Chapter 230: Buffet

Chapter 230: Self-Service Buffet

The snow wolf had been raised by Chu Ci since it was small; he was so startled that he immediately dropped the injured man to pry open the wolf's jaws. Although the snow wolf didn't understand, it obediently opened its mouth wide for Chu Ci to inspect.

The others were also alarmed. "How is it, Xiao Ci? Did it swallow it?"

"Quick, find a way to make the snow wolf expel it—that snake looked poisonous."

"I'll go buy croton seeds!"

Tao Shiyi had been following Song Tingzhou on his travels outside these past few days and had already learned some secrets, so he naturally understood the danger of the little black snake. Moreover, given the mysterious scene just now, anyone could see the strangeness of Lu Chuang.

Moved, he knelt on one knee beside the snow wolf. "Good wolf, you saved my life. From now on, you are my sworn brother, Tao Shiyi! Wolf brother, you absolutely cannot die!"

Chu Ci, who had been feeling rather downcast worrying about the snow wolf: "..."

Tao Ba and Tao Shi, Tao Shiyi's actual blood brothers: "..."

"Uh... ah!"

A scream broke the awkward atmosphere. Everyone saw Lu Chuang clutching his chest, his face contorted in agony as he fell to the ground. The tattoos on his body seemed to come alive, writhing beneath his skin. The black lines raced from his chest to his face and all over his body at lightning speed. Lu Chuang appeared to be enduring immense pain, letting out anguished howls.

At the same time, Chu Ci noticed that the snow wolf seemed to be acting strangely. He quickly lifted its eyelids and looked. Dark thin lines were darting chaotically in its pupils, and the lines were growing more numerous, nearly covering the snow wolf's crimson wolf eyes. The scene was very similar to Lu Chuang's condition. However, those black lines did not spread throughout the snow wolf's body; they seemed confined to its eyes.

Chu Ci remained relatively calm. He opened his portable medicine kit and took out a set of silver needles of varying lengths and thicknesses. Before he could stick them into the snow wolf, he could visibly see the black lines in its eyes fading away one by one, disappearing. The snow wolf's eyes returned to their special crimson color, the same as its mutated father's wolf eyes.

Chu Ci breathed a sigh of relief but was still not entirely at ease. He took out a small, delicate dagger and made a shallow cut on the snow wolf's sturdy leg. Meeting the snow wolf's aggrieved look, he collected the blood in a small bamboo tube, then added two kinds of medicinal powder. The color of the blood did not change.

After applying medicine and carefully bandaging the wound on the snow wolf's leg, Chu Ci patted its head soothingly and gestured to Song Tingzhou, who had come down from behind the desk. "He's fine, Foster Father."

Song Tingzhou bent slightly to stroke the snow wolf's fur, then said to everyone, "Don't approach Lu Chuang for now. There's still something strange about him."

The yamen runners near Lu Chuang immediately scattered. The entire courtroom suddenly fell silent, the only sound being Lu Chuang's beast-like heavy breathing.

The injured elder brother from the Gao family seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

Song Tingzhou suddenly spoke in a slow, hesitant tone, "I know you are from the Miao people. I understand a little of the Miao language. You can talk to me."

The others looked confused—what was the magistrate saying?

Only that young man's eyes lit up. He quickly replied in the Miao language, his voice even more magnetic and seductive than Song Tingzhou's, "He's been poisoned by a gu worm. Now it's backfiring, and he's about to die."

After speaking, he looked at the snow wolf with a complex expression. The wolf, which should have died from the poison, was now lively and rubbing against Chu Ci.

Song Tingzhou only had a rough understanding of the Miao language, but he grasped the young man's general meaning.

"Gu worm?" He frowned deeply. As an orthodox official who had passed the imperial examinations and believed in Confucian and Mencian teachings, in his cognitive system, gu magic was categorized as evil arts of ghosts and gods, existing outside orthodox Confucian concepts.

The Miao people had lived deep in the mountains for a long time, isolated from the world. This year, he had originally planned to send people to investigate the Miao and Yao villages to re-register them. Now, this happened to be a coincidence. But if the villagers really knew how to use gu, this trip might be dangerous.

"I want to take him back to the Miao village." The young Miao man suddenly pointed at Lu Chuang and said.

Song Tingzhou instinctively replied, "You want to save him?"

The young Miao man said with confusion, "How could that be? I want to use the remaining gu worm in his body to find out who he worships. The Miao people's gu is not meant to harm people." In fact, this was also the purpose of his trip out of the mountains.

His master was too old, and the ceremony for the transition between the old and new priests was approaching. Someone in their village had suddenly been cursed with gu. So he had chased the trail all the way to Deqing County. Who would have thought that just as he found some traces of the gu worm, he would be tricked into going home by Zheng Er?

Now he wanted to take Lu Chuang (barely alive) back to the village first, identify which Miao village's gu technique had been used on him, and then go there to confront them face to face.

"Can you remove the gu?" Song Tingzhou asked the question he cared about most.

The young Miao man shook his head honestly. "I can't, but the saintess in our village can. Not all Miao people can use gu; usually only the successive saintesses can. That man must have been given the gu because he was worshipping a saintess."

Although he looked honest and reliable, his nature seemed particularly simple and innocent due to his lack of exposure to the world. Since Song Tingzhou had saved him, he answered every question without any precaution.

Song Tingzhou couldn't help but think of Meng Wan, recalling the scheming thoughts and feigned obedience and cleverness when he first arrived at the Song family. If it were Wan'er, he would first subtly pry into everything about the other person, then make up a background to bluff.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly, then he habitually composed his face. "This man has taken lives unjustly. If he was instigated by someone or worshipped some evil person, he has committed the crime of practicing evil arts. According to the laws of Yu, any shaman or witch who falsely invokes evil spirits, writes talismans, recites spells, or falsely claims to be a celestial or divine child, or practices any heterodox and perverse arts, or privately teaches such evil techniques, causing reckless harm to human life—the ringleader is to be executed by death by a thousand cuts; accomplices are to be executed by strangulation."

The young man was unimpressed. "Our Miao village has its own way of punishing our people."

"As long as one lives on the land of Yu, they are a subject of Yu. Since they are subjects, they must abide by the national law." Song Tingzhou ordered his men to properly handle Lu Chuang, who was now barely breathing, and sent Tao Shiyi, the fastest on foot, to take his prefectural magistrate token and deploy troops from the outskirts of West Wu Prefecture.

Although the soldiers of Heshan County had left with Qin Jiao, there were still three thousand garrison soldiers in West Wu Prefecture. No matter what evil spirits or demons appeared, how could they be afraid of them?

Five days later, Song Tingzhou had finished judging the case. He suspended Fei Jing from his duties and left the deputy magistrate in temporary charge.

Chu Ci used poison to suppress the gu worm inside Lu Chuang, but it was only a drop in the bucket, at most prolonging his life for a while.

The gu worm and poison had ravaged Lu Chuang's body, leaving him completely paralyzed and unable to move. Song Tingzhou brought him, Chu Ci, the snow wolf, and the Tao brothers along with the young Miao man back to their mountain village.

First, because the Miao village might be able to remove the gu worm from Lu Chuang, making him reveal the person behind it—which Miao village he worshipped. Second, if he absolutely refused to speak, according to the young Miao man, they could take him back to the village saintess and analyze which branch of the Miao people had placed the gu worm, then trace it.

The young Miao man called himself the next priest, named Chi Yu. Their clan was not skilled in using gu; the saintess also held the duty of healing and saving people.

Moreover, according to the elders in the clan, their branch was originally the most valiant and skilled in warfare among the entire Miao people. Later, during the dynasty before the establishment of Yu, there were constant internal wars. Today a new ruler, tomorrow a new king, the entire clan was affected, living in constant danger. A warrior from their branch led all the Miao people to migrate from Sichuan and Guizhou to Lingnan. Too many clansmen died on the road. After arriving in Lingnan, the Miao people hid deep in the mountains to nurse their strength, and this hiding lasted for two hundred years.

At first, the various Miao villages still maintained close contact, but gradually contact ceased. Only during ancestor worship would the priests set out from their respective villages to gather together.

Chi Yu's village was located in a beautiful mountainous area with rugged, winding paths. Some places didn't even have roads. They left their horses and carriages at the foot of the mountain and entered on foot.

Song Tingzhou measured the land with his eyes, pondering that building roads would be difficult. The Miao village was different from the Zhuang village; its location was too remote, and the population too sparse. Rather than building a road into the mountains, it would be better to relocate everyone and let them live mixed with the Han people.

Starting at dawn, they finally reached Chi Yu's village by dusk. The village looked very small, only half the size of the Na Gan village in the Zhuang area, with no more than a hundred households in total.

Chi Yu was very happy to return to his village after experiencing the dangers of the secular world. He was at most eighteen, with a simple nature, and his footsteps were light.

Chu Ci looked at the bandaged wounds on his body in confusion, curious if all Miao people were like that.

Since entering the village, the snow wolf had stayed close to Chu Ci and Song Tingzhou. It would first growl lowly in front of Chu Ci with bared teeth, then run to Song Tingzhou's side, ears perked up and nose twitching.

Chu Ci lightly patted its furry head and gestured to Song Tingzhou, "Godfather, something seems wrong. The snow wolf is on alert."

"Don't worry, our people are at the foot of the mountain." Song Tingzhou stared sharply at the seemingly empty village ahead.

Chi Yu also sensed something amiss. He quickly ran toward the interior of the village, with Song Tingzhou and the others following closely.

As they went deeper, they heard voices—all speaking in the Miao language—and could detect a note of frustration.

They looked up and saw in the center of the village a well that the villagers normally used for drinking water. It was twice as wide as an ordinary well, its walls built of stone. A bucket was still hanging on the windlass, as if it had been used recently.

But now, the mouth of the well was covered with snakes of all colors—brightly colored, multicolored, visibly poisonous.

A large group of Miao people had formed a circle about two meters away from the well, holding torches made of special materials, trying to drive away the snakes in frustration.

But for every snake they drove away, three more emerged from the well, endless as if inexhaustible. Some people were bitten by the venomous snakes when they weren't careful. A young girl wearing a silver crown was treating the wounded.

"Chi Yu, why did you take so long to come back? Who are they? Friends you made outside?" Finally, someone noticed Chi Yu and Song Tingzhou's party in their free time, looking very curious about them.

The snake drivers also heard them speaking, turned around with a bright smile and called out to Chi Yu, "Chi Yu, was it fun outside? Take me to see it one day... Ouch! Holy Maiden, save me! I was bitten!"

A companion kicked him out of the circle and stepped in to take his place, grumbling, "Why are you getting distracted? How can you still tease Chi Yu at a time like this?"

Seeing the situation was wrong, Chi Yu quickly walked over to the Holy Maiden, "Holy Maiden, what exactly is going on? Where is the High Priest?"

The Holy Maiden was greatly relieved to see him return. Their village had too few people. Every extra person was a help, especially if it was Chi Yu. "People from another village put a curse on our village. The High Priest was cursed while trying to save someone, and he’s lying under Baojin’s house."

Chi Yu was greatly alarmed, "What! The High Priest is cursed?" He hurried to the nearest bamboo building to check on the High Priest.

Song Tingzhou and his group stayed where they were. Though all eyes were on them, the Qiu clan people in their blue sleeveless clothes and shorts showed no malice—only looked at them with curiosity.

Song Tingzhou took the lead, asking for a torch to help drive away the snakes, and the Tao brothers followed suit.

The well had water, so setting it on fire was impossible. Driving them away one by one was no long-term solution.

Chu Ci gestured briefly to Song Tingzhou, opened the bag on his back, took out several packets of powder, and mixed them together.

"Miss, please ask everyone to place their torches on the ground in a circle. My son wants to use poison to drive away the snakes," Song Tingzhou said to the Holy Maiden in broken Qiu language.

The Holy Maiden looked curiously at Chu Ci, and because they were brought by Chi Yu, she surprisingly trusted them and agreed.

She called out to her people to follow Song Tingzhou’s instructions and placed the torches on the ground in a circle. Occasionally, a fearless poisonous snake would dart through the ring of fire and be swatted dead with tools.

In some places, several snakes crawled over together, extinguishing the flames, but the unique plant smell of the torches also slowed the snakes down. Snow Wolf then bit them one by one like snacks, and if you were close, you could hear a crunching sound from its mouth.

Seeing this, Chu Ci waved for the others to step back, covered his mouth and nose with a handkerchief, and began sprinkling the powder onto the torches. A faint crackling sound came from the torches, and the snakes near them began to die in droves.

By the time Chu Ci finished his round, the colorful dead snakes had buried the torches, but the smoke rose uncontrollably. It was extremely potent—any snake that touched it died instantly.

Song Tingzhou took off his thin outer shirt, imitating Chu Ci—covering his mouth and nose with one hand while fanning the smoke inward with the other.

The others quickly caught on, using fans, leaves, clothes, hats—anything they could—to fan the smoke inward. Snow Wolf, completely unaffected, patrolled for any stragglers, eating them like a buffet.

After another incense stick’s time, all the snakes were dead. For some reason, no more snakes crawled out of the well.

Snow Wolf pawed at the pile of dead snakes and let out a bored burp.

Before everyone could cheer, Chi Yu’s voice came from the bamboo building, "Holy Maiden, come in quickly! The High Priest is dying." That was the old man who had raised him. Chi Yu's voice trembled with tears.