13: Chapter 13 Yokai

Not long after.

Qin Yin and Qin Mo led the villagers along the direction Hu Fu had left and rushed to the temple.

As soon as they entered the temple, they saw six children safe and sound inside.

In the courtyard outside the temple, Hu Fu's corpse lay on the ground.

His abdomen was caved in, and his death was gruesome.

Seeing Hu Fu's corpse, Qin Mo drew a sharp intake of breath.

He instantly recognized this fellow as the traveling merchant who had struck down with a palm attack from the roof earlier.

That palm strike carried an astonishing force of blood Qi, and at that time, he thought he was a dead man.

He hadn't expected that the Protection Talisman bestowed by Lord Qinling in Qin Yin's hand would forcefully withstand that palm strike.

At that time, Qin Mo rejoiced that he had managed to salvage his pathetic life, but he began to worry a little.

He worried whether Lord Qinling could really deal with a fellow like Hu Fu?

And now he had seen the answer.

His worry was completely unnecessary!

"Who killed this?"

A villager asked with a trembling voice.

Holding torches, the villagers gathered around, discussing animatedly among themselves, their gazes shifting back and forth between the corpse on the ground and the children.

A woman grabbed her daughter and hugged her tightly in her arms.

"There, there, don't be afraid, Mom is right here."

While comforting the child, she couldn't stop her tears from falling.

A man squatted down, felt his own boy all over from top to bottom, and only breathed a sigh of relief after confirming he wasn't hurt.

"Whew, it's good that he's fine, it's good that he's fine."

After all the villagers found their own children, Village Chief Qin Zongliang asked the children softly,

"Little ones, who rescued you? Who killed that bad guy?"

The six children looked at each other.

The oldest boy sniffled and spoke timidly,

"We couldn't see clearly. He stood in the moonlight, and there was light on his body."

"It's Lord Qinling."

A soft voice rang out; it was a little girl.

She cowered in her mother's arms and pointed at the statue of Lord Qinling.

"I saw that he looked a lot like the divine statue in the temple."

Hearing the little girl's words, everyone turned their heads simultaneously and looked at the statue of Lord Qinling located within the shrine niche.

The statue lowered its brows and cast its eyes down, silent as usual.

By this time, the wound on Qin Yin's palm had stopped bleeding, and she stepped forward to say,

"The children are right."

She paused, took out the three dim and lusterless talismans from her bosom, and said,

"Tonight, Lord Qinling entered my dream and told me that those three traveling merchants were going to kidnap the children. Lord Qinling bestowed upon me three divine talismans."

She raised the three dim talismans so that all the villagers could see them.

"It was the divine talismans that awakened you who had been drugged, killed Hu Ba, and protected us."

"And now, Lord Qinling has personally killed Hu Fu and rescued the kidnapped children."

The crowd fell into a dead silence.

The light of the torches flickered in the night breeze, reflecting on the faces of every villager.

On these faces, there was lingering fear and relief, but more than that, there was a growing, burning piety.

The woman holding her child knelt down.

She knelt on the moonlit patch of overgrown grass in front of the temple, facing the statue of Lord Qinling.

One by one, the families whose children had been rescued, the villagers awakened by the Mind-Clearing Talisman, and the men saved by the Protection Talisman—

all knelt down.

The moonlight spilled over them, and also over the statue with its lowered brows and cast-down eyes.

Even though both Qin Yin and Qin Mo were injured, they too knelt down facing the temple door.

In the courtyard at the entrance of the temple, a dense crowd of people knelt covering the ground.

...

On the other side.

Hu Gu shrank inside a firewood pile, not daring to move at all.

Realizing that Hu Ba had been killed, she had found a place to hide.

The spot she hid in was a firewood pile in the courtyard of an abandoned old house.

The two children were hidden by her in the deepest part of the firewood pile; they were still unconscious and could not make any sound.

Hu Gu had no time to manage them at all right now.

Pressing herself against the firewood pile, she held her breath, pricked up her ears, and perceived every trace of movement around her.

Sensing Hu Fu's aura.

But soon, she felt that something was wrong.

Hu Fu's aura had also completely disappeared from her perception.

Hu Gu's teeth began to chatter.

Her strength was a whole tier lower than Hu Fu's, and for Hu Fu, killing her would just be a matter of a single palm strike.

And now, Hu Fu, who was a tier stronger than her, was also dead...

Just who on earth was in this Qin Family Village?

She didn't want to die yet!

She couldn't move.

Absolutely couldn't move.

Hu Gu curled herself up even tighter, suppressing her breathing to the absolute lowest.

She could only wait, waiting for an opportunity to slip away from this village.

As long as she could return alive and report to Lord Huang Zu, perhaps Lord Huang Zu would forgive her for not bringing back the boys and girls.

Just as Hu Gu was acting like a turtle hiding its head, a hand pinched the back of her neck.

Hu Gu's pupils suddenly constricted to pinprisks.

How was that possible?

She hadn't sensed anything at all; where did this hand pop out from?

That hand gripping the back of her neck firmly locked onto her cervical vertebrae.

Hu Gu's body stiffened.

She heard a voice come from above, calm and unruffled.

"So you're here."

Qin Ling said indifferently.

The next instant, Hu Gu felt an irresistible force pinch her neck, lifting her entire body out of the firewood pile.

Qin Ling, having pulled Hu Gu out, was in no rush to make a move. He still had some things to ask, so he let go of Hu Gu.

Hu Gu staggered back two steps, her knees went soft, and she collapsed directly to the ground on her knees.

Supporting the ground with both hands, she panted heavily.

Under the moonlight, that figure stood right in front of her, looking down at her.

Hu Gu didn't dare to raise her head.

She simply prostrated herself on the ground, trembling all over while her brain raced.

To live.

She was still alive.

As long as she stayed alive, there was a chance.

She took a deep breath and continued to speak,

"Spare my life, Monster Ancestor! I didn't know the Monster Ancestor was in this village. If I had known, I wouldn't have dared to come and offend you even if I were given a hundred guts!"

Her forehead pressed against the ground, and her voice carried a just-right hint of a sob.

"I figured these young boys and girls were the Monster Ancestor's rations, so I didn't dare touch a single one. They are all safely placed in the firewood pile."

As she spoke, she secretly peeked out of the corner of her eye to gauge the figure's reaction.

Qin Ling did not say anything.

Hu Gu's heart sank further.

She gritted her teeth and continued,

"Monster Ancestor, the three of us martial artists disguised ourselves as traveling merchants to work for Lord Huang Zu. These young boys and girls are all to be offered to Lord Huang Zu."

"Since the Monster Ancestor killed Hu Ba and Hu Fu today, when I go back, I can help cover it up for you on Lord Huang Zu's end, and I will definitely not let Lord Huang Zu come looking for trouble with you."

Finished speaking, she prostrated herself on the ground, waiting for the other party's response.

Qin Ling watched the trembling Hu Gu kneeling at his feet, absorbing her words of plea.

Obviously, Hu Gu had mistaken him for a monster.

As a cultivator in this world, the monsters Hu Gu spoke of could naturally not be fabrications from storybooks.

In other words, in this world, apart from the evil entities he had seen before, there were also monsters!

Thinking of this, Qin Ling helplessly shook his head.

His luck was truly terrible to have ended up in such a dangerous place!

If he could return to his original world, at this hour he would probably be curled up under the covers reading web novels!