This Is a Cult, Isn't It?

The villagers' fanatical behavior left Mister Bai feeling uneasy. Coupled with what he had just seen of the Third Secretary's conduct, he immediately understood—an evil cult.

This was clearly how an evil cult behaved.

This girl must be the cult's Holy Maiden, much like the White Lotus Holy Maiden, and the Heavenly Venerable they kept mentioning was fundamentally no different from the "Unborn Venerable Mother."

For hundreds of years, the Great Ming had cracked down hard on the White Lotus Sect, never once relenting.

As a gentleman who had devoted himself to mastering the six arts, Mister Bai naturally had no liking for evil cults.

He grabbed San Shier and said in a low voice, "This village is involved in an evil cult? And you're actually mixing with these people?"

San Shier said, "Only those who worship evil gods belong to evil cults. If the god is benevolent, you cannot call it an evil cult."

Mister Bai said, "Just listen to what they're shouting! 'Afraid of them, my ass!' With slogans like that, what could this be but an evil cult?"

San Shier said, "Ahem, that's because the Heavenly Venerable doesn't stand on convention."

Mister Bai said, "Mad... they've all gone mad..."

San Shier chuckled. "Mister Bai, I do understand how you feel. When I first came to this village, I thought exactly as you do, until I saw the Heavenly Venerable work his magic with my own eyes."

Mister Bai gave him a sidelong look. "That's always how evil cults deceive people. There's always some Holy Maiden or shaman woman who can see the evil god working magic, while no one else can. Tch."

San Shier said, "But you just saw the Heavenly Venerable work his magic too."

A gigantic question mark slowly popped up above Mister Bai's head. "When did I see that?"

San Shier pointed outside the walls. "Just now, a sandstorm suddenly rose outside and helped your household guards and tenant farmers escape into Gao Family Village. But did you feel any fierce wind hitting your face?"

Those words immediately left Mister Bai stunned.

He had been too busy fleeing for his life to think about it earlier. Only now, looking back, did he notice the strange part: sand and wind had raged outside the walls, yet he had stood only a few hundred meters away without feeling any wind against his face. There really was something uncanny about that.

San Shier said, "That wind was the Heavenly Venerable working his magic."

For a moment, Mister Bai did not know whether to believe him.

Meanwhile, the bandits outside the village had temporarily held their position. Hearing the people of Gao Family Village shouting in unison, they knew the village had decided to resist. In that case, there was no point keeping up appearances. They sent two runners back to notify their chief and prepare an attack on Gao Family Village, while the rest sat outside, coldly watching the high walls before them.

Inside the walls, the villagers began to grow nervous.

None of these villagers had much combat experience. Faced with this situation, they had no idea what to do. They looked to San Shier, but he knew no more than they did and could only shake his head. With no other choice, they all turned to Gao Yiye.

Gao Yiye spread her hands. "The Heavenly Venerable told us to make some preparations ourselves first. He has something else to attend to for a while."

Everyone fell silent. "..."

San Shier immediately grabbed Mister Bai's arm. "Mister Bai, it looks like we'll have to rely on you to take command. You're the militia instructor of White Family Fort. You know how to fight."

Mister Bai did not know whether to laugh or cry. "I'm only here because I lost a battle and got chased out!"

San Shier said, "As the saying goes, a stumble into a ditch makes you wiser. You're bound to be better than us."

Mister Bai thought it over carefully. "Very well. I'll do it."

The bandits had now sent men to fetch reinforcements, while their main force was busy plundering his family's property at White Family Fort. The round trip would take at least eight hours, so the earliest the bandits could arrive was toward evening. There was still time.

Mister Bai first counted their numbers. Gao Family Village had around a hundred and fifty people. Excluding the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children who could not fight, seventy remained. A dozen or so household guards and more than sixty tenant farmers had also fled into Gao Family Village with him. All the guards could fight, and after excluding the elderly, the weak, the women, and the children among the tenant farmers, twenty-four of them could fight as well.

Adding everyone capable of fighting together gave them a little over a hundred people.

With more than a hundred people and Gao Family Village's walls standing twenty feet high, they had a chance of survival!

Mister Bai's spirits lifted. He waved his hand and began issuing orders. "Strong men, start moving stones! Bring every stone in the village, large and small, over to the walls. Put the larger ones behind the gate and block the passage completely. That way, even if the bandits destroy the wooden gate, they still won't be able to charge inside."

"Use the small and medium stones to hit enemies climbing the walls. Pile plenty of medium-sized stones above the gate in particular. If they try to force their way through the gate passage, throw the stones down and crush them to death."

"If we don't have enough stones, dismantle the stone houses..."

His gaze swept over the village. It was full of dilapidated thatched huts, with only one building made of stone. Looking closer, he found that building practically demanded attention amid its surroundings: the Dao Xuan Heavenly Venerable Cave. It was brand-new, too.

He was just about to say, "We can dismantle this one."

San Shier, standing beside him, spoke first. "You mustn't dismantle that. If you try, you'll die without even a place to be buried."

Mister Bai froze for a moment and thought, Looks like every cultist in this village will protect that temple. As an outsider, I'd better not stir up trouble. A wise man knows which way the wind blows.

He called out again, "Does the village have any oil? If you do, we can bring it to a boil and pour it over the bandits' heads when they climb the walls..."

The moment he said it, he regretted it a little.

One glance at the houses told him how desperately poor this village was: broken-down thatched huts, villagers in ragged clothes, and a few crude shelters set up along the inside of the walls. Many people did not even have shelters, merely spreading dry grass on the ground and sleeping there.

Where could a village this poor find oil? It seemed they would have to use boiling water instead, though it was far less effective than oil.

Just as he thought that, he heard San Shier issue a loud order. "You, you, you... and you. The dozen or so of you, hurry to the storehouse and bring out that big basin of oil. Get the pots, bowls, ladles, and basins ready, and have the women bring the oil to a boil."

The villagers he had pointed out answered and ran into a dilapidated house. Before long, they carried out a huge basin of oil.

The basin was actually a mineral-water bottle cap, but after being placed in the box, it had become an enormous basin nearly ten feet across.

It was less than half full of oil now. Otherwise, even a dozen villagers really would not have been able to move it.

The enormous basin of oil was set before Mister Bai with a clang, leaving him utterly dumbfounded. "So much oil? It smells wonderful. This is all top-quality rapeseed oil, isn't it? In... in a year of such severe drought... is Gao Family Village really this wealthy?"

San Shier chuckled. "The divine gifts bestowed by the Heavenly Venerable will give you plenty to be astonished about. Stop standing there in a daze. If you have any more ways to defend the walls, put them to use at once."

Mister Bai quickly snapped out of it. Every second counted now; this was certainly no time to indulge his astonishment. He hurriedly led the hundred-odd people who could fight up onto the walls. Squad by squad, he personally assigned their defensive sectors and explained what they should do if the bandits attacked from here, what they should do if they attacked from there, and what they should do if the bandits made it onto the battlements...

He worked out a whole jumble of countermeasures.

Meanwhile, Li Daoxuan had already gone downstairs and was standing in a children's toy shop, looking through the rows of little toys on the counter...