“What do you mean by that?”
The three visitors from the Underground City stood up, their expressions unfriendly as they stared at Ke Mo. They had previously encountered resistance and defiance before, and quite a bit of it.
It was likely that even Jiang Yu, who issued the order, didn’t expect that simply yielding benefits to them would come with such ferocity.
Wielding a chicken leg as a command token, they dared to push the villagers of Human City to the brink of starvation.
And this audacity, besides their cravings, stemmed from the fact that the Celestial Race didn’t provide them with food.
“I think your proposal is pointless.”
Ke Mo filled his cup with tea. “Open the door and let them leave!”
The door of the ancestral hall was swung open by the villagers inside, revealing a sea of dark faces staring in from the outside.
They all appeared calm.
More than a decade ago, Great King Village, like other ordinary villages, was terrified of demons.
But now, they had banded together to chase off and k*ll several demons prowling near their village.
If they were unafraid of those horrifying creatures, why fear a few slightly stronger humans?
Moreover, the village chief periodically shared his wisdom with them.
In the event of a disaster year, if everyone had no food, they would have to sell their hard-earned fields.
Those fields would end up in the hands of the people from Underground City, and come the next bountiful year, they would never belong to their descendants again.
Other insights might be lost on them, but the land that nurtured them was a truth they all understood.
“Please, if the door is closed again, you won’t easily open it as you wish.”
“…..”
Seeing this, the young man from the Underground City was about to make a move to teach them a lesson but was held back.
The middle-aged man clasped his hands toward Ke Mo and said, “Our paths have crossed before!”
With that, he led the two away.
“Uncle Deng, they’re just a bunch of villagers! Why did you stop me just now?” the young man huffed in frustration.
Uncle Deng shot him a look and snorted, “Don’t you think what just happened in the ancestral hall was a bit strange?”
The tea table was made from the roots of a Hundred Climbing Tree Demon; the incense candles were made from the fat of human-snake hybrids; and the floor beneath their feet was covered with the hides of Black Wind Bears.
It was bizarre—having encountered so many demons, Great King Village was eerily peaceful!
These villagers seemed to have trained in some strange martial arts as well!
“If we had acted just now, we probably wouldn’t have been able to walk out the front door of the ancestral hall…”
The woman from the Underground City looked terrified and asked, “But this Great King Village is flourishing. If we can’t bring it under our control, how do we report back?”
“We can’t control Great King Village, but can’t the Celestial Race either?”
“I see those people carry strange martial skills and possess the scent of demons. They may have already colluded with them. This is a serious matter, and we must let the higher-ups in City of Heaven decide!”
The middle-aged man mounted his horse.
Three swift steeds galloped out of the village, and a figure slipped down from a tree.
Dong Er Niu, who had been hiding behind Ke Mo, was now grown up and gifted with exceptional talent. Earlier, he had hidden in the tree without the Underground warriors noticing him.
He immediately headed for the ancestral hall.
Meanwhile, on the other side…
The trio soon passed through an even taller and mightier city wall and met with the Celestial Race stationed in their region.
This Celestial was a wild-looking woman with a tanned complexion, black hair blowing without wind, appearing to be around thirty.
It was said that she was no ordinary person among the Celestials, with a natural aura of purple light surrounding her, capable of summoning fierce storms with a mere gesture.
“In Human City, someone is colluding with demons?”
Feng Zhi furrowed her brows, her tone unfriendly. “For such trivial matters, you could have handled them yourselves. Why disturb me?”
To her, the distinctions between humans from Human City and those from Underground City were negligible.
“The villagers of Great King Village seem to have gained strength from demons.”
The three of them trembled in fear, with only the middle-aged man able to muster a response.
As soon as he finished speaking, the woman opposite suddenly stood up, lightly raising her hand, and a fierce wind carried the middle-aged man in front of her.
“Is what you just said true?”
“Absolutely true!”
Feng Zhi nodded, sweeping her sleeves.
This matter was significant; she had to personally verify it.
The swirling wind lifted her and the three of them into the sky, whooshing past the clouds.
In less than a quarter of an hour, using her guidance, they traversed a long distance and arrived just outside Great King Village.
What met her eyes was a meticulously arranged expanse of farmland, along with lush mountains and waters.
In the fields, people were hard at work, and hunters could be seen in the mountains.
The farmers were not bent over; instead, they hunched low, resembling gigantic mantises hunting, wielding sickles like scythes, effortlessly cutting through the thick weeds.
One man, frustrated with the slow pace of the oxen plowing, shoved the old yellow ox aside for it to rest and started plowing by himself.
The scene in the fields was already bizarre enough.
The hunting scene in the mountains was even more outrageous.
A hunter, pointing at a wild boar across from him, disdainfully beckoned, “Hey, you dead pig, come here!”
“Snort?!”
When had wild boars ever been disrespected like this? Furious, it charged toward the hunter.
With a grunt, the hunter took a stance and himself collided with the boar.
Thud—
It was the wild boar that got flung away, knocked out in the process.
“See, I told you something was off with Great King Village!”
The middle-aged man from the Underground City pointed and felt quite assured.
What kind of farming and hunting was this?!
“Mantis, rampaging cow, iron-horned rhinoceros…”
From them, Feng Zhi indeed caught sight of those shadows of demons.
There was no shared aura, but it was unmistakably an imitation!
Moreover…
Not only was there no scent of demons, but quite the contrary.
Was there a Celestial hiding among these villagers?
As she felt the raging winds around her, a dull blue hue emerged in her eyes, leading her toward the source of the energy.
The Celestial Race was a loosely-knit group; it was entirely normal for some to wander outside. However, Human City was so vast that occurrences like this were rare.
Just then, she spotted a small farmyard.
Peering through the gate, she saw a serene figure.
With her hair in braided pigtails, dressed in coarse garments, her face was pale as snow, and her lips glistened like rubies, as though she had suddenly walked into this world’s beauty.
All Celestials bore the spirit of heaven and earth, making them quite beautiful.
But compared to her, they all seemed to lack that ethereal charm.
Ying Bing was holding freshly washed clothes, frowning as she looked at the sky.
“A sudden strong wind.”
Ke Mo came over to help her gather the clothes.
“That’s the chief of all evils! The village leader right here!”
The middle-aged man from the Underground City pointed at her.
Ke Mo: “?”
Little Chief Ke wondered how ‘evil’ could possibly mean ‘you’ leading the charge.
…..
