It was nighttime. The three couples had rested up for this moment, and snuck out from the inn. Their robes swayed in the winter breeze, with snowflakes occasionally drifting onto the surface. Nighttime was quite dark, but the shining moon and blinding snow made it feel like the entire night was lighten up.

"There is no fire so far." Shen Qingqiu analyzed.

The villagers said that during night, there would be occasional sightings of blue fire, but never harming the buildings or people.

The villagers of Square Town were confident that the source of the blue fire was from the original villagers, whom died in the fire. Meanwhile, the three couples could already confirm that the source was from Yi Ran. But what could be confirmed is that there was something or someone protecting Square Town.

That was the identity of the 'Immortal'.

"Why did this trash—I mean—cat come out with you... Gege?" Hua Cheng coughed.

Perched on top of Xie Lian's shoulder was the black cat.

The black cat saw that Hua Cheng was on the verge of panicking, and felt that it was quite amusing. "Meow." The cat swayed its tail, wrapping around Xie Lian's slender forearm. The cat seemed to be mocking Hua Cheng, "I can touch what you can't...."

"Gege," Hua Cheng attempted to explain. "We might encounter something dangerous. This cat... it might get innocently involved. For its safety... it's best not to bring it along."

Xie Lian's eyes softened. "You're right, San Lang."

He tried to let the cat down, but it refused. The black cat just stood perched on Xie Lian's shoulder, unwilling to come down, while also acting like a scarf.

"...how about we just bring it along?" Wei Wuxian said in the back, laughing at Hua Cheng's misery.

Xie Lian patted the black cat's head. All the rest of the three couples had their turn. When they finished appeasing the black cat (Hua Cheng likes to call it trash), they continued on their way. The three couples marched through the snow.

"There is quite a lot of snow." Wei Wuxian commented. "Ahh... I'm not used to this. You never know what is buried underneath. We could be missing a lot of clues."

Shen Qingqiu fanned himself. "We can only make do."

Luo Binghe clutched onto his Shizun's arms, as they continued marching forwards.

Xie Lian also wanted to keep up. Who knew if his bad luck was acting up again on him, but merely walking through the snow was no easy feat. Xie Lian stepped forwards once, then felt his foot slip and lose its footing. "Huh?" He couldn't hold himself back, then tripped.

The black cat clutched at his forearms, then climbed around the heavenly God's body.

In the end, Xie Lian face-planted into the snow, with the black cat avoiding the snow by resting on the back of Xie Lian's head.

"Gege!" Hua Cheng called out.

The three couples went to look back. Xie Lian remained face-planted in the snow, as if he didn't want to face his surroundings. "I'm fine..." His voice was muffled in the snow.

Hua Cheng helped him up from the snow faithfully, while cursing the black cat hundreds of times in his mind.

"Did Xie-xiong trip on flat ground again?" Shen Qingqiu fanned himself.

Xie Lian shook his head, wiping his face from the snow. "I'm sure that I tripped on something from under the snow."

"Aha!" Wei Wuxian laughed uproariously. "I knew that there must be something hidden under the snow! Xie-xiong, you don't have bad luck! You're our lucky star!"

Hearing that, Xie Lian's face blushed. He'd never been called a lucky star before...

"We should dig down and see what's underneath." Wei Wuxian patted at the spot which Xie Lian tripped at. "Who knows, it might be treasure."

The three couples (for once) agreed with Wei Wuxian's thought process, and collectively surrounded the area of snow. They crouched, pulling up their sleeves, then began to dig. As cultivators, the three couples were slightly immune to the cold. They could barely feel a sting.

"...we hit something." Luo Binghe's face was aghast.

He wanted to pull out whatever was found in the depths of snow, but was interrupted by a flurry of heavy steps in the distance.

Lifting their heads, the three couples found themselves meeting the group of twenty muscular men (back from the inn).

They were labelled as the people who wanted to hunt down the Immortal.

"Are you six trying to find the Immortal as well?" The leader of the twenty men had laughed. "Or perhaps, you guys are just digging through the trash..."

His voice trailed on, as he caught a hint of what was underneath the snow.

The men behind him had trembled.

Because Lan Zhan had continued digging, and he pulled out... a corpse. It was a burned body of an almost indistinguishable man, with the upper half completely incinerated into a murky black colour of ash. The entire body was devoid of life, with the skin rotted and similar to looking like a batch of mud.

"...perhaps there really is activity of ghosts...?" The leader of the hunters had shuddered.

Lan Zhan pretended like he couldn't hear them. "There's more."

He kept on digging. As he continued, there was more and more uncovered from the snow and ground. One corpse unveiled into two. Two corpses unveiled into four. Four to eight, eight to sixteen. At that point, the three couples and twenty men wondered if that land was a burial site...

"Wait." The twenty burly men reached out.

The three couples arched an eyebrow. They had finished examining the corpses, so they let way. The twenty burly men encircled the patch of corpses, fondling over a... female one.

Indeed, it was peculiar. The female corpse belonged to a young woman, with hair as dark as the night sky. Her face and body figure were well-proportioned, only sinking a bit from her death. A shackle or perhaps instead... a chain was wrapped around her neck, covering what was underneath.

The female corpse's cause of death probably wasn't the fire.

"Look at this one." The group had snickered to themselves. "She's still unharmed from the fire. Look at her face... it's so smooth like jade... I had no idea that the original town had such beauties and fine maidens..." They fondled over the unharmed female corpse.

The three couples shot the group a look of disdain.

"Hey, were you guys following us?" Wei Wuxian had no room for greetings, as he directly shot the question. "Truth be told, we could already hear your loud footsteps from ten minutes ago."

The group of twenty men stiffened.

They got up from surrounding the female corpse, then the leader scoffed, "So what if we did follow you? We're here to take care of the 'Immortal'. It's not like you guys are afraid that we'll steal your almighty and glory... right? Or are righteous cultivators just so stingy about having credit?"

Wei Wuxian arched an eyebrow. He was being called a righteous cultivator?

This made him short of breath.

"Let's split up." Shen Qingqiu suggested to the twenty men. "We have no intentions of getting involved with your affairs."

The leader scowled, "Split up? And leave you six hogging the glory to yourselves?"

"How hypocritical." Wei Wuxian sneered. He may be shorter than his previous body, but the aura of the Yiling Patriarch wasn't to be underestimated with. "You act all so righteous like it's justified. But in the end, you're basically a bunch of pigs trying to get people to notice you. Although I do have to admit, you guys did get us noticing you, mostly because you were so loud. It was like you were about to be butchered on the spot."

Hearing all that, the twenty men found themselves unable to withstand the provocation.

"WHAT DID YOU SAY!?!" The leader snapped.

He hurled himself at Wei Wuxian, aiming for a punch. However, the black cat had long foreseen this. With the wave of its tail, the black cat whacked the leader's fist away. Then, the black cat jumped up high and pummelled the leader into the snow.

"Pfft." Wei Wuxian laughed. "You can't even beat a cat."

The group of men huddled around their leader, worrying and slightly panicking.

"From now on, I am proud to say that this is indeed my family's cat." Wei Wuxian smiled. He raised the black cat by its armpits, leaving it to dangle in the air. "I've thought about naming you Little Snow for a long time, because those who tries to mess with you will always be thrown in the snow. Thankfully, the use of those pigs was to prove this analogy."

Wei Wuxian placed 'Little Snow' back on Xie Lian's shoulder, with the latter feeling quite speechless. "Let's go. The fire isn't going to wait for us to find it."

"...right, Wei-xiong." Xie Lian almost stammered.

They continued marching ahead. Back buried in the snow, the group of twenty men were furious from being embarrassed. "We must follow them!" They roared. "Those puny assholes... think they're so smart just because they've got a loud mouth. Once they taste our strength and power... they'll be too afraid to ever talk back again!"

"There's still no fire yet." Luo Binghe was slightly anxious.

In the past, there were blue fires in Square Town. How come that Yi Ran hasn't attacked yet?

The three couples continued walking around Square Town. They'd gone on and on for loops, until suddenly, they stopped. There was an ominous feeling whistling past their ears, and the wind stirred quite a bit. In a small alleyway, there was something that wasn't there before.

There was a shrine, with the roofs traditionally curved upwards.

The walls of the shrine had been painted in custom red, with many Chinese pasted on the doors and windows. This shrine clearly wasn't in the alleyway before. But somehow, it managed to situate right in the small and dark alleyway.

(福) =

"...this..." Wei Wuxian hesitated.

"Is the doings of a ghost?" Xie Lian finished his line for him.

Luo Binghe placed a hand on the hilt of his sword, Zhengyang. He hesitated on whether or not unsheathing it and directly tearing the shrine down.

"How about let's make ourselves home?" Wei Wuxian blindly suggested. He smiled, "We can go check if the ghost inside is friendly or harmful. How about it?"

Lan Zhan nodded. "Mn."

"Even if it does harbour malicious intent, there is no need to fear." Luo Binghe sternly said. "I'm a Demon Lord. I'm a Demon Lord. There is no need... to be... afraid..."

"Why do you sound like you're reassuring yourself?" Wei Wuxian blurted.

When Luo Binghe turned around, there were hints of tears in the corner of his eyes. "S-Stop making me out as a scaredy-cat, Wei Wuxian. I'm not scared."

Wei Wuxian laughed. "Then why are you crying? Are you planning to scare the ghost with those tears?"

"D-Don't you know that the tears of a Demon Lord can kill?" Luo Binghe sniffed, making up blind lies.

Shen Qingqiu sighed. He pulled Luo Binghe over, patting his small head. "Okay okay. Let's just enter the shrine. If nothing goes wrong, we'll leave and go look for the fire again, alright?"

Deep inside, Luo Binghe's heart jumped up and down in success. He did it! He got his Shizun's attention! It seems like being a crybaby isn't too bad.

The three couples warily looked at one another. They then stepped inside the dark alleyway, entering the red shrine full of "blessing" and "good fortune". Upon looking inside, there was a countertop and a wall of painting. The painting had many words written in ink, with the art portrayed like a drop of scattering water. Standing guard beside the painting were two lion statues.

On the painting was stuck a 'fu' sticker for good luck.

Situated on top of the counter was a censer, with a couple of inserted incense sticks, burning a small wisp of smoke at the tip.

It was then the three couples hesitated.

Kneeling before the painting was an ominous figure—a young man shrouded in fog, wearing poor patches of cheap rags. The young man had knelt, with an incense stick burning in his hand. After bowing gratefully, the young man stood up from the altar.

The young man turned around to face the three couples, with his face completely drained of colour.

He opened his mouth, then croaked in a hoarse and unsettling voice, "Welcome...to... the shrine... How may... I help... you?"

Luo Binghe: Today, I got my Shizun to pat my head.

Shen Qingqiu: ...and how did you manage to do that?

Luo Binghe: By feigning fear... I was wrong, Shizun! Forgive me! QWQ

I have visited a specific shrine before quite many times, so I can say that I have experience and know what I'm writing about. But I'm afraid that my writing isn't accurate, so don't quote me on anything 😊