Blackwater Village

There were finally some leads.

But problems still remained.

Where were the people from the Yellow Division?

And where was that so-called Dragon King now?

Those were the things they truly cared about.

"Damn it, I should've asked that little girl a few more questions just now!"

Zhao Hu looked full of regret.

Slaying demons and monsters 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 hurry, 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 seriously. We can only believe half of what she said. Since this matter is connected to a village, we'll go take a look there."

"There are plenty of villages nearby. If we search them one by one, we'll be at it until the Year of the Monkey!"

Liu Chen shook his head.

"If a village had a scandal like a woman carrying a Demon Embryo and being drowned in a pond, it won't be hard to uncover."

At those words, everyone nodded.

In the countryside, such a matter would be enough gossip to chew over for ten years or more.

As 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 his hand and took the lead out of the temple gates.

The others followed after him without another word.

Blackwater Village.

The village was not large, only a few dozen households. Its earthen walls and thatched roofs looked like festering sores sprawled across the yellow land.

The Old Locust Tree at the village entrance had long since died. Its bare branches pointed at the sky, as though silently cursing something.

Inside the village chief's home.

The house was somewhat larger than the others, and its walls were built more neatly, yet it still exuded an air of poverty.

A young man in coarse cloth clothing rushed in from outside in a panic, his face filled with alarm.

"Father!"

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

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

"Who?"

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

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

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

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

Smack.

The old man hurled the straw rope to the ground.

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

"Find what? Our Blackwater Village walks upright and sits straight. What the hell are we afraid of?"

"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 and the fields cracked open, when 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 left speechless by the questions.

That was true enough...

But this was the Demon Suppression Office.

Why would its people listen to such reasoning?

If they discovered they had colluded with demons and monsters...

The punishment would be the crime of extermination unto nine generations!

After a long while.

The old man slumped back down.

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

"Who could have imagined that monster... would possess such sinister methods..."

The young man shuddered and did not dare say another word.

He walked to the door and carefully 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 the waist, their expressions cold and stern.

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

After asking around a little, the group found Blackwater Village.

They rode into the village.

The dirt road was riddled with potholes, and the houses on both sides were crumbling. Their mud-brick walls were covered in cracks.

The occasional villager who saw them merely stared blankly for a moment, then lowered their head 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 like this.

Old Wang rode beside him and merely shook his head at those words.

Just then.

Several people emerged from a mud house deeper in the village, one that appeared somewhat larger than the others.

Leading them was an old man with graying hair. His face was carved with furrow-like wrinkles, but his eyes were unusually sharp.

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

The old man stopped before the group. His clouded gaze swept over them one by one before finally settling on Liu Chen at the front.

"My lords have traveled through wind and dust. I presume you have come because of the Black River?"

"Who are you?"

"In answer to my lord, this old man is the village head of Blackwater Village. My surname is Zhang."

"Oh... We were ordered to investigate the Black River's abnormal changes."

Liu Chen came straight to the point. "And, while we're at it, find a few people."

"My lords have worked hard. Quickly... please, 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 insist. He merely sighed. "Ask whatever you wish, my lords. We country folk will tell you everything we know."

Such cooperation made the words Liu Chen had prepared feel as though they had all been blocked in his throat.

He paused before asking, "Half a month ago, did a group of people dressed similarly to us come here?"

"Yes, yes."

The old man nodded repeatedly. "They also came for the matter of the Black River and asked a few questions in the village. Later... they said they were going to find the demon causing trouble, and no one ever saw them again."

At those words, the expressions of the men behind Liu Chen changed.

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

"They did."

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

"..."

Everyone was stunned by this.

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?

At that moment, Jiang Yuechu suddenly spoke.

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

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

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

The moment her words fell.

The old man's body stiffened sharply.

The young men behind him holding farm tools changed color even more drastically, their hands gripping their hoes tightening unconsciously.

After a long time.

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

"To be honest with you, my lords, Xing'er... was my ill-fated daughter. A demon bewitched her heart, and she became inexplicably... pregnant with a Demon Embryo."

"My Zhang Family was considered a respectable household in Blackwater Village. When something like this happened, where was this old face of mine supposed to go? The villagers pointed at my back 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 get rid of 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 woman tainted by such evil could not be kept, that she would bring disaster upon the village."

"I... with my own hands... with my own hands, put her into a pig cage and sank her into this Black River..."