Reincarnation
The village chief raised his hand slightly, and several sturdy men, holding ropes, menacingly approached Sangmu and Yue'er.
No matter how much Sangmu resisted, he was no match for all the men in the village. After struggling for a few moments, he was knocked to the ground by two strong men. Lying on the ground covered in blood, he raised his hand and desperately grabbed the village chief's trouser leg, pounding it hard, trying to stop these people from continuing to hurt his Yue'er.
The village chief laughed coldly. He squatted down, grabbed Sangmu's hair, and lifted his bloodied head up. He snorted and whispered in Sangmu's ear:
"Did you really think she was some virtuous and chaste woman? She's just a plaything we've already had our fill of."
It was as if a thunderbolt had suddenly struck Sangmu's mind. He was first shocked, then plunged into deep self-reproach. For ten years, he had brought food to Yue'er every day, yet he had never noticed anything amiss with her. He only noticed that she was becoming increasingly withdrawn and quiet. He hated himself for not discovering this sooner, for causing Yue'er so much suffering. And suddenly, he understood why Yue'er always let him go. She wanted to make them all pay the price with her life!
"Beast!" Sangmu said through gritted teeth, his eyes narrowed to slits from the force of the tugging, his face taut.
"Didn't you come here to taste her flavor too!" the village chief said, forcefully slamming Sangmu's head hard onto the ground.
A sense of humiliation at the desecration of a deity compelled Sangmu to suddenly erupt, and he stood up abruptly, grabbing the village chief's head. The village chief stumbled and fell to the ground. Before he could react, he felt a sharp pain in his ear as Sangmu bit down hard on his ear with his teeth until it bled profusely.
"Ah! Kill him! Kill him!" the village chief cried out in anguish.
Several villagers hurriedly used sticks to hit Sangmu's head hard until his head was a bloody mess with brains splattered everywhere, which finally freed the village chief from under the huge body. The man with wheat-colored skin lay limp on the ground, his eyes open and his pupils gradually dilating, with half a bloody ear still in his mouth.
Yue'er stood there silently, coldly observing everything. Even when two villagers brought ropes and tied her up like a dumpling, she did not resist at all, letting them drag her away rudely.
Under the scorching sun, the emaciated people were tanned to the point of being oily, their bodies seemingly devoid of any extra moisture to evaporate. They gazed helplessly at the woman on the altar.
The woman was as pale as a ghost, her thin body had become skin and bones, and her two deep-set eyes were particularly striking on her angular face. Her mouth and neck were covered with bruises as if she had just been beaten. The bruises were very familiar, and they were the work of each of them.
A Taoist priest walked up to the altar, carrying a tray in his hand. He had his hair in a bun, held a whisk in his hand, wore a wrinkled blue robe, and had a dry, yellow beard like a goat. He slowly walked up to Yue'er and smiled slightly.
“Junior sister, if you had followed me back then, you wouldn’t be in this state today,” the Taoist priest said softly.
"I knew it was you. How have you been?" Yue'er said in a cold voice, without even glancing at the person.
"You disobeyed me and even reported me to your master. Now you're being ridden by thousands of men, how much better off are you than me? I warned you long ago that human desires are endless. Look at yourself today," the Taoist said with a cold snort, his eyebrows raised high as if he had finally gotten his revenge.
"Didn't my senior brother also throw mud at me, forcing Master to expel me from the mountain gate?" Yue'er said with a cold laugh.
The Taoist priest didn't waste any more words. He put down the tray he was carrying, brandished his whisk a few times in a mock-serious manner, and then said to a villager beside him:
"Cut her heart out!"
The villager obediently picked up the knife from the tray and walked shakily toward Yue'er, his eyes filled with hesitation and fear. The Taoist priest, with a stern face, suddenly shoved him, and the man stumbled and fell into Yue'er's arms, the knife in his hand piercing her heart.
The Taoist priest laughed coldly, without a trace of hesitation or reluctance in his eyes. If he couldn't have it, he would destroy it. He wanted to kill this aloof and proud person at the hands of these filthy people.
"Ah!" The villager was so frightened that he let go of her hand, screamed, and ran away.
"Hmph! Useless thing!" the Taoist priest said disdainfully, giving the villager a disdainful look.
Blood gushed out immediately. He gripped the knife and slashed downwards with all his might, reaching into the burning chest to pull out the still-beating heart. With a sudden tug, he tore the entire heart out of the frail body.
"This is a sacred heart! Come! Slice her piece by piece! Then the rain will come!"
When the villagers saw that Yue'er was dead, at first only two or three villagers hesitated and climbed onto the altar, but gradually more people began to appear, each holding a short knife and tentatively stabbing Yue'er's body.
The moon remained open, its eyes turning blood red. Blood tears flowed from its eyes and slid onto its mutilated body. Its white clothes were stained red with blood, and the stench of blood spread, mixed with the smell of rain.
"Is it raining?" someone asked, sniffing and looking up at the sky, but the sky remained clear and the sun was still blazing down on them.
The bloodied heart was still beating, as if it had never left its original body. The Taoist priest panicked at the sight, but still tried his best to appear calm.
"Quickly! Kill her!" the Taoist priest shouted angrily.
People gradually became bloodthirsty, their thirst for rain driving them to rush madly toward the altar, wielding short knives and viciously stabbing at the withered moon, vowing to chop her to pieces, bones and all.
Fresh blood kept flowing from the gouged-out heart and mutilated body. Gradually, what flowed out was no longer blood but water. The water gushed out along every organ of the moon, until it gathered into a river that overflowed the altar and flowed into the village.
"Water! It's water!" someone shouted, their voice as loud as if they had just eaten their fill.
So people rushed forward like madmen, not caring where the water came from. As long as there was water, as long as it could relieve the thirst in their mouths, they would do anything.
The moon still stared at these people who were like pigs and dogs, its dead mouth coldly laughing.
"With blood as the catalyst and heart as the sacrifice, I will sacrifice my body to break your soul. Those who have wronged my body and insulted my soul shall pay with their lives!" The dead Moon suddenly shouted.
People were terrified and took several steps back, staring in horror at Yue'er's corpse.
The sky suddenly darkened, and more and more clouds gathered. Water on the ground rose into the air and floated in mid-air. Before people could react, countless water droplets instantly turned into ice spikes and pierced towards them.
Those who drank the water had their bellies stretched out, getting bigger and bigger, until their bellies could no longer bear it and burst open with a bang, spilling their intestines all over the ground.
In an instant, a terrible wail echoed throughout the entire village. No one, young or old, survived; they all perished under Yue'er's ice spikes.
The clouds gradually dispersed, and the sun shone brightly again. The icicles melted, and the ground was covered with sticky, dark red blood.
The moon's soul dissipated, but a wisp of her consciousness seemed to have seen some intense light, and the world returned to darkness and desolation. She didn't know how much time had passed, but her consciousness somehow coalesced again. She should have been scattered, but suddenly felt her body light and unrestrained, only to hear a faint, melodious bell ringing in her ears. The clear, captivating sound drew her in, and she followed the sound. She only came to her senses when a sweet floral fragrance wafted by. She found herself in a sea of crimson flowers, facing a stunningly beautiful woman.
The woman had a snow-white face, thick black hair draped over her body, and deep eyes beneath willow-leaf-shaped black eyebrows. She had an extremely gentle appearance, possessing an innate gentle beauty.
"You're awake. I've been waiting for you for so long," the woman said to Yue'er with a gentle smile.
"Who are you? Why am I here?" Yue'er asked, puzzled.
She clearly remembered that she had sacrificed her flesh and soul to kill everyone in the village, and should have been annihilated. So how could she be here now?
"My name is Siye. I happened to pass by this place and met a devoted man. He left his heart here and begged me to save you. I planted his heart here and used my blood to water it and reshape your body. It was not easy to gather your soul and awaken you," Siye said softly, with a gentle smile in her eyes.
A man? The only man who could give her his heart is Sang Mu.
"Where is he now?" Yue'er asked.
"He was originally a hundred-year-old mulberry tree. In your previous life, you often stole dew from the tree. Your birth attracted a lightning tribulation that brought him into reincarnation, so he was destined to fall in love with you. Before he left, he told me that this was the first time he had ever loved someone and he didn't know how to love. All he could give you was his heart."
"He has lost his heart and fallen into the cycle of reincarnation, where he will suffer for a thousand years," Si Ye said, a hint of sadness in her eyes. She never expected that a mortal could have such a devoted man.
"How could this happen? How can I save him?" Yue'er asked Siye anxiously.
“There is a goddess in the underworld named Meng Po, who is in charge of reincarnation. Go and ask her to retrieve your heart. She will find you every time he reincarnates, and you can help him cross over!” Si Ye said gently to Yue’er.
The moon nodded, and from then on, a flower pavilion called Wangyue Pavilion was built in the Netherworld Crossing. In Wangyue Pavilion, there was a master named Wangyue who waited for a thousand years just to cross over a young man.
“That child will complete his thousand-year tribulation in his next life, and then I will go with him,” Wang Yue said to Wang Xiaoxia, her eyes piercing through the misty sky as she reminisced.
"Is that fan your heart in the mortal world?" Wang Xiaoxia asked.
“Yes! But it’s no use. This time, he doesn’t need to come looking for me; I will go looking for him myself,” Wang Yue said with a calm smile.
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