Chapter 36 Going All the Way
The harsh reality brought tears to Yu Shan's eyes. She had never imagined that her people had paid such a heavy price to protect her.
This is beyond what can be calculated with a simple debt of gratitude.
Before this, thanks to Xiaobai's guidance, she had thought it was only natural that she sacrificed herself for her people and that they would protect her with their own lives.
But those people of her tribe did owe her something back then, and they were willing to protect her.
But what about their descendants? They owe her nothing, yet they continue to suffer the painful consequences she brought upon them.
No wonder Lan Mi hated her so much that she wanted to kill her. If she were Lan Mi, she would probably hate her too.
However, after she confirmed her identity, her people unhesitatingly placed their wholehearted trust in her again, and the power of their faith was enough to prove this.
"Now that I'm back, I will no longer allow the Nameless Sect to oppress you, nor will I let my fellow villagers suffer from hunger." Yu Shan said after composing himself.
According to the four elders, the Nameless Sect is a medium-sized sect that has risen to prominence in the last ten years. They do not only oppress the Holy Witch Clan, but also dozens of villages and towns around Baiyang Town.
They force everyone to pay protection money every month. If a village or town refuses to pay, they will send a group of thugs at the Spirit Realm level to carry out a rampage of smashing, looting, and vandalism.
Afterwards, the injured had to spend money to buy medicine, and the stolen items were gone forever. In addition, there were shops that were smashed by them. All things considered, the losses were actually greater than paying protection money.
Gradually, people accepted their banditry.
However, in recent months, they have become increasingly brazen, raising the protection fee from two low-grade spirit stones per household to four.
The surrounding villages and towns are mostly inhabited by ordinary people or cultivators below the Spirit Fusion Realm. Earning spirit stones is already difficult for them, so they simply cannot raise enough to meet their demands.
The Holy Witch Clan had to almost completely deplete their existing resources just to barely cope.
Any village or town that cannot pay protection money will have its men conscripted and sent to their spirit stone mines to mine.
It is said that they treated the miners very harshly, making them mine for at least six hours a day, and often going hungry. Few could survive for more than three years and died in the mine.
"Where is the headquarters of that Nameless Sect?" Feather Fan asked.
"It's located in Five Elements City, but that's just their headquarters. They set up a branch for every five villages and towns."
Each branch will be guarded by two cultivators at the Spirit Realm level, who are specifically responsible for collecting the monthly protection fee.
The one you killed today was probably a resident monk from the branch in the neighboring Dongyuan Town.
"Now that man is dead, they'll probably find out soon. We need to prepare in advance to prevent them from coming to our door. With so many elderly, weak, women, and children here, we'll definitely be the ones who suffer."
"Okay, I understand." Feather Fan nodded.
Feather Fan looked at Little White: "Do you have any good suggestions?"
"Since we've already killed one, let's go all the way and kill the other one too. That way, the news from here won't get back to their headquarters for the time being."
"This can buy us some time to make proper arrangements," Xiaobai said decisively.
Mao Li and Panda exchanged a glance. Mao Li had a chip implanted in his brain since birth that prevented him from actively harming humans, so he could only assist in combat.
But panda is different; his former owner was a mad scientist who didn't give him that kind of setup.
As a highly knowledgeable genetic bioengineer, panda was originally capable of concocting many kinds of poisons.
Later, I learned a lot from Bo Yiyan.
Before setting off, Bo Yiyan gave all the poisons he had in stock to Panda, out of concern for Yu Shan and the others' safety.
Although Mao Li cannot actively harm or kill people, Meng Rui, A Chen's classmate, once gave A Chen the ancient book "Wuji Formation Diagram" from his family (Chapter 315).
Later, Zuo Shan happened to recognize the traditional Chinese characters on it and translated the ancient book, which Mao Li then archived.
After being teleported to the Misty Heaven, fearing that someone might covet him and Panda, Yu Shan had no choice but to temporarily place them in the spatial button.
Fortunately, the mechanical race does not need air to breathe. These days, he was bored and thought about how he had come to this world of cultivation and was almost becoming a cripple. He wondered what he could do to help his master.
Then he finally remembered the array diagram, and so he has been studying the array diagram for the past few days.
Unexpectedly, thanks to the mechanical race's powerful database and computing capabilities, he managed to decipher all the formations in this formation diagram.
Although Mao Li no longer possesses spiritual power, he is now considered a highly skilled array master.
The clan chief personally led Feather Fan and Little White to the neighboring East Garden Town, and Chestnut and Panda also set off.
Mao Li was in charge of setting up the formation, while Xiao Bao manufactured the metal materials needed for the formation based on the three-dimensional diagram he provided. Panda provided assistance to him in the places where poison gas, poison powder, and poison liquid needed to be added to the formation.
The Holy Witch Clan members were very curious as they watched the two attendants brought by the Feather Fan Saintess busily setting up an array around the fence surrounding their territory.
There are a very few people in the clan who know a thing or two about formations, but unfortunately they only know the basics and can set up a few simple formations to hunt low-level monsters in the forest.
However, no one can set up deeper formations.
Saintess Lanmi knew a little more than her people, but she noticed that Mao Li's aura was very strange, and she could not sense any fluctuations of spiritual energy, so she did not believe that he could create any profound formations.
Because of the feather fan's self-identification, the people of her tribe no longer respect her as the current Holy Maiden as they used to.
Therefore, even though she suspects the people brought by Yu Shan, she doesn't dare to question them casually.
In fact, she was hoping that the chestnut formation would fail, so that she could have a chance to see the feather fan make a fool of herself.
She even had a faint hope that the Nameless Sect would discover the anomaly soon, and that they would bring a large force to attack.
At that time, let's see how Yu Shan, a Spirit Fusion Realm cultivator, and her husband, who is also a Spirit Fusion Realm cultivator, will deal with the attacks of powerful enemies.
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