HLnovel Chapter 450 Bringing her home
Chapter 450 Bringing her home
Is this immortal a true immortal, or a man-eating demon?
The words of Prefect Ling that the government would definitely stand up for them did not move these people who had been oppressed for a long time and had gradually become numb.
Will the government stand up for them? Ha, who would believe that?
If someone had been in charge, would they have ended up like this? Year after year, the number of able-bodied men in the village has dwindled to less than one in ten. Wave after wave of eligible girls in the village have been married off as sacrifices, and now there are no eligible girls left at all.
They were devoured until not even bone fragments remained.
The conscription of laborers is originally the government's business. If the government weren't backing them up, who could conscript laborers so recklessly? So to say that the government would stand up for these people is just the thief crying "stop thief!"
Rather than believing that the government would stand up for them, they felt more at ease trusting in gods and Buddhas.
They didn't believe it, nor could they distinguish whether it was true or false.
But those immortals they thought would protect them, who accepted their offerings, did they actually protect them? Why, despite so many sacrifices, are the villagers still dying one after another?
Are these immortals real or fake?
If it's true, why not bless them?
If it's all fake, then what have they been seeking all these years?
Huanniang, who rushed over, was already in tears. She used to have an older sister who married into the Celestial Palace and never came back. She also had an older brother who was of marriageable age but went to do forced labor and never came back either.
That's why she was so scared, because she knew that if she went there, she wouldn't be able to come back.
That's why her mother tied her up; she was afraid that if she left, she wouldn't be able to come back.
The villagers all knew that once they went there, they would never come back, but they had no choice. The forced labor was being conscripted again and again, and if this continued, everyone in the village would die out.
They desperately begged the immortals for their protection, but what were the immortals doing?
Huanniang rushed out and shouted, "I'm going! I'm going to see! I'm going to see if the immortal we've been praying to every day is an immortal or a ghost! It's my fault, I shouldn't have run away, I'm the one who hurt Xiuniang, so I'm going to see. If he really is an immortal, if he can really protect us, I'm willing to be a sacrifice to bring Xiuniang back. If he's not, I also want to know where we're going to be married off to! And what kind of immortal we're going to be married off to!"
The villagers looked at Huanniang, who rushed out, in disbelief. Some who had lost their daughters also cried out, "I'm going too! I want to see where my daughter has been married off to! If she's married to an immortal, why doesn't the immortal protect us?"
"Yes, I want to ask them too, why do we pray to the immortals every day, but they don't bless us!"
"Let's go, even if we have to crawl, I'll crawl over there and see clearly!"
One by one, the onlookers stood up and huddled together, watching Lu Yangyang and Prefect Ling.
Prefect Ling waved his long arm and shouted, "Let's go!"
Although only the elderly, women, and children remain in the village, at this moment, they are filled with boundless courage, like soldiers heading to the battlefield.
Lu Yangyang gave Wen Qingqing a wink, signaling her to treat the injured person's wounds, then looked at Zhang Shi and said, "Lead the way!"
Zhang resolutely gripped the kitchen knife in her hand, turned around and walked forward, with Lu Yangyang following beside her.
The group marched in a grand procession toward the village entrance, toward the temple where they worshipped the immortals.
Just as Lu Yangyang and the others had guessed, the Immortal Temple was indeed located in the southeast direction of Poisonous Snake Ridge, built on the mountainside.
More than one village came to offer sacrifices today. Now that noon has passed and the sacrifices have long ended, villagers have begun to descend the mountain. When they reached the foot of the mountain, they happened to see Lu Yangyang and his group.
Uncle Yu and Village Chief Zhang from the neighboring village went down the mountain together, but there was not much joy on their faces.
They did indeed obtain the elixir, but only three were obtained. Each elixir could exempt one person from labor, but this time the number of laborers in their village was ten.
In Yujia Village, there are only about twenty able-bodied men in their thirties and forties who can now perform forced labor. If seven more go, there will only be about ten left.
A village that once had two or three hundred people now has so few people that it can barely even muster fifty or sixty, let alone a hundred.
If this continues, the village's land will be left uncultivated. If all the men have left, what will happen when labor is conscripted next? Will women and children be sent instead?
Uncle Yu seemed to have aged many years on this trip down the mountain.
The village chief Zhang next to him was no less so. All the villages around here were like this. Where could they find any young women of marriageable age to exchange for elixirs?
The two men led the villagers down the road in silence, when they bumped into Lu Yangyang and Prefect Ling.
Uncle Yu immediately spotted the woman following Lu Yangyang; who else could it be but his wife, Zhang?
Moreover, Zhang was still holding a bloodstained kitchen knife in her hand.
He frowned and shouted, "What are you doing, woman? Why did you bring the villagers with you!"
Then someone behind them shouted, "Isn't that the girl who stayed at our place last night, and Huanniang too?"
Uncle Yu stared in shock, only then realizing that the person standing next to Zhang was the girl who had asked for directions and lodging last night, but was dressed in men's clothing today, which was why he hadn't noticed her at first.
Besides the girl, there were two strange men and about a dozen people dressed in government uniforms with the villagers.
He was terrified and hurriedly asked, "Who are you? What do you want?"
Lu Yangyang patted Zhang's shoulder.
Zhang looked at her husband, the man she had shared a bed with for nearly twenty years. She had always been used to treating him as her heaven and earth, obeying him in everything. But in the end, her only two children were gone.
Zhang's eyes reddened, and she raised the knife in her hand, pointing it at Uncle Yu: "Where is my Xiu Niang? I'm asking you, where is my Xiu Niang? What did you exchange Xiu Niang for? Tell me, tell me!"
Seeing Zhang Shi acting like a madwoman, Uncle Yu shouted sternly, "Put down the knife in your hand! What kind of place is this? Do you think you can cause such a ruckus here?"
"I'm not being unreasonable. I just want my Xiu Niang back. If she's married, I'll ask that person for her. If she's married to a fairy, I'll ask the fairy for her. Even if she's married to a ghost, I'll ask that ghost to bring her back!" Zhang had never been so resolute in her life. She was no longer afraid. She was not afraid of the man she had revered all her life, nor was she afraid of any human, ghost, or god. She just wanted to find her child.
Take her home.
Her children should grow up by her side, and when they reach the right age, they should choose a suitable husband to marry and live a good life or a hard life, but it can't be like this, it can't be taken away and replaced in a muddled way.