Chapter Thirty: The Ancient Village's Hanging Punishment

  A strange sense of fear crept over my heart, "Do you suspect that I have something to do with Shi Tou's fall into the well? From yesterday when I entered the village, I've been staying at Uncle Yan Long's house, you can ask him..."

  All the villagers looked at Yuelong, and Yuelong looked at me. "Xiao Lan, I don't understand what you're saying. Last night, Xiao Ge and I went to Eighth Grandfather's house, and we weren't with you for half the night. I also don't know what you did during this time."

  Yue Long said is true, but I fainted on the small path in the village is really ah! How can he say that?

  All the villagers looked at me coldly, I was stunned, and my whole body felt like it had fallen into an ice cellar!

  A man in his forties let out a sigh and said, "To be honest, no one in Huanglong Village would dare to drink from this ancient well without permission, let alone commit murder. So now that something has happened, we must first suspect outsiders who have come into the village!"

  The man's words were very provocative and the villagers began to stir up.

  "The village chief is right, our Huanglong Village has never had such a thing happen before, of course we suspect outsiders first!"

  "The village head, he poked out his eyes, cut off his nose, sliced off his ears..."

  "We can't let him get away!"

  The crowd was stirred up, and I trembled all over as I listened. Looking at the situation, if I couldn't clear my relationship with Stone's death, I would definitely be torn apart by these villagers.

  However, what I found strange was that the little brother standing next to the rock dragon had an unpredictable expression on his face and didn't say a word to shift the blame.

  I was shocked and angry, "Village head, I really have been at Uncle Rock Dragon's house all the time, not taking a single step away. You are suspecting me of being the murderer without any evidence, is there no justice?"

  "Ha! The law of the king? In our Huanglong Village, the opinions of the villagers are the law of the king! If everyone has no opinion, I won't report it, and even if something happens in the village, there's nothing that's happened, do you understand?"

  I was so angry and anxious that I was speechless.

  The villagers' eyes grew even colder, all gathering on me, as if they wanted to tear me apart. A chill I had never felt before swept over my entire body in an instant.

  The fear of death was suffocating me, and I shouted at him, "You're the one who brought me into your village, so tell me, did I have any motive or time to commit murder?"

  The young man looked at me and then fixed his gaze on the village chief, answering, "Village Chief, Xiao Lan is telling the truth. He fainted in the village last night and only woke up until just now. The stone shouldn't be his doing."

  The village chief gazed at Xiaoge with piercing eyes, "Xiaoge, even if I believe what you say, the villagers won't. I'm asking you, why was our Huanglong Village peaceful before he arrived? And why did Shi Tou die just after he got here last night? You'd better give me an explanation!"

  "Uh... uh..." The young man seemed to be stunned by the village chief's words and couldn't utter a word for half a day.

  "What's wrong with you? Didn't you see how miserably the stone died?" The village chief pointed at the stone's corpse and shouted angrily.

  The village chief's words were like adding fuel to the fire, and the villagers who were already excited rushed up and pressed me to the ground, tying me tightly with a very thick rope.

  "Hang him!"

  "Right, take him to the gallows!"

  In the chaos, I heard Xiao Ge's loud shout, "Let him go, he is not the murderer who killed Shi Tou!" But Xiao Ge's voice was quickly drowned out by the noisy crowd.

  It was the first time I felt that life was so pale and powerless in the eyes of these barbaric villagers!

  Gallows? Are they going to hang me?

  Flames, like scarlet tongues, lick the boundless darkness in this black night sky.

  "Crackling and popping......" This was the sound of dry firewood being burned by a large flame, I was dizzy and confused and was twisted onto a high platform, under which a raging fire was burning!

  This raging fire is not a flame of life, but a call of death!

  My sweat and tears are flowing together, I didn't die from Lin Mei's relentless pursuit, but tonight I will die at the hands of these ignorant villagers?

  Dead silence! My blurry vision pierced through the sea of people, and I saw Xiao Ge standing in a corner with a deathly pale face.

  Perhaps in Huanglong Village, even a legendary figure like Xiaoge cannot restrain this nearly crazy crowd!

  Dozens of pairs of eyes stared at me on the gallows, silent and unresponsive. What I saw in their eyes was fear.

  Endless fear, or is it a kind of reverence?

  "Mom, I..." The young child hid behind his mother, and just as he was about to speak, his mouth was quickly covered by his mother's hand. He mumbled for a moment, looked at his mother's fearful eyes, and wisely shut his mouth.

  There is no moon or stars in the sky, and the villagers in this ancient village are so ruthless that a despair I have never had before rises from the bottom of my heart. Am I going to die?

  Sweltering heat, a clap of thunder on the flat ground, lightning flashing across the clear sky tore through the canopy of heaven, illuminating my desperate figure on the gallows in stark clarity.

  This numb village should have been used to such things long ago!

  The village head walked slowly onto the stage with a gloomy face, grabbed my chin and suddenly lifted it up with force, our eyes met.

  "Village chief, I really didn't kill the stone!" My voice was small and trembling, gazing pleadingly at the aged face in front of me.

  The village head sneered, "Not you? Then who else would it be? If you admit it's you, maybe you can die a little more comfortably."

  "It really wasn't me!" Fear of death made it almost impossible for me to speak.

  The village head leaned in close to my ear and said, "You should know that in our village, someone like you is destined to be burned alive..."

  "Kill him!" The silent crowd suddenly burst out in a deafening roar!

  A gust of cold wind blew by, stirring up waves of flames that scorched the surrounding crowd.

  In the midst of the crowd, I saw Xiao Ge struggling to squeeze in and walk up to the village chief's side, saying "Village Chief, let him go! He really didn't kill anyone!"

  "Little brother, how can you be so sure he's not the killer? Are you and him...?" The village chief stopped talking here, and anyone with discerning eyes would know what the second half of his sentence meant!

  The young man retreated to one side with a pale face, and the crowd fell silent again.

  My whole body felt like it had been drained of its vital energy, and I completely gave up struggling. What was the village head's purpose, and why did he want to put me to death?

  "Rat-a-tat-tat..." The raging fire below grew even more intense...

  "Bang! Bang! Bang!" Suddenly, a frightening drumbeat came from under the stage, the dull beat suppressing my tense nerves. Each strike seemed to grasp my heart in its palm and press down hard, making it quiver with each beat.

  A man holding a gleaming cow ear knife walked onto the stage with an expressionless face, slowly approaching me, just like a messenger from hell.

  The village chief sneered and retreated to the side, that shiny knife instantly only a hair's breadth away from my skin. The icy blade touched my body for an instant, and I shuddered slightly, raising my head to look at the man holding the hilt of the knife.

  His face was deathly pale, with a bright red mouth and lips that seemed to be drinking blood. His eyes were wide open, with black pupils that seemed to be emitting an evil aura as they moved around my body.

  "Ah!" I screamed in agony, but it was muffled by a hand that had clamped tightly over my mouth.

  The blade pierced into my left clavicle, slowly tearing apart, the deep red and scorching hot blood seeped out from the gap, as if slightly opening the blood pupil, slowly leaving behind tears like fresh blood.

  No painkillers, no anesthetics, the sharp blade pierced through my left clavicle, slowly tearing open the wound.

  My sweat and tears merged together, slowly rolling down the contours of my face to my chest, diluting that scalding fresh blood.

  A ten-centimeter-long wound at the bottom, bright red and pure white formed a sharp contrast. The dagger was slowly pulled out of my flesh, and fresh blood flowed freely. I felt sore all over, dizzy and lightheaded, and my vision gradually became blurry and doubled.

  Can't sleep, sleeping means death...

  My lips were bleeding from the friction of my teeth.

  The sound of drums and mysterious chanting accompanied, as if a pair of huge hands, tearing apart the already exhausted nerves of everyone. Four burly men walked up to the gallows with their upper bodies exposed, holding four blazing torches in their hands.

  These ignorant villagers, are they going to make me suffer the torture of a thousand cuts before burning me to death? I wanted to shout in anger, but my throat couldn't produce even half a sound!

  Despair, endless despair, I even heard the "sizzling" sound of being burned alive! I couldn't imagine what kind of painful state I would be in when engulfed by the flames...

  At this moment, I recalled the bizarre experiences I had gone through before... At this time, what Bincheng Road, what Half Edge Street, what mysterious person, as long as it can let me escape from the sea of fire, I would rather never know the truth of things, let them all go to hell!

  But reality is just so cruel!

  Just as the four burly men were about to light the torches under my body, a man of around forty years old suddenly pushed through the crowded people and rushed onto the stage. As soon as he saw the village chief, he cried out in alarm, "Village chief, Big Cow...Big Cow is dead!"

  The man's words were like a bolt from the blue!

  "What? Big Cow is dead? When did it happen?" The village chief asked with a stutter.

  "Just a moment ago, I blinked and found that the big cow was gone. When I went to find it, the result...the result was that its body was found beside an old well..." The middle-aged man's voice was trembling with sobs.

  The four burly men who were about to set the fire suddenly froze, one of them approached the village chief and said with a pale face, "Chief, are we still going to burn him to death?"

  "What a load of nonsense! The great cow is dead, haven't you seen it lying here all along? I'm afraid...I'm afraid the folk song that madman spoke of has come true!" Ghostly Taboo

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