Chapter 255 The Secret of Blood Debt

Chen Mu listened quietly, pondering for a moment before asking in a low voice.

"What kind of terrain was it where the fire broke out?"

Wan Chongshan frowned as he recalled the scene.

"The smoke was too thick, so I didn't get too close. I heard them say it was a place near a mountain wall. There were many shrubs there, and the trees were very thin and grew close together; people rarely go there normally."

He paused, then added.

"That kind of place is shady, damp, and overgrown with shrubs. If there were any caves hidden on the mountain wall and blocked by the shrubs, they would be impossible to discover under normal circumstances."

Chen Mu did not respond, his gaze drifting over the courtyard wall toward the continuous mountain range in the distance.

He understood what Wan Chongshan meant.

Li Tiezui, a half-blind man, had run into the mountains in a fit of madness and just happened to be bitten by a bat in that shrub-filled area near the mountain wall. He also just happened to start a fire there and then crawled out of the inferno with his last breath.

How could there be so many coincidences in this world?

Either he was lured there by something, or that place was simply the bats' nest.

And the fire he set was...

"Brother Chen?"

Seeing Chen Mu's silence, Wan Chongshan couldn't help but call out softly.

Chen Mu retracted his gaze and was about to speak when a sudden commotion broke out inside the main hall.

"He's awake! He's awake!"

It was the voice of the old physician, tinged with both surprise and panic. Chen Mu and Wan Chongshan exchanged a look and quickly walked back into the hall.

Inside, Shen Suning was leaning over Li Tiezui, still holding the golden needle she hadn't yet put away.

The dying old man on the bed now had slightly trembling eyelids, and his lips twitched as he emitted a string of incoherent sounds.

"Burn... burn... burn it to death..."

His voice was extremely low, as if squeezed from the depths of his throat, and every word was accompanied by bloody froth.

Shen Suning quickly leaned down and put her ear close to him, her voice gentle.

"What did you say? What do you want to burn?"

Li Tiezui's eyeballs moved, his gaze scanning the room as if trying to identify something. Finally, his eyes fell upon Shen Suning by the bed, then slowly shifted toward Chen Mu, who was walking toward him.

His lips moved.

"...My Lord... My Lord... I shouldn't have... I shouldn't have..."

Chen Mu stepped forward, squatting by the bed, his gaze meeting Li Tiezui's dying eyes.

"Li Tiezui, why did you set fire to the mountain?"

Li Tiezui's throat made a 'he-he' sound, like he was laughing yet also like he was crying. His lips quivered violently as he began to recount the secret hidden deep in his heart.

He spoke very slowly and intermittently, as if using up all his strength to drag out the words suppressed in his heart, bit by bit.

In his youth, he had traveled abroad and met with misfortune. When he returned, one eye was ruined and the other was failing; everything was a blur, and he could only recognize people when they were close. The villagers said that in his line of work, one must suffer one of the 'Five Blemishes and Three Deficiencies,' and since he suffered an eye ailment, his fortune-telling was accurate.

But he knew it wasn't fate; it was a disease.

His eyes grew worse day by day. He didn't know when he would go completely blind. He was afraid—terrified that one day, this last bit of light would be extinguished.

When that time truly came, how would a half-blind old man support his daughter?

Because of this, he couldn't sleep night after night. Whenever he heard of a folk remedy or a herb that could treat eyes, he would risk his life to try it.

That trip up the mountain was because he heard there was a herb in the shady part of the back mountain. Boiling it to wash his eyes could restore his vision. He entered the mountain early in the morning and fumbled his way into the depths. His eyesight was poor, so he walked slowly; by the time he found the place, the sun was already sinking in the west.

The place was shady and overgrown with shrubs. A crack had opened in the mountain wall, mostly hidden by dense vines. If he hadn't grown tired and looked for a place to rest, and happened to push aside those vines, he never would have discovered it was a cave.

The cave entrance wasn't large, just enough for a person to squeeze in sideways.

He hesitated, thinking it was getting dark and he should head down. But he was truly unwilling to return empty-handed. Driven by a sudden surge of unknown courage, he squeezed through the vines as if possessed.

The cave was deep and damp, filled with a pungent, fishy stench that almost made him gag. He fumbled his way inward, the ground beneath his feet feeling soft and spongy. Looking down, he saw a thick layer of bat guano.

Then he saw the bats.

They hung upside down from the ceiling, streaks of dark red, their eyes glinting with a faint light in the darkness. They were all asleep, motionless except for the occasional flutter of a wing that made a soft rustling sound.

His legs turned to jelly from fear, and he turned to run. But his eyes were bad and he ran slowly; before he had gone a few steps, he was pinned to the ground by a bat that swooped down.

It was a massive bat, its wingspan longer than he was tall. Its face looked like a human's, with high, protruding brow bones and pitch-black eyes without whites. Its gaping maw was full of fangs.

But it was very weak, its body covered in wounds that were festering and oozing pus. Its eyes were half-open, as if it had suffered a severe injury.

It pinned him to the ground, its fangs against his neck, intending to drink his blood to recover its strength.

Li Tiezui thought then that it was over, truly over this time. It didn't matter if he died, but what about his daughter? She was still so young, without a father or mother—who would raise her?

He didn't know where he got the nerve, but he tremblingly begged for mercy.

He said, 'Great King, please don't eat me. I... I can find food for you. Better than my blood, and more than my blood.'

The bat actually understood him. It stopped and stared at him, as if waiting for him to continue.

He said, 'If you want to drink blood, I will find it for you. As much as you want, as long as you let me go. I will bring it to you regularly.'

The Bat King thought for a moment and then released him.

That day, when Li Tiezui crawled out of the cave, his entire body was shaking. He didn't know how he made it down the mountain or how he got home; he only knew that he owed a debt—a debt that had to be paid with blood.

At first, the Bat King was relatively easy to talk to, only wanting the blood of livestock. Li Tiezui would secretly save money to go to neighboring villages to buy pig and sheep blood, storing it in jars and bringing it up the mountain at night when no one was around.

But how could that little money be enough? He told fortunes for a few copper coins a time, and couldn't even save a few coins a month. Later, he had no choice but to raise his prices: three extra coins for a reading, five extra for matching horoscopes. The villagers grumbled, saying he had become obsessed with money and was taking advantage of being the only fortune-teller in the village to overcharge them.

He could only endure it with a forced smile, though his heart was bleeding.

But even that money wasn't enough. The Bat King's appetite grew larger and larger. Livestock blood could no longer satisfy it; it wanted to recover its Origin Qi faster and began demanding human blood.

Li Tiezui was truly terrified this time. Though he was a fortune-teller who traveled the streets and knew how to talk his way through any situation, he had never thought of harming a human life.

Those were living people with parents and children. How could he bring himself to do it?

But the Bat King was pressing him, saying that if he didn't bring it, the king would go down the mountain to take it himself.

Li Tiezui knew that if it went down the mountain, the entire village would suffer.

He was the village fortune-teller, consulted for every wedding and funeral. He knew exactly whose family had a new baby or a daughter getting married. He knew better than anyone how many people would die if the Bat King descended.

He compromised.