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Chapter 64 The Taoist Priest (Please continue reading)

The meal, supposedly a treat, consisted of nothing more than half a pot of sorghum rice, a few steamed dried vegetable pancakes, and a skinny little chicken.

Putting everything else aside, just by looking at the chicken, Zhou You could roughly tell what kind of cruel abuse it had suffered in its life. Even though it had been stewed for a long time, its eyes still seemed to be accusing it of hunger and the injustice of its fate.

Looking at the meager food on the table, the village chief looked quite ashamed.

"I'm really sorry, the village is poor, and the caravan members we were going to entertain don't really need much food, so we didn't prepare anything too nice. Please forgive us, young man."

Zhou You glanced at the old man's pale face, then at the child behind him—probably his grandson—who was sucking his thumb, drooling but not daring to approach. He sighed silently in his heart.

It's not something very good.

It seems like they've dug up all their family's assets.

Why make such a fuss over someone you've just met?

Zhou You shook his head, then waved to the thin child.

The village chief frowned.

"What brings you here?"

Zhou You didn't answer, but instead picked up the plate of chicken and put it in the child's hand.

"Hey, take it and eat it, but remember not to eat it all, leave some for your grandpa."

From the cloth bag at his waist, the old Taoist priest, using some unknown method, spoke sarcastically in a voice only he could hear.

"Tsk tsk tsk, I never expected my apprentice to be so kind-hearted. He can't even feed himself, yet he's still thinking of others."

"Shut up."

Zhou You said directly.

Then he picked up the millet rice in front of him, greeted the village chief, and began to eat slowly and deliberately.

The coarse rice slid down his esophagus, barely filling the hunger fire in his stomach. But unlike the meat of the pig demon, this kind of ordinary food was hard to sustain for long. If we look at it roughly, even if he ate all of it by himself, he could only last for a little over a day at most.

The old village chief smiled and looked at Zhou You. After Zhou You had almost finished eating, he asked him a question.

"Speaking of which, Taoist priest, you're still traveling in this year of severe drought. Where are you headed?"

—Taoist Master?
Upon hearing this completely unfamiliar name, Zhou You was taken aback.

Then he lowered his head and, using the reflection of the bowls and plates, examined his own attire.

The clothes were taken from a caravan; they were light blue and long robes. For convenience, the hair was styled in a bun as suggested by the old Taoist priest. At first glance, he did indeed resemble a Taoist priest somewhat.

However, he didn't explain this trivial misunderstanding, but instead smiled and said...

"To let my father-in-law know, my family has completely run out of food, and there's hardly anyone alive in the surrounding area. I have no choice but to head to Youtai Mountain to seek refuge with a distant relative."

These words were similar to those used to deceive the caravan leader, except that the destination was changed from the county town to Youtai Mountain.

Unexpectedly, the village chief paused for a moment, then asked.

"Is the Taoist priest referring to the cloudscape of Youtai Mountain?"

"Does the old man know?"

The village chief suddenly laughed.

"There are few people in the entire eastern part of Cangzhou who don't know this place. Master Xuanyuan there is a good man. Before the drought, thanks to him being there, we were not harassed by those demons and monsters."

At this point, the village chief suddenly sighed softly.

"It's a pity, for some reason, Master Xuan Yuan suddenly disappeared without a trace some time ago, otherwise..."

Zhou You didn't quite hear what was said after that, but even the information in the beginning was explosive enough.

—A good person?
This thing that always tries to eat people?

However, judging from the village chief's expression, Zhou You knew that now was not the time to ask these questions, so he could only continue to answer.

"I didn't seek refuge with that Taoist Master Xuanyuan, but rather with a relative at the foot of the mountain—but speaking of which, I have a question, and I wonder if you could answer it for me, sir."

"Please speak freely, Taoist priest."

"Excuse me," Zhou You straightened his expression and asked. "How much do you know about that Tai Sui Xingjun in the county town?" Unexpectedly, upon hearing this word, the village chief's face suddenly froze. He first looked around warily, and finding no one eavesdropping, he chased his grandson, who was eating with greasy mouth, into the inner room before lowering his head and speaking softly.

"Excuse me, why do you ask this, Taoist priest?"

Compared to the cautious village chief, Zhou You's answer was quite relaxed.

"It's nothing. After all, I'll probably be making a living near the county in the future, and I don't want to run into any trouble because I'm unfamiliar with the area. So I wanted to find out about the owner of this place in advance."

The village chief stared at Zhou You for a while, and seeing that his face did not seem fake, he whispered.

"I advise you, Daoist, not to provoke that thing at all. Don't even look at it. It's best not to seek refuge with any relatives. Instead, leave Cangzhou and go as far away as possible."

Zhou You frowned at the opportune moment, asking in return as if he were very puzzled.

"Why?"

His basic acting skills kicked in at the right moment, and Zhou You's face appeared incredibly sincere.

The village chief seemed to have been holding back for a long time. He first sighed softly, and then said...

"Master, although that Tai Sui Star Lord is said to be a god, he is actually a complete and utter demon!"

Then he began to tell Zhou You this story.

"That thing arrived about seven or eight months ago. At that time, the drought hadn't reached this point, and the refugees were barely surviving on sporadic relief supplies. But after it arrived, the government suddenly stopped all relief food, saying that eating the flesh of the 'Tai Sui' would fill their stomachs, and then they just distributed it to everyone like that."

"At first, the refugees were quite resistant, but they had no choice. After all, if they didn't eat this, they would have nothing else to eat, so even if they were unwilling, they could only stuff it into their mouths—but who would have thought that this stuff would actually work? After eating it, not only did they no longer feel hungry or thirsty, but their illnesses also improved considerably."

At this point, the village chief seemed to be exhausted and took a short breath.

Zhou You waited silently.

After a long pause, the conversation continued.

"To tell you the truth, Master, although our village still had some stored grain, I rushed over there in order to treat this leg. However, because I was too old, I couldn't get a spot, so after several days I only got a few pieces. But even so, I felt a little better after eating them. To be honest, at that time I almost regarded that person as a true god. Until one day, because I was hungry, I sneaked into the warehouse to take a few pieces of Tai Sui meat to eat. Who would have thought..."

The village chief's face gradually showed a look of horror.

"—Who would have thought that I would witness a nightmarish scene."

Zhou You frowned and asked.

"What scene?"

The village chief was completely absorbed in the story and didn't even notice Zhou You's reaction. He then grinned and revealed a smile that looked like he was about to cry.

“What I saw were several people who had gone missing a few days earlier—the authorities’ explanation at the time was that they had stolen meat and then fled to avoid punishment—but at that time, in my eyes, those people looked like pigs waiting to be slaughtered.”

"The clerk first fed some Tai Sui meat to two of them, and then respectfully invited a woman out from behind the storeroom. I was so panicked that I didn't even see what the woman looked like. I only saw her chant a few incantations and then point at something. The two men started howling incessantly, and patches of black hair grew out of their bodies, turning them into two donkeys in the blink of an eye."

"However, that was not the most terrifying thing. The most terrifying thing was the remaining few people—the woman didn't touch them at all—but just as those donkeys completed their transformation, the remaining people suddenly screamed in agony again."

The village chief swallowed hard, his expression suddenly turning extremely terrified.

"I've lived for sixty or seventy years, and I've seen a lot, but I've never heard such a horrific scream in my life. It felt as if someone was skinning them alive. But the screams didn't last long; soon, they began to melt."

Zhou You suddenly spoke up and asked.

"melt?"

The village chief's face grew increasingly bitter.

"That's right, it was melting. Their bodies melted like wax, their skin, bones, internal organs, and finally even their faces and heads melted into the containers beneath them, turning into a bizarre pool of flesh and blood."

For some reason, Zhou You suddenly remembered something.

Previously, in the caravan, there was that pile of flesh and blood crying for help.

—In this world, donkeys are transformed from humans, and pigs are transformed from humans.

so.

Could this Tai Sui meat also be a human transformed?

(End of this chapter)