Chapter 373: The Same One

"This is the true memory of my past, isn't it?" Wei Chengye blinked slowly. The people and things before his eyes shifted abruptly like clouds and mist. He was in a wooden cabin under warm lamplight, and before him sat a young man in white with a gentle smile, sipping tea in a relaxed manner. It was as if the man had stopped narrating for a long time, yet he had been immersed in the story, only just now breaking free from it.

Wei Chengye gradually understood everything. The distorted memory in his mind had been corrected. He realized that he had not obtained the spell to resolve the Abnormal event by mere coincidence back then, but had been saved by the person before him.

Decades had passed in a flash, yet the shopkeeper from back then remained exactly the same...

Wei Chengye had thought the owner of this Forest Cabin was no ordinary person, but looking at it now, he might be an existence beyond the definition of human, merely capable of appearing in a human image.

"My maternal grandparents and their ancestors were not extraordinary people, nor were they in the ranks of the Investigator. There shouldn't have been any Abnormal books in their home, and it is even more impossible that they happened to contain a book capable of restraining the Abnormal event in the village. If this spell had truly existed, the village shouldn't have been destroyed by Zhang Manjun at the time," Wei Chengye said, his gaze toward Lin Ling now filled with heartfelt awe.

Lin Ling smiled lightly, "Do you still remember the name of the classic you bought back then?"

"... Rebirth Curse." Wei Chengye pondered for a moment, and three words popped into his mind.

Wei Chengye suddenly hung his head in silence, his eyes revealing unbelievable shock, then immediately relief. He opened his mouth and said, "Shopkeeper, I want to know the truth about the Abnormal event that happened in Sanxi Village back then. Can you tell me?"

"Of course I can." Lin Ling's tone was soft, as approachable as if treating a child, "If everything must have a cause and effect, then for the fruit of the catastrophic disaster that befell Sanxi Village, what was its cause?"

"Human trafficking..." Wei Chengye said with a sigh.

Lin Ling nodded, turned to brew tea, blew gently on the steaming tea in the cup, and said, "Too many people are bought and sold; one day, a price will be paid for it. In terms of human understanding, normally, the end of the village should be that the net of heaven is vast, with wide meshes but letting nothing through, paying the price of the law, right? But in fact, it is not like that. That is only the will of man, not the law of the ways of heaven and earth. The kind of outcome people imagine is just a coincidence under the laws. The true end of Sanxi Village was also a coincidence, but all under this set of laws... Hmm, let's not talk about things so profound."

Simply put, the human traffickers back then kidnapped the wrong person. That Zhang Manjun was actually one of the family members of a member of a certain group branched off from the Blood Rose Knights.

Originally, Zhang Manjun, like your mother, was nurtured by normal modern human culture and should have walked a path toward normalcy. If things had gone smoothly, her family members up to her generation should have left the Abnormal organization and become members of the general public. Alas, she unfortunately became a hostage kidnapped by human traffickers.

In that desperate situation, the modern civilization system she believed in and relied on could not save her. Her faith collapsed, and she could only rely on that other faith she had once abandoned, pinning her hopes on an existence she thought was ethereal. She never expected that she would luckily receive a response from that so-called 'deity'.

Thus, she underwent Alienation, bringing about the power to resist and destroy the village, and Sanxi Village thereby met its catastrophic end."

Wei Chengye was somewhat dazed and muttered, "So that's how it was... Then, I would also like to ask, what exactly happened when my mother last met Zhang Manjun in the village at the Old Crow House? Zhang Manjun didn't actually hang herself, right?" he continued to press.

"Naturally, she did not." Lin Ling pushed a cup of brewed warm tea in front of Wei Chengye, "Your mother let her go because on that day she heard the elders in the village discussing how to deal with Zhang Manjun. They had unanimously decided to set the house on fire and burn Zhang Manjun alive inside, believing that this would get rid of the Curse and eliminate future trouble.

Your mother could not bear to see such a tragedy happen, so she took advantage of the time she was delivering food to let Zhang Manjun go, telling her never to return here. Then your mother fabricated a false appearance and went back to report to the villagers.

At that time, the people in the village were in a panic and no longer had any reason. They had completely accepted the existence of the Curse, so when your mother described that when she went to deliver food to Zhang Manjun, she found that Zhang Manjun had turned into a monster and attacked her, and that she had escaped from the Old Crow House after a narrow escape from death, and that Zhang Manjun had also managed to escape because she had turned into a monster and had currently flown into the mountain forest north of the village, she warned the villagers not to approach the north of the village.

Upon receiving this feedback, the people in the village were relieved, yet felt as if they had thorns on their backs. During that time, they blocked off the area north of the village and beyond. The villagers were not allowed to enter that area, especially the Old Crow House.

It was just that what they didn't expect was that the truth was more than that; your mother's made-up words actually came true to some extent.

After Zhang Manjun fled into the mountain forest, she did not leave the village because she had already made up her mind to take revenge. Her body was actually already bearing the influence of the Abnormal power, slowly undergoing Alienation. Two days after fleeing into the mountain forest, she completely transformed into the image of the strange bird you once saw.

She descended upon the village and used Chousha on everyone in the village. It just so happened that your mother had just finished her spring break and left the village, luckily escaping the disaster. And it just so happened that because of this incident, your mother was prepared to cut ties with the village. After this, she no longer had any contact with her parents or the village.

Therefore, she did not know that the village she lived in had been completely wiped out, and that the poor woman she had rescued had become the culprit behind the destruction of the village.

But things were far from over so easily. The moment Zhang Manjun became an alien, she was no longer herself. Its actions were only driven by Zhang Manjun's most vicious obsession. Since it wanted to use Chousha on the villagers of Sanxi Village, naturally there was no reason to let your mother go. That is why your mother encountered an 'accident'. Everyone who had a blood relationship with the people in that village, just like you once were, was lured to the village by false illusions and then killed by it."

Wei Chengye's expression was complex; he did not know how to comment on such retribution.

After a long while, Wei Chengye took a deep breath and said, "You mentioned the Blood Rose Knights just now. Sure enough, the Abnormal event back then was also related to the Bloody Empress. With the same Blood Moon, the same mockery and evil, it fits the characteristics of that existence who likes to create chaos perfectly."

Lin Ling: "That's right, it is still Him."

"Did my spell not take effect back then?" Wei Chengye was puzzled.

"Because you only sent Zhang Manjun away."