The sun and moon are both wrong; who made him seek the Dharma?

Chapter 8 Village Rumors

"She doesn't have any aura of a Nirvana Corpse; she's just a mortal."

Xia Chuan's tone was calm, but his sharp gaze swept past Bai Xiaoxiao and fixed on the head with red eyes.

"I was just planning to bluff her, but you ended up showing up on your own."

A half-smile appeared on Xia Chuan's handsome face:

"You want to save her, right?"

Otherwise, you could simply cut off all contact and leave. Why waste your breath arguing with us here?

The three-eyed head fell into a deathly silence.

After a long while, the withered lips slowly opened and closed, emitting a dry sound.

"My clones, these countless corpses covering the mountains and fields, have all been killed by you."

"My main body is on its way, but it will take a little longer."

It gave Bai Xiaoxiao a deep look, its tone carrying a hint of helpless compromise:

"Please wait a moment, we won't run away."

"Please keep your promise and do not hurt her."

The head and broken torso, now free from magical control, fell to the ground with a thud, becoming a corpse.

Gao Haoguang stood to the side, completely dumbfounded.

He stared blankly at the trembling Bai Xiaoxiao, his mind still reeling:

"What exactly is going on?"

"You...you are truly an accomplice of that Nirvana corpse?"

Bai Xiaoxiao bit her pale lips and fell silent.

Just then, she felt a lightness on the back of her neck as the large, iron-like hand completely released its grip.

No, she isn't.

Xia Chuan withdrew his hand. He looked down at the girl before him, scrutinizing her.

"This little girl is probably some kind of sacrificial offering."

"You told us to leave quickly just now, not to cover up the Nirvana Corpse."

Rather, they were worried about the safety of the two of us staying here, which is why they tried to dissuade us.

Xia Chuan's eyes were sharp, and he succinctly revealed the secret.

"In your village, there must be a custom of offering living people to the deceased during the Nirvana ceremony, right?"

Bai Xiaoxiao shuddered, abruptly raising her head, her tear-streaked face filled with disbelief:

"How...how did you know?"

Xia Chuan sighed and naturally spread his hands:

"It's very simple. Your village is so close to the area where the Nirvana Corpse is active, yet you still dare to raise smoke from your cooking fires."

There are only two possibilities: either you had no idea there was a Nirvana corpse on this mountain;

Either you've reached some kind of sordid agreement with the Nirvana Corpse.

"What the Nirvana Corpse wants is nothing more than the flesh and blood of living people."

Rather than rushing into the village like wild beasts and slaughtering them all, it's better to raise the people like livestock, offering them regular tributes and slowly consuming them.

Xia Chuan's lips curled into a cold, insightful smile: "Am I right?"

Bai Xiaoxiao kept her head down, her thin body trembling violently, but she didn't say a word.

"The attitude of that Nirvana Corpse just now was very clear: he not only didn't want to hurt you, but he even wanted to exchange the lives of the entire village for yours."

Xia Chuan narrowed his eyes slightly, logically peeling back the layers of the mystery.

"Clearly, that corpse doesn't know that you've been chosen as the 'meal' for this meal."

In other words, you were forcibly pushed out to your death by the other villagers.

"But that doesn't make sense."

Generally speaking, when offerings to monsters, villagers would prioritize choosing from the elderly, frail, and unable to do heavy work.

Xia Chuan stared intently into Bai Xiaoxiao's eyes and slowly uttered a chilling conjecture.

"But they chose you."

"You're still young, and you haven't even had children yet."

In secluded rural villages, young, unmarried women are the most valuable resource, as they can both do farm work and carry on the family line.

Using such a scarce resource as tribute is inherently unreasonable.

Xia Chuan paused, his tone becoming firm:

"Unless... all the adults in your family were given away as sacrifices in the past."

Now that your family line has ended, it's finally your turn, isn't it?

Otherwise, parents everywhere would surely be willing to die in their daughter's place.

Bai Xiaoxiao's face turned deathly pale instantly, as if her most raw and bloody wound had been peeled away.

But Xia Chuan showed no sign of stopping. He pieced together the cruel clues in his mind and continued:

"In rural areas, it's rare to see a family driven to the brink of death, to the point of sacrificing them to ensure their extinction. Unless..."

"What heinous crimes did you, or your ancestors, commit against these villagers?"

"Stop talking!"

Bai Xiaoxiao covered her ears in despair, interrupting Xia Chuan's words with a sharp voice and a sob in her voice.

Gao Haoguang, who was standing to the side, felt his hands and feet turn cold and fell into a deathly silence.

Is it really true...?

In order to survive, the villagers treated each other like livestock in a pigsty.

They pass the buck to each other, stand by and watch coldly, and clean up the most helpless and isolated one, sending it out for the Nirvana Corpse to feast on.

Gao Haoguang felt disgusted.

Xia Chuan, however, remained remarkably calm, his tone carrying an absolute, violent confidence:

"You saw the reaction of that Nirvana Corpse clone just now; it's no match for us."

Explain the whole story to me clearly, and I'm sure I can help you resolve it.

"Don't worry, although I was a bit rough just now, we're really not bad people."

Bai Xiaoxiao stared blankly at Xia Chuan's right hand, which had almost snapped her neck just moments before, her expression extremely complex.

She turned around, her back to the two of them, her shoulders twitching slightly.

Gao Haoguang glared fiercely at his senior brother, who showed absolutely no empathy.

He quickly stepped forward and gently comforted Bai Xiaoxiao's retreating figure:

"Sister, it's okay if you don't want to talk about it."

Bai Xiaoxiao remained silent.

Gao Haoguang sighed and shrugged at Xia Chuan, indicating that he was also helpless.

Unexpectedly, Bai Xiaoxiao gave a bitter smile, her voice trembling, and slowly opened her mouth.

"I...I am Bai Xiaoxiao."

These are all stories my parents told me.

"This happened to our ancestors, a long, long time ago..."

Upon hearing that they were finally about to uncover the secrets of that year, Gao Haoguang and Xia Chuan were overjoyed and immediately perked up their ears.

"Back then, the outside world was a hundred times more chaotic than it is now."

But the village of Heishan, nestled deep in the mountains, retains a tranquility that outsiders can only dream of because of its isolation.

"Back then, there was a doctor in the village who was the only one who could diagnose and prescribe medicine."

He was a highly skilled doctor and a philanthropist, earning him the love and respect of the entire village and being regarded as a great hero.

"Until one day..."

Bai Xiaoxiao's face turned completely ashen, and deep fear was evident in her eyes.

"A terrifying epidemic suddenly broke out in the village."

"A perfectly healthy and active person, once infected with this strange disease, will inexplicably develop physical defects."

Some people wake up one day missing their limbs;

Some people's mouths and noses rotted away, and they couldn't even let out a scream.

"Not long after, the epidemic spread like wildfire, and the whole village was infected with this strange disease."

The more Gao Haoguang listened, the more his two sword-like eyebrows furrowed.

This method of causing inexplicable physical mutilation...

It doesn't sound like an ordinary plague at all; instead, it sounds like a cruel method used by some kind of magical corpse to cultivate supernatural powers.

"The villagers were terrified and wanted to flee the village, but the strange disease had drained their strength, and they could not get out of the deep mountains at all."

Bai Xiaoxiao's voice was so low it seemed to drip water.

"That incurable disease turned the village into a giant coffin."

Everyone was actually already dead; they were just buried a little later.

"Until one day, the medicine man who had traveled far and wide to find the antidote finally returned."

He told the villagers that he had obtained a "miracle drug" that could definitely cure the disease.

"Everyone believed him!"

Bai Xiaoxiao suddenly gripped her collar tightly. "But... he fooled everyone!"

"His so-called elixir... is simply his blood!"

"Those villagers who drank his blood did not grow back the missing limbs."

Instead, amidst a series of agonizing screams, it was transformed into pools of foul-smelling blood!

"Later, a rumor began to circulate in the village..."

Bai Xiaoxiao's body trembled violently, her hands tightly clutching her shoulders, her voice choked with sobs, almost incoherent:

"They say... that medicine doctor was never meant to save people in the first place!"

He personally spread the plague, just to use the entire village's living people as test subjects for his bizarre medicine!

A mountain breeze swept through the forest, bringing a bone-chilling cold.

Only Bai Xiaoxiao's sobs could be heard in the quiet bamboo forest.

Xia Chuan listened quietly, then slowly nodded, his sharp gaze fixed on Bai Xiaoxiao's retreating figure.

"So, the medicine man who brought annihilation to the entire village was your ancestor?"

She turned around to face the two of them.

Facing their gazes, she nodded desperately, tears streaming down her pale face.

All the grievances, resentment, and guilt she felt for carrying the burden of generations completely overwhelmed her at this moment.

"I am a descendant of sinners... This is what our Bai family owes them."

She closed her eyes, her voice hollow like a wandering ghost:

"Please... kill me."