Li Ping'an said, "So you're a young girl. This isn't a place a young girl should come."
The girl gritted her teeth and drew the dagger at her waist.
Li Ping'an had thought she was coming for him, but unexpectedly, she turned the blade toward her own throat.
Was she trying to splash blood all over me? How ruthless.
Li Ping'an grabbed her wrist. "What? Are you a suicide agent? You kill yourself as soon as you're discovered?"
"I'd rather die than fall into your hands!"
The girl clenched her teeth.
"I'm not with those monks," Li Ping'an said. "I work for the newly appointed county magistrate."
"R-really?"
"Do I look like a monk to you?"
The girl shook her head. "No."
"Tell me exactly what happened here so I can report it to the magistrate."
The girl hesitated. He was far stronger than she was.
There was no need for him to lie to her, so she told Li Ping'an everything, exactly as it had happened.
A year ago, a plague had spread through the village.
The abbot here had proclaimed that only by taking into their bodies a certain kind of centipede sanctified by the Buddha's light could they receive the Buddha's protection and be spared the plague.
He had also guaranteed that these centipedes would do absolutely no harm to their bodies.
At first, few people had believed him, but as more and more villagers accepted the centipedes,
everyone discovered that not only were they unaffected by the plague, they were all as vigorous as dragons and tigers.
They seemed stronger than before, and the energy within their bodies had grown more powerful too.
They could not help but believe.
But as time passed, some people gradually lost their sense of self, as though they had become