Chapter 74: The incident of Tiangang food eating people
Wanshou County.
The houses of varying heights with white walls and black tiles were submerged in the water. Many ragged people climbed onto the roofs, hoping that the flood would recede.
However, when they finally wrung out their wet clothes, they held the warming talismans distributed by the Demon Hunting Bureau, watched over their family and friends, or took a nap, or silently counted the losses they would suffer from the flood. Although the furniture and clothes were soaked in water, only a few pieces could still be used.
At this moment, the living corpses that had come back to life and the wandering souls without minds surrounded these survivors from all directions.
The dark green ghostly fire was reflected on the turbid water, revealing bloodthirsty red eyes.
Resentment, unwillingness, anger... the emotions of the deceased during his lifetime were magnified. The soul-collecting messengers disappeared, and the underworld, which allowed ghosts to rest in peace and presided over the six realms of reincarnation, seemed to have completely stopped here.
For the first time, people realized that true death is such a precious thing.
Sheng'er, a musician carrying a book box on his back, held a wooden hairpin in front of his chest and pointed it at the dead body that was crawling towards the roof with gritted teeth.
She had passed the initial test to become a court lady, and she didn't want to die.
She is thirteen years old this year and was born into a family of entertainers. According to the household registration system of this dynasty, her status is only slightly higher than that of an official slave. She cannot marry a commoner, and her children must be entertainers for generations.
But in the first year of the Yongxi reign, the emperor issued a decree of grace, which allowed hereditary servants, entertainers, clerks, and people from the lower nine classes to take the examination to become female officials. If they passed, they could escape from the status of a lowly official.
It is said that this was the result of a compromise between the emperor and the officials in the court. The emperor originally wanted to allow everyone to participate in the imperial examination regardless of their gender, which is the so-called "selecting the virtuous regardless of their family background".
This move caused a stir in the court and the country. If family background is not examined and a profit-seeking villain is allowed to become an official, how can the people be convinced?
Faced with a group of ministers who were quoting from classics and filled with righteous indignation, the emperor accepted their advice and first changed the rule to "Only those who have a juren degree or above as a guarantor and a local official to prove that they have no criminal record and are not unfilial can participate in the imperial examination."
Seeing that the emperor was not a willful and incompetent ruler who would not listen to advice and remonstrate, the gentlemen softened their attitude a lot. However, the scope was still too large. How could they guarantee that local officials would not be bribed and issue certificates to unethical people?
The emperor was a wise ruler. Even after being refuted twice, he did not get angry. He just took a step back. In this case, he would narrow the scope again. Only people with a clean background could take the imperial examination. Those with unclear backgrounds could only take the examination to become female officials and could not enter the outer court.
Although the adults are all loyal subjects who are dedicated to the country, they cannot but give face to the emperor. The emperor likes to employ female officials, which is also a habit he developed in the palace.
After a whole year of discussion, this grace decree, which had been revised again and again, was finally promulgated at the end of the year.
From then on, taking the examination to become a female official became the greatest hope of countless women of lowly origin.
Sheng'er often heard her sisters and aunts say that they were born in a good era. In the past, female officials were only selected from good families. People like them, who were of low status, were only fit to make a living by singing, dancing and making fun of others all their lives.
Sheng'er saw with her own eyes that many sisters and aunts studied hard late into the night, and after passing the examination to become female officials, they changed into the dignified official uniforms. They no longer had to smile all the time when meeting people, and when they walked out of the palace or did things, they were no longer stared at with inquiring eyes. Instead, they were looked at with awe and yearning.
Growing up in such an environment, Sheng'er made up her mind from a young age that she wanted to study hard, pass the examination to become a female official as soon as possible, and work for the emperor.
The proud Sheng'er was fortunate enough to have a talent to be proud of. She learned very quickly, whether it was literary and historical books or etiquette and systems.
It was because of this that she was able to pass the preliminary examination for female officials at the young age of thirteen.
If there hadn't been this flood, she would have gone to the state capital for a retest next month. If she passed the retest, even if she failed the final round of exams, she would still be eligible to be exempted from the retest the following year.
She is only thirteen, so she can definitely wait even if she has to take the exam for another year.
But unfortunately, this flood came.
After finally climbing onto the roof with the precious exam preparation books and escaping the man-eating flood, he was greeted by the man-eating corpses.
Listening to one shrill howl after another, the corners of Sheng'er's eyes turned bloodshot, and a cruel intent surged in the depths of his eyes.
Whoever dares to make her fail the re-examination, even if it is a zombie ghost, she doesn't mind killing it once.
A swollen, pale hand suddenly grabbed the eaves, and then a pale, wet face rose from under the eaves.
Its eyes were fixed on Sheng'er, its mouth was wide open, saliva dripped from its sharp yellow teeth, and its face was full of desire for fresh flesh and blood.
Sheng'er heard the screams beside him and knew that someone might have met with an accident, but he didn't dare to turn his head and could only stare at the zombie.
She only had one chance, she thought, maybe she could use this hairpin to pierce its throat...
Before she could plan in her mind, the zombie suddenly straightened its body and rushed towards her face like lightning.
Sheng'er smelled a strong stench of a corpse, but her hands were extremely stiff. She was unable to swing the hairpin and strike her opponent hard as she had imagined.
Her pupils were dilated with surprise, and her eyes were full of confusion. When she was reading books before, she always sneered at those passers-by who could only scream when they encountered evil spirits. It turned out that she was just one of them...
"boom!"
A ribbon flew out from behind her. It was obviously made of paper, but it was extremely sharp. It instantly pierced through the head of the zombie that jumped into the air. The next moment, it twisted left and right and crushed the head into pieces.
The yellow-white liquid exploded in front of Sheng'er like fireworks.
Sheng'er stared at the scene in a daze. The headless corpse fell with a loud "bang" and then rolled into the water along the eaves, splashing a huge amount of water.
"Child." A cold hand patted her back. Sheng'er raised her head and saw the master's wife wearing an official hat and a big red shirt. "Breathe."
“…Ha…Hu…” Sheng’er took a few deep breaths and then realized that he had been holding his breath for too long and almost suffocated himself to death.
The lady master in red shook her head and said nothing more. She turned around and continued to deal with other zombies.
Sheng'er stepped on the broken tiles and just took a step forward, wanting to say something, when she suddenly saw that beside her, many other wives dressed in red were killing zombies and wandering spirits together.
They protected the people behind them.
But when they are exhausted, they will wave their ribbons, grab the living people nearby, absorb their essence and blood, and replenish their spiritual power.
Sheng'er stopped and looked around, and for a moment, he suddenly didn't know what to say.
Are these mistresses good people or bad people?
The noble and upright families in the books would never act like this.
But even evil demons will not save the lives of strangers.
He Xianzhi turned his head and looked at Wanshou County where the sound of fighting continued.
The wives of the entertainment teachers covered her back, allowing her to quickly leave Wanshou County and return to Fujiao City to erase people's memory of Tianzun.
This is the fundamental solution if we want to successfully survive this natural disaster.
But this means that she must be ruthless and put behind her the fact that zombies eat people and her master's wife eats human blood in order to save people.
She had to convince herself that what she had to do was much more important than staying here to save one or two people.
"Hold on."
She whispered to herself, rode the water python, and hurried towards Fujiao City.
At this moment, she had no time to think about one question: why could she, whose mind had been polluted by Tianzun, give up her faith in Tianzun so quickly?
Even the most ordinary earth creature would not have such weak control over its believers.
Next to Bailian Spring.
The blood-red full moon shone on the crocodile monster, making its eyes show a hint of bloodthirstiness.
Beast-like howls and meaningless roars came out of its mouth involuntarily.
Yuan Jirui, holding the Earth Emperor Sword and with a face stained with a dark deathly aura, followed the voice and came over. When he saw the crocodile monster scratching the ground and slapping the gravel with its tail, his expression suddenly changed.
The jade-like Bailian Spring swayed slightly, and a clear feeling spread from the spring water. The crocodile monster paused and suddenly looked up.
“Taiyin Star Lord…” The crocodile monster exhaled a breath of foul air, and his eyes regained some clarity, “…It is Taiyin Star Lord who is affecting my mind. Miss Yuan, leave this place quickly! Taiyin Star Lord wants me to attack you!”
Yuan Jirui was wrapped in a vortex of spiritual power, his veins were washed by spiritual power and death energy, and his whole body was firmly sucked to the ground.
Even if she was a disciple of the Lord of the Mansion in her previous life, even if she was born to be extremely close to death, how could it be so easy to control the Sword of the Emperor of Earth?
"I can't move." Yuan Jirui squeezed out the sound from his throat, and it was broken and almost incomplete. "Senior, I can't move now!"
Above the crocodile monster's head, the full moon was expanding and shrinking more and more violently, and half of the moon was dyed blood red. The cold moonlight continued to fall on it, causing the clarity in its pupils to be replaced by bloodthirsty scarlet again.
The crocodile monster twisted its body and fiercely bit the tail that was constantly swinging in an attempt to attack. Blood dripped down its long snout and fell onto the grooved ground.
Did the Moon God betray him, or was he corrupted, or maybe neither, and he just wanted to take advantage of the situation and snatch away the power of death?
The crocodile monster raised its head, which had swelled up into the shape of a longevity peach before it let out a shrill wail.
The underworld, the first of the six heavenly palaces, deep in the Zhou Jueyin Palace.
Li Zhou took out a bib with auspicious patterns sewn on it from his storage bag and put it on meticulously.
When she was eating candy before, she wanted to ask her mother for one, but she didn't expect that the doctor had one.
As expected of a doctor, he loves cleanliness just like her.
Li Zhou suddenly found that the character of a doctor was very suitable for her. She was kind and had a mysophobia, and she just needed to play her true self.
After putting on the bib, Li Zhou took out the sickle. Now she knew what the sickle was used for. These baked snails grew on the Fujun Meat Mountain like mushrooms. She had to use the sickle to cut them off one by one.
Li Zhou patted the meat mountain, probably on his back, but it could also be on his buttocks: "It may be a little painful, just bear with it, it will be fine soon."
Meat Mountain hummed and said, "Yeah."
The patient had a very good attitude and even brought his own snail feast, so Li Zhou was very interested. He raised his sickle and chopped at one of the baked snails.
Unexpectedly, the next moment, the spiral lumps that had gathered into several huge snails fell off the mountain of meat by themselves.
The butter wrapping them also began to sizzle and emit steam, and the temperature suddenly rose a lot.
Li Zhou lowered her sickle and looked at the baked snails and butter that were slowly squirming and surrounding her. It took her a while to realize that this time the food was actually trying to turn against her and attack her.
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