Chapter 20: A Living Hell

To the west of Wan'an County, on the outskirts of the Falling Glow Mountain Range, stood a mountain known as Baoluo Mountain.

Its peaks were treacherous, and its forests ran deep and dark.

At the foot of Baoluo Mountain lay a village that shared the mountain's name — Baoluo Village.

Baoluo Village was larger than Song Family Village, with nearly a hundred households and three to four hundred residents.

Unlike Song Family Village, which was home to a single clan, Baoluo Village was made up of several different family clans.

It was the height of the farming season, and the sun blazed overhead.

On any ordinary day, Baoluo Village would have been bustling with activity by now.

But today, the village was filled with nothing but furious curses, wailing cries, anguished sobs, and the sound of despair.

Severed limbs were strewn across the ground, blood flowing freely — it was nothing short of a living hell.

At the center of the village, beneath the old locust tree where children once played, there was no laughter to be heard.

A massive blood pool had been erected there, and the stench of blood rose into the sky.

At the center of the blood pool sat a bald, bare-chested giant clad only in undershorts, his body a mass of coiled muscle as he sat cross-legged in the crimson depths.

Strange markings were carved into his smooth, gleaming scalp.

At the edge of the blood pool, a group of fierce men in white robes with sabers at their waists dragged villagers forward one by one, slashing their wrists to drain their blood.

The flash of a blade briefly illuminated the two characters engraved on each saber's hilt: "Tianshan Sect."

Those dragged up to be bled were men and women, old and young — not even newborn infants were spared.

Everywhere there was weeping, cursing, and despair.

"Ahhh, you monsters! Even if we go to hell, we won't let you off!"

"The imperial court will see justice done! You'll all die horrible deaths!"

"My son! My son! Kill me instead — don't kill my son!"

"Ptui! You pack of demons! The Great Immortal of Baoluo will never forgive you! You've killed people and smashed the Great Immortal's idol — divine punishment will fall upon you, I swear it! Hahaha!"

The bald giant opened a pair of vicious, wolf-like eyes, utterly indifferent to the hellish scene around him.

He rose from the blood pool, his white undershorts now dyed a deep crimson.

As he walked, he sneered, "Wait for the imperial court to bring you justice? Your bones will have rotted to dust by then. As for your so-called Great Immortal of Baoluo..."

"Hahaha! Nothing but a dead lump of carved stone. The only thing of any interest was the pearl inside the idol — everything else was just a worthless rock!"

"You're counting on that broken stone to save you? I smashed the idol myself — so what? Putting your faith in gods that don't exist... you'd be better off believing in the Tianshan Sect and following us!"

Another wave of furious curses erupted.

But the bald giant paid them no mind. After stepping out of the blood pool, he directed his subordinates to take his place inside.

"Hurry up and use Blood Refinement to recover from your injuries. We leave before evening — I don't want the Ancient God Society catching our scent and coming after us again!"

A nearby subordinate looked incredulous. "Surely not, boss? We've already run from the south all the way to the west — the Ancient God Society wouldn't chase us this far. They never have before."

The bald giant's face darkened, and he smacked the subordinate on the back of the head.

"Why do you talk so much? I say it, you do it! A lot of Ancient God Society people have been moving into Huaiyun Prefecture lately — there are plenty of them around Wan'an County too. If we run into them again and they drag us into another fight, we'll lose even more men by the time we get back to the Huaiyun branch."

The subordinate rubbed the lump forming on the back of his head and asked curiously, "Boss, has something big happened in Huaiyun Prefecture recently? The Ancient God Society and all these other sects have been flooding in — it's making it hard for us to move around."

The bald giant bared his teeth in a grin, revealing a mouthful of large yellow teeth, and laughed with irritation. "You're asking me? How would I know? Do you think the likes of us are privy to what the higher-ups are thinking or what news they have?"

The subordinate shut his mouth and said nothing more.

The bald giant was wiping his blade when something seemed to occur to him. "Yesterday you contacted Mu Tong and Mu Nan — you said they weren't dead, that they'd ended up in some backwater village?"

"That's right. I told them to come meet up with us, but they said their injuries were too severe and they needed to recuperate. Said they'd head straight back to the Sect once they recovered."

The bald giant's wolf-like eyes narrowed slightly, his tone turning strange. "Did they say exactly where they were?"

"I asked, but they didn't say. The connection just cut off — don't know if they ran out of True Essence or did it on purpose."

The bald giant let out a cold laugh. "Contact them again! I want to see what those two are really up to. Not telling us their location is one thing, but saying they'll go back to the Sect on their own?"

The subordinate nodded and stuck his fingers down his throat.

After retching a few times, he coughed up a short, fat black worm about the size of a thumb.

He then closed his eyes and communicated with the worm through his divine sense.

Very quickly, however, his brow furrowed. Refusing to believe it, he tried again.

After several attempts, the subordinate finally opened his eyes and looked at the bald giant with a helpless, bewildered expression.

The bald giant's brow creased. "What is it? Speak!"

"Boss... I can't reach Mu Tong or Mu Nan. And it doesn't seem like they cut the connection on purpose. The Gu worm's feedback is... it seems like the two Gu worms bonded to Mu Tong and Mu Nan are dead."

The bald giant's eyelid twitched.

"Dead? Those two had the nerve to kill the spirit-sense black worms?"

The subordinate swallowed. "They probably wouldn't dare — the worms are linked to their lives. It's more likely they ran into trouble and died."

The bald giant's expression darkened.

The subordinate stole a few glances at him and ventured carefully, "The Gu worm can sense where the corpses of those two worms are. Boss, should we go look for Mu Tong and Mu Nan?"

The bald giant gave him an expressionless look.

"No need. We'll wait until we're back at the Sect and see whether they've returned or not."

* * *

The ninth day of midsummer month.

Auspicious for: offering sacrifices, building a stove. All other matters — avoid.

Song Xuanqing sat within his divine shrine, watching the villagers below bow and offer incense with devout expressions.

Though it was not one of the regular incense-offering days, Song Xuanqing's reputation within Song Family Village had soared in recent days. He had sent the demon cat to rescue the Song father and son from Wolf's Head Mountain, and had slain two malicious evildoers — one divine miracle after another, each spreading his name far and wide.

In the past, the villagers had certainly revered Lord Xuanqing, offering incense and kowtowing at the appointed times.

But in truth, for many of them, reverence was one thing — genuine faith was another matter entirely.

After all, the existence of gods lived only in legend, and tales of divine miracles were passed down by word of mouth, their truth impossible to verify.

For most, bowing before a deity was more of a heartfelt wish than a true act of faith.

But ever since Song Xuanqing had arrived, it was no longer a vague and intangible hope.

Song Xuanqing had let them witness true miracles with their own eyes, making them understand that they were genuinely sheltered beneath a god's protection.

And so, even on days that were not the regular incense-offering dates, the villagers came in a near-constant stream to offer their incense.

Every time, it filled Song Xuanqing with a deep, aching sense of loss.

Why was it that only the incense offered on the first and fifteenth of the month generated Incense Value?

He felt as though he was watching a fortune slip through his fingers.