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Chapter 375 Chen Family Village

However, upon hearing this, Chief Yu did not react at all, nor did he rush to refute it. He frowned slightly, showing three parts confusion, three parts bewilderment, and three parts panic at being slandered, before finally speaking.

"Chahara, we've known each other for a long time. As the saying goes, even if the deal isn't finalized, the relationship remains. Even if I don't agree to your terms, you can't slander me like this, can you?"

Then he sighed again.

“That’s right. I, Yu Sanzhi, don’t consider myself a good person. In fact, I’ve done all sorts of bad things, including rape, kidnapping, arson, murder, and robbery. But I can’t bear the accusation of raising evil spirits—that would get me killed by all the sects in the world. We may be familiar with each other, but there are some things we can’t say carelessly.”

However, Horn just laughed.

His smile was very calm; he neither spoke nor made any movement. He just smiled and looked at Yu Sanzhi until the other man felt uncomfortable and couldn't help but say something.

"what are you laughing at?"

Horn sat there, legs crossed, and then answered casually.

"I wasn't laughing at anything. I just felt sorry for that guy from Qingyu Tower. He was tricked and killed by you just because he got in your way, Chief Yu. Even after death, he was consumed by evil spirits and will never be reincarnated."

Yu Sanzhi fell silent.

And this silence was exceptionally long, until the air in the room almost seemed to freeze, when he suddenly spoke.

"Besides this, what else do you know?"

Horn laughed.

"It's nothing. I only know that after you, Chief, received the Heavenly Calculation inheritance, you always wanted to deduce the secrets of heaven and see if you could gain an advantage in the upcoming chaos. But unfortunately, you are not the one who inherited it. If you want to cast a divination, you must use a sacrifice—and the best sacrifice in this divination sect is the innocent life and the byproducts of the digestion of evil spirits."

Silence again.

Then, Yu Sanzhi suddenly showed a sentimental expression.

"Truly worthy of being the last secret agent of our Great Qing Dynasty, in just a few days, he has already figured out my old secrets."

Then, he chuckled softly and snapped his fingers.

next second.

The beggar beside him suddenly showed a look of horror—his head swelled up like an inflated balloon, as if all his bodily fluids had gathered in one spot. Then, just like a balloon, it burst open with a bang when it reached its limit.

Moreover, this isn't the only one.

All that could be heard outside the door were the sounds of explosions, and the stench of blood in the air suddenly became tangible.

—This was only to keep it a secret.
They actually killed everyone in the entire hideout!

Meng Hao felt his head swell up—and it looked like it was about to explode.

But at that moment, Horn suddenly flicked out a red jade bead, which turned into a cloud of blood mist while in mid-air.

Space seemed to freeze for a few seconds. In a daze, Meng Hao seemed to see several tiny nematodes crawling out of his nose, but before he could take a closer look, as the blood mist reversed, his swollen head shrank back.

Yu Sanzhi did not stop him, but simply played with the jade thumb ring on his index finger and said coldly.

"Chahara, what do you mean?"

Horn put away the red jade beads and then answered.

“It doesn’t mean anything. After all, there aren’t many capable people left under the old lady’s command, and he’s still useful for this mission. There’s no way I would let you kill him for no reason.”

The situation suddenly became extremely tense.

Yu Sanzhi stared coldly at the two of them, and Horn was also calmly watching him. Finally, Yu Sanzhi suddenly smiled.

"Alright, I know your word. As your subordinate, he probably won't be too loose-lipped. So let's get down to business."

"—What exactly do you want from me, Old Yu, this time?"

The questions are similar to those before, but now they are clearly being taken much more seriously.

Horn said softly.

"Actually, there's only one thing I wanted to talk to the leader about this time—the Empress Dowager has seen a new chosen one in her dream again—leader, you know that last time Shi Dakai almost destroyed the Qing Dynasty, so this time we must nip him in the bud no matter what."

"You mean you want me to help you find this person?"

"Yes."

Yu Sanzhi suddenly laughed sarcastically.

"I say, do you really think I, Old Yu, am a god? Don't you have any idea how many people there are in the entire Qing Dynasty? Yes, I do control some power, but asking me to find such a person in the entire Han territory is like asking me to throw a pebble into the sea and find an exact replica in it."

Horn's expression remained unchanged; he simply spoke calmly.

"The Empress Dowager has entered several dreams and consumed the last few lives of the Imperial Observatory before finally calculating that the chosen one is in the northern lands. Now the scope has been narrowed down so much, and it happens to be within the area under your control, Chief Yu, so I think this matter should not be too difficult for you."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sanzhi fell into deep thought, and after a while, he finally spoke.

"That's certainly possible, but now that the scope has been determined, why don't you ask your own government to help you?"

"You're just asking a question you already know the answer to—everyone knows that the Empress Dowager's edicts don't leave the Forbidden City anymore, and with so many people watching, it would be troublesome if those scheming guys found out."

Upon hearing this explanation, Yu Sanzhi finally sighed.

"Alright, I got it—the last question is, what's in it for me?"

".What's the meaning?"

"So, what kind of reward do I get for helping you this time? After all, look, I've taken such a big risk to get involved, you can't just leave me with nothing, can you?"

This time, Horn stopped talking.

Yu Sanzhi didn't urge him, and just waited quietly.

Finally, Horn spoke slowly.

"A fragment left behind when the God-King passed away."

It would have been better if he hadn't listened, because upon hearing it, Yu Sanzhi actually stood up and exclaimed in shock.

"No, isn't that one of the treasures your Great Qing uses to suppress destiny? Do you have the right to use this thing as payment?"

Compared to Yu Sanzhi, Horn's reaction was quite calm.

“The dragon vein has already been dug up, so what can it suppress now? It’s just a piece of chicken rib that’s tasteless to eat but a pity to throw away. It doesn’t matter how we take it out now—besides, Chief Yu, isn’t this exactly what you need to perfect your technique?” Yu Sanzhi was truly caught in a dilemma this time. After struggling for a long time, he finally made up his mind.

“Okay, but I need you to give me the item first, and then you need to give me a specific area—after all, the North is so big, and I don’t have anywhere to find it for you based on just the title of ‘Chosen One’.”

Horn nodded and then answered.

"I don't know much about this either. I only know that this chosen one is very likely to appear out of thin air, but it's also possible that, like Shi Dakai, he has an original identity. In any case, this person's behavior will definitely be very different from ours, and because he has a destiny, he will inevitably cause some trouble wherever he goes."

Upon hearing this, Yu Sanzhi suddenly paused in surprise.

"It's quite a coincidence, I actually know someone like that."

Horn asked immediately.

"Who are you talking about?"

“This person isn’t far away.” Yu Sanzhi suddenly seemed to remember something, scratched his head, and then said.

"By the way, have you ever heard of the Revolutionary Party?"

—For the people of Chenjia Village, life is getting harder and harder.

In recent years, I don't know what God has gone mad with. First, there was a drought that was rare in a century. After the drought, there were locusts. After the swarms of flying insects passed, there was basically nothing left to grow in the fields.

However, even though they were so hungry that they had to dig up grass roots, the fees owed to those "masters" and government officials remained unchanged, and in fact, the fees they had to pay increased year by year—to the point that they couldn't even pay by selling their children.

They did consider escaping, but with the world in such chaos, where could they possibly go? At least they could stay half-dead at home, but if they really ran away, who knew if they would end up dead in the wilderness, or even be eaten by wild animals or bandits?

Not to mention that their home is right here, and their ancestors have lived here for generations. Unless absolutely necessary, who would abandon their home and go to another place?

Just hang in there.

That's how they've always lived, anyway.

If there are no grass roots, eat tree bark; if there is no tree bark, eat clay. As long as we keep going like this, we can get through these hard times.

The problem is that the living can endure it, but the dead cannot.

Just a few dozen miles away from Chenjia Village is Tonggang—one of the few places in the Qing Dynasty that allowed foreigners to do business. I don’t know if those guys brought some kind of epidemic recently, but the whole village has been plagued by it.

At first, it was just a few elderly and frail people. No one paid any attention to it, assuming that they had just starved to death because they hadn't eaten enough. In this day and age, no one has the spare money to do any religious rites. The better ones can have their own children bury them in the ancestral grave with a shovel, while the worse ones just roll them up in a tattered mat and throw them into the back mountain.

But soon, the disease began to spread.

After the elderly came the children, then the women, and eventually even several men in their prime succumbed to the plague.

The village chief of Chenjia Village was a man of experience. After realizing something was wrong, he immediately isolated the patients, which prevented the entire village from being affected. However, seven or eight households still died, and in most cases, one person's illness led to the death of the whole family.

As more and more people died, strange things naturally began to happen in the village.

First, the village's local earth god statue inexplicably broke in two. Then, the lanterns at the village entrance would suddenly light up in the middle of the night—even though there were no candles inside. Next, some people heard voices coming from the houses where people had died.
The simple-minded men and women in the village all said it was haunted, but the village chief himself knew the truth.

—This is fucking a demon coming out.

Fortunately, the situation isn't too serious. At its current level, any monk could easily perform a ritual to help the deceased pass on. But the problem is...
All religious ceremonies cost money.

Moreover, the amount required is usually quite substantial.

Their Chenjia Village has almost stripped the bark off the trees, so where are they going to get money?
The village chief did seek help from the government for this matter—after all, their place was a well-connected area, and if a disturbance were to occur, no one would be in a good position—but the officials above only gave him one sentence in response.

"Let's talk about it when something really happens."

Listen, is this human language?

The village chief has been so worried these past few days that he's almost bald. He wants the remaining people to run away, but he doesn't know how many of them will agree, and even if they do run away, how will they survive?
In this day and age, even beggars won't be accepted!
However, just when he was beginning to despair, his door was suddenly pushed open.

The cold wind, mixed with snowflakes, poured in from outside like knives, making the already not-so-warm house even colder.

The village chief glanced at the man, then lowered his head again.

He recognized the man who barged in; he was the village's mentally challenged son, whose brain had been damaged by a high fever when he was a child. In good years, he could be supported by being a village guardian, but now...
Normal people are too busy taking care of themselves to have any time to care about him.

It was thanks to his strong physique and his skill in finding grass roots in winter that he didn't starve to death like the others.

As soon as he pushed open the door, he shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Uncle Chen, Uncle Chen!"

I can fucking hear you, I don't need you to come and urge me to my death!

The village chief rolled his eyes and then said weakly.

"what's up?"

It wasn't that he didn't want to speak loudly, but that he wanted to conserve his energy. After all, there wasn't much to eat right now, and he wasn't like that idiot. If he got tired now, he wouldn't be able to run in a few days.

"Uncle Chen, a villager."

Before Ershazi could finish speaking, the village chief interrupted him without any politeness.

"Were they the merchants who passed through before? Didn't I tell them that this place was going to be haunted and that they should run away quickly?"

No, it's more like...

"So those few households think I'm making a fuss over nothing? You can't reason with a damned ghost. Let them feed the ghouls if they want, but don't drag me into it!"

"No, it is."

"So the tax collectors are here again? Tell them we have no money on hand and will come back in a few days—anyway, by then everyone who's going to run away will have already run away, let them find some trouble to collect their taxes."

"Neither"

Ershazi was a slow talker to begin with, and after being interrupted several times in a row, he couldn't even utter a complete sentence. Finally, when the village chief impatiently tried to chase him away, he managed to squeeze out a sentence.

"Uncle Chen, a stranger has come to the village."

"This guy said he could help us solve things, and he even called himself... um... uh."

The idiot scratched his head, thinking for a long time before finally remembering a word.

"Mr. Funeral Director?"

(End of this chapter)