The Favor of Lord "Greed" Mountain God
The Curly-Haired Woman, arms crossed, offered a different perspective. "It's also possible that she was suppressed by the Mountain God, powerless to act, and besides Awang's mother, transformed into a vengeful ghost, may not still possess reason and emotion."
"Without emotions, there would be no targeted revenge; they would just kill randomly. Village Chief Zhu said before that the first to die were those villagers who had gossiped about Awang's family," the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap retorted.
"The Village Chief Zhu and the villagers all say that the continuous deaths in the village over the past three years are due to Awang's mother's revenge, but has anyone actually seen Awang's mother appear?"
The Young Woman in a Long Dress's rhetorical question left everyone speechless.
In fact, after careful recollection, even Village Chief Zhu didn't know exactly how those villagers were killed by Awang 'Awang mother, let alone witness it firsthand.
Judging from the current situation Village Chief Zhu disagrees with human sacrifice, which is why he invited them to exorcise the evil spirits in order to protect Awang. Therefore, Village Chief Zhu definitely hopes that they can act as quickly as possible.
In Village Chief Zhu's eyes, they were "experts," so logically, the more information he told them about Awang's mother, the faster they would be able to complete the exorcism.
Aside from briefly explaining Awang's family background, the Village Chief Zhu provided virtually no other information, which was clearly unusual.
"I'm afraid Village Chief Zhu doesn't know the inside story," the Young Woman in a Long Dress said calmly. "My impression of this village is that whenever something happens, they just push the blame onto Awang's mother."
Someone died; it was Awang's mother who did it. The wheat field mutated; it was also Awang's mother who did it. If something bad happens, it must be because someone made a wish to Awang's mother.
"As for the reason why Awang's house burned down three years ago, and why Awang's mother harbored such a strong desire for revenge against the village, Village Chief Zhu couldn't answer a single one of them."
"I suspect there might be someone else behind the deaths of those villagers, and Awang's mother was just a scapegoat."
The Young Man in a Duckbill Cap recalled the question he had asked Village Chief Zhu at the beginning, "I remember Village Chief Zhu saying that they had called the police, but the police searched the entire village and found nothing unusual."
At this moment, the Man in a Suit, who had been listening to their discussion, suddenly interrupted them, "Don't forget there are other supernatural forces in the village."
The Curly-Haired Woman quickly added, "The Shamaness and the Mountain God."
The Man in a Suit nodded slightly. "Good, now we can focus on these two things."
Xu Xi, who was forced to remain silent, never expected that these clever people would be able to connect so much information when she simply asked about the image of Awang's mother as a "vengeful ghost".
He hadn't suspected anything before, but after hearing the other people's analysis, he started to have doubts too.
"So those villagers say the unusual wheat field is related to Awang's mother because they think the original owner of the wheat field made a wish to Awang's mother?" The Young Man in a Duckbill Cap was still thinking about the wheat field.
The Young Woman in a Long Dress said, "I think so."
"What about the old man who knocked on the door last night? Could he have also made a wish to Awang's mother and then swallowed gold and died?" The curly-haired girl guessed casually, drawing a similar line of reasoning.
The Young Woman in a Long Dress calmly stated, "In the eyes of the villagers, this should be the 'truth'."
"They're trying to pin everything on Awang's mother," the Young Man in a Duckbill Cap clicked his tongue.
He now believes that Awang's mother was merely a shield for the mastermind behind everything.
The Man in a Suit looked up at the high-hanging sun, the blinding light causing him to squint instinctively. "I wonder if the villagers have the habit of taking a midday nap. We'd better go find the Shamaness or visit the Mountain God Temple when there are fewer people around."
The Shamaness holds a rather special position in the village, and her every move is watched by the villagers. Going to see her rashly is likely to alert her, and the danger she poses is also unknown.
The object enshrined in the Mountain God Temple is unknown; it might be some kind of evil god, and the level of danger is equally unknown.
After some discussion, everyone decided to go to the Mountain God Temple first.
Six people struggled to climb along a rugged mountain path, using only dirt.
"Why is the Mountain God Temple built here? Aren't the villagers tired every time they perform the rituals?" The Young Man in a Duckbill Cap was in pretty good shape, but even he couldn't stand tripping over the uneven mud pits every few steps.
The Man in a Suit walked at the front, occasionally glancing at the location of the others.
The Young Woman in a Long Dress and the Curly-Haired Woman supported each other, carefully navigating around the gravel where it was easy to twist one's ankle.
Xu Xi followed behind. Perhaps because he had spent half a day climbing the mountain in the previous Dungeon, he actually felt much more relaxed this time.
The Tall, Thin Man walked at the back and looked to be in the best condition.
According to Zhu Yu, the Mountain God Temple is located on the mountainside behind the village. Except for the annual sacrificial ceremony when the Shamaness organizes all the villagers to come and offer sacrifices to the Mountain God and pray for the Mountain God to continue to protect the village, no one usually disturbs the Mountain God because the Shamaness said that the Mountain God likes peace and quiet.
After walking for about half an hour, the group finally saw the outline of the Mountain God Temple.
After walking for another ten minutes or so, the group finally arrived at the Mountain God Temple.
Xu Xi looked at the Mountain God Temple in front of her with curiosity.
The temple wasn't very large, with red walls and gray tiles, and copper bells hanging under the eaves that made a clear tinkling sound when a breeze blew by.
The six people stood in front of the door, and for a moment no one moved.
The Young Man in a Duckbill Cap looked up at the three simple characters "Mountain God Temple" on the plaque above the door and asked in a low voice, "Wouldn't it be too reckless for us to just go in like this?"
The Man in a Suit replied calmly, "There's always risk involved in Dungeons."
"The villagers told me that they need to bow their heads the whole time during the ceremony to show respect to the Mountain God. When you go in later, everyone should keep their heads down and not look directly at the statue," the Young Woman in a Long Dress said.
But to their surprise, the door, which had been tightly closed, suddenly began to slowly open inwards.
The creaking sound from the wooden door made their hearts race, and they instinctively took a few steps back.
However, to their surprise, there was no terrifying scene inside the door, but instead stood a middle-aged woman with an expressionless face.
The other person looked at them coldly; it was she who had opened the temple door.
"Who are you, and what are you doing here? Don't you know that the Lord Mountain God prefers peace and quiet?"
The Man in a Suit reacted quickly, immediately feigning embarrassment as he explained, "We're visiting Ninghe Village. I don't know if you know Aunt Cui Fen; we're her relatives. We heard the Mountain God Temple here is very efficacious, so we wanted to come and offer our prayers."
"We're so sorry if we've disturbed the Lord Mountain God, we'll leave now."
It's unclear what word she heard, but the middle-aged woman's expression softened considerably.
Her gaze swept over the crowd, finally settling on the second-to-last person.
"The one favored by the Lord Mountain God, you have finally arrived."