Chapter 299: Niu Xin Village

"Dad! Mom! Where are you?!" Bai Lingmiao, tears streaming down her face, searched relentlessly throughout Niuxin Village.

Behind her, Li Huowang followed, joining her search, even though he could tell that apart from them, the entire village was truly empty.

Just then, Lu Zhuangyuan, with a hint of caution, approached with a smile.

"What exactly happened here?" Li Huowang, his brows furrowed, asked Lu Zhuangyuan, who had arrived earlier.

Lu Zhuangyuan looked innocent. "Little Taoist master, how would I know? When I first got here, the entire village was already deserted."

"I was quite surprised earlier. I thought this old man had come to the wrong place, so I specifically searched for several miles around. But I looked all over Niuxin Mountain, and this was the only spot I found."

Hearing this, Li Huowang remained silent, took a deep breath, and started walking towards Bai Lingmiao in the distance.

Bai Lingmiao continued to search and search throughout the village, but still found nothing.

When Li Huowang saw Bai Lingmiao, sweating profusely in distress, turning back to the village entrance to start searching from the first house again, he quickly rushed over, grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and pulled her into his embrace.

At that moment, Bai Lingmiao could no longer hold back. Leaning on Li Huowang's shoulder, she burst into loud sobs, "Senior Brother Li, my home is gone! My home is gone!"

The long-held hope had finally dissolved into nothingness. Li Huowang knew exactly how that felt; he could empathize deeply.

"Don't cry. Maybe they just left temporarily. Nothing bad might have happened to them. Try to think positively."

Lu Zhuangyuan, standing by, also offered comfort: "Miss Bai, the little Taoist master is right. Perhaps they, like us, went to escape the disaster. When they return, you'll be able to see them."

Seeing this, others also gathered around, offering words of comfort to Bai Lingmiao in a flurry of voices.

However, these light words did little to comfort Bai Lingmiao. She wasn't foolish; with everyone in the village gone, it was clear this was no minor matter.

Bai Lingmiao's cries overshadowed the joy of reunion, casting a shadow over the large village, so much so that no one spoke during dinner.

After dinner, Li Huowang walked around the entire village under the moonlight. He wasn't looking for people, but for traces.

It was impossible for the entire village to have simply vanished. Something must have happened, even if they were devoured by evil spirits or deceived by the 'Sit-Forget Path' sect, there would surely be some traces left.

"Little Taoist master, actually, when I told Miss Bai that her family had gone to escape the disaster, it was just to make her feel a bit better. From my perspective, they probably didn't just go into hiding."

"Who flees a disaster without even locking their doors? And when we first entered the village, the pigs in the backyard were so hungry they barely looked like pigs anymore," Lu Zhuangyuan chattered on, following Li Huowang.

Li Huowang squatted down, examining the patterns on the flagstones. "When you first arrived, was the village in disarray?"

"No, not at all. Clothes were still hanging outside to dry, and the cattle, dogs—everything was perfectly normal. Only the people were gone."

"And I specifically checked; none of the clothes in the wooden cabinets in any household were missing. That tells you they didn't just leave for a long journey."

Li Huowang's gaze meticulously searched, inch by inch, for details and potential dangers.

After Li Huowang pushed open a door and found no clues, he removed the cotton wads from his ears and carefully listened to every sound around him.

He circled the village, exploring every nook and cranny. He even summoned Lord You, who dug three feet into the ground.

But unlike past encounters, this time there were no hostile gazes, no bizarre evil spirits. There was simply nothing here.

When Li Huowang returned to the Bai family's three-courtyard residence, he saw Luo Juanhua and Chun Xiaoman in the brightly lit main hall, comforting Bai Lingmiao, one on each side.

The others stood around, conversing in small groups. When they saw Li Huowang return, they all turned to look at him.

"You all should go to sleep first. We can discuss anything else tomorrow." Seeing Li Huowang speak, the others stopped lingering and left in twos and threes.

Having cried, Bai Lingmiao's pink eyes had become even redder. She looked at Li Huowang, her voice choked with deep sorrow.

"It's late enough. Where's your room? Go wash up and sleep."

Bai Lingmiao pressed her lips together, stood up, and walked towards the water vat in the kitchen.

An incense stick's worth of time later, the two lay silently in a bedroom that carried a faint, pleasant scent.

Looking at the furnishings around them and the white mosquito net, it was clear this was Bai Lingmiao's former boudoir.

On the bed, Bai Lingmiao curled up and lay prone, her shoulders trembling continuously as she tried to suppress her tears.

The next moment, she felt herself being embraced, pulled close to a solid chest.

"Don't cry. When we encounter trouble, we solve it. We have supernatural abilities now. Are we still afraid of not finding them?"

Bai Lingmiao's trembling shoulders stilled. She nestled her head against Li Huowang's chest, then suddenly broke free from his embrace, picked up the "Skin and Bones" from in front of the bronze mirror, and rushed out of the room.

"Boom, boom, boom! Boom, boom, boom! If there are matters in the heavens, the Flying Immortals attend to them! If there are matters on earth, the Red and Yellow hasten! If there are matters in the Underworld, invite the King of Sorrow to help... I halt the horse's head to ask the nation's name, pull the silken reins to seek my hometown.Perhaps surnamed Zhang, or perhaps Wang, or Li, or Huang... Zhao, Qian, Sun, Li, Li Cunchiao, Zhou, Wu, Zheng, Wang, Wang Yanzhang..."

Listening to the rhythmic drumming outside, Li Huowang slowly closed his eyes.

The next day, when Li Huowang opened his eyes, he found Bai Lingmiao, usually an early riser, lying silently in bed.

"Well? What did the immortals say?" Li Huowang asked, getting dressed.

"They couldn't find them," Bai Lingmiao replied, struggling to hold back her grief. "Even the immortals couldn't find them... Senior Brother Li, do you think my mom and dad are really gone?"

Li Huowang walked over, patted her shoulder, and turned to leave the room. "I'm going now. While I'm away, please keep an eye on things for me."

Just as Li Huowang turned to leave, Bai Lingmiao opened the door, her red eyes wide with surprise. "Senior Brother Li, where are you going?"

"Where else would I go? The immortals aren't helpful, so of course I'll figure out where everyone in this village went. You're like this now; how could I just ignore it?"

Hearing this, Bai Lingmiao immediately rushed forward, wrapped her arms around Li Huowang's waist, and leaned her face against his back, her tears soaking his clothes. "Thank you, Senior Brother Li..."

Seeing Li Huowang's consistently cool reaction, she had thought he didn't care about her family's situation at all.

But to her surprise, he had already planned what to do; he just hadn't said anything.