Confucian and Taoist scholar

Chapter 123 He deserves it
The muddy flesh and blood twisted for a while, and then wisps of white smoke came out.

After a while, the blood and flesh turned into smelly water and flowed away, leaving only some scraps of cloth on the ground.

Everyone was amazed when they saw this scene.

"He's really dead this time..." someone whispered.

Lu Zheng slowly retracted his sword and looked at everyone.

Everyone didn't dare to look directly at Lu Zheng's gaze. Knowing that Lu Zheng was a powerful person, their attitude changed a lot.

Lu Zheng looked at Aji and said, "You, go tie up the elders!"

"what?"

Aji's eyes widened, thinking he had misheard.

Lu Zheng said calmly, "Why, you don't dare? Don't forget what they did in conjunction with this monster. Do you still want him to be the clan elder?"

Everyone's expressions changed when they heard this. They were silent and no one expressed their opinion.

"I……"

Aji looked a little panicked. Just now, in his excitement, he dared to attack the wild god, but now he didn't dare to attack the elders of the tribe.

Seeing this, the elder of the clan quickly said, "I was also deceived by the monster. I am willing to pay compensation."

"Go to the government and tell them about this." Lu Zheng said calmly, "Sacrificing people is something you have done."

"He forced us to do it!" said the elder.

Now that the Wild God is dead, what happens next is up to him, right?
Lu Zheng shook his head slightly and said, "Aji, tie him up!"

"I, I dare not..." Aji couldn't help but lower his head.

At this moment, Gu stood up and walked in front of the elders.

He stared at the elder and said, "Elder, Amei's illness can be cured, right?"

Ah Mei is Gu's wife. She died of illness and was buried in a pond. Now not even her body remains.

"I don't know, I can't cure diseases..." the elder said with a flicker in his eyes.

There are some things that cannot be acknowledged even if they are related to oneself.

Gu said with a scorching gaze, "I asked the elders to pray to the gods to cure Ah Mei's illness. You told me that this was Ah Mei's fate and that she would be born into a good family in her next life."

The elder of the clan quickly said, "He lied to me like this. If I knew that Ah Mei's disease could be cured, how could I not give money to help?"

Gu took a deep breath and looked at Aji, "Aji, find a rope!"

Aji was startled and looked around, then saw a man holding a rope. He snatched it away and handed it to Gu.

Gu walked towards the elder holding the rope and said in a deep voice: "Uncle Yu, I'm sorry."

Upon hearing this, the elder glared and said, "You can't do this to me! I'm an elder! You're disrespecting my elders and committing treason... Come, stop him!"

The other members of the Qingyi tribe all looked sideways, pretending not to hear anything, and no one stepped forward to stop it.

Many people knew that even if they could stop Gu Dong from taking action, they could not stop Lu Zheng.

Yu was already old and could not get over Gu, so he was tied up by Gu.

He was still cursing, saying that Gu was ungrateful and a traitor.

Gu stood aside with a gloomy face and said nothing.

Lu Zheng looked at everyone, "Who else is participating in the human sacrifice?"

Everyone looked at each other, but no one said a word.

Finally, it was Gu who took the tied man to question him and learned that only the elder and his son were involved in the live sacrifice.

Seeing this, Lu Zheng took people to the mountain to find the two big men he had thrown into the forest, and then went to the wooden house to bring back the two little kids.

When the villagers saw the two children, they confirmed that the clan elder and his family had indeed committed human sacrifice.

Even though they were the Qingyi tribe and were called barbarians by outsiders, the practice of living sacrifice was too barbaric for them.

In the eyes of the villagers, the clan elder and his family were accomplices of the wild god, their status plummeted, and they were despised by everyone.

After all this busy work, it was almost dawn.

Some young and middle-aged men in the village directly carried torches and escorted people out of the village.

Naturally, Lu Zheng could not make a judgment on the clan elder and his family privately. He had to escort them to the yamen for the government to deal with.

Asking the villagers to help can be considered as allowing them to atone for their sins. After all, offering sacrifices to wild gods is illegal, so of course the punishment is not severe.

The young girl Aduo also took the opportunity to join in the fun, carrying a basket with a little girl in it.

Ah Ji walked beside Lu Zheng, his eyes dimmed, "Is my mother unable to reincarnate?"

He always thought that his mother would be reincarnated and live a good life, but he didn't expect that this was just a lie, which hit him hard and he found it difficult to accept it for a while.

Lu Zheng said softly, "Reincarnation is a vague concept. I don't even know if there's reincarnation after death... I think we should just work hard and live a good life... You have your mother's blood flowing in your body. If you live well, you're also living well for her!"

Ah Ji rubbed his eyes and sniffed. "You are a capable scholar. I believe in you. I will live well for my mother!"

Aji paused and then said, "You are very powerful. Can you tell me about what is happening outside?"

"I don't know much about the outside world." Lu Zheng smiled slightly, "But I can tell you about some of the things I encountered during my study abroad."

Lu Zheng told the stories about the ghosts and monsters he had encountered, so that people like Aji could have a deeper understanding of ghosts and monsters and not be deceived again.

Traveling at night in the mountains was tedious, but when someone told a story, everyone became alert and listened attentively. Even the elder father and son who were tied up and escorted could not help but listen attentively.

Some couldn't help but exclaim when they heard the exciting parts.

There were also a few men who couldn't quite understand what was being said outside, and only understood half of what was being said, and they felt itchy inside.

As they walked and told stories, everyone no longer felt tired and instead felt a lot more energetic.

When the sun rises from the horizon, the warm sunlight shines on the earth.

Lu Zheng and his group have arrived at the main road.

"Let's all take a break."

Seeing that some people were really tired, Lu Zheng made a suggestion.

Gu asked everyone to take a rest.

At this moment, the two little kids also slowly woke up from their coma.

Seeing a group of strangers, the two little guys were so scared that tears welled up in their eyes, but they didn't dare to cry out loud.

It took Lu Zheng and A Duo to comfort the two children and finally calm them down.

Lu Zheng fed the two children some candy and asked about their origins.

The two little guys were confused and couldn't tell where they lived.

They were originally bought from human traffickers, and the three sons of the clan elder had no idea where the two children came from.

However, after some patient questioning, Lu Zheng was able to get some details.

For example, the name of someone in the home or village, what big trees, small rivers, big rocks are outside the village, etc...

Judging from the situation, the two children are not from the same place, but they should be from this county, because they both said that they were taken out to the market by adults before and saw a very wide and large river.

There is a big river flowing through Changchuan County.

After resting for a while, Lu Zheng called everyone to set off again.

Changchuan County is far away from here, and it takes a long time for them to get back.

Lu Zheng planned to go to the nearest town, where the government offices were located, and where there were also officials and constables in charge.

When Lu Zheng led his men over, the gatekeepers thought that some members of the Qingyi tribe had come to cause trouble.

Lu Zhengliang stated his identity and the official document given to him by County Magistrate Li.

After the officer saw it, he hurried in to inform the captain of the police.

When the head constable Yang Song learned that a scholar from Kaiyang County was visiting with someone, he hurried out to meet them.

Lu Zheng then told Yang Song the whole story briefly.

Yang Song was overjoyed when he heard this. He hadn't done anything, but he actually got some results. It was a major case of a wild god deceiving the people and the people using living people as sacrifices!
He quickly brought Lu Zheng and his group in, and then called a group of subordinates over.

After a busy period, the clan elder and his family were taken into custody. The indictment had been written, and there was also evidence with the signatures and fingerprints of Lu Zheng and others. All they had to do was send them to the county government office for the county magistrate to convict them.

As for the two children, after Lu Zheng presented the information he had asked, Yang Song and his men thought about it and found the village that the two children remembered.

Yang Song directly sent someone to notify the family so that they could come and pick up the child.

Things were handled extremely quickly and efficiently, of course, this was mainly due to the presence of Lu Zheng.

A scholar came with a handwritten document from the magistrate of the neighboring county to report his achievements to them. Yang Song and others were eager to handle the matter immediately.

However, it takes time to escort the prisoners and it also takes time to find the child's family, so it is impossible to go any faster.

Gu couldn't help but ask Yang Song, "Captain, what punishment will we receive?"

Yang Song smiled and said, "As for this matter, it depends on what the county magistrate decides. However, considering that you took the initiative to escort the principal offender here and admitted your mistakes, the punishment shouldn't be too severe... As for the others, it's hard to say."

The government has little control over the Yi people of all ethnic groups and places, mainly because they are difficult to control.

Because if it is not handled properly, it will easily lead to a large group of barbarians causing chaos or even rebellion.

So generally speaking, as long as the barbarians did not commit any serious crimes, the punishment would be relatively light.

For something like today, apart from the clan elder and his family who will most likely be sentenced to death as a warning to others, the rest of the villagers will at most be fined some money and grain as a warning.

We can't arrest everyone in the village and put them in jail. I'm afraid the county government doesn't have enough space to accommodate them.

Gu and the others felt relieved when they heard this.

Lu Zheng looked at Gu and said, "Thank you for taking the trouble to come here today. No one has had breakfast yet. Come on, I'll treat you to a meal in town."

Gu's face was filled with shame when he heard this. "It was our village that did the evil. If Master Lu hadn't captured the monster, we would still be kept in the dark. Who knows how many of our people would have been harmed... It's us who should apologize and thank you!"

Upon hearing this, the other members of the Qingyi tribe all echoed the words.

They have simple ideas. They will naturally be nice to whoever is nice to them.

In addition to the methods Lu Zheng had demonstrated before and having heard so many stories, they had already developed respect for Lu Zheng.

Lu Zhengdao said, "This isn't your fault. I just hope you'll keep your eyes open and not be deceived by demons. Just be a good person!"

Everyone agreed and said they would no longer believe in ghosts, gods or monsters.

[You educate the people and possess the virtues of a gentleman. Your literary spirit +20!]

(End of this chapter)