Ruins of the past

There were sounds of rummaging and swallowing in the room. After a while, Zheng Sanshui limped out with a torch, welcomed the two of them in, said that he wanted to find someone to talk to them, and then went out.

After a while, Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang heard the footsteps of a group of people approaching.

Then I saw a group of skinny old men and women with sunken cheeks, holding torches and holding sickles, pitchforks, hoes, kitchen knives... slowly surrounding them. Under the flickering light of the fire, they looked slightly ferocious. Face.

Zheng Sanshui said slowly: "You two, don't blame us. If the Taoist temple finds out that we are colluding with monsters, the whole village will be destroyed. You just stay here."

Chu Qiguang didn't make any move, and just said casually: "Chen Gang, I leave it to you."

Chen Gang nodded and walked up: "You bunch of unruly people, my young master has good intentions to slay demons for you, but you actually want to kill people?"

Without saying a word, the old woman raised her hand and poked the pitchfork over. Chen Gang casually grabbed it and turned it over before falling to the ground.

Another old man slashed at Chen Gang with a sickle in his hand, but Chen Gang kicked him in the chest and flew him away.

Although these villagers were ruthless in their attacks, hitting Chen Gang's back of the head, heart, lower body and other vital points with the forks and hoes in their hands, their physical condition was so poor that they were almost as fragile as pieces of paper in Chen Gang's hands.

But at this moment, Chen Gang's back tightened, and it was Zheng Sanshui who hugged him directly.

The strength of the other party's hug was beyond Chen Gang's expectation. Even when Chen Gang hit the other party's face hard and tried to break away from the other party's embrace, Zheng Sanshui refused to let go.

Chen Gang punched the opponent in the face again, his hands were covered in blood, and he could hear the cracking sound of bones, but Zheng Sanshui behind him still didn't let go.

In front of Chen Gang, the elderly villagers were already stabbing Chen Gang and Zheng Sanshui with pitchforks and sickles. Chen Gang seemed to still be able to clearly see the excited and fierce expressions on their faces.

Seeing that Chen Gang was in danger, Chu Qiguang frowned. He rushed into the crowd like a storm and punched out his fists from left to right. With the sound of crackling and exploding, the villagers were like wheat being harvested by a scythe. One by one was knocked to the ground.

Then Chu Qiguang grabbed Zheng Sanshui, and with a flick of his luck, Zheng Sanshui was shaken away. He looked like a wild dog with its spine removed, and was lifted up by Chu Qiguang at will.

Looking at Zheng Sanshui, whose face was severely deformed but still growling and trying to struggle, Chen Gang said with an ugly face: "Did you... take the elixir?"

Seeing that the outcome was decided, the other old men and women who were lying on the ground looked at each other, and finally fell to their knees one by one and begged bitterly.

"Two heroes, please let us go. We were temporarily obsessed and we don't dare to do it anymore..."

"We are worried that if you go to the Taoist temple to expose us, this village will not be able to withstand the abuse."

"Old Zheng took the elixir because he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to defeat you..."

Looking at the old men and women kneeling on the ground one by one, kowtowing and begging, Chen Gang turned to Chu Qiguang and asked: "Brother Dog, what should we do?"

Chu Qiguang looked at Zheng Sanshui in his hand and said, "How did the dead person die? The rat demon said it was not him."

Zheng Sanshui insisted: "It was the rat demon that bit him to death."

But Chu Qiguang felt that things were not that simple. He looked at the emaciated appearance of the old men and women at the scene, and suddenly asked: "Where has your food gone?"

Zheng Sanshui said: "Of course we ate it."

"It's not easy to say this... It's not easy to say that..." Chu Qiguang sneered: "Then I will call the Taoist temple, and then the whole village will be destroyed."

Under Chu Qiguang's threats, the villagers reluctantly led them to the woodshed behind the ancestral hall, pointed to a small bag of wheat and said, "It's all here."

Chen Gang frowned and said: "There are at least hundreds of acres of land outside, how can it be possible that only this is left? And with your appearance... you don't look like you are full."

Zheng Sanshui sighed: "We have really eaten it all."

Chu Qiguang looked at him and the other skinny old people and found that several of them looked down at the ground from time to time.

At the same time, Qiao Zhi had jumped to the eaves and said to Chu Qiguang: "Li Gou said that the smell of dead people has been coming from under this ancestral hall. It's not just the smell of the corpse, there may be other corpses there. under."

So Chu Qiguang walked vigorously for a few times, then walked to the place where the abnormal noise was coming from, lifted up the straw directly, opened the door panel on the ground, and found the entrance to a cellar.

Continuing to walk, Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang saw a dozen living corpses being tied up inside, all locked up in the cellar.

The biggest characteristic of these living corpses... is that they are relatively young. Some look like they are seven or eight years old, some are more than ten years old, and the oldest one seems to be only fifteen or sixteen years old.

They were all as thin as skeletons. When they saw Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang coming down, they became excited and struggled to crawl towards them.

Next, during Zheng Sanshui's and the villagers' narration, Chu Qiguang and Chen Gang just knew what was going on.

In order to avoid taxes and labor, almost all the young men and women in the village fled, leaving only Zheng Sanshui's family to take care of the elderly.

They agreed to earn money outside to buy food and come back in a year or so.

But half a year has passed... a year has passed... three years have passed... and there is no news from the young men and women who escaped.

However, the old people and children left in the village simply do not have enough physical strength to plant many fields. Coupled with the drought for several consecutive years, there is a serious shortage of food... More and more old people and children in the village are starving to death.

At this time, the followers of the Immortal Way came here and gave them the elixir of death.

At first, the villagers were reluctant to use this potion. Their belief in Xuanyuan Taoist supported them and allowed them to resist the temptation of paganism in their hearts.

But when the first villager took the elixir to his grandson who was about to starve to death, a strange atmosphere began to spread in the village.

Zheng Sanshui murmured: "We have lived for a long time and will die soon, but these children are only so old. I really can't bear to watch them starve to death..."

So the old people died one after another, and the children were fed the elixir before they died, and then turned into living corpses, and were kept under the cellar of the ancestral hall.

But living corpses cannot survive unconditionally forever. Although they are unconscious, they still need to eat to replenish their own consumption.

It's just that they can eat a lot of things, not just flesh and blood, but also bark, grass roots, and sawdust to keep them going.

The followers of the Immortal Way told them that if they want to practice and become immortals, they must undergo corpse dissection. As long as these living corpses are well raised, they will one day regain their intelligence and transform into immortals.