Chapter 783: Silkworm Calamity

"What a joke!"

Sha Lifei was amused, slowly crouching down and picking at Zhou Dayong's chin with the tip of his knife, "You fellow can really shift the blame. Colluding with evil monsters to harm people, and yet you call us lackeys. Have you forgotten what your own status is?"

"People from the Commandant's Office, yet calling us lackeys..."

He felt very unhappy in his heart.

Being called a lackey of the imperial court was an insult to people in the Jianghu.

Li Yan stepped forward and asked in a deep voice: "Speak! How did Battalion Commander Tian die? And your village, when did you start worshipping the Cocoon Clothing Sect?"

"Hmph!"

Zhou Dayong gave a cold snort and closed his eyes.

For this kind of person, Li Yan couldn't be bothered to waste effort. He turned his head and looked at Long Yan, and the Gu woman immediately waved her sleeves, flying out several tiny sesame Gu.

These little things wouldn't take a life, but they could burrow into the nerves, making pain and itching reach their limit.

"Ah—!"

Zhou Dayong immediately let out a shrill scream, and exerted force, slamming his head toward the ground.

Although he wasn't an expert in hidden energy, he was still a peak expert in bright energy.

This blow was enough to smash his brain.

But before he landed, Sha Lifei stepped forward and caught him, neutralizing the force with a clever technique.

But even so, Zhou Dayong still refused to confess, just staring fixedly ahead.

Li Yan's brow furrowed slightly, following his gaze.

He saw Zhou Dayong's wife standing in the distance, pulling two children. Strangely, looking at their husband and father suffering, the three of them were all expressionless.

"Stop for a moment!"

Li Yan let Long Yan stop, then squatted down and whispered: "Are you afraid that once you say it, your wife and children will lose their lives?"

"Rest assured, we have a way to save them..."

"Hahaha~"

Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by Zhou Dayong's miserable laughter, his face full of despair: "Solve it? They have long been suffering from a grave illness, and it is only with the Lady's secret method that they have been able to survive... You can take action; anyway, I have had enough of this world!"

Li Yan was thoughtful, and murmurs arose in his heart.

Just at this moment, Kuai Dayou and the three others also turned back.

"Walk faster!"

They had caught the limping old man and were scolding him to move forward.

This old man had white hair and beard. Although he was already old, he didn't show half a bit of kindness, his eyes full of cunning and panic. He walked stumbling, occasionally looking around secretly.

Like Zhou Dayong, he was not cursed.

"Great heroes!"

Arriving in front of everyone, he knelt on the ground with a *thud*, kowtowing like pounding garlic, wiping snot and tears: "I am wronged! This old man is just a mud-legged person, I don't know anything, please spare my life, great heroes."

"What are you pretending for?!"

Sha Lifei kicked him over and said coldly: "We saw what you did just now. Speak! What is going on with this village?"

This limping old man originally wanted to quibble, but after Long Yan released a sesame Gu, he cried and howled, gasping for breath, and recounted the process:

"After opening the sea, the government increased the silk weaving tax silver, the people were full of complaints, and just at this time, a plague broke out. Everyone couldn't even afford to see a doctor or buy medicine..."

"The old, weak, women, and children couldn't hold out first, and more than a dozen died. Just at this time, someone told this old man a method: worship the Silkworm God Lady. Someone also brought talisman paper, and burning it into ash and turning it into talisman water could cure the disease, and it really cured many people..."

"Since then, everyone started worshipping in secret..."

"The government checked strictly, so we didn't let people from outside villages come. Finally, several immortals came, teaching us the method of raising divine silkworms. The silk cocoons spit out by the divine silkworms could be sold for ten taels of silver per jin, and everyone started raising them..."

"Those who raised silkworms all got sick, but those immortals said this was the protection of the Silkworm God Lady, and sure enough, later they were free from all diseases, and some people's tuberculosis didn't even cough up blood anymore..."

Listening to his account, everyone's brows were tightly locked.

Long Yan shook her head slightly and said coldly: "Infected with this 'Silkworm Stiffening Curse,' the internal organs are all invaded. It's not that they are free from all diseases, but that they can no longer feel them."

Li Yan narrowed his eyes: "Why are you fine?"

The limping old man replied quickly: "This old man has to go out often. One is to take silver to buy grain, and the other is to contact those immortals. I don't have time to raise silkworms. And this Zhou Dalang is also on duty in Jin Ling all year round, so he is fine."

"This old man has inconvenient legs and feet. Originally, I also wanted to be blessed by the Silkworm God Lady, but seeing that these people were a bit wrong, I gave up this idea."

Li Yan continued to ask: "Where are those 'immortals'?"

"This..."

The limping old man was covered in cold sweat and replied quickly: "This old man doesn't know either. When the immortals want to see me, they will send a magpie to report. They all cover their faces, and this old man doesn't know what they look like."

Li Yan and the others naturally didn't believe it, but after repeated questioning, they found that this limping old man was just a greedy rascal who only thought about making money and dared not ask about anything.

"Was it those immortals who killed Battalion Commander Tian?"

Li Yan turned his head to look at Zhou Dayong again and said coldly: "These villagers are ignorant, but you come from the Commandant's Office. You should know the methods of these evil monsters. How could you help the evildoer? It's a pity that Battalion Commander Tian trusted and promoted you!"

"Evil monsters? Hahaha~"

Zhou Dayong was full of grief and indignation, "I have been fighting for the imperial court outside, but my wife and children were forced to have no way to live, and my parents even died of illness."

"Those old masters and powerful families are greedy. Compared to evil monsters, they are the real monsters!"

"This imperial court, this world, it's fine if it perishes!"

*Rumble rumble! *

A thunderclap sounded in the gloomy sky, and the autumn rain fell even harder.

Li Yan and the others looked at each other, not knowing what to say.

"Immeasurable Longevity and Fortune~"

Wang Fu flicked his horsetail whisk and performed a Daoist salute, saying righteously: "The lay practitioner is wrong. The greed of the powerful is insatiable, and the harm of the evil monsters to living beings are both great evils. How can they be distinguished? Besides..."

As he spoke, he turned his head to look at the woman holding the two children, unable to bear it in his heart: "They just can't speak, not that they aren't in pain. Everything in the world has a price. Any evil art to extend life is a kind of pain while remaining in this red dust."

"This poor Daoist asks you, can they sleep peacefully at night?"

"How did you know?!"

Zhou Dayong's eyes turned red, and he asked sharply.

His wife and two children, although they survived the plague because of the "Silkworm Stiffening Curse," had expressions as cold and numb as dead people on weekdays, and at night they screamed repeatedly, acting like madmen.

As time went on, these symptoms became more intense.

Zhou Dayong knew that his wife and children would sooner or later become puppets controlled by silkworm silk like those villagers, but he could only pretend to be confused and escape.

Now that he was exposed by Wang Fu, he was even more furious.

Suddenly, his body stiffened, and he stopped struggling.

But Long Yan had arrived beside the mother and children at some point. She sighed and released several leech Gu from her sleeve.

As the leech Gu twisted their bodies, a lot of white silk was sucked out.

*Plop! *

The leech Gu's bodies expanded into a transparent state, falling to the ground without movement.

This mother and children were too deeply cursed, and even leech Gu could hardly cure them.

But as the silkworm silk was extracted, the mother and children's complexions improved a lot, their expressions were no longer numb, but they were looking at Zhou Dayong with tears in their eyes.

"Prefect, let us go. We are too tired..."

"Daddy, I hurt, it hurts every night..."

They tried their best to speak, but their voices became weaker and weaker.

"Ah—!"

Zhou Dayong was full of tear stains, letting out a shrill and desperate roar.

Taking a few deep breaths, he struggled to get up, stumbled to them, hugged his wife and children tightly, crying, his body twitching constantly.

Afterward, he turned his head woodenly to look at Long Yan, "Is there a way to let them go comfortably?"

Long Yan's expression darkened slightly, and she took out a porcelain bottle from her bosom:

"Heavenly Fragrance Powder, can make people forget the pain and leave peacefully."

Zhou Dayong woodenly took the bottle and hugged his wife and children back into the room.

Wang Fu sighed, took out a bell, and while shaking it, chanted a mantra:

"The Supreme Edict, transcend your lonely souls, all ghosts and demons, the four births receive grace. Those with heads transcend, those without heads ascend... Wealth, poverty, and nobility are all self-invited. Edict to save the masses, transcend quickly, edict to save the masses, transcend quickly."

In the autumn rain, the Rebirth Mantra echoed with the sound of the bell. ===== CHAPTER 784 =====