Chapter 19: The Brutal Slaughter of the Village by the Demonic Soldiers

  Seeing my sixth brother's tense expression, I quickly went up to him and grabbed hold of his horse's reins, asking: "Old Six, what on earth has happened to make you so flustered?"

  My sixth brother was holding his stomach, probably because he had rushed back in a hurry and was now panting and out of breath. When I asked him something, he just opened his mouth wide to catch his breath and couldn't say anything at all.

  The sixth brother's shout awakened everyone who was sleeping, and Rouling reacted the fastest. Before he even figured out what was going on, he had already drawn his curved knife and asked in a particularly tense tone, "Is it bandits? Ghost Dao Gege."

  I shook my head and turned to walk to Liu Di's side, asking: "What exactly happened that even someone as fearless as you is shocked into this state? Don't worry, rest for a while first, then slowly tell me what's going on."

  Everyone rushed to Lao Liu's side. Sixth Brother had obviously seen something very frightening, and my previous question seemed to have fallen on deaf ears. Now, as I asked him, he let out a "gulp" and swallowed a big mouthful of water, stuttering: "Up ahead... up ahead... in the village up ahead, someone is... someone is... butchering the village."

  "Ah - Tuvillage?" I exclaimed in surprise.

  At this time, Sima Lin walked over and asked: "What kind of people are they? Bandits? How can they be so cruel?"

  "My sixth brother took a short rest and caught his breath, quickly wiping the sweat from his face with his hand. He said urgently: 'I saw a village more than ten miles ahead, where flames were shooting up into the sky and cries of sorrow filled the air. I was curious, so I dismounted my horse and crept forward quietly. When I arrived at the entrance to the village, I saw dozens of people wearing military uniforms, acting like beasts, on the flat ground in front of the village. There were many dead bodies of men and children lying there. At that moment, I almost couldn't help but rush up and kill a few of them, but I was afraid of startling the snakes and losing my own life, so I turned around and ran back here without stopping.'"

  "These bastards are really just a bunch of beasts, these scattered and fleeing soldiers are simply not human." I cursed angrily.

  "We can't let them get away, we'll gather our things and see how many we can save. We absolutely cannot let these soldiers escape." Second brother said furiously on the side.

  "Then let's pack up and leave immediately." The sixth brother finished speaking, shouldered a sack full of jewels, and mounted his horse.

  Riding horses for about half a day, we finally arrived at the village that my sixth brother mentioned. From afar, I saw flames soaring into the sky and continuous cries of agony coming from the village. As we approached the village entrance, everyone jumped off their horses and took out their weapons, clearly already furious to the extreme.

  I waved at everyone to signal them to stop first. Sixth brother looked puzzled and asked, "Aren't you going to rescue people? If we're late, it might be too late."

  Looking at the village not far away, I said quietly: "They are all soldiers who have retreated from the front line and must be carrying guns. There are many of them, if we rush up and engage in a fierce battle, it's no different from going to die for nothing. So we can't do it by force, we can only use our wits. We need to save people, but I don't want to see any of us get hurt. Wait and listen to my orders, now let's quietly approach the village and think of a way to sneak in."

  Everyone nodded and quietly made their way to the village entrance, where they found a large number of corpses of men and children piled up on the flat ground. The state of death was gruesome, with some having been shot and others stabbed to death, with intestines spilled all over the ground. Two soldiers standing guard at the village entrance were leisurely smoking cigarettes, their faces revealing satisfied smiles.

  At this point, he took out the mountain-cutting knife from his travel bag and handed it to Sima Lin. Then he said to Hou Ling: "Ling Mei, you follow Fifth Brother quietly and get rid of those two."

  Hou Ling and Sima Lin, with their excellent lightness skills, understood my intention and took advantage of the night's cover to quickly and quietly sneak up behind the two sentries. Before they could even shout out, they had already been sent to report to Yan Wang. Especially Hou Ling's killing technique was the most swift, one knife broke the throat, and Sixth Brother, who was watching from the side, exclaimed in admiration.

  We took advantage of the chaos to sneak into the village entrance quietly, where we were met with the sound of women's anguished wails and the beastly laughter of those men drinking and shouting.

  "If you don't treat yourselves as human beings, I don't need to treat you like humans either." I thought to myself, frowning at the mournful cries within the village.

  Everyone carefully checked the piles of corpses at the village entrance, and not a single one was left alive. My heart is filled with sorrow for these innocent people. The hook spirit beside me wailed: "What should we do now? Ghost Dao brother."

  I gritted my teeth and steeled myself, my eyes red as I spoke to everyone: "The only way to appease the grievances of these dead villagers is to let them personally take revenge on their killers. Go and move more than a dozen corpses from the flat ground."

  Upon hearing my words, my second brother patted me on the shoulder with an unusual glint in his eyes and led the way to start moving. Watching everyone busy among the pile of dead bodies, I wiped away the tears from my eyes and gazed up at the sky, letting out a long sigh: "Master, you instructed me not to play with corpses, but today your disciple is going to make an exception."

  The corpses were neatly arranged before me. I ordered everyone to retreat, took out the Chen Zhou talisman from my bag and stuck it onto their foreheads one by one. Then I filled their mouths, noses, and ears with cinnabar and burned a pinch of purple sandalwood incense on the ground. After finishing the ritual, I faced southeast and recited: "Heaven and earth have orthodox qi, mixed and assigned to forms... Below are rivers and mountains, above are sun and stars... Wise men have long since passed away, punished in ancient times. Wind and frost spread out books, reading ancient ways, shining with colorful light..."

  The corpses stood up in unison, biting their index fingers to write the word "kill" on each of their foreheads with blood. They took out the Hurry Corpse Whip and pointed it towards the village, chanting: "Dust returns to dust, earth returns to earth, grievances have a head, debts have a master. Go, departed spirits, go kill those who killed your wives and daughters, your parents and children, and avenge them!"

  At my command, the corpses raised their hands and jumped quickly towards the village. Not long after, only the sound of gunfire and screams of "ghosts" came from the village, everyone stood at the entrance of the village silently listening to the screams in the village, knowing that these dead bodies had already started their revenge.

  The crowd quietly waited at the village entrance for a long time, seeing that there were no more gunshots in the village. I picked up the corpse whip and beckoned everyone to walk into the village. As we entered the village, all we saw were bodies lying on the ground everywhere, wearing yellow military uniforms, with their throats pierced through.

  Looking at the soldiers on the ground who still had a terrified expression after death, I cursed angrily: "You beasts killed them with guns in your hands. You should know that they were afraid of your guns when they were alive, and now your guns can't do anything to them after their death."

  Sixth brother apparently did not vent his anger, raised a big knife and chopped the corpses of those soldiers on the ground in a mess. The hook spirit was shocked and stood still for half a day. Seeing this, third brother hurried forward to stop him and pulled sixth brother away.

  The village has been devastated by these bandits, and there are still a few soldiers who have not been killed by the dead people hiding in the corner of the house, staring at us with a dull expression, muttering "ghosts, ghosts!" It seems they've been scared silly.

  "Why bother if it's going to end up like this?" Gu Ling sighed repeatedly by the side.

  Some women saw us coming in and didn't dodge, they just stood there stupidly smiling, their spirits obviously abnormal. It seems that they can't bear the insults of these beasts and have collapsed as a whole person.

  The corpses seemed to still be searching for those frightened soldiers as if they had not yet avenged themselves. The old people hiding in the house saw their revived relatives slaughtering those beasts and did not show any fear, muttering "retribution, retribution".