God of Pets-Chapter 419: Messenger of Heaven

"Outsiders... there’s nothing you want here... go back... there’s nothing here..." The old man puffed on his cigarette without lifting his head, mumbling.

His lips were chapped, and his voice was hoarse.

"Do you know we’re here looking for something?" Xiu Jie Ming asked.

"I know... how could I not know... but there’s nothing left... nothing at all... if you really want something... take these old bones of mine away... these old bones still have a couple of ounces of flesh... could make a pot of soup..." The old man said, pulling open his tattered, dark cotton coat to reveal his skin-and-bones chest.

He was so thin, thin to the point of almost not looking human, his skin clinging tightly to his bones.

He claimed he had a couple of ounces of flesh, but judging by his appearance, there might not even be two ounces of meat on him.

"Old man, you misunderstand, we’re not who you think we are, we’re just outsiders who mistakenly ended up here." Xiu Jie Ming softened his tone, looking at the old man and said, "It seems like you’ve been bullied by other outsiders, can you tell me what happened?"

"You’re... really not those outsiders..." The old man looked skeptically at the three of them and said.

"Really not, can you tell us who those outsiders are?" Xiu Jie Ming said seriously.

The old man sized up the three of them for a long while before pulling his cotton coat tight, wrapping up snugly, as if he was very cold, his body shivering.

"Those outsiders... they’re not human... they’re evil spirits... they’re Yama..." The old man’s eyes were bloodshot, his hoarse voice filled with bone-chilling hatred for every word.

Chen Guan listened quietly, not intending to speak.

Xiu Jie Ming did the same, patiently waiting for the old man to continue.

"The great drought... from the spring until the wheat harvest, not a drop of rain fell, the land cracked, and the wheat sown within it withered and died..."

"When the rope meets its weakest spot, misfortune finds the poor, a year of such drought brought locust plagues, turning thousands of miles of red earth into barren land, even tree bark was gnawed clean..."

"We thought we’d suffer through this year, but one day some outsiders came, claiming they were messengers sent by the heavens, envoys sent by the heavens to save us, they would give us food, help us survive this disaster year."

"Everyone was happy, thinking this time we’re finally saved, that our lifetime of honesty and hard work moved the heavens."

"But who would’ve thought, those outsiders weren’t envoys at all, not only were they not envoys, they were a bunch of demons who don’t spit out the bones..." The old man’s teeth were almost grinding to pieces, Chen Guan and his companions could even hear the creaking sound of his teeth clenching hard.

"What did those outsiders do?" Xiu Jie Ming asked.

"They said that the drought and locust plague were caused by evil spirits, that they had to kill the evil spirits to end the drought and locust plague, but their power alone wasn’t enough to kill the spirits, so they needed our help..." The old man’s voice was filled with despair and helplessness.

"Our children, those young children, in order for us old ones to survive, to hopefully not face disaster next year, went with those outsiders to Ancient Well Village to hunt evil spirits, willing to sacrifice their lives..."

"Were your children all killed by the evil spirits?" Chen Guan couldn’t help but ask, it seemed indeed a sad story. What puzzled Chen Guan was that they were in Ancient Well Village, yet the old man said those outsiders took the young people to Ancient Well Village to kill evil spirits.

"Dead... all dead... we exhausted everything... to help them kill the evil spirits... each family even shared some of their scarce rations... so they wouldn’t have to hunt the evil spirits on an empty stomach..."

"You know, we’d just suffered a big disaster, where was there any food, just that little bit was kept for survival, and even that wasn’t enough to keep us alive. Giving them a bite meant one less bite for us, and one less bite meant one more person would starve, many were already on the brink of starvation."

"But those outsiders... those evil spirits... they used our children as bait... as cannon fodder... got them all killed at Ancient Well Village... even in death... they never tasted a single grain of wheat... their stomachs full of tree bark and clay... those evil spirits... they didn’t even give our children a single grain of wheat... not a single one..."

Chen Guan and Xiu Jie Ming listened in silence, not knowing whether this story was true or false, but the old man’s hysterical, desperate helplessness touched them.

"Those beasts, after returning from Ancient Well Village, not only did not provide relief as they claimed, but also stole the last of our surviving rations..."

"Those beasts deserve death." Xiu Jie Ming couldn’t listen anymore: "Where are they, tell me."

"Don’t know... they said they were messengers of the heavens... they came from the sky... messengers of the gods... messengers of the gods... haha..." The old man’s laughter made Chen Guan’s skin crawl, and a congested feeling choked his chest, stifling him.

"We went to Ancient Well Village and saw our children there, their bodies incomplete, some with bellies slashed open, stomachs full of undigested bark and clay, not a single grain of wheat..." The old man’s voice trembled, sobbing: "Even in death they strove for life, but never received anything, not even a full meal."

"Beside the ancient well, we found a corpse, a headless corpse, but unlike us, it was not human, not a human body, likely the evil spirit spoken of by those outsiders."

The old man wiped the old tears from the corners of his eyes with his dry, thin hand and continued, "Those outsiders took the head of the evil spirit, leaving only a headless corpse, thinking they had succeeded in killing the evil spirit, not knowing that the evil spirit lived headless, never truly dead."

"That evil spirit told us, if we worship him, honor him as a god, when he recovers his divine power, he could resurrect our children, let us eat our fill..." At this, the old man’s emotions completely collapsed, crying uncontrollably, his pipe banging against the ground unconsciously.

Chen Guan and Xiu Jie Ming exchanged a glance, understanding that dealings with demons come at a cost.

If these villagers truly believed the evil spirit, they feared more suffering awaited them.

Sure enough, the old man told them that after receiving their tribute, the evil spirit grew a new head and became a people-eating demon, nearly devouring all the villagers.

Upon hearing this, Chen Guan and his comrades understood that the legacy of the Netherworld Emperor was likely to fall into the hands of that demon.