Walking alone with a sword, slaying ghosts and gods

Chapter 15 Sacrifice
"You can't tell Master Lu..."

"They will kill him, just like they killed Mr. Wang and Master Lu..."

Xu Erniu took two taels of silver and hurried down the mountain. Before leaving, he took another look at the children who were playing happily in the temple.

Then he quickly turned and left.

If he didn't leave, he was afraid that he would have to kneel down in front of Master Lu. The master was a good man, but he could not defeat those people.

Lanlan said: Telling Master Lu about this will only harm him, and our family cannot harm others.

Southern Xinjiang is surrounded by mountains. As long as you climb to a high place and take a look, all you can see are undulating mountains, towering peaks and cliffs, rising miasma and dense fog. They look magnificent, but they are like hell, brewing all kinds of inhumane evil.

Just like the miasma river beside the county town, it flows rapidly, and the water is cold and turbid. It is not a precious source of life, but a river tainted with miasma. This river water cannot nourish the soil or irrigate the plants. People who drink it are likely to get sick and die. If it is used for irrigation, it will pollute the land and poison the crops, just like the cultivators entrenched on this land.

Xu Erniu ran home panting and saw the "sick" He Lan sitting on a bench watching the children eat chicken.

Even in Chixin Temple, this is not an ordinary delicacy. The fragrant white rice soaked in chicken soup is so delicious that Gousheng and Erya, the two little fat kids, enjoyed the meal very much.

"Mother, you eat chicken too."

Erya didn't know why her mother didn't go to work today and kept her and her brother at home to cook chicken for her and her brother. But Erya took a piece of chicken with skin and stretched out her chubby little hand to her mother's mouth so that her mother could also eat the chicken.

"Mother is not hungry, Mother doesn't want to eat, Erya, be good, Erya, eat more."

He Lan sat on the bench looking at her two children. As she looked at them, she couldn't help but burst into tears.

I clearly found a job and my life is clearly getting better.

How could such a bad thing happen to my family?

"What's wrong, mother? Don't cry, mother."

Gousheng and Erya both saw their mother crying. Erya stretched out her chubby little hands to wipe their mother's tears. Gousheng looked at the chicken leg in his hand, took a bite reluctantly, then put it down and ran to their mother to wipe her tears.

"Whoever bullies my mother, I will beat him up!"

At this moment, He Lan could no longer suppress her emotions. She hugged her two children and burst into tears, unable to stop her tears.

Xu Erniu stood at the door, watching the scene inside the house. The man gradually clenched his fists and gritted his teeth to make a decision.

"Lanlan, let's run away at night. Even if we die if we run away, and our whole family dies together, we will not let Gousheng and Erya go to offer sacrifices to the gods."

While He Lan was washing dishes, Xu Erniu stood behind his wife and whispered this.

He Lan turned around suddenly when she heard that, and the woman looked at her usually dull and honest husband with some disbelief.

"Then... Mother"

"I'm going to Mangshan. You guys won't be able to get far with me. I've been missing my child's father for a long time. Besides, how many more years can my old bones live?"

At this time, the white-haired old woman came out.

"Auntie."

Hearing this, Xu Erniu and He Lan both knelt in front of the old woman, and the old, wrinkled hand gently stroked their foreheads.

midnight.

Xu Erniu and He Lan packed up their few belongings, woke up their two children who were already asleep, and started to run for their lives. They had no destination, they just wanted to run as far as possible.

Xu Erniu's mother, the old woman, used a cane to see her family off, and when she returned, she lit a precious oil lamp to tell her neighbors that her family had not escaped, and then sat peacefully on her bed.

"It is a blessing to die in your own home."

The old woman murmured this calmly.

On the other side, Xu Erniu and He Lan were walking cautiously on the night road. They did not dare to make any noise. The two children could not run anymore, so Xu Erniu ran while carrying one on his back and holding the other in his arms.

Seeing her husband exhausted and out of breath, He Lan regretted for the first time that when she was at Chixin Temple, she kept asking Gousheng and Erya to eat more and take advantage of the temple master.

However, if it were that easy to escape, it wouldn't be hell.

Suddenly, a fire lit up in the darkness all around. Xu Erniu and He Lan looked up in panic and fear, and saw that Zou Hu and Li Qing, with a group of young men, had surrounded the four of them.

"Erniu, it's so late, where are you going? Capture them all."

In Zou Hu's eyes, Xu Erniu was nothing but a dog. He was so brave that he dared to escape with his whole family and avoid the divine sacrifice. There was no need to say any more nonsense to him.

"I have silver. I have silver. If you let me go, I will give you silver."

Xu Erniu took out the two taels of silver that Master Lu had given him during the day, which was already a huge sum of money for him.

But the Gu Masters around just approached with laughter: If we kill you, the silver will still be ours.

"go."

A Gu Master called out softly, and the poisonous scorpion with transparent wings lying on his shoulder was about to bite Xu Erniu to death.

"Wait a moment."

But at this time, Li Qing, who had been silent, spoke.

As soon as this beautiful female Gu Master opened her mouth, all the Gu Masters around her stopped.

"Xu Erniu, He Lan, children are ignorant, and you shouldn't be ignorant. You know that our Shiyuan County can be as peaceful as it is now because of the blessing of the Gu King. We hold a sacrifice every five years. This is a rule since ancient times. When we gave away other people's children in previous years, I didn't see your family object. Why, now that it's your turn, you are reluctant to give up?"

"Our Li, Tu, Zou, and You families have all given away their own children. Why is it that only your Xu family's child is so precious?"

Li Qing is different from her senior brother Zou Hu. She not only wants people, but also wants to have a solid foundation in terms of reason.

But in fact, most of Ishihara County belongs to these four surnames, and there are always undisciplined people in each surname. The heads of the four surnames will only complain that the opportunity to establish authority is too few to hold sacrifices once every five years, but they will not complain that there are too many sacrifices.

Xu Erniu wanted to resist, but was stung on the neck by a flying scorpion from a nearby Gu Master. His skin turned purple and black, and he was poisoned to death.

He Lan wanted to resist, but a Gu Master came up and kicked him to the side. He Lan hit his head against a rock and it was bleeding.

"Auntie, Auntie!"

Gousheng and Erya cried loudly and struggled desperately.

The noises here gradually alarmed the people in the county, and fires were lit up in every house, but no one came out. Li Qing and Zou Hu didn't mind at all. Since the Gu Master was presiding over the sacrifice, what would it matter even if everyone in the county saw it?
This kind of fear is actually a form of domestication for everyone.

(End of this chapter)