Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 282 Funeral
Zhongtai City is considered one of the top cities in the entire Songzhou.

Don't let the strange name fool you. It is said that when the founding emperor of this dynasty was defeated at Chenluopo, he was rescued by a family here. The family had heard of the founding emperor's benevolence and, hearing that the pursuers were approaching, hid him inside a giant bell that had just been made for a temple. They then went to face the enemy themselves and bravely faced the perilous enemy, ending up with their entire family.

Whether the story is true or not is impossible to verify, but the name Zhongtai City has been preserved. In addition, it is located at the transportation hub of Songzhou and is close to the canal that runs through the north and south, so the city is considered to be prosperous.

Upon entering the city, one is immediately greeted by the constant hawking of vendors along the streets, and a continuous stream of food stalls. Unlike other places, the common people coming and going are mostly covered only by a tattered cloth. Even the poorest among them wear coarse blue cloth, and their complexions are not those of people who are thin and withered from years of hunger. Instead, they are all somewhat plump.

Although it can't compare to modern times, it's at least much better than Tai Sui Fo Xin.

just
There are still two questions here.

First, most of the newcomers looked distressed and walked hurriedly, as if they were afraid of something.

two is
"Why are there so many potholes here!"

After nearly falling into another deep pit, Zhou You finally couldn't help but complain.

The city looks quite nice, but for some reason, the roads are full of potholes and ditches. The smaller ones are only a few inches deep, but the larger ones are as high as three or four zhang (approximately 10 meters). If an ordinary person falls in, even if they don't die, they will at least be crippled.

What's even more outrageous is that, judging from their appearance, most of them were recently unearthed—the surrounding soil is still very fresh, even carrying that damp moisture.

Thinking back to what Manager Sun had said earlier, Zhou You felt increasingly confused.

"Hey Lao Tao, are these guys from the Thick Earth Cult just bored? Or do they have too much money to burn and want to mess with themselves? There are no external enemies here, so why are they digging so many horse traps and ditches in the city?"

After a while, a lazy voice came from behind.

Because there were so many potholes in the city, the horse couldn't move at all, so they had to put it away for the time being, and Tao Le'an now had to rely entirely on his two legs to walk.

The result was that he became increasingly unmotivated and was on the verge of going on strike.

"First of all, Daoist Master, I must correct you on one point. Horse traps and ditches would never be dug in the city. Secondly, the Thick Earth Sect isn't just sitting around doing nothing. According to my intelligence, they claim that the seeds of the elixir of immortality are buried underground, which is why they've been frantically digging everywhere under various pretexts."

Zhou You rolled his eyes forcefully.

"Do you believe that lame excuse?"

"Of course we don't believe it, but the problem is, can we really ask that cult leader for verification?"

But just as Zhou You opened his mouth, about to say something, a suona horn sound suddenly came from afar.

It is funeral music.

Both of them were stunned.

—It can't be such a coincidence that we ran into a funeral procession as soon as we entered the city?

They both forgot about arguing and looked at the same time.

Sure enough, a funeral procession emerged from the intersection. There weren't many people; only two people at the front were scattering paper money, people in the middle who seemed to be family members were carrying the coffin, and at the back was an old man playing the suona with great effort.

Moreover, due to the numerous pits on the ground, the entire procession moved very slowly, especially the coffin bearers in the middle. They had to carry the black coffin while also watching out for the traps under their feet, and their faces were already covered in sweat.

Just then, a sigh rang in my ears.

"Sigh, another one died. They've been really busy lately."

Looking to the side, I saw a stall owner who had come over because of the commotion. He was now watching the funeral procession, shaking his head and sighing repeatedly.

Zhou You asked curiously.

"Sir, have there been a lot of funerals lately?"

The stall owner looked at Zhou You's face and, seeing that he didn't seem like a bad person, then spoke.

"Master Daoist, are you from out of town?"

"I just arrived in the city recently and am planning to find someone who owes me money to collect a debt."

The stall owner, no longer puzzled, simply remarked casually.

"No wonder you didn't know, Daoist Master. This is the seventh case this month."

"Have there been many elderly people passing away in the city recently?"

"Those who died were all young women."

Zhou You was taken aback.

In an ancient city of this size, seven deaths in half a month is quite normal, even somewhat rare, and he hadn't paid much attention to it. However, upon hearing that all the deceased were young women...
This is indeed quite abnormal.

"Is there a plague outbreak?"

"Thanks to the good governance of the local prefect, there has been no plague for a long time."

"Why is that?"

Upon hearing this, the stall owner suddenly let out a deep sigh.

"It's that damned thief from recently."

Through the old man's narration, Zhou You gained a general understanding of the situation.

It's nothing more than the emergence of a powerful figure in the city recently. Taking advantage of the recent digging of the earth dragon—at least that's the excuse of the Thick Earth Sect—he's been abducting women everywhere, raping and killing them with extremely cruel methods. Every woman's skin is inevitably peeled off, and in the end, they're all left naked in front of his own door.

In the past two months, more than a dozen people have been killed.

Hearing this, Zhou You found it rather strange.

"Could it be that the authorities didn't do anything about it?"

"Of course they did! When the prefect heard about this, he already sent troops to arrest them. Who would have thought that instead of catching the thief, he would end up looking disheveled and miserable? You're really lucky, because the prefect himself came looking for you."

Zhou You looked up and saw that the funeral procession had been stopped. In front of them were soldiers from the city, and behind them was a magnificent sedan chair.

After the curtain was lifted, a middle-aged man with a serious expression walked down. When the people in the group saw him, they were so frightened that they wanted to kneel down on the spot, but the middle-aged man just waved his hand, said a few words of comfort, and then went up to ask him questions.

Most of what he did was offer words of comfort to the victim's family. He then inquired about the details of the case, told the family that they must report any clues to the authorities, and finally beckoned to his attendant to take out a bag of money and hand it to the family.

Then, ignoring the other party's profuse thanks, the middle-aged man sighed, his face full of sorrow, and after cursing under his breath, returned to the sedan chair.

The insult was very soft, but since no one was around to hide it, and Zhou You's hearing was quite good, he was able to decipher its meaning. The sentence was—

"Damn the Thick Earth Cult."

That's quite interesting.

Watching the group gradually disappear into the distance, Tao Le'an didn't show any particular expression. He simply yawned lazily and then said to Zhou You.

"I say, Master, we've seen the show, shouldn't we be leaving?"
-
However, after that, Tao Le'an did not take Zhou You to any brothels.

The reason is quite simple – we're closed today, so we'll have to wait a while before we can offer this compensation.

Zhou You didn't seem to care much about it, so he and the guy found an inn along the way and decided to rest for a while before continuing.

When they arrived, they found the house was packed with people—but upon closer inspection, it made sense; the area was probably full of pits, and the locals were hesitant to walk at night, so they all gathered there to drink.

The wine wasn't anything special; it was mostly homemade "Maochai" brewed by the shopkeepers. Its only advantage was its cheapness—a bowl could be bought for just two copper coins. But despite the poor quality of the wine, the lively atmosphere of the day made it all worthwhile. After a few ounces of the wine, the men's discussion became quite animated.

Of these, there are only two that are relatively common.

First, the government has been so incompetent lately, and has imposed so many labor services. Can the prefect really do something about it?

The second possibility is that he is either a womanizer or a psychopathic killer.

At this very moment, a man is standing with one foot on the table, speaking with a flushed face.

"—The death of Chun San Niang was truly gruesome. When her parents opened the door, they saw their daughter lying naked on the floor, her pale body exposed. Her back had been brutally skinned. The old couple only had this one daughter. Upon seeing this, her mother fainted on the spot, and her father, who had difficulty walking, stumbled and crawled for half an hour before finally reaching the authorities to report the crime."

The man looked like a local idler, and he spoke vividly, as if he had witnessed it himself. At every crucial point, he would elicit gasps of surprise from the women around him.

Seeing so many people paying attention to him, the man became increasingly smug. However, just as he was getting more and more vulgar, a broom suddenly appeared from the side and slapped him down in the face.

The man was furious and wanted to find the murderer to settle the score—but when he turned around, he only saw an extremely fierce face.

In an instant, the tiger turned into a chick, and the man quickly smiled ingratiatingly.

"Hey Aunt Sun, are you there?"

"It's my own shop, how could I not be here?"

The woman known as Granny Sun was about nine feet tall, with a face full of fat that trembled as she spoke, making her look more like a giant brown bear than a woman.

With a flick of her fan-like hand, she lifted the man up as if he were a chick, and said fiercely.

"You know perfectly well that I have a beautiful daughter, whom I've raised for so many years until she's almost an adult. I'm counting on her to find a good family to marry into, and yet you come to my shop and make a scene. Tell me, are you deliberately trying to make things difficult for me?!"

The man, with a mournful face, apologized repeatedly.

"No, no, no, you, no, you misunderstood. I really didn't mean that. I'll leave now, I'll leave now, okay?"

Seeing that the hand had finally loosened, the man ran away in a flash, and then Granny Sun glared at everyone around her and roared.

"What are you looking at! Do you all want to die?!"

All eyes immediately turned to that direction.

Zhou You looked at Qi Le and wanted to call out to Tao Le'an, but when he turned around, he found that she had fallen asleep again, with drool all over the table.

Does this guy really sleep for almost eighteen hours a day?

Zhou You shifted his position, moving away from the lazybones, and then looked in another direction.

Unfortunately, the old woman's intimidating presence was too strong, and the people around her unanimously changed the subject, shifting the focus from the case itself to the reward offered by the government.

As for the amount, opinions vary widely. Some say it's a thousand taels of silver, others say a hundred taels of gold, and some even boast that it's hundreds of thousands of taels of gold—doesn't this guy even consider that if he emptied the national treasury, could he possibly raise that amount?
Zhou You found it really boring, only showing some interest when Granny Sun's daughter came out to help—but that interest quickly faded again.

She was indeed quite beautiful, the opposite of her burly mother.

The problem is, judging from his age, he's at most thirteen or fourteen, which is outside our hunting range.
The noisy time passed quickly.

People in ancient times went to bed early. By the time the hour of Xu (7-9 PM) had passed, the people gathered in the inn had all dispersed. Zhou You dragged the soundly sleeping Tao Le'an upstairs, threw the pig-like fellow onto the bed, and then went back to his own room to rest.

The moonlight deepened, and the candlelight slanted.

Before he knew it, Zhou You had that dream again.

It was still that flesh-and-blood mother tree, still that stinking pool of blood, but this time it wasn't a scene for worship, but a field strewn with countless corpses—

Among them are gods, Buddhas, strange and grotesque monsters, and of course, many ancestors, but the largest number is still just one.

That is humanity.

Countless corpses covered the entire world, and it was difficult to find even a place to stand. In front of the mother tree, the chieftain of the ancestors was kneeling on the ground, a long, diagonal wound splitting half of his body open—but even so, he was not dead yet.

The man raised his deformed head, looking up at a black figure in front of him, and let out a cold laugh that sounded like "hoho".

"Alright, I admit it. You have indeed won this time, but don't be so smug. As long as our Lord is still here, we are immortal. You must know that all the gods and Buddhas in this world have been corrupted, and you will all die one day. When that day comes, who will be able to stop us?"

The person in front of him remained silent for a long time before replying in an extremely hoarse voice, so much so that it was difficult to distinguish whether the person was male or female.

"After I die, there will be my next generation, and after my next generation dies, there will be the next generation of the next generation. As long as you can't eliminate the root of the problem, we will be endless. No matter how many times you are resurrected, someone will come to kill you—that is destiny."

"Destiny?" The chieftain of the early people suddenly burst into laughter. "I never imagined that someone of your stature would believe in such an ethereal thing. Let's see whether it is the power of our Lord that is truly greater, or your so-called destiny."

Before he could finish speaking, the dark figure pointed downwards.

Then, the image shattered instantly.

Zhou You was suddenly jolted awake from the dream.

What catches the eye is still the inn's ceiling covered with black spots.

But he didn't have time to think about what the dream meant. Instead, he frowned and subconsciously grabbed Duanxie.

He didn't wake up naturally; he suddenly sensed a presence.

It's murderous intent.

(End of this chapter)