Hammer in her left hand, sword in her right, the eldest sister is connected to both worlds.

Cui Wu and Zhu He followed behind Xue Lan and noticed something was wrong with her when she reached the middle of the mountain.

"What happened to Senior Sister?" Zhu He saw Xue Lan suddenly turn and walk down the mountain, Lu Feng, who had been leading the way, was nowhere to be seen. A mist rose from the mountains.

Upon closer inspection, Cui Wu noticed the ghostly aura surrounding Xue Lan.

"It's ghostly energy; there are wandering spirits here."

"It doesn't look like a vengeful ghost. Senior Sister wouldn't be bewitched by a mere little devil. She's probably doing it on purpose." Zhu He also saw the ghostly aura on Xue Lan, wisps and strands of it guiding the way down the mountain.

“They don’t want Senior Sister to go up the mountain.” Cui Wu watched Xue Lan slowly walk down the mountain. Although the path under her feet was relatively flat, Xue Lan’s steps were somewhat unsteady, as if she was trudging along with difficulty.

Not long after they started walking down the mountain, Cui Wu and his companion sensed a strange, demonic aura emanating from the mountaintop. The willow branches on the summit began to sway in the wind, and a clear, ringing sound echoed through the empty mountain air.

"Ding-a-ling, ding-a-ling, whoosh—"

A bright green branch stretched out from the willow tree on the mountaintop and pierced straight into Xue Lan's back.

"Not good!" Zhu He disregarded everything else and threw his heavy sword, cleaving the willow branch that was about to touch Xue Lan in two. The sword sank into the ground, leaving only the hilt. Zhu He stepped forward and pulled it out. The young man's expression was serious as he stared straight at the mountaintop shrouded in a thin mist.

The willow tree was no longer the beautiful and serene tree it once was. All its branches lashed out, transforming into a ferocious monster. Hundreds of branches attacked the two, their target being Xue Lan behind them.

"Senior sister hasn't woken up yet, senior brother. We can only hold them off for now." Cui Wu took the lead in facing the willow branches in front of him. Amidst the dazzling sword light, a large number of broken branches and leaves fell around him, turning into charred ashes as soon as they hit the ground.

"This is from Jiyue Mountain." Zhu He recognized at a glance that the willow branch was in the same condition as the snake they had killed in Jiyue Mountain before. Both had been tainted by demonic energy.

"My senior sister mentioned before that the Crimson Jade Spider in the Jiyue Mountain Secret Realm is named Hongyu. A powerful demon awakened part of her consciousness through her name. This willow tree is also a plant spirit that has cultivated for many years." Cui Wu dodged the attack of the branches.

“Plant spirits are born of nature and absorb the essence of the sun and moon, so in theory they should be the least susceptible to being corrupted by demonic energy. But the current situation… it’s really worrying!” Zhu He also had a headache.

The sound of a barrier shattering came from behind them, and the two knew that Xue Lan had woken up. The ghostly energy around them began to grow thicker, obscuring this small world.

Xue Lan held Xiao Shuang's hand, her gaze fixed on the willow tree on the mountaintop.

Xiao Shuang spoke softly, "That's Sister Liu Shuliu."

The surrounding ghostly energy began to condense into human figures, all of them ghosts.

Some were young with gray hair, some were robust and sturdy, and some were thin and bony.

They were all women, dressed in tattered clothes and covered in wounds.

All the women looked towards the willow tree on the mountaintop.

Xue Lan called out, "Liu Shu!"

The willow branches that had been attacking the two people in front of them stopped and then all retracted. Xue Lan saw some light green light emanating from the willow tree, which transformed into a woman dressed in a green dress beneath the tree. She slowly descended the mountain path, her figure graceful and her movements light.

When they reached a place not far from Xue Lan, the woman performed a standard cupped-hand salute.

"This little demon Liu Shu greets the Immortal Master!"

The willow tree is a large willow tree on the back mountain of Lujia Village that has cultivated for seven hundred years. It has absorbed the essence of the sun and moon and cultivated itself diligently. Finally, on the night of the full moon, it took human form.

When the plant spirits first take human form, they are genderless, dressed in green, and so beautiful that it's impossible to tell if they are male or female. They are always curious about the village in front of the mountain, but they dare not enter the village rashly, for fear that the mountain god will mistake them for demons and harm them, thus destroying their powers.

Lu Shuang was a little girl from Lu Family Village, with four older sisters. But she was still captivated when she first saw the willow demon.

She had never seen a woman as beautiful as Liu Yao, more beautiful than her four older sisters.

She told Liu Yao that she had four older sisters named Zhao Di, Pan Di, Lai Di, and Dai Di, and that only she was named Lu Shuang.

"Why is it only you who is called Lu Shuang?" Liu Yao asked curiously at the time.

"Because I was born at the same time as my younger brother."

Her younger brother's name was Lu Ziliang, and she was his twin sister, so she had the character "shuang" (meaning "double") in her name. But this name didn't bring her any special treatment. She was always expected to do the laundry and cooking in the winter and fetch water and chop wood in the summer.

The autumn of the year Lu Shuang met Liu Yao, Lu Shuang's eldest sister, Lu Zhaodi, got married to Xu the Cripple from the east end of the village, and then suffered a difficult childbirth in late summer of the following year...

That was Lu Shuang's first time traversing the mountains. She wanted to go to the county town seventy miles away to find a doctor and someone to save her older sister. However, the mountain path ahead was rugged, and she would fall every few steps. The willow spirit wanted to accompany her, but because of the limitations of her physical form, she could not stray too far from the willow tree.

The little girl walked for two days and two nights but still couldn't find the county town. The mountain in front of her was like an insurmountable barrier, blocking little Lu Shuang from the county town, and also blocking Lu Zhaodi's life and death.

Liu Yao picked up Lu Shuang from the mountains and placed her at the village entrance. Lu Shuang's father took her back and starved her for a day.

Lu Zhaodi died, and Lu Laidi was to marry into the family to become Xu the Cripple's second wife.

The village chief said it was a good deed, allowing their relationship to continue. The parents believed him.

“My dad said the village chief is a scholar, and scholars’ words are always very useful,” Lu Shuang said to Liu Yao while digging up some herbs from the ground.

"Sister Liu, when you can go out in the future, will you become a scholar too? Or maybe we shouldn't, they don't allow girls to study." Lu Shuang's childish voice was full of sadness.

"Sister Liu, I wish you were a brother."

The willow demon was furious: "Who said you have to become a man to study? Once Sister Liu leaves her original form, she'll go to study, and then come back and teach you, okay?"

As she spoke, she picked two small yellow flowers from the side and pinned them to Lu Shuang's hair.

The little girl exclaimed in surprise, "These are dandelions! The flowers will eventually turn into white fluff and fly away. If you pick them, they won't be able to fly away!"

The day Liu Yao left Lu Family Village, she gave herself the name Liu Shu. She told the little girl that she would return to find her after achieving some success in her studies.

The newly formed plant spirits and the little girl who had never left the mountains dreamed of each other, unaware that this departure would be their last.

A little girl named Lu Shuang died. Her father sold her to someone as a child bride, where she suffered severe abuse. She began her second mountain hike on a rainy night.

The trees all over the mountains rustled and sang under the pounding rain, as if a lot of people were clapping and cheering.

Who is chasing me?

The father roared fiercely, "You damned slut, come back here right now!"

Lu Shuang shivered and ran forward as fast as she could.

The mother said gently, "Xiaoshuang, come back. I'll tell your father."

Lu Shuang shook her head desperately.

“What Mother says doesn’t count, what Mother says has never counted. Mother can’t make decisions for Xiao Shuang. Mother can’t even make decisions for herself.”

The people chasing behind them all caught up and cornered Lu Shuang at the edge of the cliff.

Lu Shuang jumped down, and before she died, she saw the village chief's indifferent eyes.

A willow spirit named Liu Shu enters the academy and learns that women from outside the academy can also enroll.

"Since I enrolled in school, I've been thinking every day that Xiaoshuang is wrong. Women outside can also study and be with men..." Liu Shu recalled, a faint smile on her lips. Her eyes were full of tenderness.

"But... I didn't finish my studies, and I didn't see Xiaoshuang either."

"After Xiao Shuang died, the village chief said that her resentment had not subsided and that the big willow tree behind the village was the source of the trouble. So he gathered the villagers and cut my tree roots."

"My physical body was damaged, and my spiritual avatar outside was affected, so I had to come back."

"Not only that, he also placed demons at my roots, corrupting my mind and destroying my cultivation."

Liu Shu looked at Xue Lan, his voice firm:

"Immortal Master, I must avenge this grudge."

Xue Lan gripped Xiao Shuang's wrist tightly and looked at Cui Wu beside her.

"Xiao Wu, bring that boy back."

Cui Wu knew she was referring to Lu Feng, nodded, and headed up to the mountaintop.

"Zhu He, go to the front mountain and find that village chief."

May the river fly towards the mountain.

Now, only Xue Lan, Liu Shu, and those wandering spirits remain on the mountainside.

Xue Lan bent down and looked at Lu Shuang beside her: "Little Shuang, shall I take you away? Let's get out of this mountain."

The little girl shook her head slightly: "Sister, I want them all to die!"

"This is... this..." the system exclaimed in surprise.

Xue Lan released Xiao Shuang's wrist, took a few steps back, and whispered to the system:

"She was able to lead me down the mountain despite the willow demon's obstruction. She is the source of this yin energy, the ghost spirit of Lu Family Village."