Led by the blade soldier, Wei Xuanfeng quickly arrived at the ancestral hall by the village entrance.
The blade soldier gestured for Wei Xuanfeng to look at a hole beneath the ancestral hall.
The hole was half a man's height tall, piled over with farming tools and utterly inconspicuous. A strong stench of dog urine wafted from its entrance.
Wei Xuanfeng knew that such a smell was what demonic beasts hated most.
He then pushed aside the farming tools at the entrance, poked his head inside, and was instantly stunned.
Beneath the hole was a cellar half a man's height tall, crammed full of people.
Old women clutched young children as they huddled in the deepest corner. Young women pressed swaddled infants against their chests, their faces deathly pale and their lips purple.
Several youths of thirteen or fourteen pressed themselves against the wall, huddled together in a ball.
Five able-bodied men stood near the entrance, gripping hoes, sickles, and a sharpened shoulder pole. Their hands trembled, but their feet did not take a single step back.
Someone lifted his head and glanced at Wei Xuanfeng. There was no light in those eyes, only the hollowness of someone resigned to fate.
Wei Xuanfeng's heart tightened at the sight. He truly could have ignored the lives of others for his own benefit.
But with so many living people right before his eyes, he realized that his heart still was not hard enough...
He withdrew his head, crouched at the entrance, and remained silent for two breaths. Then he beckoned Han Tieshan and Zhang Shouyi over.
"Come take a look."
The two peered inside one after the other. Neither looked good when they emerged.
Zhang Shouyi spoke first.
"Chief Banner Wei, what do we do now?"
"The cellar has no ventilation.