Chapter 528 The whole story
Chapter 528 The whole story
"Tian has a magical power that can see through illusions, so he saw at a glance that this is Ping'an Village, not Taiping Village."
After saying this, Tian Lin turned around abruptly.
Zhou Ting and others also noticed that something was wrong behind them, so they all took out their magic weapons and turned around to look back.
Behind the crowd, an old man who seemed to be made entirely of Yin energy appeared out of nowhere.
His eyes were filled with resentment and murderous intent, and he asked several people, "Officials, are you here to collect the bodies for the court?"
Zhou Ting and his companions looked at each other in bewilderment. They were all wearing the clothing of the Wendao Sect, not the official uniforms of the imperial court.
If the old man called him "Immortal", then it would be understandable.
But since the old man called them officials, in his eyes, they were either wearing official uniforms or officials would come to collect the bodies at this time.
How to answer?
This didn't seem like the right time to discuss things. Zhou Ting thought about it and nodded, "Yes, we are here to collect the bodies. I wonder how your preparations are going?"
"The old county magistrate has asked for too many mummies, and it's still half a month before the villages hand in the mummies. Why did you come so early?"
Zhou Ting didn't know how to answer for a moment. After thinking for a while, he said, "We are all following the orders of the elder county lord. We came here early to see how you are preparing."
The old man said, "The village chief is gathering the villagers to work hard to raise the corpses of the new arrivals, so please rest in the hut for one night and wait for the village chief to come and report the situation tomorrow morning."
The old man spoke politely, but the hatred in his eyes seemed to want to eat everyone present alive.
Zhou Ting looked at Tian Lin and Mei Xiangu at this time. After seeing Tian Lin nod, Zhou Ting said, "Okay, then please lead the way!"
The old man had a lantern in his hand at some point and was walking towards the village.
There are about hundreds of households in this village, and every household has a corpse well. It can be predicted that this is a village where corpse drivers work together to raise corpses.
Tian Lin and others followed the old man into his house, which was a small courtyard.
There were only two or three rooms in the courtyard, and there seemed to be no one else except the old man.
On the wall of the courtyard hung clappers and gongs used for night watch.
The old man took out the key and opened the compartment. After the door creaked open, two large beds in the compartment came into view for everyone.
"Gentlemen, please rest here first. I will ask Muramasa to come over tomorrow morning."
The old man limped out of the house, closed the door and left.
In the hut, Tian Lin came to the table and lit the candle.
The bright candles illuminated the simple house. Zhou Ting looked around and turned to Tian Lin, "Brother Tian, did you see anything unusual?"
Tian Lin shook his head and said, "Everything now seems to be no illusion. I wonder if Senior Brother Zhou has discovered anything?"
Zhou Ting said: "According to my guess, this place is probably a village from the Great Qi Dynasty. The people living in this village should be corpse raisers controlled by the county lord.
These corpse raisers pay tribute every year not in the form of food but in the form of corpses. In short, the corpse raisers in this village prepare mummies for the imperial court every year.”
At this time, Wang Yanyu also spoke up: "The old man who led us here should not have a high status in the village, and he is not a corpse breeder. As we walked along, every household seemed to have a corpse well——
Only here, the old man has no corpse well but only a clapper - he is an old man living alone who cannot afford to marry."
"Then this old man might also have the strength of the Golden Core Realm. I don't know if this strength was acquired during his lifetime, or if it was acquired through killing people after his death!"
Mei Xiangu took over Wang Yanyu's words and said:
"The old man has such strength, and the other villagers and the village chief are probably even stronger. The evil spirits we encountered when we entered the village this time are far beyond our ability to deal with." Zhou Ting turned around and asked Du Qiping from the Monster Hunting Division, "Junior Brother Du has been catching evil spirits in the Monster Hunting Division for a long time. I wonder if you have ever encountered such a situation?"
Du Qiping is not very strong, but he is the one who has caught the most evil spirits among the people present, so he can be said to be very experienced.
But he shook his head and said, "Normally, evil spirits only act alone. Although I have encountered one or two evil spirits that form a group of hundreds to harm people, they are not as powerful as this one.
This kind of evil spirit that wreaks havoc in groups is usually killed at the same time. This kind of evil spirit must not be confronted head-on, otherwise disaster will befall you."
Everyone nodded, and Tian Lin sighed:
"There are evil spirits everywhere in the village now, and there is an unknown evil spirit with a big stick outside the village - we can either rely on ourselves to break through, or wait for fellow disciples from the Daoist Sect to come to rescue us."
As soon as he finished speaking, there was a sudden banging sound from the peach house next door.
Late in the night, in the silence, there was a sudden sound, which immediately made everyone in the room nervous.
Everyone in the room kept silent, and the sound of a door opening was heard in the peach room. Then the old man's voice was heard again:
"I know you are resentful, but the county lord has been asking for more and more mummies, and the time we have to prepare them is getting shorter and shorter. Go to sleep, go to sleep!"
Then there was a series of banging noises, and half an hour later, the sound of the old man closing the door was heard from the peach house.
"Is there a body hidden in the peach room?"
The simple house was built entirely of wood, and the wooden wall behind the bed curtains was not without gaps where insects had eaten it.
Tian Lin and others could see the dark peach house through the gap.
They are all cultivators in the Jindan realm and have the ability to see at night.
Therefore, several people saw the four coffins in the peach house, and the previous banging sound should have been caused by one of the four coffins.
"Do you remember what the old man told us when we entered the village? There are several new corpses in the village—"
Zhou Ting looked at Tian Lin, nodded and said, "Yes, the old man did say this. What does Brother Tian want to say?"
Tian Lin said: "Based on what the old man said before, I guess the so-called new corpse may not be a corpse, but a living person."
He said: "The county magistrate requires Ping'an Village to hand over a certain amount of mummies every year, but the village is not able to prepare all the mummies every year. In order to avoid being punished, the village either kills its own villagers to refine the corpses, or tricks or kills outside travelers to refine the corpses.
I guess the person lying in the main room is the unlucky traveler."
Although Tian Lin's guess is bold, it is not illogical.
Mei Xiangu continued, "If that is the case, then the villagers in this village must have done too many evil things like this, and finally they were attacked by a vengeful spirit that died in their hands, leading to the extermination of the entire village."
"Do you think that guy with a mace outside the village is the traveler who was killed by the villagers and eventually took revenge on them?"
Everyone looked at each other, thinking that this guess was in line with the facts!
The resentful spirit that was killed by the villagers eventually wiped out the entire village, proving that it had become very powerful before the villagers died.
Now, after several years, the old night watchman has become strong enough to reach the Golden Core Realm, so it is not surprising that the guy holding the mace has at least the strength of the Spiritual Transformation Realm.
If they leave Ping'an Village, they will be beaten with maces. It is obvious that the guy guarding outside mistook them for villagers of Ping'an Village.
Apparently, the guy with the mace did not allow the villagers of Ping'an Village to leave the village.
"Is there any way to get the villagers to fight the guys outside?"
(End of this chapter)