Bite to Death

"Komoro, why did you return alone? Where are Dax and the others?" Standing guard at the village entrance was a thirty-year-old man with a heroic air. If he were in Wang Yuan's previous world, his handsome face and muscular build would have made him a heartthrob for countless young women.

Komoro looked at the man before him. He knew him; his name was Jacques, the captain of the village guard and a village official. He was well-liked in the village and rumored to be the next village chief. He was also a very close friend of Dax, who belonged to the hunting party.

Thinking this, Komoro sneered and said, "Dax? Ha, he offended the great Negary and died a painful death from the plague."

"Komoro, what nonsense are you spouting? Please, stop joking around." Jacques narrowed his eyes and said with extreme seriousness.

"How is this a joke?" Komoro said firmly. "Dax disregarded the taboos, shot and killed the messenger of the great Negary, and invited the plague. If I hadn't prayed to Negary in time to beg for forgiveness, the plague would have already spread through the village!"

"Komoro, you..." Jacques wanted to say more, but he saw Komoro speaking loudly to the villagers who had gathered due to their argument.

"Enough! Don't spout nonsense without proof!" Jacques interrupted Komoro's account. He could not accept that his friend had died so inexplicably, and as for this so-called Negary, he simply did not believe in it.

Komoro looked at the angry Jacques and swallowed hard. The man was tall and broad, a head taller than him. If the man had approached him with such fury in the past, he probably wouldn't have been able to get a word out.

But things were different now. Standing behind him was the great Negary. Thinking of Negary's various miracles, Komoro straightened his back and shouted respectfully, "Proof? I invite the two divine messengers."

"Not bad." Wang Yuan stood in the distance, finding Komoro's performance acceptable. He controlled two crows to fly over from the branches, circling above them, their pitch-black eyes fixed on the villagers.

"These two are the divine messengers of the great Negary. I have come to proclaim the will they have brought. Jacques, if you dare to obstruct this, it doesn't matter if you die from the plague, but don't implicate our village!"

Seeing the two black crows circling above them, the villagers felt a wave of fear. The culture surrounding the divine name of Negary was deeply ingrained in every aspect of their lives. If you asked if they believed, it was complicated; if you asked if they didn't, well, once something happened, they would believe.

Now that two of Negary's followers were circling above, combined with Komoro's words, how could the others not believe? Their gazes toward Jacques shifted. They feared the worst; what if the plague really was brought upon them?

Jacques also looked at the two crows, and he felt the gazes of the surrounding villagers. He wanted to use his bow to shoot the crows down, but he was certain that if he made a move to draw his bow, someone would surely step forward to stop him.

"Dax and the others shot and killed Negary's followers, angering the great Negary. Originally, He intended to bring a plague upon the village, leaving no blade of grass growing and causing everyone to die in agony. However, the great Negary has spared us, but we must offer our foreheads and help Him cultivate new messengers."

In the customs of the Kexi People, offering one's forehead meant surrendering and offering everything one possessed.

"Komoro, are you sure everything you're saying is true?" A voice suddenly rang out. An old man leaning on a cane, his expression serious, walked over with the support of a young girl.

"Chief." Komoro's expression changed. If he dared to talk back to Jacques, he didn't quite dare to lie to this village chief, who held immense prestige in the village. This was a fixed mindset formed over a long time.

"Everything I said is true. If we don't offer our foreheads to Negary and help the great Negary cultivate messengers, the plague will surely descend upon the village. I am doing this for the good of the village; everything I said is true," Komoro said stubbornly.

"I understand, but such matters cannot be decided all at once. We need to discuss this for a while," the village chief said, squinting. With his life experience, he could easily see that Komoro's words certainly contained elements of exaggeration and lies.

However, Negary's messengers could not be faked. This matter had to be treated with caution, so the village chief pondered for a moment and said, "How about this? We will hold a meeting later to discuss it. Why don't you and the two divine messengers come as well?"

"This..." Komoro was momentarily stunned. After all, he was only a fifteen-year-old boy. The village chief treating him so kindly left him unable to think of a rebuttal.

Wang Yuan shook his head from the side. Komoro was still too young and was easily intimidated. Once he obediently brought the crows to that meeting, his momentum would vanish instantly. Even if Negary truly existed, Komoro would be eaten alive. The power he would gain would be minimal—at most, he would help raise some crows; performing a sacrifice would be basically impossible.

So, Wang Yuan took action. Several rat-like creatures rushed out directly. Their skin was rotting, exposing flesh and blood, and they let out hideous shrieks as they charged toward the old village chief. Komoro also felt a sudden pain in his body and collapsed to the ground.

The rats jumped directly onto the old village chief, biting and gnawing incessantly. With his frail, elderly body, the chief fell to the ground, letting out screams of agony. Even though he was high-ranking and powerful, his word being law in the village, he was no different from an ordinary person when faced with such an attack—perhaps even weaker.

"Grandfather! Someone, come help!" The girl beside him hurriedly tried to swat the rats away, but she let out a cry of pain and pulled her hand back. A bright red wound appeared on her hand, and she shouted to the people nearby.

"Don't go over there!" Komoro lay on the ground, shouting in pain. "Those Nal Beasts carry Negary's curse. Once bitten, you will be infected with the plague. The chief's words offended the great Negary, and thus he has been punished. If you go to help, you will only further anger Negary."

Seeing the once-majestic village chief dying so miserably before his eyes, Komoro reached a complete realization: in the presence of the great Negary, any village chief was an insignificant thing.

The people nearby who had been preparing to help stopped immediately, avoiding the village chief and the bitten girl from a distance.

"The effect has been achieved!" Wang Yuan said with a smile. It was fortunate he had prepared a backup plan. After those rats were infected with the bacteria, they had no resistance to Wang Yuan's consciousness. Unlike the crows, these were one-time items; he estimated they would die from the disease in half a day.

But that was enough. After establishing this authority, he figured not many people in the village would dare to resist him, except for that Jacques.

Thinking of this, Wang Yuan looked at the man who was clenching his fists.