Qi Si walked around behind the wooden rack where the ancestral tablets were displayed. There was no shrine there. Instead, a giant yellow talisman had been pasted to the wall, with the character "Suppress" written on it in red ink.
Both the village history and Granny Su's story said the Ancestral Hall had been built to worship the deity who bestowed the meat. Now, it seemed that might not have been the case.
[The old and new Ancestral Hall, the densely packed ancestral tablets—who is suppressing their souls?]
The text on the system interface was cold and eerie.
Qi Si glanced sideways at the icy sunlight beyond the door. While no one was watching him, he casually grabbed an ancestral tablet and walked out of the Ancestral Hall without looking back.
Zhao Feng didn't understand what was going on, but he silently followed.
He had killed Yang Yundong in a moment of malice. Now that he had calmed down and thought through the twists and turns, he was filled with dread.
Anyone with eyes could see that he had done it. If someone wanted to make trouble, all it would take was a little maneuvering to make him the next target of everyone's anger.
He was injured and his fighting strength had fallen. Someone could sneak up on him and kill him at any moment.
He had to save himself. That meant tying himself to Qi Si as soon as possible, using the diffusion of responsibility to divert some of the other players' attention.
Qi Si could see right through Zhao Feng's thoughts. He immediately ordered, "Zhao Feng, pick up the wooden bucket. We're going back to Granny Su's house."
Zhao Feng felt as though he'd been granted a reprieve. He hurriedly picked up the bucket Granny Su had left in the middle of the Ancestral Hall and followed Qi Si.
He knew Qi Si had publicly confirmed their partnership in front of everyone. The outcome he'd feared most—that Qi Si would use him and then discard him—wouldn't happen.
Qi Si saw the lingering fear in Zhao Feng's eyes, but had no intention of explaining further.
People preferred to believe the logic they had worked out for themselves over what others said, even when their conclusions were nowhere near the truth.
By the time they returned to Granny Su's house, it was already noon. The sun hung high in the sky, illuminating every corner.
Granny Su and A-Xi sat in the courtyard, basking in the sun and chatting.
With a smile, Qi Si walked over and tossed the ancestral tablet from his arms onto the ground. As he'd hoped, Granny Su's expression shifted from confusion to terror in a single second.
He dragged over a chair and sat down. His tone was calm as he stated, "I kept wondering why the Ancestral Hall didn't worship a deity, and what all those tablets were for. I think I understand now. The villagers who mutated and were sold to travelers as God Meat must have been consumed by resentment, too. They had to be placed in the Ancestral Hall and suppressed."
"The disaster that befell Su Village was their own fault. The greedy villagers deserved to die, and they deserved the Evil God's curse and transformation into hideous monsters."
At that, Qi Si's smile faded a little. He adopted a humble, questioning air. "There's just one thing I don't understand. You died before the God descended, Granny Su. You had nothing to do with any of those sins, so why are you so stubbornly staying in this cannibal village?"
Granny Su had regained her composure. She stared coolly into Qi Si's eyes and said, "Someone has to keep watch over the village. If I leave the Ancestral Hall unattended, they'll all get out. They won't just kill you—they'll wreak havoc across the entire county!"
Although Zhao Feng had no idea what Qi Si's analysis meant, he stayed nearby, keeping watch.
Noticing Granny Su's hostile tone, he grabbed A-Xi by the collar. "Old woman, watch your attitude. Otherwise, I might throw your grandson into the Ancestral Hall and see if those ghosts chew him up!"
Qi Si glanced at him indifferently, then treated him as if he weren't there and looked back at Granny Su. "Tell me the whole truth. Maybe I can find a way to solve your village's problem. Whether you believe me is up to you."
After a pause, he gave her a smile that could almost be called gentle. "But if I can't learn the truth, I'll be so miserable that I'll want to take everyone down with me. I suspect that talisman pasted up in the Ancestral Hall is important. What do you think would happen if I tore it down?"
He sounded entirely sincere. It was nothing like an idle threat.
Everyone who heard him, human and ghost alike, had no doubt Qi Si would do exactly as he said.
Zhao Feng, still holding A-Xi by the collar as if he were part of the scenery, regarded Qi Si with new respect. No wonder he's one of Sariel's people. Just like the rumors said, there's definitely something a little crazy about him...
Granny Su didn't dare gamble on Qi Si's moral compass, but she was just as reluctant to give up the information so easily.
As she hesitated, the young man in front of her added one last weight to his words. "Maybe I can be more specific. What did He promise you?"
A vague question was, at its heart, a way of leading someone to make their own assumptions based on a hint. It made them think the questioner already knew a lot, so revealing a little more couldn't hurt.
Anyone with some understanding of psychology would know how to handle such a ploy. Unfortunately, Granny Su clearly had no idea what psychology was.
After hearing Qi Si's words, the old woman sighed. She slumped back in her chair like a deflated ball and began to tell her story.
After they died, Granny Su and A-Xi's ghosts drifted through the village.
They witnessed Su Village survive the famine, grow rich by selling God Meat, and then undergo a mass mutation as if cursed.
As crime after crime played out before their eyes, anger, sorrow, and resentment rose and fell, until they all faded away over the long years.
Then, one day, a Black-Robed Taoist came to Su Village.
He wore a long robe that seemed out of place in the era, and had long hair. His appearance and manner of speaking were unlike ordinary people's, and his golden eyes drew particular attention.
He performed several miraculous little spells in front of everyone and easily won the villagers' trust.
At the Taoist's direction, the villagers rebuilt the Ancestral Hall, turning it from a place of worship into a place of suppression. They placed the tablets of villagers who had died from mutation inside, and at last, they were able to sleep peacefully for a night.
But the Taoist struggled to decide what to do with the God's corpse.
He told the villagers, "The one you provoked is the most cruel and terrifying Evil God in all of heaven and earth. He bears the same malice toward every living creature. More than anything, He enjoys leading humans into sin and watching them struggle in agony under the weight of their original sin."
"What's done is done. All you can do now is atone and beg for His forgiveness."
The villagers hurriedly asked how they should atone.
The Taoist replied, "Find a quiet place to lay His corpse to rest, then gather enough human flesh to complete His body."
The villagers asked, "We've already become neither human nor ghost, and travelers haven't come to our village in ages. Where are we supposed to find human flesh?"
The Taoist looked toward the village entrance and declared, "In three days, eleven travelers will arrive."
The villagers rubbed their hands together in anticipation, but the Taoist laid down several rules to restrain them, including the strict prohibition against killing people and taking their flesh themselves.
No one dared object. For years, they had been tormented by the agony of their mutations and the fear of the curse. If there was even the slightest chance of survival, they would seize it with trembling reverence.
The Taoist said nothing more. He dismissed the villagers, then went alone to Granny Su's house and stopped beside the well.
With a sweep of his sleeve, he drew the souls of Granny Su and A-Xi out of the well. Their two crooked silhouettes, faint as ink wash, slowly took shape and circled around him.
The strange visitor gazed at the two ghosts, one large and one small, and finally smiled.
He said, "You need only follow my instructions. Once the task is complete, I will grant you both new life."
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