Anning collected the spiritual spring water Erya had spilled and secured the bottle too. She leaped out, hunted a few wild rabbits and chickens in the back mountain, then killed them and sprinkled their blood around Xu Family’s residence, throwing their bodies down at the foot of the mountain. After finishing all this, Anning returned home with the spiritual spring water. Once inside, she summoned An Xin. "Take a look at this bottle of spiritual spring water." An Xin hopped out, sniffed around the bottle, and then also tasted a bit of the spiritual spring water, but soon her little face wrinkled. "Ningning, what kind of spiritual spring water is this?" Anning chuckled softly: "What do you think?" "This is not spiritual spring water at all." An Xin had traveled through many worlds with Anning, to the Cultivation World, even the Immortal Realm; both had seen and used real spiritual spring water for daily drinking, especially Anning—who in one life had an extremely precious identity, even using spiritual spring water for bathing. She was extremely familiar with the real ones. "This water might be Devil Water?" An Xin asked somewhat uncertainly. Anning smiled and said: "Very likely, I feel there’s some Demonic Qi in it, but not much, there’s also some Spiritual Energy, but also not plenty. This water is quite peculiar." "That spiritual spring space of Erya seems not to be a good item." An Xin said through gritted teeth. Anning thought for a bit: "Spiritual spring spaces always require things to sustain them, energy in this world is conserved after all. Erya uses the spiritual spring daily yet never replenished it with Spirit Stones or high-quality jade—just from this point, we can infer that her space is nothing good, probably a demon." An Xin sighed: "She got the spiritual spring space and was overly joyous, reckless, acting like she’s the main character of this world, but never thought, how could such pie fall from the sky." Anning handed the spiritual spring water to An Xin: "Keep it, we’ll study it later." An Xin stored the spiritual spring water into her System Space and asked again, "Ningning, are you really sure you don’t want the Golden Finger?" Anning chuckled and flicked An Xin’s forehead: "No need, having traveled through so many worlds, how many times have you seen me use the Golden Finger? Those are external things, strengthening oneself is what truly matters." An Xin pouted, covering her red forehead with a look of grievance: "But I feel so useless, Ningning doesn’t need me at all." Anning helped rub An Xin’s reddened forehead: "How can you be useless? You’ve helped me a lot, and have always been with me, no matter how many worlds we travel. Having you makes me feel secure. Without your company, I may have given up long ago, An Xin, you are my pillar of support." An Xin’s face immediately brightened with a smile: "Really? Then I must do well. I want to accompany Ningning forever, the two of us together always." Anning hugged An Xin: "Alright, I have to go out now, you go back too." An Xin agreed with a nod, and in an instant, entered Anning’s sea of consciousness. Anning pretended to have just gotten up and came out from the house, then she suddenly screamed: "Father, mother, Uncle Liu Bao, quickly get up, hurry..." Old Madam and the old master, who were sound asleep, hurriedly got up upon hearing Anning’s cry. Liu Bao and his wife also hurriedly got up, their two sons hearing the noise quickly dressed and pushed the door to come out. "What’s going on, what’s going on?" Old Madam came out of the house and immediately asked Anning. The most update n0vels are published on noᴠelfire.net Anning pointed outside: "Mother, do you smell something?" Old Madam tried hard to smell but couldn’t detect anything. Liu Laifu, with his keen sense of smell, immediately caught a scent. "Madam, it’s the smell of blood." "Go and check quickly." The grandpa was startled upon hearing this and urged Liu Laifu and Liu Laiqing to quickly go out and take a look. The two young men pushed open the courtyard gate and went out, returning after a short while. "Grandpa, someone spilled a lot of blood outside, and there’s also..." Liu Laifu held up a wild chicken carcass he had found at the foot of the mountain behind. The grandpa’s expression became solemn. Anning was panic-stricken, "What should we do? Our family hasn’t offended anyone. Why can’t others tolerate us, why harm us ?" Old Madam clapped her hands, "Quick, let’s leave this place immediately. Eldest Son’s Wife, go wake the children, I’ll go call Min Ruo." Anning quickly went back to dress the children, picking up one with each hand as she came out. Old Madam had already called Xu Minruo out. The family didn’t take much with them; Anning just pocketed the silver note and left the house, stepping alternately deep and shallow. Once outside, Grandpa made a decisive decision: "Go to Third’s home." He didn’t know why he chose the third branch. Perhaps it was a subconscious belief that the third branch was more reliable than the second. Anning nodded, Liu Bao leading the way with a torch; the family quickly reached Xu Zhiqin’s home. Liu Bao knocked on the door calling for people, and Xu Zhiqin quickly opened the door. Seeing so many people outside, and with Grandpa and Old Madam looking very troubled, he hurriedly invited the entire family in and securely closed the courtyard gate before asking, "Dad, what’s going on?" Grandpa took a breath, "Someone spilled a lot of chicken and rabbit blood at home in the middle of the night and threw the dead wild chickens at the foot of the mountain. This is clearly meant to harm us. My heart is uneasy; I dare not stay at home. We’ll make do here for tonight and investigate thoroughly tomorrow who did this." Upon hearing this, Xu Zhiqin was furious, "Damn those ruthless people! Who would do such a thing." Anning told Xu Zhiqin, "Third Brother, your place can’t accommodate so many people, but we can manage. Just give us one room to wait until dawn. Only, our parents are old and cannot endure the night. Third Brother, please make some space for our parents." Xu Zhiqin promptly woke Mrs. Li, had her shift their children into their room, and cleared out the children’s bedroom for Grandpa and Old Madam. Anning and the others stayed in a backroom Xu Zhiqin had cleared for them, where he found many small stools for them to sit on. Since Lan and Ying Ge’er were young and could barely keep their eyes open at this point, Xu Zhiqin took the two children to their room, having Mrs. Li attend to all four children for the night, while he stayed up with Anning and the others. After everyone was settled, it was already past midnight. The group, both tired and sleepy, sat in a daze on the stools waiting for dawn. Once the four children had fallen asleep, Mrs. Li also came over to ask Anning what had happened. Anning quietly recounted the evening’s events to Mrs. Li, "Our family has always been kind to others, I can’t think of whom we might have offended. They want our family dead." Mrs. Li was also infuriated. Before the family split, Mrs. Li and Anning had some conflicts, but those were internal family disputes, minor issues resolved by some arguments. After the split, Mrs. Li had once envied the good life Anning led, but she had never wished harm upon Anning. Mrs. Li had clear discernment, knowing who was family and who was an outsider. In her heart, even though Anning had quarreled with her, she was still family; fundamentally kin. In troubling times, family must unite against the outside. Thus, upon hearing that someone wanted to harm the whole family, she also cursed a few times. "Let husband come over with you in the morning; this matter isn’t over until we find out who’s been so vile. We won’t have peace of mind until we do."