Chapter 68: 67, Those Without Official Status Are Dead

67, Those Without Official Status Are Dead

The scent of alcohol bursts forth!

Amidst this sea of devotional offerings and rampant alcohol fragrance, even without taking a single sip, one’s heart would be intoxicated!

Zhou Chang sprinted up the slope, his gaze sweeping over every rice mound within sight—

The golden chains forged from the Emperor’s decree swayed as they threaded toward one of the rice mounds.

Behind the massive rice mound bearing the stone stele inscribed “Wen Zhao Lin,” a rustling sound arose—like chicks pecking grain or dogs digging soil—grains of rice slowly rolled down from the mound’s peak.

In some corner behind the mound, a round shadow rolled.

As Zhou Chang drew nearer, he suddenly realized: that round black shadow was a human head!

The head wore a silk guapimao hat; behind it trailed a fake rat-tail braid woven from black cotton thread, now wrapped around its cheek.

It hid behind the rice mound, its pallid face fixed with hollow, upturned eyes staring directly into Zhou Chang’s—

Zhou Chang halted on the slope, locking gazes with the pallid head.

He recognized its face, identified its identity.

It was Wen’s eldest son, who had married Bai Xiue!

It was Wen Yongsheng!

Wen’s eldest son shared the same name as Wen’s ancestral patriarch!

“You—”

As the head saw Zhou Chang’s corpse approaching, it uttered a single, hollow syllable from its mouth, then instantly retracted into the rice mound.

Behind the mound, a clattering sound of wood striking wood echoed.

The next instant, the head rose high above the mound’s peak, ascending further and further—

Beneath the head with its fake rat-tail braid was not a stretched neck, but a black wooden spirit tablet inscribed with “Spirit Tablet of Ancestral Lord Wen Yongsheng”; beneath that tablet hung another head, strikingly similar to the one above, and beneath that head lay yet another tablet—“Spirit Tablet of Heavenly Ancestor Wen Siming”; beneath Wen Siming’s tablet, another head continued the chain…

Spirit Tablet of Heavenly Ancestor Wen Sizu!

Spirit Tablet of High Ancestor Wen Zhao Lin!

Spirit Tablet of Great Ancestor Wen Xingren!

…

Heads linked to tablets, tablets linked to heads, coiling and winding through the wine cellar like a serpent-dragon of skulls and spirit plaques.

Aside from the topmost head—Wen Yongsheng’s—all other heads bore pallid faces, eyes tightly shut, until Wen Yongsheng’s mouth uttered that hollow syllable: “You—”

Then, one by one, the heads beneath opened their eyes, fixing their gaze on Zhou Chang, and spoke in turn—

“You, a mere commoner, dare covet the woman chosen by the gods?!”

It called itself a god—it was the master of the altar tablet inscribed “Grass-Head Dragon Demon Wen Yongsheng Divine Altar” enshrined in the main hall of the Wen household!

It was a folk deity—the Grass-Head Dragon Demon!

The topmost head of the Grass-Head Dragon Demon stared fixedly at Zhou Chang.

After posing its first question, its expression turned wooden and cold, and it asked Zhou Chang again: “Do you… hold official status?”

The instant the folk deity asked this question, Zhou Chang felt a sudden warning surge within his heart!

A fierce burning sensation flared in his right palm; threads of thought slithered across his palm, and in the blink of an eye, the red robe with golden-scaled, four-clawed python embroidery was already upon his body!

“Hum!”

The python on the robe seemed to stir for a moment, then settled back into place.

The warning in Zhou Chang’s mind vanished.

He realized: had he not donned this robe in time, the Grass-Head Dragon Demon would have immediately imposed a “Death Omen” upon him after asking about his official status!

The Grass-Head Dragon Demon’s taboo: “Kill those without official status!”

This robe, gifted by the Emperor’s golden skull, concealed the Emperor’s restraint upon Zhou Chang—but at times, it could also function as intended.

For instance, now: wearing this robe granted Zhou Chang a status greater than mere “official status,” rendering the Grass-Head Dragon Demon’s death taboo powerless against him!

“Do you… hold official status?”

“Do you… hold official status?”

The Grass-Head Dragon Demon, its face blank, asked again and again.

Zhou Chang sensed that its questioning was no longer directed at him.

When it first confronted Zhou Chang and accused him of stealing Bai Xiue, Zhou Chang had felt faint traces of sentience in this “Grass-Head Dragon Demon”; but now, it had become entirely the deity itself—devoid of any emotion or intellect.

Heads bearing tablets, tablets linked to heads, the Grass-Head Dragon Demon, its surface coated in fungal filaments, rose slowly upward under the lead of its topmost head—Wen Yongsheng—passing through layer after layer of the wine cellar.

A demonic voice echoed from its mouth: “Do you… hold official status?”

Intermittently, its chant of secret mantras mingled with the question:

“Om! Be Ya! Sa Wa Na Ye! So Ha!”

The Grass-Head Dragon Demon mindlessly chanted a mantra linked to the Wealthy Heavenly King; beneath its tail’s final head, the golden chains of the Emperor’s decree were attached, dragging Wen Yongsheng’s headless body as they all swayed upward toward the cellar’s uppermost level.

Whether due to the mantra’s power or not, Zhou Chang saw copper coin-like square holes gradually forming on the Emperor’s decree chains.

The next instant, outlines of copper coins spread around those holes.

One by one, copper coins became embedded into the Emperor’s decree, corroding it.

The links began to crack!

“Clatter!”

From the living spring at the cellar’s bottom, more and more wine surged forth, as if inexhaustible!

This overflowing, fragrant spring flooded the cellar’s base, rose past the second-to-last tier, and continued to lift the water level higher!

Simultaneously, the entire wine cellar trembled!

The rice mounds, covered in fungal filaments atop each cellar tier, cracked open violently one after another!

Grain spilled, mounds collapsed.

One by one, human heads flew out from the crumbling tombs, drifting and fluttering toward the ascending Grass-Head Dragon Demon, joining its body to become part of its form.

Beneath each head, a spirit tablet was attached.

But the names on the tablets were all from the Wen clan.

“Do you… hold official status?”

The cold, blank questioning of the Grass-Head Dragon Demon still echoed throughout the cellar.

Zhou Chang stared at the headless corpses revealed by the collapsed rice mounds; a chill seized his heart—he instantly realized—

The Grass-Head Dragon Demon had distributed its Death Omen to the living bodies lying in the cellar, killing them instantly, turning their heads into parts of its own body!

The Grass-Head Dragon Demon’s Death Omen differed from Feng Si’s!

When Feng Si imposed a Death Omen on Zhou Chang, Zhou Chang still had ten days left.

But the Grass-Head Dragon Demon’s Death Omen meant instant death!

“Tap-tap-tap!”

Zhou Chang sprinted up the slope, chasing the swaying serpent-dragon of skulls and tablets to the cellar’s top.

At the cellar’s upper level, two trembling figures crouched beside the dark wooden door.