Sheng Lingwei and Jing Qingyun exchanged glances, both seeing the seriousness in each other's eyes.

"Weiwei, snow in May, this is not a good sign. Could it be that extreme weather is about to occur?"

"Yes, extreme weather will indeed occur. First, there will be a continuous blizzard, and the weather will become extremely cold. Then the temperature will return to normal and become extremely hot, at which point floods will break out."

Jing Qingyun frowned. "Weiwei, it seems we can't continue our journey. The weather isn't suitable for traveling either. We need to find a place to stay as soon as possible."

Sheng Lingwei nodded and looked at the one-eyed man. "Hey, isn't this one already here?"

One-eyed man: "...Princess Chang Le, our Black Wind Stronghold is quite large, but our stronghold is dilapidated, and the people in the stronghold lack food and clothing. We have no good wine or food to entertain you."

"Hmm? You don't want us to go to your mountain stronghold?"

"No, no, no, that's not it." The one-eyed man hurriedly wiped the sweat from his forehead and could only tell the truth.

"Princess Chang Le, our mountain village has a large population, with more than 500 people including men, women, and children."

But this year there is drought everywhere, and not many caravans pass through here.

"Look at us! We've lost our source of livelihood and have to dig up grass roots on the mountain to eat. To be honest, we haven't had a full stomach in a long time."

Sheng Lingwei rolled her eyes.

"Men, can you look in the mirror before you say that? Look at yourselves, all of you are so burly, you don't look like people who are starving at all!"

"We're... sigh!"

The one-eyed man's face was almost contorted in pain as he touched his swollen and hard belly and let out a long sigh.

“Princess, the reason we look so robust is not because we eat so well.”

There are mostly elderly people and children on the mountain, and my brothers and I specially saved our food for them so that they wouldn't go hungry.

As for us, we eat Guanyin clay from the mountain.

"Guanyin soil?" Sheng Lingwei's expression changed.

The main component of Guanyin clay is aluminosilicate, which can produce a feeling of fullness when consumed, thus prolonging one's life during severe famines.

However, it is precisely this component that is very stable and extremely difficult to digest and absorb.

Therefore, after being ingested, it accumulates in the stomach and intestines. The more people eat, the more it accumulates. Guanyin clay cannot be excreted and will eventually die from bloating due to overeating.

Thinking of this, Sheng Lingwei felt very complicated.

Back in the advanced world, she had only read about people eating Guanyin clay during famine years in history books.

Unexpectedly, this scene actually unfolded right before her eyes.

She had just used her mental power to scan their abdomens to verify what the one-eyed man had said.

The stomach and intestines are indeed filled with Guanyin clay.

The quantity was so large that it almost filled their entire stomach; this couldn't have happened in just a day or two, suggesting they had been eating for quite some time.

If they continue eating like this, they will die from bloating before long.

Sheng Lingwei sighed inwardly.

She never intended to kill these bandits from the beginning, because she didn't sense much bloodshed on them.

This proves that they were not vicious and indiscriminate killers.

After a moment's thought, Sheng Lingwei gave instructions to the one-eyed man.

"We should not stay here any longer. You should take us to your mountain stronghold immediately. Also, do not be suspicious. This is a test given to us by God. If we can survive, we will have passed the test."

The one-eyed man opened his mouth, "But...but the princess..."

"Don't worry! Your mountain stronghold only needs to provide us with accommodation; you don't need to provide us with food or other necessities."

The one-eyed man breathed a sigh of relief. "Alright, princess, please follow me. But there are ice pillars in front of us..."

They were afraid, so they dared not move.

Sheng Lingwei almost forgot about this and gave Jing Qingyun a look.

Jing Qingyun nodded with a smile, and with a wave of her hand, all the ice pillars instantly turned into a puddle of water that fell to the ground.

The hundred or so bandits all breathed a sigh of relief and helped each other to their feet.

Just then, they heard cries for help from another fifty or sixty people from Black Wind Stronghold.

"Boss, brothers, save us!"

"Boss, my legs have been kneeling for almost an hour. If I keep kneeling like this, they'll break sooner or later!"

"Boss, sob sob, I feel so bad, please beg Princess Chang Le, I really don't want to kneel anymore."

"..."

The one-eyed man looked awkwardly at Sheng Lingwei, "Princess, please be merciful. My brothers are young and haven't suffered much hardship."

That's so damn pretentious.

Sheng Lingwei was speechless. She used her spiritual power to help fifty or sixty people up in an instant, and then gave instructions to the main force.

"Everyone, pack your bags and get ready to head to Black Wind Village."

"Yes, Princess."

The main force was already fully prepared when snowflakes began to fall, and now they were just waiting for Sheng Lingwei to give the order to set off.

...

Half an hour later, the group arrived at Black Wind Stronghold in a grand procession.

The air was thick with the stench of blood.

The situation at Black Wind Stronghold was not optimistic; houses were on fire and corpses littered the ground.

More than 300 men, women, and children were killed, none of them escaped.

Their deaths were gruesome; some were burned alive, some were killed by swords, some had their heads chopped off, and some...

In short, there are all sorts of ways to die.

The murderer is clearly a vicious and ruthless person, utterly inhumanly wealthy!

The people of Black Wind Stronghold seemed to have lost their minds, frantically picking up the corpses on the ground and crying out incessantly.

"Aaaaaah, what on earth is going on?"

"Father, Mother, don't die! Waaah, wake up, wake up!"

"Auntie, Uncle, sob sob, we were all fine when we left, how come you've become like this when we came back?"

"Boss, it must be those two people with golden masks. They must be the ones who slaughtered our entire stronghold. Waaah, we must avenge our family."

"..."

The rest of the group was also taken aback and couldn't make up their minds, so they all looked at Sheng Lingwei.

Sheng Lingwei's eyes were deep and cold, and no one knew what she was thinking.

"Xiao Yunzi, take some people and put out the fire."

Baiji, take some men to check if there are any survivors in the mountain stronghold. If so, treat them immediately.

Rong Momo, take the people and clean up the house.

Zhao Dong, you take some people to help bury the body.

Mingxi, take some people up the mountain to chop firewood, the more the better..."

After issuing the orders, Sheng Lingwei vanished from everyone's sight in an instant.

Rong Momo's expression changed drastically, and she shouted anxiously at the sky, "Princess, Princess, where are you going?"

Jing Qingyun rubbed his temples; it seemed his Weiwei wasn't planning to take him along.

o(╥﹏╥)o

She sighed and said, "Granny, you don't need to worry. Weiwei has important business to attend to. What we need to do now is to do what she asked us to do."

After thinking about it, Rong Momo agreed and immediately led her people to get to work.

As the snow fell heavier and the weather grew colder, she had to tidy up the house early to wait for the princess to return, making sure the princess didn't get cold.

——

On the road a hundred miles away from Black Wind Village.

A small group of six people rode their horses at breakneck speed, uttering arrogant and contemptuous words from time to time.