Chapter 22 Even the crows don't need the magistrate to give them a signal, Chen Ming...

Without the magistrate even giving him a signal, Chen Ming immediately followed An, both to provide assistance to An and to quickly obtain relevant intelligence.

An quickly headed to the area where the incident occurred. Everyone around her knew her identity and made way for her as if Moses had parted the sea.

The argument in the very center continued unabated, escalating into a full-blown brawl. An watched helplessly as more and more Koro people rushed in to beat someone up, utterly bewildered but forced to quell the situation quickly: "Stop it, all of you!"

Upon hearing the familiar voice, the fighting people from the Koruo tribe immediately got off the person lying on the ground and casually tidied their disheveled hair and clothes.

"What are you doing? Why don't you tell me and the Great Shaman what's going on? Is it appropriate to start arguing and fighting like this? Will the Great Shaman be happy to see this? Is this good for our tribe?" An's face was full of anger as his gaze swept over the faces of the troublemakers. When he saw Xiao Shui, he paused. An had never expected Xiao Shui to get involved. He frowned and said, "Xiao Shui, what happened? You tell me."

Xiao Shui's face was bruised and contorted with anger: "An! These outsiders received the Great Shaman's favor, yet they not only show no gratitude, but also slander the Great Shaman!"

It was mealtime, and almost all the Korlo people and those who worked in the Korlo territory had gathered here.

The magistrate looked at the crowd gathered in the open space before him. They had come from all directions, carrying wooden and earthenware bowls, which seemed to contain tofu, noodles, or similar foods. The magistrate had a doubt: "There don't seem to be that many Keluo people, do there?"

He could clearly distinguish between the Korlo people and other ethnic groups. The reason was simple: the differences were too great. The Korlo people, recently enjoying a life of plenty, had regained their pride and confidence, and their appearance and skin texture had undergone a qualitative change.

Immediately, someone stepped forward to explain to the magistrate: "Recently, looms have been manufactured in large quantities, requiring many weavers. The Great Witch tribe is short-handed, so they have been recruiting weavers from surrounding tribes. The word spread quickly, and the Great Witch offered very good conditions, so the number of people has increased. Now it is mealtime, and people have come out of the weaving workshops and fields."

"Oh?" The magistrate raised an eyebrow.

"The shaman provides a meal and ten coins a day, with wages paid daily. If the weaving is done well and quickly, the wages can be increased. The shaman says this is called 'the more you work, the more you earn.'"

Ten coins were neither too much nor too little. But thirty coins could buy a bushel of millet in a good year. A family of five could eat a bushel of millet for five days. The magistrate finally understood why there were so many people in this area.

The world is bustling with people coming and going for profit.

Wasn't he also here because of the huge profits?

Xiao Shui angrily grabbed a foreign man and said, "This is the man who ate the free food provided by our tribe and spoke ill of the Great Shaman! He said the Great Shaman is unworthy of his position and even asked Qi if he wanted to take his place."

An then noticed that Qi, who was not tall, was also in the midst of the chaos.

Qi's expression was not good. He said, "I started it, but he was the one who said the most hurtful things. I'd like to know who taught him to say that."

The man was beaten black and blue, wincing in pain, his eyes searching for something in the crowd.

He suddenly shouted, "Evil spirit! Evil spirit has possessed Qing. Qing's words and actions are inconsistent. Doesn't your clan find this strange? Everyone is helpless against blood flukes. Why did she know how to suppress them with herbs after becoming a witch?"

"And those looms! How could the gods allow mortals to use His things? They must have been stolen by evil spirits! The recent continuous rains are surely a sign that the gods are angry! Gentlemen, if we don't take Qing to the Xiangjun Temple to apologize, I'm afraid the gods will unleash even greater punishments!"

As soon as the man finished speaking, several crows suddenly flew out from the weaving room in the distance, cawing loudly as if they were carrying something in their beaks.

An's expression changed, and she reacted quickly: "Hold him down! Don't let him get away! Shoot those crows down!"

Qi ran quickly toward the weaving room, with Xiao Shui following closely behind.

An heard someone whispering.

"A crow...an ominous sign..."

With a solemn expression, An took the bow and arrow handed to him by a member of his tribe, drew back the bowstring, and with a whoosh, fired three arrows at once!

Several crows circling in the sky were struck by three arrows and plummeted into the forest. The remaining crows, unable to escape, were also shot down by arrows that pierced the air.

From then on, crows were never seen in the sky again.

The magistrate was stunned. He never expected that this old woman, whom he had taken lightly, could unleash such powerful strength and hit her target every time! No wonder she was the chieftain of the Koruo people. Besides being old, she was also skilled in fishing, hunting, and weaving.

The magistrate thought that perhaps only a woman like this could raise Lin Fengzhi.

An didn't put away her bow and arrows; instead, she drew the bowstring again, the cold arrowhead aimed at the controlled foreign man. She said, "I know you. You're from Suiju. What? Don't want to live under a woman's control anymore? Or are you resorting to these filthy, despicable methods? I'd like to see how many crows you have left for me to kill!"

"Tell me, who ordered you to do this?"

The foreign man remained silent. When pressed further, he only replied that he couldn't stand the fact that the Keluo people were ruled by the high shaman and the female chieftain.

An released the bowstring, and the arrow flew swiftly into the man's shoulder, causing him to curl up in pain. An ignored him, squinting at the surrounding foreigners. Because the Keluo people were few in number, Lin Fengzhi had hired some foreigners to work, offering them good pay, which aroused some inappropriate thoughts in some people.

An thought, it's okay, she will take care of everything.

Xiao Shui and Qi Dou returned with the pierced crow. In its beak lay a crucial component from a slanted loom. Under its wings, leaves were tied with thin thread, inscribed with the words, "The Great Witch is ominous; a storm is inevitable."

Qi tore the leaves to shreds without any expression.

Xiao Shui glared at the man: "An, the walls over there in the weaving room have been smeared with phosphorus powder. There are our people guarding it, no one can get in. Those Suiju people are definitely up to no good. I checked their seating area in the weaving room, and the diameter of the cloth rollers on their looms has been adjusted."

An has been frequently active in the weaving room since January, so how could he not know that if the diameter of the cloth roller is adjusted, the woven cloth will naturally disintegrate after a month or so?

They were deliberately causing trouble. They had the men draw attention here while the rest went to cause chaos in key areas of the Kolo people.

Fortunately, they had a clear division of labor from the beginning, and important locations were guarded throughout. An was in charge of the weaving room, Qi was watching the school, and Yong was overseeing the movement of supplies.

Ann's gaze swept over the onlookers. She said, "Our tribe doesn't need such ungrateful people to work! He slandered our High Priest, sabotaged the loom, and released the Raven Curse. Could he have accomplished all this by himself? Children, find all the Suiju people. If no one admits who did this, our tribe will never welcome anyone who is malicious towards us or the High Priest."

The other unrelated Ba, Pu, and Yang people all silently took a step back, leaving only the Suiju people in the middle of the scene to confront the Keluo people.

Some of the Suiju people looked bewildered and uneasy, trembling under the gaze of the crowd.

I felt relieved; it seems that not everyone participated.

There were also some... An hadn't even given any orders to do anything to them yet, but simply exposing them to the gaze of the crowd was enough to make some of them unable to bear the inner torment.

Without any verbal or physical interrogation, seeing the man's miserable state, they began to confess and attack each other.

"If you hadn't slipped up, how would we have been pushed out?"

"Didn't we agree that verbal provocation would suffice? Why did you release crows directly? You're not following the proper order at all!"

After listening to the few words spoken by the group, An finally pieced together the truth.

The group had been plotting for a long time, but had not found an opportunity due to the tight security of the Keluo people. Today, the county magistrate was visiting, and An from the weaving room was not there, so they decided to make a scene during the meal. To this end, they sent men to confront Lin Fengzhi, the most prestigious shaman among the Keluo people, when the crowd was at its peak.

The Kolo people, of course, couldn't tolerate this either, and their emotions were easily stirred up. What followed was exactly as planned, causing chaos in various important corners of the Kolo territory. Some people smeared phosphorus powder in the weaving workshops, stole precision parts from the slanted looms, and secretly adjusted the diameter of the cloth-winding beams.

Some people planned to add frog eggs to the dye, which would then decompose and cause insect infestation. However, this plan was exposed before it could be implemented.

The plan seemed meticulous, but they appeared to be completely unprepared.

The crows had just been released and the so-called carefully prepared prophecy had not yet spread when they were shot dead by An.

An frowned slightly, a sense of unease flashing through her mind.

The plan was crude and rudimentary, seemingly made to attract their attention.

After listening, a woman from Suiju, seemingly unable to bear it any longer, said, "How could you do this? How can you face the Great Shaman and the shamans?"

The men gave her strange looks, as if they were mocking her naivety.

“Li, have you forgotten? Our tribe also survives by weaving. Once the Kolo people come up with their slanted looms, what way will we have to live?” Someone couldn’t help but chime in, “Ha, isn’t that what the shamans made us do?”

The woman named Li was shocked and said in disbelief, "How can you think like that? Here, I eat better, earn more, and don't have to bend over and squint all day to thread and separate threads. Three days' work is enough for me to eat for ten days. I cherish such a good job."

Someone else echoed Li's words, saying, "The shaman only ever pays me a pittance for the cloth I sell. It's less than what I earn working here. The shaman never gave me much of a livelihood in the first place, and now he's going to cut off our livelihood here too?"

These men were all beneficiaries surrounding the shaman Sui Ju, and naturally couldn't bear to hear any accusations. Just as they were about to reprimand him with a barbed tongue, An slowly drew back his bowstring, aimed at them, and asked, "Where is your shaman?"

They knew An would definitely shoot an arrow, and cold sweat streamed down their foreheads.