Blackwater Village

There were some leads.

But some questions remained unresolved.

Where were the people from the Yellow Division?

And where was that so-called Dragon King now?

Those were what they truly cared about.

"Damn it, if I'd known, I should've asked that little girl a few more questions!"

Zhao Hu's face was full of regret.

Slaying demons was certainly important.

But investigating the Yellow Division's whereabouts was also one of the goals of their journey.

In the corner, Old Wang, who had barely spoken all this time, shot him a glance and said irritably, "Ask? How were you going to ask? Hold a blade to her neck? If you hadn't been in such a rush, would she have run off?"

"You..."

"Enough." Liu Chen barked, stopping their quarrel.

He rubbed his throbbing temples. "Children's words cannot be taken entirely as truth. We can only believe half of what she said. Since this matter concerns a village, we'll go take a look there."

"There are quite a few villages nearby. If we search them one by one, won't we be searching until the year of the monkey?"

Liu Chen shook his head.

"A woman in a village becoming pregnant with a demon fetus, then being drowned in a pond—such a scandal won't be hard to inquire about."

At this, everyone nodded.

In the countryside, such a matter would be enough gossip for ten years or eight.

So long as the girl had not been lying, a little inquiry would reveal which village it was.

"Pack up. Let's go."

Liu Chen waved a hand and took the lead out of the temple gates.

The others followed one after another, saying no more.

Blackwater Village.

The village was small, with only a few dozen households. Its rammed-earth walls and thatched roofs looked like festering sores sprawled across the yellow earth.

The old locust tree at the village entrance had long since died. Its bare branches pointed at the sky as though silently cursing something.

At the village chief's home.

The house was a little larger than the others, and its walls were more neatly built, yet it still reeked of poverty.

A young man in coarse cloth rushed in from outside in a panic, his face full of alarm.

"Father!"

The old man inside, who had been braiding straw rope, raised his head and said impatiently, "What are you panicking for?"

"They... they've come again!"

"Who?"

"The Demon Suppression Office officials! They're wearing those black uniforms again, and they're heading into the village!"

The old man's hands paused, then resumed braiding.

"They've come, so they've come. What are you afraid of?"

"Father!" The young man stamped his feet anxiously. "How can I not be afraid? What if... what if they're like those people from last time, wandering around everywhere and finding some clue..."

Smack.

The old man flung the straw rope to the ground.

He sprang to his feet and glared fiercely at his son.

"Find what? Our Blackwater Village stands upright and sits straight. What the hell do we have to fear!"

"When that beast demanded young boys and girls as sacrifices every year, where were the people from the Demon Suppression Office?"

"When the Black River ran dry, the fields cracked open, and we knelt on the ground chewing tree bark, where were the people from the Demon Suppression Office?"

"Since they refused to care, what was wrong with us finding our own way to survive?!"

The young man was rendered speechless by those questions.

That was true enough...

But that was the Demon Suppression Office.

How would its people listen to any of this?

If they discovered they had colluded with demons...

The punishment was a crime warranting the execution of nine generations!

After a long while.

The old man slumped back down.

"It's just... it's just that your sister suffered for it..."

"Who could have known that monster... had such wicked methods..."

The young man shuddered and did not dare continue.

He walked to the door and cautiously peered outside through the crack.

On the official road, eight magnificent black horses were making their way unhurriedly toward the village entrance.

Every rider wore a saber at their waist, their expressions cold and hard.

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

After making a few inquiries, the group found Blackwater Village.

They rode into it.

The village's dirt roads were riddled with potholes, while the houses on either side were utterly dilapidated, their mud-brick walls covered in cracks.

Now and then, a villager glanced blankly at them, then lowered their head again and continued with their work.

Zhao Hu reined in his horse and could not help muttering a curse.

"Damn it, are all the people in this village blind?"

The Demon Suppression Office did not have a particularly good reputation among the common folk, but it should not have been ignored so thoroughly.

Old Wang rode beside him. Hearing this, he merely shook his head.

Just then.

Several people emerged from an earthen house deep in the village, one that looked somewhat larger than the others.

At their head was an old man with grizzled hair. His face was carved with ravine-like wrinkles, yet his eyes were exceptionally bright.

Behind him followed four or five strapping young men, each carrying farm tools such as hoes and pitchforks.

The old man walked to the front of the group and stopped. His clouded gaze swept over them one by one before finally settling on Liu Chen, who led them.

"Esteemed officials, you have come through wind and dust. I imagine you are here because of the Black River?"

"Who are you?"

"Reporting to you, sir, this old man is the village chief of Blackwater Village. My surname is Zhang."

"Oh... We have come under orders to investigate the Black River's abnormal changes."

Liu Chen went straight to the point. "And to find several people."

"You officials have worked hard. Quickly... quickly, come inside and sit."

Liu Chen did not move, merely looking at him. "No need. We only have a few questions."

The old man did not press the matter. He merely sighed. "Ask whatever you wish, sir. We mud-legged folk will tell you all we know."

Such cooperation made all the words Liu Chen had prepared catch in his throat.

After a pause, he asked, "Half a month ago, did a group of people dressed similarly to us come here?"

"Yes, yes."

The old man nodded repeatedly. "They had also come because of the Black River. They asked a few questions in the village, then... said they were going to find the demon causing trouble. We never saw them again."

The moment those words fell, the expressions of the men behind Liu Chen changed.

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

"They did."

The old man nodded. "The officials said that monster was in the Black River."

"..."

Those words left everyone stunned.

The Black River stretched for more than a hundred li from east to west.

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

Just then, Jiang Yuechu suddenly spoke.

Her voice was cool, and her calm gaze fell upon the old man's face.

"On our way here, we met a little girl named A Shui at the Dragon King Temple upstream."

"She said there was once a girl in the village named Xing'er who became pregnant with a demon fetus and was drowned in a pond by the villagers. Is that true?"

As her words fell.

The old man's body suddenly stiffened.

The young men behind him holding farm tools changed color even more sharply, their grips on their hoes tightening unconsciously.

After a long while.

The old man finally let out a long sigh. "A misfortune in the family..."

"To be honest with you officials, that Xing'er... was my unfortunate daughter... She was bewitched by a demon and, without honor or decency... became pregnant with a demon fetus."

"My Zhang family was considered a respectable household in Blackwater Village. After such a thing happened, where could this old face of mine be shown? The villagers pointed at my spine and cursed me, saying I had raised a filthy thing without shame!"

"I was furious! I hated it! I locked her in the woodshed and gave her no food for three days and three nights, hoping she would abort that bastard. But she... she would rather starve to death than stop protecting that demon spawn!"

"Later... later, the village elders made the decision. They said a demonic woman like her could not be allowed to remain, or she would bring disaster upon the village."

"I... I personally... personally put her into a pig cage and sank her into the Black River..."