He hadn't considered the possibility that the woman was a fraud.
But for that sliver of hope to vindicate his sister, he had chosen to believe.
Who would have thought...
Si Qing, enduring the pain, stored all the mortal goods he had just purchased into his storage pouch and turned to head to the next house.
This time, the second door was opened by an elderly man.
Si Qing, having learned from his previous experience, didn't immediately reveal his purpose or his desperate plea for help. Instead, he claimed to be lost and wished to stay for the night, offering to pay.
The old man glanced at Si Qing, hesitated for a moment, and then held up his fingers, indicating a sum. "If you want to stay here, you'll need to give me at least five copper coins. And I don't have much food, so I can only offer a bowl of noodles tonight."
Si Qing readily agreed, handed over five copper coins to the old man, and followed him into the room.
He had originally planned to sit for a while before stating his purpose.
However, to his utter surprise, upon entering the room, he discovered that one of the old man's legs was lame.
It was only because he walked particularly slowly and it was dark that it hadn't been very noticeable.
The words Si Qing had intended to speak all retreated back into his throat.
An old man like this, even if he agreed, would be unable to help.
The thought brought a bitter ache to Si Qing's heart. After sitting for a short while, he left a silver ingot for the elder and then, claiming he suddenly remembered something urgent, departed.
Once outside the village, Si Qing looked at the now completely dark sky. Seeing that only a few houses still had candlelight, and with the intention of not disturbing a third household, he quietly squatted at the village entrance, preparing to wait until dawn.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
Yue Zhiyin of the Nine Heavens, Sui You of the Phoenix clan, Qi Nian of the Demon clan, Chi Ming of the Nether clan, Qi Yan of the Divine Witch clan, and Ming Lou of the Winged Tiger clan, upon receiving An Nuo's letter, were filled with anxiety.
They had no time to visit Qi Yu in the Thirteen Heavens. Their first priority was to persuade their own clans about the matter of the E Tian Dao.
As Heavenly Emperors and clan leaders, while they could forcefully command their subordinates to follow them, such matters required sincerity to be effective.
They would rather lead one sincere follower than a group of unwilling ones.
Therefore, they could only try their best to persuade, hoping that more people would be willing to go.
While they were busy, Yan Hua and Chen Xi were also not idle.
After arriving at the village, they had no intention of persuading the common folk. Instead, they set up a free school, allowing children from the surrounding villages to study there. While teaching, they gradually told the story of Qi Yu to these kind-hearted children.
This method, though slow, was remarkably effective.
The children, moved to tears, would rush home and tell their parents.
However, An Nuo and Shao Feng's progress was not as smooth.
An Nuo and Shao Feng arrived at the northern village just as dawn was breaking.
By this time, the northern villages were covered in snow, and the rivers were frozen solid.
An Nuo and Shao Feng knocked on five doors, using their spiritual power to help with labor on over a hundred mu of land, washed dozens of clothes, and even helped to treat several critically ill elders.
Although using spiritual power didn't take much effort, An Nuo and Shao Feng had already poured all their spiritual power into Qi Yu. Their internal spiritual energy was already depleted. Now, lacking spiritual energy was still easier than being exhausted physically.
Among these dozen or so villagers, apart from the elders who had just recovered from serious illness, the remaining ten or so people all agreed to An Nuo's requests while whispering amongst themselves.
A woman, who appeared to be in her fifties, approached An Nuo and tried to curry favor:
"You say you are of the Dragon clan, so your lifespan must be much longer than ours, right?"
After the previous curse incident, they had read many accounts of immortal cultivators, as well as phoenixes, dragons, and winged tigers.
Only then did they realize that gods truly existed in this world.
"Indeed, it is much longer than that of humans," An Nuo nodded.
"Oh, speaking of which, you don't seem to have the same age restrictions as us, where you can't have children." the woman asked again.
An Nuo continued to nod.
The woman's husband, overhearing this, couldn't help but advise An Nuo, "Since your Dragon clan has no age restrictions, then if this little girl is gone, she's gone. You can always have another one."
"That's right, it's easier for you to have children than for us. This child was a girl, so if she's gone, she's gone. Wouldn't it be better to have a boy?" another male villager agreed, "What happens in heaven should be left to heaven. Perhaps your daughter was never meant to be yours. Don't force things."
The men gathered together, each adding their own opinion, all conveying the same sentiment.
An Nuo, suppressing the anger and the urge to roar a rebuttal, turned and walked away in distress.
Shao Feng, also enduring his discomfort, followed to catch up.
The villagers, merely taking advantage of the convenience and unwilling to go to the snowy mountain to kowtow, dispersed as soon as they left.
An Nuo, fuming with nowhere to direct her anger, could only sit by the river and cry. After a long while, she looked up at Shao Feng and asked with a worried voice,
"Husband, what should we do?"
All morning, only two women had agreed to go to the snowy mountain with them. However, women in the mortal world had less freedom than men, and whether they could go still depended on their husbands' consent.
As for the others, their attitudes were all vague.
"For humans, it doesn't matter who becomes the Heavenly Dao, as it's not up to them to decide. So, their indifferent attitude towards this matter is not surprising," Shao Feng said, then lowered his gaze and thought, "Let's go and ask again. Perhaps trying a few different families might work."
An Nuo nodded.
Meanwhile, on the other side.
After a day and a night without finding a suitable candidate, Si Qing, having knocked on the door of the last villager at the entrance and been met with a closed door, finally broke down.
He ascended to the Thirteen Heavens.
Stumbling, he reached the main hall where Qi Yu resided. He leaned his forehead against the door and wailed,
"Sister, they lied to me. Those people tricked me into working, tricked me out of my money, but not a single one was willing to help."
"Those people are so wicked."
"Sister, what should I do? I can't find anyone to help you."
As he spoke, he took out spirit stones from his embrace and, one by one, pushed them into the cracks of the door, tears streaming down his face.
Qi Yu, huddled in the center of the main hall, was awakened by his cries and tiredly opened her eyes.
She picked up the spirit stones from the ground, crawled to the vicinity of the door, knelt down, and pressed her forehead against the door. She extended her fingers as far as she could through the crack.
Si Qing, sniffling, clasped her fingertips.
In his palm, Qi Yu wrote, stroke by stroke: "Si Qing, don't cry. Life and death, separation and reunion, are common occurrences in the mortal world. Everyone will eventually reach this stage. I cannot be by your side anymore, so you must take good care of yourself."
After writing, she smiled at Si Qing through the gap in the door.
But Si Qing could not smile at all.
With his other hand, he tightly gripped the lock of the main hall, his inner dissatisfaction growing stronger.
What E Tian Dao.
Where did the character 'E' (厄, meaning calamity/misfortune) even come from!
His sister had never harmed anyone in her life, yet she was repeatedly let down. Now, even the mistakes of the old Heavenly Dao and old laws were to be shouldered by her frail shoulders!
Why!
"If kindness is destined to not have a good end, then what use are these heavenly rules and regulations!" Si Qing, his hand gripping the door lock through the panel, slowly tightened his grip. "Such injustice, it would be better to abolish it completely!"