The old man frowned slightly at this, his expression turning somewhat strained.
"The lord Onmyoji clearly said just now that you were looking for a blind female monster..."
Jin Jianglang, who had been about to leave, stopped and turned back. "Sir, I mean you no harm. I simply want to know what you are hiding."
Just then, a wooden stick hurtled toward Jin Jianglang. Without even turning his head, he caught it in one hand.
"Bad man!"
A young voice rang out in the distance.
Jin Jianglang looked toward the voice. A furious child stood not far away, tears in his eyes as he shouted, "Why won't you leave Sister Yanyanluo alone?! Why?!"
Yan... yan... luo?
Jin Jianglang felt as though he had heard that name somewhere before.
A woman who looked like a farmer hurried over and covered the child's mouth, then dropped to her knees and stayed there. "My child is talking nonsense!" she said anxiously. "Please forgive him, lord Onmyoji! Please forgive him!"
The surrounding villagers gradually closed in. Their gazes were complicated, filled with both fear and anger. Looking more closely, he saw that they all held farming tools, as though swords had been drawn and bows bent.
"I don't quite understand." Jin Jianglang frowned. "Why are you angry with me?"
"You Onmyoji..." a man said through gritted teeth. "Will you only be satisfied once you've driven people into a corner with no way out?!"
At his words, the men and women of the village seemed to make up their minds, their gazes growing resolute.
"This time, it's our turn to protect Yanyanluo!"
"I..." Jin Jianglang surveyed the crowd. If he struck, he could kill them all in an instant, but what reason was there for this bloodshed?
The older man who had been smoking his