After nine lifetimes of reincarnation, the yandere villainous heroine descends.

Changming Village!

5:00 AM (卯时)

Inside a house, candlelight flickered, casting intermittent light on the paper windows.

"You mean, you brought this girl back from the mass grave?"

Inside the courtyard, village chief Li Hong's face was ashen, his brows furrowed and his gaze fixed on the tall man in front of him as if tempered with ice.

The tall man's name was Li Fusheng, and he was the village chief's nephew.

At this moment, cold sweat poured down his forehead, his teeth were chattering, and his voice was trembling uncontrollably: "I...I can't explain it...She was just standing there saying she was hungry, and my mind went blank for a moment. I don't know how I ended up bringing her back."

As he spoke, his eyes involuntarily darted into the room.

The short man who went to the mass grave with him is still unconscious there and hasn't woken up yet.

That glance caught sight of the scene in front of the table in the main room: a little girl, about five or six years old, was standing stiffly beside the table with her back to the door.

The dim yellow light of the candlelight crept across her thin back, casting a shadow on her eerily pale face.

Only the glaring blood at the corner of his mouth became even clearer under the swaying light, resembling a bloodstain that had not yet dried.

Li Fusheng's heart skipped a beat. He hurriedly looked away, his Adam's apple bobbing as he looked at Li Hong with fear in his eyes: "Uncle! What should we do now? I have a feeling that this girl... is a little... strange."

"So, you didn't know what to do, so you brought her to my house?"

Li Hong snorted coldly, the chill in his voice almost freezing the dew in the corner of the courtyard.

Li Fusheng shrank his neck, lowered his head even further, and nervously twisted the hem of his clothes with both hands, not daring to even breathe.

"Go to the inner room and take that thing out."

Li Hong's gaze swept over the tightly closed door of the main room, his tone leaving no room for doubt.

"You mean... the thing the mountain king gave us?"

Li Fusheng suddenly looked up, a hint of fear flashing in his eyes.

"Stop talking nonsense and go!"

Li Hong gave a low shout.

Li Fusheng dared not delay any longer and staggered into the inner room. Li Hong had already taken a step and pushed open the door to the main room with a creak.

The moment one foot stepped across the threshold, the little girl inside turned her head in response.

The dim candlelight fell on her face, revealing a pale face devoid of any expression, except for her eyes, which were frighteningly empty, like two bottomless ancient wells.

Even though Li Hong had lived most of his life, seen mountain spirits and encountered many strange events, he was still a man of great talent.

But at that moment, a chill ran down his spine from that gaze, and he subconsciously paused in his steps.

Before he could compose himself and speak, the little girl spoke first, her voice soft and cold, like ice shards hitting the ground: "I'm hungry."

Li Hongqiang suppressed the strange feeling in his heart and forced a stiff smile onto his wrinkled old face: "What do you want to eat? Your uncle will find it for you."

I'm hungry.

The only response he received were those three words, cold and hollow, like a bird's phonograph repeating itself over and over in the flickering candlelight.

This courtyard has long been deserted. Li Hong had a wife when he was young and also raised twin sons.

But in the end, he himself tied up those two exquisitely carved dolls and sent them to the back mountain to present to the mountain king.

Unable to bear the excruciating pain, the woman hated him for three days and then hung a white silk ribbon on the roof beam.

Since then, Li Hong has been guarding this empty courtyard, and he is now over sixty years old.

The pot was always cold, and the stove was covered in ash, not to mention the pastries and candied fruits that children love to eat.

But when he heard the little girl say she was hungry, Li Hong was immediately stumped, as he couldn't come up with any food for the moment.

The little girl also instilled a strange sense of fear in him, as if something extremely terrifying would happen if he couldn't get the food out.

Thinking this, Li Hong's already hunched back bent even more, and a chill spread from the bottom of his heart to his whole body, seeping into his bones.

"I'm hungry!"

At that moment, the little girl's voice rang out coldly in my ears again, repeating itself over and over.

In his panic, he suddenly remembered something, and a glimmer of hope for survival flashed in his eyes.

"Yes, yes!"

Li Hong hurriedly agreed and staggered towards the kitchen.

Sure enough, lying in the bamboo basket in the corner of the kitchen was a dusty, gray thing—the wild rabbit that Butcher Li had brought yesterday. Its fur hadn't been shed, its internal organs hadn't been cleaned, and it still carried the fishy smell of the mountains and forests.

He ran back to the main room carrying the dead rabbit, and with a tremor in his hand, the heavy rabbit slammed onto the table with a "thud".

The candlelight flickered, illuminating the rabbit's wide-open eyes.

The little girl didn't move until Li Hong stepped back two steps, then she slowly raised her hand.

That little hand, thin as a twig, grabbed the rabbit's leg and put it into its mouth without hesitation.

"Crunch—"

A crisp sound exploded in the quiet main room.

Li Hong watched helplessly as she tore open the rabbit skin with her baby teeth, crimson blood flowing down her chin and dripping onto her dusty gray clothes, like strange flowers blooming.

His throat bobbed, his stomach churned, but he clenched his teeth and dared not utter a sound.

In Li Hong's eyes, this wasn't hunger; it was clearly... drinking blood.

Suddenly, footsteps broke the silence of the main room from behind, and Li Fusheng walked quickly over carrying a bamboo basket.

The white cloth covering the basket was lifted by a corner by the night wind, revealing a faint, sweet, fishy smell.

Li Hong immediately went to meet them, his fingertips trembling as he took the basket from them.

He slowly lifted the white cloth, and a faint fishy smell wafted out. At the bottom of the basket lay a fist-sized ball of flesh.

Its grayish surface was covered with bluish-purple veins, like a budding, unformed creature, and gleamed eerily in the candlelight.

This thing was given to him by the mountain king, but its use is terrifying.

It can select "offerings" that suit the mountain king's taste.

This fleshy ball will suddenly grow a blood-red eye, and any child whose eyes are fixed on by that eye will have a different color appear on the surface of the fleshy ball.

If the color turns bright red, it means that the child's constitution is to the liking of the mountain king.

If there is no change, it means the child is just an ordinary person, and the child's parents can breathe a sigh of relief.

Changming Village was originally a small village that could only accommodate 500 people, but now it has expanded to more than 1,000 people in just a few years.

Even more bizarrely, each family in the village has to have at least five children every year.

This is something that is simply impossible for an ordinary couple.

The secret lies in the black pills that the Mountain King sends out from time to time. Once taken, the couple will definitely conceive twins, and the fertility period will be shortened by nearly half.

However, the price of these pills was shocking; the side effects were like maggots clinging to bones, causing the villagers' bodies to gradually undergo terrifying deformities.

They either become unrecognizable, no longer human, or they die suddenly without warning, their bodies quickly rotting and oozing pus, turning into a pool of foul-smelling pus.

The entire village is like a giant urn, with the mountain king in charge, and the villagers are nothing more than livestock being fattened up inside.

While desperately trying to reproduce, they waited to be chosen and sacrificed, and even wailing became a rule passed down from generation to generation.

Looking at the bouncy ball of flesh in the basket, Li Hong suddenly felt a pang of sadness for the drab, gray village.

It had long since become a slaughterhouse prepared by the tiger, and those children running all over the place were nothing more than lambs waiting to be slaughtered.

But they were just ordinary people with no power to even kill a chicken; how could they possibly contend with the mountain lord?

Even worse, some have already become fanatical followers of the mountain king.

They revered the so-called "path to immortality" as the ultimate truth, unaware that they had already stepped into an abyss of no return.

No one knows that the true purpose of this strange fleshy ball is to select children who are born with the aptitude for cultivation.

Li Hong took a deep breath and aimed the meatball at the little girl who was gnawing on a wild rabbit.

The next moment, a thin crack suddenly appeared on the surface of the fleshy ball, and a scarlet eye opened from it, its pupils slightly moving as it coldly examined the child in front of it.

Immediately afterward, under Li Hong's breathless gaze, the color of the fleshy ball began to change drastically.

The originally gray surface first showed a dark red color, as somber as long-congealed blood.

But in just a few breaths, the dark red color seemed to come alive, rapidly surging and becoming bright.

The blood grew thicker and more intense, instantly turning the entire room a vibrant crimson.

Even the cold moonlight outside the window seemed to be driven back by the blood-red color, shrinking back and hiding in the clouds.

Li Hong's pupils contracted sharply, and his heart pounded wildly. He had never seen such a blood-red color fill the world before!

What made his scalp tingle even more was that the blood was still spreading wildly.

In the blink of an eye, even the courtyard behind them was completely enveloped by this eerie red light.

"This...this...how is this possible!"

Li Fusheng, standing behind him, was so shocked that his jaw almost dropped, and his voice trembled uncontrollably.

"Just who is this girl..." Li Hong murmured to himself, his face pale.

The next second, the little girl in front of the table seemed to be startled by the blood-red sky. She turned her head abruptly, and her eyes met the bloodshot eyes of the fleshy ball.

Unbeknownst to anyone, a violent tremor suddenly erupted deep within those flesh-and-blood pupils.

A rare emotion emerged within it: fear, an immense fear, a terror so profound that it could not even look directly at it.

The fleshy mass itself began to tremble violently, and the blue veins on its surface suddenly bulged out, becoming ferocious and thick. The source of all the strange phenomena pointed to the little girl in front of him who was gnawing on a wild rabbit.

It tried desperately to close its blood-red eyes, but it was as if it were nailed to the ground by an invisible force, and could only watch helplessly as the girl stood up.

A small hand, covered in rabbit fur and blood, reached out and precisely grasped the still trembling ball of flesh.

Under the terrified gaze of the blood cell, it was slowly brought toward those blood-stained lips.

In an instant!

The crimson light that had filled the heavens and earth surged back like a galaxy, rushing wildly into the little girl's mouth.

In just a few breaths, the eerie red light that filled the sky vanished without a trace.

Without the obscuring bloodstains, the moment Li Hong saw the scene before him, he was struck dumb, frozen in place, unable to move.

The ball of flesh was long gone from the bamboo basket, but the little girl's cheeks were still bulging as she continued to chew on something.

Especially in her small hands, she was holding half a piece of remaining flesh, the throbbing blue veins on it making Li Hong's scalp tingle.

......

......

Name: Shen Shuchou

World: The Sixth Generation, Forbidden Dark Side

Female lead: Forbidden Witch, Tantai Chigu

Cultivation Level: [Steal!]

Shen Shuchou's gaze was fixed on the panel in front of him, his fingertips unconsciously tapping the tabletop as he fell into deep thought.

Now in his sixth reincarnation, the forbidden dark side of this life is completely different from any of the previous five worlds.

This place is permeated with forbidden and eerie atmosphere, filled with man-eating terror, and also contains the long-collapsed Immortal Path.

He withdrew his gaze, picked up his teacup, took a sip of the slightly cool tea, and turned his eyes to the window.

As dawn breaks in summer, a faint, pale light begins to appear on the horizon, casting a hazy glow on the windowpanes.

The system notification had already sounded, indicating that the female protagonist of this life had arrived.

But Shen Shuchou was in no hurry to set off, and had no intention of even meeting them.

At this moment, a strong premonition lingered in my heart: the female lead in this life would definitely not be an easy person to get along with.

After all, she is the embodiment of an eternal taboo, born without the seven emotions and six desires of mortals, cold and hard as ice, more like a sheathless blade.

If one is not careful, not only will they not be able to get close, but they may also be devoured by that forbidden power.

Thinking of this, Shen Shuchou rubbed his temples, feeling a dull ache in his temples.

This sixth incarnation is likely to be more challenging than any previous one.

But no matter how difficult the road ahead may be, this is ultimately a tribulation he must overcome in the cycle of reincarnation.

Shen Shuchou took a deep breath, temporarily putting his worries aside.

He turned and walked into the Taoist temple courtyard, where he familiarly lay down in the rattan rocking chair he had woven himself, and closed his eyes slightly.

At this moment, he didn't want anything; he just wanted to cherish these few peaceful moments, bask in the sun, and let his tense nerves relax a little.

As for that forbidden witch, Tantai Chigu...

A barely perceptible curve appeared at the corner of Shen Shuchou's lips.

No rush, let's leave her out for a few days first.