79: delimitation

Xiaotao, standing beside them, seemed to want to speak but held back, finally biting her lower lip and silently following behind the two. However, she secretly tightened her grip on her sword hilt, ready to protect her master at any moment.

The three walked slowly towards the outside of the village. Along the way, the village was exceptionally quiet.

After such an incident, anyone who heard the news would surely rush to the temple for peace of mind.

In the dead silence, Shen Jianxing suddenly spoke, breaking the quiet first.

"Temple Official Liu, based on your past experience, that evil entity cannot invade Chang Sheng Village and Nan Shu Village to harm people. But is there a specific demarcation for the boundaries of these two villages?"

Liu Chunsheng paused slightly. Although he couldn't fathom Shen Jianxing's intention in asking, he still answered truthfully.

"There is no clear boundary line, only a rough division. These have been passed down orally from generation to generation by our ancestors."

In the countryside, villages are closely connected. The fields on the left might still belong to Chang Sheng Village, but a few steps to the right would lead into the neighboring village's territory.

This boundary line was sometimes an inconspicuous stone, sometimes a winding path, or an isolated old tree. In some places, there was no trace of a boundary at all.

"Only by word of mouth, so vague?"

Shen Jianxing's sword-like eyebrows furrowed slightly, a shallow crease forming between them.

Normally, doing this would be fine, but in these extraordinary times, it was simply asking for trouble.

"Brother Liu, in my opinion, it might be a good idea to first draw a boundary line with plant ash. This way, it can prevent people from accidentally entering dangerous areas and losing their lives for no reason."

As Shen Jianxing said this, Liu Chunsheng also understood.

The unclear boundary lines between villages were common knowledge, and being in the midst of it, he took everything for granted.

But was common knowledge always correct?!

"Temple Official Shen is right. I'll arrange for people to do it right away!"

Anyway, they were already surrounded. The villagers couldn't do anything.

They might as well do something useful. A boundary line was good!

It had to be drawn, absolutely.

Where the boundaries were unclear, they would try to define them little by little.

They would find a few agile individuals who could run back as soon as they saw something wrong.

They couldn't fight, but couldn't they outrun them?

If the demons accidentally followed them in, they would just be fed to Lord Chuping's divine lightning, killing two birds with one stone.

Considering this, why didn't they just go to the boundary and directly lure the demons in to kill them?

The more Liu Chunsheng pondered, the more his thoughts expanded, as if a new door had quietly opened in his mind.

Looking at it this way, being surrounded by demons didn't seem like such a bad thing after all!

Although demons were terrifying, these creatures were full of treasures. With Lord Chuping as their guardian god, if they operated correctly, these demons would just be an Opportunity delivered to their doorstep!

Once his mind opened up, Liu Chunsheng felt completely enlightened.

"Brother Shen, haha, I was thinking too narrowly! Your reminder makes me realize that we're not surrounded; we've surrounded the demons!"

"We need to... do this... and then do that."

Liu Chunsheng expressed his ideas, causing Shen Jianxing and Xiaotao to look at him frequently with strange expressions.

"Brother Shen, what do you think of this idea?"

Shen Jianxing glanced at Liu Chunsheng, who had thick eyebrows and big eyes and was now beaming with excitement. He subtly curved his lips upward and silently gave a thumbs-up.

Liu Chunsheng, I didn't expect you to be this kind of Temple Official Liu!

However, I have to say, well done.

He had previously thought that Liu Chunsheng was designated as a Temple Official by Lord Chuping because he was kind!

Was that not the case?

Lord Chuping's choice of personnel was indeed unconventional.

"Brother Liu is truly a young talent; such ingenuity is admirable!"

"You flatter me, you flatter me, hahahaha!"

As the two walked and discussed, the originally oppressive and heavy atmosphere also lightened and became much more cheerful.

Approaching the village entrance, the gray mist grew thicker, and a faint stench wafted towards them.

Shen Jianxing frowned slightly, raised a hand to cover his nose and mouth, but his gaze was as sharp as an eagle's, piercing through the fog to search for clues.

Xiaotao, on the other hand, gripped the long saber in her hand more vigilantly, stepping to the side to shield Shen Jianxing from behind, in case of any sudden danger.

"Brother Shen, is this demon siege of the village because there are many people here?"

Along the way, Liu Chunsheng finally couldn't help but ask the question in his heart.

"Yes, you are right. The capital has also experienced several sieges like this before."

"The most recent one was three years ago."

Shen Jianxing's voice was deep and slow, as if it emanated from the depths of time.

Liu Chunsheng's heart trembled.

"Brother Shen, is that true? Please tell me quickly, how did the capital break the siege?"

Shen Jianxing's gaze pierced through the dense fog, as if seeing the distant past.

He stopped, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the joints of his folding fan.

"One day three years ago, it was around the time of the Spring Festival, and everyone was busy celebrating."

"No one noticed that the water in the moat had quietly turned black."

As Liu Chunsheng spoke, Xiaotao's saber hilt made a faint "click!" sound.

Liu Chunsheng looked back and saw a flash of pain in her eyes.

This was also a girl with a story... "The first to die were the soldiers guarding the city."

Shen Jianxing lightly tapped his palm with his folding fan, "Their bodies were hung on the drum tower, their internal organs hollowed out, and their skin covered with black patterns—as if something had eaten them from the inside."

A gust of cold wind swept through, and the fog around the three of them strangely parted in a small circle, as if something invisible was listening.

Liu Chunsheng ignored it and continued to listen intently.

"The Imperial Astrology Bureau deployed the Twenty-Eight Constellations Great Formation overnight." Shen Jianxing suddenly coughed violently. Xiaotao rushed to support him, but he waved her off.

"But before the Formation was completed, bad news came from the South City Gate—the defending soldiers collectively went mad and were slaughtering the common people."

Liu Chunsheng's Adam's apple bobbed: "What happened next?"

"Next?"

Shen Jianxing gave a bitter smile.

"Then it was Hell on earth. The Five City Battalions used their flesh and blood to set up defenses in the streets and alleys, and the Imperial Astrology Bureau's sorcerers burned their lifespans to activate the Formation. At its most brutal, the piles of corpses on Vermilion Bird Street in the capital were higher than the city walls."

His folding fan suddenly opened, and the ink bamboo on the fan surface even seeped out traces of dark red.

"Do you know how we won?"

Without waiting for Liu Chunsheng to answer, Shen Jianxing answered his own question, "It was by sacrificing three hundred child boys to fill the opponent's stomach, and only then did the opponent decide to leave."

"Brother Liu, do you think that counts as breaking the siege?"

When Shen Jianxing mentioned the three hundred children, Xiaotao suddenly turned her face away, and Liu Chunsheng noticed her shoulders trembling slightly.

"The capital survived, but Qingzhou, Danzhou, Leizhou..."

Shen Jianxing tapped his palm with a fan bone every time he named a place.

"A total of seventeen cities have now become ghost towns. The imperial court announced it as a plague, but everyone who experienced it knows that it's not like that..."

His words stopped abruptly.

Liu Chunsheng listened, his face pale: "So it was all these demons..."

"Exactly."

Shen Jianxing closed his folding fan and sighed helplessly.

"They ate up those cities, and then they'll be hungry again, looking for new hunting grounds."

"Brother Liu, for us to be under the protection of Lord Chuping, to obtain this small piece of land and a moment of peace, is already extremely rare."

"Brother Liu, before coming to Chang Sheng Village, I once believed that this world was the domain of demons, and humans were just their blood-food. I had once resigned myself to fate."

"So, this place is my salvation."