Cultivators Are So Weak in This World

Chapter 551 - 518 Harvesting 2

This is a valley more than four hundred miles away from Wushan Prefecture, equally shrouded in miasma.

In the valley, there is a small village built with white adobe walls.

Isolated from the world, merely relying on the hundred or so villagers for hunting, farming, gathering, and raising livestock, they lead a self-sufficient life.

Due to its remote terrain and the natural poisonous miasma protection surrounding it, even the Red Scarf bandits find it too troublesome and have never entered to plunder.

In the village, villagers whose faces seem to be dusted with white powder are currently gathering in front of a family’s house, knocking wooden clappers together.

"This year, it’s your turn... Xiaorong’s family." The village head, a wrinkled, sinister-eyed old man, led them.

He held a cane in his hand, his back slightly hunched, wearing a loose-fitting gray-black robe.

The robe was embroidered with various human face patterns in red thread—crying, laughing, angry, happy, old and young, men and women—everything was there.

It looked like a robe passed down from a temple priest.

"It’s their family’s turn this year, we can’t offset it with prey anymore, or else the Stone God will be angry, and no one will be able to save the village!"

"Why haven’t they come out yet?"

"Wait a bit more, Xiaorong is sensible, and the couple is understanding. They’ll come out..." The village head spoke slowly, calming the slightly impatient villagers.

Inside the house.

A simple-looking middle-aged couple held their two children, stifling their sobs.

"Later... when I open the door, you run out of the valley... remember the small path, Tong’Er?"

The man whispered softly into his eldest daughter’s ear.

"Dad... I remember!" The eldest daughter Tongtong’s eyes were red, as she seemed to know what was about to happen.

On the other hand, the younger daughter Xi Xi, only five years old, didn’t understand anything, still reaching out her hand, wanting to help her mother wipe away the tears on her face.

"Mom, don’t cry...."

"Mom’s not crying... run quickly later. Dad and mom will come to find you afterward. Remember, Xi Xi, be good, listen to your sister." The woman’s tears kept falling uncontrollably.

"Remember, when you run, don’t make a sound, go through the dog hole in the back, keep running, and don’t look back!" The man once again instructed.

"Okay!" The eldest daughter Tongtong nodded vigorously, though at just nine years old, she probably didn’t understand what might happen next.

After helping to straighten her daughters’ clothes, the woman forcefully pushed the two children towards the back door.

"Go, go through the hole, don’t look back! Never look back!! Keep running!"

The two children held hands, walked to the back door, bent over one by one, and crawled into the dog hole.

Standing at the entrance, the two children paused, turned around, wanting to take one last glance at their parents.

"Go! Hurry up!" The woman lay at the entrance, waving her hand at them in a hushed voice, tear after tear streaming down like broken beads.

"Quickly go!" Older sister Tongtong forcefully dragged her younger sister, turning around and running towards the mist-covered slope of the valley.

Suddenly, a banging sound came from the house behind them.

With a crash, the door was smashed open.

"Where are they!? Xiaorong’s family, your daughters should serve the Stone God!"

"Village head, our two children are still sleeping inside, it’ll be better to let them rest more before they go, right?" The father’s voice came from the house.

The two children heard the commotion, couldn’t help but slow down and stop, looking back towards the house.

From the slope, they could see inside the house, their father still speaking with the village head, his manner flattering and humble. The others around remained silent, at this critical moment, no one dared to make noise.

Only the two girls’ mother noticed the children had stopped, urgently hid by the house wall, gesturing for them to quickly leave.

Tongtong stood still; she wanted to run, but her feet felt rooted in place, unable to move.

She missed her parents, the warm and clean bed at home, her mother’s gentle songs cradling her, her father carving little wooden figurines with a knife.

If she left... perhaps all of that would be gone.

"Go!!" Her mother silently waved vigorously, constantly looking towards the front of the house.

"Sister, why aren’t mom and dad leaving with us?" Suddenly, sister Xi Xi asked.

"They’ll come later..." Tongtong quietly replied, holding her sister’s hand tightly.

"Don’t be afraid, sister is here, sister is here."

"Sister... is that a wolf...?" Xi Xi’s voice suddenly trembled.

Tongtong turned around abruptly, looked up the slope.

There, wolves with green eyes and gray-black fur were swiftly running out from the grass and woods, approaching them.

"Don’t be afraid.... Sister... sister is here!" Tongtong pulled her sister behind, mimicking their parents, using her body to shield her.

But Xi Xi still swallowed hard, retreating step by step.

Suddenly, carelessly, Xi Xi fell backward to the ground, a blood slit on her calf.

Whoa!

She couldn’t help but cry loudly.

’Bad!!’

Tongtong paused, looking back.

Indeed.

Thump!!

A muffled sound emanated from the house behind.

"The offering ran away! Xiaorong’s family, how dare you violate the rules!!" The village head’s angry voice resonated.

"Behind the mountain, quickly chase!"

"Quickly run!!" Her parents’ screaming voices rang out.

Yet Tongtong didn’t know how to run, standing dazedly in place. Watching the pack of wolves rapidly closing in on them, accelerating, leaping forward.

Sharp wolf teeth seemed to be dripping with saliva, drawing nearer and nearer....

Poof!

The wild wolf fiercely landed on the ground beside the two little girls, then one after another crazily bypassed them, running towards the empty village.

They parted like river water encountering rocks, naturally splitting into two streams and continuing to rush forward.

Soon, dozens of wolves ran past.

Only then did the two children slowly react, realizing those wolves seemed not to be hunting, but rather... escaping!

With a loud rustle.

The grass in the forest was slowly parted, and out walked a man.

A man in a red robe, with pupils emanating a dense bloody color, his blood-red eyes black as night.

Under the moonlight, the howls of wolves rose piercingly from afar.

The man’s eyes moved, lightly resting on the two children holding hands.

"It seems I have found the right place." He smiled slightly.

BANG!

Suddenly, the back door of the small house behind the little girl was violently broken open, and a group of brawny men holding various farming tools rushed over, yelling.

"Catch the sacrifice! Otherwise, we will all die!"

"Don’t let them escape!"

"Right ahead!"

A group of people, with ferocious expressions, charged towards them, shouting loudly.

"Seems these are cult members." The blood-eyed man’s expression remained unchanged. "Find the idol, no scriptures are to be read. As for the god’s followers, only one like me is enough...."

"Yes, Temple Master."

Suddenly, a chorus of voices rose.

Mist abruptly spread behind the man, and one by one, blood shadows soared into the sky, like giant crimson birds, pouncing on the villagers of White Gourd Village rushing over.

The Human Immortal Temple’s rule: Do not harm ordinary people, but dispose of adversaries at will.

These experts who remained in Wish Girl Gorge, having already been fed up with eating pig blood every day, finally had a chance to change their taste.

Zhang Rongfang didn’t even look at these ordinary villagers, instead focusing on the two children standing dazedly in front of him.

"I like children," he smiled, approaching them, skillfully pulling out two puppets from his sleeve.

"Here, one for each of you, take it and play."

The two puppets were forcibly handed to Tongtong and Xixi, and Zhang Rongfang no longer paid attention to them, instead looking towards the direction of the village.

He had found this isolated Residual God Village, where a deity called the Stone God was worshiped.

Initially, he learned from records and wrongly assumed this place had been completely deserted.

But upon arrival, he discovered people still living here.

The villagers were easily flattened like white straw upon being struck by the blood shadows; no one could withstand a single move as they came and went.

A few disciples from the Human Immortal Temple grabbed villagers and started savoring them slowly.

The remaining blood shadows soared into the sky, laughing excitedly, diving into the village depths to hunt the remaining villagers.

Zhang Rongfang shook his head slightly. He had actually arrived long ago but had been observing slowly, hence he hadn’t revealed himself.

He discovered that the people in this village seemed somewhat neurotic, extremely prone to emotional agitation, and held a custom of sacrificing live people to the Stone God.

The so-called sacrifice was essentially due to a lack of food in the village, and the sacrifice merely involved offering brains to the god, with the rest of the body shared among them.

"A nest of such wicked behavior... it will surely breed new evils in the future..."

Zhang Rongfang sighed softly, recalling when he first encountered the Blood God, wasn’t he too a thief?

"Such an evil nest.... ought to be thoroughly eradicated by my Human Immortal Temple."

Ignoring the disciples still greedily sucking blood not far away, he leapt, his arm wings spread, like a massive blood-red bat, gliding down the slope towards the village.

"Upholding justice and punishing evil, this is the path of the Human Immortal! The way of the Human Immortal!"

Swish!

Still mid-air, Zhang Rongfang suddenly felt a dizzy spell, recovering in an instant.

Before his eyes, a gray-white mist consumed everything, obliterating the village’s outline.

"Fog of Suspicion!?" Zhang Rongfang’s expression remained unchanged. His figure landed and stood firm.

Directly ahead, a massive five-meter tall humanoid figure slowly strode closer through the mist.

BOOM!

BOOM!

BOOM!

The mist parted to both sides.

A gigantic stone figure entirely composed of gray-white stones was revealed.

The stone figure’s broad face bore a male human visage, full of agony and half-embedded into the stone.

Emerging from the stone figure’s forehead, with slender arms, it emitted a cry of anguish towards Zhang Rongfang.

"I am Gutali!! Stone of Life! Great Stone! Stone of Suffering!!"

"Feel me! See me!! Surrender to me!! Worship me!!!" The stone figure roared deafeningly.

The sound waves shook, causing the ground to tremble.

Zhang Rongfang raised his head to face it, smiling.

"Your followers are nearly all dead."

"....? Followers?" The stone figure trembled upon hearing, seemingly sensing something.

Instantly, it raised its hand in fury, aiming a punch at Zhang Rongfang!

"Damn it!!!"

"Once they’re all dead, only I have seen you." Zhang Rongfang laughed.

Swish!!

The massive fist halted just half a meter away from him.