Chapter 7 The Power of Local Deities Cannot Compete with the Law of Kings

All eyes were on the ancient elm tree in the center of the village. Liu Zexi's act of sacrificing himself was definitely not as simple as hanging himself beneath the tree. Before his death, he was certainly not thinking of family happiness and national peace. Instead, he sought revenge! Revenge against those who had brought him to this state! If he was powerless to take revenge himself, then he would offer himself as a sacrifice to the powerful deity known as Gan Niang, letting her avenge him! And the county officials from Xinxiang County standing before him were his targets of revenge! Chen Shi looked toward the small temple in front of the tree, where a little girl sat, enjoying various offerings, completely oblivious to the scene before her. However, the head of the officials could not see this little girl; his gaze was fixed on the ancient elm tree as he coldly sneered, "If Gan Niang intends to avenge Liu Zexi, then she is opposing the Xinxiang County officials, opposing the Great Ming! Country gods cannot compare to the law of the kingdom. Once the law of the Great Ming is enforced, it would be easy to flatten Gan Niang! By then, without Gan Niang's protection, everyone in Fangdian Village will be exposed to the evil gaze, doomed to perish!" Chen Shi's heart trembled slightly; this head official dared to threaten Gan Niang of Fangdian Village! He looked back at the little girl, who was still eating offerings, seemingly uninterested in the situation. "Indeed. Whether to avenge Liu Zexi or to protect the other villagers of Fangdian, the Gan Niang of Fangdian Village would naturally know the priority," Chen Shi thought to himself. Seeing that the ancient elm tree remained silent, the head official smirked and asked, "Although Liu Zexi is dead, taxes still must be paid; that is the law. What about the others in his family?" A villager replied, "There are no others left. He originally had a son and a daughter. The daughter was sold, and the son drowned while bathing in the river. There was also a woman who went mad after this event; one day she danced and sang out of the village and disappeared. She likely died too." The head official pondered for a moment, waved his hand, and said, "Once a person is dead, all matters cease. Previous wrongs will not be pursued, but taxes must still be paid. Someone, go and bring out anything of value from Liu Zexi's home so we can report back." A number of officials rushed into Liu Zexi's home, but it was so impoverished that they could only take a few pots and pans, hoping to exchange them for some money. The head official shook his head, saying, "How pitiful. This little money probably won't even cover the hole; my superior will have to make up the difference with the office's funds. People think we officials are corrupt and greedy, but that is a huge misunderstanding!" He expressed his grievances, slowly rising and saying, "This tax is to be collected by the Great Ming; it has nothing to do with us officials. If even a single copper coin ends up in our pockets, may I be struck by lightning all the way to the South Heaven! Conversely, these taxes we cannot collect, my superior and I will have to pay out of our own pockets; otherwise, we would be committing treason! Villagers, do not panic!" He looked around and smiled, "You should obediently pay your taxes; don't be thinking about drawing blades at every turn. Liu Sanyin, take out the knife from your trousers, be careful not to slip and cut off your little bird!" He treated the villagers as if they were invisible, walking among them as he spoke loudly, "All my brothers here are talented scholars who have taken part in the county examinations, blessed by true gods to form divine fetuses! You cannot defeat us, so why commit the crime of attacking an official? Put down your knives, all of you, and let’s talk nicely!" Behind him, the officials activated the Heavenly Heart Righteous Qi technique, their divine lights swirling at the back of their heads, forming small shrines about a foot tall, where divine fetuses sat in solemnity. The faces of the villagers of Fangdian turned ashen, and they silently put down their kitchen knives and axes. The head official waved his hand, ordering the officials to collect taxes from each household, while he strolled to Chen Shi and his grandfather's talisman stall. The grandfather had already prepared the tax money and handed it over, saying, "Lord Lu, how imposing!" The head official, named Lu Tiannan, clearly knew the grandfather well; accepting the talisman tax, he smiled, "I dare not; I am merely doing my duty for the court. Chen Lao's health is still robust; I fear I will have to collect your talisman tax for several more years!" Suddenly, he caught a whiff of a faint stench and couldn't help but twitch his nose; he was struck with a sense of foreboding: "Is that the stench of corpses?" His gaze fell on Chen Shi, and his expression changed drastically, saying, "Chen Lao, is this the child? The one who was the top scholar in the fifty provinces years ago?" The grandfather remained silent. Lu Tiannan hurriedly stepped back a few paces, creating distance from Chen Shi, examining him up and down repeatedly, chuckling, "Incredible, Chen Lao, you are truly remarkable! Something impossible, stealing the secrets of heaven and earth, yet you managed to accomplish it! But you must not break the law; be careful not to fall into my hands!" He turned and left. Chen Shi was left bewildered, saying, "This Six Doors seems to fear me. Grandpa, was I really the top scholar in the fifty provinces before?" "There’s no need to mention past matters," the grandfather said, spreading out yellow paper, taking out cinnabar and brushes. Chen Shi retrieved the peach wood talisman and jade blank from the cart. The grandfather took out a knife, waved his hand, signaling for the black pot to come forward. The black pot, feeling wronged, let out a low whine and approached, tail tucked. "Pfft." The grandfather stabbed the black pot with a knife, and Chen Shi quickly took a small basin to catch the black dog's blood. After a moment, the grandfather tossed the black pot a piece of meat from a strange beast, and the black pot picked it up, retreating under the cart to eat the meat while licking its wounds, feeling both pain and joy. The grandfather and grandson began drawing various talismans and selling them at the market. The Xinxiang County officials went from house to house collecting taxes, causing chaos in Fangdian Village, with people in a panic and cries echoing, quite tragic. Even amidst the suffering, there were moments of joy. Many still came to the talisman stall to purchase talismans. Chen Shi and his grandfather were busy for a long time when suddenly, the black pot barked twice. The grandfather looked up at the sky, putting down his brush, saying, "It's getting late; we should leave." Chen Shi looked up at the sky; two suns hung in the sky, showing no sign of setting. The grandfather and grandson tidied up and climbed onto the wooden cart to drive out of the village. Chen Shi sat in the cart, glancing at the small temple in front of the ancient elm tree, where the girl still sat quietly at the shrine. In Fangdian Village, the Xinxiang County officials were packing the collected taxes from each household into horse-drawn carts—there were four carts in total. Several officials were tying talismans to the horses' legs to make them run faster. "Hurry up and pack! Return to the county town before dark!" Lu Tiannan urged loudly, "We still have to go to other villages tomorrow!" "Sir, there's still plenty of time to return; why the rush?" one official laughed. Lu Tiannan shook his head, saying, "This countryside is different from the county town; there are no evils out at night in the county town, but many of them lurk in the countryside. Though few can threaten us, it's better to be cautious; we might encounter some." The wooden cart drove out of Fangdian Village, where the grandfather organized the medicinal materials bought at the market—poisons, venomous snakes, insects, and centipedes, along with some suspicious herbs. Chen Shi felt uneasy; these were his dinner. After traveling six or seven miles, the grandfather suddenly looked up at the sky, changing color and saying, "Something's not right! It's getting dark earlier than before by a quarter of an hour!" Chen Shi quickly looked up, seeing two suns in the sky slowly closing like eyelids, no longer perfectly round but elongated! This was a sign that the true god beyond the heavens was closing its eyes, and night was about to descend! "Could it be that the black pot reported the time wrong by a quarter of an hour?" Chen Shi looked suspiciously at the black dog leading the way in front of them. The grandfather also looked at the black dog: "It's possible. The sun can't set a quarter of an hour early, so it must be the black pot's fault." The black dog whimpered, expressing its dissatisfaction. Chen Shi suggested, "Grandpa, this dog is useless now, but the meat is still fresh." The grandfather nodded, saying, "Next time it reports the wrong time, we’ll eat the pot." The black pot, with its tail between its legs, lamented the hardship of being a dog. After a moment, flames filled the sky, forming a sunset glow stretching for miles. Despite hurrying, the grandfather and grandson could not return to Huangpo Village in time. Chen Shi looked around and suddenly pointed to the left side of the road, joyfully saying, "There's a temple over there!" The grandfather looked and saw that indeed, not far from the roadside there was a small hill with an ancient temple, quite dilapidated. "Do you remember if there was this hill or this temple when we came?" the grandfather suddenly asked. Chen Shi carefully recalled and exclaimed; when they came through, this was clearly flat land without a hill or ancient temple! This hill seemed to have emerged from the ground! This scene made it appear as if the temple had been buried underground along with the hill, and the hill had grown, pushing the temple and the hilltop up! Such a bizarre thing, he had never seen or heard of before! "Let’s go to the ancient temple for the night." The grandfather fiddled with the compass, and the wooden cart swayed as it drove up the hill. The temple had fallen into disrepair over the years, with broken tiles, shattered bricks, and collapsed doorways scattered everywhere, along with broken stone pillars. The temple's roof was riddled with holes, letting in the wind. The grandfather took out his brush, ink, paper, and small knife; the black pot obediently stepped forward, took a stab from the knife, then, teary-eyed, picked up a piece of strange beast meat and found a corner to slowly eat while licking its wounds. Chen Shi did not help; instead, he took some wooden pegs from the cart, picked up some boards from the ground, and quickly boarded up the broken doors and windows. The door bolts had decayed, but there were large stones outside the temple. Chen Shi walked over to a boulder weighing thousands of pounds, intending to call the grandfather for help, but unexpectedly, he easily lifted the boulder, which was not as heavy as he imagined. He then gradually pushed the boulder into the temple to block the door. Looking up at the dilapidated roof, he crouched down and leaped, astonished to find that he could jump nearly as high as the temple's roof! Chen Shi was shocked, but then calmed down: "If I can jump this high, I can naturally land safely; there's no need to worry about falling to my death." He placed his hand on a nearby pillar to help himself slide down smoothly. He gathered wood and, before dark, managed to patch up the holes in the temple's roof. The grandfather also finished drawing the peach talismans and hung them on the doors, windows, and roof of the temple, then began to build a fire to "cook." The so-called meal was a pot of soup made from the medicinal materials bought during the day. At that moment, a commotion of horse-drawn carts sounded outside. Chen Shi looked through the window, seeing that the fiery sunset glow had disappeared, and the moonlight coldly poured down. Lu Tiannan and the officials were driving four horse-drawn carts toward them. "Boss, something feels off!" one official raised his head to look and said, "The sun shouldn't have set this early! We won't make it back to the county office; should we return to Fangdian Village?" Though they were all cultivators at the Divine Fetus realm, they had heard of the dangers of the countryside at night, where certain evils lurked that could easily kill even those at the Divine Fetus realm. Lu Tiannan also felt worried; suddenly spotting the dilapidated temple, he laughed and said, "There's a temple over there; let’s take shelter in there for the night and leave in the morning." The officials agreed, driving their carts toward the broken temple. Chen Shi stood by the window, using the moonlight to see clearly; he noticed that behind the convoy of horse-drawn carts, a small figure had appeared, holding a bright red apple, munching on it as it approached the convoy. "It’s Gan Niang of Fangdian Village, the little girl from the temple!" Just as Chen Shi thought this, he saw the girl eating the apple suddenly freeze in front of a nearby official, as if his body had cramp, bending backward and trembling. Then, with two sounds, sharp branches pierced through his chest, accompanied by splashes of blood. "Enemy attack—" Lu Tiannan was the first to react, his divine light swirling around his head, forming a shrine as the divine fetus sat within, circulating true qi. But the next moment, numerous branches swayed, resembling black poisonous snakes under the moonlight, weaving and spreading through the air! One branch had already reached his forehead! Lu Tiannan hurriedly stepped back, feeling a sudden sharp pain in his back; the sound of bones breaking echoed as he looked down to see bloody branches bursting through his chest! "Too fast!" Lu Tiannan felt his heart pierced by the branches, blood rushing into his lungs and throat, flooding into his mouth. He struggled to turn his neck, observing that some officials following him had just summoned their shrines and hadn’t yet mobilized their divine power before being pierced by branches, while others had only managed to run a few paces before being impaled by dozens of roots that had thrust up from the ground! Even the steeds had been pierced through by the suddenly appearing branches, dying in an instant. Lu Tiannan’s throat gurgled ominously as blood poured from his mouth. Under the moonlight, dozens of corpses of officials at the Divine Fetus realm and eight steeds floated in front of the dilapidated temple, nearly invisible against the black branches and roots without the moonlight. The little girl stepped lightly through the branches, silent and without a sound. She approached Lu Tiannan, took a bite of the apple, and carefully examined his face. "Gan Niang will not abandon any of her subjects' wishes, especially her subjects who sacrifice themselves." The little girl nodded gently, "Indeed, it is you; I did not kill the wrong person." Countless branches retracted, and the corpses of the officials and steeds fell from the air with thuds on the ground.