Fairy Ziying drew up the list. When the appointed time came, she led several young people deep into the snow - covered mountains. Before that, Fairy Ziying had prepared a whole yard of bamboo strips and asked Yaohua to weave them all.
Yaohua put aside all other distractions. Finally, on the fourth day, she was about to finish weaving all the bamboo strips.
These days, blisters had formed on her hands, and many calluses had grown. Her hands were dirty and rough, hardly recognizable as the plump and delicate hands she used to have.
Fortunately, these bamboo mats were almost done. After Fairy Ziying came back, they could start preparing the open - air houses and planting more seedlings.
But just as she was about to complete the last bamboo mat, a flaming stick fell from the sky and burned half of the bamboo mats she had woven.
Yaohua's mind went blank. Instinctively, she grabbed something to put out the fire.
Fortunately, the fire was not big. It just burned a coinciding hole in a thick stack of the bamboo mats she had woven, without burning Fairy Ziying's yard and causing a great disaster.
Yaohua let out a sigh of relief. But immediately afterwards, a burst of anger welled up in her heart.
In order to weave these bamboo mats and use up all the bamboo strips before Fairy Ziying came back, she hadn't slept for two days. Who would have expected that someone would actually set fire to burn her hard - won work!
The veins on Yaohua's forehead bulged. She clenched her fists tightly, suddenly stood up, and looked up in the direction where the flaming stick had fallen.
"Qingshi? Bailu?"
The anger on her face hadn't completely faded away. When she saw the two brothers, she was immediately stunned.
The burning anger was stuck in her chest, making Yaohua feel uncomfortable all over. After all, these two guys were also her benefactors.
"Why are you here?" She looked carefully and found that the two of them were still bleeding. She became even more curious. "Did you go hunting?"
"Yaohua?" The moment he saw Yaohua, Bailu was a little surprised. Then he realized that they had caused trouble for Yaohua and immediately felt embarrassed. "We'll compensate you for the damaged bamboo mats."
"How can you compensate me?" Yaohua pouted. "What on earth happened? Why are you both covered in blood?"
"Brother and I angered a hibernating python on the mountain."
Qingshi gritted his teeth and supported his arm. Following his movement, Yaohua immediately saw two dark fang marks on his arm.
"You'd better get off the wall first."
The two injured guys were squatting on the wall, supporting each other. They looked really miserable. Yaohua hardly had the heart to care about the bamboo mats anymore.
"Why is there a hibernating python here?"
After the two brothers landed on the ground, Yaohua rummaged through the house and found some inferior herbs. She carefully applied them to their wounds.
Supplies were scarce on the ice - field. These herbs must have been hard to come by. Yaohua couldn't help but remind them.
"These herbs belong to Fairy Ziying. You're using her things. You must return them to her later."
"Okay." Bailu's leg had been bitten, and blood kept flowing down. He endured the pain and pressed the herbs on the wound before he had time to explain Yaohua's question.
"Besides the criminal immortals exiled on the ice - field, there are actually many spirit beasts here that can't use their spiritual power and have taken on their original forms. Some were deliberately released here, and some were the spirit pets of criminal immortals, exiled along with their masters."
"What about that python?"
"That python was the spirit pet of a deceased criminal immortal. It fell into hibernation because of the extreme cold here."
Yaohua vaguely guessed their intention.
"You deliberately provoked this spirit beast. Did you want it to recognize a new master?"
"Right." Bailu was in a low mood. "Although Brother and I managed to come back safely, our house has been burned down by someone."
Yaohua was stunned. "Aren't there five immortals in charge of this village? Your house was burned down openly, but the immortals didn't do anything?"
"Fairy Ziying is usually very busy. Disputes in the village have always been under the jurisdiction of Immortal Lingxiao. But Immortal Lingxiao has left the village recently. It is said that he went to look for something."
"They're really too brazen!"
Thinking of Fairy Ziying's comments on some of the villagers, Yaohua couldn't help but feel powerless.
Those villagers were really capable of such a brazen act!
After all, not long after Fairy Ziying promised to compensate the villagers with her intact seedlings, the villagers took them away.
"What are you going to do now?"
Yaohua actually had an idea.
Fairy Ziying always went hunting with the villagers. If these two brothers, who were agile and had experience in avoiding group attacks from wild beasts, accompanied her, it would surely be more efficient.
"Brother and I are going to try our luck in the north."
"The north is a place where people live a primitive life. The criminal immortals there are all murderous. Are you really going?"
Yaohua's eyes widened in shock.
"Are you crazy? You're risking your lives!"
"If we stay in this village any longer, we'll surely die sooner or later." Bailu's gaze was far - reaching. "There's no place for us brothers here anymore."
"Why don't you ask Fairy Ziying for help?"
Yaohua gritted her teeth and decided to take on some trouble for Fairy Ziying.
These two brothers were good at fighting. It would be a pity if they just left.
"Fairy Ziying is fair and just. If she knows about this, she will surely not sit back and do nothing."
When she mentioned the words "fair and just", Yaohua felt a little guilty. She hadn't forgotten how she had established herself in the village.
"But..." Bailu hesitated. "Fairy Ziying has gone hunting. We don't know when she'll be back."
"Then you can stay here and wait for her for the time being."
Yaohua made the decision on her own. At the same time, she took out the tent she had exchanged before and placed it squarely in front of them.
"Please rest in this tent for now. After Fairy Ziying comes back, everything will be easy to handle. By the way, do you have any dry rations?"
"Yes." Bailu looked helpless. "The dry rations at home are all hidden in the cellar. When they burned the yard, they didn't know where our cellar was."
After making up her mind, Yaohua finally felt relieved.
At night, a gust of wind and snow woke Yaohua up.
The howling wind outside the door sounded like a wild beast roaring.
Yaohua hesitated for a moment and then opened the door.
A faint fire was flickering in the tent, and the voices of the two brothers came from inside.
"Brother, should we really listen to Yaohua and wait for Fairy Ziying to come back?"
"Don't you want to wait?"
"Fairy Ziying has a really bad temper. I'm afraid she'll get angry. If she does, we might not even be able to bury our parents' ashes properly."
"But if we don't find someone to stand up for us, we'll starve to death before we even reach the north."
"What if we implicate Yaohua?"
"Yaohua must have her own strengths to have stayed here. We just need to follow her well and find a chance to repay her in the future."
Yaohua retreated back into the room. It was not appropriate for her to listen anymore.
Anyway, the Bailu brothers wouldn't harm her. She just had to wait for Fairy Ziying to come back. However...
She still had to find a way to make up for those bamboo mats.