CH 21

Chapter 21: Even if the Hatred Is Hard To Get Rid Of

The people descending the mountain split into two groups; a few able-bodied men took one of the jade beads to the Crouching Dragon Spring, and the rest of the villagers headed down the mountain towards the flood.

The bead was an all powerful item. Village Chief Li walked with it in the front, and it could avoid all the water or parted the water that flooded the road. Everyone followed Village Chief Li with endless amazement and walked down the mountain huddled closely together.

Lou Muge was forcibly dragged by Lao Guo by the wrist, as if he was pulling a disobedient child. However, Lao Guo doted on his son very much, and didn’t say anything harsh to him. He just prevented him from sticking with Ning Shaosi together.

To his dismay, however, Ning Shaosi was more sticky than he thought. His wife drove him away several times, but miserably failed to do so.

With the bead, everyone in the village walked back to Shan’an proudly and safely. The moment they entered the village, the floods all over the place instantly rolled up huge waves and receded from all directions with splashes, leaving behind a wreck brought by the disaster.

The breeze blew by, and the dark clouds in the sky also scattered, revealing the dawning light in the horizon. Soon, the storms returned to calm.

This return from the jaws of death crushed the sanity of many people. They gathered around the jade beads and wailed, some for their dead relatives, others for their washed out houses.

Lou Muge wandered aimlessly in the village for a while, and found that the bodies of Guo Chuangen’s two sisters also receded with the flood.

He hasn’t eaten the fruit that the girl as black as a monkey gave him.

After the flood receded, Crouching Dragon Spring returned to tranquility, and the black dragon also left. It seemed that the pair of jade beads really spared the mortals who had offended him. Everyone went back to their houses and lamented bitterly in the face of the shambles. After wallowing for a while, they were rejuvenated afterwards.

Mortals have always been weak, between heaven and earth, in front of the demons and immortals; but sometimes, they were also incomparably strong. Their inexplicable will, no matter how many times they were quashed, could rally tenaciously.

Lou Muge stood under the scorching sun, wearing a sleeveless coat, his hands and feet were coated in mud. He stood on the street side, and finally felt that he was watching an illusion. When everyone got busy, he became an outsider, someone from fifty years later.

When he was caught in a daze, something wet suddenly touched his hands. He turned his head to look, and saw Ning Shaosi holding a wet black brocade handkerchief, wiping away the mud on his hands for him.

Lou Muge was caught off guard. He didn’t know when, but he was able to accept this child’s care very openly, although each time it was something insignificant, but very reasonable. For this reason, he could not find a reason to refuse.

The only problem was that Guo Chuangen’s mother was glaring at him in the distance, wishing to charge forward and drag Lou Muge away.

This woman is still a little scary, Lou Muge thought to himself.

How could anyone in this world be so ruthless as to hang their own children with their own hands?

Without humanity, she was no different from livestock.

Shan’an’s men were still very hands-on. Every household was busy building mud houses, so the village was lively day and night. Fortunately, the weather turned better in the past few days, and it has not rained, allowing those villagers who haven’t finished building their houses from getting drenched.

Perhaps because of the illusion, these peaceful days slipped like running water in front of Lou Muge’s eyes, but it was just a turn around, and more than half a year had passed since the disastrous flood.

People in the village have always been thinking about the jade beads, so seven to eight people discussed and went to find Village Chief Li in his home. They proposed to return the jade beads, and asked all the villagers to kneel down to express their gratitude and stay true to their vows.

Village Chief Li immediately agreed, and personally led someone to the side of the Crouching Dragon Spring to retrieve the jade bead, and the other one was kept in a box for offering in the center of the village.

The crowd gathered round the middle of the village, waiting for the Village Chief to return and open the box to get the beads. Lou Muge was standing in the crowd, when an image suddenly flashed through his mind. A wave of desire suddenly sprouted deep inside him to snatch the bead.

It was like this thought was shoved into his head, and before he realized it, his body moved. He walked to the box in a few steps, squatted down, and opened the box with his fingers.

Seeing his movement, the crowd rushed forward to pull him. It just so happened that he was already holding the bead. After being dragged, the bead slipped from his hand, hit the box crisply, and fell to the ground, shattering unevenly into two halves.

Shrieks of horror erupted. The most surprising of all was that the fine powder that came out of the knocked off bead turned into a black and unpleasant meat, around eight pieces in total. Lou Muger was stunned, instantly regained consciousness, and took several steps backwards in succession.

Everyone who saw this scene instantly fell silent, staring at the flesh on the ground with wide eyes.

Lao Guo reacted the fastest. He grabbed Lou Muge and protected him behind him.

Even Lou Muge himself realized his anomaly. He dared to swear to the heavens that he had absolutely no idea of ​​eating this kind of dark meat. He took a step back, having no desire to ​​touch the bead either.

Then he fell into deep thought. Maybe the person who wanted to do this was not him, but Guo Chuangen.

The broken beads that turned into flesh were still on the ground, and no one dared to move. A heated discussion buzzed, and everyone exchanged whispers, not knowing what they were talking about. After Village Chief Li returned, everyone seemed to have found the backbone.

Village Chief Li was appalled. He stared silently for a while before he walked to the center, picked up the shattered jade bead, walked to an open space, and suddenly threw them on the ground.

This move once again startled everyone. Then they saw the white light of the jade beads flickering dimly. All of a sudden, a house made of bricks rose from the ground, bright and solid, causing a burst of exclamations.

“Village Chief, what do you mean?” a man couldn’t help asking.

Village Chief Li turned around, lowered his voice, and said solemnly, “There is no other choice. We have to survive. The flood almost destroyed everything for us, all the food we can eat, and the places we can live. If we don’t think of a way, we won’t survive this winter.”

“How can we provoke the Divine Immortals in the cave?” Everyone loudly expressed their thoughts, “If he were to know that we used his eyes for personal use, won’t it invite another disaster?”

“If another strikes again, we really can no longer hold up.”

“Those beads are just that big, and they’re not big enough for us to share…”

When these words entered Lou Muge’s ears, it made him feel colder.

Village Chief Li said, “We have two beads, which are enough for us to divide. As for the mountain… don’t worry, I have my own way.”

“We will not forget to repay such a favor.” Village Chief Li’s simple and honest face showed a shade of ruthlessness, and with a heart-stopping hostility, he said in a deep voice, “But we must live first.”

Then he led a few men up the mountain. By the time evening was approaching, he returned covered in mud and told everyone that the beads could be used with confidence.

Lou Muge stood at the periphery of the crowd, coldly watching these people circle around the beads in delight. They had done the same thing a month ago, except that their joy then was due to gratitude for salvation and the joy of survival, whereas now there was only sickening greed.

Lou Muge clenched his fists and endured it, wanting to insist on watching the illusion.

People who obtained the beads acted as if they owned a magic treasure. All they had to do was throw it on the ground, knock it down into broken powder, and it would turn into whatever they wanted.

Hence, grain fields and horses, houses and beds, silk and brocades, and exotic delicacies from far mountains and seas appeared. The dilapidated villages that were looted by the floods were replaced by wonders and turned into a wealthy town. Village Chief Li used the last bit of powder in exchange for a tall and mighty stone entrance, engraved with the name Shan’an.

The villagers of Shan’an were insatiable. After they had everything, they also wanted to level off mountains with the beads, but they did not expect that after the first bead was completely exhausted, the other one turned useless and a rubbish stone. The villagers then built a statue of a goddess in the middle of the city and placed the bead in her palm.

Later, when children pointed to the statue and asked questions, the villagers would tell them that this stone statue was revered as the Water Goddess, and she came to the world to save the people of Shan’an when the village experienced a flood.

Lou Muge released a sneer. He finally saw the true nature of these Shan’an villagers, and finally knew what kind of bullshit the tales about the Water Goddess was. These were all fabricated lies by the Shan’an people themselves!

He got a little tired of staying in the illusion. As soon as this thought came out, the scene in front of him began to blur. In the chaos, someone suddenly fell at his feet.

Lou Muge took two steps back and looked down, and found that it was Wen Changchu.

His hair was in a mess, and the corners of his clothes were burning with flames. He grimaced as he crashed, slapped the flames with his hands, and said furiously, “How could you be standing here in a daze? Do you know that I’m almost exhausted from fighting that woman?!”

Lou Muge was shocked, only then realizing that the illusion ended in an instant. He bent over to help Wen Changchu up and asked, “You’re not hurt, are you?”

Wen Changchu snorted. “That hen that only sets fire can’t hurt me.”

Lady Zhu was still floating in the air. She felt a bit wary of Wen Changchu, so with the fire feather between her fingertips, she didn’t dare to act rashly.

Lou Muge raised his eyes and looked at Tao Zhai, and saw that the pair of brothers were actually tied up, surrounded by glowing immortal ropes. Tao Zhai was bleeding endlessly that he dyed Tao Ming’s clothes red.

The Shan’an villagers have been rescued from the mud pillars, and the people from Immortal Realm seemed to be planning to leave.

He stared at Lou Muge with red eyes, but didn’t say anything. When he finally spoke, his teeth were seemingly gnashing as he sneered: “The people of Immortal Realm really can’t be trusted.”

His dazzling unwillingness and hatred almost overflowed.

Tao Ming closed his eyes, and his tears moistened his eyelashes. Finally, a tear drop fell down. “I once believed that there is always good in this world, and black and white have their own distinctions. However, I didn’t expect that everything I had firmly believed in would end up being a joke…”

That aura belonging to Ning Shaosi once again fleetingly flashed by. Lou Muge took a breath, feeling a tremor from the roots of his hair to the tips of his fingertips. He straightened up, and his eyes darkened with emotion, as if he was suppressing something.

Someone once educated him; when doing good deeds, don’t expect something in the future.

But later Lou Muge realized that if he wanted to shoulder the words ‘don’t expect something in the future’, there was no telling how much he would bear.

Ning Shaosi noticed his strangeness, and suddenly stepped forward. He pinched his fingertips, stopping his slight trembling. “

Lou Muge was startled. He turned to look at the person beside him, and found that Ning Shaosi seemed to have seen through his concerns.

He didn’t want to fight against the Immortal Realm at this moment. If he were to take action now, he would most likely exhaust all his strength, and he wouldn’t even be able to enter the Immortal Realm through Immortal Gate, which in turn would completely disrupt his plan.

It was too difficult to protect himself.

“A man of character does what he has to do, even if he must not do it.” Ning Shaosi tilted his head. “Isn’t that what you said?”

The moment his voice fell, a weak force emerged out of thin air, so fine that it was as if it didn’t even exist. Lou Muge glanced at Ning Shaosi in surprise, and saw the man hooked up the copper bell he had been holding on his wrist.

The person from the Immortal Realm lifted Tao Zhai and Tao Ming, and said to Lou Muge, “You passed this test. Come back to the Immortal Realm with us.”

Lou Muge looked at him, but before he spoke, he heard a bell ringing in his ear, and everyone froze in an instant.

“Wait a minute,” Ning Shaosi said.