The Villagers' Abnormalities

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The faint sound of footsteps came from a narrow path in the distance. Han Zhong moved lightly, carrying a large black cocoon on his shoulder as he sped past.

Unbeknownst to him, inside a dilapidated house more than thirty feet away, a pair of eyes silently watched his receding back.

"Phew... Why did Han Zhong only show up now?"

Chu He was greatly curious about Han Zhong, who had vanished for the entire night.

"And what is that huge cocoon in his hands? Was the reason he didn't show up this time because of that black flesh cocoon?"

Having guessed that the black flesh cocoon might be something extremely important, Chu He also knew that, in his current state, encountering Han Zhong at full strength would be highly unfavorable.

He could only let Han Zhong leave.

After sensing that Han Zhong had completely disappeared, Chu He sat down against the doorframe. Slowly taking the Blood Jade from his robe, a strange light bloomed in his eyes.

"There was no ultimate technique at all. Everything depended on the power of this jade!" With that single change in perspective, the entire chain of events instantly became clear to him.

No wonder Li Zhi had stubbornly refused to reveal that ultimate technique. There had never been one to begin with; everything relied on this jade's function.

Having understood the jade's purpose, Chu He was not as delighted as he had imagined. His original intention had been to find a martial skill that could enhance perception, then use the Martial Arts Modifier to raise it to its peak and eliminate his weakness in perception.

Now it seemed that finding such a martial skill still needed to be put on the agenda.

Relying on external objects was not a long-term solution, after all.

Carefully hanging the jade around his neck, Chu He quietly left the abandoned house. His steps were like a shadow, and he darted between the eaves of one house after another like a nimble wildcat.

This jade could sense the aura of the strange. Its reaction to the passing Han Zhong meant that Han Zhong had either been tainted by yin energy, or the large black flesh cocoon on his shoulder—or something hidden on his person—was strange.

He silently committed this to memory, keeping it in mind.

After passing through the abandoned houses in the east of the village, Chu He nimbly slipped into a household. The courtyard gate stood wide open, and a middle-aged man staggered out while supporting himself against the wall. His eyes were bloodshot, and a faint, sickly pallor tinged his cheeks.

"Why do I feel more tired the more I sleep?"

From climbing out of bed to walking out the door, Li Erhe had only crossed a short distance, yet he had already gasped for breath several times and was exhausted.

He wiped his forehead and found it covered in fine, cold sweat. His eyes widened slightly. "I haven't even taken a wife yet. How did I become this weak?!"

"I have to find the old doctor and get him to prescribe a tonic!"

Li Sihe, who was looking down at himself in alarm, failed to notice that above his head, a man resembling a spider silently crawled into his room.

Li Sihe took several deep breaths, found a tree branch to use as a walking stick, and staggered out of the courtyard to seek the old doctor.

Not long after leaving the gate, Li Sihe suddenly felt more than half the weariness in his body lift, as though a heavy shackle were slowly being removed.

He threw away the stick and clenched his fist hard. "See? I knew I wasn't that weak... Ah, forget it, forget it. I should still have the doctor prescribe some medicine."

The weakness spreading through his waist shattered Li Sihe's bravado. He picked up the branch again and shuffled away on unsteady feet, only to run into Second Uncle Li, who was heading in the same direction. His condition was several times worse than Li Sihe's.

His salt-and-pepper hair had now turned entirely gray-white. His old, arthritic legs shook uncontrollably, as though he might collapse at any moment.

"Hey, hey, Second Uncle, Second Uncle! Let me help you."

Warmhearted, Li Sihe tossed aside his wooden stick and laboriously supported Second Uncle Li.

Second Uncle Li could not hide his embarrassment. He coughed softly a few times and used the coarse hemp cloth at his wrist to wipe the sweat from his face. "Sihe, why are you here?"

"I'm not feeling well, so I wanted to see the doctor. What about you, Second Uncle?"

"Cough, cough... Well, isn't it just that my old cold-leg ailment is acting up?"

"Oh, oh, I understand, I understand... Shall we go together?"

"Mm, I was thinking the same thing."

After that, the two fell silent. They both knew that physical weakness was a humiliation men dared not expose, and they tacitly preserved each other's dignity.

However, when they passed a corner and neared the place where the village doctor lived—

Long sighs and short sighs rang endlessly in their ears.

They rounded the corner and poked their heads out to look, only to discover that the doctor's doorway had long since been trampled into chaos. A long line of people waited to collect medicine.

It was not only men. Even the elderly and children looked physically weak and utterly drained, as though their vitality had been overdrawn.

"Something is wrong!" Second Uncle Li, seasoned by experience, slowly drew tight the wrinkles on his face. With a grave and suspicious expression, he said, "There can't possibly be so many people in the village who are cold and weak at the same time. It isn't even the dead of winter, when cold waves come. There must be something strange at work here. I'd wager something strange is stirring trouble behind the scenes."

"What should we do, then?"

Li Sihe had never seen anything strange before. Supporting Second Uncle Li as they joined the end of the line, he asked fearfully, "Will seeing the doctor still be of any use? Should we go to the Land God Temple and find the village chief and the others?"

"There's no need to rush. We can get a couple doses of medicine first." Second Uncle Li waved a hand, stopping Li Sihe, who was about to run off to find the village chief. "If I count the days right, today is the end of the month. The sacrificial gathering will be held tonight. Everyone will be there then. The village chief and the others must have already noticed, and they will surely have a solution."

"What if they don't have a solution?"

Li Sihe asked uneasily, panting.

"No, there will always be a way..." A determined look flashed through Second Uncle Li's eyes. "Even if the village chief has no way, Big Brother Hong definitely will!"

Elsewhere, inside a house, Chu He's face was grim as he stared at the broken clumps of clay beneath his feet. A trace of doubt arose in his heart. "Where did the strange energy go?"

The voice in his mind had not sounded. When he summoned the panel, the energy value had not changed in the slightest. Furthermore, the Blood Jade had not emitted any heat.

That was enough to show that the strange energy within the statue had vanished.

"Where did it run off to?" Chu He looked at Li Sihe's sweat-soaked bedding and guessed, "Could it have gone onto the villagers?"

Earth River Village had nearly a hundred households. Other than the abandoned eastern end of the village, the western end was where the residents were most densely packed. It was also where the most statues had been distributed—more than sixty households worshipped statues of the Land God.

To rule out the possibility that it was merely a coincidence, Chu He politely visited several more households. Yet after smashing more than ten statues, he had gained only 3 points of energy.

The households from which he gained energy were all those that were not particularly devoted to worshipping the Land God statues. Their mental state was also far better than that of the others.

This more or less confirmed Chu He's speculation.

Smashing more than ten Land God statues in succession was such an abnormal occurrence that it naturally caught the attention of the village chief's group. They immediately determined that the one taking the opportunity to cause trouble was Chu He himself.

The heating Blood Jade confirmed that something strange was lingering nearby.

If it refused to show itself, there was nothing Chu He could do.

But this time, he would no longer remain passive.

The moment the Blood Jade heated up, he immediately switched targets. Every time the strange beings sent by the village chief arrived at the scene, they failed to gain even a single hair.