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The village guards, who had been closing in, froze in place as if frozen in place.

As a gust of cold wind blew, a layer of white frost formed on the ground at a speed visible to the naked eye.

Xu Hao's back stiffened abruptly, and the sweat on his skin instantly froze into ice crystals.

Before he could hear any footsteps, he felt an extremely dangerous aura instantly approaching from behind.

A strong gust of wind swept in, and five sharp claws aimed straight at the back of his head.

Xu Hao was startled and instinctively turned his head to the left, relying on his years of practical experience.

The claws barely grazed his right ear, leaving a stinging, bloody gash.

Before he could regain his balance, the claw that had missed its mark suddenly flipped its wrist, turning the claw into a palm, and slammed it hard into his chest.

"boom!"

In that instant, Xu Hao felt as if he had been struck head-on by a massive, swung iron hammer, and a muffled thud came from his chest, as if he were being crushed by an unbearable weight.

The last bit of true energy that had been painstakingly accumulated dissipated instantly under the violent shock of this palm strike.

He staggered back several steps, his legs completely losing their support, his knees buckled, and he knelt heavily on the ground.

The whole world seemed to be shaking violently before my eyes, and all I could hear was a sharp buzzing sound.

Xu Hao braced himself on the ground with both hands, digging his fingers into the soil, trying to resist the dizzying sensation that was dragging him deeper into the abyss.

Tap, tap, tap.

Light footsteps echoed in the alleyway.

A pair of old-fashioned black cloth shoes gradually came into his blurry vision.

Xu Hao gritted his trembling teeth and struggled to lift his head to look upwards.

The attacker stopped half a meter away, looking down at him.

His face was expressionless, and his eyes were like a stagnant pool, completely still.

It was none other than Manager Wu, who had recruited him to this place.

“Bring this two-legged sheep along too, and the offerings will be complete.”

Manager Wu spoke with a blank expression and an extremely cold tone.

Xu Hao opened his mouth, wanting to swear, but only a dry "clucking" sound came out of his throat.

The next second, endless darkness completely swallowed his consciousness.

With a thud, he fell heavily onto the cold mud.

At the very moment Xu Hao lost consciousness, in a sanatorium more than ten kilometers away...

The man standing by the window seemed to sense something and stopped what he was doing, holding a glass of water and drinking tea.

He then turned his head, his gaze passing over the deep night and landing in the depths of the Western Hills.

He sensed the suddenly severed connection within the solar network.

..............................

Deep in the Western Hills lies the ancient locust village.

A cold wind swept across the treetops outside the ancestral hall.

The crows cawed and scattered, as if disturbed by something terrifying.

The nearly full moon in the sky gradually descended, eventually disappearing behind the undulating mountain ridges.

A grayish-blue hue appeared on the horizon, and the thick fog gradually dissipated, as if it had never existed.

The Eastern Capital, adjacent to the Western Hills, was also slowly awakening from the darkness.

The first rays of dawn pierced through the clouds, casting a slanted light on the glass curtain walls of the towering buildings.

The early morning bus pulled out of the station, its wheels rolling over the dew-covered asphalt, producing a low, rumbling noise.

The traffic lights at the intersection flashed alternately, and plumes of white steam rose from the steamer baskets of the breakfast stalls on the street corner.

The sounds of conversations and the roar of car engines mingled together, marking the start of an ordinary yet bustling day for the city.

But this clamor belonging to the living only extends to the outskirts of the Western Hills.

In the depths of the rolling mountains and forests, time seems to slow down.

Sunlight struggled to penetrate the dense canopy of trees, casting dappled patterns of light on the muddy ground covered with decaying leaves.

As the sun moves from east to west, the light and shadow slowly move and lengthen on the tree trunk.

The daytime temperature continued to rise, but it did not dispel the chill in the mountain valley.

The moisture accumulated on the ground, when baked by the sun, instead evaporates into a layer of grayish-white miasma, shrouding the ancient locust village hidden at the bottom of the valley like a secret realm.

Sun rises and sets, then sunsets again.

As the office buildings in the city gradually lit up with neon lights, the sun over the western hills had already completely sunk below the horizon.

The dim light on the horizon had just faded when a perfectly round moon rose over the eastern mountains.

The rising moon still had a slightly dim orange hue.

As it slowly climbed to the center of the night sky, the last remaining warm colors were completely stripped away, and the light turned into a chilling, deathly white.

The cold moonlight pierced through the thick miasma and shone directly into the ancient locust village, sprinkling onto the open ground of the old ancestral hall site.

A fine layer of white frost quickly condensed on the cracked stone slab surface.

From the narrow alleys deep in the village, the creaking sound of wooden doors turning could be heard.

One lamp, two lamps, ten... ten lamps...

Scattered, eerie green lights appeared one after another at the ends of each alleyway.

Accompanied by the creaking of wheelbarrows, a series of synchronized footsteps echoed from all directions of the village.

Dozens of dark figures carrying white paper lanterns lined up in a long row, their feet crunching on the frost-covered ground, slowly converging towards the abandoned well in the center of the ancestral hall.

On the fifteenth day of the lunar calendar, the night of the full moon, the traditional sacrificial ceremony in Guhuai Village officially began.

....................................

"Well……"

Xu Hao grunted, his fingers twitching slightly.

A sharp pain shot through my chest, accompanied by the pounding of my heart, tearing at my nerves with each beat.

He slowly opened his eyes, his vision initially a blurry double image, which gradually focused under the cold moonlight.

A strong, pungent smell of blood, mixed with the stench of decay and mold, assaulted my nostrils.

He found himself tied to a thick, solid wooden pillar.

His hands were tied behind his back, and his body was wrapped with hemp rope as thick as a thumb.

The hemp rope was stained with blood and emitted a nauseating smell; its rough fibers dug directly into the flesh.

Their feet were also bound with the same hemp rope and fixed to the bottom of the wooden post.

Xu Hao tried twisting his wrist.

But the rope was tied extremely tightly, and the knot was a dead knot specifically used to bind livestock; the more the animal struggled, the deeper it was pulled.

The rough bark rubbed against his bare back, and the wounds inflicted by the claws reopened, oozing warm blood that flowed down his spine.

He gasped and stopped his futile struggle.

Then he turned his neck and looked around at his surroundings.

This is the open space in the very center of the ancestral hall.

The large, dark well was less than ten meters directly in front of him.

He had no idea how long he had been tied up here after being knocked unconscious. To his left stood another wooden pillar.

A gaunt village guard was tied to a pillar.

The man's head drooped, his eyes were unfocused, and a long strand of drool hung from the corner of his mouth. He was unresponsive to his surroundings, like a piece of livestock waiting to be slaughtered.

To his right, there also stood a wooden pillar.

When Xu Hao saw what was tied to his right side, his eyes twitched involuntarily twice.

That's the guy whose ribs were shattered by his Liver-Exploding Fist and whose chest was burned through by his true energy.

At this moment, the corpse's chest cavity still showed signs of indentation, and the skin and flesh at the edges were carbonized by the high temperature, presenting a charred black color.

What made Xu Hao's scalp tingle was that the hole that had been pierced through had been sewn up crookedly with black thread, like sewing a sack.

The body was incapacitated and was only kept from collapsing to the ground by being bound with rope.

Having grasped the situation, Xu Hao took a deep breath of the chilly air, closed his eyes, and quickly lowered his mind.

He tried to continue practicing the "Great Sun Burning Body Technique".

However, the dantian was empty, like a dried-up well.

The previous life-or-death battle not only exhausted all his accumulated true energy, but also pushed his own blood and qi to their limit.

Without ten days to half a month of rest and recuperation, don't expect to squeeze out even a trace of heat.

Unable to rely on his true qi, Xu Hao immediately connected to the Sun Heart Network in his mind, attempting to call upon the guild master.

"Boss? Can you hear me?"

"The target location has been confirmed. Jiang Chen's true form is in the well in the ancestral hall of Guhuai Village. I've been captured. Requesting backup!"

He repeatedly sent the message in his mind.

Several seconds passed, and there was no response.

Normally, the mental network that he could establish immediately with just a slight thought was now completely cut off by some invisible barrier.

Thinking of his isolated and helpless situation, Xu Hao swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing up and down.

The panic in his heart grew wildly like weeds, but he forcibly suppressed his rapid breathing.

Years of experience in street brawls taught him that the more desperate the situation, the less he should let his opponent see his weakness.

Just then, a light footstep sound came from the side door of the ancestral hall.

Xu Hao raised his head, his gaze passing over the well, and looked in the direction of the sound.

Two figures walked slowly, one after the other, stepping on the white frost on the ground.

Walking in front was Manager Wu, who was wearing a gray coarse cloth jacket.

He carried a paper lantern that emitted a faint green light, and his face remained expressionless.

Following behind Manager Wu was an elderly man leaning on a cane.

The old man was wearing an extremely well-made black bespoke suit with a dark red silk tie at the collar.

This outfit looked quite out of place in the desolate and dilapidated ancestral hall of Guhuai Village.

The old man had a hunched back and walked very slowly.

The handle of the cane was a lion's head made of solid gold, which reflected a dazzling light in the moonlight as he walked.

His cheeks were sunken, his skin was covered with large patches of dark brown age spots, and his eyes had a sickly bluish tinge around them.

Although it seemed as if a gust of wind could blow it over, the old man's eyes shone with an unusual fervor, his gaze fixed firmly on that large, dark well.

The two stopped at the edge of the well, looking down into the well as if observing what was happening inside.

Seeing this, Xu Hao spat a mouthful of bloody saliva onto the ground, breaking the silence first:
"Old Wu, you've been practicing this skill of stabbing someone in the back for years, haven't you?"

Upon hearing the sound, Manager Wu turned his head, a hint of surprise appearing in his usually stagnant eyes:
"You woke up so quickly?"

"Hey!"

Xu Hao grinned, his chapped lips parted, his tone full of mockery:
"I'm just baffled. Does your lousy company hire people just so they can be tied to pillars and left to stand in the cold wind?"

Manager Wu looked at him quietly without answering.

The old man next to him, who was leaning on a cane, turned around, covered his mouth with a snow-white handkerchief, and coughed violently twice.

"Ahem...Young man, don't get so worked up."

The old man put down his handkerchief and said in a hoarse voice:

"You could have lived a little longer, at least you could have enjoyed a few months of peace and quiet in this village, but you were too curious and had to do something reckless, violating the taboos here."

Xu Hao sneered, slightly raising his chin, and said disdainfully:

"Old man, from which grave did you crawl out of?"

“Let me tell you straight, I, Xu Hao, have powerful backers in the underworld. If my boss finds out I’ve disappeared while on a mission, believe me, he’ll bring a bunch of men and raze your whole village to the ground tomorrow!”

The old man was not angry after hearing these arrogant words; instead, he let out a lousy laugh.

He tapped the stone slabs on the ancestral hall floor with the bottom of his cane.

"A powerful backer? The boss?"

The old man shook his head, his eyes filled with a condescending pity as he looked at Xu Hao.

“On the day you came for the job interview, Manager Wu reported to me your performance on the phone word for word. You asked for a million-dollar annual salary, a private bathroom, a chauffeur service, and even cursed at the HR manager on the phone.”

The old man paused, and the sarcasm at the corner of his mouth became even more pronounced.

“We were thinking, how could anyone in this world be so stupid as to use this method to go undercover? Real spies are all cautious and discreet. The way you're doing it, it's like you're writing ‘I'm here to cause trouble’ all over your face.”

"Therefore, we all agree that you are nothing more than a simple-minded, physically strong gangster who happened to learn some rudimentary external martial arts and thought he was invincible. Because you accidentally discovered my secret, you thought of coming here to extort money."

Xu Hao squinted, his back teeth grinding together.

It turns out that my supposedly flawless disguise was actually perceived as such in the eyes of the other party.

"I've been in charge of recruitment for so many years, and I've seen countless 'two-legged sheep' (people who are not qualified to work for hire)."

Supervisor Wu took a step forward, carrying a lantern. His cold gaze swept over Xu Hao's bound body, and he spoke:
“According to the rules, your vital energy is very abundant, making you a rare and superior vessel. I plan to leave you in the village so that the formation can slowly absorb your vital energy to nourish your master.”

He raised his stiff hand and pointed to the corpse roughly stitched up with black thread on the wooden pillar to his right.

"But you are too restless and broke one of the master's favorite containers. That container was originally intended to be nurtured and used to house a trace of the master's divine will."

"Since you have destroyed it, the only way to make up for the shortfall in tonight's sacrifice is with you. The master will surely be very satisfied with this body full of vitality."

Upon hearing this, Xu Hao suddenly leaned forward and shouted angrily:
"Trying to slaughter me? Screw you!"

If it weren't for the tight hemp rope binding his shoulders, he would have loved to smash the other person's nose with his head.

After cursing a few times, he looked at Manager Wu's expressionless, zombie-like face and sneered.

"Look at yourself now, you look like a dead man, neither human nor ghost, not even a wisp of warmth on your body. You're acting as a dog for the monster at the bottom of the well, and you even feel superior about it?"

The old man listened to Xu Hao's insults but did not get angry. Instead, he shook his head with a sigh.

"Looks like a dead man? Young man, you have no idea what a real miracle is."

The old man ignored Xu Hao's reaction and turned to look at Manager Wu.

His gaze lingered on that face, seemingly untouched by the passage of time, and his tone betrayed a complex emotion:

"Manager Wu, you look much younger than me. But who would have thought that thirty years ago, you were also a dying man lying in a hospital bed, needing machines to breathe?"

Manager Wu lowered his eyelids slightly and answered in a flat tone:

“This is all a blessing from the master. Mr. Qian, as long as the sacrifice goes well tonight and the master returns to the world, you will receive the same blessing.”

The old man, referred to as Chairman Qian, took a deep breath of the cold air, his chest heaving violently a few times:

"Yes... the gift of eternal life..." (End of Chapter)