sbdcsierra Chapter 451 This is hardly some kind of elixir!
Chapter 451 This is hardly some kind of elixir!
Uncle Yu was first angry, then shocked.
He stared in disbelief at the familiar woman before him. Her hair was disheveled and unkempt, and her eyes were bloodshot. She was clearly the woman he knew, his wife of nearly twenty years, yet at this moment she felt a sense of estrangement.
I couldn't believe she could say such a thing, and I couldn't believe she could have such an unbreakable gaze.
This caused him to feel a sense of panic for no reason.
He felt an indescribable sense of absurdity, as if something inherent in him had been shattered in that instant.
It left him with a mix of emotions that came out of nowhere.
His facial muscles twitched slightly, and his lips moved, but he couldn't make a sound.
Zhang took one step, then two steps, until she was almost upon him. Without hesitation, she pointed the knife at him and said, "Get out of the way!"
Uncle Yu's face flushed red with anger.
He was shaking with anger.
However, when Zhang raised the cleaver in her hand without hesitation to chop at him, he instinctively dodged and stumbled back a few steps, almost losing his balance.
"You, you..." His voice trembled, but he couldn't utter a complete sentence.
Zhang walked across the cleared path and continued forward.
At this moment, Magistrate Ling stepped forward and shouted to the crowd, "Fellow villagers, the elixir won't save your lives. Now, those who don't want to do forced labor, come with me. As long as we smash up the Immortal Temple, we won't have to exchange our daughters for the elixir, nor will we have to use the elixir to pay for forced labor. Those who want to live, come with me!"
The young men following behind the two village chiefs were mostly those who would be conscripted for labor in a few days. Xiu Niang from Yujia Village was beautiful and had obtained three elixirs, but Zhangjia Village had no suitable girls. They risked entering Poisonous Snake Ridge to catch a giant snake, intending to use its gall bladder as a sacrifice, but in the end they only managed to obtain one elixir.
The two villages have a combined list of twenty laborers, but there are only four magic pills available. This means that sixteen people will be conscripted in a few days.
The sacrificial ceremony had long ended, but when they came down the mountain, they walked slower than the next person, because of panic.
My mind was filled with thoughts of whether I would be chosen from among these people, and whether I had any hope of staying.
Even if we stay this time, what about next time?
They really have nothing left to offer.
So everyone was dejected, thinking that if things went slowly, the end would come later.
But then, someone told them that if they smashed the Immortal Temple, they could live and wouldn't have to do forced labor.
is this real?
No one dared to believe it, but when the first person stepped forward, thinking that he was going to die anyway, he might as well take a gamble, then came the second, and the third.
Then Village Chief Zhang also stepped forward. His village organized people to hunt snakes at Poisonous Snake Ridge, risking two lives, and in the end only got a magic pill to save one life, and they didn't know how many days it would last.
Since that's the case, we might as well give it our all!
He shouted to the villagers behind him, "Let's go, let's take a gamble! If we dare to go to Poisonous Snake Ridge, wouldn't we dare to smash up the Immortal Temple? There are hardly any people left in the village now, if we are requisitioned again, we will really have no way to survive! In the past, when disaster struck, we could still flee to other places, but now that it's peaceful, where will they take us in? Let's risk it!"
Yes, if it were a famine or disaster, at least the government would be willing to take them in. But in these peaceful times, without any disasters or hardships, where can they escape to? They say they're fleeing to avoid forced labor? Who will take them in? Who will uphold justice for them?
The villagers immediately became excited and stood up in unison, following behind.
In the end, only Uncle Yu was left standing there in a daze, watching the long and winding procession that went further and further away. He recalled how they had walked up the mountain with hopeful steps before dawn, and how they had walked down with heavy steps. But now, at noon, the weather seemed to be clearer than ever before. The villagers who had been dejected and fearful were now as if they had been injected with chicken blood, and they stepped onto the mountain again.
He hesitated in place, but somehow, he also started to move.
The Immortal Temple is built on a relatively flat, large open space halfway up the mountain. The temple is as big as more than a dozen rooms and is built entirely with blue bricks, tiles and stones. Even the outer wall of the Immortal Temple is made of blue bricks.
In this desolate wilderness, it appears exceptionally magnificent and luxurious.
At this moment, the gate of the Immortal Temple was wide open, and a Taoist priest was sitting at the entrance, munching on offerings, looking quite relaxed and content.
Hearing the commotion, he slowly raised his eyes and glanced over. He saw the large group of people—weren't they the villagers who were there for today's ceremony? He rolled his eyes, stood up, and impatiently scolded, "The ceremony is over. We are not accepting any more worshippers today. Leave immediately and don't disturb the peace of the immortals!"
Lu Yangyang strode forward and kicked him to the ground. "Folks, smash it!"
The Taoist priest stared at the group in disbelief and shouted, "What are you doing? What are you doing! You bunch of unruly people, open your dog eyes and see where you are! How dare you lowly people set foot here! You've disturbed the immortals' peace, so just wait for divine punishment! Then no one can save you!"
His shout made the villagers, who had just been full of enthusiasm, hesitate and become afraid. They knew about the divine punishment; almost every once in a while, several people would be punished by the heavens, convulsing and dying in agony.
What if they really smash up the Immortal Temple and suffer divine punishment?
However, before this thought could even take shape, Lu Yangyang stepped forward and kicked down the threshold, grabbing the Taoist priest with one hand: "I've already smashed it, where's the divine punishment? Punish me, let it punish me!"
The Taoist priest stared at Lu Yangyang in disbelief, "You, you, you..."
"What do you mean, 'you'! Watch this!" Lu Yangyang grabbed him and walked into the Immortal Temple. Looking at the huge incense altar in the temple, she stepped forward and kicked it over.
Then he asked the Taoist priest, "Were you punished? Are you going to punish me again? If not, I'll keep smashing things!"
"You, you, you..." The Taoist priest was completely dumbfounded, trembling and unable to utter a single word.
Hearing the commotion, the other Taoist priests in the temple rushed out and angrily shouted at Lu Yangyang, "Who are you to dare to disrespect the temple of Immortal Shangqing! Immortal Shangqing will surely punish you!"
Lu Yangyang sneered: "The last fairy maid who said she would punish me like this has already been beheaded and left without a complete corpse. Let your Shangqing Immortal Master come out, and I'll go after him!"
The Taoist priests were all blushing with suppressed anger, completely unable to believe that there could be such a daring and reckless person in the world!
"How dare you just see the Immortal Master Shangqing! You arrogant fool, you arrogant fool! Just wait for the Immortal Master's punishment!" The Taoist priests pointed their whisks at Lu Yangyang and shouted angrily.
Lu Yangyang stepped forward, snatched the whisk from one of the Taoist priests, and slapped him across the face, knocking him to the ground. "Tell me, where is the elixir!"
The Taoist priest was stunned by the beating and pointed tremblingly at the box on the altar inside.
Lu Yangyang stepped inside, picked up the box, opened it, and found it filled with elixirs.
She grabbed a handful of things, picked up a Taoist priest, and stuffed him into his mouth.
Before long, the Taoist priest began to convulse.
The villagers stared in disbelief at the box full of elixirs in Lu Yangyang's hand, and even more in disbelief at the Taoist priest who was convulsing on the ground.
Lu Yangyang looked at the villagers, raising the box of elixirs in her hand.
"Did you all see that? What divine punishment? It's just that this pill is poisonous, and people got poisoned from eating too much of it!"
"This isn't some kind of elixir, it's a poisonous pill!"