Welcome to the Bizarre Games

Chapter 305 Miscellaneous Thoughts
Why ask this out of the blue?
Zhou You looked at Yu Daoren's old face covered in black mud, pondered for a few seconds, and then answered.

"They're considered quite wealthy, aren't they?"

This isn't just polite talk; it's the absolute truth.

Zhou You's previous experiences were limited to two scenarios: Tai Sui and Fo Xin. Tai Sui was a barren wasteland where no rain fell for nearly a year, and even the rivers dried up. Fo Xin, on the other hand, was the opposite extreme—this place only received rain twice a year, once in the second half of the year. Not only were there frequent floods, but the rainwater also made the land extremely barren, and even after a year of hard work, there was hardly any harvest.

Although Songzhou wasn't exactly blessed with favorable weather, it was at least free from major disasters, and the people were generally able to make a living.

Unexpectedly.

Upon hearing this, Master Yu gave a wry smile.

“Fellow Daoist, you may have just arrived here, or perhaps you have only wandered around the border a few times and do not know much about this place. Well then, it just so happens that we are about to hand over this job as well. The village is nearby, so why don’t you come with us to meet it?”

Although Zhou You had doubts, he could only suppress them and prepare to go and see with this Taoist Yu first.
-
Before long, the tea and rice were almost finished.

Master Yu and Fu Yu carefully packed everything up, even the cooking oil, before heading outside.

But this time they weren't taking the official road, but rather the country lanes.

As the sun rose higher, Zhou You finally noticed some clues.

The surrounding weeds grew tall, some even reaching waist height, a lush and pleasing green. The roe deer being led stretched its head out greedily, startling a flock of insects and birds hiding among them.

To be fair, it is indeed a beautiful natural landscape, but...
This is far too unusual.

After all, this is not some remote mountain forest, but a place near the state capital, and it is the season for spring farming. What you should see now is not lush weeds, but farmland where seeds have just been sown!

But why is this place so deserted?
Zhou You was puzzled and turned to look at the Taoist Yu.

"Hey buddy, did everyone move away? How did this place become like this?"

The other person just chuckled.

"Move away? Fellow Daoist, what are you talking about? This land has been passed down from generation to generation. Unless the whole family is wiped out, who would want to move away?"

"How did it end up like this, abandoned like this?"

"If no one does it, it will naturally fall into disrepair."

"No, even if one family can't work, there are so many fields, how could they all be unable to work, unless..."

Thinking of the potholes all over Zhongtai City and the ditches that could be seen everywhere along the way, Zhou You finally realized.

"Unless...they are forced to do something else."

As Yu Daoren gazed at the fields overgrown with weeds, a strange smile appeared on his face as well.

“That’s right. Everyone says that natural disasters are unavoidable, but in my opinion, man-made disasters are the most devastating.”

—After that, Master Yu said nothing more until the three of them had walked for several dozen miles before they finally came across a small village.

The village wasn't large, but it wasn't small either; from a distance, it looked to be about a hundred households. In this era, it could definitely be called a manor. At the village entrance, there was a statue of the Earth God, which seemed to be for warding off evil spirits and protecting the village. Zhou You ran his finger over it and found that only a thin layer of incense ash had accumulated at the very bottom, and most of it was damp.

It was obvious that no one had performed any sacrifices here for a long time.

Even the spiritual energy within the statues has nearly dried up; let alone protecting the village and homes, they probably don't even have much of the basic ability to ward off evil.

Looking up again, even though it was lunchtime, there was hardly any smoke from the chimneys. Although the whole village was still bathed in sunlight, upon closer inspection, it looked like a ghost town.

The Jing Shen Food Offering Spell operated naturally, and it did not smell any demonic or evil odors. However, correspondingly, it also did not smell much yang energy from living people.

The Taoist priest Yu hadn't thought about any of that. He first straightened his clothes to make his patched Taoist robe look better, and then led his disciple through a maze of turns to a house in the village.

A gentle knock was made on the door, and soon after, with a laborious creaking sound, the wooden door was pushed open, revealing a white-haired face.

"Who is it, disturbing me while I'm cooking? Wait, are you... Daoist Master? What did you say? You've dealt with those ghosts disturbing the village?"

Half an hour later, the entire village had gathered in the ancestral hall.

If it were still the original several hundred households, this small ancestral hall naturally wouldn't be able to accommodate everyone, but now it only has about twenty people at most, and
Looking around, Zhou You saw only the elderly, the weak, the sick, and the disabled. There were hardly any young or middle-aged people, and even women were few and far between. Most of them were elderly people in their fifties or sixties, and the rest were children whose downy hair had not yet fallen out.

Zhou You watched as Yu Daoren and the village chief exchanged pleasantries, then listlessly looked around.

—It seems this place used to be quite popular, with many ancestral tablets. However, like the local earth god temple outside, it's obvious that no one has offered sacrifices here for a long time. There are only a few indistinct statues with some wild fruit in front of them.
Ok?
Zhou You suddenly sensed something was wrong. He first looked around and, seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he stood up and stretched his legs as if he had gotten tired of squatting. Then, as if unintentionally, he leaned towards that side.

There are three statues of gods, but their faces are hard to see due to the workmanship or the wear and tear of time. There are no divine titles or anything like that engraved on them. All you can see is that one of the three statues is holding a sword, one is holding a bow, and the other is holding a magical weapon. However, even though they are so rough, you can feel a strange sense of magnificence just by looking at them.

And for some reason, it felt so familiar, as if I had seen it somewhere before?
Zhou You reached out his hand, wanting to touch it, but at that moment, a crisp voice rang out from the side.

"Daoist Master, these are the Three Saints who suppress the Netherworld City; they cannot be touched."

Who?
Zhou You turned his head, only to see a little girl looking at him with displeasure.

The little girl had pigtails and was holding a faded doll in her arms. Her eyes were bright and clear, and although she looked angry, she was incredibly cute.

Zhou You withdrew his hand, but habitually wanted to pat the girl's head—however, seeing her wary expression, he ultimately gave up and just smiled.

"Excuse me, I'm new here and don't know the rules—by the way, young lady, could you tell me what these Three Saints are? And what exactly is this Netherworld City?"

The girl gave Zhou You a look that said, "How can you, a city person, be so uncultured?" before she spoke.

"The Three Saints are the Three Saints, and the Netherworld City is the Netherworld City. The Three Saints are good people, and the Netherworld City is bad people. I don't know about other places, but that's how it's been passed down in our village since ancient times. What else could it be?"

Okay, it seems like we can't communicate.

Zhou You found the girl's serious demeanor amusing, and finally reached out and couldn't resist ruffling her head.

Unexpectedly, the girl immediately became anxious.

"Don't mess up my braids! Grandpa worked so hard to braid them for me this morning!" She looked like a frightened puppy, covering her head and quickly taking a step back, while glaring angrily at Zhou You—but she just looked adorable no matter how you looked at her.

Zhou You wouldn't bother arguing with a child, and just continued to laugh.

"Where are your parents? You're not that old, are you? Why are they letting you run around alone like this?"

Upon hearing this, the girl's eyes dimmed.

After a long while, she answered softly.

“My father was conscripted to dig for some kind of earth dragon and worked himself to death. My mother was also taken away a while ago because there weren’t enough men, and we haven’t heard from her for months. Now, only my grandfather and I are left in this whole village.”

Zhou You's smile froze.

After a long while, he shook his head and sighed.

"Feel sorry."

The young girl didn't say anything more, but just as the atmosphere cooled down, Master Yu suddenly called over.

"Fellow Daoist Zhou? Fellow Daoist Zhou? If it's not too much trouble, could you please come over here?"

Zhou You patted the girl's head and was about to go over—but she stopped him halfway.

The girl showed no sadness on her face, as if she had long been used to it, and simply shoved the small doll in Zhou You's hand.

"Grandpa said you helped the village get rid of those evil spirits that were harming people. Grandpa also said that we should repay kindness. So, you can take this that my mother sewed for me before."

Seeing the little girl's reluctant expression, Zhou You shook his head and stuffed the doll back into the box.

"I do charge for my services, but I accidentally bumped into your statue just now. Let's just leave it at that."

Before the girl could speak, he walked to the other side, just as Yu Daoren was introducing the village chief.

"Old man, this is Master Ling Yuan from Tai'an Dao. He was the one who cleared away the vast majority of those corpses."

However, before he could finish speaking, Fu Yu muttered something under his breath.

"What do you mean 'the vast majority'? You were clearly only concerned with escaping; it's all thanks to Master Zhou."

How thick-skinned was Daoist Yu? He didn't even blush – and the village chief, being old and hard of hearing, didn't hear the murmur, but simply held Zhou You's hand and thanked him.

"Thank you so much, Daoist Lingyuan! Thank you so much, Daoist Lingyuan! We owe you all our help. There weren't many people left in my village to begin with, and we were unlucky enough to run into that zombie horde outbreak a while ago. If it weren't for your righteous help, we would all be wiped out. By the way, I know your rules, you have to get paid for every action you take. Please wait a moment, Daoists."

Before Zhou You could refuse, the old man walked out shakily and returned a moment later carrying a plate.

Lifting the red cloth revealed only a few small coins.

Looking at the small amount of money, the old man felt somewhat ashamed.

"I'm so sorry, most of the villagers were conscripted for labor this year, and what little they had saved was used to buy grain, so there's not much money left. This is a little less, but please forgive me."

Is this the reason you mentioned?

Looking at the old man's nervous face and then at Yu Daoren's ambiguous smile, Zhou You shook his head and returned the silver in his hand.

—Even though they're both from Songzhou, the difference between them is truly like night and day.

While life at the border wasn't great, at least we were able to get by, and we even had the leisure to attend temple fairs and similar events.

Many people in Zhongtai City already looked pale and sickly, but they could barely make ends meet by eating irregularly, and it was generally not a case of people starving to death.

Upon arriving at this place, the forced labor was intensified at each level, and it was clear that people were nearing the end of their lives.

Logically, the closer one gets to the state capital, the richer the region should be, but why is it the other way around now?

Seeing that Zhou You refused to accept it, the village chief hurriedly handed the item to Taoist Yu—but even though he was so poor, he still politely declined it.

"We cultivators take it upon ourselves to eliminate demons and protect the righteous path. We have already failed you all by not succeeding on our first attempt. How can we accept any additional reward? Please take it back, sir."

In stark contrast to the previous flattery and slickness, the voice was very calm, revealing no humility or affectation.

It was as if they were just talking about something ordinary.

Fu Yu was eager to say something, but he couldn't get a word in edgewise. He could only watch as the village chief thanked him profusely and took the money back.

Nothing more happened after that. Zhou You asked about the statues again out of curiosity, but the answer was almost the same as what the little girl had said. She said that these were the beliefs left over from the village in the past. However, judging from the description, they were probably just wild gods or something like that, and there was nothing to pay attention to.

Just as they were leaving the village, the little girl suddenly ran over again.

This time, instead of giving him dolls or anything like that, they just pulled out a piece of malt candy that was already dirty from their pocket.

"This was given to me by my grandfather. The village teacher once told the story of Zigong redeeming people. Since you helped me, you can't just leave me with nothing but this candy and the doll. Can you accept it?"

Looking at the mature-looking face, Zhou You hesitated for a moment, but ultimately accepted it.

"Alright, but let's keep things separate. Now that I've accepted this, I've taken on your job. Is there anything you need me to do?"

The girl hesitated for a long time before finally speaking.

"If you see my mother, could you please pass on a message for me? Tell her I'm alright, but my father is in poor health. If he can come back soon, I hope he can visit him. Also, I know you have very capable people, so if you can meet with those high-ranking officials, could you please ask them to stop conscripting labor? The fields have been abandoned for a season now, and if we don't replant something, I'm afraid there won't be any harvest this year."

She must have been holding it in for a long time, because these words came out much more fluently than her age suggested. Zhou You just smiled and then ruffled her hair again.

"It's alright, don't worry, I will do my best to help if I can."

(End of this chapter)