314: Chapter 314 Stay alive

The big man's body was incredibly robust.

He stood nearly 1.9 meters tall, his entire frame covered in thick, solid muscle, layered with a heavy coating of fat that glistened with oil. He was extremely imposing, standing there like an iron tower.

At this very moment, the iron tower of a man swung a hoe around, aiming to split Zhou Zhigang's head open.

His muscles bulged, veins popped out, his face turned beet red, and a soul-chilling murderous intent burned in his eyes.

The hoe whistled through the air, heading straight for Zhou Zhigang's head.

Zhou Zhigang had not yet recovered from the side effects of the brain overload; he looked dazed at the hoe descending upon him, showing no reaction, not even realizing he should be afraid.

The crowd on the periphery only had time to let out a gasp.

Some villagers even covered their eyes directly.

"Clang—"

A sound of impact rang out.

Everyone then noticed that Shi Xiaoya, who had been standing beside Han Jingyang, had somehow reached Zhou Zhigang's side, wielding a slender katana and forcing the iron-tower-like man to retreat step by step.

Only a small piece of the hoe's handle remained in the big man's hand.

The big man was so tall and strong, just like an iron tower.

In front of the big man, Shi Xiaoya looked as thin and small as a grade schooler.

But the current battle situation was the complete opposite of their physical sizes; every move Shi Xiaoya made went straight for the big man's vitals, forcing him to retreat step by step.

Han Jingyang shouted, "Leave a live captive."

Only then did Shi Xiaoya slow her offensive.

However, the iron-tower-like man turned and ran, running faster and faster, lowering his head like a crazed bull to ram into a concrete monument by the roadside.

The crowd was shocked.

"Zhuzi, come back!"

"You can't do that, Zhuzi!"

"You still have your mother and daughter."

"What are you doing?"

"What a sin!"

"Stop, stop—"

Han Jingyang sighed and waved his hand.

The running man suddenly slowed down, scratched his head, looked back at the crowd, and finally fixed his gaze on Han Jingyang, cupping his hands in a salute: "Thank you, Mr. Han."

Han Jingyang raised an eyebrow: "You know me?"

"Yes, I am a fellow disciple of Brother Xu Xin. My name is Zhou Changzhu."

"An acquaintance, then. Come over here, let's talk," Han Jingyang beckoned: "You know what I'm going to ask you, right?"

"I know, I was controlled just now."

"Describe the feeling in detail."

"I can't quite put it into words. I just felt suddenly very angry and wanted to kill Gangzi. Later, I felt unusually ashamed and thought it would be better to just die by ramming my head here. Even if I couldn't kill you, I wanted to cause you trouble and get you entangled in a homicide case."

Han Jingyang raised an eyebrow.

This was indeed being controlled.

Human behavior is controlled by consciousness. To make a person perform a certain action, one must either directly manipulate the other person's limbs, like a marionette.

Or, manipulate the person's consciousness, and then have their consciousness control their limbs.

Both are extremely difficult to achieve.

But the latter is clearly more covert, and the control effect is smoother; the actions have almost no delay, and in actual combat, it is exactly the same as controlling one's own body.

Average experts in metaphysics cannot achieve this.

Only those with extremely deep research into the spirit, soul, and related techniques can achieve this.

This is different from bewitchment or charm-type techniques.

Bewitchment and charm are indirect inducements; one can resist if their willpower is slightly strong, or they can wake up if they encounter a shout, a heavy blow, or other external stimuli.

But this kind of direct control does not have these drawbacks and basically cannot be interrupted.

Unless one masters a counter-technique.

Coincidentally, Han Jingyang had such an item. At the critical moment, he activated the "Mind-Clearing" attribute, which directly purified the negative effects deep within Zhou Changzhu's consciousness.

Well, it was not a coincidence either.

Han Jingyang was well prepared.

After witnessing the crime scene of Zhou Zhenhua, he had guessed the killer's methods. He had taken several items with Mind-Clearing or calming attributes from his car, and even had a skill with a similar effect.

He was very well prepared.

When these villagers arrived, he had examined them one by one.

Then, he noticed the abnormality in Zhou Changzhu at a glance and secretly signaled Shi Xiaoya to be prepared.

Otherwise, it really might not have been possible to save Zhou Changzhu without any preparation.

At this moment, the short, fat village chief approached cautiously: "Mr. Han, this..."

Han Jingyang waved his hand: "Just pretend this never happened. This is a matter that you ordinary people cannot get involved in. It is best to never mention it again, understand?"

The short, fat village chief nodded repeatedly.

Han Jingyang then pointed to Li Yuhua's son, the one with the crew cut, and the prisoners on the ground: "Take them back and discipline them well. How does it make sense for these young, strong men to not do proper work and wander around the village every day? Look at other villages, which village has so many idle, young, strong men?"

The short, fat village chief felt ashamed and embarrassed. He drove the villagers away but then moved close to Han Jingyang and whispered: "Mr. Han, is there also a problem with what happened to Zhenhua?"

"Yes, but as I said before, don't go asking around."

"I am the village chief, which counts as some sort of official position, so they shouldn't dare to act recklessly."

"Oh? There's that benefit?"

"Yes, yes, of course that's under normal circumstances. In reality, there are still exceptions."

"Listening to you, it seems you have some understanding of this circle?"

"When I was young, I traveled north and south for two or three years with an old master. I didn't learn much, but I heard quite a few stories of the underworld."

Han Jingyang carefully observed this short, fat man.

He had actually misjudged him just now; he didn't realize this was an old hand in the underworld.

To be able to roam the underworld for two years and still come out unscathed to become a village chief—he had some substance.

Thinking this, he nodded to the village chief: "Then tell me your thoughts. This happened in your village; you should have more say in this."

The village chief shook his head: "I wasn't in the village that year, but Dou Dous family..."

"Dou Dous family has a story too?"

"Yes, to be precise, it's two families: the old Zhou family and the old Sun family."

"Do these two families have a history?"

"It is said that they both fled here from other places. It happened three or four generations ago. The Sun family and the Zhou family have always huddled together for warmth. In the early years, they competed for fields, water, work points, grain coupons, and supplies. They had to fight and snatch everything. If they had a flourishing population, no one dared to provoke them; if their population was not flourishing, they could only huddle together for warmth. The old Zhou family and the old Sun family were in this situation."

"And then?"

"Since they had to fight and snatch, it was inevitable that there would be flushed faces and even bloodshed and injuries."

"In other words, these two families became enemies?"

"Right."

"How deep was the grudge?"

"The kind where lives were at stake. That year there was a great drought. In order to fight for a few buckets of water, the Zhou family and the Sun family fought fiercely. One person from the Zhou family died, and three from the other side died."

"Which generation?"

"Around the seventies."

"And then?"

"The family that lost three people was completely ruined; only a pregnant daughter-in-law went far away."

"You suspect that family came back for revenge?"

The short, fat village chief sighed and shook his head: "I dare not be certain, but if Dou Dous Mother, Dou Dous Father, and Dou Dous aunt Zhou Jinhua all died by murder, then this matter is worth suspecting. By the way, Zhou Zhigang and Zhou Changzhu from earlier are also people from the old Zhou family."

Han Jingyang frowned slightly.

If the only victims were Dou Dous family, then there would be no need to think too much; the killer's goal would inevitably be revenge.

But in reality, the victims were far more than just Dou Dous family. There were many other women, and there must be more that haven't been discovered yet.

Therefore, this might not necessarily be the case.

However, this was indeed a clue. He could investigate further along this line; perhaps he would have some gains.

Thinking of this, he asked casually: "What is the surname of that family?"