Under the instructions of the soldiers, the driver quickly led the bullock cart into the alley so as not to block the road. Yefeng, who was crouching tightly, hid in the innermost part of the bullock cart. The huge wooden barrel blocked her sight, making it difficult for her to see what was happening outside the car. People outside the alley gradually became noisy, and soon, all kinds of shouts and screams for help filled the entire street.

The sudden situation caught people off guard. Yefeng covered his mouth with both hands and did not dare to make any sound. He shrank his body again and again, not daring to move at all.She didn't know how long she had waited tensely. The sticky smell of blood in the air was getting thicker and thicker, and the voices crying for help on the streets were getting less and less. One day passed, and when the night came back to the world again under the veil of night, the whole city was once again so quiet that it made people panic, and it was also so silent that it made people scared.

Three days later, life resumed on the street. Yefeng, who was so hungry that he was dizzy, climbed out of the ox cart with weak hands and feet, and walked carefully to the entrance of the alley while holding on to the wall of the house.

Two men dressed as soldiers were standing not far from the alley. Their low-volume conversations fell into the ears of Ye Feng who was hiding at the alley.

"I didn't expect that Mr. He also got the soul paper..." The taller soldier kept shaking his head and sighing.

"Isn't that true?" A thin man leaning against the wall snorted sarcastically, "These days, those who have obtained the soul paper think that they are the emperors of the country. They conquered this county and cut off Meng Canjun's head and thought that the dynasty has changed? I don't think that he and that Meng Canjun are the same thing."

"Where did Mr. He's soul paper come from?" I heard that soul paper is a rare commodity nowadays, so why was he so lucky to get one?

"I heard that he spent ten thousand taels of silver to buy it from other places." The thinner man asked mysteriously, "Do you know what price he paid to summon the soul servant?"

"What can the stingy old man pay?"

"I heard that all his children, his wife, and his concubines were sacrificed." At this moment, half of He Yuanwai's subordinates knew about this news, but He Yuanwai didn't care at all that outsiders knew, let alone whether the people who heard the news would feel chilled.

The taller soldier's eyes widened, "This, this..."

"His servants also said that He Yuanwai intends to build a harem in our county, and is currently searching for girls over ten years old in the city. Which of your families has a daughter, but you must hide your own daughter..." Yefeng, who was hiding in the alley and eavesdropping, fell softly to the ground, still unable to believe what he just heard.

Meng Shenjun is dead?This county...has changed its owner?

She pressed the thing hidden on her chest with one hand, stood up, turned around and ran into the alley. She used the sunlight above her head to calculate the direction, and hurriedly drilled through the intricate alleys. She only wanted to rush to the prison in the south of the city, but unfortunately, she arrived too late.

Squeezed in the crowd, she pressed her chest that was rising and falling rapidly, and her eyes were looking at the ruins where there were supposed to be ten prisons, but now there was smoke curling up.

I heard that this fire burned for two consecutive days and nights before it was about to be extinguished. Yefeng never expected that the newly appointed city lord He Yuanwai would lead his soul soldiers to break through the city, first kill Meng Shenjun, the soul master, and take over the city.He killed all the soldiers and horses in the county, and then burned everyone in the prison to death. After having a soul servant with supreme martial arts beside him, he was already very satisfied, so he didn't need any other material to make a wish.

"Nanny..." Yefeng knelt down in the crowd in a daze, letting the medicinal ingredients that fell out of her clothes fall to the floor.

The ruins of the prison, still gleaming with fire, looked particularly eerie and terrifying after the crowd dispersed in the dark. The rushing wind picked up the ashes that refused to close their eyes and flew into the sky, swaying with the ghost-like light smoke. The wild wind looked at everything in front of them blankly, like a purgatory on earth.

Why is there soul service in this world?

And why does God condone the existence of soul paper?

All because of the soul paper, innocent people like them live like humans and live like ants, numbly looking at human life like mud trampled on the ground.All because of the soul paper, those arrogant soul masters put on the cloak of greed and used soul slavery to exchange power for profit, using other people's flesh and blood relatives in exchange for their smooth rise to success.

A shabby coat was draped over her trembling body in the wild wind. Her eyes were blurred by the smoke and fire, and she could not see anything. She slowly looked back, and saw a face crying with joy right in front of her.

"Girl..."

She blinked away the tears hanging on her long eyelashes and grasped his sleeves tightly with shaking hands.

"...Grandpa Zhao?" She thought he had gone with her parents long ago.

"I finally found you." Zhao Yuanguang, the prefect's master, took her into his arms, picked her up as she cried loudly, and hurriedly took her into the night.

Ye Feng, who cried until she fainted, woke up on Zhao Yuanguang's back. That day, when the county town changed hands and the county town was not well defended, Zhao Yuan Guang carried her on his back and mingled with the refugees out of the county town. They walked more than 20 miles under the stars, and then returned to his hometown in the countryside outside the county town with Ye Feng who was hungry and sick.

Yefeng recovered from her illness for a long time. When she could get up a month later, Zhao Yuanguang came to her bedside and brought her news.

"The county seat is gone."

She couldn't react, "No more...what do you mean?"

"There is nothing left, not even half a living person." Zhao Yuanguang, who had just returned from the neighbor's house, stroked her hair gently, and his thick, calloused palms slowly rubbed the top of her head.

By the candlelight, Yefeng stared intently at Zhao Yuanguang's weathered face, listening to him whispering about how the county town had changed hands again, and how He Yuanwai chose to die together unwillingly.

"This soul disaster may spread to us soon. We must prepare in advance." Zhao Yuanguang helped her look better from the bed and stared at her eye to eye.

Yefeng paused, "Do you want to escape?"

"Escape, you must escape, otherwise you won't even have a chance to live." The prefect was kind to him, and he couldn't say anything to let the last trace of his blood die in this soul disaster.

Yefeng watched silently as he walked to the side and fetched several neat sets of men's equipment on the bed, and then went to fetch a pair of scissors.

"Nothing is more important than living." Zhao Yuanguang looked at her long hair reluctantly, but had to harden his heart.

After hearing this, she thought for a while, then she took a handful of the long hair that was hanging behind her and pulled it to her chest. Without hesitation, she cut off a large handful and tied her hair into a man bun with Zhao Yuanguang's own hands. Then she got up and got out of bed, walked to the screen and put on her clothes. After dressing up, she poured a bowl of water and knelt down in front of him, holding the teacup in both hands.

"My grandson Yefeng pays homage to his grandfather."

Zhao Yuanguang endured the soreness in his throat. For her intelligence and for the sake of what she had to abandon, he reached out and took the tea bowl and drank it, speaking to her in a hoarse tone.

"From now on... you have to learn whatever your grandfather wants you to learn, and you have to do whatever your grandfather wants you to do. Your grandfather will teach you everything he knows. For your parents and for yourself, you must live upright in the future."

"Yes." She leaned down and kowtowed deeply to him.

When the morning light first broke, and the village was still filled with morning fog, Ye Feng and Zhao Yuanguang walked out of the house, locked the door, took their few luggage, and left on the slightly moist village path.

Not long after they crossed the border, they were resting at a post station in the mountains of a neighboring country. The merchants at the post station mentioned that her former hometown, Shayu Country, with its beautiful coastline, had been lost in the many battles launched by many soul masters.

When they heard the news, there were no surprised expressions on their faces. They continued to eat, sleep and rest without any abnormality. However, when they left the inn at dawn, their steps silently accelerated a bit.

Three years later, outside the busiest inn in the capital of Xiyuan Kingdom, Ye Feng took the horse rope from the guest, led the tired horse into the guest stable, brushed the horse's back, fed the water grass, and then ended the whole day's work.

As she walked towards the alley behind the inn, she took out a small silver bag from her arms that was rewarded by a high-roller. After counting the amount of broken silver in it with her fingers, she walked briskly around the alley and stepped into a rented private house.