Facing each other
The family's wealth had already been drained by their father, and the next day, after word spread, many people suddenly showed up with the property deeds and IOUs that their father had mortgaged to them. The other party was aggressive and outnumbered, leaving the orphan and widow helpless and unable to do anything but watch them take over their property and land.
Fortunately, one of the thugs who was in charge of the house felt sorry for them and helped them steal all the jewelry hidden in Liu Xiangluo's biological mother's house. This gave them a basis for survival.
Although Liu Xiangluo's mother was born a prostitute, she was understanding and sensible. Even though she knew the path to officialdom would be difficult, she still supported him in his pursuit of the imperial examinations. Liu Xiangluo was also ambitious, not wanting to disappoint his mother, so he studied diligently. An essay earned him the appreciation of Mr. Lan of Gufang Academy, who granted him an exception to the rules and allowed him to study there. As times were tough, Mr. Lan allowed his mother to work at the academy, helping with kitchen and cleaning duties. This way, she could earn some extra cash and have a stable home.
Everything seemed to be getting better, but because he offended some rich young men in the same academy, he was framed and his mother was kidnapped to threaten him on the day of his imperial examination. Liu Xiangluo chose to save his mother and missed the exam.
After returning home, Liu Xiangluo comforted his mother, who was feeling particularly guilty, and told her to take the exam again next year. However, his mother was paranoid and believed that she was a burden to her son. Moreover, she was now a sickly person, so not only could she not help her son much, but she would also be implicated by her.
Moreover, because she had been a prostitute, Liu Xiangluo was often ridiculed and bullied.
At night, Liu Xiangluo's mother packed herself up and wrote a final letter to Liu Xiangluo. She didn't recognize many of the characters and didn't know how to write them, so she left them blank. The ones she knew how to write were all taught by Liu Xiangluo.
She cooked herself an egg, a rare occasion; the last time she had eaten eggs was three years ago. She took out the red jellyfish she had bought herself the year after she had been living in a brothel, and ate it along with the egg.
Over the years, she had sold all her clothes and jewelry, leaving only a few pieces of coarse cloth given to her by others who no longer wore them, which were already patched up. So she could only try her best to clean herself up and look better.
The next morning, when Liu Xiangluo found her, she had already died. A'niang wrote many instructions, but apologized to him in the last line, saying that she had eaten an egg she bought for him to nourish his body. At the end of this life, she also died with good food, and she had no regrets.
She said that the eggs she ate were freshly laid eggs, the poison she took was the best arsenic, and the son she raised was also the most promising son.
Liu Xiangluo lost his mother, and it was like he had lost the support he needed to struggle in this difficult world. As usual, he went to the academy and exchanged all his remaining belongings and books for a bottle of pear blossom wine, poisoned it, and pretended to be groveling and begging for mercy to the murderer who killed his mother, completely abandoning his self-esteem, before allowing the rich young man to drink a glass.
But, one cup is enough.
But because Liu Xiangluo had little money and bought the most common poison, and the rich young man only drank one glass, the man was still rescued with all his strength.
However, the rich young man's health was damaged and he became a sickly person who had to take medicine all year round.
Liu Xiangluo couldn't swallow the fact that his enemy was still alive and was living a luxurious life with everyone treating him like a star, so he went up the mountain to join the bandits, and then seized the throne, killed the old leader and established a new village, only then was he able to take revenge.
After taking revenge, Liu Xiangluo was reluctant to die. He greedily wanted more and wanted to truly become the promising child described in A Niang's letter and make her proud.
Having heard that the current emperor was able to destroy the Liangzhu Kingdom with the help of monsters, and now that the two countries have merged, Liu Xiangluo also began to follow suit and look for monsters and strange creatures.
Afterwards, a mysterious man introduced Liu Xiangluo to a monster. Those little monsters were all subordinates of Shanye.
Liu Xiangluo claimed that offering living people to the demons without asking for anything in return would be very pious, and his descendants would continue to offer offerings to them even after his death.
At the beginning, Liu Xiangluo only offered ten living people to the monster at a specific time every month. Later, the monster sent that mysterious man to change the feng shui layout of his village and teach him how to raise little ghosts.
Liu Xiangluo wanted to use these Feng Shui layouts and monsters to achieve the best of both worlds, so he plotted against all the people in the village under the pretext of holding a martial arts competition to find a husband for his daughter.
If it weren't for Cha Suxun's accident, all of these village chiefs would have died long ago. There wouldn't have been any need for him to gather the remaining survivors together, forcing them to perpetually testify against themselves and argue about the murderer until they starved to death. Their souls would then be trapped in the same predicament as the deceased village chiefs, unaware of their own death, thus allowing their puppets to align their thoughts with their masters.
After hearing this, Cha Suxun was furious. The incident Xiao Yan'an had caused had tripled the workload of the entire Underworld system, leaving the Yellow Springs Road densely packed with souls who had died in vain. Fortunately, as fate would have it, those souls had all reached the end of their lifespans.
Now, Liu Xiangluo is imitating again.
After hearing what he said, the village chiefs who had regained consciousness were filled with anger and curses.
"What qualifications do you have to scold me? Except for the indifferent Ji Wanggu, who here hasn't killed innocent people? When you were shouting for war and killing, why didn't you think about the miserable lives of those innocent people? Now that you are the fish on the chopping board, you start to criticize the perpetrators. Don't forget, you were also perpetrators! I don't think I am guilty, I just fight violence with violence! From the perspective of those victims, I am even a kind-hearted person who punishes evil and eliminates evil!"
Liu Xiangluo spoke confidently, with an expression of pride and pride on his face.
Suddenly, a man covered in a black robe stepped out of the darkness. When Liu Xiangluo saw him, he immediately greeted him respectfully.
The man in black robe stood facing the four judges. He tried to dispel the illusion, but failed after trying twice. Only then did the man in black robe face his enemy squarely.
"The illusions are good, but this barrier can't protect people."
Liu Xiangluo said, "Messenger, the one who disrupted our plan last night was him, the handsome pretty boy. He was also the one who created this illusion."
Hearing this, the black-robed man slowly approached him, looking down at him condescendingly. "You have some abilities, stronger than the average, but only average. If you submit to Lord Shanhe, he can make you even stronger."
The black-robed man's tone was full of disdain and arrogance. Cha Suxun didn't say much to him and didn't even want to give him an extra glance.
The next moment, a chair quickly moved from the darkness far behind the black-robed man and rested heavily against his thighs. The force caused him to fall backward and sit heavily on the chair.
Before the black-robed man could fully react, the ground beneath his feet had transformed into red-hot coals and spiked boards. As if possessed by consciousness, thick chains emerged from the red-hot coals, twisting and snaking around his body like snakes, binding him. As the chains tightened, real, intense pain washed over him.
"What the hell are you?" the black-robed man asked, enduring the pain.
"Call the person behind you and ask him. You are not qualified."
"You think you can see my master? Dream on." The black-robed man laughed crazily and spat fiercely in the direction of Cha Suxun.
"Then you'll have lost your only reason for living. Just wait for death in peace. After you die, make amends to the souls of those you have caused to die."
As soon as Cha Suxun finished speaking, he saw a number of souls crawling out from the ground. They almost all emitted a black aura, and their faces were hideous and terrifying. They cried and wailed, mumbling repeatedly, and crawled towards the man in the black robe in a twisted manner.
"Oh, it's just an illusion."
"Since you think it's just an illusion, then why are you shrinking back? Whether it's an illusion or not, you know best, don't you, your little ghost?"
After being reminded by the other party, the man in black robe recited the secret spell to control the little ghosts. After a while of whispering and chanting, not only did he fail to get a response from the little ghosts, but he also angered them.
The little devils surrounded him, stared at him, and in unison demanded that he return the limbs that were cruelly separated when they died, and that he return their lives.
Among them was a female ghost, who was the most terrifying. There was only a bloody hole left in her right eye, from which black blood kept flowing. There seemed to be something like a piece of meat or a blood vessel in the bloody hole that was holding her detached eyeball. As she moved up and down, the eyeball hung there and swung back and forth.
A gaping wound had been ripped open across her swollen belly. In the center of the wound, a pair of childlike hands half-stretched out, clinging to the flesh. She pulled a dead child, covered in purple and black, from the belly. It was headless, its legs and arms severed, held together only by flesh, dangling haphazardly. Only the umbilical cord connected mother and child. The woman thrust her arm into the wound, searching relentlessly, squeezing out dark blood that spilled onto the floor. After finding the child's head, she cradled it sideways in her arms, resting its head on her arm, atop its neck.
As soon as the dead child's head was put on, he burst into tears in his mother's arms. The woman handed it to the man in the black robe, and the strong stench of the corpse made him want to vomit.
She cried miserably, her head tilted to one side, her eyes filled with shock and disbelief. She said to the black-robed man, "Look how adorable he was, but... he's dead, his head chopped off. Give me back my child's life, give me back my child's life..."
The man in black robe could no longer hold back and began to vomit.
"Even if you kill me the same way I killed them, I will never betray my master." After saying this, he closed his eyes and waited for death to come.
"I won't kill you."
"Why?"
Cha Suxun ignored his question and glanced at the Ox-Headed and Horse-Faced Demon once more. The shackles holding him instantly vanished. He stood up and slowly walked towards the black-robed man. The wronged spirits all retreated to make way for him.
Standing in front of the man, Cha Suxun said, "If you don't tell me, I'll see for myself."
The next moment, Niu Tou received the order and struck a palm wind at the man in black robe. All the memories in his mind seemed to reappear and float in the air.
Seeing this, the man in black robe bit his tongue and committed suicide without hesitation.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
