106: Chapter 106 Liuhe Village

Liuhe Village was still there; it had not been directly occupied by the roots of the Evil Tree.

But it had also been battered to the point where it no longer looked like a village.

A third of the roofs had collapsed, and many of the door panels were shattered, patched up with wooden boards that were nailed on crookedly.

There was no crowing of roosters, no barking of dogs, no laughter of children, and no sound of people arguing.

Only the wind blew past, making the torn window paper rustle loudly.

Ever since the Evil Tree entrenched itself in Guanhai County City and spread its canopy, those parasitic creatures had come to Liuhe Village.

Among these parasitic creatures were demonic wolves, as well as a few parasitic martial artists whose human forms were no longer recognizable.

They rushed into the village and killed quite a few villagers of Liuhe Village.

The remaining villagers of Liuhe Village could not escape due to the village's geography; most of them ran into cellars and hid throughout the village.

They dared not make a fire, light a lamp, or speak loudly, and even had to cover their mouths when coughing for fear of being heard by those things.

The sun rose, and a dark red light leaked through the gaps in the canopy, falling upon those collapsed roofs.

At the eastern end of the village, inside a relatively intact earthen house, a woman squatted behind a stove, clutching a handful of freshly dug sweet potatoes.

Her husband had been bitten to death by those things, so she fled with her daughter and hid in this long-abandoned earthen house.

Her daughter curled up in her arms, as thin as a kitten, her eyes wide open, staring into the darkness within the stove, not daring to make a sound.

The woman wiped the sweet potatoes on the corner of her clothes, broke them in half, handed one half to her daughter, and tucked the other half into her own bosom.

The daughter took the sweet potato but did not eat it.

The woman said, "Eat up. Mother will go dig some more; there are still plenty."

The daughter still didn't eat; she simply raised her head and looked at the roof.

"Mother, there's something on the beam."

The woman's hand trembled.

She slowly raised her head, and sure enough, a creature was clinging to the roof beam.

It had probably once been a person, wearing tattered clothes with grayish-white skin, sunken eye sockets, and white pupils like two lumps of congealed lard.

There was a wound on the side of its neck, and roots were twisting inside the wound.

At the tip of the roots blossomed a black flower, exuding black Qi.

That parasited person lay prone on the beam, head tilted, white eyes staring at them, mouth wide open with saliva dripping from the corners.

Sound finally squeezed out of the woman's throat.

She hugged her daughter, sprang up from behind the stove, shoved open the already crooked wooden door, and rushed into the courtyard.

The daughter began to cry in her arms.

The woman rushed out of the courtyard gate with her daughter and ran into the alley.

After running a few steps, she stopped.

Because the parasitic martial artist that had been on the beam just now had somehow already blocked her path.

It stood at the entrance of the alley, blocking the only way out.

The woman took a step back, retreating to the base of the wall.

She lowered her head and looked at her daughter.

The daughter stopped crying, looking at her with wide, round eyes, her small hands clutching the collar of her clothes.

The woman hugged her daughter a little tighter, closed her eyes, and braced herself for death.

Right at that moment, a flash of blade light lit up from behind the parasitic martial artist.

This single strike directly sliced off the parasitic martial artist's head, and the falling head smashed into the ground.

Black blood gushed out from the severed stump, splashing all over the ground.

The headless parasitic martial artist fell backward, revealing Qin Yin behind it.

That blade strike just now had been swung by her.

Having arrived at Liuhe Village carrying Lord Qinling's divine oracle, Qin Yin saw this situation the moment she got there, and naturally drew her blade to save people.

After sheathing her blade, Qin Yin turned around and looked at the woman cowering at the base of the wall holding a child in her arms.

"Are you hurt?"

The woman's mouth was open; on her face, there was no relief from surviving a disaster, only terror.

Her voice squeezed out from her throat, sharp and thin.

"Run! Run quickly! That thing cannot be killed! It can still stand up! It will come back to life!"

Her eyes stared past Qin Yin, her pupils reflecting the corpse of the parasitic martial artist that had been split in half.

The corpse was moving; the severed head was being dragged back by the roots from the broken stump to reattach, and the black sap bonded the split like glue.

A black flower bloomed right beside its neck.

Qin Yin did not turn back.

Back in Qin Family Village, she had already witnessed similar creatures.

She felt not the slightest panic regarding this, reaching into her bosom and drawing out a golden talisman whose patterns emitted a faint golden glow in the dim daylight.

Intermediate Exorcism Talisman!

In a dream, Lord Qinling had once told her that this talisman specialized in dealing with those undying evil specters.

She pinched the talisman between her fingers and shone it behind her without turning her head.

The talisman lit up, and golden light burst from the talisman paper like a small sun rising from her palm, illuminating the entire alley as bright as day.

The roots on the parasitic creature twisted and struggled in the golden light.

The black flower began to change color from the edges, turning from black to white, and from white to powder.

It withered petal by petal, fell off piece by piece, and was blown away by the wind.

The parasitic martial artist thus completely stopped moving.

The woman squatted at the base of the wall, holding her daughter, her eyes staring fixedly at the motionless parasitic martial artist.

So long that her daughter moved slightly in her arms and her little hand tugged at her collar did she snap back to her senses.

The woman's face was full of disbelief.

Although Liuhe Village had no stationed martial artists, those martial artists who had fled from the county city had stayed in the village for a few days.

At first, they killed those parasitic creatures cleanly and neatly.

She had seen with her own eyes a fellow wearing a gray short vest chop off the head of the demonic wolf that had broken into the village entrance with a single blade strike.

The fellow sheathed his blade and turned to leave, but was bitten on the neck by the recovered demonic wolf.

The fellow shouted half a sound before losing his voice entirely.

She thought those parasitic creatures were unkillable.

If you cut off their heads, new roots would grow from their necks.

If you split their bodies open, they would stitch themselves back together from the splits.

Until this very moment did she witness with her own eyes the death of a parasitic creature.

The woman stood up from the base of the wall holding her daughter; her legs were still shaking, but she managed to stand firmly.

She wanted to say thank you, her lips moved, but before she could speak, she was interrupted by Qin Yin.

"Find a place to hide well."

Qin Yin said.

At this time, due to the commotion made by the woman and her daughter earlier, other parasitic creatures were drawing close again.

The woman nodded, hugged her daughter, turned around, and found a place to hide.

Meanwhile, Qin Yin gripped her blade and walked deeper into the alley, her boot soles crunching softly against the gravel.

She heard the hissing sounds emitted by those parasitic creatures.

Qin Yin reached into her bosom and touched the remaining three talismans.

Pressed against her chest, they were warm.

With Lord Qinling's talismans present, she would not worry about anything.

The alley was not long, but it was very narrow; the walls on both sides had collapsed halfway, and broken bricks were scattered all over the ground.

Qin Yin walked slowly, hearing footsteps coming from both behind her and ahead of her.

Two parasitic creatures turned out from the far end of the alley, one in front and one behind, blocking her in the alley.