173: Take action

All the statues in the village had been moved to the center of the square; there were sixteen of them in total, and Liu Yang's eyes were bloodshot.

"Report, Village Chief, there are no signs of any battle at the village entrance. Liu Dong, Li Bai, and the others were turned into statues without a sound; it shouldn't have been the work of outsiders."

Liu Yang looked at Xu Le. "We have never had such things happen here before; this must have something to do with you all, right?"

The reporting soldier thought of the celestial changes from earlier and was about to voice his speculation, but upon seeing Liu Yang's look, he immediately understood his intention.

The villagers were of high Rank, but they lacked an Advanced priest. If two mysterious outsiders helped, perhaps they might have a chance of survival.

Xu Le thought of those eyes of the Serpent Mother and immediately felt guilty. Just as he was about to agree to help with all his might, Qin Siyuan spoke up first.

"You were extremely disrespectful to my God earlier, and now you are slandering us with your words. Why should we help you?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Yang knew that Qin Siyuan had a way to solve the problem, so he gritted his teeth and made a promise.

"If you can save them, I am willing to offer a heart of the commander from a 70th Rank Demon Elephant, a sub-top-tier demon. How about that?"

Xu Le's eyelids twitched when he heard this. He naturally knew how precious a heart of the commander was; it only had a chance to drop after killing a commander-level demon.

A heart of the commander from a 70th Rank Demon Elephant could construct a dungeon that would not be much inferior to the 60th Rank Dinosaur dungeon of the Demon Slaying Academy.

He had previously killed tens of millions of demon corpses, yet only a batch of equipment-like items had dropped; not a single heart of the commander had appeared.

It had to be said that to save the sixteen people turned into statues, Liu Yang had spent a fortune.

"Fine, I'll give it my all!"

Although Qin Siyuan didn't know the value of the heart of the commander, he clearly saw that Xu Le was tempted.

He walked up to an archer statue, prayed to Xu Le in his heart, and then cast the "Dust Removal" Skill.

Golden light appeared in his hands, and Qin Siyuan's eyes lit up. It was still the Advanced Dust Removal Skill, which could remove Advanced negative status effects.

Even if it were possessed by a parasitic demon spirit, this golden light would be able to drive it out.

The soldiers watching were touched by a trace of the light and were shocked to discover that some of the Devilish Qi they were usually infected with was rapidly dissipating.

The heavy feeling in their bodies vanished, replaced by a refreshing sense of "relief."

A divine Skill! It was absolutely a Skill comparable to that of immortals and gods!

They hurriedly looked at the statue in the center of the golden light, only to find that it had no reaction at all, remaining motionless like a dead object.

It failed!

Qin Siyuan was somewhat unwilling to give up, but since even the highest-level Dust Removal Skill had failed, he had no other options.

"Try again!" Liu Yang and the others pleaded.

"It's useless. If the highest-level Dust Removal Skill is useless, doing it another hundred times won't change anything."

Everyone knew Qin Siyuan was right, but they still couldn't accept it.

"Try again!" Liu Yang's voice was resolute.

He thought of the urge they had felt earlier to look up, but that urge actually wasn't particularly strong; given their willpower, it should have been enough to suppress it.

The only possibility was that they were soldiers, and thinking the enemy was attacking, they had to take a look even if it meant death.

But that one look was exactly what doomed them all.

Xu Le sighed silently and patted Qin Siyuan on the shoulder.

Qin Siyuan nodded, prayed again, and cast the "Dust Removal" Skill once more.

The golden light shone on the archer, but as expected, it had no effect.

"Sorry, we really have no other way!" Xu Le said first.

The Thousand-Year Fish smiled; the opportunity it had been waiting for for so long had finally arrived.

Without waiting for Xu Le to react, it flew directly in front of the archer and circled around his head.

"Ah—"

The archer regained his senses, raised his hand, and shot an arrow with all his might toward the sky.

That arrow was his ultimate move; he wanted to shoot at those eyes in the sky.

Immediately after, he realized that in the gray sky, there were no eyes at all.

He scratched his head in embarrassment, thinking everything before had been a nightmare, only to discover his companions were all looking up at the sky, having become statues.

He woke up! Liu Yang was overjoyed.

The people around were all excited, looking at that tiny little fish.

Xu Le: Is this your way of slapping my face in retaliation? It doesn't matter even if you do it a hundred more times.

Having successfully saved one person, the Thousand-Year Fish turned into a white light and returned to the Contract Space.

Everyone hurriedly gathered around; although they didn't know what species the Thousand-Year Fish was, the fact that it could lift that strange statue state was enough.

"My lord, please save them."

"They are all responsible, courageous, hot-blooded soldiers; they shouldn't have to spend their whole lives like this."

Liu Yang grabbed Xu Le's hands. "Little brother, feel free to make any request. We are all humans from Blue Star; humans shouldn't make things difficult for other humans!"

"I'll give it a try!"

Xu Le's consciousness returned to the Contract Space, and he found the Thousand-Year Fish in the spring. "Little Fishy, help the rest of the people lift that strange state, won't you?"

"I told you, call me Great Emperor!" The Thousand-Year Fish corrected him solemnly.

"Fine, Great Emperor, please help the people outside remove their negative status effects, okay?" Xu Le knew when to yield and when to bend.

"It's not impossible! Removing negative status effects requires a huge amount of energy. If you agree to offset half—no, 1/3—of the fish from last time, I will take action."

"Deal!"

Xu Le felt that he had figured out the Thousand-Year Fish's standard of operation.

Wanting to command it like he commanded Nine Phoenix? No way.

But if he used benefits to bribe it, it would actually help enthusiastically.

Ever since he gave it fish last time, it had been thinking about helping, but its personality was lazy, or perhaps it just wanted to show off, so it never wanted to act easily.

The Thousand-Year Fish appeared again, and no one dared to ignore it anymore.

Even Xu Le widened his eyes, carefully watching the Thousand-Year Fish's next actions.

The Thousand-Year Fish smiled slyly, swam a circle among the statues, and after returning to Xu Le, those people all moved.

Whether roaring, issuing warnings, or attacking in anger, they all came back to life.

"It's that simple?"

Liu Yang and the others looked at Xu Le in disbelief, especially Liu Yang, who had already prepared himself to be ruthlessly exploited by Xu Le, yet the other party hadn't said a word and had saved everyone directly.

What shocked them even more was that Xu Le's method of saving people was so calm and breezy, easier than going for a walk, and he had easily saved everyone.

They thought of how Qin Siyuan addressed Xu Le, and especially since those awe-inspiring Yellow Turban Strongmen were still standing there, he did not seem like a Mortal!

"Honored guest, please come inside and have a seat!"

Seeing that everyone's gaze toward Xu Le had changed, Liu Yang sighed inwardly and had to extend an invitation.

Xu Le was brought into the village and saw the rest of the people; there were only about 2,000 of them, and most were of lifestyle professions.

Because of the large number of lifestyle professionals, the food on the tables was very sumptuous.

After eating and drinking their fill, everyone became acquainted.

At this moment, Xu Le asked the question that had been on his mind: "You all seem to harbor great malice toward humans."