Chapter 111: The “Hospitable” Villagers
Moments later, Zheng Sanshui limped out of his house while holding a lit torch, then invited Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang inside.
He told both of them that he was going to fetch some people to speak to them, then disappeared into the night. Shortly afterward, Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang heard a rush of footsteps outside.
The entire house had been surrounded by a group of emaciated old men and women, all armed with knives, sickles, pitchforks, and hoes. The flickering light of the torches cast harrowing shadows over their sunken, angular faces, and the bloodlust in their eyes only made them look even more foreboding.
"Sorry we have to do this, but if the Daoist temple finds out that we've been colluding with a fiend, then the entire village will be doomed, so we can't let you leave this place alive," Zheng Sanshui said.
Chu Qiguang was completely unfazed.
"I'll leave them to you, Chen Gang," he said casually.
Chen Gang stepped forward with a cold expression and harrumphed. "You ungrateful curs! Our young master came here out of the kindness of his heart to subdue that fiend for you, yet this is how you repay him?"
An old woman charged at Chen Gang and thrust her pitchfork at him, only to be casually swatted aside.
An old man swung his sickle at Chen Gang, but was sent flying by a kick to the chest. The villagers were striking with as much force and venom as they could muster, targeting Chen Gang's vital regions with all their attacks. However, they were simply too frail, and Chen Gang was easily able to keep them at bay.
All of a sudden, Chen Gang was restrained from behind. As it turned out, Zheng Sanshui had caught him in a forceful bear hug. Zheng Sanshui was stronger than Chen Gang expected, and even after receiving multiple blows to the face, he still refused to let go.
Chen Gang threw one more punch into Zheng Sanshui's face, and his fist was instantly smeared with blood. He could even hear the bones in Zheng Sanshui's face cracking, yet Zheng Sanshui continued to hold on with all his might.
All the elderly villagers took advantage of the opportunity to lash out at Chen Gang with excited looks of bloodlust on their faces. It seemed they weren't afraid of wounding Zheng Sanshui at all.
Chu Qiguang's brows furrowed slightly at the sight of the dire situation that Chen Gang had found himself in. He charged straight into the crowd and knocked down all of the elderly villagers in the blink of an eye. He then grabbed the back of Zheng Sanshui's collar and lifted him up into the air like a stray dog.
Zheng Sanshui's face was severely distorted from Chen Gang's punches, yet he struggled desperately as he snarled and growled like an enraged beast.
"Has... Has he taken the Elixir of Undying?" Chen Gang exclaimed with a horrified expression.
At this point, the outcome of the battle was already clear, and all the elderly villagers fell to their knees and began begging for mercy.
"Please spare us. We had no choice but to do this. We'll never do it again."
"We were just afraid that you would report us to the Daoist temple. This village has already been through far too much. We just want to be left alone!"
"He only took the Elixir of Undying because he was worried we wouldn't be able to overpower you."
"What do we do, Brother Chu?" Chen Gang asked.
"How did that villager die?" Chu Qiguang asked. "The fiend says he didn't do it."
"He's lying! Don't believe him!" Zheng Sanshui yelled.
Chu Qiguang was unconvinced.
At the sight of the emaciated condition of all of the villagers, a thought suddenly occurred to him, and he asked, "Where has all your food gone?"
"We ate it all, of course," Zheng Sanshui replied.
"You've been lying to me at every turn!" Chu Qiguang sneered. "If you're not going to cooperate with me, then I'll just have to report you all to the Daoist temple!"
The villagers quickly caved to Chu Qiguang's threats, and they led him to a woodshed behind the ancestral shrine. Inside was a single small bag of wheat.
"That's all that's left."
"That's it? How is that possible?" Chen Gang asked. "There are at least over a hundred acres of farmland outside, and all of you look like you're starving!"
Zheng Sanshui sighed. "We ate it all. I don't know what you want me to tell you."
Chu Qiguang observed the other elderly villagers and noticed that a few of them were sneaking glances at the ground.
At the same time, Qiao Zhi jumped onto the rooftop above and communicated telepathically, Big Head says that there's a strong stench of dead bodies coming from beneath the ancestral shrine.
After receiving this tip, Chu Qiguang began stomping around inside the ancestral shrine, and he quickly discovered a section of the floor that sounded hollow. He lifted the straw covering the floor to reveal a trapdoor that served as the entrance to a cellar.
Upon entering the cellar, Chu Qiguang and Chu Qiguang discovered around a dozen living corpses tied up inside. All of the living corpses were children, appearing to be somewhere between seven to fifteen years of age. They were all incredibly emaciated, and they erupted into an excited frenzy at the sight of Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang. However, they were unable to break free from their restraints.
Finally, Zheng Sanshui and the villagers were ready to tell the truth. As it turned out, virtually all of the young men and women in the village had fled to evade taxes and forced labor, leaving only Zheng Sanshui behind to look after all of the elderly.
They had agreed to return in a year or so after earning some money for food, but three years had passed since then, and no one had come back.
The elderly and children left in the village were unable to keep up with the physical demands of tending to the fields, and their troubles were further worsened by the consecutive years of drought. As a result, more and more people starved to death.
In these desperate times, the followers of the Immortal Dao arrived at the village and bestowed the Elixir of Undying upon them.
Initially, the villagers remained faithful to the Profound Origin Dao Lord and refused to take the Elixir of Undying. However, before long, the first villager finally caved and fed the Elixir of Undying to his grandson, who was on the verge of starving to death.
From there, the floodgates opened.
"It doesn't matter if we die, but these children are still so young, and we just couldn't bear to watch them starve to death," Zheng Sanshui murmured in a distraught voice.
The elderly villagers passed away one after another, while all the children were fed the Elixir of Undying right before death. Afterward, they were held captive in the cellar under the ancestral shrine as living corpses.
However, even living corpses couldn't survive indefinitely without sustenance. Even though they had lost all their senses, they still needed food to stay alive. Thankfully, they could eat almost anything for survival, including tree bark, grass roots, and wood shavings.
The followers of the Immortal Dao had told the villagers that all they had to do was keep the living corpses alive, and someday, they would regain their senses and ascend to immortality.
