Liu Chen's scalp tingled. He spun around abruptly and rushed out, not caring if the dilapidated door would be smashed to pieces.
"Everyone, get over here!!!"
"Stop searching! All of you, get your asses over here!!!"
This shout stunned the Demon Suppression Guardss scattered throughout the village.
In just a moment.
Tiger Zhao and the others, carrying their swords, crawled out of the various mud huts, panting, and jogged over to Liu Chen.
"Boss, what's wrong?"
Liu Chen ignored their questions. "When you were searching just now... who was inside the houses?"
Tiger Zhao recalled, his expression also turning strange. "Everyone left inside were useless old people who couldn't move."
"Some were paralyzed in bed, some were blind, and others could only drool..."
"..."
A draft blew through, causing the broken door to groan.
Liu Chen's face turned completely ashen.
There were no children.
How could this be possible?
If there are no children, how has the village's lineage been passed down?
This completely defies common sense!
He took a deep breath, then suddenly turned to look at the young woman who had been leaning against the doorframe without speaking.
"Miss Jiang..."
Jiang Yuechu's expression remained indifferent. She looked past the others, toward the village entrance.
"We'll know if we just go ask."
...At the village entrance.
Beneath the old scholar tree.
The villagers had not dispersed. They were still gathered together, leaning on hoes and clubs, their eyes fixed sinisterly on the group walking out of the village.
Seeing Liu Chen and his men approaching with unfriendly expressions.
The Gap-toothed Old Man, who had spoken earlier, sneered and spat onto the ground.
"What? Official Sirs, are you done searching?"
"Did you find the so-called demon?"
Liu Chen, his face dark, strode quickly to the old scholar tree.
He viciously slammed the tiger-head shoe, covered in years of grime, onto the Gap-toothed Old Man's face.
"Explain this."
Liu Chen rested his hand on the saber hilt, leaning slightly forward. "Don't tell me you just picked it up."
The Gap-toothed Old Man slowly picked up the shoe, patted the dirt off it, and casually tossed it aside.
"That crazy old woman went mad wanting a man. She spent all day fantasizing about having a big, chubby son. She'd sew shoe soles for no reason, hide them when finished, saying they were for her future son. Who in the village doesn't know about this?"
"..."
Liu Chen stopped beating around the bush. Taking a step forward, he grabbed the old man's collar, lifting him completely off the ground.
"Stop bullshitting me!"
"One shoe doesn't prove anything! Where are the children of the entire village?!"
"I just led men to search the whole village! Dozens of households! We didn't even hear the cry of a single infant!"
"Even if that crazy woman didn't have children, what about the rest of you?!"
"Although this village is dilapidated, it can't be that every man here is a bachelor, right? I saw plenty of women in the village. What gives? Is Huai Shu Village's geomancy so wicked that you can't even produce a single male child?!"
As soon as he said this, the bodies of the previously silent surrounding villagers stiffened simultaneously.
The old man, suspended in mid-air, maintained a calm expression.
He simply lowered his eyelids, as if looking at a petulant child.
"They died."
"What?" Liu Chen was stunned.
"They all died."
"In these times, with war and chaos, demons running rampant, and Heaven not giving us food."
"If Milord is a native of the Region, you should know that in poor, remote places like ours, it's hard enough just to feed ourselves."
"To be born is just to suffer."
"Those who starved died of starvation, those who fell ill died of illness..."
Before he could finish speaking.
"Bullshit!!!"
Liu Chen was shaking with rage and violently slammed the old man onto the ground.
"It would be understandable if one or two couldn't be raised! But the entire village, dozens of households, hasn't had a single child survive in decades?!"
"Do you take me for an idiot?!"
An old woman leaning on a walking stick tottered out from the side.
She knelt down beside the tiger-head shoe, ignoring Liu Chen, and simply kowtowed there.
"Just kill me..."
"There's no hope left anyway, and living is just suffering. Official Sir, please be kind and grant me a quick death so I can reunite with those short-lived ghosts below."
Following her kneel.
*Whoosh—*
Several other old people also knelt down simultaneously.
"We beg Official Sir to grant us death!"
"We beg Official Sir to grant us death!"
"..."
Liu Chen was bewildered.
Even ants cling to life; when has anyone ever lined up to beg an officer for execution?
Tiger Zhao swallowed, his face slightly pale, and leaned in to whisper to Liu Chen: "Are these people... under some kind of evil spell? The way these old folks look, they don't seem like living people..."
Liu Chen took a deep breath, forcing himself to steady his mind.
He subconsciously looked at the young woman beside him, only to see that Jiang Yuechu completely ignored the people on the ground and walked straight to the towering old scholar tree.
She tilted her head slightly, narrowed her cold eyes, and carefully examined the ancient tree before her.
The crown was like a canopy, and the branches and leaves were excessively dense.
Even the midday sun struggled to penetrate the layers of leaves, casting only a heavy, gloomy shadow beneath the tree.
After a long while.
Jiang Yuechu slowly withdrew her gaze and turned around.
"Miss Jiang?"
*Zheng—*
A light sound.
The long saber slowly slid half an inch out of its sheath, and a chilling flash of light disappeared into the shadow.
"Take them and retreat further away."
Liu Chen was startled, not quite grasping the situation.
"Ah? Why is that?"
"I am only guessing."
Jiang Yuechu glanced at the rough, cracked bark that resembled a ghost's face, and said faintly, "If I'm wrong, so be it. But if I'm right... you staying here will only get in the way."
Liu Chen's expression froze.
Although the words were harsh, they were the absolute truth.
If even a powerhouse of the Core Formation Realm needed to clear the area, it meant that what was coming next was definitely not something their group of String Hearing Stage cultivators could get involved in.
"Yes!"
Liu Chen gritted his teeth, not daring to ask further. He turned and roared at his stunned brothers behind him: "What are you staring at?! Didn't you hear Lord Jiang?! Retreat!"
Although the Demon Suppression Guardss were full of questions, seeing their boss so serious, they didn't dare delay. They sheathed their sabers and hurried the villagers to retreat outside the village... In just a moment.
At the large village entrance, only Jiang Yuechu remained.
Along with the few old people kneeling on the ground.
"Why aren't you leaving?"
Jiang Yuechu lowered her eyes, looking at the Gap-toothed Old Man.
The old man raised his head. "Doesn't Official Sir want to kill the demon? We old bones staying here can cheer Official Sir on. If that demon comes out and eats us first, it saves Official Sir the trouble."
His words were sarcastic and laced with the attitude of having nothing left to lose.
Jiang Yuechu, however, did not get angry.
She simply watched the group silently.
Suddenly.
She laughed mockingly, "If you truly wanted to die, why wait until today?"
The Gap-toothed Old Man's body trembled slightly, but he still stubbornly insisted, "What are you saying, Official Sir? We..."
"What did it give you?"
Jiang Yuechu abruptly cut him off.
"Something that made you willingly hand over all the children in the village to be its food?"
"..."
The old people, who had been quietly sobbing or loudly begging for death, all fell silent at that instant.
The Gap-toothed Old Man suddenly raised his head.
"You... what nonsense are you talking about?!"
"What children?! What food?! I already told you! There are no children in this village! They can't be born! They're all dead!!!"
Right at this moment.
*Rumble—!!!*
The old scholar tree behind them, which had been silent all this time, suddenly began to tremble violently.
The earth cracked.
Countless roots burst out of the ground!