No taboos

Chapter 575 Picking up people
Along the village road beside the golden wheat fields, a farmer walks ahead, his hunchback resembling a high-arched tortoise shell.

Xu Yuan looked at the "wheat field" again, and all the rice ears "blinked" at the same time.

For some reason, Xu Yuan also blinked.

When I opened my eyes again, the wheat ears had returned to normal.

It swayed gently in the wind, heavy with its weight.

Each awn is straight and slender, like a steel needle.

A faint fragrance of rice wafts by.

Do you think this show of force can intimidate Lord Xu? You're underestimating him.

Xu Yuan followed behind the hunchbacked man and asked, "What do you do with all the grain you harvest every year that you can't eat?"

"Every year after the harvest, we have to offer 60% to the Dragon King. The rest is enough for us to eat for a year."

It's the Dragon King again.

And why does this Dragon King look like a tax collector?

But in such a small village with only a few dozen households, even if the Dragon King takes everything and the agricultural tax reaches 60%, how much can he collect?
What use are these things to the Dragon King of Luohe?

When we reached the west end of the village, there was a large courtyard with five large tiled houses, which was the most impressive in the entire village.

"Village chief, village chief—"

A rough voice rang out in the courtyard, cursing, "What are you doing, calling back souls so early in the morning!"

The hunchbacked man shouted excitedly, "A new person has come to the village!"

Immediately, hurried footsteps came from inside, and the two large, black doors swung open with a bang, pulling out a tall, imposing man: "Where..."

He had already seen Xu Yuan, and a look of satisfaction immediately appeared in his eyes.

"Not bad, not bad, still very young, and can have children..."

Xu Yuan was speechless. What kind of comments were these?
But does this also mean that the village is facing a shortage of people?
The village chief came out, patted Xu Yuan's shoulder hard with his rough hand, and stroked his thick beard with his other hand: "Kid, would you like to stay?"

The hunchbacked man quickly interjected, "He's willing, I've already asked him..."

The village chief glared at him fiercely: "Shut up! I didn't ask you anything."

Xu Yuan deliberately showed a hesitant expression—to test the waters one more time.

As expected, Xu Yuan hesitated to answer, and the bearded village chief's eyes gradually turned cold.

"Huh? You don't want to? You still want to leave?"

His sideburns grew rapidly, like dragon manes!

It has two horns on its head, wide-open nostrils, and protruding fangs in its mouth.

Dragon-like appearance.

The village chief's dragon-like features were more pronounced than those of the hunchbacked man.

Even the village chief's demeanor became domineering and fierce.

“I’m willing,” Xu Yuan said, “but I have nothing to my name. How will I survive in the village?”

"Hahaha!" The village chief laughed loudly, and the strange expressions on his face immediately disappeared: "You don't need to worry about that. I'll gather everyone right away and build you a house first. Then you can choose any piece of land among these on the edge of the village."

Our land is very fertile, and there's so much land that everyone can't cultivate it all, so feel free to choose any land you like.

I'll lend you the seeds and farm tools now; remember to return them next year. No interest required.

Xu Yuan looked extremely grateful, clasped his hands and bowed, saying, "Thank you very much, Village Chief."

"Haha, it's no big deal."

The hunchbacked man seemed a little anxious, pacing around aimlessly like a tortoise crawling.

"Village chief, village chief, he's one of my men..."

The village chief held up two fingers: "Two and eight, you have two, I have eight..."

"How can this be? I found it first." The man's face turned red with anger, and his hunchback arched even higher, showing that he was unwilling to give up easily.

The village chief snorted and held up five fingers: "You have four, I have six."

"Five-five..." The hunchbacked man had barely uttered the words when the village chief slapped him on the back.

With a thud, the man was pressed down and fell face-first to the ground.

"You think I'm giving you face?" the village chief cursed as he grabbed the man's head with his other hand and pulled hard, stretching his neck out to its maximum length.

The hunchbacked man hurriedly shouted, "Forty-six, forty-six!"

The village chief then shook him off and said, "Go and ring the bell to summon all the villagers, young and old."

The hunchbacked man walked away dejectedly, his head drooping.

The village chief, all smiles, said to Xu Yuan, "Come on, I'll take you to pay respects to the Dragon King first."

Xu Yuan did not refuse; it was time to meet this Dragon King.

The village chief brought incense and candles and said to Xu Yuan on the way, "Consider these incense and candles a loan from me. Remember to return them to me next year."

Xu Yuan glanced at them and noticed that the incense and candles were crudely made.

The village chief said, "The incense was made by Granny Liu, and the candles were made by Chen Wu. We have to buy these things from them, because no one else in the village knows how to make them."

Xu Yuan wondered to himself, could this isolated village be completely self-sufficient?

"Who do you buy pots, pans, needles, and thread from?" Xu Yuan asked.

The village chief said, "Every now and then, a peddler will come by boat. He has everything. If you want to buy something, just remember what you want in advance and buy it from him when the time comes."

If you don't have money, you can exchange the grain you grow, the fish you catch in the river, and the pearls you collect.

A peddler? Xu Yuan's heart skipped a beat. Was this the kind of person who could freely enter and leave this village?

Xu Yuan tentatively asked further, "Is our village the only one in Xiaoyu Mountain? Did the peddler make a special trip just for us?"

“Who said we’re the only village?” the village chief said. “There are twenty-four villages in these mountains. Our village is small. The big villages have thousands of people.”

However, the roads in the mountains are difficult to travel, and it's not possible to visit each other's villages..."

At this point, the village chief suddenly turned to look at Xu Yuan, a strange smile spreading across his face: "Are you worried about your life's most important thing, kid?"
Don't worry, every year on the third day of the third lunar month, the Dragon King will bestow blessings upon you young people. Young people from different villages can meet at the Dragon King Temple, and if you like each other, the Dragon King will act as matchmaker for you, hehehe.”

The village chief then said earnestly, "So, just stay here in the village. The Dragon King has been incredibly kind to us and has arranged everything for us."

Xu Yuan understood that this was because the village was too small, and young people of marriageable age could not find partners in the village. In order to prevent the species from becoming extinct, the villages had to "exchange resources".

"We've arrived." The village chief stood in front of the magnificent Dragon King Temple and immediately put on a solemn and respectful expression: "Young man, when you live in the village, remember that you must never show any disrespect to the Dragon King under any circumstances!"

Even thinking it in your mind isn't allowed! Otherwise…

The village chief turned around, his eyes fixed intently on Xu Yuan, as if trying to see into his heart: "He will surely die in the storm and be devoured by fish!"

Xu Yuan's heart stirred, and he bowed, saying, "I understand."

"Come in." The village chief stepped over the high threshold and entered the Dragon King Temple.

Xu Yuan followed him inside.

Almost the instant he stepped into the temple, Xu Yuan felt a pair of eyes behind him!
Lord Xu turned around abruptly. Above the lintel behind the temple gate was a narrow, elongated mural, which was an extension of the murals on the walls on both sides behind the gate.

The mural is a "cloud and rain scene".

A divine dragon is in the clouds, spraying rain onto the parched earth.

But these raindrops were actually densely packed barbed fishhooks!

Farmers working the land were hooked through their collarbones and suspended in mid-air!

Behind the lintel is precisely where the head of that "divine dragon" is located.

Xu Yuan saw those sinister dragon eyes, shifting furtively, staring at his back!
But then, in a moment of confusion, everything before Xu Yuan's eyes changed.

The "clouds and rain" scene became normal again. The dragon showered down a shower of rain, and the earth was revitalized. The farmers, with grateful smiles on their faces, kept bowing to the dragon in the sky.

The dragon's eyes also became compassionate and majestic, and since it was just a painting, the pupils did not move around.

Xu Yuan slowly turned back, but became even more wary.

The phrase "No Taboos" kept flashing.

Resisting the various "tricks" in the temple, Xu Yuan was able to see the true face behind the illusions!
Inside the temple, almost all the sculptures are dragon images of various kinds, and all the patterns are dragon patterns.

However, the beams and pillars on both sides of the main hall are not decorated with painted dragons, but with countless gray-white snake bones with their heads and tails connected, and with withered rice ears stuffed into their hollow eye sockets.

A huge boat-shaped incense burner was placed in front of the door, already filled with incense sticks and piled high with ash.

But amidst the incense ash, several human finger bones were partially buried, and dark red human oil seeping from the furnace walls was slowly dripping down.

But all of this seemed to vanish in a daze, and then it was all covered up again.

When Xu Yuan looked again, all he could see was a magnificent and vast Dragon King Temple.

Inside the main hall, an old man was kneeling on the ground, holding a large fish in his hands.

"Dragon King, this old man caught a big fish today and specially brought it to you—"

The village chief then pulled Xu Yuan aside and waited for him in the courtyard.

This old man was very hardworking. He went out to fish early in the morning and was the first to catch fish, which he then brought back to offer as a sacrifice.

He knelt before the statue of the god and kowtowed heavily, the sound echoing through the hall.

He held the large fish high with his thin arms.

It was an ordinary carp, weighing over ten kilograms!
Xu Yuan closed his eyes, then opened them again after a moment.

The power of "no taboos" has been unleashed to its fullest extent; it is imperative to see everything clearly!
His soul floated out of the old man's body, yet it did not truly leave his body.

If this state occurs elsewhere, it indicates an unstable soul, which would put the person in danger.

However, inside this grand hall, Xu Yuan sensed that things were not so simple.

The spirit was seen raising its hands high in front of its forehead, as if holding incense.

Three wisps of incense smoke, seemingly of the same substance as the soul, rose slowly, like three small snakes nailed to the void, heading straight towards the statue.

As this "smoke" was continuously poured into the statue, the old man's soul rapidly withered away!

But just as the soul was weakening to the point of being unable to sustain itself, the incense burned out.

Immediately afterwards, the large fish in the old man's hand dried up at a speed visible to the naked eye, and all its vital energy was injected into the old man's body.

The old man was immediately invigorated.

The fish was completely reduced to dust and scattered.

The old man's face was radiant, and he was in better condition than ever before.

His withered soul shrank back into his body, seemingly nourished by the body's vital energy, and began to slowly recover.

"Thank you for your kindness, Dragon King!"

The old man stood up, swaying unsteadily as if drunk, but with a look of pure enjoyment on his face.

"Hehehe..." The old man chuckled as he staggered out. His behavior was incredibly strange.

Then, ignoring the village chief and Xu Yuan standing outside the door, he uncontrollably twisted and waved his hands and feet, and ran out of the temple laughing all the way.

Xu Yuan blinked again, and the golden light of "No Taboos" gradually dimmed.

I've roughly figured it out; the Dragon King of Luohe is forcibly extracting the villagers' faith.

This kind of extraction severely damages the soul.

Then, using a cunning trick, it drained the "nutrients" from the offerings and injected them into the villagers' bodies.

A body with abundant blood and energy can have a certain nourishing effect on the soul, but it is absolutely impossible to completely restore it.

The old man's strange behavior and uncontrolled bodily movements were a direct reaction to the damage to his soul, which had become out of sync with his body.

These villagers are just consumables to the Dragon King.

"All that the Dragon King of Luo River did seemed to be in a great hurry."

"Moreover, judging from how the village chief and the old man are used to all of this, it must have always been like this in the village, rather than the Dragon King deciding to do this only after the Mountain Lord arrived."

Why is it in such a hurry?

The village chief beckoned to Xu Yuan: "Let's offer incense."

The village chief lit incense, held it to his forehead, and kowtowed three times with utmost piety and respect.

Then he led Xu Yuan into the hall to kowtow.

Xu Yuan looked closely and saw clearly: on the altar was a magnificent, five-zhang-tall dragon god statue.

There are also many dilapidated Dragon King temples throughout Huangming.

The dragon god statues enshrined in these Dragon King Temples are mostly depicted with dragon heads and human bodies, dressed in bright yellow dragon robes.

But the dragon god statue in front of us is different; it is a two-headed true dragon god statue!
The only difference is that one of their heads is bigger than the other.

The largest one is the dragon's head, held high, glaring down with unparalleled majesty.

The smaller one, however, resembles a snake's head, coiled around the lower part of the dragon's head.

The dragon's body is also somewhat different, with a noticeably large belly, somewhat resembling a large-bellied serpent.

Each of the four dragon claws held a weapon.

They are: sword, seal, bow, and shield.

However, the shield was shaped strangely, looking somewhat like... a turtle shell.

The village chief watched as Xu Yuan bowed to the Dragon King, then smiled and said, "Good, good, from now on we're family!"

Xu Yuan thought to himself, "Not necessarily."

When Xu Yuan knelt down to worship, he felt his "unfettered" golden light shining brightly.

A certain force that silently spread from nothingness was repelled.

Xu Yuan found it strange that this "Dragon King" did not take any further action.

As the two left the Dragon King Temple, the villagers had already gathered at the temple entrance.

Many people are complaining: "They're not even our people, yet they're wasting our time for several days."

"I was just about to catch a big fish when the bell rang and the fish got scared away."

"Village chief, you have to provide meals this time, right? You can't let us help out; we have to go home for dinner..."

The village chief clapped his hands together and shouted angrily, "Shut up, all of you! What's wrong with a village helping each other out?"
"If anyone refuses to put in the effort, I won't care about them once you have your own people!"

Everyone then pursed their lips and fell silent.

The village chief turned to Xu Yuan and said with a smile, "Don't pay attention to these fools. Come on, I'll take you to choose a place. There's a vacant lot next to my house, so why don't we choose that place to build our house?"

“Okay,” Xu Yuan agreed. He saw the little girl’s brother and father from yesterday in the crowd.

The village has only about thirty households, and even if all the able-bodied men were gathered together, there would only be forty or fifty people.

Under the village chief's organization, these people worked together to build a thatched hut for Xu Yuan on a vacant lot not far from the village chief's house, and then fenced off a piece of land to make a yard.

Everyone went home at noon and ate their own lunch.

Even if Xu Yuan wanted to provide meals, there was no food available right now.

I continued working in the afternoon when a village woman in her forties came briskly towards me. Before she even arrived, her voice rang out: "More people are coming! Village chief, you should go and see what's going on. It's a huge group!"
These people are all mine!

The village woman was wearing a blue cloth jacket and a white floral headscarf. Because she was running so fast and was so excited, the headscarf was shaken open.

Everyone was taken aback, and the village chief rushed out to ask, "How many people are there?"

“Seven, a full seven!” The village woman’s lips trembled slightly.

"Take me to see this quickly," the village chief said.

The young and strong men who were building the houses were so frustrated that they kept slapping their thighs.

"Oh dear! It's all because of building this house for this kid, otherwise all these people would be mine!"

"I was catching fish by the river today, and I must have found these people first!"

"It's all that kid's fault—"

Standing next to Xu Yuan were the little girl's father and brother, both of whom looked regretful.

Xu Yuan asked in a low voice, "So what if we found someone?"

The older brother blurted out, "If we can get five people together, we can go..."

*Slap!* Before he could finish speaking, he was slapped by his father.

He squatted down to one side, fuming, and stopped talking.

Xu Yuan understood: These people weren't truly ignorant and completely controlled by the Dragon King.

But... how long will it take to gather five people just by "picking up" people who have accidentally wandered into the village?
This doesn't make sense.

It seems there are still some inside stories I don't know about.

"Let's go take a look." Someone shouted, and everyone stopped working, dropped their tools, and went together.

Xu Yuan followed behind, ready to watch the excitement.

On the way, the little girl's brother, Li Shanzhu, casually remarked, "What's going on these past two days? We don't see anyone come in for a whole year..."

When everyone arrived, the village chief had already received the seven people.

To Xu Yuan's surprise, the leader of the seven was a fortune teller who carried a yin-yang fish satchel, held a cloth banner, and had a black spot the size of a copper coin on his left cheek.

The banner had three large characters written on it: "Three doesn't count."

However, he was also very obese, which did not quite fit the image of a fortune teller who traveled from street to street and lived a life of poverty.

A group of people were standing in front of Li Shanzhu's house. The fortune teller pointed to the yard and said eloquently, "Fellow villagers, I am destined to meet you all."

One of my three "not counting" principles is that I have no reason to count.

"If I hadn't gotten lost in the mountains and accidentally wandered into your village, I wouldn't have seen these evil spirits."

He slammed the cloth banner he was holding heavily on the ground and said in a solemn tone, "Your village is about to face a great calamity!"

Li Shanzhu's mother was standing at the door. She immediately became angry and jumped up, pointing at the fortune teller's nose and cursing, "Where did this bastard come from? His mouth is full of filth. Do you think you can fool your grandma?"

What makes you think you can spout nonsense in our village?
"Look at all that fat on you! Before the New Year, I'll slaughter you and render you into oil!"

Xu Yuan truly hadn't realized yesterday that the little girl's mother possessed such combat power!
Perhaps... this is the true strength of the village woman in the mountains?
Spit sprayed all over the fortune teller's face, but he remained calm and composed, calculating with his hands, looking unfathomable, and asked, "Did your family catch a net of fish yesterday?"

Did you kill any animals yesterday?

Li Shanzhu was taken aback and cautiously asked, "Yes, yes, is there something wrong?"

"Hehehe!" The fortune teller sneered, "You bunch of ignorant country bumpkins, you don't even realize you're about to die!"

"Huh?" Li Shanzhu exclaimed, "That can't be! Our village is protected by the Dragon King; no one has ever died a violent death..."

"Hmph!" the fortune teller snorted, clearly not taking the "Dragon King" he mentioned seriously.

In this day and age, it's normal for a village to have no temple; it's abnormal for a village to have a temple.

"That's enough," the fortune teller sighed, looking up at the sky with a compassionate expression, though his fat body couldn't quite live up to the image of a reclusive master.

"I will gladly accept divine punishment and reveal heavenly secrets to save your lives." He pointed to the courtyard again and said, "What you caught yesterday was not fish, but a group of evil spirits!"
What you killed yesterday were the mothers of those evil spirits!
These evil spirits now hate your family and your village to the core; this is a terrible calamity!

Everyone gasped in shock, their faces paling: "Ah?!"

Xu Yuan, on the other hand, was somewhat unsure whether the fat man was truly capable.

What he said... was a mix of truth and falsehood; it didn't seem like he was completely guessing, but it also didn't seem like he had truly seen through the truth.

Xu Yuan looked down and then up, quietly opening the "Looking at Fate" app to carefully examine the seven people.

"This is interesting..."

Li Shanzhu rushed home, picked up the wooden basin, and ran towards the Dragon King Temple.

"I'll go and beg the Dragon King to destroy these evil spirits!"

The fortune teller suddenly panicked. "If the Dragon King destroys these evil spirits, how am I supposed to continue my freeloading... no, how am I supposed to save the world!"

"No!" the fortune teller shouted, rushed forward, and with a wave of his hand, a gust of wind rose from his sleeve, and the wooden basin in Li Shanzhu's hand crashed to the ground.

The water, mixed with the "fish," flowed all over the ground.

The fortune teller muttered incantations, pointed his fingers at the ground, and shouted, "Evil spirits and demons, quickly reveal your true forms—hurry!"

The villagers then saw a spark fly out from his fingertip—

Xu Yuan quietly stepped back a little.

The flames fell to the ground, and with a loud "boom," a red shadow soared into the air!

Then, even the fortune teller's expression changed: "Ah..."

One after another, ferocious demon soldiers rose up!

They had been holding it in for two days, and they were so scared that they wet their pants! Luckily, they were in the water, so no one could tell!

Now that the restrictions on his body had suddenly disappeared, his ferocity surged, and he roared and charged at the surrounding villagers!

With its mouth wide open, its fangs and teeth were terrifying, causing some of the more timid to burst into tears on the spot.

Several headed straight for Li Shanzhu, the very man who had killed the commander-in-chief yesterday!

The fortune teller staggered backward, only to fall heavily to the ground, muttering to himself in a trembling voice, "My...my...my method is actually so powerful?"

Just as the demon soldiers' claws were about to tear Li Shanzhu's head apart, a sword suddenly stabbed from the side, flashing past in a blur— *swoosh*

Several claws fell off.

Xu Yuan watched with great interest from behind.

(End of this chapter)