Chapter 64 Blasphemy 13. How could Yuejia Village possess divine power...?

Help?

Chu Shenxiang watched the Yue family villagers hurrying towards her, paused for a moment, sent the white cat to the Shen family, and then slightly raised her right hand, conjuring a white lotus lamp that seemed both real and illusory.

As the white lotus lantern turned, it flew out of the small temple and headed towards the foot of the mountain.

"Dashan, run! Don't look back anymore! We've reached Wangqiu Mountain, this is Shenxiangjun's territory, we're safe now! Hurry up the mountain, get to the temple, and beg Shenxiangjun to save the village!"

The leader was tall and strong, and even though he was panting heavily, he still kept an eye on his companions.

The man called Dashan was thin, his eyes filled with fear, and his forehead covered in sweat: "Only we escaped, about ten of us, only us..."

"So we can't afford to be afraid and waste time!" The tall man's eyes widened as he shouted, "Gather all our strength, charge forward, and shout with all your might, shout for Shen Xiangjun! As long as Shen Xiangjun hears us, we'll be saved, the village will be saved!"

The other man didn't say anything, but put all his strength into running as fast as a monkey on the mountain road, using both his hands and feet.

"Please, Goddess Xiangjun, save me!"

The leader shouted, his voice echoing through the secluded mountain forest.

Da Shan gritted his teeth and ran after them, shouting, "Please, Goddess Xiangjun, save me!"

"Please, Goddess Xiangjun, save me!"

"Please, Goddess Xiangjun, save me—!"

The shouts were almost like roars.

Da Shan was the weakest, and his vision was starting to go black. He grabbed a crooked tree by the mountain path and gasped for breath. Just as he was about to say that he couldn't go on and that they should go up first, he looked up and caught a glimpse of something through the gaps in the branches.

He paused, his eyes widening suddenly, forgetting to breathe.

"Dashan!" The leader turned around.

Da Shan didn't dare blink. His fingers trembled as he lifted them, and his mouth opened and closed several times before he finally managed to utter a sound from his parched throat: "Light...there's light! In the woods, ahead...there's light!"

"What?"

The leader froze, then subconsciously looked in the direction the mountain was pointing. He saw a hazy white light looming higher ahead, rapidly approaching them.

"That is..."

"The White Lotus Lantern, it must be the White Lotus Lantern!" Da Shan shouted.

"Stop talking nonsense! You've never even seen her, so don't try to implicate Shenxiang Jun!" the leader scolded.

But deep down, a sense of anticipation arose, straining my eyes, which were stinging from being soaked in sweat.

The other person also stopped and looked up.

They didn't need to observe for long; in just a moment, the light drew near.

A white lotus lamp, it really is a white lotus lamp!

Shenxiangjun heard it; Shenxiangjun appeared to him!

Tears streamed down Da Shan's face. He had been weak and powerless, but at this moment, a surge of strength seemed to come from nowhere. He rushed forward, knelt down with a thud, and kowtowed repeatedly: "God Xiangjun above, I beg you to save Yuejia Village! I beg you to save my parents, wife, and children! Whatever you want, I beg you!"

The other two were also jolted awake, realized what was happening, and quickly knelt down and kowtowed.

Seeing this, Chu Shenxiang felt a complex mix of emotions.

During the two hundred years of chaos, how many people knelt before him, pleading and praying for survival? And how many times did he wish he could smash the stone statue to pieces and rush out, truly displaying divine power and saving those in distress?

But what happened in the end?

Heaven plays a trick on mortals.

Should we help?

Chu Shenxiang looked at humanity.

Humanity looks back at him.

“One hundred and one years ago, you completely lost me,” this was the first sentence Chu Shenxiang had heard from a human being in all these days. “On that day, a demon entered Zhangjia’ao and slaughtered the village.”

"So many people kneel in the village temple begging you, even five-year-old children dig out their own hearts, begging you to save them. Seventy-year-old women cut open their bellies and hide you inside, fearing that you, the Goddess Xiang, will be smashed and destroyed."

"You stayed in that belly for a long time, so long that your internal organs rotted, maggots crawled everywhere, birds pecked and rats gnawed at you, and the living person gradually turned into a pile of rotten and weathered white bones. Then, you went mad."

Human nature has a pair of eyes as dark and blue as his.

It stared at him.

“Chu Shenxiang,” it said, “I don’t like you. You used to be a good-for-nothing, and now you’re a coward.”

Within the spiritual sea, Chu Shenxiang stared back at it indifferently.

In the mountains and forests, the white lotus lantern flickered, stopping the three people from bowing. The three felt a gentle breeze on their faces, their bodies lightened, and the fatigue and fear from their escape vanished, allowing them to relax completely.

The three of them stopped sweating and crying, and looked at each other in astonishment.

Before they could express their gratitude and kowtow again, the white lotus lantern dropped three lotus petals, lifting the three of them up, and they flew into the air like a feather boat.

"We'll talk about village matters as we walk."

Almost simultaneously, a clear, cold male voice, like the flowing clouds of the heavens, suddenly rang out.

Lord Shenxiang!

That must be Shen Xiangjun's voice! Shen Xiangjun is going to save their village!

The three were overjoyed and momentarily forgot about their shock at flying. They busied themselves telling the story, with one explaining and the other adding details.

The story begins yesterday.

The village chief's son is lively and works in the county town. He returned home the day before yesterday and suddenly remembered the incident of his child losing his soul some time ago. So he decided to take a detour to Wangjiapu, which is nearby, to check on him.

Since the worship of the goddess Xiangjun began in Yuejia Village, no child has ever lost their soul again. The children from before have long since been buried and cannot be found. They only hope for peace and tranquility in the future. At the time, they were thinking of their fellow villagers who had all suffered misfortune, so they kindly went to inform Wangjiapu.

Unfortunately, Wangjiapu didn't seem to believe it. These days, apart from the Shen family, who had become godparents of Shenxiang Jun, and their Yuejia Village, no other people had come to the Shenxiang Temple to offer incense.

If you don't believe it, yet there's been no new activity lately, could it be that you've found a new way to make a living?

The village chief's son was really curious.

Driven by this curiosity, he arrived at Wangjiapu and, as usual, went to the big willow tree at the village entrance to strike up a conversation with someone.

He's a chatterbox; when he comes over, he can talk for an hour or two about this and that.

This time, however, after exchanging only a few words, he hurriedly took his leave, leaving Wangjiapu as if chased by a ghost, and ran onto the main road. He ran towards Yuejia Village in a daze, ignoring anyone who called out to him, and did not turn back or stop.

Upon arriving home, he immediately knelt before the small wooden statue of Shen Xiangjun enshrined in his home, kowtowing three times before regaining his composure. He then spoke to the village chief, "Father, something has happened in Wangjiapu!"

It turned out that when the village chief's son was chatting idly under the willow tree in Wangjiapu, he noticed that there were no children coming and going in the village, so he asked around.

You should know that Wangjiapu has the most young children in the surrounding villages. The old people in Yuejia Village often talk to the young people, telling them to have more children while the world is peaceful and to learn from Wangjiapu.

In Wangjiapu, where children are usually everywhere, why haven't those little debt collectors been seen for a while today?

"Your Wangjiapu family must have secretly amassed a fortune, built a village school, and sent your children to study, right?" the village chief's son joked.

The weather was getting colder, and it was already the off-season for farming. After lunch, there were many elderly people in Wangjiapu under the willow tree. Hearing this, they all laughed and waved their hands, saying, "Everyone is tightening their belts. Where would we have that kind of spare money!"

"If they didn't go to school, what about the children?" the village chief's son asked.

“They’re all at home, everyone’s at home,” an old woman said.

The village chief's son found it strange and was about to ask again when he saw a man next to him who seemed to have something stuck in his teeth. He was rubbing his bloated belly and picking at his teeth with his dark fingers. He flicked out a small piece of shell, which landed on the ground in front of the village chief's son.

The village chief's son squatted down with his sleeves tucked in, his eyes inexplicably drawn to the small shell. After staring at it for a while, he finally recognized what the small shell was.

At that moment, his hair stood on end, and he was drenched in cold sweat. If he hadn't been worldly-wise, he would have sat down on the spot.

"Guess what that is?"

The village chief's son was trembling all over: "Fingernails...those are children's fingernails!"

The village chief's pipe trembled in his hand: "W-can you be mistaken?"

"Afraid of making a mistake, I... brought the little shell back!" The village chief's son was indeed quite bold. With trembling hands, he pulled out a handkerchief made from a scrap of cloth from his pocket. When the handkerchief was unfolded, a small shell mixed with dirt lay inside.

The village chief, the village elders, and the only barefoot doctor in Yuejia Village all examined it and compared it with the children in the village. Finally, everyone confirmed that the small piece of shell was indeed a child's fingernail, just as the village chief's son had said!

The children who have vanished from the village, the villagers who smile without saying a word, the full bellies, and the tiny fingernails picked out from between their teeth—

"Wangjiapu...I'm afraid it has already met with disaster!"

The village chief slumped heavily into his chair, his hand gripping his pipe stiff: "This is strange. We haven't heard a word about it; it's definitely not normal. We can't just sit here and wait to die. We must inform Shen Xiangjun as soon as possible and ask for his protection."

"Yue Qin, you take the men and leave the village shortly before it gets dark, head to Wangqiu Mountain! Yue Lin, you also take a few men and go to the county town. Tell them that Yuejia Village and Wangjiapu have been attacked by demons, and ask the county government to send a sorcerer!"

Yue Lin, the village chief's son, frowned upon hearing this and said, "Father, Shen Xiangjun has at least shown her power. The county government... forgive my bluntness, but based on just this fingernail and what I saw and heard, the officials may not necessarily take it seriously. It would be good enough if they didn't charge us with disturbing our sleep and throw us in jail."

"We're going anyway!" the village chief glared at him. "This is all we can ask for. We can't let go of even the slightest chance of survival!"

The group of men acknowledged and turned to leave.

However, not long after, something bad happened.

"Yue Qin and Yue Lin left before Shenshi (3-5 PM), but suddenly returned around Youshi (5-7 PM), saying everything was taken care of. The village chief sensed something was wrong and grabbed Yue Lin to question him. Yue Lin said he wanted to talk to him privately, so he pulled the village chief outside. A little while later, they returned, and the village chief smiled and said, 'Everything is taken care of, just wait patiently...'"

On the lotus-petal-shaped boat, the leader trembled as he said, "At that time, Yue San's family was with Xiao He, and Xiao He suddenly said that if we were to wait, we should wait at the village temple because she was scared."

"The villagers were also scared, and when they heard Xiaohe say that, they all quickly agreed and were about to go to the village temple. But the village chief suddenly spoke up, saying that no one was allowed to go and that they had to wait there."

"Seeing the smiles on the village chief and Yue Lin's faces, everyone finally realized something was wrong, and someone shouted, 'Run!'"

Whether quick-witted or slow-witted, everyone in Yuejia Village was stirred up by this shout in that strange and oppressive atmosphere, and they took off running.

Although Yuejia Village, in its desperation, converted to the worship of Shenxiangjun, changing the village temple and the process of sending off and then inviting the deity back was not so simple. Inviting a deity is easy, but sending one off is difficult. Sending off the Tongtian Da Niangniang took a lot of time, and they hadn't even had time to carve a new statue of Shenxiangjun to welcome her in. Right now, the village temple is empty of deities, and only the white paper lotus lantern that saved Yue Xiaohe is enshrined there.

Even so, it's still something to look forward to, better than nothing at all.

As the villagers fled in panic, many were swallowed by the surrounding darkness. The rest managed to reach the village temple, only to find the village chief and others following behind with smiling faces, gently asking them where they were going. Looking closer, they saw that the villagers who had disappeared into the night had somehow reappeared behind the village chief, smiling at them.

The villagers were terrified and fled into the temple. Some even knelt down in panic, desperately kowtowing to the white paper lotus lantern, praying for the goddess Xiangjun to appear.

"This piece of tattered paper and this broken stone statue in the mountains have no magical properties whatsoever. They're just something someone used to fool you all. And yet, some people actually believe it?"

Yue Lin smiled, disregarding everything inside the temple, and walked forward with the village chief, intending to capture them all in one fell swoop.

However, just as they lifted their feet and stepped onto the threshold of the village temple, the white paper lotus lantern on the offering table inside the temple suddenly trembled and then shone brightly, illuminating the temple as if it were daytime.

The village chief and Yue Lin were the first to be hit by the light, letting out a scream as they were sent flying backward with a thud. The other villagers behind them also yelled and quickly retreated to avoid being hit by the light.

"Divine power?!" Yue Lin's eyes widened as he stared intently at the temple, a twisted black aura flashing in his eyes. "How could there be something containing divine power in Yue Family Village!"

This fall seemed to have snapped the village chief out of his daze. He jerked his head back and shouted hoarsely, "Quick! Go and invite Shen Xiangjun! The demons have arrived, go and invite Shen Xiangjun!"

After shouting this, the village chief lowered his head again, but after a few breaths, he raised it again, this time with a kind and smiling face: "Look at you all, what are you doing hiding inside? Come out quickly, reunite with everyone, we are all one village..."

“We originally intended to all come out together, carrying your white lotus lanterns, but those lanterns would dim once they left the temple. We had no choice but to gather about ten people, each taking a small piece of paper from a lotus petal, and with a little light, we rushed out,” Da Shan said, kneeling on the lotus petal boat, choking back tears. “Of the ten or so people, only the three of us survived… Shen Xiang Jun, I beg you, I beg you to save Yuejia Village! I, Da Shan, kowtow to you here, and Yuejia Village will forever worship you!”

“There’s no need for that,” the white lotus lamp swayed gently, and the breeze lifted the mountain. “If I can save it, I will naturally do so.”

The three of them were overjoyed, laughing and crying, and kowtowed again.

As they were talking, they arrived at Yuejia Village.