The Great Seminary

Chapter 271 The Mass Grave

They broke open the wrinkled skin covering the emaciated remains of Jiao Datou and Kong Liu.

Two fleshy strips, each as thick as an adult's arm, darted out from inside, intertwined, and spun around in circles.

Zhang Gui grabbed a strip of meat and examined it closely. He noticed that the tail of the strip was thicker, but the head was broken off.

Only the hole in the neck and a tiny bit of marrow seeping from the cut remained, driving the strip of flesh to perform program-like movements.

He then gestured with his fingers and found that the size of the hollow in the neck of the meat strip matched the size of the human head worm he had just 'digested'.

Clearly, the complete dish consists of a thick strip of meat and a human-headed worm.

"This is a case of 'cutting off the tail to survive,' a Frankenstein's monster of an earthworm and a gecko."

Zhang Gui muttered as he activated 'Tai Sui Enters the Divine Realm' to produce black liquid, which devoured the two corpses along with the strips of flesh.

Then, dispersing the surrounding sand and dust, he urged the divine bush 'Zongheng Ruyi' to fly across a distance of several hundred steps.

He jumped into the mansion of Liu, the county magistrate of Shanhai County, whose entire family had died a violent death.

In stark contrast to the dilapidated and cramped layout of the yamen, Magistrate Liu's residence had five courtyards and three gardens, as well as a stage specifically for listening to opera.

He was clearly the son of a local official who had achieved academic success, secretly changed his household registration to go to another place to take the imperial examination, and then used money to return home and become an official.

Although from the very beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the founding emperor Zhao Zhusha wisely issued an edict prohibiting officials from serving in their native places.

Those who disobey orders will be dismissed and investigated at best, and at worst, their heads will be chopped off.

Such things are hard to hide for a long time, and they are also easy to verify.

If a colleague in the officialdom, who is envious of your position, files a complaint against you, you will lose everything.

Therefore, even those with extraordinary abilities would not break this taboo.

However, the situation is different in impoverished and remote areas like Shanhai County, where local officials sometimes prefer to abandon their future and resign rather than endure hardship.

Because this official position is something that nobody in the officialdom wants, a 'stinking dog's pick.'

Someone volunteered to pick it up, thus avoiding offending any colleagues.

Instead, everyone else will cheer and be grateful that they will never step on a 'dog' again.

More importantly, this 'stinky dog ​​pick' can be sold for silver.

It's a win-win-win situation, so why not give it a try?

Even so, officials from one's hometown are not allowed to be the official in charge of the seal of office.

Because the higher-ups fear that if these descendants of unruly officials were to seize excessive state power, their power and influence would merge, leading to disaster.

Walking in the courtyard of the county magistrate's residence, I saw corpses on the ground, their skeletons encased in skins.

Zhang Gui silently counted, "...twenty-seven, fifty-eight, eighty-one."
This family, including the master and servants, totaling about a hundred people, all transformed into this appearance.

That is, it gave birth to nearly a hundred human-headed worms, which hid on the ground and bit people, slowly turning them to petrification.

This really is a 'calamity of the earth and man'!

That's what he thought, but an uncontrollable smile appeared on his lips.

He once again activated the divine clusters within his head, which resembled a net, and initiated the "Great Intersection of Celestial Phenomena and Geography".

It refers to the section on "Qingming wind arrives, and things on earth are born" from the twenty-four solar terms.

A gentle breeze suddenly swept across the ground.

A faint rustling sound began to rise from underground again.

Meanwhile, the skinned skeletons in the courtyard began to convulse and roll around.

In fact, normally, without connecting with the main deity through the "Grand Duke Jupiter Entering the Godhood," relying solely on the "Great Interaction of Celestial Phenomena and Geography," even the power at the level of "Great Supernatural Power" is sufficient.

Because the extraordinary power of the fifth grade of 'Bing Shang Zhong' is too shallow, it would be difficult to create such a 'monstrous' scene without exerting all efforts to unleash it.

But today happens to be the annual Qingming Festival, which is in accordance with the timing of the day.

Everything was different again. Before long, the ground began to shake throughout the entire five-courtyard, three-garden mansion.

Countless broken corpses struggled, or poked their heads out of the soil, stretching out severed limbs;

Or it keeps pushing against the stone slabs and bricks on the ground, constantly wriggling.

Zhang Gui was dumbfounded and horrified.
"The purpose of Qingming Festival is to guard against the dead bodies buried underground, which have not decayed and have given rise to new souls, turning into 'living ghosts'."

Under normal circumstances, a corpse buried in the ground will decompose and turn into a skeleton within a year at most.

In other words, the earth spirits that crawled out of Magistrate Liu's residence had all died within the last year, or, judging by the degree of decay, within a few dozen days at most.

In just a few dozen days, their home was buried and turned into a "mass grave".

He also brought his wife and children, along with servants and maids, and leisurely went to the yamen to serve as an official during the day and returned to his mansion to sleep at night.

This Magistrate Liu is either an idiot, or he has ulterior motives!

Thinking of this, Zhang Guifu once again activated the "Grand Duke Jupiter Enters Life" technique of the main god.

Black fluid gushed from the lumbar sac, transforming into a fungal carpet that was interconnected with the 'Great Intersection of Celestial and Geographical Phenomena'.

The surrounding ghosts began to twist and merge, transforming into even more terrifying monsters that broke through the stone slabs on the ground and surged and undulated in the soil.

Suddenly, something strange happened. Chased by the mutated monsters deeper underground, a giant, fleshy worm with a human head, about ten feet long, sprang out of the soil.

Zhang Gui rapidly activated the main divine power of "Water and Fire in Harmony, Flame Burning Gold, Great Growth", transforming him into a six-armed, ten-zhang-tall golden giant.

It was easy to pick up.

A terrifying and ferocious smile appeared on his face, which was larger than the shadow gate behind him.
"Caught."

But while Zhang Gui was gloating, the large, fleshy worm in his hand, which he was holding tightly, was unwilling to give up and wait for its death.

With a sudden contraction and extension of its body, it sprang to its full length and bit at Zhang Gui's wrist.

However, the physical body, blessed by the bloodline of ancient gods and demons, is completely different from the ordinary one.

No matter how hard it gnawed, it couldn't break through even a tiny bit of Zhang Guijin's flesh.

However, the slippery feeling disgusted him.
"Good heavens, you're really asking for it. In that case, I'll grant your wish."

Six arms strained together, driving countless mycelia to grow from the fungal carpet on the ground, slowly reaching upwards.

They climbed onto the body of the giant, human-headed worm, which was completely immobile.

This is actually a form of torture.

After all, this insect, being one of the 'Hundred Earth Demons,' has killed many people.

It's understandable that Zhang Gui, being a human himself, would retaliate against it.

But unexpectedly, as its death approached, the giant worm with the human head suddenly spoke in human language and began to plead.

"Great power to atone for sins! Great power to atone for sins!"

I beg you to spare my life; from now on, I will serve you like a dog or a horse.

"You little rascal, do you even look like a human being?"

Upon hearing this, Zhang Gui was startled and made the most reasonable deduction.
"Is this a fantasy that has come to life?"

This insect from the Earth Demon Clan ate human flesh and drank brains, just like in a science fiction movie from the previous life, inheriting the memories of the victims.

They think they're human beings now.

However, he knew that he lacked knowledge about the 'Hundred Races of Earth Demons', and that what he considered 'reasonable' might be contrary to the truth.

Therefore, adhering to the principle that too much talk leads to mistakes, I asked in an extremely concise manner:

"Tell me your origins?"

(End of this chapter)