Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 131 - 128: Scarcity of the Five Grains, Corpses Breathe

Chapter 131: Chapter 128: Scarcity of the Five Grains, Corpses Breathe

At this moment, Luoyang City had long been under martial law.

Although the weather was gradually clearing, not a single person could be found on the streets.

Near the city gate, in a house where land was extremely cheap.

A woman, who still carried an air of elegance despite her coarse clothes and simple hairpin, paced back and forth in the main room, clutching a handkerchief and peering outside from time to time.

"Why hasn’t Bo’an returned at such a time? I’m beyond worried."

Wind Officer Zhu, who was off duty today, sat leisurely on an official hat chair, casting a disapproving glance at his wife.

"Worry about what? Master has already informed me that Bo’an has been rescued long ago.

With the whole city under martial law now, whether it was last night or this morning, Bo’an wouldn’t have been able to enter the city gates even if he made it back safely.

At this time, outside the city, under the gaze of countless eyes, might actually be safer than inside."

Just then.

"Hm? Seems like there’s some commotion outside?"

Wind Officer Zhu stood up abruptly upon hearing a faint singing voice outside the courtyard door and hurried to the door to look outside.

Through the crack of the door, he only saw a child around eight or nine years old, with hair tied up in twin buns, running swiftly past his house, jumping and hopping along and singing a child rhyme.

Without another thought, he pushed open the courtyard door and called out to the child:

"Child, it’s dangerous outside! Go back home quickly, don’t run around!"

However, after opening the door, he also fully heard the rhyme the child was singing, and his face turned pale instantly.

"Braving the wind, defying the rain, returning from distant toil, dashing like swallows, gathering mud to build a nest, only for it all to return to mud in the end!"

As a genuine scholar, Wind Officer Zhu immediately recognized that this rhyme was actually an ominous lottery when seeking divination!

Swallows gathering mud to build nests, only for the nests to disintegrate back into mud, signifying an entire endeavor ending in vain.

What could this allude to?

The most critical affair in all of Great Yan today was undoubtedly the ongoing "Sacrificial Technique of the Five Grains Harvest"!

Singing such a rhyme at this time was like someone joyously celebrating their eightieth birthday, only to have another person bring in a clock as a gift—a symbol of bad luck.

Bad luck, profoundly bad luck!

"Hey! Kid, who taught you to sing that rhyme?"

However, the child ignored him and ran off as swiftly as a fly.

Right after that.

Wind Officer Zhu found that the child rhyme was repeating over and over in his mind, shaking his very soul like the majestic sound of a giant bell and drum.

Before he knew it, he involuntarily began to sing it aloud:

"Braving the wind, defying the rain..."

When people throughout the city, from all corners of east, west, south, and north, began to sing this rhyme uncontrollably.

The golden pillar of light above Luoyang City trembled fiercely.

No, not just Luoyang City, but all the pillars of dragon energy within the territory of the Great Yan Dynasty began to shake gradually.

Only, some before others.

As if they lacked the follow-through, hardly able to complete the immense power of "replacing heaven’s heart with human hearts" and were about to revert to their original forms.

It was truly a prophecy fulfilled.

It was indeed gathering mud to build a nest, only for it all to return to mud in the end!

Even the dark clouds above Luoyang City began to regather, with the rainy weather returning.

Standing atop a hill, Wang Yuan took in the entire spectacle.

Although he had mentally prepared for the "Sacrificial Technique of the Five Grains Harvest" to possibly encounter difficulties, he still found it hard to judge in that moment whether the child rhyme was an accurate prophecy or a horrific... curse.

"Dharma Master, it’s not only the sect born of the Lady Immortal that knows of the ’Singing Rhyme Child’.

In truth, courts throughout history have had various records of this ’weirdness’, but its spread and dissemination have been strictly forbidden.

Because whenever there is chaos in the world, these ’Singing Rhyme Children’ would appear, followed by great disaster..."

Lady Peach Fairy beside him had already explained the origin and details of this ’weirdness’ to Wang Yuan as quickly as possible.

Singing Rhyme Children never directly kill anyone, but the number of deaths attributed to them over the years is beyond count.

Because the knowledge involved in the rhymes they sing, whether it concerns an individual, a family, a city, or a country, invariably becomes reality!

No one can be sure whether what they sing is a prophecy or a curse.

More importantly, there is no solution to this ’weirdness’, nor any ’Precept Taboo’ that can be employed to stop major events from happening.

The earliest historical record of this comes from the Great Zhou Dynasty.

"The moon is rising, the sun is sinking, bows and winnowing baskets suggest, the fall of Zhou to come."

Upon hearing the child rhyme spreading among the people, King Zhou was greatly frightened.

He then ordered the killing and prohibition of the sale of winnowing baskets and bows throughout the country; where ’winnowing baskets’ referred to various kinds of bamboo baskets and straw bags, and ’bows’ referred to bows and arrows.

Nevertheless, in the end, the descendants of those who sold winnowing baskets led to the fall of the Great Zhou Dynasty—the story of King You and his concubine Bao Si.

In the late years of the Han Dynasty, there was also a rhyme: "Slobbering swallows, fluttering tails, seen intermittently by the Zhang duke. Wooden gate sounds like roots scraping, swallows fly in, pecking the prince, the prince dies, and the swallows peck the arrow."

It referred to how Empress Feiyan, who was skilled in dancing in the palm of her hand, plotted against many princes, leading to severe unrest in the country.

Before Emperor Wen of the Great Yan Dynasty snatched the throne from his nephew, there was likewise a rhyme spreading in the streets:

"Don’t chase the swallows, flying high on the day they are chased, soaring high over God’s land."

There are other rhymes for nearly every dynasty, more or less.

"The tune may fit, in the eyebrows of the Red; success or not, lies in the state of Ji."

"When the Tang is weak, a woman shall take the throne."

"..."

And behind every child rhyme there is sure to be a trail of bloodshed, and even the change of dynasties.

Ordinary people, even those chaotic figures foretold by prophecies in times of turmoil, have difficulty discerning the origins of these rhymes, but their true source is always from this "Weird·Singing Rhyme Child"!

Not only that.

Anyone who hears the rhymes they sing can’t help but spread it further, even if the Court tries to suppress it with utmost severity, it would be to no avail.

"No one knows what level of weirdness they possess.

All that is known is that they appear without fail at major events, uncommunicative, unbeatable, unkillable.

The only good news is that they never actively kill any specific person."

Wang Yuan remained silent, for indeed this thing would not kill, but like a contagion, it caused many people to believe deeply and without doubt.

"When ’rumors become truth after being repeated by many,’ it represents a different form of ’human willpower replacing Heaven’s will.’"

In silence, it changes the great trends of the Mortal World.

Especially for powers like ’Dragon Qi Prohibition,’ which depends on human willpower, it carries a terrifying destructive force.

It can truly be called the nemesis of the Human Dao!

Perhaps the Luoyang City is not the first stop for this group of "Singing Rhyme Children." At this moment, in many corners of Red County Shenzhou, this child rhyme is probably being sung.

The infamous "No-Life Dao," though not a single soldier has been mobilized, the destruction caused by this "Deceit" move is comparable to the force of a thousand troops.

Of course, even if this rebellion-stirring artifact, the "Singing Rhyme Child," is powerful, after pulling off this stunt, it’s unlikely to come out completely unscathed.

Others believe it knows no "Precept Taboo," and is utterly invincible.

But Wang Yuan believes that the number of appearances it makes within a Dynasty is an invisible limitation upon it.

The stronger the Dynasty, the harder it is for it to appear.

However...

"What Luoyang City needs to face now is no longer just the ’Singing Rhyme Child’ issue!"

Wang Yuan looked up at the sky, his pupils reflecting a sudden change in the winds and clouds.

With the "Earthly Que Golden Book" sensing from afar, as the Dragon Energy over Red County Shenzhou began to disperse, countless flaws also emerged in the "Dragon Qi Prohibition" that blanketted the entire Dynasty.

This exposed many key places of the Dynasty, for the first time since its founding, without any defense to the evil and weird presences.

Luoyang City was included among them!

What’s more, the Sects that came to Luoyang City were far more than just "No-Life Dao."

In a desolate hollow overgrown with weeds and filled with bones in Beimang Mountain,

a three-zhang-tall earthen Dharma Altar had been erected, and on it, a gigantic black coffin was placed precisely.

Coffins generally come in red, black, white, yellow, and gold.

Apart from red coffins traditionally tainted by the customs of the Elder Care Pavilion in the vicinity of Beimang Mountain, they are typically used for elders over eighty who die a natural death, often referred to as a joyous funeral.

White coffins are used only for unmarried men and women.

Yellow coffins are the most common, essentially untreated wooden coffins, or even just a straw mat, mostly used by poor families.

Golden coffins are generally reserved only for emperors and royal relatives.

The last, black coffins, are used for those who died by suicide, prematurely, by accident, or in war.

The body inside this gigantic black coffin, capable of fitting four or five people, belonged to a person who died a violent death after suffering through the destruction of their household, blinding, deafness, begging, castration... enduring all forms of torture.

Not only was it filled with bone-deep resentment, but after being stored for a long time during the summer, it also had taken on the terrifying appearance of a bloated cadaver.

A ring of Taoists, clad in shrouds and with a pallor more befitting corpses than the living, were tightly clustered around the black coffin.

They were followers of the "Nine Similitudes Corpse Divinity Tao," which worshipped the "Fangzhang Corpse King," a Heavenly Official.

Even among the dozen or so Sects, this Tao lineage was of the most bizarre kind.

Having sensed the temporary collapse of the "Dragon Qi Sky Pillar,"

they each drew daggers and without hesitation, sliced open their own bellies, tossing their steaming hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and gall bladders into the coffin.

Then, as though nothing was amiss, someone rang the wooden fish, another wailed mournfully, and yet another muttered like a madman; together they formed an eccentric scripture:

"Fangzhang Corpse King, who claims one hundred and six; seeking those aged and sightless, with teeth of green and tongues of desolation; bodies stretched by the wind, consumed by ghosts and devoured by demons..."

"There are those who die standing, those who die sitting, those who die lying down, those who die sick, those who die from poison; with fresh death, bloating, blood painting... different forms of death, without distinction of rank or file..."

These were the verses from the "Human Skin Corpse Account Scripture" Wang Yuan encountered during the "Corpse Sacrifice."

If it weren’t for the awakening of the "Small Book of Life and Death," Wang Yuan would have been beyond saving.

As the chants grew louder and more nauseating,

a stream of black-yellow radiance suddenly descended from the sky, plunging straight into the black coffin.

Immediately after, the rotting corpse inside the coffin suddenly opened its foul mouth, gasping for air.

Around its body, murky spiritual Qi of black, yellow, and red swirled and pulsed.

In the blink of an eye, it devoured the hearts, livers, spleens, lungs, and gall bladders inside the coffin.

The next moment.

Inhale— Exhale—

The tens of miles of mountain range to the north of Luoyang City seemed to heave with its breathing.

No, it wasn’t the mountains that were breathing.

It was...

Splurt!

Beneath Wang Yuan’s feet, a hand reduced to just dry bones suddenly gripped his ankle tightly.