I Don't Agree to the Terms
Chapter 34: The mountain ghost on the mural, the Mountain God under the ancestral hall

Chapter 34: Chapter 34: The mountain ghost on the mural, the Mountain God under the ancestral hall

The ancestral hall was eerily quiet, devoid of any people, but half an hour earlier, it had been bustling as the villagers of Fengtai Village had gathered here before setting out to search for Qian Tiezhu.

By now, everyone had left.

"There’s not enough time, I wonder if the village chief has taken anything from underneath the ancestral hall."

According to Gu Shanhai’s original plan, he should not have interfered to avoid causing major disturbances, but everything had strayed from his expectations.

However, it wasn’t unresolvable; if worst came to worst... he might just kill them all.

Either go all out or do nothing—that had always been his creed.

After entering the space beneath the ancestral hall, he immediately noticed an unusual spiritual tablet in the dim candlelight.

The divine tablet of Yin Mountain Lord, General of the Qian Family, Lord Feng Sheng.

"A tiger demon?" Gu Shanhai cursed softly; the terms ’Yin’ and ’Mountain Lord’ together could definitely denote a tiger.

Upon closer inspection, he realized it wasn’t a tablet for the deceased, but a divine tablet, because it denoted a sacred position not a spirit’s.

This meant that the tablet was a tribute to the Mountain God.

It wasn’t unusual for the Mountain God to be a tiger demon as such worship was common, but the real question was why it was enshrined beneath the Qian Family Ancestral Hall.

"There are too many contradictions here; if it’s a god, it should be in the Mountain God Temple, if it’s a person, it should be in the ancestral hall."

"Putting a divine tablet under the ancestral hall seems disrespectful."

To Gu Shanhai, the incense burning wasn’t a big issue—he noticed the incense burner packed with burnt incense sticks, clearly showing daily offerings, and the continuously burning candles. Not even the ancestors upstairs received such treatment.

After rummaging around, he found nothing except a chain identical to one found in the village chief’s home and a table used for honoring the divine tablet along with some offerings.

Gu Shanhai stared at the divine tablet, feeling that something was amiss.

Upon closer examination, he noticed a gap around it—did it look like a sliding cover?

"Since it’s none of my people, let’s open it and see." Gu Shanhai had absolutely no reverence for this Mountain God. The stories about combating tigers might also be problematic.

When he reached out to touch it, a sharp stabbing pain surged through him instantaneously, but Gu Shanhai hardly cared and quickly suppressed it with his mana.

"It even manifested its spirit; the Mountain God must truly exist." Gu Shanhai crushed it without a second thought.

Spirit was not in the sense of having a soul, but having developed an aura or transformed, like the Yunling Grass and Purifying Grass he held in his right hand, which, as Spirit Plants, possessed spirit.

When he crushed the divine tablet, an invisible shockwave burst forth. All the spiritual tablets above in the ancestral hall fell amidst a loud crashing noise.

Gu Shanhai didn’t mind, but instead looked at a piece of silk among the divine tablet, densely covered with lines of ant-sized red characters.

"It’s blood, but not human blood." The red characters emitted a foul odor, and Gu Shanhai quickly identified its source. The silk itself was ancient, probably a thousand years old.

"The tribute seems not to be the divine tablet, but this piece of silk."

It wasn’t any mystical technique or secret manual, but a decree transcribed using some unknown blood.

The essence of it was that the Empress was virtuous and due to her noble character, her hometown was bestowed the name Fengtai Village. What the village was originally called had been obscured by the blood, making it illegible.

This meant Gu Shanhai had uncovered the origins of Fengtai Village.

Yet his confusion didn’t lessen; it only increased.

If it was the decree being worshipped, he could understand, but why worship a hand-copied, blood-stained version, and hide it under the guise of the Mountain God’s divine tablet? He couldn’t comprehend that.

"Could it be suppressing something on the mountain?" Gu Shanhai stuffed the handwritten copy into his pocket, thinking it might be useful as a clue or special tool for players adept at solving puzzles to defeat the final boss—or potentially as an item or equipment. Now in Gu Shanhai’s hands, the object’s fate was in his control.

Its worth was definitely not insignificant, he would study it later, perhaps uncovering something useful.

After another thorough sweep with no findings, he had to leave the basement, as the air quality truly wasn’t great.

No matter how well cleaned, such a cramped and enclosed space, compounded with its age, naturally had a poor smell.

Even with the help of Purifying Grass to filter and cleanse the air, his Magic Domain protective shield still accumulated a thick layer of dust.

After climbing out of the basement, he saw the spiritual tablets scattered all over the floor.

It wasn’t a big deal, and Gu Shanhai didn’t plan to help pick them up, but then he noticed a colorful painting on the wall that had been hidden behind the tablets.

A woman riding a Black Tiger, draped in vines, her waist bound with Nü Luo, walking through the mountains.

"Mountain ghost?" The word came to Gu Shanhai’s mind immediately, similar to a female Mountain God.

Judging from the crude mural, the woman was quite attractive.

"Could this be that virtuous and noble Empress? But that’s not right...wait, they wouldn’t have sent the Mountain God off to the Emperor, would they?"

A thought struck Gu Shanhai.

From what he understood, this world seemed to host mystical presences, albeit not very powerful, otherwise Fengtai Village wouldn’t have survived so long.

"There couldn’t be something inside the wall, could there?" As Gu Shanhai stared at the mural, he was tempted to scratch it.

After pondering for a while, he thought better of damaging such a fine painting—what a pity that would be.

So, he decided to simply take it down.

With his current abilities, removing the mural intact wasn’t much of a problem.

His suspicion that there was something behind the mural wasn’t unfounded; seeing that one section protruded more than others, previously concealed by the spiritual tablets, made it hard for him to just rip it down in front of the village chief, until the tablets fell and left nothing obscured.

This was probably part of a causal chain that had begun.

Whatever Fengtai Village had done long ago had planted the seeds, and now, centuries later, the fruits had emerged.

The so-called karmic retribution.

As he dismantled the mural, he stowed the intact painting, then looked behind it, a multitude of speculations surfacing in his mind.

"Looks like you all have really stirred things up, not sure if you can settle this karmic debt."

Gu Shanhai chuckled lightly as he looked at the skeleton embedded in the wall, now just needing to confirm some things to solve the puzzle without fighting and complete the main quest.

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