Chapter 41: The Oriole

Looking at the chaotic scene below, Wu Chang asked Liu Shan uncertainly:

"Village chief, is this also part of the Exorcising-Year Festival?"

Liu Shan stared blankly ahead, his lips trembling, then shouted at the villagers:

"Disperse now! The evil aura is out of control!"

Wu Chang: "Uh…"

It seemed the mutation of the Year-Pressers was not on the Exorcising-Year Festival's program.

The villagers of Huai Gu Village reacted quickly, as if they had received relevant training. Seeing the ghost messengers killed, the surrounding villagers immediately scattered and fled.

The villagers blocking the crowd, tasked with guarding against monster attacks, immediately raised their specially-made vine shields and wooden spears and closed in.

The villagers responsible for escort duty were mostly hunters from the village, all skilled in martial arts and familiar with the habits of wild beasts.

In groups of five or six, using special calls and potions, they quickly separated the three clustered Year-Pressers.

The most eye-catching figure in the field was the leader of the hunters, Liu Wei.

Liu Wei held a broad-bladed hunting knife in his hand, the blade a full four chi long, its edge covered in irregular serrations, swinging with tiger-like force.

The scales that grew on the Year-Pressers' bodies after their mutation were hard, and woodcutters' axes and wooden spears could hardly break through their defense, but once touched by the broad-bladed hunting knife, scales would shatter and flesh would burst open.

Relying on his superior martial skill, Liu Wei actually held off a Year-Guard one-on-one, not yielding in the slightest.

Referencing his own attributes, Wu Chang judged that Liu Wei's strength was probably around 30, agility close to 20, and life no less than 20. As a hunter about to enter the mountain, his stamina naturally wouldn't be lacking either.

Perhaps his actual attributes were a bit lower, but bolstered by martial skill, his performance was even somewhat higher.

No wonder Liu Wei and Liu Wu could repeatedly succeed in ambushing players. Although they had no means to resist the monsters' spells, they were no pushovers when dealing with living people or wild beasts.

The three Year-Pressers seemed to have been "possessed" by the Mountain-Settling Beast.

Seeing the villagers surrounding them layer upon layer, they were reminded of the days they had been penned inside Hollow Mountain, and they tore open their mouths to let out tiger-roaring-like howls.

Negative emotions such as anxiety, unease, and terror materialized into solid black ripples that swept across the entire valley.

In an instant, a shadow veiled the eyes of all the villagers; they only felt their heads grow dizzy and their limbs increasingly heavy.

On top of that, a destructive desire hidden deep in their souls filled their hearts.

"Liu Lin owes me three jugs of wine, dragged it out for three months without paying. I've long wanted to teach him a lesson, and right now is perfect…"

"That bastard Shunzi took more of my family's land for farming this year, how about…"

"That brat Stone, relying on his close relationship with Brother Liu Wei, has dared to step on my head several times while hunting. So you're called Iron Head Stone, huh? Let's see if your head is really as hard as stone."

The villagers affected by the ripples stared at their teammates' backs with sinister gazes.

No one knew who struck first, but when the first shout of "You bastard, how dare you sneak-attack me!" rang out, it detonated the giant powder keg that was Huai Gu Village.

Even in the direction where ordinary villagers were hiding, the sounds of fighting could faintly be heard.

The valley was in total chaos; only Wu Chang and Liu Shan, who stood beside the Four-Direction Year-Fire Lamp, were unaffected.

Liu Shan looked at the chaotic valley and said helplessly: "Hero Wu, the evil aura has probably spread into the village. Please, hero, go and check on the situation over there."

Wu Chang nodded in agreement and left along the edge of the chaotic fighting.

He made his way to where the villagers lived and found that although the evil aura had spread here, the harm it caused was limited.

Those who had distanced themselves from the Exorcising-Year Festival site at the first opportunity were mostly the old, weak, women, and children.

Even if their evil thoughts were stirred up by the evil aura, at most they would pull each other's hair and roll around on the ground fighting, far less dangerous than the real blades and spears on the other side.

Since the villagers were unharmed, he did not reveal himself, but turned and returned to the darkness.

If he showed himself now, the villagers would surely see him as a savior and surround him.

He was a player, here to clear the dungeon, not to be a nanny.

Right now he had more important things to do.

In a certain sense, the Exorcising-Year Festival was already over.

The Welcoming-Year, Year-Pressing, and Year-Guarding segments had all been completed safely. Although the final Exorcising-Year had problems, as long as the three demonized Year-Pressers were killed, it could still be considered as having removed the evil aura.

The three demonized Year-Pressers were formidable in combat, but affected by the evil aura, they had already lost their reason and could only act on instinct.

Fighting separately, as long as nothing went wrong with Liu Wei, taking down the three demonized Year-Pressers was only a matter of time and cost.

But no one expected that the village's main combatant, Liu Wei, would actually run.

Relying on his powerful suppression, Liu Wei kept pushing one Year-Presser toward the edge of the village, loudly declaring that he alone was enough here, and telling the others to go deal with the other two Year-Pressers.

When the people around him had mostly left, he put on a white half-face mask and summoned the ghost-puppet. Several ghost-puppets crawled out of the mask, clung to the Year-Presser's limbs, and while the Year-Presser was distracted struggling, Liu Wei pressed in close and stabbed a knife into the Year-Presser's chest.

The blade sank more than halfway into the flesh. Liu Wei twisted his wrist, the blade churning and tearing inside the Year-Presser's chest, mincing all the organs inside the Year-Presser, along with the Mountain-Settling Beast's heart it had swallowed.

Before the evil aura could escape from the Year-Guard's body, the ghost-puppets swarmed in and devoured the evil aura completely.

What a great supplement! Feeling the surging spiritual power inside the mask, Liu Wei let out a satisfied burp for the mask.

Just as Liu Wei was about to take off the mask, he noticed a villager in the distance staring at him blankly.

"Jinfu, didn't I tell you all to go back, that I alone am enough?" Liu Wei said softly.

Liu Jinfu said trembling: "I was worried something would happen to you, wanted to ask if you needed more hands. Bro Wei, you just now…"

Liu Wei shook his head and slowly raised his knife.

"We're all brothers of our own, why make things hard for your brother?"

Liu Jinfu wanted to flee, but his limbs were unbearably heavy. Several ghost-puppets dragged his body, making it impossible for him to take a step.

Liu Wei strode forward and brought his blade down.

He tossed Liu Jinfu's corpse onto the Year-Presser's body. This time, there really was no one around him.

He did not return to the Exorcising-Year Festival site, but turned and left the village along a small path.

Unlike Wu Chang, he was a native of the dungeon plane. What he wanted was not for the Exorcising-Year Festival ritual to be completed to count as success, but to weaken the evil entity's power through the Exorcising-Year Festival, and then find an opportunity to devour the evil entity.

In his view, the Exorcising-Year Festival could be said to have completely failed.

The evil entity could ignore the Exorcising-Year formation and the Year-Fire, and use evil aura to control the Year-Pressers, showing that breaking free of its seal was only a matter of time.

Even if they could deal with the New Year Presser, what would be the point?

As the head hunter of Huaigu Village, Liu Wei had a long view; while others were still thinking about how to handle the New Year Presser, he had already begun studying the opponent that would emerge after the seal broke.

If Liu Wu were still here, the two of them controlling the Shang Ghost together, the situation wouldn't be quite so dire.

With only himself now, if he wanted to drive the Shang Ghost to devour the evil spirit, it would take some effort.

The more so, the more he had to conserve his strength.

With things having developed to this point, he could only hope that Hero Wu was a hot-headed fool, fighting the evil spirit to a mutual defeat, letting him play the oriole behind the mantis.

As for the villagers—what would become of them?

That had never been a concern of his.

He usually put on a show of loyalty, but in truth his feelings were thin; whoever blocked his path, he'd cut them down without batting an eye.

Even with his own wife and children, beneath the surface closeness, there was always a distance between them.

The only person in this world he could truly trust was his own blood brother, Liu Wu.

Once out of the village, he made straight for Ghost Cry Forest.

For the sake of this stroke of fortune, he had to bring along as many Shang Ghosts as possible.

Halfway there, he noticed a dark shadow standing at the edge of the road in the forest.

Looking closer, it was a horse tied by the roadside, the red reins on its body looking very familiar.

The peace charm hanging from the reins had been personally consecrated by the abbot of Longqi Monastery, the largest temple in Jingyuan Prefecture.

At first the abbot had been unwilling; even though Liu Wei had taken every monk in the entire temple hostage, the abbot had refused to yield, insisting Liu Wei had to kill a quarter of them before he'd cooperate.

That special peace charm—he absolutely couldn't be mistaken. That was Wu's horse.

Not only that, the half-mask on his face was trembling slightly—clearly the other half of the mask was somewhere nearby.

Could it be that Wu had calmed down, hadn't acted rashly, and had been hiding around the village all this time, waiting for the right moment? Liu Wei was a little excited; the two brothers had roamed together since childhood, their hearts in tune, their teamwork seamless.

If the two brothers joined blades, they might yet have a fighting chance against the evil spirit.

He approached Liu Wu's horse and called out softly: "You kid, always coming up with something new for me."

"New? Let me show you something even newer."

"Who!"

Bang! The only answer he got was a gunshot that shattered the night's silence.

(End of chapter)