It's time to become an evil god.

Having exhausted all other options, Boss Li dared not disobey and immediately dialed the number of the thugs lying in ambush.

The van, hidden by the roadside, had been waiting until late at night, its interior reeking of smoke. The men inside were wiping their machetes and hunting rifles, awaiting their boss's orders. The leader, a half-smoked cigarette dangling from his lips, stared grimly at the distant mountain village, the scar on his face trembling with every muscle twitch.

Suddenly, his phone vibrated. He quickly answered the call, and his employer's voice came from the other end.

Zhang San asked with a cold expression, "Boss, can we start now? We'll start immediately, huh? Not at all? Okay, fine, no problem, I know what to do. Don't worry, I'll make sure it's watertight, there won't be any mistakes."

After saying that, Zhang San hung up the phone.

The thugs beside him, who had been drowsy, suddenly became alert and eager to get started, asking, "Third Brother, what did Boss Li say?"

Zhang San was also baffled by Boss Li's arrangement. "Boss Li's instructions were strange. He told us to go find Village Chief Ding, take his family hostage, and then give him the phone number."

The others exchanged bewildered glances after hearing this. They had initially thought they were part of a backup plan in case Boss Li's scheme was exposed, and that they would rush in and rescue him with ease. But they hadn't expected it to turn into a kidnapping, extortion, coercion, and enticement operation, transforming the situation from a physical task into a mental exercise.

One of the young men cautiously opened Bilibili, searched for Luo Xiang's lectures on criminal law, handed the video to Zhang San, and whispered, "Brother San, how about we do a simulation first?"

Zhang San immediately became unhappy and cursed, "Simulate my foot! We're professional outlaws, can't we have some professional ethics? Boss Li said that if the other party doesn't obey, we'll pay to kill him!"

Village Chief Ding turned off the bedside lamp and prepared to go to bed. The events of the day still troubled him, especially after Ding Junshan's accident. Elder Ding Pinglong immediately brought people over to warn his family that if this happened again, their entire family would be the next to be sacrificed.

Although Village Chief Ding didn't know what kind of monsters were sacrificed to by the human sacrifices, he lived in constant fear after seeing the villagers of the Nei surname turn into inhuman monsters after putting on masks. Sometimes, Village Chief Ding thought about escaping from the village. Before, some villagers had tried to escape after discovering the truth, but they were all forcibly brought back and, in front of everyone, their entire families were thrown into coffins and sent to the Ding family ancestral hall, and they were never seen again.

The thought of the three elders' ruthlessness made Village Chief Ding's hair stand on end.

He climbed into bed and put down the mosquito net, but still felt uneasy. So he took a flashlight from the bedside table, ignored the woman snoring loudly beside him, put on his coat, and walked towards the door.

Village Chief Ding's thin frame appeared exceptionally small in the darkness.

After crossing the courtyard and reaching the gate, Wei trembled as he prepared to turn back, only to be met with a violent banging on the door.

dong dong dong.

The sudden sound startled Village Chief Ding, who quickly asked in a low voice, "Who? Who is it?"

"Open the door right now!"

The voice outside the door replied rudely, "Water meter checkers."

Upon hearing that the water meter was being checked, Village Chief Ding's hand trembled, nearly dropping his flashlight. He stood frozen in place, unable to react. However, the door was quickly smashed open, and a group of burly men wearing three-hole black hoods rushed in. Before Village Chief Ding could even turn and run, two men pinned him down, while the rest rushed into the dark room, intending to drag the village chief's wife out.

From inside the dark house came the sounds of fierce fighting and a woman's wails. Zhang San stood at the door with a machete in hand. After waiting for two minutes without any movement or the noise subsiding, he impatiently asked, "Are you all useless? Why can't you even handle a woman? Get out here now!"

A man with a bruised and swollen face staggered out of the door, leaning against the door frame. He even had several teeth knocked out.

"Boss, things aren't looking good. What's inside...it's not even human! All of us brothers can't hold her down. She's stronger than the biggest sow in our village."

He reached out his hand to ask for help, when suddenly a chubby hand reached out from inside the house, grabbed the man's hair, and dragged him into the darkness.

There was another sound of rummaging through drawers and cabinets inside, followed shortly by heavy footsteps.

The rest of the people gripped their knives tightly and silently swallowed.

A bloated figure slowly emerged in the pitch-black room. The buttons on her clothes were taut to the limit, threatening to pop off at any moment from her flesh. The woman, her face full of scars, dragged her incapacitated companions with both hands and tossed them carelessly in front of Zhang San.

"Grass."

Zhang San dropped the cigarette butt from his mouth onto the ground. Looking at the village chief's wife, who weighed at least two or three hundred pounds, he silently gave a thumbs-up to the man on the ground and said respectfully, "I didn't expect Village Chief Ding to be a tank driver. My apologies."

Chapter 556 You Need to Pay More

Apart from being able to walk on two legs, the village chief's wife in front of me was no different from the kind of large sows that several people couldn't catch when I was a child in my rural hometown.

"Do you think I, an outsider, became the village chief? They said that if I wanted to be the village chief, I had to marry the daughter of the previous village chief. At the time, I was too young and impetuous. I wondered why marrying the daughter of the previous village chief required all the able-bodied men in the village to draw lots for a chance to die. Without saying a word, I immediately raised my hand and volunteered to marry her. As a result, everyone looked at me like I was an idiot. On the wedding day, I was dumbfounded. This wasn't marrying a person. It was like they wanted me to artificially inseminate a big sow! I'm not a Fu Rui fanatic. I was so scared that I ran away on the spot. These guys chased me for several kilometers through the cornfield, tied me up, and brought me back for the wedding ceremony."

Village Chief Ding said with a mournful face, "Have you ever thought about how hard it's been for me all these years?!"

Even a heinous criminal like Zhang San couldn't help but show a look of sympathy after hearing Village Chief Ding's story. The other bandits around him stared at him as if he were a hero; despite the black hoods, their deep compassion was still palpable in their eyes. One of the bandits muttered, "Who says only those standing in the light are heroes..."

"Don't worry, Village Chief Ding."

Zhang San signaled for the others to release the village chief. Village Chief Ding struggled to get up from the ground, dusted himself off, and stared at the other party helplessly.

Zhang San walked over and patted the village chief on the shoulder, saying solemnly, "As long as we're here, this woman absolutely can't do anything to you!"

"What did you say?"

The enraged village chief's wife stepped forward, and everyone else involuntarily took a half-step back, nervously watching the mountain of tanks before them. The intense pressure emanating from the village chief's wife reminded them of the most terrifying ground warfare weapons of World War II.

Tiger tank.

The village chief's wife said coldly, "You're all carrying knives and guns, trying to bully a weak woman like me, aren't you?"

Weak woman?

How can someone weighing several hundred pounds be considered a frail woman?

Zhang San took a deep breath, gripped the knife tightly, and dared not make a move. He whispered, "No. This is legitimate self-defense."

I never imagined that one day I, a lawless outlaw, would utter the words "legitimate self-defense." The only possibility is that Zhang San encountered a terrifying being even more lawless than himself.

"Fine, you just wait."

The village chief's wife didn't rush to make a move, but slowly walked to a corner of the courtyard. Everyone's eyes followed her, watching her every move warily.

In the corner of the courtyard stood a willow tree. The village chief's wife rolled up her sleeves, wrapped her arms around the willow, and then suddenly exerted force. Her entire face turned a deep purplish-red, veins bulged on her forehead, and even the ground trembled slightly.

The willow leaves on the tree fell like snowflakes, the flat ground bulged up, and the roots buried deep in the soil were exposed. To everyone's astonishment, the village chief's wife actually uprooted the entire willow tree and held it horizontally at her waist as a weapon.

Clang.

Zhang San's machete fell to the ground, and he almost collapsed to his knees. Remembering Boss Li's instructions, he quickly dialed the number, put it on speakerphone, and said in a trembling voice, "Boss, something's wrong. Village Chief Ding's wife... she's a monster!"

Originally intending to use threats and inducements, Boss Li sensed something amiss in the other party's tone and quickly cut to the chase, saying, "Village Chief Ding, I can make a deal with you, and it's an absolutely worthwhile one. If you can rescue me, I'll give you twenty times the reward."

"No."

Village Chief Ding shook his head. "Are you asking me to go and kill my neighbor, who's like a brother to me? I can't do that. You'll have to pay more."

Mr. Li on the other end of the phone gritted his teeth, determined to cut his losses, "Fine, I'll give you thirty times the amount!"

Thirty times?

Upon hearing this, the money-grubbing village chief Ding immediately perked up, did a rough calculation, and asked, "Are you serious?"

Mr. Li shouted anxiously, "Of course it's true! Hurry up! I'm being taken to the Ding family ancestral hall as a human sacrifice! If I die, you won't get a single penny!"

"and many more."

Village Chief Ding showed no signs of his previous nervousness and gestured to his wife not to make a move.

He turned his head, looking at the outlaw Zhang San with hostility, and asked, "Boss Li has already offered thirty times the bounty for your life. What about you? How much money can you offer to redeem yourselves?"

"us."

Zhang San was so frightened that he broke out in a cold sweat. He slapped his forehead and quickly said, "Oh right, we'll give you all the money in our bank card and WeChat red envelopes."

"That's it? No, that's too little. My wife wants to buy SK-II, Helena Rubinstein, and La Mer. We need to add more money."

Village Chief Ding turned his head and gestured to the woman behind him. The woman immediately stepped forward, and the powerful aura of pressure made Zhang San quickly change his tune, shouting, "We, we still have the credit limit from Ant Financial's Huabei, we'll give it all to you!"

"not enough."

Village Chief Ding took out Zhang San's phone, downloaded a bunch of loan apps for him, and then threw it at him, saying, "It's okay if you don't have money, go borrow money to pay the ransom."

"Oh, this."

Even the outlaw Zhang San, racking his brains, couldn't recall if Luo Xiang had ever discussed a similar situation in his lectures on criminal law. In the end, he could only reluctantly borrow a large sum of money from various microloans and transfer it to him.

"If you take someone's money, you're obligated to solve their problems."

Village Chief Ding dragged two giant axes out of the kitchen, handed them to his wife, and said, "I've long wanted those three old men in the village dead. Today, I'm going to act on behalf of Heaven and kill them."

Meanwhile, Bai Ge, Boss Li, and the other two were jostled around in the narrow coffin for a while, until finally the coffin stopped and they all fell heavily to the ground. Before they could even react, a blinding candlelight illuminated the dark coffin, and Bai Ge was forcibly dragged out of the coffin and thrown into the hall.

The Ding family ancestral hall was more luxurious and grand than I had imagined. Although it had been in disrepair for a long time, the black lacquered beams that took two people to encircle were all gilded and carved, and dozens of candles with faint flames were burning on a copper frame in the corner.

The square ancestral hall is inlaid with murals, all of which are about the legends and myths of the White Snake Lady descending to earth and tearing apart the mountain king with her bare hands.

The wooden memorial tablets in the ancestral hall were covered in dust due to lack of cleaning, while behind the curtains stood the solemn stone statues of the Seventy-Two White Lady, with two Ding family ancestors kneeling on either side to serve the White Lady.

Bai Ge's gaze remained fixed on the Ding family ancestor kneeling on the ground, and he remained silent.

This face looks somewhat familiar...

"Professor Bai, Professor Bai."

Mr. Li, who was standing nearby, called out softly, "What are you looking at so intently?"

"I have this feeling..."

Bai Ge looked at the Ding family ancestor serving beside Lady Bai, turned her head and whispered, "Is this Ding ancestor from Litang? I always feel that his eyes are very innocent?"

Chapter 557 So You Were the Mastermind

"Your eyes are so innocent?"

Mr. Li stared at the other person for a long time but couldn't discern any good or evil in their eyes. He assumed they were deliberately teasing him, so he simply shut his mouth and began racking his brains to think of ways to stall for time.

Apart from a few strong and robust men surnamed Ding, the other clansmen could only stand obediently outside the door and wait. Three elderly people in the village respectfully placed three incense sticks in the incense burner and chanted, "Merciful and compassionate Lady White, today the 102 households of the Ding family offer you a holy maiden and three golden boys. Bless our village with prosperity and good weather."

After saying that, another old man led the little girl, who was standing timidly at the door, inside and forcibly pressed her down to kneel and bow.

"and many more."

Bai Ge suddenly spoke up, "I have something to say."

Attracted by Bai Ge's voice, the three old men looked at each other simultaneously and asked impatiently, "What?"

"Becoming a human sacrifice is not out of the question, but I have one condition."

The old man asked warily, "What are your requirements?"

Bai Ge said in a serious tone, "I plan to delete all browser history on my phone before I die."

"...Don't try anything funny with me."

The old man didn't take the trivial matter to heart. Instead, he took out his phone from Bai Ge's pocket and handed it to the other person, signaling the burly men around him to keep a close eye on things.

After taking the phone, Bai Ge didn't stand on ceremony. He directly opened the browser and deliberately typed a few lines in the search bar.

Mr. Li, who was standing to the side, kept his eyes glued to the screen, but he saw Bai Ge type a few lines on the screen.

[Follow my instructions: No matter what happens, do not run away.]