Divine & Bizarre: Increasing Points to Invincibility-Chapter 373 - 149: Humans Are More Vicious Than Ghosts! The Artist Who Culls and Maims! (10,000-Word Mega - , Subscribe Please)_6
The faint yin wind blowing nearby caused everyone to tighten their collars as goosebumps rose all over their bodies.
In such circumstances, asking them to follow was exceptionally difficult.
Even if the Escort Masters were braver than most,
there were still limits to their courage.
...
Fan Wu and the others arrived at another dilapidated house, where, surprisingly, a light flickered, and wisps of cooking smoke could be seen rising above it.
Such a house stood out starkly amidst the ruin of Guyue Village.
This household, however, had not closed its door.
Just as Fan Wu was about to step over the threshold, an elderly voice came from inside, "This is not a place for the living to tread; Guyue Village is already a land of death. Any living who linger here will, at the very least, fall gravely ill."
An old man emerged from the house, holding a piece of firewood, his face smeared with a bit of soot.
The old man continued, "Gentlemen, you’d best return the way you came."
Yun Jiuqing quickly said, "This... Elderly sir, do you know your own condition?"
The old man glanced at Yun Jiuqing, "The yin winds blow incessantly in Guyue Village; can’t you, a young girl, perceive it? I may be old, but not to the point of being unaware that I have turned into a ghost."
Hiss!!!
Zhen Zhiyuan and Uncle Wang behind her exchanged astonished looks. They hadn’t expected the third "person" they met in this ancient Guyue Village to also be a wronged spirit?
What in the world was going on? Could it be that all the villagers in this entire village were wronged spirits?
The old man said, "We’ve been waiting here, but not for you folk. Go back, go back."
Yun Jiuqing didn’t move but instead inquired, "What person are you waiting for here?"
"Heh..." The old man let out a cold chuckle.
As this cold chuckle fell, the yin energy that filled the air seemed to grow even thicker. The flickering light inside the dilapidated house seemed to become more elusive.
The old man replied, "Waiting for an enemy."
Having said this,
he slowly turned around to reveal his back, a sight so shocking that Yun Jiuqing’s pupils contracted, and even Zhen Zhiyuan and Uncle Wang took several steps back in unison.
Fan Wu was completely unfazed, as if he had already known all along.
Looking at the old man’s back,
Fan Wu said, "Is this what the enemy you mentioned did to you?"
They saw—
—the old man’s back was bare with not a shred of clothing, large patches of liver-spotted skin on show, and upon that skin, there were large scales that seemed not to grow from his back but were forcibly inserted into him.
At the place of the old man’s tailbone was a drooping tail that looked much like a bovine’s.
It appeared to be fused in with some unique thread and needle,
creating a rather chilling sight.
"Correct," the old man said. "A decade ago, Guyue Village suffered famine, with people nearly starving to death. Until a performer born in Guyue Village returned from abroad. He brought with him Copper Coins and food, telling us he could relieve our plight."
As the old man spoke, Yun Jiuqing and the others became aware of some noise behind them.
Apart from Fan Wu, they reflexively looked back—
only to see some of the previously tightly shut doors of dilapidated houses
were now being pushed opened by "people."
Yun Jiuqing’s eyes widened as she saw a wronged spirit with the head of a pig and body of a human emerge, a wronged spirit with one half of its face human and the other half simian walk out, a wronged spirit with its legs sawed off, crawling with two horse hooves...
One after another, these grotesque and physically disturbing wronged spirits emerged from their respective dilapidated houses.
Looking around, it appeared there were dozens of wronged souls!
All of them had strange appearances!
All had once been harvested and mutilated!
Zhen Zhiyuan and Uncle Wang, two men from the escort agency, were already sweating profusely from fear. They didn’t know what was happening now, but they were aware that they were surrounded by wronged souls.
The voice of the old man continued, "Because the performer was originally from our village, we all believed him. He gave us some food, some Copper Coin, and said that he alone had limited Power and could not help the entire village."
"However, he claimed he could help us gradually if we agreed to leave Guyue Village with him and make a living as performers, though at first, he would only take three people."
"At that time, we had no other choice."
More and more doors of houses in Guyue Village were opening, and even the man with a bat’s body flew over. The woman, while breastfeeding her baby, slowly walked over as well.
"The old man was elderly and held in high esteem in the village. Among the first three people he took away, I was one of them. He led the old man and the other two to a county town."
"Then, his accomplices came out, and the three of us were firmly pinned down, unable to move or struggle."
The old man said, "At that time, we realized something was wrong, but it was too late. We were strangled until we passed out, and upon waking, we found strange characters written all over our bodies."
"The old man didn’t recognize those characters. They also caught a few pangolins, skinned their scales, punched holes in the scales with tools, and used needles and thread to stitch the scales onto the old man’s back."
"They also force-fed us a bowl of talisman water, so we could not speak a word."
Yun Jiuqing clenched her fists until they were hard: "They wouldn’t have turned you into this state and then used you for some filthy deeds, would they?"
"That’s right," replied the old man. "We were locked in cages, taken to the market. There, they pointed at us in front of a crowd and said we were rare and exotic beasts."
"When they felt that the three of us could no longer earn them any Silver, they sold us to rich families interested in ’rare and exotic beasts’."
"We were tortured terribly."
"Until we died."
Looking around at the multitude of wronged souls, the old man let out a sigh and continued, "Never did I, the old man, expect to become a wronged soul one day. As a wronged soul, I wanted revenge and to stop those people from harming others in Guyue Village."
"But I couldn’t do it, my soul seemed to be trapped in this void, completely unable to leave. Perhaps those people used some means to prevent me from taking revenge on them."
"Day by day, I saw more people from Guyue Village appearing here in this void, in a neither human nor ghostly state."
"Then I knew... those people were still committing evil deeds, they were still targeting Guyue Village."
The wronged souls in the vicinity numbered more than a hundred by now.
The Yin Energy surged to the heavens!
Illusions were frequent!
If not for Fan Wu’s robust vitality, it was likely that Zhen Zhiyuan and Uncle Wang, two ordinary men, would have had their vital yang extinguished by the overwhelming Yin Energy long ago.
"Who are those people?" Yun Jiuqing saw for the first time that there were living humans more despicable than wronged souls.
She was no longer just clenching her fists; her urge to kill was overflowing. She gritted her teeth and said, "Old man, maybe I can help you take your revenge, to give you peace."
The old man replied, "Miss, we appreciate your kindness. We don’t need your help. Because... one of those people is right now in Guyue Village."
"His name is Hu Dafu."
As soon as the words of the old man fell, the entire Guyue Village trembled slightly, and the wronged souls of various forms, who initially did not carry much resentment, were suddenly exuding an overwhelming grudge!
The rolling waves of resentment, like a tide, churned above Guyue Village, even the moonlight spilling down was obscured by the resentment!
The collective malice from all the wronged souls gathered.
Yun Jiuqing felt a chilling sensation as if she had fallen into an ice cellar!
The surroundings were extremely cold!
...
...
