46. The Ghost Village Worships Gods (12)
The rats attempted to climb the altar and impersonate gods.
At this moment, the black soul of Xie Yunhuai that had been seen before could no longer be found within the statue.
Qin Fu'an looked up and saw the thick, long rope that was hanging the statue upside down under the eaves.
"B-Boss, we... it seems like we're surrounded." Guo Shulin's trembling voice sounded from behind.
Qin Fu'an turned around. The players who had been following behind him had already lined up and crowded together, each staring warily and fearfully at the corpses that were closing in on them with weapons.
The corpses that were originally sleeping in the haunted village appeared in front of the mountain god temple almost as quickly as they did.
Just like when they first entered the haunted village, they were silently surrounded by the villagers.
Now, they are surrounded once again.
“Young man, you shouldn’t have come here.” The village chief of the Ghost Village stared at Qin Fu’an with a sinister look. When his gaze fell on the upside-down statue behind Qin Fu’an, the corners of his mouth turned up in an exaggerated smile. He said with a wicked grin, “Since you’re here, you might as well become a sacrifice to the Mountain God.”
Not only him, but all the villagers around him laughed. Their cold, sharp laughter seemed to pierce the eardrums and hearts of the players. As they drew closer, the players retreated in increasing panic.
Just before the fight was about to break out, the tightly closed gate of the mountain god temple behind them was pulled open from the inside.
The creaking of the wooden door carried far in the dark night. The villagers who came out were not surprised by what they saw. The third brother, who had led Qin Fu'an to the mountain god temple during the day, made a crunching sound in his throat, mixed with a low and eerie chuckle, and said in a strange and twisted voice, "Outsiders... the auspicious time for the mountain god's sacrifice has arrived!"
He stretched out his withered, dark blue right hand, which resembled a ghostly claw, and reached straight for Qin Fu'an's Heavenly Spirit Root. His movements were fierce, and he appeared several times more powerful than he had been during the day.
The moment he made his move, the villagers of the ghost village, like rusty, stuck machines, rushed towards the players.
The withered claw rapidly approached and magnified before his eyes; Qin Fu'an could even see the blackened flesh hidden within. His pupils darkened slightly, and just before the opponent's long, black fingernails were about to grab and crush his head, he suddenly dodged the attack, swiftly drawing a dagger from his sleeve and slashing it viciously across the opponent's outstretched wrist—
"Zheng!!"
A sharp clang of metal pierced the night, and Qin Fu'an, despite using considerable strength, couldn't even scratch the opponent's withered flesh.
"Be careful, these villagers seem much stronger than during the day! Be careful not to get caught!" Behind Qin Fu'an, Cen Tian, who was dealing with the attacks with the other players, kicked away the approaching villagers while shouting a warning to them.
Qin Fu'an was also surprised by their strength at night, but fortunately his goal was not to defeat these undead villagers.
After slicing through the wrist of the villager Lao San, the dagger didn't stop or pause. Instead, it twisted slightly, and as Qin Fu'an used the momentum to leap up from a blood-stained pillar, the sharp blade swiftly sliced through the taut rope—
"Thump!!"
A dull, heavy thud suddenly rang out.
Illuminated by the scattered beams of flashlight on the ground and the dimly flickering dark red candlelight inside the hall, the villagers of the ghost village seemed to have been struck by acupuncture, all of them stopping their attack in that instant and looking at the statue that had fallen to the ground.
At that moment, in front of the mountain god temple, all was quiet except for the players' heavy breathing.
What broke this eerie silence was Qin Fu'an's arrogant and unrestrained voice: "Oh, it's quite sturdy, it didn't break even after being hit like that."
These words traveled far, far away on the vast, dark mountaintop.
Judging from his tone, it seemed as if he wanted to blow a rascal's whistle to add to the teasing.
Guo Shulin hiccuped in fright, because he clearly saw that the villagers' gazes, shifting from the statue to Qin Fu'an, were filled with blatant murderous intent.
The way he acted made it seem as if Qin Fu'an hadn't just smashed a statue, but rather dug up the ancestral graves of the entire village with a hoe...
Thinking of this, his heart trembled again, and he thought with tears in his eyes: If Boss Qin's behavior were in the Ghost Village, it might be more serious than digging up their ancestral graves.
"You deserve to die!" The village chief's face was so dark it looked like water was dripping from it, and his gaze toward Qin Fu'an was filled with hatred, as if he wanted to skin him alive and devour him whole.
Faced with their extreme killing intent and anger, Qin Fu'an instead showed off by twirling the dagger in his hand in a beautiful arc, and scoffed, "So many people want me dead, who do you think you are?"
After provoking them, he not only didn't back down, but also, in front of so many villagers, coldly kicked the dusty, collapsed statue on the ground.
"..."
There was a deathly silence all around.
Even the players silently swallowed, sensing the sharp killing intent that permeated every inch of the air, as if it could cut and kill them out of thin air.
This time, it was the village guards who first struck Qin Fu'an with deadly force.
Immediately afterwards, the villagers who had been attacking the players completely ignored the presence of the other players and all rushed towards Qin Fu'an with venomous eyes, determined to tear every inch of his flesh apart, even a thousand cuts would not be enough to vent their anger.
"...So what do we do now?" Completely ignored, Li Fubiao looked blankly at the others.
"Let's go in. This might be an opportunity that Brother Qin has given us. There's definitely something strange about the Mountain God Temple!" Zhong Hao was decisive. Seeing that Qin Fu'an could still handle being surrounded by so many people, he immediately decided to investigate further.
If they don't go in now, it might not be so easy once the villagers realize what's happening and attack them.
Out of the corner of his eye, Qin Fu'an caught a glimpse of several people sneaking towards the temple, and only then did he focus on dealing with the dense attacks.
He had used up all his spiritual power before coming here to suppress Xie Yunhuai's pain, but he was not human, and his flesh and bones were not as fragile as those of a real human. Therefore, he was barely able to protect himself from the attacks of these living dead.
After being led around the mountain god temple several times by Qin Fu'an, the village chief finally regained his senses from his anger. He abruptly stopped, stared venomously at Qin Fu'an for a long time, and then cursed in a hoarse voice, "You dare to desecrate the statue of the mountain god! You will soon die a horrible death!!"
"Mountain God?" Qin Fu'an also stopped, raising his eyebrows and mocking, "Are you talking about that evil cultist who killed you all, imprisoned your souls here as local spirit binders, and tricked you into worshipping and believing in him and doing all sorts of evil for him?"
He said a long string of things that the villagers couldn't understand, and after he finished speaking, he had already walked up to the statue that had rolled to the ground.
"Is this your mountain god?" He used his toe to push the mud-covered statue around halfway, kicking it so that it was lying face down, allowing everyone to clearly see what the statue looked like.
The features that were originally smeared with blood were now covered in mud and ash, looking both bloody and extremely terrifying and disheveled. It didn't look like a statue of a god, but more like a hideous demon.
For some reason, the villagers seemed to be frightened by his disrespectful actions and did not rush up to attack him.
Qin Fu'an didn't care about their reactions. He just looked down at the statue that was filled with evil energy. Then, whether he was speaking to the villagers or mocking the statue, he said, "A rat in the gutter tries to climb onto the altar and pretend to be a god. Unfortunately, you may be able to fool these ignorant fools, but you can't fool my eyes."
He raised his eyes and coldly surveyed the strange-looking undead before him. He closed his eyes, suppressed the nausea rising in his heart, and turned to walk straight toward the hut where he had "imprisoned" the mountain god during the day.
Behind him, a group of villagers stood in front of the fallen statue of the mountain god, wanting to follow him but not daring to easily step over the statue.
The village chief gritted his teeth, directed people to respectfully lift the statue of the mountain god and place it by the door, and then he stormed in behind Qin Fu'an.
Qin Fu'an uttered so many incomprehensible words that they couldn't understand them, but they sensed something was wrong. Therefore, no one cleaned the statue and rearranged it; instead, they kept their distance.
Only the few people guarding the temple did not go in. Instead, they knelt in front of the mountain god statue, muttering the so-called auspicious time.
"Brother Qin, come and see!" Guo Shulin saw Qin Fu'an's figure in the distance and quickly waved and called out to him.
Once Qin Fu'an approached, Guo Shulin disregarded the villagers who were silently following behind him and enthusiastically led Qin Fu'an to the high platform where the statue of the god had been placed during the day.
"Brother Qin, look at this." Guo Shulin and Cen Tian worked together to push open the half-hidden, heavy floorboards, revealing what was inside.
The flashlight beam shone straight through.
Qin Fu'an's eyes flickered slightly after he saw what it was.
“We searched the whole house but found nothing. It was only when Brother Zhong suggested tapping on the walls and floor that we found this thing.”
Guo Shulin eagerly asked, "Brother Qin, do you know what kind of plant this is? My major used to be botany and zoology, but I've never seen such a strange plant before, just like that... uh, cough cough, I've never seen it before!"
He barely managed to shut up, regretting that he had blurted it out without thinking. If it weren't for the inappropriate occasion, he would have slapped himself in the face.
I told you not to talk so fast, I told you not to talk nonsense!
But when he cautiously and guiltily peeked at Qin Fu'an's reaction, he found that the other party did not react in any special way to his words. Instead, he kept staring at the withered, seemingly dying unknown plant inside the interlocking panel.
"What is the connection between this plant and the mountain god?"
Cen Tian, who was watching from the sidelines, asked curiously.
Qin Fu'an frowned, ignoring their questions. Instead, he knelt on one knee on the dusty platform, bent down, and gently pulled out the nearly dead plant.
His movements were very gentle, without damaging any branches or leaves, even though the branches and roots had long since withered and turned black.
"Brother Qin, there seems to be something else down there." Zhong Hao gasped, his eyelids twitching as he looked at the section of white bone exposed in the soil below after the roots had been pulled out.
At the same time, the villagers of the Ghost Village, who had been standing quietly outside the small house, changed their expressions drastically when they saw the plant that Qin Fu'an was holding.
"Stop!!" The village chief shouted excitedly, rushing in three steps at a time. But just as he was about to get close to Qin Fu'an, he hurriedly withdrew his hand, his eyes fixed on the plant in Qin Fu'an's palm.
[Author's Note]
There will be another chapter at midnight.
.
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:
20 bottles with auspicious meaning;
18 bottles of filthy nine-flavored liquor;
Two bottles of "Clear Rain and Lonely Boat";
One bottle of Mo Wuyue;
Thank you so much for your support! I will continue to work hard!
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