Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 260 Disaster
Cui Erlang saw the man run out of the forest and watched helplessly as the bear spirit ran further and further away until it was impossible to catch up. Then he stomped his foot hard and shouted angrily.

"Come back here!"

Unfortunately, the bear spirit naturally refused, and even increased its speed, disappearing into the dense thicket in the blink of an eye.

—Without a doubt, this person was Zhou You.

The system threw them into the vast mountains and forests, where they spent ten days traveling around like wild men.

—Perhaps because he didn't identify with any particular identity this time, the location where he was sent down was also random. As a result, when he opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was the towering trees and the distant howls of beasts.
—This system didn't even give him a warning; it just dumped him in a primeval forest!

Despite this, Zhou You wasn't initially flustered, after all, he had ventured into the mountains and forests many times before—but he soon discovered...
The Heavenly Dragon bloodline I recently acquired has run into serious problems.

All the animals, regardless of species, took off running hundreds of meters away from him, from the most common rabbits to the snakes scurrying through the forest—

Honestly, this was the first time in Zhou You's life that he had ever seen a tiger and was able to run away with his tail between his legs!
As a result, for a full ten days or so, he relied entirely on wild fruits and mushrooms to fill his stomach—and this bear spirit was something he had discovered by chance tonight. It was probably because it had become a spirit and had some resistance, that it took a full half-beat to think of escaping.

...Unfortunately, in the end, all efforts were in vain, and this guy managed to get away.

"The weather is really not cooperating; it's so overcast today, otherwise two Moonlight Arrows would have solved everything."

Zhou You lamented the rare meat, and was just thinking about finding a squirrel hole to dig out some nuts for breakfast when he looked down and met the eyes of the panicked Cui Erlang.

"My benefactor, thank you so much for your righteous help. That's why I..."

However, Zhou You just stared at him blankly, and involuntarily uttered two words.

"...People."

Cui Erlang looked completely bewildered.

"My benefactor, what did you say?"

"—It's a human! Holy crap, I've been eating wild fruits and mushrooms for half a month, and it finally got me out of here!!"

Cui Erlang was somewhat stunned as he looked at Zhou You, who was dressed in a long robe and was so excited that he cried.

—Is this savior a lunatic?—
Stop gossiping.

After explaining, Cui Erlang finally put aside his doubts and took Zhou You to his home.

It’s just that.

Zhou You stood at the entrance of the Cui family's house, looking up, but all he could see were a few withered trees and a muddy, gravel road.

It was already lunchtime, but the village was eerily quiet, with no roosters crowing, dogs barking, or smoke rising from chimneys. Only a few crows occasionally flew by, cawing—their cries echoing through the desolate village, adding to the deathly stillness and desolation.

Strange, I heard Cui Erlang say that there were about ten households in the village before, but now it looks like a deserted village.
Just then, Cui Erlang's greeting suddenly rang out.

"My benefactor, I've prepared some food. Would you like to have a bite?"

—Well, it's probably because there's not much produce in the fields and the government is levying exorbitant taxes. That's common in this chaotic world, and I'm used to it by now.

Zhou You shook his head, turned around, and went inside.

At this moment, the aroma of the food already filled the air.

To be honest, poor farming families like this don't have much to offer to outsiders.

It was nothing more than a plate of dark-colored stir-fried mushrooms, a plate of dark-colored stir-fried wild vegetables, and a bowl of wheat rice mixed with a lot of acorns and coarse grains.

Previously, Cui Erlang had intended to kill his only chicken to treat his savior, but Zhou You stared at the skinny chicken for a long time. Seeing that the chicken looked even more miserable than himself, he couldn't bring himself to do it and waved his hand to stop him.

Faced with these dishes, Cui Erlang rubbed his hands, looking quite embarrassed.

"Well, my benefactor, we don't have much at home, my wife is sick, and I'm not a very good cook, so please forgive me. Perhaps I should just kill that chicken?"

They're already pitiful enough, so please let them go.

Zhou You waved his hand, plopped down on the stool, picked up a piece of food with his chopsticks, and put it in his mouth.

Just like its appearance, it tastes terrible. Although a little oil was added, there were basically no seasonings, and even the salt used for cooking was the lowest quality black salt block.

Not to mention her own little ghost daughter who is an expert cook, even ordinary mountain restaurants are far inferior.

Zhou You, however, didn't seem to mind at all. He calmly picked up his food and ate his rice, as if he were at home.

Seeing Zhou You's appearance, Cui Erlang also carefully sat down on the other side, then picked up a bowl—the wheat rice in it was obviously half gone—and started chatting quietly with Zhou You.

"My benefactor, where are you from?"

"Cangzhou, right?"

"So where do you plan to go next?"

"Wandering in all directions, drifting aimlessly."

During the conversation, seeing that Zhou You was quite approachable, Cui Erlang also relaxed considerably, and his initial tense demeanor lessened.

But at that moment, a violent coughing fit suddenly came from inside the room.

His relaxed expression froze, and he became worried again, bowing and scraping as he spoke to Zhou You.

"Um, my benefactor, my wife has had another attack. Could you please let me in to take a look?"

Zhou You swallowed his mouthful of food, then smiled and waved, indicating that he shouldn't worry about him and that he could go on his own.

Seeing Cui Erlang bow and scrape as he went in, Zhou You scratched his chin in utter boredom.

He understood Cui Erlang's obsequious behavior; it wasn't just because the drink had inadvertently saved his life, but also because the power Cui Erlang displayed far exceeded his comprehension.

This is how ordinary people who struggle to survive in this chaotic world are: they can't afford to offend anyone, and it's already a luxury to just live peacefully.

"Fine, I'll just leave after I finish eating. I've already found some people, so I might as well ask around in the county town on the way."

However, before the meal was even halfway through, a violent roar suddenly came from inside the room.

Accompanying this was Cui Erlang's scream.

"Woman, woman, what are you doing? Don't hit me! Help me!!!"

Zhou You frowned, put down his rice bowl, drew his sword, ran a few steps, and then kicked open the door.

Before his eyes, Cui Erlang, who had been perfectly fine just moments before, was now lying on the ground, his shoulders covered in gruesome bloodstains, while a woman dressed in coarse linen clothes was on top of him, trying to bite him.

The woman had a very ordinary appearance, her face covered with the marks of wind and sun, just an ordinary country peasant woman. She should be the wife that the second son of the Cui family mentioned, but...
Her face was covered with blue veins, her eyes bulged out and were filled with eerie blood vessels, and two sharp teeth protruded from the corners of her mouth, looking as sharp as daggers at first glance.

Seeing this, Zhou You frowned and blurted out.

"Has this guy been infected with corpse poison?"

Zhou You had heard of similar cases before; they usually involved being bitten by zombies, suffering from poison gas that caused temporary delirium, and then biting anyone in sight. But the question was—where would an old corpse come from in this remote mountain village?

After all, unlike what ordinary people have heard of, zombies can only be produced in places where corpses have accumulated over many years—that is, mass graves—unless they are created by humans.

But if it was man-made, then this mountain village would have been wiped out long ago; if it was naturally formed...
There are only a few dozen households in this village. It would take hundreds of years to create a mass grave.

However, seeing that the woman was about to bite again, Zhou You didn't have time to think about anything else. He temporarily sheathed Duanxie and then used the ebony scabbard to knock the woman off balance.

But at that moment, Cui Erlang suddenly screamed in agony.

"My benefactor, this is my wife. She just had a sudden attack of her illness and didn't bite me on purpose. Please stop, please stop!"

—I never imagined he was such a devoted lover.

Zhou You had no intention of killing anyone. Taking advantage of the moment when the woman's attention was diverted to him, he directly struck her abdomen with one hand, palm facing outward.

This time, he didn't use much force, but the malevolent energy within had already been pushed into his body, and then a small burst occurred in an instant.

The woman trembled as if she had been electrocuted, and then quickly collapsed to the ground.

Upon seeing this, Cui Erlang disregarded the injury on his shoulder and threw himself on the woman, howling as he did so.

"Woman, woman, wake up! Don't die! If you die, I won't live either!"

"Alright, alright, I didn't kill her." Zhou You's head was throbbing from the tenor's wailing. He squatted down, opened the woman's eyelids to take a look, and then said.

"The corpse poison is attacking the heart, but fortunately the symptoms are mild. However, ordinary herbs are unlikely to be effective. Hey you, do you have any glutinous rice at home?"

Cui Erlang was a little stunned after being pushed away by the buttocks, but when he heard that his wife was not dead, he was relieved and replied in a low voice.

"Well, my benefactor, my house is in such a state, how could I possibly have any glutinous rice?"

"Does your neighbor have any?"

"Well... I remember the Sun family still has some."

"Then go borrow it."

Upon hearing this, Cui Erlang looked extremely embarrassed.

"My benefactor, the Sun family moved out half a month ago, and I have no land left."

"I said 'borrow,' do you understand?"

Seeing Zhou You's resolute attitude, Cui Erlang had no choice but to go out and "borrow" glutinous rice with a bitter face.

moment.

A handful of white glutinous rice was placed in front of me.

Zhou You casually picked out some moldy rice, then carefully recalled the records in "A Brief Explanation of the Xuanzang General Knowledge", drew a talisman, lit it, and mixed the talisman ash into the glutinous rice.

Finally, he took out the Wine Immortal Gourd, poured out some wine, kneaded it a few times, and mixed it into a ball—but instead of feeding it to the woman, he pinched off some and threw it to Cui Erlang.

"Take this and apply it to your shoulder first."

Looking at the unsightly mess, Cui Erlang hesitated for a moment—but his eagerness to save his wife got the better of him, and he gritted his teeth and applied it to the wound.

Surprisingly, there was no pain. Instead, a cool sensation came from the wound, which soothed the burning pain.

Seeing that she was unharmed, Zhou You, who was playing the role of a doctor for the first time, pried open the woman's mouth and poured the rest of the stuff in all at once.

The next moment, the unconscious woman suddenly opened her eyes wide, and her body began to struggle as if she were in great pain.

However, under Zhou You's control, her struggles were no match for her. The woman's movements gradually slowed down, and then she straightened up and suddenly spat out a mouthful of foul-smelling black blood.

A moment later, the woman opened her eyes and uttered a very weak sound.

".Jiro?"

After settling the woman, who had fallen into a deep sleep again, into the inner room, Cui Erlang suddenly knelt down with a thud and shouted as he walked into the hall.

"Benefactor!"

If there was some pretense before, then these two words this time are absolutely from the bottom of my heart, from the bottom of my heart.

Zhou You shook his head, picked up the body with his sword, found a chair to sit down, and then said.

"No need to be so polite, it was just a small favor. But you have to tell me the truth, what exactly happened here?"

Cui Erlang sighed and continued.

"It wasn't that I deliberately kept it from you, my benefactor; I just didn't have time to tell you before. By the way, my benefactor, you saw how abandoned the village was when you entered, didn't you?"

Zhou You nodded.

"That's right, so what's wrong?"

Cui Erlang immediately gave a wry smile.

"Actually, a month ago, no, it should be said that half a month ago, the village wasn't like this. Although our village doesn't produce much and doesn't have many acres of good land, it's enough to feed dozens of people. But one day, a group of monsters suddenly appeared."

"Zombies?"

"I guess so? I'm not really sure, I only know that one of them reeked of corpses. But we're just ordinary people, how could we possibly fight off any monsters? Several of us were eaten in half a month. So everyone who could run away ran away, except for my wife, who got bitten. I couldn't just abandon her, so I could only grit my teeth and tough it out in the village."

"What about the government offices down the mountain? Since there's been a demonic calamity, they'll surely send people up the mountain to suppress it once the news is reported, right?"

Upon hearing this, Cui Erlang immediately revealed a bitter smile.

"So that my benefactor may know, these officials are all quick and efficient when it comes to collecting taxes and conscripting laborers, but when it comes to actually doing the work, they all make excuses. I went there several times recently, but not a single one showed up. They either said they were preparing for the governor's birthday celebration, or that all the county's yamen runners and soldiers were out suppressing bandits and had no time to deal with any zombies. They told us to raise money ourselves and find a Taoist priest to handle it."

Cui Erlang spread his hands and said helplessly.

"But we villagers are lucky if we can even make ends meet, let alone afford to hire Taoist priests or immortal masters."

Hearing this, Zhou You sighed softly, then patted the Broken Blade at his waist and suddenly said.

"—By the way, you treated me to a meal earlier, right?"

"Why are you saying this, my benefactor? Ah, I understand, you're not full yet, are you? Please wait a moment, I'll go and clean up that chicken right away."

"Stop thinking about that hairy beast all the time. I'm a Taoist priest, more or less. My greatest hobby is meddling in other people's business, and the reward for my services isn't high. Usually, a meal is enough—you've already paid me in advance this time."

"So, I'll take care of this so-called demonic calamity Taoist priest for you."

(End of this chapter)