From a practical point of view, this village is relatively remote and there are no real threats in the village. It is a fairly suitable place to wait for Teacher Luo and the others. So Wang Yao asked the witch about a place where they could stay.
"Yes, yes, it's right next door. My youngest son's room is empty. He was unlucky and died in battle with his brothers early on. Xiaoqi's mother was stubborn and refused to accept the village's order to have children, so she committed suicide as well."
“But she didn’t die in the house. The house is clean; I clean it regularly.” Upon hearing Wang Yao’s question, the witch hurriedly pointed to the door and said. Only then did Wang Yao realize that the demon child Xiao Qi was actually the witch’s grandson.
"What the hell is this 'birth-inducing order'?" Wang Yao couldn't help but ask again after hearing that the birth-inducing order could drive people to their deaths.
"Sigh, aren't the laws of our Demon Realm all about constant warfare? So if a woman's husband dies and she's still able to bear children, the higher-ups will designate a man to marry her..."
"Anyway, they just want her to keep having children, saying it's an ironclad rule that affects the demon realm for generations to come and cannot be disobeyed. My wife is so stubborn. I told her it was fine, but she insisted that she's already had seven children and that she's done right by our demon race."
"Who above would care about her? If they pressured her too much, she... she ran off to the wasteland one night and committed suicide," the witch explained calmly to Wang Yao.
Wang Yao stared in astonishment at the witch before him, completely unexpected that this witch, who didn't look very old and whose appearance didn't seem particularly sad, had actually experienced such a tragedy. He was stunned for a long time before a question came to mind.
"How...how...how did they know your son died in battle?" Wang Yao asked.
The witch in front of her had been stationed in Wanghai City for twelve years without returning with a single word. She had no idea whether he was dead or alive, and she still dreamed of going to Wanghai City to see her husband. She also said that the demons had gone to the front lines and could not communicate with their families at all, which showed that the demons' management in this area was extremely lax.
But how did she find out about her son's death in battle? Does the Demon Realm really have such a thing as a death certificate? They can't even communicate, so how could they issue a death certificate? Wang Yao was genuinely confused.
“Lord Ruan is dead. He was the true demon of Pengqiu. My Lin’er, Hua’er, Shan’er, Ming’er, Chuan’er, Xing’er, Cheng’er, Jin’er, Gui’er, An’er, Yao’er, and my Qing’er, Yuan’er, Teng’er… all followed him. Now that he’s dead, my children and grandchildren are naturally dead too.”
The witch stared blankly at Wang Yao, reciting the names of her children and grandchildren one by one in a long string. Even with Wang Yao's immortal abilities, he couldn't remember them all at once, but the witch recited them with perfect clarity, making it impossible for Wang Yao to listen any longer.
“Uh…so there is news of the death of a True Demon…” Wang Yao nodded silently. A True Demon is a powerful being second only to the Lord Demon. The loss of one of them in the Demon Realm is naturally taken very seriously. Here, he truly witnessed the cruelty of the Demon Realm’s system of collective punishment.
He had long known that the demon army had a system of personal dependence. Simply put, true demons depended on master demons, and evil demons depended on true demons. If this continued, even inferior demons would depend on war demons. Just like the wilderness that Wang Yao had just passed through, there would inevitably be war demons on top of a certain number of inferior demons.
This dependency relationship is a system that is both a law and an obsession. When the master demon dies, all the true demons, evil demons, heavenly demons, mad demons, and fierce demons who are dependent on him must die, either in battle or by suicide. There is no reasoning behind it.
Although most of the high-ranking demons died in battle, their subordinate demons were also mostly dead by then, there were still cases where the high-ranking demons and their vassals separated.
That's why Yue Fei cared so much about killing high-level demons. Besides the fact that it was difficult for high-level demons to advance, killing one was equivalent to killing a large number of demons.
Although Wang Yao was aware of this while serving in Yue Fei's army, he didn't pay much attention to it. It wasn't until now that he clearly felt the horror of the demon race's system of collective punishment. The great demon that the demoness's grandson relied on was dead, and her descendants, without a doubt, must have died as well.
The demons who died on the battlefield were as insignificant as dust, but in the hearts of their mothers and wives, they had names, vivid images, and memories. The grief of losing them would forever gnaw at these women's hearts like a venomous snake.
So, this witch's husband must be following another true demon who is still alive. Therefore, the witch is certain that her husband is still alive. This is actually not very plausible, since the principle of collective punishment is only one-way!
Wang Yao didn't want to think about it anymore. The witch's words were as heavy as a mountain, and he dared not savor the suffocating oppression.
Seeing that Wang Yao was determined not to eat or drink, the witch did not stand on ceremony. She gave the boy a few brief instructions and then took Wang Yao to a house next door that was similar to the stone house where the witch lived.
When Wang Yao went inside, he found that the house was indeed as the witch had said, very clean and the furniture and belongings were arranged in an orderly manner, as if it were ready for people to move in at any time. However, Wang Yao still smelled a trace of decay in the house, which was caused by no one living there for a long time.
After thanking the witch profusely and seeing her off, Wang Yao closed the door behind her and quickly resumed his "Deceive the Heavens and Cross the Sea" technique. "Croak croak..." Wang Yao unconsciously croaked twice, gradually relaxing. He sat in a chair at the table, patiently waiting for Teacher Luo and the other immortal friends to arrive.
During the forging process, Wang Yao's understanding of the magic weapon Red Thread gradually surfaced in his mind. He suddenly realized that it was possible that his three professional skills "Good Person", "Questioning the Heart" and "Enlightenment" were all related to the magic weapon.
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