The Duan Gongs snatched up the peach wood swords and rust-speckled command blades at their feet, then charged at Luo Bin with bloodshot eyes.
The old Duan Gong leading them had a wrinkled face flushed the color of pig liver. His voice cracked as he roared, "You damned calamity from the city! You dare destroy Lord River God's spirit shrine? You're going to drag dozens of families from Dagang Village down with you!"
The other young Duan Gongs howled along with him, swinging their command blades with such force that the wind whistled around them. From the looks of it, they meant to hack Luo Bin to death right there in front of the spirit shrine and atone to the "River God" they kept talking about.
Luo Bin stood before the shattered clay statue without moving an inch.
He lowered his eyes slightly and glanced at the pieces scattered on the ground.
Inside the pitch-black clay figure, there was none of the gentle divinity a godly idol should have. It was packed with blackened human bones, tangled hair, and yellow talismans stained with dried blood.
Threads of icy Turbid Qi seeped from the fragments. Its aura was somewhat like that of the qipao-clad Strange Specter at the Moon Veil Nightclub, only fishier and fouler, reeking of rot from the depths of the river.
The Duan Gongs were almost upon him.
Luo Bin let out a cold snort. The Primordial Stance quietly took hold, and pale golden Pure Yang Qi and Blood surged from his dantian, then burst outward like a wave of heat.
The two young Duan Gongs at the front felt an unstoppable gust of scorching wind slam into them. It struck their chests like a boulder, hurling them through the air. They tumbled three or four times in the mud.
Their command blades flew far away. They spat up a mouthful of sour bile and couldn't get back to their feet for a long while.
The old Duan Gong leading them stopped dead in his tracks, his hand trembling around the peach wood sword.
He had lived a long life and traveled far and wide, making a living by swindling people with this trade. Yet this was the first time he'd seen anyone send people flying with nothing but the force of his aura.
Only then did he realize that the boy before him, who looked no older than sixteen or seventeen, wasn't some ordinary rich kid from the city. He was a genuine expert.
But there was no turning back now. The spirit shrine had already been smashed. If the thing in the river truly flew into a rage, the first to die would be him, the presiding Duan Gong.
The old man ground his back teeth and turned to shriek at the villagers gathering around them:
"Neighbors! This calamity destroyed Lord River God's spirit shrine. The River God is about to unleash his wrath!
"The Ying River will surely flood this year, and our whole village will drown! If we don't offer him those people along with that girl, none of us will survive!"
His words were like a ladle of cold water poured into boiling oil, instantly setting the watching villagers' emotions ablaze.
The villagers who had been watching from a distance now grabbed their hoes, sickles, and carrying poles, surging toward them in a dark mass.
Men and women, young and old—all wore expressions of fear and resentment, as if driven to the brink. They looked at Luo Bin as though he were a heinous criminal.
"Get out! You city-dwelling calamity!"
"You destroyed the River God's shrine! How are you going to pay for it?!"
"Kill him! Throw him in the river as a sacrifice! Don't let him bring ruin on the whole village!"
Their curses rose one after another as stones and clods of dirt rained down on Luo Bin.
Not far away, Chen Jing's eyes reddened. He drew the silver revolver from his waist and fired into the air. The deafening gunshot instantly silenced the noisy riverbank.
"Anyone takes another step! Anyone so much as moves! I'll blow them away!"
Chen Jing stood in front of Chen Mansheng. The boy had lost his usual playful grin, his face full of ferocity. "Are you all blind? These old bastards are feeding your children to monsters, and you're helping them count their money!"
"Monsters? That's Lord River God!" the old Duan Gong screamed, hopping up and down. "If that girl from the Li Family hadn't run away last year before we could sacrifice her, why would several families in Dagang Village have died for no reason?
"Have you all forgotten?!"
"Bullshit!" Chen Mansheng couldn't hold back either. Her usually sweet face was filled with fury, and her voice trembled.
"The flood last year was caused by heavy rain upstream! What did that have to do with sacrificing a child? You're feeding a five-year-old to some monster in the river. Have you no humanity?!"
But the villagers, worn down until they had lost all sense, couldn't hear a word of it.
To them, the River God Festival was a tradition passed down from generation to generation, the only lifeline they could cling to in these troubled times.
Even if that lifeline hung over an abyss, they would rather believe than wake up.
The crowd began to stir again. Several burly men at the front charged toward Chen Jing and his sister, hoes raised.
Zhang Huai and Hu Junzhi immediately stepped in front of them. Each man kicked one of the attackers to the ground. They had guns and were formidable fighters, but they couldn't kill all the villagers surrounding them...
Otherwise, what would make them any different from the blood-drinking man-eating monsters?
"Brother Luo! What do we do?!" Chen Jing shouted anxiously. He instinctively raised his gun, but he couldn't bring himself to kill these ordinary people who'd been deceived.
Luo Bin sneered and strode back toward the fallen spirit shrine. Under everyone's gaze, he gently set his foot on the clay head that had fallen off.
His foot twisted, grinding it like a millstone crushing dust, slowly pulverizing the so-called "River God statue."
At the same time, a voice full of contempt and mockery rang from his throat. "Lord River God? A filthy thing like this dares call itself a god?"
Luo Bin picked up a fragment of the idol smeared with black blood and tossed it into the river. His Pure Yang Qi and Blood blazed around him as another thunderous shout rolled across the riverbank:
"I'd like to ask the thing in this river: what kind of god are you? You stole a little Turbid Qi and cultivated this despicable power at the cost of how many lives, yet you dare call yourself a god?"
The villagers surrounding Chen Jing and the others now turned their attention to Luo Bin, shouting their protests. Meanwhile, Hu Junzhi had rescued the unconscious boy who'd been tied to the sacrificial altar.
Luo Bin stared at the silent river for a few moments, then waved toward the mound where the jeep was parked.
Bubbles began to rise from the surface of the river—glug, glug. Then, with a splash, a vicious creature leaped out. It had a furrowed indigo-blue face like a ghost's, three vertical ridges embedded in its forehead, and the overall appearance of an old ape.
It stood about one and a half meters tall and didn't feel particularly threatening to Luo Bin...
It had no fur, only blue-black fish scales covering its body, and webbing between its claws.
Chen Jing cried out in surprise. "It's a Water Mountain Ghoul! I saw one like it in the Anlan Water Records my older brother brought back! It's probably at the late Golden Skin stage."
Luo Bin looked at the Water Mountain Ghoul and waved again. A heavy Maxim machine gun was ready on the distant mound, and two Chen Family guards opened fire at once.
"Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—"
Bullets poured down like a curtain of rain.
Luo Bin leaped back to Chen Mansheng and Chen Jing. "So it's just a Demon Specter. I thought it'd be something troublesome..."
Chen Mansheng couldn't help laughing, and her heart immediately eased. "Times have changed. If it were a Strange Specter without a physical body, that'd be another matter. But against a low-level Demon Specter like this, guns and explosives are plenty effective..."
The Water Mountain Ghoul had barely climbed onto the bank before it was hit by a full burst of gunfire. With strength only at the late Golden Skin Pass stage, it lay on the ground, barely clinging to life...
Luo Bin snatched the command blade from a Duan Gong and leaped onto the Water Mountain Ghoul's back.
Pfft—
Black-red blood instantly soaked the surrounding muddy ground...
This was a golden opportunity to earn Modification Points. Luo Bin wasn't about to waste it. He put more strength into his swing and finished the thing off...
[Modification Points +5] [Obtained Water Mountain Demon Spirit Essence—Phantom. Talent ability can now be unlocked.]
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