Does the Empress really need protection? He felt that they might actually become a burden to her.

Just as the group left the bamboo forest, they heard footsteps. Shen Mingzhuang frowned. Could it be that the person who set up the formation was nearby, or that the noise of cutting down the bamboo forest had attracted someone?

However, she quickly rejected the latter.

Who would come to a place like this in the middle of nowhere? Soon, another thought flashed through my mind... Could it be someone from the He Wen clan?

She immediately gave chase. She was very fast, and almost no one could escape her notice. She quickly caught up with the man, who turned out to be an old Taoist priest with white beard and eyebrows, dressed in a blue Taoist robe. He was thin and looked like a local deity.

Shen Mingzhuang immediately recalled the Earth Spirit from the Journey to the West series he watched on black and white television when he was a child, and couldn't help but chuckle.

When the "earth spirit" saw Shen Mingzhuang chasing after him, he thought she was going to kill him. But when he saw her smiling and not doing anything to harm him, the "earth spirit" breathed a sigh of relief, shakily got up, and said in a trembling voice, "Who are you? What are you trying to do by coming here and cutting down trees like this?"

Shen Mingzhuang thought that the person in front of him might be from the He Wen family, so he softened his tone and said, "Grandpa, we are not bad people. I am a descendant of the He Wen family. If I want to find the He Wen family, my mother is here. I must find her."

"impossible."

The old man stood up, patted the dirt off his clothes, looked Shen Mingzhuang up and down, and said with great certainty, "You can't possibly be a descendant of He Wenshi. Don't try to fool me. I'm not that easy to fool."

Shen Mingzhuang was delighted to hear this; he hadn't expected to be able to trick them so easily, and it turned out they really were He Wenshi's people.

After thinking for a moment, she said sincerely, "So you are from the He Wen family, Grandpa. I was really presumptuous just now. To be honest, I am not a descendant of the He Wen family. I have come here to ask the He Wen family for a favor."