My descendants burn incense and worship me as a real immortal

Chapter 628 The Nine Masters of Qimen Dunjia

[Serving as a rat]

[Identity: Legendary Soul]

【realm:? ? ? 】

The journey to deliver grain was long and arduous, so post stations were set up along the official roads in various places to provide rest stops for the grain carriers, facilitating their smooth transport of the grain to the capital. Each post station was staffed with several yamen runners to maintain its operation.

Why are so many government officials flocking to this arduous task in such a remote and impoverished area?

[Abilities: Devouring, ???]

There was only a brief background introduction, and apart from the word "gnawing," there was no other special information.

However, he still shared this character card above the heads of all the Yang family descendants who could see it.

Let those puzzle solvers who are still on their way or are about to reach the station see this.

Through Yang Zhu's retelling, Number Six also learned a brief introduction to the rat-headed, human-bodied yamen runners in front of him. Most importantly, he learned about one of these rat runners' abilities.

[Gnawing: When night falls, the rat servants will transform into mice to secretly gnaw on the souls of those who have entered their dreams. Those who are gnawed will gradually lose their vital energy.]

This is the most important information.

Number Six tried to negotiate with the rat servants, hoping to offer them some money in exchange for some preferential treatment, but no one paid him any attention.

After exchanging a few words, one of the rat servants, whose head was the largest, stared coldly at the group and said:

"Why haven't I seen the grain you were escorting?"

Upon hearing this, the numerous rat servants immediately twisted their heads, their eyes turning red as they looked at them, as if a single wrong answer would transform them into bloodthirsty ratmen and devour them all.

They were prepared for this.

slap~
Number Six snapped his fingers, and Yang Zhu, who had been at the back of the line, immediately understood.

He took out a pile of spirit rice directly from his storage ring, and then found a wooden cart that had been made at some unknown time and loaded it onto it.

It looked like a huge truckload of grain had been hauled away.

"Sir, he's outside."

Upon seeing these exquisite spirit rice grains, the red in the eyes of these rat servants slowly faded.

The rat servant at the post station squinted his eyes slightly, seemingly quite satisfied.

"Grain is precious, and the journey to the capital is long. It needs to be properly stored along the way. It may rain tonight, so please put this grain in the post station's granary for now."

"Yes, sir, we will go and distribute the grain right away."

Since they couldn't find a way to take advantage of the situation, they followed the instructions of the rat servant and placed the spirit rice.

In the backyard of the post station, the most eye-catching thing was a huge granary, towering and solid, looking dry and reliable, a good place to store grain.

Yang Zhu and her friends pushed the cart inside. It was pitch black inside, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face.

But you can tell it's empty; there's almost nothing inside.

Yang Zhu brought these grains herself; none of her other brothers and sisters had them. However, they did have quite a few exquisite spiritual foods.

Before the puzzle solvers entered, they had prepared food in advance because they had heard that the story's beginning was about resolving the food shortage.

"Now? Should we really put all this food in? What if it's all gone by tomorrow morning?"

Yang Zhu was a little unsure of what to do.

"These rat servants seem to have some sense of propriety. Let's not provoke them for now, and do as they say. At worst, I still have some here."

Number Six decided to stay out of trouble and behave himself.

Meanwhile, he is now planning something else.
"If what our ancestor said is true, these rats will sneak up and attack us while we sleep at night, then no matter how tired or sleepy we are tonight, we cannot rest."

"Besides, it seems like they have nothing here. What are we going to eat? I'm extremely hungry now."

It's no exaggeration to say that these 10 cultivators, plus that one demon puppet, probably haven't experienced 'hunger' in a long time.

Perhaps knowing their situation, one of the rat servants shouted:
"Are you hungry too?"

"Yes, yes, Your Excellency is extremely discerning!"

Number Six's imitation of a commoner at this moment was somewhat obsequious.

He guessed that the post stations were the only places where they could get food and water, otherwise their situation would have gotten worse and worse.

This place should be able to provide meals.
"Perfect timing, we're hungry too. Go and cook us a couple of dishes."

Number Six: "?"

"What are you looking at? Get up! A bunch of commoners, do you think you can wait on me to serve you?"

The other rat servants also revealed their scarlet eyes.

"We're very picky about what we cook."

"If I can't make it, hehehe~~~"

A group of rats with large rat heads, eyes glowing scarlet, and yellow drool dripping from their mouths looked particularly creepy.

Yang Zhu felt that if she said "no," they would definitely eat her for dinner.

Having already experienced their first encounter, the group dared not change the plot lightly.

I had no choice but to bite the bullet and agree.

"I'll do it right away."

"But where will we get the ingredients we need?"

Upon hearing this question, the rat servants stared at them and chuckled.
"Aren't you guys the same?"

In an instant, Yang Zhu's scalp tingled, and he couldn't help but feel his blood rushing to his head, so he started fighting.

Number Six's hand grasped her forearm.

"The food the adults are talking about... must be the food we brought ourselves, right?"

"That's right~ It's normal for there to be losses on the way to deliver grain. The imperial court has ordered that 30% of the grain can be lost. So, our food and drink come from that 30%?"

Is it about 30% of the target consumption?
But they didn't receive any food at all, so how could they determine how much 30% meant?

However, this was clearly not the time to discuss this issue. After accepting the task of cooking, Yang Zhu and the others hurriedly returned and gathered together.

"Are we really going to cook for them? It's not that we can't. Yiyi is good at cooking spiritual food, she'll definitely be able to cook something delicious. Besides, we have plenty of food stored in our storage rings, we can give them some, but..."

"It's just that our own food isn't filling enough."

They had tried eating what they brought themselves, but it did nothing to alleviate their hunger.

"This is probably a trap. If these rats feel the same way we do, they'll probably get angry after we finish preparing, and then they'll have a reason to attack us."

"Standing on the problem-solving approach," said Number Six.

Everyone nodded.

Thanks to puzzle solvers like Number Six, they were able to avoid many potential pitfalls.

"But we have to cook. Whether it's to fill our own stomachs or to protect ourselves from these rats, we have to make a meal to eat here."

"But where do the real ingredients come from?" Yang Zhu asked the question with a serious look in his eyes.

At this moment, the black mist that had shrouded the post station in front of Yang Genshuo had dissipated, and he could now observe everything in the post station and even open the character cards of each of the rat servants.

Unfortunately, the descriptions of these character cards are still full of questions.

Yang Genshuo had experienced this situation before.

That means that after a powerful being concealed the secrets of heaven, he could no longer see this person's information.

He couldn't see through almost all the disciples of the Heavenly Mystery Sect.

Yang Genshuo believes that in this world, his observations are similar to the examination of the Heavenly Way. If someone obscures the secrets of Heaven, even he can only see question marks.

"In other words, the story of the legendary land is shrouded in mystery by powerful beings, preventing us from seeing it."

Two flowers bloom, one branch each.

Meanwhile, Yang Min, who was elsewhere, also arrived at the Rat Servant Station with his men. After dealing with the rat servants for a while, Yang Min told his nine nephews and nieces to rest, while he took out a [Heavenly Secret Talisman] from his storage ring.

Where does the key to breaking this deadlock lie?

As the [Heavenly Secret Talisman] burned, four large characters appeared before Yang Min.

"【The secrets of heaven are unpredictable】."

Yang Min's Heavenly Secret Talisman has failed.

"It's a pity that my [Heavenly Secret Talisman] warning function will not be triggered in this way."

Yang Min continued to think of other ways to break the deadlock.

Yang Genshuo also saw from him that this legendary land blocked 'deduction' type spells and treasures, making it impossible to take shortcuts.

"Then we can only rely on our own understanding of the story."

Later, some other teams arrived at the post station, and Yang Genshuo briefly shared his experience there.

Among them, puzzle solver number 12 pondered for a moment and then walked towards the granary.

"The one who tied the knot must untie it. Since he said we should find the food we brought ourselves, perhaps there is something mysterious in the granary of this post station."

His choice was also the choice of many who wanted to decipher the mystery.

But following Yang Zhu's side, number six felt a bit uneasy.

"I could guess that some of my friends would choose to start with the granary and find some materials inside, but when I went in, I felt very uncomfortable. It was so dark that it felt like countless eyes were watching me."

“That place has only one exit. If someone closes it from behind, we’ll be trapped inside. I don’t plan to go any further.”

"Perhaps we should go out for a walk around and find something to eat."

These are all strategies, and they haven't been tested yet, so Yang Genshuo doesn't know who is right and who is wrong.

"However, the rat servant's words pointed to the granary. Isn't that a clue and a hint?"

Yang Genshuo muttered to himself.

He didn't talk to Number 6 because Number 6 would definitely understand such a simple principle, and he must have a better way to test the waters.

Number 6's solution approach was relatively conservative. Other solvers had more aggressive approaches, less common approaches, and there was also a rather unconventional number 9.

"My lords, are you able to contact the Ancestor now?"

Yang Qiangjin nodded gently.

"Our ancestor can contact us at any time. What? Do you have something to say to our ancestor?"

"I want to use the ancestor's divine eye to check the layout of the post station and the current location of each rat servant. I have an idea that might be able to break the deadlock."

"Oh?"

The assassins trained by Yang Qiangjing naturally knew some of the ancestor's abilities.

Yang Genshuo felt someone calling him.

"Ancestor, Ancestor?"

"what happened?"

"Ancestor, could you please take a look at the layout of the post station for us?"

Yang Genshuo quickly learned that this was No. 9's idea. He remembered that No. 6, whom he often paid attention to, seemed to admire No. 9 quite a bit. Now No. 6 was still taking Yang Zhu and the others out for a stroll, without making any breakthrough progress.

This is a good opportunity to take a look around.

The layout of the post stations was the same everywhere, and the rodents were also much the same.

With a sweep of his divine sense, Yang Genshuo drew a map of the entire post station layout and the locations of the rat servants, which appeared in the sky.

With a gentle tap of her hand, Yang Qiangjin sent wisps of fine flames flying through the air, outlining a pattern identical to the one that Number 9 could see.

After reading it, Number 9 took out a formation plate and began to deduce the formation on it.
His fingers trembled rapidly, and steam rose from his head.

Yang Genshuo then realized that this No. 9 was practicing a rare method of cultivating divine consciousness.

"It seems that for these puzzle solvers, a clever mind is more important than magical ability."

A moment later, number 9 had finished.

"Found them! Let's raid their house!"

"Um???"

Yang Qiangjin and Li Minsi were both surprised. The strength of the two sides was not yet clear, and Number 9 actually wanted to take the initiative to attack?
Yang Genshuo also didn't quite understand.

From his perspective, these rat servants' abilities are similar to those of the Hungry Officials—they have no boundaries, they are all governed by rules. It's hard to say whether ordinary magic can deal with them. However, this disruption of the story's direction might drive the rat servants, who were originally quite peaceful, into a frenzy. Just like at the beginning, because they didn't accept the mission, the Hungry Officials got angry and directly called for reinforcements to attack.

If he hadn't arrived in time, Yang Zhu's kidneys would have been ripped out, and he probably wouldn't have survived.
This post station is teeming with rat servants, with 20 rat servants in each household. Once they all attack at once, it will be very difficult for anyone to escape unscathed.

"Isn't the puzzle solver's mission to survive as much as possible? Why do I feel like Number 9 is courting death?"

Number 9 was not surprised at all when he heard the ancestor's question.

“Ancestor, you may have observed the decryption methods of others. Although we are a team, our abilities are still divided in different ways. As Lady Yang Qiangjing said, one way of thinking can never solve all events. Our team also allows for multiple different ways of thinking to help us adjust our direction, and I am the one who solves the mystery.”

"My method may seem unsafe, but it is indeed risky."

Good grief, after all this rambling, it's still about taking risks, isn't it?

"However, it helps us to understand each character in this story. I don't know if you've noticed, but this story places special emphasis on characters. Everyone has their own role and their own task. We are the escorts, those who assign tasks are officials, and those who run the post stations along the way are yamen runners. You showed me their introductions, and there was one sentence that was specifically mentioned."

"No one would want to do this arduous job in a remote and impoverished area, so why are so many yamen runners flocking to it?"

"In other words, these people are essentially yamen runners. What are yamen runners? To put it bluntly, they are temporary workers without any official rank. Compared to officials, they are just small fry who can only bully the people who are escorting grain. Therefore, there are many of them, and they have no authority."

"I wonder if you remember the starving official at the beginning of the story. That official had a hole in his stomach, symbolizing their insatiable greed and bottomless pits. So bribery was effective; it could appease their anger and also extract some information."

"These rat servants, with rat faces and human bodies, are completely covered by clothes. Perhaps this symbolizes that their character is actually as timid as a rat. We have been deceived by their numbers and appearance. In fact, they are very weak."

hiss~~~
Yang Genshuo gasped!
Despite his seemingly reckless nature, number 9 possesses remarkable observational skills!
They connected all the seemingly useless information and deduced a likely correct answer!

This person is a man of great talent!
"The above is all based on my thinking about the 'identity' of this story, and the way to verify whether my reasoning is correct is to expose their true colors."

"Please let me go!"

(End of this chapter)