“If you don’t leave, Shi Gao will definitely find you again and imprison you once more. Are you sure you don’t want to come with us?” Xia Yan reached out and flicked the little gray ball of fur.

"Then, then you have to promise not to eat me!" the little dumpling stammered.

"Of course we won't eat you! Look closely, we're all very powerful, we don't need you to improve our strength at all!" Xia Yan waved her magic wand, and one fireball after another flew out.

"Waaah, don't hit me! I'll go! I'll go with you!" The little dumpling ran around frantically.

"Isn't that enough?" Xia Yan picked up the little dumpling.

"Let me make this clear first, you absolutely cannot run away, or our Mountain Goddess will swallow you whole, leaving not even a trace!"

Xia Yan threatened.

The little gray ball of fluff nodded quickly. It was so scared that it dared not run away.

If the followers of that mountain goddess are so powerful, how could it possibly defeat such a powerful demon?

The group quickly jumped out of the basement, where Xu Rurong had already found the hiding place for the food and weapons and pulled all the wagons out.

"They're really generous, using horse-drawn carts to transport grain," Xu Rurong said with great admiration. "And our county government has very few horse-drawn carts, so these carts have arrived at just the right time!"

"Your Excellency, if we wipe out the entire Shijia Village, we'll definitely anger that high-ranking official in the capital. What will we do then?" Luo Yong asked worriedly.

He wasn't afraid of death, but he was afraid that he wouldn't have time to avenge his family.

"What can we do then? We'll deal with whatever comes our way, right? Anyway, we've been planning to deal with this evil spirit in Shijia Village for a long time. We'll have to confront them sooner or later. We've already made a huge profit by getting food and weapons this time!" Xu Rurong didn't seem to care.

Today's battle gave him a lot of confidence. With so many powerful believers on the other side of the desolate mountain, why should he be afraid of ordinary troops?

"The mountains are high and the emperor is far away. Even if that guy finds out, so what? He's just an official, not the emperor. He can't quickly gather an army to deal with us. He can only try to cause trouble in secret."

Since she had decided to do this, Xu Rurong must have already considered the consequences.

As the world becomes increasingly chaotic, the imperial court is already struggling to protect itself, and the most troublesome thing will definitely be the rebel armies in various places. How can it possibly deal with them?

“That makes a lot of sense. I never expected that a minor county magistrate in ancient times would have such courage!” Xia Yan poked her head out of the carriage.

"I'm not an ancient county magistrate, I'm from your hometown!" Xu Rurong subconsciously glanced at the crooked magic wand in the girl's hand, feeling extremely envious.

Why is it that when other people transmigrate, they're either magical girls or cultivators with incredibly powerful cheat codes, but when it comes to him, it's a hellish start?

No way, he'll have to ask the Mountain Goddess for a cheat code someday! There are so many transmigrators, he can't be the only weakling!

Xu Rurong was filled with fighting spirit and planned to deliver the agreed-upon food and weapons to the barren mountain later, and make a sincere wish to the mountain goddess!

"What, another fellow villager?" Xia Yan instinctively covered her mouth.

Good heavens, time travelers are everywhere! No wonder this desolate mountain is called a time traveler concentration camp.

"It's snowing." Zhang Yao, who also poked her head out, reached out and caught a crystal-clear snowflake.

Outside, the cold wind howled, and the biting wind lashed against the carriage windows.

"It's snowing?" Lin Anniang jumped out of the carriage and stood in front of it, gazing at the white world around her.

"It's snowing heavily. We need to hurry back, otherwise the snow will block the mountain passes and the roads will be difficult to travel."

"Madam An, is the snow usually very heavy in Huangxian County?" the others asked curiously.

“The snow here usually lasts for ten days to half a month. The county is surrounded by mountains, and once it snows, the roads around it become difficult to travel and may be blocked.” Lin Anniang explained.

"This is indeed a good place that is easy to defend and difficult to attack." Xu Rurong subconsciously thought of war. If those people were to attack in the future, it would take a lot of effort.

"I hope everyone can get through this year peacefully." Lin Anniang looked towards the barren mountain, her eyes full of hope.

…

The group arrived at the edge of the barren mountain when a horse-drawn carriage came running towards them.

"Could it be that the magistrate of Quan County has caught up with us? Shijia Village is, after all, within the territory of Quan County. We've already crossed the line this time." Zhang Yu lifted the curtain of the carriage and looked across.

“This carriage is the style of the capital, it should be the carriage of some high-ranking official. But why has it come to our desolate mountain in this heavy snow? Is there something wrong?” Xu Rurong had memories of the capital and recognized it from afar.

“They probably aren’t here to see us.” Just as he finished speaking, the carriage opposite stopped, and a dashing young man jumped out.

"Excuse me, have you seen a middle-aged or elderly man with gray hair? He is with his wife, two children, and a group of apprentices."

Xia Yan, who was gnawing on a chicken leg, stopped and blinked.

Isn't that a coincidence?

Those people are having hot pot in the middle of nowhere!

Inside the temple, Yu Luo saw this and realized something.

"System, is this the female protagonist who disguised herself as a man in the imperial examination novel that you mentioned?"

"So they really did come looking for us!"