Riding and soaring through the great mountains would not attract attention. Avoiding the crowds, this was Han Feng's true way of traveling.
After flying for a while, Han Feng passed over Qing Shan Town and arrived at the outer edge of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts.
Seeing that it was getting dark, Han Feng decided to find a nearby village to stay for the night.
Certain sections of the outer perimeter of the Mountain Range of Magical Beasts were still safe, so small villages would also gather here.
Han Feng flew high in the sky, his eyes carefully searching for a small village that might be graced by the presence of the Medicine Emperor tonight.
At this time, everyone should be cooking, so with the smoke from the chimneys as a marker, it was easy to find.
After flying a little further, Han Feng finally spotted a wisp of cooking smoke not far away.
Speeding up, Han Feng was about to descend when, in the next second, he froze.
He saw that the village at the foot of the mountain not far away was currently enveloped in a purple mist.
Just looking at it from a distance, he could feel an ominous aura.
Han Feng frowned. His Dou Qi wings flapped at high speed, and his whole body turned into a stream of light, falling near the village.
A flame barrier formed by the Sea Heart Flame isolated Han Feng from the outside. All the purple mist dispersed upon contact.
"This is... poison?"
Standing in the purple mist, a familiar feeling welled up in Han Feng's heart.
Without time to think, Han Feng immediately used his soul power to check the surrounding situation.
However, what he saw made his scalp tingle.
In every household, corpses lay stiffly on the ground, their skin purplish, their eyeballs bulging—all signs of poison entering the body.
Han Feng's heart sank.
In this situation, the entire village was probably dead.
Was it a mass poisoning?
Directly targeting the entire village.
If the Blood-Striped Ferocious Tiger he had discovered in the morning had harmed people because of its nature, then the current mass poisoning of the entire village was a naked crime.
Although Han Feng had seen his fair share of such brutal and bloody events, it did not mean that he had become numb to them.
With a touch of anger, Han Feng formed a hand seal.
"Gather!"
A Dou Emperor expert could manipulate the power of heaven and earth.
The vast poisonous mist quickly gathered towards Han Feng and was gradually compressed into a palm-sized crystal of poison gas.
After doing this, Han Feng walked towards the village, whose outline had become clear.
At this moment, the fleeing corpses displayed expressions of helplessness, terror, and despair. Han Feng used his soul power to check for signs of life in everyone.
But without a doubt, in that poisonous gas, which was fatal to ordinary people, no one had survived.
Until he passed by a small room, Han Feng's footsteps paused, and he stopped.
He heard a clear and steady heartbeat from a living being inside the small room.
Han Feng pushed open the door and saw the scene inside.
The small house was not large. Judging by the furniture and decorations, this family must have been very poor.
A mother and daughter were hugging each other tightly, leaning against the stove.
The mother's face was as pale as paper. Her eyes were tightly closed, and the blood that had seeped from the corner of her mouth had coagulated into a scab, but she still held her daughter tightly, as if wanting to protect her in her arms.
In stark contrast to her mother's expression, the little girl in her arms had a rosy complexion and her breathing was long and steady, as if she had eaten something greatly nourishing. She was sound asleep.
Han Feng's heart was filled with mixed feelings.
He finally knew what that familiar feeling was.
The Woeful Poison Body, and its accompanying poison gas.
Stepping forward, Han Feng gently lifted the little girl's clothes and saw the seven-colored poison line on her lower abdomen.
Sighing deeply, Han Feng looked at the girl, who was no more than four or five years old, and the anger in his heart quietly dissipated.
The Woeful Poison Body. The slightest carelessness could bring calamity to those around.
If this physique were born into a major cultivator sect, there would be ways to control it. But if it were born into an ordinary family, once it erupted, it would be a tragic disaster.
Ordinary people had no power to resist that overwhelming poison gas.
Han Feng tried to lift the girl from her mother's arms, but the mother's tightly locked fingers were terrifyingly stiff.
Looking at the girl's peaceful face, Han Feng couldn't help but think of the Heavenly Poison Woman from his previous life.
Are you her?
If so, then it was truly fate.
Fate had brought them together again, and in this life, Han Feng already had a way to change the Heavenly Poison Woman's destiny.
But fate seemed equally cruel. The girl had not changed her initial calamity.
How could Han Feng explain to the girl that because of her Woeful Poison Body, the entire village was dead?
His emotions were extremely complicated. Han Feng turned and walked out of the room.
To be fair, the Heavenly Poison Woman of his previous life had committed great sins, creating many high-level poisons and controlling the upper echelons of cultivators in the Chu Yun Empire.
After obtaining the method to resolve the Woeful Poison Body, Han Feng had thought of using it to make the Heavenly Poison Woman lay down her butcher's knife.
But unfortunately, by that time, the Heavenly Poison Woman had already died from the backlash of her poison body.
Those cultivators had also been buried with her because the poison could not be controlled.
If it were the Heavenly Poison Woman of his previous life, Han Feng would not have much pity.
But in this life, the other party was still a child whose mind had not yet matured—Han Feng never believed in innate sin.
———
The girl slowly woke up, but what awaited her was a hell of despair.
"Mother, Mother!"
The girl struggled to break free from her mother's embrace, only to find that her mother's hands were as cold as ice.
"Mother, what's wrong with you?"
At this moment, the girl naively thought that her mother was just sick and examined her mother's body with clumsy hands.
Han Feng silently watched all this. In some things, the little girl was not as lucky as Han Feng.
They were both orphaned, but Han Feng was only an infant at that time and didn't remember anything.
But the little girl's current age made it difficult to fool her with excuses.
"Little girl."
Han Feng suddenly spoke, startling the little girl.
"You, who are you?"
"Do you still remember what just happened?" Han Feng asked.
The little girl stood there in a daze, then took a few steps back in fear.
"I, I..."
Some terrifying memories began to flood into her mind.
In the evening, she had accidentally eaten a herb and then felt a little dizzy. When she got home, her body began to release waves of purple gas. Her mother, her mother she...
Tears streamed down the girl's face. She pushed Han Feng away and ran out of the house.
She ran to a neighbor's house and saw the neighbor's tragic death.
The stumbling little girl continued to run to another house and found several more bodies...
The girl ran through all the nearby houses but did not find a single living person. She finally broke down and collapsed on the ground.
"I'm sorry... Mother..."
"I'm sorry... everyone..."
Han Feng walked up to the girl and said nothing.
"You, can you save my mother, save everyone?" the girl cried to Han Feng.
This was the only other living person on the scene besides herself, even though she didn't know him.
Han Feng was silent. After a moment, he said, "I'm sorry, they... are already dead."
The girl looked at Han Feng angrily.
"No, my mother is not dead, everyone is not dead!"
A loud thunderclap sounded in the sky, and heavy rain fell without warning.
Han Feng did not refute, but just looked up at the sky. The curtain of rain wet his cheeks.