Chapter 168 Ritual

Chapter 168: The Ritual

"Let you go back? Sure, you can!" Meng Wan readily agreed.

Tong Laowu's face lit up with joy, but he quickly grew wary again. Would that Meng be so easy to fool?

"You... don't you want to draft a written agreement?"

Meng Wan waved his hand, "Oh, those are all superficial." He said to Chu Ci, who was also sitting on a small stool beside him, "Xiao Ci, come and bring out the Soul-Refining Purple-Scaled King."

Even hearing Meng Wan utter that ridiculously cringeworthy name, Chu Ci remained expressionless, only obediently took out a blood-red bottle from his chest.

Out of it slowly crawled a two-inch-long creature, its body cylindrical, its shell with a deep purple sheen in the sunlight. As it moved, hundreds of insect legs extended from beneath it, and its body was divided into dozens of segments. It looked both gross and creepy, enough to make your skin crawl.

Tong Laowu watched Chu Ci, expressionless, pinch that "Soul-Refining Purple-Scaled King" and gradually bring it near his lips. His eyes were full of terror, as if he was about to suffer unimaginable torture.

He wanted to shake his head no, but was afraid he couldn't move, so he just opened his mouth a little and tried to speak as loud as he could, "What is this thing? Meng Fulang, you... spare me, from now on I... no! Please! Mmph... hmm hmm hmm..."

Tong Laowu's screams startled the birds in the forest. Meng Wan turned away and retched silently.

He scolded himself: Tsk, how did I get so bad? Like some big villain. If this keeps up, some delicate, sweet little flower is going to pop out and call me out. That's no good. I need to be a great hero who fights for the people!

When he looked up again, Tao Da's family was busy sweeping the yard, feeding the chickens, and filling the troughs—none of them dared to look in his direction.

After feeding the worm, Chu Ci gave Tong Laowu another pitch-black, stinky thing. It looked and smelled like nothing good.

Tong Laowu, utterly despairing, obediently swallowed it, but surprisingly found he could move. He struggled to sit up, wanting for a moment to tear Meng Wan apart with his bare hands. But remembering what Meng Wan was capable of, he couldn't help but shiver, "What did you just feed me?"

He thought about how that thing looked poisonous, now inside his gut—he probably didn't have long to live. At that, he couldn't help but give a bitter laugh.

Sure enough, Meng Wan pulled the grumpy kid Chu Ci over and introduced him to Tong Laowu, "My godson, the Western Poison Immortal, skilled in all kinds of venomous insects and poisons. The worm I just fed you is his carefully nurtured Soul-Refining Purple-Scaled King, raised on his heart's blood for five years. As long as you harbor any ill will toward me, it will devour the flesh of your heart until it consumes you entirely, turning you into a host for its babies."

This speech completely shattered everything Tong Laowu had ever known in his life.

"Soul-Refining... Purple-Scaled King?"

"Devour the heart? Host for its... babies?"

Every word was both understandable and incomprehensible to Tong Laowu. Was this kid even human?

He thought of his older brother's plan, heart pounding. Maybe they had inadvertently guessed the truth—that Meng wasn't human!

Chu Ci's mouth twitched at Meng Wan's wild story, but remembering how Meng Wan had addressed him, he couldn't help turning his head a little to glance at Meng Wan. He glanced again, and finally the corners of his mouth lifted despite himself.

Seeing Tong Laowu staring dumbly at him, Meng Wan thought, Scared him enough?

He cleared his throat, "Don't be afraid. Once you do what I say, I'll have my godson draw the worm out of you."

A spark of life flickered in Tong Laowu's eyes, "It can be drawn out?"

But he immediately became wary again, "What do you want me to do?"

Meng Wan looked down and played with the chick clinging to his hand, his voice clear and calm, trailing off a little, "Don't worry—I won't ask you to kill or set fires. Just a small favor."

The Tong family, stuck in this remote town, were pretty conservative and old-fashioned. They couldn't take Meng Wan to the authorities because the top official in the county was a "husband slave," as everyone knew. And they couldn't find a chance to attack in secret, given what happened to Tong San's wife as a warning.

As for the sugar workshop, it was guarded day and night. The workers weren't stupid enough to betray their boss, especially since Meng Wan wasn't just their boss—he was generous and kind, and they now earned more than the men in the county.

Moreover, Meng Fulang's husband was the county magistrate. Between a county magistrate and a landowner, was there any need for comparison?

If Song Tingzhou had just arrived, he wouldn't have had such influence, but now it was a different story.

With the Tong family finding almost no opening, what else could they do?

Scare him.

In this era, gods and spirits were terrifying and respected. Just mentioning them could make one shiver even in broad daylight, like the fox spirit rumors in Changping or the mountain demon legends in Lingnan Town.

The Tong family first planned to gradually poison all the chickens in the coop halfway up the mountain, then stir up some supernatural trouble in the village. They'd have Tong Qing and a few others spread rumors to cause panic, then hire a fake Taoist priest to scare Meng Wan and the villagers.

This clumsy trick was the best plan Tong Da and the old patriarch could come up with. It wouldn't alarm the authorities, could scare Meng Wan, and make him break the contract and return the land.

Then the Tong family could use the connections and groundwork Meng Wan had laid to hire tenant farmers at low prices to grow sugar cane for them.

If they could also take over the sugar workshop, all the better. But if not, that Meng fellow could go find someone in Yangzhou to teach him how to build a sugar workshop—couldn't they do the same?

The second brother had already made contact with one of the seed sellers during his trip to Yangzhou. Once their sugar cane was planted, they'd bring that person to teach them how to build a workshop and make sugar!

The Tong family's plans were beautiful, but the first step had already hit a snag.

That useless Tong Qing hadn't even managed to poison a single chicken!

In short, there was no movement on the mountain. Tong Da grew anxious. Since others were unreliable, he called his own younger brother to secretly go to the village. But whether the one who returned would still be the same Tong Laowu was uncertain.

On March fifteenth, the villagers had all finished planting their fields. During the day, aside from weeding their plots, they had little to do. After a hearty lunch, they gathered under a tree in the village to chat and pass the time.

"Didn't Meng Fulang tell Old Chen earlier that the sugar workshop was starting to bring seedlings to the village? Why hasn't there been any movement all these days?"

"Yeah, without the sugar cane seedlings, I can't stop worrying."

"Who says? It'd be great if Meng Fulang could rent Master Tong's land for another thirty or forty years!"

"If only all this land belonged to Meng Fulang, sigh!" Being a tenant for the Tong family was truly hard, with the whole family suffering. The villagers were afraid of returning to those days.

Tong San's wife interjected, "I heard from my brother-in-law that since Meng Fulang's husband is an official, he can't buy land outside and can only buy in his hometown."

An older man snorted, "Even if he could buy, look how tightly Old Tong holds onto the land. They wouldn't sell to Meng Fulang. I wouldn't be surprised if in two years they start trying to take it back." After all, everyone could see that Meng Wan had made money growing sugar cane last year.

At this, the crowd buzzed with discussion.

"What do you think Tong the moneybags wanted with those named Tong, like Tong Qing, earlier?"

Among the crowd was one who had been approached, also named Tong. He curled his lips, "What could it be? They never share any benefits with us. Would good things come to us distant relatives? I didn't go at all that day!"

Not just him, several others chimed in. One said, "I didn't go either. Meng Fulang clearly doesn't like Tong the moneybags. When they called me, my husband grabbed my ear and told me not to go."

Others laughed at him, "Now your husband has become impressive, no wonder you listen to him. He works in Meng Fulang's sugar workshop, earns good money, and I heard he even got two chickens as a New Year bonus?"

That man was usually a rascal, thicker-skinned than others. Unashamed of being teased for obeying his husband, he raised his head and said, "Yeah, we just renovated our house. In a couple of days, I'm thinking about buying an ox cart. He works seven days and rests two, so I can drive the cart to take him to and from work."

The others mocked him on the surface, but inwardly they envied his family earning two incomes—and his husband's job paid wages all twelve months of the year.

Everyone was anxious about this year's sugar cane planting. Only the few families whose members worked in the sugar workshop remained calm.

If they couldn't plant sugar cane, they still had two mu of wasteland, enough to feed the family. Plus, what their wives and husbands earned from the workshop meant they had both land and money—no more being tenants for the landlord.

The conversation lulled for a moment, then someone spoke up again, "Didn't any of you named Tong go?"

"Tong Qing went, I think?"

"Also Tong Quan and Tong Fu went."

"Liu Laosi is Tong's son-in-law, right? He went too."

"Eh? How come we haven't seen them around these days?"

"Haven't seen them... There's a carriage coming in from outside—could it be hauling sugarcane seedlings?"

From here, they could see the village entrance. Spotting a carriage approaching, the crowd rushed over in a flurry.

The closer they got, the more disappointed the villagers became. It was the Tong family's carriage. As it drew near, they could see an elderly white-haired Taoist priest alighting, looking every bit an immortal.

The old Taoist jumped down from the carriage himself, followed by Tong Laoda and Tong Laowu, supported by the Tong family's servants.

Seeing so many villagers gathered around the carriage, the Taoist and Tong Laoda didn't seem surprised at all.

Tong Laoda alighted and said with a heavy sigh, "You've all been scared and worried these past few days, haven't you!"

Huh?

The villagers were a bit confused, but thought he might be referring to Meng Fulang's long-delayed sugarcane seedlings. Though they felt odd discussing their new landlord in front of the old one, since the landowner himself had initiated the conversation, they replied warmly.

"It's not exactly worry and fear... just a bit of concern..."

Tong Laoda wasn't really asking the villagers in detail; it was just a formality. He said with a look of deep concern, "When I heard about what happened in the village, I've been worried day and night. By chance, I came across Zhang Tianshi of Yunqing Temple in Yangzhou, who was passing through Heshan County, and I immediately invited him here to help resolve your troubles!"

Villagers: "..."

Villagers: "???"

Tong Laowu, following behind his elder brother, closed his eyes and covered his face with both hands, muffling his sighs.

Seeing that the villagers' expressions were nothing like those of people who had been haunted by demons and finally saved, Tong Laoda felt a strange unease, but still didn't suspect his own younger brother of deceiving him. Instead, he turned to the white-haired old Taoist and said, "Reverend, let's go to the mountain and have a look."

The Taoist flicked his fly whisk and struck a pose. "Benefactor Tong, please lead the way."

The Tong family's entourage—the old Taoist, Tong Laoda, Tong Laowu, Tong Laosan, and a crowd of servants—went up the mountain in full force, leaving the villagers staring blankly at each other.

"What did Tong the rich man mean by that?"

"No idea... Why are Tong Qing's husband, Tong Quan's wife, and the others following them?"

"The chicken coops where Meng Fulang raises chickens are on that mountain they're heading to, right? Should we go tell Meng Fulang?"

"Why are you still asking? Others have already gone."

"Those lackeys sure run fast... Wait for me!"

Meng Wan got word from the villagers but didn't show much anxiety. Casually and without hurry, he led Chu Ci and Xue Sheng up the mountain.

By the time they reached the top, Tao Da and his family were brandishing wooden sticks to drive people away.

Tong Laoda looked impatient. "There are evil spirits haunting the mountain. You should flee the mountain to save yourselves, yet you dare to block the reverend from performing his rites? Stand aside!"

The women and their spouses from the village who had come up with Tong Laoda were sitting on the ground, crying and cursing up a storm, their grief seemingly inconsolable, as if they had lost their husbands.

The loudest among them was Tong Qing's husband, whose emotions were the most intense. "All of you, move aside! My Tong Qing must have been bewitched by some demon on this mountain—he hasn't been home for three days! If anything happens to him, it'll be the Tao family's fault!"

His words made no sense, and Sister Tao laughed angrily. "If your Tong Qing is missing, go look for him—don't blame us! Is the man crippled or something? Can't he come and go on his own?"

Tong Qing's husband argued stubbornly, "I don't care! Tong Qing has been missing ever since he came up this mountain—it's definitely connected to you!"

"Exactly! Tong Quan has been missing for days too. There must be something strange in the mountains. Let the reverend through!"

The villagers who had come to watch suddenly understood—so that's why they hadn't seen those men around lately. Four grown men disappearing without a trace? And their families didn't even kick up a fuss?

They didn't bother to reason, just kept shoving the Tao family. The Taos held back, afraid of hurting them, and eventually let the group enter the chicken coop area.

Once inside, the old Taoist immediately pulled out a compass from the bundle strapped to his back. He took small, delicate steps as if walking on air, barely touching the ground.

Striking a pose, the old Taoist swept his compass around wildly, and the pointer actually stopped, pointing toward a large tree on the mountain.

"Careful! The demon is nearby!"

The old Taoist exclaimed under his breath, then drew a yellow talisman paper from his robe. Without any visible flame, he simply pinched the yellow paper between his fingers and gave it a slight shake—a burst of flame shot up and lit the paper.

The ashes of the burning yellow paper didn't scatter. The old Taoist flicked his sleeve, and the charred talisman drifted shakily toward the big tree, slowly descending only when it got close.

The crowd was stunned by the whole show.

This old Taoist is a master! Could there really be a demon?

Meng Wan clapped enthusiastically from the sidelines. "Reverend, that's seriously impressive!"

Seeing him come forward, Tong Laoda felt a surge of joy and hurried over to talk to him. "Meng Fulang, please don't take offense. Honestly, when I heard that evil spirits were hurting people in the village, I invited this reverend over to perform rituals. I heard that a ton of blood suddenly flooded my fields, and that lots of chickens died in the mountain coops. This has to be the work of demons!"