Rural Divine Authority Cannot Match King's Law

Everyone's eyes fell upon the ancient elm with its coin-shaped seeds at the center of the village.

Liu Zexi had offered himself as a sacrifice. He certainly had not merely wanted to hang himself beneath that tree. Before his death, he certainly had not been thinking of family happiness and national peace.

He had wanted revenge!

Revenge against those who had reduced him to such a state!

Unable to take revenge himself, he had offered himself as a sacrifice to the all-powerful Godmother, asking Godmother to avenge him!

And these Xinxiang County yamen runners before them were the targets of his revenge!

Chen Shi looked toward the little temple before the tree. The little girl inside was still sitting there, savoring all manner of offerings as though she were blind to the scene before her.

The leader of the yamen runners could not see the little girl. His gaze rested instead on the ancient elm, and he sneered. "If Godmother intends to avenge Liu Zexi, then she is opposing the Xinxiang County yamen, opposing Great Ming! Rural divine authority cannot match King's Law. Once Great Ming's King's Law is invoked, flattening Godmother would be effortless! When that time comes, without Godmother's protection, everyone in Fangdian Village will be exposed to the gaze of the evil and unable to escape disaster!"

Chen Shi's heart trembled slightly. This yamen runner leader actually dared to threaten Fangdian Village's Godmother!

He looked toward the little girl. She continued eating the offerings in the temple, as though she did not care in the slightest about the situation before her.

That's right. Whether avenging Liu Zexi or protecting the other villagers of Fangdian Village, Godmother naturally knows which matters more, Chen Shi thought.

Seeing that the ancient elm remained motionless, the yamen runner leader smiled faintly and asked, "Though Liu Zexi is dead, death does not exempt him from taxes. That is the law. Where are the rest of his family?"

A villager said, "There's no one else. He originally had a son and a daughter. His daughter was sold, while his son drowned bathing in the river. There was also a woman, but after all this happened, she went mad. One day, singing and dancing, she left the village and never returned. She's probably dead too."

The yamen runner leader pondered for a moment, then waved his hand. "The dead leave all matters behind. We will not pursue his past offenses, but the taxes must still be paid. Men, carry out everything valuable from Liu Zexi's home. That way, we can report back."

The yamen runners surged into Liu Zexi's home. Yet his family was truly destitute, with bare walls on all four sides, so they could only carry out pots, bowls, ladles, and basins, hoping they could fetch a little money.

Seeing this, the yamen runner leader shook his head. "Pitiful indeed. This little money probably will not fill the hole. My lord will have to use yamen funds to make up the shortfall. People only say that officials like us extort and squeeze them, never realizing what a heaven-sized misunderstanding that is!"

Filled with emotion, he slowly rose and said, "These are taxes Great Ming demands. What do they have to do with our yamen? If even a single copper coin from the taxes we collect lands in our pockets, then may I, Lu Tiannan, be struck by heaven's thunder! On the contrary, when these taxes cannot be collected, my lord and we must pay them ourselves, or else we commit the crime of deceiving the sovereign! Fellow villagers, do not panic!"

He swept his gaze around and smiled. "Just pay your taxes honestly. Do not start thinking of drawing blades at every turn. Liu Sanyin, take out that knife in your trousers. Be careful it slips and cuts off your little bird!"

He treated the many villagers as though they were nothing and strode straight through them, proclaiming loudly, "All my brothers have taken the County Examination. They are xiucai who received the True God's blessing and cultivated Divine Embryos! You cannot defeat us anyway, so why commit the crime of defying superiors and assaulting officials? Put down your knives. All of you, put them down. We can talk things over properly!"

The yamen runners behind him activated the Heavenly Heart Righteous Qi Art one after another. Divine light swirled behind each of their heads, forming shrines over a foot tall, within which Divine Embryos sat in solemn majesty.

The villagers of Fangdian Village looked ashen, silently setting down their kitchen knives and axes.

The yamen runner leader waved his hand, sending the men to collect taxes from house to house, while he himself strolled over to the talisman stall of Chen Shi and Grandpa.

Grandpa had long prepared the tax money and handed it over. "Lord Lu cuts quite an imposing figure."

The yamen runner leader was named Lu Tiannan, and he clearly knew Grandpa well. Accepting the talisman tax, he smiled. "I dare not claim so. I am merely doing work for the court. Old Chen, you are still hale and hearty. I fear I will be collecting your talisman tax for many more years."

Suddenly, he caught a faint odor and could not help wrinkling his nose. His heart turned cold. The stench of a corpse!

His gaze fell on Chen Shi, and his expression changed drastically. "Old Chen, is this that child? The child xiucai who ranked first in talent across the Fifty Provinces back then?"

Grandpa said nothing.

Lu Tiannan hastily backed away several paces, widening the distance between himself and Chen Shi. He examined Chen Shi up and down repeatedly, then gave a low laugh. "Amazing, Old Chen. You truly are amazing! You stole heaven and earth's mysteries and accomplished what should have been impossible! But do not break the law, or be careful you do not fall into my hands!"

He turned and left.

Chen Shi found it baffling. "This Six Doors man seems rather afraid of me. Grandpa, was I once the top child xiucai in the Fifty Provinces?"

"Why bring up the past?"

Grandpa spread out yellow paper and took out cinnabar, brush, and inkstone. Chen Shi removed peachwood plaques and jade blanks from the cart. Grandpa drew out a knife and beckoned for Black Pot to come forward. Black Pot gave a wronged whimper and approached with his tail tucked between his legs.

"Pfft."

Grandpa stabbed Black Pot with the knife. Chen Shi immediately brought over a small basin to catch the black dog's blood. After a while, Grandpa tossed Black Pot a piece of exotic beast meat. Carrying the meat in his mouth, Black Pot hid beneath the cart, eating the meat one moment and licking his wound the next—painful, yet happy.

Grandpa and grandson drew and sold all kinds of talismans right there in the marketplace.

The Xinxiang County yamen runners collected taxes house by house, throwing Fangdian Village into such turmoil that chickens flew and dogs leaped. The villagers were gripped by panic, and cries could be heard from time to time. It was a miserable sight.

Though there might be a thousand kinds of bitterness, there would always be moments of joy.

Quite a few people still came to the talisman stall to buy talismans.

Chen Shi and Grandpa remained busy for a long while. Then Black Pot barked twice. Grandpa looked up at the sky and set down his brush. "It is getting late. We should leave."

Chen Shi looked up at the sky. Two suns hung overhead, and there was not the slightest sign of either setting.

Grandpa and grandson packed up, climbed into the wooden cart, and headed out of the village. Sitting in the cart, Chen Shi looked toward the little temple before the ancient elm. The girl inside still sat upon the shrine, very quiet.

Within Fangdian Village, the Xinxiang County yamen runners gathered the taxes paid by each household and loaded them onto carts—four carts in all. Several runners were tying Jia Ma Talismans to the horses' legs so they could run faster.

"Hurry up and finish! Return to the county seat before dark!" Lu Tiannan urged loudly. "We still have other villages to visit tomorrow!"

"Sir, there is still plenty of time. We can make it back, so why rush?" one yamen runner said with a laugh.

Lu Tiannan shook his head. "The countryside is unlike the county seat. No evil roams the county seat at night, but the country is full of such things. Though there are only a few types of evil that can threaten us, a careful ship sails for ten thousand years. We might run into one."

The wooden cart left Fangdian Village. Grandpa sat in the cart sorting through medicinal ingredients bought at the market—venomous things such as poisonous snakes, insects, ants, and centipedes, along with herbs that did not look especially safe either.

Chen Shi felt his scalp prickle as he watched. These things were his dinner.

After the cart had traveled six or seven li, Grandpa suddenly raised his head to look at the sky. His expression changed. "Something is wrong! Nightfall has come a quarter-hour earlier than before!"

Chen Shi hurriedly looked up. The two suns in the sky were slowly closing like eyelids. They were no longer perfectly round, but had become flattened and elongated!

This was precisely the sign that the True God from Beyond the Heavens was closing Its eyes and night was about to descend!

"Could Black Pot have reported the time a quarter-hour late?" Chen Shi asked suspiciously, looking at the black dog leading the cart.

Grandpa looked at the black dog as well. "Possible. The suns cannot set a quarter-hour early, so Black Pot must bear this black pot."

The black dog gave a wronged bark, expressing his dissatisfaction.

Chen Shi suggested, "Grandpa, this dog is useless now, but the meat is still fresh."

Grandpa nodded. "If he reports the time wrong again, we will eat stewed dog."

Black Pot tucked his tail and sighed at the hardships of a dog's life.

Before long, fire streamed across the sky, flames forming an evening glow stretching for countless miles. Though Grandpa and grandson hurried as fast as they could, they could not make it back to Huangpo Village in time.

Chen Shi looked around and suddenly pointed to the left side of the road, delighted. "There's a temple over there!"

Grandpa looked and indeed saw a small hill not far from the post road, with an ancient temple atop it. It was badly dilapidated.

"Do you remember whether this hill and this ancient temple were here when we came this way?" Grandpa suddenly asked.

Chen Shi thought back carefully, then cried out. When they had come through here, this had clearly been flat ground. There had been no hill or ancient temple!

This mountain seemed to have emerged from beneath the earth!

It was as though the ancient temple and the mountain had been buried underground together, and as the mountain grew, it had pushed both temple and summit upward!

He had never seen or heard of anything so strange!

"We will spend the night in the ancient temple."

Grandpa fiddled with the compass, and the wooden cart bumped its way up the hill.

The temple had fallen into disrepair over the years. Broken tiles and shattered green bricks lay everywhere, along with a collapsed gate tower and snapped stone pillars. The temple roof was riddled with holes and leaked wind from every direction.

Grandpa took out brush, ink, paper, inkstone, and a small knife. Black Pot obediently came forward and was stabbed with a pfft. Then, tears in his eyes, he carried off a piece of exotic beast meat to a corner, slowly eating while licking his wound.

Chen Shi did not go help. He took some wooden nails from the cart, picked up planks from the ground, and swiftly boarded up the ruined doors and windows one by one.

The door bolt had already rotted away, but there was a huge boulder outside the temple. Chen Shi came to a boulder weighing hundreds or even a thousand jin and was about to call Grandpa over to help. Yet when he exerted himself and lifted, the boulder actually rose. It was nowhere near as heavy as he had imagined. Chen Shi immediately moved the boulder into the temple bit by bit and blocked the temple door.

He looked up at the ruined temple roof, bent his knees, and leaped. The next moment, he jumped nearly as high as the roof!

Chen Shi was startled, then calmed down. If I can jump this high, then I can naturally land safely too. I do not need to worry about falling to my death.

He placed his palm against a nearby pillar and used it to slide down safely.

He gathered wood and, before night fell, finally patched up the holes in the temple roof.

Grandpa had also finished drawing the peachwood talismans and hung them on the doors, windows, and roof. Then he began making a fire to "cook." The so-called meal was a basin of medicinal soup stewed from the ingredients bought that day.

At that moment, the clamor of carts and horses came from outside. Looking through the window, Chen Shi saw that the flaming evening glow had already vanished from the sky. Cold moonlight spilled down as Lu Tiannan and the other yamen runners escorted four carts toward them.

"Chief, something is wrong!"

One of the yamen runners looked up and said, "The suns should not have set this early! We cannot make it back to the county yamen in time. Should we turn back to Fangdian Village?"

Though they were all cultivators of the Divine Embryo Realm, they had heard that the countryside was exceptionally dangerous at night. Several types of evil were particularly sinister, capable of killing Divine Embryo Realm cultivators with ease.

Lu Tiannan was worried as well. Suddenly spotting the ruined temple, he smiled. "There is a temple over there. We will rest there for now and leave tomorrow morning."

The yamen runners agreed and drove the carts toward the ruined temple.

Standing by the window, Chen Shi could see clearly in the moonlight. At some point, a small, thin figure had appeared behind the caravan. Holding a bright red apple, she ate as she drew closer to the carts.

"Fangdian Village's Godmother—the little girl in the temple!"

No sooner had this thought crossed Chen Shi's mind than one of the yamen runners ahead of the apple-eating little girl suddenly stiffened. As though seized by cramps, his body arched backward and trembled.

Then came two muffled pops. Sharp branches burst from his chest, trailing blossoms of blood.

"Enemy attack—"

Lu Tiannan was the first to react. Divine light swirled behind his head, forming a shrine with a Divine Embryo seated within. His true qi circulated, but the next moment, countless branches swayed beneath the moonlight like black venomous snakes, weaving and spreading through the air!

One branch had already reached his brow!

Lu Tiannan hurriedly retreated, only for sudden pain to lance through his back. The sound of shattering bones reached his ears. Looking down, he saw bloodstained branches piercing out through his chest!

"Too fast!"

Branches pierced through Lu Tiannan's heart. Blood rapidly flooded his lungs and throat, surging into his mouth.

He painfully twisted his neck. Some of the yamen runners who had followed him had only just summoned their shrines when branches pierced their bodies before they could draw upon their Divine Embryos' power. Others had only managed to flee a few zhang before being impaled by more than ten roots stabbing up from underground!

Even the fine horses were pierced through by suddenly appearing branches and roots, dying in an instant.

A gurgling sound came from Lu Tiannan's throat as blood poured from his mouth.

Under the moonlight, the corpses of dozens of Divine Embryo Realm yamen runners and eight fine horses floated before the ruined temple on the desolate mountain. Without the moonlight, the black branches and roots would have been nearly invisible.

The little girl stepped upon the moonlight and threaded her way through the branches, soundless and silent.

She came before Lu Tiannan, bit into her apple, and carefully examined his face.

"Godmother will not abandon the wishes of any of her people, especially those who offer themselves as sacrifices."

The little girl nodded lightly. "It really was you. I did not kill the wrong people."

Countless branches contracted, and the corpses of the yamen runners and horses fell from the air, thudding one after another onto the ground.