Killing Dao Fruit
Chapter 332 - 329: Natural Disasters and Man-Made Catastrophes, Devil Path Pestilence

Chapter 332: Chapter 329: Natural Disasters and Man-Made Catastrophes, Devil Path Pestilence

At the North Slope of Mang Mountain, twenty miles from Tingxiang Village.

The Shen family, known as the wealthiest in the village, had their main gate wide open, and their beautifully constructed and spacious courtyard was in utter chaos.

A group of servants was anxiously busy helping their masters pack for a long journey, while the young and old of the household were all wailing, a scene of utter misery.

"Boo-hoo-hoo... to make us leave our home and move a great distance to the Capital, isn’t this a death sentence for our entire family?"

"Without the wealth painstakingly amassed by our ancestors over several generations, how are we to survive?

When the food is gone, how long can we last?"

"..."

The pale-faced junior official supervising their move listened to their crying.

He immediately puffed up with authority in front of Lord Shen, whom he, on any other day, could not even guarantee a meeting with, and haughtily said:

"Old Master Shen, should I pretend I haven’t heard the grievances against the Court from your family?

No matter how much you delay, you will eventually have to go.

The Imperial Decree clearly states that anyone who dares to disobey will simply be reported to the Court, and their entire clan will be executed on the spot!"

In this decaying Dynasty, the administration had long since broken down.

Other places in the Great Yan Dynasty did not have a "Human Ghost City God system" based on that of Dengzhou Prefecture, which ensured "Gods are watching over us."

This system could monitor officials, tidy up the bureaucracy, and restore integrity to society.

One could say that from top to bottom, everywhere was mired in corruption.

On any given day, these slippery officials could stir up trouble out of nothing—much less now, with orders from the Court.

Although the decrees required families with at least ten thousand taels of silver to move to the Capital.

As with every Dynasty before them, the way these orders were carried out was entirely different in practice.

All major households within the jurisdiction that were easy targets for local government officials had their eyes on them, had their methods for taking advantage.

Even if you cooperated fully, you would still have your skin peeled off, and any resistance would categorize you as rebels, with your assets confiscated.

In an era when clan powers were strong, one was less valuable away from home.

Once apart from their hometown and clan, they were like tigers without teeth, birds without wings, no longer able to stir up trouble, vulnerable to everyone’s bullying.

Of course, with the removal of these elite clans, the already struggling "Dragon Qi Prohibition" in various places immediately weakened to the extreme.

A massive hidden danger and calamity had been quietly laid.

Hearing the words of the minor county official, the nearly fifty-year-old Lord Shen, weathered by the trials of life though pale, also understood that he could not fight against greater force.

Such policies to relocate powerful families, the strong preying on the weak, had existed since ancient times.

The Liu Clan Dynasty in history had forcibly relocated wealthy and influential families from Guandong to the nearby Central Pass Maoling up to eight times.

Which was not more than a hundred miles from Tingxiang Village.

Lord Shen simply thought the present Dynasty was implementing the same policy, completely unaware that the ones in charge of the Capital were no longer human, and certainly not as warm and tender as before.

While acknowledging his misfortune, he still tried to bargain as much as possible:

"The Shen family naturally dares not defy the order. But the County Government could grant us a few more days to get our rural estates in order before we set out!"

That pale-faced junior official, suddenly empowered by the "great migration," just sneered:

"Heh, Old Master Shen, you’re really muddle-headed!

How dare you delay the first order issued by the New Emperor after his accession to the throne? Are you scorning His Majesty?

Your family must leave immediately today, leaving behind a young member of your clan to deal with the property.

If there’s anything you’re worried about, the County Government’s accountants will take care of your family’s interests, so rest assured."

"You...!!"

Catching a fleeting glimpse of greed in the eyes of the junior official, Lord Shen’s aged face turned crimson with rage.

He clearly understood that the contempt for the Emperor was false; it was the interference with their profiteering that was true!

Once they sent his family off in a hurry, into whose pockets these assets would go, he needn’t even guess.

"Lord Shen, please!"

A garrison soldier assigned to "protect" them also slowly placed his hand on the hilt of his sword on his waist, not concealing the threatening gesture.

He even looked lustfully at the beautiful women of the Shen Mansion, pondering how to comfort these beautiful, travel-worn ladies once they hit the road.

The atmosphere in the courtyard instantly became tense.

At that moment—

The sky overhead darkened slightly, as if a vast expanse of gloomy clouds was gradually spreading from the north.

As a gust of wind blew outside the gate, a thick scent of rot and fishiness instantly enveloped them.

The previously triumphant pale-faced junior official couldn’t help but pinch his nose and cursed aloud:

"What’s going on, which family is holding a funeral again?

It smells so foul, they must be too poor to afford even a coffin board and just wrapped the body in a mat.

Beimang Mountain is turning into Burial Mound, every day it smells of corpse decay; it’s such bad luck!"

Following the standard pattern of the Little Ice Age, floods and droughts came in turns.

Last year saw a major flood across the north, and this year as expected it turned into a severe drought.

Since the heavy rainfall on the second day of the second lunar month, there has not been a proper rain in the environs of Beimang Mountain.

It seemed as if the entire year’s rain had been concentrated into that one day.

After a lengthy winter came severe drought, and in some areas with undeveloped irrigation, all the spring seedlings had already withered and died in the fields.

Successive natural disasters were relentless, and people who could not survive were everywhere.

Furthermore, as the temperature began to rise, the corpses of people and animals that had frozen to death in the winter started to decompose, but there were so many that there was no time to cremate them.

Most were hastily discarded into Beimang Mountain, further contributing to the notoriety of "White Bone Pool" below the mountain.

However,

just after the pale-faced clerk finished cursing, everyone realized that the lingering strange smell was getting stronger.

Accompanying it was a thin fog, ashen and gloomy, and from within the mist came the increasingly loud... bizarre chanting!

"Tama tamaitei, tama tamaitei, te chā lī an chala rā mo na, wei a wo luo ji di si ma..."

The tune was strange, almost inducing nausea to those who heard it.

They even felt as though something exceedingly fine was entering their ears and brain with the chanting sound, and then spreading throughout their bodies with their blood.

The commanding official gave a look to his subordinates, and two soldiers with the first realm of Military Skill, "Bone and Flesh Outer Appearance," instantly drew their waist knives and charged out of Shen Mansion’s gates.

They fixed their eyes on the main road of the village not far away.

There, amidst the ashen fog, appeared to be an enormous procession, as if performing a large-scale ritual, meandering their way closer with music and chants.

It seemed normal, yet inexplicably sinister.

As the procession drew nearer, the eyes of the two widened, and a chill shot straight through their foreheads.

Hiss—!

They were so terrified by the sight that they dared not move.

Because what was approaching was not at all a group of respectable monks conducting a ritual, but a horde of... skinned yellow weasels!

These skinned yellow weasels, about the size of seven or eight-year-old children,

were jointly carrying a horrific bone sedan chair, seemingly constructed of human bones and skin, bloody and ghastly and tragically eerie.

In the bone sedan sat a yellow weasel comparable in size to a grown adult.

It too was without skin, exposing dirty, mangled flesh.

It was wrapped in a yellow fur monk’s robe and adorned with various treasures such as jade, agate, and conch... posing with a majestic Buddhist appearance.

If Wang Yuan were here, he would recognize at a glance that this was clearly the "Yellow-Skinned Dharma King!"

By the side of the Dharma King, other little yellow skins were playing Dharma conches, golden cymbals... and singing, enveloped by the revolting, filthy chant that continued to resonate around them.

Strange as it was,

protecting this "Yellow-Skinned Dharma King" were not only those small-sized skinned Plague Demons.

Leading the way were several Daoists in yellow robes, with an extreme pallor to their faces.

They were holding a filthy, black-and-yellow large umbrella, bouncing and hopping ahead of the eerie procession, guiding their direction.

The umbrella, resembling an emperor’s Luo umbrella, unfurled a polluted "Dharma Light" that covered all the "Plague Demons" like a canopy.

Both the sinister Daoists and eerie yellow skins ignored the two soldiers, walking past them nonchalantly, then quickly disappearing into the distance.

Only when the sinister procession had completely vanished did the two take deep breaths, as if they had just returned from a round trip outside the Ghost Gate.

However, as they were just raising their heads, they noticed something was wrong with each other.

Visible to the naked eye, purplish-black horrific blemishes were gradually appearing on their comrades’ faces, necks, hands, and all the exposed skin.

They themselves began to suffer from splitting headaches and a cold all over, unintentionally shivering.

"Help... help!"

In a panic, the two shouted and rushed back into Shen Mansion.

To their horror, they found that everyone in the mansion was also showing the same symptoms without exception.

And perhaps because they were not as robust as the two soldiers, some had already developed high fevers, foaming at the mouth, fainting on the spot.

In the procession that continued toward Beimang Mountain,

one leading Daoist, sensing the commotion behind him, danced joyfully with his hands and feet.

"With the aid of this ’Yellow-Skinned Dharma King’, there is no need for the rat plague’s fine worms to spread through rats and fleas anymore.

As long as one hears this dirty, sinister chant, the fine worms spontaneously generate from the flesh and blood, infecting the person.

All measures to prevent common plagues are rendered utterly useless. Such a treasured item, indeed a treasured item!"

Another, younger Daoist spoke up in agreement:

"Back when ’The Number One Blade Under Heaven’ Xie Tianke and the ’Heaven Righteous Dharma Dao’s Tent Master Bai dueled (Chapter 305).

We of the Plague Dao (Chapter 117) accidentally came upon a fortunate opportunity.

To have retrieved this sole ’Yellow-Skinned Dharma King’ that managed to escape the blade of Xie Tianke.

And with Uncle Sun’s ’Lifebound Magic Treasure: Plague Umbrella’ nurturing its toxicity and concealing its tracks, we’ve been able to bide our time cautiously.

We are determined to establish a Beimang Dojo on this corpse-littered Beimang Mountain, where vermin run rampant.

We might even assist Uncle Sun in seizing the ’Beimang Blessed Land,’ to achieve the third realm of ’Divine Transformation’!

The Great Yan, neglectful and focused only on harvesting the wealth of rich households nationwide to fortify the Capital, has caused the ’Dragon Qi Prohibition’ on the brink of collapse, clearly handing over this ancient capital of thirteen Dynasties to us.

Other sects and fringe factions have already caught wind and are on the move, we must not let others get there first!"

"It’s said that our Tao Lineage’s sworn enemy, the ’Nine Aspects Corpse God Tao,’ has also taken a liking to the feng shui treasure land of Beimang Mountain; we must be wary."

"Indeed, indeed! Hurry, let’s pick up the pace!"

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