I cursed the village chief, calling him a beast, full of evil intentions, robbing and deceiving people. He pretended to be a good person, but ended up deceiving all of us.
The village chief stood up and laughed, saying, "Heh heh! Whose fault is that? Blame yourselves for not understanding the rules of our village. You barged in recklessly. If you had stayed in Fengmen Mountain for half a year, I guarantee we wouldn't have discovered you."
"But now, since you've stumbled into our trap, don't blame us."
Heh heh heh heh!
The village chief burst into a sly smile and said, "Don't blame me, as the village chief, for being ruthless. Let me tell you, if you don't die, someone in our village will die! Someone will die beyond death, so I must make you die! This is how it is, understand?"
The village chief meant that since he and us are not familiar, we can die, but the villagers are familiar with him, so we cannot die.
I shouted to the villagers, "Don't be ignorant! Think about it, do you want to live in this small village all your life, never enjoying the life you desire? How is this different from being ants? Let me go, I believe I can remove the curse on you and let you live a happy life from now on!"
The villagers hung their heads, whispering to each other, seemingly interested in what I said!
Seeing this, I continued to persuade them, "Actually, it's not a big deal. It's just a curse. I've been recruiting Yin people for so many years, I've seen all sorts of strange things. A small curse, what's the big deal? I'm a hundred percent sure I can lift this curse and let you all live a normal life. Then, you can send your children to university, travel to different parts of the country whenever you want!"
My words expressed the thoughts of all the villagers.
Some women cried, saying they had heard that their sons and daughters could go to university and receive the best education, becoming engineers, doctors, or lawyers in the future, and they wanted that kind of life.
Some people said, "I've been in Fengmen Village for my whole life. The farthest I've been is Jiaozuo City. I want to go to bigger cities, I want to go to Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, I want to see more!"
The villagers below began to discuss, and the village chief's expression turned sour. He cursed, "What do you know? Who laid this curse on us? The mountain god! That's a divine being in the sky, can we afford to offend it?"
He continued, "The curse cannot be lifted, we can't go anywhere, but can these few outsiders solve the curse? No, so you can't trust these outsiders. Let's think about what we're facing."
He said, "One thousand eight hundred people, not one more, not one less. But now, we have six more people in our village. If these people don't die, then someone in our village will die! There is an old saying, better to live than to die. We can live, so why not? Why seek death? We can't die! We all have to live and kill these outsiders."
The village head's words seemed to have a magical power, making every villager's eyes turn red.
Everyone kept repeating one sentence: "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Their hearts were all twisted, they wanted to kill us.
"Just burn them directly! Don't think too much."
The village head raised his hand, and seven or eight villagers, holding torches, came running towards us.
They wanted to burn us to death.
I felt they would definitely do it, because this village is a deformed one, and everyone is facing the threat of death.
Death made them particularly selfish!
The villagers had already reached our side, holding out torches to ignite our hair first.
Once ignited, we would undoubtedly perish.
Because the burning of hair would roast the oil in our scalp, and the oil would overflow everywhere, causing a massive fire to erupt within seconds!
This fire could take our lives!
"Burn them to death!"
"Burn them to death!"
"Burn them to death!"
All the villagers, with red eyes, wanted to take our lives. Watching this scene, I recalled the burning of "Copernicus."
At that time, people were probably as ignorant as this group of villagers now.
I thought that after culture had been promoted nationally, such ignorant people should not appear again, but... they still did.
And even this group of people, they were more ignorant than their predecessors.
They wanted to burn us to death, just for that vicious curse.
That vicious curse made them into vicious people too, thus perpetuating a vicious cycle, until finally, everyone became more vicious!
"Burn me if you dare, come at my chest. Damn you, you are so pitiful, it turns out you are not naturally pitiful, but you are hateful, and that makes you pitiful."
I was infuriated by the villagers with red eyes, and shouted at those holding torches.
"Burn him first!"
The village head pointed at me, his face turning dark.
In fact, I understood the village head's thoughts, as he was the head of 1800 people, and if this situation broke, and I found a way to break the curse, everyone would leave Fengmen Village.
After that, the village head would no longer be the head, and all his status would be in vain!
So, of course, he did not want me to live.
As long as I died, the village head might be the head for his whole life. Although the life in Fengmen Village was very hard, there was one thing, he would definitely live the best in the village!
There is a saying, "People do not fear poverty, but inequality!"
"First burn him for me! I want to burn him! Did you hear me?" The village head roared in my direction.
A villager came to my side, raised the torch, and tried to burn my hair.
Just as he was about to burn my hair, a loud voice came from the crowd.
"Burning holy fire, consuming my remnant body, pity me, people have many worries, pity me, people have many worries!"
"Burning holy fire, consuming my remnant body, pity me, people have many worries, pity me, people have many worries!"
The speaker was a monk.
He was not wearing any clothes, naked.
He wore a large monk's robe, and held a crying baby in his arms.
The monk took heavy steps, walking in front of the village head, and using his exceptionally loud voice said, "Village head, just now a child was born. Among these six people, one must not die!"
The village head was surprised and called the monk a "half god!"
"Half god, must one live?"
"In Fengmen Village, there must be a population of 1800, so one of them must not die!" The monk said and walked towards us again.
I looked carefully at the monk, wanting to see what he had that made people in the village call him a half god.
Besides the usual worn-out look of a monk, thin body, and long beard, the monk also carried a large kerosene lamp on his shoulder.
There was a flame flickering inside the lamp.
"The Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha once said to the creatures of hell - ‘I will not become a Buddha if hell is not empty’. I, as a humble monk, am willing to learn from the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha, and endure the curse of Fengmen Village." The monk said to me in this way.
I paid close attention and found that there were no patterns on the monk's forearms, and no yin and yang fish.
Fengying shouted at me: "Xiaoli, this monk's spiritual cultivation is quite something."
"Master, save us," I said to the monk.
The monk, with an emotionless face, replied, "The Buddha once fed an eagle with 'meat.' Since then, any salvation comes with a price. I have to eliminate the curse on the 'gate' village, but it will require all of your blood to support my actions."
"You monk, you're not very smart. These people are going to burn us alive. This violates the precept against killing. Don't you care?" Da Jinya exclaimed anxiously.
The monk glanced at Da Jinya and said, "All beings are equal; whether you die or the villagers die, being burned alive or dying under the curse, there is no distinction, sorry!"
After saying this, the monk turned to the village chief and said, "One of them must live. You choose who, and then I will personally start the fire. I will bear the weight of all sins myself."
As Buddha said, "I will not enter hell, who enters hell."
"This ascetic monk indeed has the demeanor of the Buddha. However, like the Buddha, he is merciless," I said coldly.
The ascetic monk turned to me and asked, "How is the Buddha merciless?"
"The heavenly way is merciless," I replied.
"Yes, you understand 'nature,' it is indeed so, the heavenly way is merciless," the ascetic monk smiled at me and then asked the village chief, "Is it possible to spare this benefactor from being burned?"
"No, I must burn him to death!" the village chief pointed at me, refusing to spare me. Laósuo {Bán-/-Fú (³) Shēng-Dōngběi zhāo 'yīn' rén
The ascetic monk nodded and said to me, "You have to die! Now, one person among the six of you must live. Choose who."
I had faced a similar choice before at the Hot Spring Villa, with the Fox family's Xiaoyu, so now I had more experience.
I shouted directly, "Brothers, decide who lives and who dies!"
Da Jinya cursed, "Damn it, I said it last time, without you, Xiaoli Ye, I can't make money. What's the point of living without money?"
"I don't need to live either. We look for Master Seeking Dragon -- who on earth is that? A noble! For the sake of staying alive, would we not have any shame?" Fengying was from the Qing Royal family and resolutely gave up on the thought of living.
Duan Guangyi laughed, "Hahaha! Heaven has pitied me by letting me live for three lifetimes. If I still fear death, wouldn't that be living in vain? If I lived another ten lifetimes, what would it change? I give up the chance to live and only ask that if one of us survives today, they help me find Yanzi's body and then bury our bodies together. That's all I ask for!"