Cursed Mountains and Seas

Chapter 292 A myriad of lights illuminate the night; the rats marry their daughter.
The blood moon hangs high in the sky, and the yin energy boils like water.

In a small mountain village called Kaoshan Village, nestled among the mountains of Minzhou, a scream suddenly came from a family who had just finished paying respects to their ancestors and had sealed their doors early in the morning.

However, two five-colored rat demons, about the size of hunting dogs, suddenly appeared out of nowhere and easily found the family's hidden food supplies, feasting on them.

They even took the cured meat made from wild mountain produce and a few strings of copper coins.

"Don't eat our grain! Get out of here, you beast!"

The adults knew how dangerous evil spirits were, but the young boys in the family were fearless and, carrying a fire poker, were ready to fight to the death.

The stick struck the five-colored rat demon's head, leaving it unharmed. However, the rat demon itself was whipped back by the giant rat's tail, and its father, who went to catch it, also tumbled to the ground like a gourd.

Zhizhizhi.
The two large rats turned their heads and bared their teeth at the family, their green eyes gleaming eerily, as if they were seriously considering whether to eat the grain first or the people first.
times of crisis.

Boom!

With a loud crash, a burly figure with a憨厚 (honest and simple) face burst through the door, carrying a wood-chopping axe, and pounced straight at the two rats.

"Biaozi!"

The head of the household recognized the man and called out his name, or rather, just a nickname with a playful connotation.

Upon careful reflection, it seems that every village in this vast land of China has such a person.

He was kind-hearted and always helped out at weddings and funerals in the village, but he lived a lonely life and was often looked down upon. Most of them also had some intellectual disabilities.

They are the natural-born local officials [village guardians].

Legend has it that the guardians of the village were born into this world to accumulate merit, so that they could ward off disasters and difficulties for the village, and protect all misfortunes from them. The suffering in this life would be the blessing in the next.

Biaozi, who fled famine here many years ago and grew up eating food from many families, is the guardian of this Kaoshan Village.

Thirty years have passed, and although he is not yet an official, he has already lit the lamp of his heart and his life force is pure and yang!
The three flames of fortune, prosperity, and longevity rose half a foot high, merging with the yang energy of everyone in the village, borrowing a wisp of "light from every household" from each person.

A flash of red light appeared on the axe blade in his hand, and with just one axe stroke, he chopped off the head of a ferocious rat. The severed neck was charred black, as if it had been burned by flames.

Another five-colored rat demon pounced, but he didn't hesitate to use his left arm to block it and then bit it in mid-air. He turned the axe tip and stabbed it into the rat demon's stomach, causing its intestines to spill onto the ground.

"Uncle Biaozi, you're amazing!"

The family, who had escaped unharmed, were about to express their gratitude.

"Shh!"

The village guards silenced them, their faces grave as they looked out at the gate shrouded in the blood moon.

The family followed his gaze and their faces turned pale. They quickly covered their mouths to avoid screaming.

Another group of five-colored rat demons appeared outside. The leader was as big as a calf, and its yellowish-brown front teeth were longer than a dagger.

Living in these mountains, they know better than anyone that any naturally intelligent animal, if kept for a long time, will inevitably develop a spiritual nature.

There is a saying among the people that chickens should not be raised for more than six years and dogs for more than eight years. This means that once chickens are raised for more than six years and dogs for more than eight years, they become intelligent and have developed human-like qualities, making them more likely to become spirits.

The same applies to rats as long as they survive past the three-year threshold.

The rat in front of me is clearly a rat spirit possessed by the folk legend of the "giant rat," which is why it has such a terrifying size.

When the village keeper saw it, it naturally saw the village keeper as well.

Whoosh!
One harms people, the other guards the village; there is no possibility for the two to coexist, and they both pounce on each other without prior agreement.

The rat demon's gleaming claws slashed down.

The axe was jolted high into the air.

The second claw then left several deep, bone-revealing claw marks on the villager's chest, with blood spurting out.

If Biaozi hadn't tilted his head back in time, he probably would have had his trachea bitten off by the evil spirit's third attack.

"Oh no! That evil spirit is too ferocious! Run!"

"Why run? How can a human outrun animals in these deep mountains? Let's fight them!"

As the village defenders fell,

The villagers who were hiding behind the door to see what was going on were plunged into despair. Only a few hunters came out of their homes with their bows, but their hands were trembling.

Everyone knew that with this evil spirit, comparable to an official, leading the way, the rat swarm was enough to overwhelm the village and devour both people and food.

"Wow--!"

Just then, the silence was broken by the cry of a baby.

As if to remind these five-colored rat demons, they surged towards the house like a tidal wave.

"stop!"

Despite his severe injuries, Biaozi tried to get up to stop them, but due to severe blood loss and exhaustion, he fell heavily to the ground again.

Furthermore, with the villagers' courage waning, the yang energy that once enveloped the village dimmed, weakening the village guardian's greatest source of strength and making him even more powerless to change the situation.

Seeing that the entire village of Kaoshan was about to perish, the large rats suddenly stopped in their tracks, raised their moist noses, and sniffed the air as if they had smelled some incredibly delicious treat.

A dark, ghostly path opened up beneath their feet, and a swarm of rats, accompanied by a foul-smelling wind, suddenly vanished.

The same scene was also happening in many nearby villages, state capitals, and other places.

The five-colored rat demons, who would have devoured everything, suddenly turned around and disappeared completely in an instant.

"We're saved! How did this happen?"

After the initial surprise, countless people stared blankly in the direction of Xiangzhou Prefecture, where the rats had gone.

at the same time.

Wang Cheng and Yan Yunxiao had already chosen a desolate mountain surrounded by no one.

A contingent of Zhenhaiwei's elite troops, along with over a thousand of the Tianfei lineage's ghost soldiers [Gao Li Gui], were deployed in advance to ambush the enemy.

The two of them started planting corn themselves.

The method of "officials and soldiers going to their posts" is used to summon the officials and soldiers in the talisman within the body to do their work.

One person digs a hole, while the other sows the seeds and covers them with soil. To ensure the survival rate, two or three seeds are placed in each hole.

The two quickly finished planting the dozen or so acres of thin land on the hillside.

Two dragons, one blue and one white, flew into the sky and breathed out a breath onto the not-so-fertile field, turning it into sweet rain that fell on the field.

The corn seeds seemed to have taken a great tonic, immediately taking root and sprouting, and greenery quickly emerged from the bare field.

Even under the glow of the blood moon, it still exudes a unique vitality.

This is not just a cornfield, but the beginning of a surge in grain production across China.

Once the corn in this field matures, the seeds produced will be enough to change the food structure of at least one prefecture, not even counting the manpower and resources mobilized by Hu Ruzhen, the governor of the seven prefectures.

They are determined and capable of doing this, making it a fait accompli, and Heaven and the people will naturally respond.

Soon, they heard rustling sounds:

"Big rat, big rat, don't eat my wheat! I've served you for three years, yet you show me no kindness. I'm leaving you, going to that happy land. Happy land, happy land, where I can find my justice."

On the fifteenth of the seventh lunar month, the gates of hell open.

Originally, the realms of Yin and Yang should have been communicating, allowing all kinds of Yin beings to return to the human world. But in this world, Yin and Yang are mixed together, with no distinction between the human and the underworld.

It becomes a situation where the gates of hell open randomly, gathering together evil spirits with similar folk legends, and being swayed by their shared prayers.

Just like at this moment, the "big rats" and "increased grain production" immediately attracted each other like the two poles of a magnet.

Zhizhizhi.
One, two, three, one hundred, three hundred
It is unknown how far the five-colored rats have all come to the vicinity through the Ghost Gate and Yin Road, forming a torrent that is about to completely submerge the cornfield.

"Well done!"

A military tally appeared in Yan Yunxiao's hand, a fourth-rank [Dragon Heir], which she activated using the [Nine Provinces Order Talisman], while chanting an incantation:

"Heavenly warriors, mighty in the south, warding off evil. Heavenly steeds, fierce and powerful, guarding the north. Three hundred thousand soldiers, protecting our ninefold heavens. They scatter corpses for a thousand miles, dispelling all misfortune! So be it!"

The voice just fell.

A cold wind swept across the cornfield, revealing a group of dark figures, but they were not the "High Ghosts" under her command.

At the very front was a big-headed baby that looked like it had stepped out of a New Year's painting, followed by a miniature wedding procession, which upon closer inspection turned out to be entirely made up of mice!

They were beating drums and gongs, carrying a bridal sedan chair and a mouse bride inside, escorting her to her wedding.

Meanwhile, a plump tabby cat dressed in the groom's clothes was already at the front of the procession, its jaws wide open.

The little child walked along singing a folk nursery rhyme, "The Mouse's Wedding":
"Li li la, li li la, banging gongs and drums, blowing trumpets, the mouse's family is having a happy occasion, a daughter is getting married."

"Who will our daughter marry?" the mother asked the father. The father, a senile old man, replied, "Whoever looks impressive, she can marry."

"Dad went to find the sun, and the sun said, 'The dark clouds are going to cover me; I'm scared when the dark clouds come.' Dad went to find the dark clouds, and the dark clouds said, 'The strong wind is going to blow me away; I'm scared when the strong wind comes.'"

"Dad went to find the wind, and the wind said, 'The wall is trying to block me. I'm afraid of walls.' Dad went to find the wall, and the wall said, 'Mice can dig holes, and I'm afraid of mice.'"

"The sun fears the dark clouds, the dark clouds fear the strong wind, the strong wind fears the wall, the wall fears the rat, but who does the rat fear?"

The father laughed heartily: "So the cat is the most dashing one; my daughter should marry him."

"Li li la, li li la, banging gongs and drums, blowing trumpets, the mouse girl rides in a sedan chair, carried to the cat's house."

The mouse father and mouse mother came to see their daughter the next day.

"Oh no, my daughter is gone! Where is she? Where is she?"

The cat said, "I was afraid people would bully her, so I swallowed her whole!"

(End of this chapter)