The Martial Lord of the Troubled World

Chapter 43 Monster!

The two streets weren't just occupied by Fu Juemin and his party; there were also shops, vendors, and pedestrians along the streets. At this moment, they were all squeezed to the side of the road.

Fu Juemin stood under a doorway, watching the bustling crowd before him. He remembered seeing stalls selling roasted chestnuts and sweet potatoes before, only to have them overturned in an instant, the vendors' helpless cries drowned out by the surging tide.
The sheer number of people gathered swept through the area like a massive, turbid torrent.

"Click——"

Suddenly, a door panel of the shop behind them detached, and half a head peeked out from behind it, tentatively asking, "Shall we come in?"

Fu Juemin was somewhat surprised, and quickly gave Cao Tian a look, who then nimbly went inside.

Half a minute later, Fu Juemin and his entourage all entered the room.

The room was small and had no windows; it was lit entirely by a kerosene lamp.

By the light, Fu Juemin saw a counter in the center of the room, behind which were two rows of shelves displaying goods such as rice wine, white vinegar, soy sauce, and matches. It turned out to be a small general store.

The shop owner who had let them in closed the door again, came over and bowed to Fu Juemin, saying, "If this guest doesn't mind, he can stay here for a while."

"Thank you boss."

Ma Daikui took out two silver dollars from his pocket and placed them on the counter.

"This is impossible!"

The shop owner quickly waved his hand, "I called these people in, not for the money."

"Consider this our payment for tea, as we're just borrowing your place to rest."

Fu Juemin said casually.

Seeing that he couldn't refuse, the shop owner hesitated for a moment before saying, "Then I'll go make some tea for you."

As he spoke, he turned and called out to the inner room in dialect. The curtain was immediately lifted, and a woman in a floral-patterned jacket strode in.

The shop owner urged the woman to boil water quickly, while he ran behind the cabinet and rummaged through the drawers.

While the shop owner was searching for tea leaves, Fu Juemin asked, "Do you have a second floor?"

"There is."

The shop owner hurriedly put down the tea canister in his hand and came over to lead the way for Fu Juemin: "Please follow me."

Fu Juemin followed the shop owner around to the inner room, and sure enough, he saw a staircase leading to the second floor. As he went up the stairs, he could hear the sound of someone banging on the shop door outside.

The second floor was where the shop owner stored his goods. The floor was filled with jars of wine, vinegar, and soy sauce, and it was relatively clean with little dust.

Fu Juemin walked to the side facing the street, opened the window, and looked out at the street from this angle. It was undoubtedly much more shocking than before.

At this moment, the entire street was almost completely filled with bustling crowds.

The three streams of people converged at the street corner and stopped moving. Everyone sat on the ground, as if they were holding some kind of grand gathering.

Fu Juemin saw the students in the march helplessly squeezed into the crowd, unable to move forward or backward. Some hot-tempered male students tried to force their way out of the crowd, but were quickly stopped by the elderly foreign nun leading the procession.

Currently, the situation is relatively stable, and nothing major has gone wrong.

Fu Juemin is in a great position right now, on the second floor near the street corner, with a perfect view of the bustling scene below.

"A few guests, please have some tea."

The grocery store owner, who came upstairs for the second time, brought over some tea and personally handed it to Fu Juemin, saying somewhat apologetically, "It's not very good tea, so please make do with it."

Judging from Fu Juemin's attire and the presence of bodyguards and drivers, he was clearly a person of high status, which was why the grocery store owner had the courage to open the door for them.

"It doesn't matter."

Fu Juemin took the coarse tea in the white porcelain bowl handed to him by the shop owner, took a small sip, and then pointed to the bottom and asked, "Does the shop owner know the origin of this Cizun Sect?"

The grocer thought for a moment and said, "It seems to have originated from the east side of the city. At first, it was just small-scale activity, offering to exchange three bushels of rice for five, trying to lure some bargain-hunting old men and women into joining. This time, with the famine and the influx of refugees from the west, who would have thought it would cause such a commotion?"

"Three bushels of rice for five bushels of rice"

Fu Juemin's eyes flickered slightly, and he pointed below, asking, "With so many people, can he manage to switch them all?"

"How could they possibly exchange them? It's all about deception."

The grocery store owner was also a little angry, saying, "When we first started luring people to join the religion, we offered three bushels of rice for five bushels of real new rice. But as more and more people made the exchange, the rice we received became stale rice, and who knows how much sand was mixed in with it."
Now, there's not even rice to be seen; when you shovel down, all you get are broken rice husks!

"And that's considered good; what about those rotten, poisonous rice rices that have been sitting in warehouses for who knows how many years? Aren't they afraid people will die from eating them?"

"How can so many people believe such a charade?"

Fu Juemin frowned, and the grocery store owner said helplessly, "There's nothing we can do. The Cizun Sect allows people to buy rice on credit; as long as they join the sect, they get five dou (a unit of dry measure). For those refugees who have fled here, being given something to eat is already very good..."

After saying that, the grocery store owner picked up the kettle and left, saying, "I'll go down and get you some snacks."

Looking down at the starving people below, their faces pale and their clothes tattered, Fu Juemin realized just how severe the locust plague in Southwest China truly was.

Even in prosperous areas like Luanhe, there are displaced people everywhere, and cults are rampant in the streets. The truly disaster-stricken areas have probably already become a ghost town.

Fu Juemin was thinking with a slightly heavy heart when he suddenly heard the sound of gongs and drums coming from the street.

Looking in the direction of the sound, they discovered new activity on the double-layered platform at the street corner.

On the lower platform, an old man and a young man began to perform a trick. The younger one was holding a large knife that he had somehow acquired, and he was swaying on the platform. Suddenly, he tripped and fell, and the knife flew out of his arms, directly severing the other man's head.

This horrifying scene elicited gasps from the audience, especially from the group of students who were pressed close to the stage. Some of the female students with weaker mental fortitude were terrified and screamed.

But then, the figure who had been sitting upright on the upper platform, clad in colorful robes and with a red cloth covering his face, suddenly floated down. He took out a golden jar from his robes, sprinkled something on the headless corpse, and the latter, surprisingly, stood up again, swaying slightly.
In an instant, cheers erupted from below the stage, and countless people knelt down, kowtowing and shouting the name of "Compassionate One".

"It's a magic trick."

Cao Tian, ​​who was standing next to him, said something.

"I know."

Fu Juemin nodded. These kinds of folk cults are best at playing tricks like pretending to be gods and ghosts.

At this moment, the colorful-clad man who had just performed the "miracle" stepped down from the platform, followed closely by the dozens of burly men who had been carrying the platform, each holding a bundle of red cloth.

The crowd slowly parted in front of the person in colorful clothes. As the person walked, with a red cloth covering their head, they kept taking out golden grains from a jar in their hand and scattering them to both sides. Wherever the grains were scattered, there was a commotion and a scramble for them.

The man in colorful clothes and the burly man accompanying him slowly walked towards Fu Juemin. As Fu Juemin looked at him, the closer they got, the more familiar they felt.

When the other party reached the street below where he was located, Fu Juemin looked down from his high position and a sudden throbbing sensation arose from the depths of his blood. As the memories of the Black Scaled Serpent Demon resurfaced, he finally caught that sense of déjà vu.

More than half a month ago, in Xinjie, at Shengchang Incense Shop, the demon he had been chasing all the way!

"Click——"

The white porcelain bowl in Fu Juemin's hand was suddenly crushed to pieces, and the warm tea flowed quickly down his fingers.

"Master?!"

Ma Daikui, who was standing to the side, was startled. Before he could ask a question, Fu Juemin said calmly, "Daikui, go and find my second uncle right now. Have him bring enough men and guns. The sooner the better."

Ma Daikui was stunned when he heard this, but he quickly seemed to realize something. He glanced at the strange flag with fat rats embroidered on it not far away, and then ran downstairs without saying a word.

At the same time, in Fu Juemin's line of sight, the colorful-clad figure walking slowly below suddenly raised his head in his direction.

Beneath the red cloth, a bewitching face with a smile playing on its lips was faintly visible.

He met Fu Juemin's gaze.

The next second, the gold can slipped from his hand and smashed against the facade of the grocery store with a "whoosh," instantly sending up a plume of yellow smoke.
(End of this chapter)