Chapter 137 Demon Mother II
Yilian Village once had a custom of marrying the cave god.
Anyone who has reached marriageable age but remains unmarried, or a pitiful person who is unable to care for themselves due to physical disability and has no one willing to look after them, is considered morally flawed, or even spiritually incomplete. When such matters are exposed, the quality of the sacred spring water often drops drastically that year; hence, everyone says that these people have defiled the sacred spring flowing beneath their feet.
Only by offering oneself to the cave god and becoming husband and wife with the cave god can the sacred spring be kept unaffected.
The Lingquan Spring is the lifeblood of Yilian Village, and nothing concerning the Lingquan Spring is trivial. So these poor people, not wanting to be beaten to death, could only put on red veils, be sent on water sedan chairs, and fall into the "embrace" of the cave god.
However, from beginning to end, there was no such thing as a cave god.
This is nothing more than the last bit of "compassion" from some parents.
Unwilling for his daughter to be besieged and killed by the villagers because of her private morality and reputation, he fabricated this belief and then entrusted someone to deliver food to her regularly, barely keeping her a way out.
But they never considered that this was actually a dead end.
Whoever the man-eating demon takes a fancy to, it can easily turn them into a despised sinner in the village, someone no one wants to marry, by using methods such as defaming their innocence or damaging their mind.
The cannibalistic demons, who are actually in control of the family behind the scenes, secretly provide benefits to the families who have sacrificed their own flesh and blood, and support their development. This indirectly attracts more villagers to willingly, or even fabricate stories, push their daughters into the abyss in order to change their fate.
He kept repeating, "This is the last way to save you, even your father doesn't want to."
At this point, Shinju saw that some of the female cultivators shed tears, while others revealed resentful looks in their eyes.
Lou Lan's eyes held disdain, anger at their lack of ambition, and a shared sense of indignation.
This eased the anxiety that had been building within him. He had been pondering whether the person before him was the culprit who had sealed off Yilian Village. But Lou Lan, a person so "flesh and blood," so expressive, didn't seem like some callous and vicious villain. Even if there were still some escaped members of the cannibalistic tribe in the village, there were undoubtedly many more innocent villagers. He felt she couldn't bring herself to do it.
Otherwise, there would have been no need to wait until now.
As he continued to observe, he guided the conversation by asking, "After that? I once encountered a group of cave women dancing and toasting right here. Their bodies were made of insects, and if they lost the light, they would fall apart and almost lose their human form. They didn't seem to be your subordinates. They didn't seem to have much intelligence. They were neither ordinary people nor cultivators."
Upon hearing Zhen Su's words, Lou Lan frowned, and it took all her life's cultivation to swallow back what she was about to say. Instead, she simply said, "Yes, after the cave women's bodies are devoured, puppets resembling them will soon appear in the cave. Those are insect puppets."
Lou Lan was furious because the person controlling the insect puppets had never revealed their true identity, and they still couldn't see through them. This same person had been secretly assisting the cannibalistic demons, most likely an ally for mutual benefit, but the possibility of a life-or-death friendship couldn't be ruled out.
"Wait a moment, I might have some clue about the person who controls the insect puppets," Shinju suddenly said.
Lou Lan immediately turned her gaze toward him, her eyes revealing an unconscious look of anticipation as she looked at an "enemy" with whom she had fought a fierce battle not long ago.
What Shinjuku was thinking about was the empty coffin on the mountain, the magic circle between the coffins, the insects at the bottom of the coffin, the insects disguised as cave women, and the faceless person he first saw who buried the empty coffin...
However, just as Shinjuku was about to speak, the King of Poison arrived.
Lou Lan instantly became alert. Although she didn't recognize the appearance of the Poison King, she could keenly sense the aura of the Ghost King on him.
The Poison King deliberately revealed his presence. He didn't trust the Ghost Mother.
He had initially agreed to create a big commotion for the Ghost Mother to draw the attention of the underworld officials away from Yilian Village. However, before he could implement this plan, the cooperation broke down, and he was betrayed. The Ghost Mother not only kidnapped Masukuni but also tried to use him as a sacrifice for the resurrection array.
The atmosphere suddenly became tense. Before Zhen Su could speak to mediate, Zhen Wang suddenly appeared behind Zhen Su. Zhen Su instinctively wanted to stand in front of Lou Lan and the ghost infant, but after a moment of silence and vacuum, an explosion grazed Zhen Su's face.
The entire cave was blown away, and the groundwater at a high altitude fell down with the collapsed ground. In the blink of an eye, the cave was gone, replaced by a base made of rubble, where not a ray of moonlight could penetrate.
With such power, how could any creature remain unscathed after such a cataclysmic event?
By the time Shinju realized he was being attacked, the black mist surrounding the King of Poison had already enveloped him completely, but the rapidly expanding explosive energy did not harm him.
But others weren't so lucky.
Shinju was a fraction of a second too late to react. After the explosion, seeing the collapsing boulders about to crush everyone, he immediately punched them, blasting them into dust, trying to buy time for the others to catch their breath and evacuate. Unfortunately, the explosion itself was extremely powerful. Lou Lan was blasted, losing half of his body, his eyes drooping listlessly, black blood flowing from his wounds.
The ghost infant in her arms was still burning fiercely, its mouth agape. It paused for a moment, then suddenly let out a shrill scream.
Shinju also shouted, "Lou Lan!!"
If the female cultivators had seen it, they probably wouldn't have been able to stay calm either. However, the source of the explosion was among them, and they were the first to be hit, instantly turning into dust and their souls were annihilated.
After rescuing the enormous Lou Lan and the ghost infant, Zhen Su turned around and found that although the Zhen King had rushed out with him, something was very wrong with him.
It's too quiet.
He was completely unharmed by the black mist, never expecting that the King of Poison would pour all the black mist onto Shinju, piling it up layer by layer to form the most solid and reliable defense, while he himself would bear the brunt of the impact.
As Shinjuku watched the black blood flow from the King of Poison's forehead down to his chin, and then meander down to below his collarbone, his lips trembled: "...Your Majesty?"
Guiyin could no longer hide it, transforming into a jellyfish to get a closer look, "Is the Demon King alright?"
A moment of silence.
"Zhenmo!!! Wake up!" Shinju lifted Zhenwang's face and looked into his dark eyes, but saw only emptiness, unable to see Shinju's figure, and there was no response.
Even divine sense could not detect the problem; the Poison King remained a mass of crimson purple, and no details could be seen.
What caused that explosion? It not only killed and injured people, but could it also rob them of their minds?!
Masakatsu felt a sense of panic. He was still standing, but his feet felt like they were treading on mud, as if he were about to fall. He was filled with regret and anger at himself for dragging the King of Venom into this mess, and even being protected by him, like a useless piece of trash! He had been determined to protect the King of Venom, but what had he done?! He had done nothing!! Thinking of this, Masakatsu wished he could punch himself.
However, the place couldn't withstand his commotion. Rather than risk causing unforeseen complications, he forced himself to pull himself together and quickly considered the next feasible step.
The explosion originated from behind him, and there was no sign of an intrusion from nowhere, so it could only have been a sneak attack from the female cultivator behind him.
Such terrifying power could not have been created by those female cultivators. Not to mention Lou Lan, even the Poison King could not withstand it.
—Insect puppets have been mixed in!
Suddenly, Shinju had a flash of inspiration, and the next moment, as if to verify his conjecture, the mastermind behind the scenes appeared directly and came to kill him.
"Who's here!" Ghost Silver exclaimed in alarm.
A swarm of flying insects arrived in droves, covering the sky. After they dispersed, dozens of people were revealed below. Each was dressed in fine clothes, their gazes filled with hostility, but mostly with glee and schadenfreude, especially after witnessing Lou Lan's tragic state. The faceless man who had filled the empty coffin was among them, positioned in a slightly more concealed rear section, his face silently turned towards Zhen Su's side.
"Why aren't you completely dead yet, Yin Sha Giant Ghost Mother? As expected of a scourge that has survived for centuries, you are indeed hard to kill! But you didn't manage to kill us either, did you? You didn't expect that, did you? The cave maiden beside you can be replaced by our insect puppets at any time."
"Although we were forced to use the entire village's food rations, now that we've returned, we'll make you pay! Not only all the cave women, but you won't escape either! We'll show you the millennia-old foundation of our cannibalistic clan! How dare you cause trouble for us!!"
"Prepare to die!!"
Shinju seemed oblivious, his hand moving up from the back of the King of Poison to the back of the King's head, then gently yet forcefully pressing the King of Poison into his chest, bones, and even the center of his three corpses.
Then, he slowly raised his head to meet the cannibalistic horde in front of him, and a violent aura surfaced in his dark golden eyes.
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Author's Note: [Edited] Added some dialogue at the end.
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