Black Water Village

Chapter 27: Some Clues About Black Water Village

But there were still unresolved issues.

Where were the people from Yellow Battalion?

And where was that so-called Dragon King now?

That was what truly concerned them.

"Damn it, I should have asked that little girl a few more questions just now!"

Zhao Hu's face was full of regret.

Slaying demons was important, of course.

But investigating Yellow Battalion's whereabouts was also one of their objectives on this trip.

In the corner, Old Wang, who had barely spoken, shot him a look and said irritably, "Ask? How would you ask? With a blade at her throat? If you hadn't been so hasty, would she have run off?"

"You—"

"Enough." Liu Chen barked, cutting off their argument.

He rubbed his throbbing temples. "Children's words can't be taken at face value. We can only believe half of what she said. Since this matter is tied to a village, let's go check the village out."

"There are plenty of villages around here. If we search them one by one, it'll take forever."

Liu Chen shook his head.

"A village where a woman gets pregnant with a demon fetus and is drowned in a pond—that kind of scandal isn't hard to dig up."

The others nodded in agreement.

In the countryside, such a story would be gossip fodder for ten years or more.

As long as the girl hadn't lied, a little asking around would reveal which village it was.

"Pack up. Let's move."

Liu Chen waved his hand and stepped out of the temple first.

The rest followed without another word.

Black Water Village.

The village was small, a few dozen households, with rammed-earth walls and thatched roofs that looked like scabs clinging to the yellow earth.

The old locust tree at the village entrance had long since died, its bare branches pointing at the sky as if cursing something in silence.

At the village head's home.

The house was a bit larger than the others, the walls more neatly built, but it still reeked of poverty.

A young man in coarse, short-sleeved clothes rushed in from outside, his face full of panic.

"Dad!"

The old man weaving straw ropes inside looked up impatiently. "What's the rush?"

"They... they're here again!"

"Who?"

"The officers from the Demon Suppression Bureau! Same black uniforms, heading toward the village!"

The old man's hands paused for a moment, then resumed weaving.

"So they're here. What are you afraid of?"

"Dad!" The young man stomped his foot in anxiety. "How can I not be afraid? What if... what if they're like those last ones, poking around everywhere and finding some clue..."

The old man threw the straw rope to the ground.

He stood up abruptly, glaring at his son.

"Find what? Our Black Water Village walks straight and sits upright—why should we fear them?"

"Back when that beast demanded a boy and a girl as sacrifices every year, where was the Demon Suppression Bureau?"

"When the Black River dried up, the fields cracked, and we were on our knees gnawing on tree bark, where was the Demon Suppression Bureau?"

"Since they didn't care, we found our own way to survive. What's wrong with that?!"

The young man was left speechless by the tirade.

That was all well and good...

But this was the Demon Suppression Bureau.

Would the Demon Suppression Bureau listen to any of that?

If they were found colluding with demons...

The punishment was execution of the entire clan, nine generations deep!

After a long silence.

The old man slumped back down.

"It's just... it's just your little sister who's suffered..."

If you can't find the book by its title, try searching by the author—maybe it's just been renamed!

"Who could have guessed... that demon... had such sinister tricks..."

The young man's body trembled, and he dared not reply further.

He walked to the door, peered through the crack, and looked out cautiously.

On the official road, eight spirited black horses were ambling unhurriedly toward the village entrance.

The riders, each with a Horizontal Blade at their waist, wore cold, hard expressions.

"Father... they... they've entered the village."

After a bit of asking around, they found Black Water Village.

The group rode in.

The village's dirt road was pitted and uneven, the houses on either side dilapidated, their mud walls covered in cracks.

A few villagers glanced at them, stared blankly for a moment, then lowered their heads and went back to their work.

Zhao Hu reined in his horse and couldn't help cursing under his breath.

"Damn it, are these villagers all blind?"

The Demon Suppression Bureau's reputation among the common folk wasn't exactly good, but it was never ignored like this.

Old Wang, riding beside him, just shook his head at the remark.

Just then.

From deep in the village, a mud-brick house larger than the others saw several people emerge.

At the front was an old man with graying hair, his face etched with furrow-like wrinkles, but his eyes unusually sharp.

Behind him followed four or five sturdy young men, each carrying farm tools like hoes and pitchforks.

The old man stopped in front of the group, steadied himself, and swept his murky gaze over them one by one, finally landing on Liu Chen at the lead.

"A few officers, travel-worn and weary—you must be here about the Black River business?"

"Who are you?"

"Answering you, sir, this old man is the village head of Black Water Village, surname Zhang."

"Oh... We've been ordered to investigate the Black River's anomalies."

Liu Chen got straight to the point. "And while we're at it, to find some people."

"You officers have worked hard—please, please, come inside and sit."

Liu Chen didn't move. He just looked at him. "No need. We only have a few questions."

The old man didn't insist, only sighed. "Whatever you want to ask, ask away. We country folk will tell you everything we know."

Such a cooperative attitude left Liu Chen's prepared words stuck in his throat.

He paused, then spoke. "Half a month ago, did a group dressed like us pass through here?"

"Yes, yes."

The old man nodded repeatedly. "They came for the Black River too, asked a few questions in the village, then... said they were going after the demon causing trouble. Never saw them again."

At these words, the faces of several men behind Liu Chen changed.

"Did they say where they were going to catch the demon?"

"They did."

The old man nodded. "The officers said the demon was right in this Black River."

"..."

At that, everyone was stunned.

The Black River stretched over a hundred miles from east to west.

If the demon was in the river, how were they supposed to find it?

Just then, Jiang Yuechu suddenly spoke.

"When we came, we saw a girl named A-Shui at the Dragon King Temple upstream."

Her voice was cool, her gaze calmly fixed on the old man's face.

"She said there was a girl in the village called Xing'er who conceived a demon's child and was drowned in the pond by the villagers. Is that true?"

The words fell.

The old man's body stiffened.

The young men behind him, clutching their farm tools, changed expressions drastically, their grips on the hooves unconsciously tightening.

After a long while.

That old man let out a long, heavy sigh. "A family's misfortune..."

"To be honest with you officers, that Xing'er... she was my poor daughter... bewitched by a demon, muddled and dishonored... carrying a demon's spawn."

"Our Zhang Family has some standing in Black Water Village. With this happening, where am I to put this old face? The villagers jab at my spine with their curses, saying I raised a shameless, filthy thing!"

"I was furious! I was hateful! I locked her in the woodshed, three days and nights without food, trying to make her miscarry that cursed seed, but she... she would rather starve than give up that demon spawn!"

"Later... later the village elders decided that such a demon-tainted woman could not stay—she would bring calamity upon the village."

"I... with my own hands... I put her in a pig cage and sank her into this Black River..."

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