[Rain-Praying Village] The Truth (II)

By the time everyone realized Ruan Kaihuang had deceived them, it was already too late.

They had already become the village's cruelest executioners.

Their hands were stained with blood that could never be washed away.

Not a single villager dared to collect Guang Xiu's body.

He lay in his own courtyard, his body battered beyond recognition by hoes, sickles, and other tools. Blood and scattered scraps of flesh covered most corners of the yard!

Only one eye remained in his caved-in skull. It stared blankly at the sky, holding nothing but terror and... incomprehension.

He truly could not understand.

Why had he exhausted almost his entire fortune to help these villagers, only for them to kill him in the end?

Of course, no one knew why the village's terrible drought ended... on the very night Guang Xiu died.

A torrential rain fell from the heavens.

Everyone in the village had long awaited this blessed rain. They cheered, wept, and shouted...

They forgot the crime they had just committed, forgot everything they had done to the man who had once saved their lives.

Guang Xiu was dead, and the drought was over.

At some point, a rumor began circulating through the village. It claimed that Guang Xiu had often committed outrageous deeds in secret. On the surface, he had built Misty Rain Temple to worship the local earth deity, but in reality, he had used the temple to hoard food and wealth. This had angered the heavenly gods, who had sent down the terrible drought!

Of course, Ruan Kaihuang had spread this rumor too.

He needed such tactics to quickly destroy Guang Xiu's influence over the villagers.

In the end, he succeeded.

The villagers seemed to truly believe him, and he became village chief, just as he had wished.

Later,

Ruan Kaihuang burned Guang Xiu's son, Guangchuan, to death in Misty Rain Tower. He also secretly abducted Guang Xiu's wife, Zhu Nanyu, intending to keep her as his captive mistress.

Zhu Nanyu had been beautiful since childhood. Even after having a child, her looks and figure had barely changed. Together with her gentle, delicate air as a married woman, this had naturally made her a renowned beauty throughout the surrounding villages.

Ruan Kaihuang was different. He had been born ugly, with unattractive features and crooked teeth. While his parents were still alive, they had constantly worried that he would never find a wife and searched everywhere for a match. But once the young women saw his face, they either shook their heads and left immediately, or, if one finally agreed, Ruan Kaihuang himself looked down on her.

After this happened time and again, his parents gradually gave up.

After Guang Xiu's death, one glance at Zhu Nanyu weeping over his body in the courtyard, her beautiful face drenched in tears, was enough to captivate Ruan Kaihuang.

Over the next few nights, he tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Her lovely face refused to leave his mind.

Driven by unbearable lust, Ruan Kaihuang devised a charade: heaven had grown angry and sent down divine lightning to burn Misty Rain Temple, killing Zhu Nanyu and Guangchuan, who had been staying inside.

But in truth, only Guangchuan had burned to death.

Zhu Nanyu had been secretly abducted and hidden in the basement of his home.

Over the following months, Zhu Nanyu suffered unspeakable torture and abuse. Whether Ruan Kaihuang coaxed or threatened her, she refused to submit. Every time she saw him, she hurled curses at him until his violations and torture made her pass out.

Finally, one day, Ruan Kaihuang decided this was no fun anymore. Or perhaps he had vented himself on Zhu Nanyu enough and decided women were nothing special after all. When she viciously cursed him yet again, he finally flew into a rage!

All his pent-up anger and restraint erupted at that moment!

First, he cut out Zhu Nanyu's tongue, then poisoned her to render her mute. After crudely stopping her bleeding with plant ash, Ruan Kaihuang, whose mind was already utterly twisted, devised a new way to torture her!

He paid to have a small pool built specifically for Zhu Nanyu, then summoned the village's best butcher. First, they pierced her hands and feet with chains to keep her from moving, then began removing her bones, little by little!

Watching unbearable agony spread across Zhu Nanyu's lovely face as she opened her mouth wide without making a sound, Ruan Kaihuang laughed with delight.

He felt a satisfaction unlike anything he had ever known.

And so, with her body immersed in ice water, Zhu Nanyu had most of her bones stripped out while she was still alive before she finally bled to death!

But her death did not bring this punishment to an end.

After Zhu Nanyu died, Ruan Kaihuang made the butcher finish the remaining work and strip the skin from her body.

Looking at the pool full of blood-red water, Ruan Kaihuang tossed the butcher a piece of gold, then turned and left.

One day, roughly half a month later, while searching for a new wife, Ruan Kaihuang happened to learn that the butcher who had helped skin Zhu Nanyu and remove her bones... was dead.

He had died a horrific death.

At first, Ruan Kaihuang thought it was an accident.

Only later, when he kept having terrifying dreams at night and one strange incident after another began occurring in the village, did Ruan Kaihuang finally realize... they were in serious trouble!

The dead had become vengeful spirits and returned for revenge!

People began dying in the village.

Every one of them died horribly. Their bloodshot eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets, and their faces retained unimaginable terror, as though they had seen something utterly horrifying just before death!

As more and more people died, a strange atmosphere gradually spread through the village and its surroundings.

Ruan Kaihuang knew that if this continued, sooner or later it would be his turn!

But he was unwilling to surrender the power and respect he had worked so hard to obtain!

In the end, Ruan Kaihuang paid a large sum to send a villager to a famous Buddhist temple several dozen li away to seek help from its monks.

Of course, the monks did not accept the money.

A young monk named [Fahui] accompanied the villager to Rain-Praying Village.

The moment he entered the village, he said something to the villager.

"The resentment of the dead is too great. It can no longer be easily dispelled!"

"Either the villagers move away, or they will all die here!"

After hearing this, how could the villager dare delay?

He immediately took the young monk to see the village chief, Ruan Kaihuang.

"Master, is there truly no other way?"

His face ashen, Ruan Kaihuang poured out his woes to the monk. He told him that members of the Ruan Family had been village chiefs for generations. His ancestors had entrusted the position to him, and he absolutely could not allow evil spirits to overrun the village!

Perhaps his acting was exceptional, or perhaps the young monk simply knew too little of the malice lurking in human hearts. He believed Ruan Kaihuang's words and was moved by his apparent willingness to sacrifice himself to protect the villagers. At once, he loudly invoked the Buddha:

"Amitabha! If I do not enter hell, who will?"

Afterward, the monk told Ruan Kaihuang that, besides dispelling the vengeful ghosts' resentment, there was another way to keep them safe.

This method required cutting off the monk's head, reattaching it through a special procedure, and placing his corpse alongside the bodies the village's vengeful spirits had left behind. They would then build a temple and invite monks to chant sutras for seven days and seven nights. After his death, he would be able to draw upon the power of Buddhist teachings to suppress the evil spirits!

But this method had one crucial condition: the monk's head could not be separated from his body...