, but not there!
Along the way, all the villagers in the village had been mobilized. Buckets of well water were being drawn from the new well and rushed to the ancestral hall to put out the fire.
However, the ancestral hall was some distance from the new well. Even with so many people continuously fetching water, the efforts to control the fire were extremely limited.
By the time the village chief reached the ancestral hall, the dozens of meters of courtyard wall were completely engulfed in flames, and the fire even licked at some of the buildings within the courtyard.
Considering that the ancestral hall was mostly constructed of wood, with only a small portion using mud and stones, how could it withstand such an onslaught of fire?
"Faster! Faster! Don't dawdle! If the ancestral hall is ruined, I'll skin you alive!" the village chief roared, directing the chaotic scene. The villagers dared not speak, burying their heads in the task of shuttling between the new well and the ancestral hall.
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Bai Po also heard the commotion in the village and soon arrived at the scene. She saw the village chief giving nonsensical orders. The village chief also spotted Bai Po in the crowd and hurried to greet her respectfully.
"My Lady, why have you come?" the village chief asked, approaching her.
Bai Po glanced at him. "If I hadn't, the entire ancestral hall would be gone."
Bai Po looked up at the flames and then said, "With just the water you people are drawing from the well, the ancestral hall will be completely burnt down before the fire is extinguished."
"Then what can we do?" the village chief asked anxiously. "The village has no other water sources or tools, so we can only have them fetch water bucket by bucket to put out the fire."
Bai Po thought for a moment and said, "Fetch water from the old well."
The village chief was stunned. "Won't that cause problems? If the water in the old well decreases, what if it can't suppress her?"
"It's fine, the amount of water needed to extinguish this fire won't destabilize the old well's seal," Bai Po said and turned to leave. It was just a bit of the courtyard wall burning; it was not a major issue.
Suddenly, another villager rushed up to the village chief, panicked. "Vil… Village Chief, it's bad!"
"What is it now?" the village chief snapped. "What's all the fuss about!"
"The village… several courtyards on the east side of the village have also caught fire!"
The village chief's eyes widened with fury. "Good heavens, the ancestral hall is burning, and other places have also caught fire. At this point, even a fool would know that someone is deliberately causing trouble."
"Who is it? Who dares to set fires in the village!" the village chief roared. "Send twenty men to search the village and find this person!"
Bai Po frowned and remained silent. She suspected she knew who it was. Last night, she had seen that outsider sneaking into her yard to steal straw. Was this his intention?
"It's that outsider," Bai Po suddenly said.
"What?" the village chief exclaimed. "Those two outsiders actually escaped from the white mist?"
In their Baimu Village, no one dared to enter the white mist like Fang Ming. Even those who were forced to enter by Bai Po and the village chief never returned.
To think that two outsiders had entered and now escaped!
"Yes," Bai Po nodded and closed her eyes, searching for Fang Ming's location.
A moment later, Bai Po opened her eyes. "They are not in the village. They've hidden back in the white mist."
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The only place they could be that she couldn't sense was within the white mist. Since no one in Baimu Village could see Fang Ming's location, it meant he had returned to the white mist.
...
At this moment, Fang Ming, feeling refreshed, re-entered the white mist, planning to emerge again at night.
Although he didn't know that Bai Po could observe his location without blind spots throughout Baimu Village, he, being cautious, still dared not hide in the village.
After setting fire to the ancestral hall and residential buildings, the people of Baimu Village surely knew that someone was deliberately causing trouble. They would definitely be searching for him everywhere.
Uncle An's place was compromised. Hiding there again would be a sure death. He couldn't hide in other villagers' homes either; if he were discovered, it would be over. Therefore, the safest place was still within the white mist.
As soon as it turned dark, Fang Ming could return to Baimu Village!
Speaking of which, Fang Ming had originally only intended to burn the ancestral hall. But after hiding in a villager's home, he suddenly realized that burning this courtyard also seemed like a good idea. He had only tried burning the ancestral hall during the day on a whim. Since that was the case, why not make a bigger scene?
Thus, several innocent courtyards nearby suffered undeserved calamity. Fang Ming found a pile of firewood and oil on the spot and started fires. If it weren't for a villager discovering him setting things alight at the last moment, he could have set half of Baimu Village ablaze.
...
Baimu Village was in a chaotic state due to the firefighting efforts. The multiple fires forced everyone to participate in extinguishing them.
However, the only water source for firefighting was the new well. With manual labor drawing water bucket by bucket, it was like a drop in the ocean. It was only when the village chief finally issued an order to use water from the old well that the fires were gradually brought under control.
Strangely enough, the water from the old well was surprisingly effective in extinguishing fires. Some villagers found it incredible that once the water from the old well put out a fire, it would not reignite.
Although the village chief kept emphasizing that the water from the old well was not to be used for anything other than the ancestral hall fire, the villagers didn't care. The fire was burning their own homes. If the ancestral hall burned down, they could always pool money to rebuild it, but if their own homes burned, they would be truly ruined.
During the day, the villagers were normal humans and didn't understand the importance of the ancestral hall or the situation with the old well. They secretly carried water from the old well to extinguish their own fires.
In their eyes, where water extinguished fires, it was all the same. The water from the old well, apart from being undrinkable, was no different from the new well's water.
Thus, unbeknownst to the village chief and Bai Po, a lot of water from the old well was used by the villagers.
Beneath the old well.
The female corpse suddenly opened her eyes, sensing the changes in the surrounding well water. In the place of her birth, her senses were exceptionally keen.
The significant decrease in well water had awakened her. She didn't know what had happened in Baimu Village to cause such unrestrained use of the well water.
After all, this well water was the origin of her seal. A decrease in the well water meant the weakening of the seal.
She had accumulated power for a year and was on the verge of bursting forth. According to past patterns, within the next few days, she would be moved out, her power weakened by some device, and the seal would be re-established.
"Hehehehe..." The female corpse's sinister laughter echoed at the bottom of the old well. "Use more water. I'll be able to escape soon..."
On the other side, Bai Po, having just returned home, felt a sense of unease, as if something bad was about to happen. This feeling of the future slipping out of her control made her very agitated.
She regretted letting Fang Ming go. Ever since he entered the white mist, the development of events had been moving in a direction she couldn't control.
Bai Po sat on her bed, pondering what could be causing her such unease.
"There can only be two things that cause me such unease. If some terrifying beings from the white mist had emerged, it would have sensed it." Bai Po looked in a certain direction, where Baimu Village's greatest secret lay.
"Since it has given no warning, there can only be another possibility." With this thought, Bai Po closed her eyes, and her body gradually lost its vitality. In a moment, the body became a cold corpse.
A few minutes later, Bai Po's body slowly regained its vitality, and in her hand was a camouflage cloth bag.
Without the time to examine the contents of the bag, Bai Po quickly got out of bed and hurried towards the old well. Those damned fools dared to use the water from the old well like this; it made her furious.
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She had already identified the cause of her anxiety: these villagers had disobeyed the village chief's orders and secretly used a large amount of water from the old well, weakening the seal. If this continued, that person would escape before long!
Bai Po walked quickly and arrived near the old well within minutes. A group of villagers were queuing up to draw water bucket by bucket. She rushed forward to stop them.
"Stop everyone! Who allowed you to use the water from the old well like this?" Bai Po demanded angrily.
Some villagers felt guilty and remained silent, but others were not afraid of Bai Po.
"What do you mean, woman? Didn't you hear the village chief say to use water from the old well to fight the fire?" a tall, burly villager stepped forward and shouted indignantly. Those courtyards that had been burned included his.
"Presumptuous! The village chief told you to use water from the old well to extinguish the fire at the ancestral hall, but you're using it for yourselves!" Bai Po's eyes narrowed, her anger boiling.
"Get lost, you old hag. If it weren't for the village chief acting like a lapdog around you every day, you would have been thrown into the well long ago. You haven't achieved anything in decades," the burly villager taunted.
The villagers had long been unhappy with Bai Po, and they used this opportunity to vent their frustrations.
"You..." Bai Po trembled with anger at the brainless fool. If her powers weren't greatly reduced during the day, she would have twisted this guy's head off!
"Get out of the way, don't hinder me from drawing water to fight the fire." The burly young man shoved Bai Po aside and threw his bucket into the old well.