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Chapter 402 I'm Really the Great Demon King
This is as unbelievable as a cooked duck suddenly flying away... no, it's like a cooked duck jumping up and eating the chef in one gulp.

The curly-haired man seemed incredulous. He immediately stepped out the door, as if wanting to see the butcher who had been brutally murdered with his own eyes. The people behind him made way for him and followed, leaving only three or four people behind to guard the dark underground passage.

The established facts, of course, wouldn't change just because someone glanced at them a few more times. The curly-haired man quickly returned with a ferocious expression, and the group behind him also showed expressions of terror:

"Aman is really dead."

"Was he really killed by the saintess? This has never happened before."

"What should we do next..."

The leader immediately gave the order, pointing to a few of the stronger-looking men: "You seven, come with me and chase after them..."

Then he pointed to the few women present: "You few go out and find the village chief, and also call back the three who went out to carry Bai Sha's body."

Finally, the curly-haired man turned his gaze to the last four people who hadn't been assigned any tasks: "You guys stay here and guard the well and this place. Today has been truly unbelievable..."

He quickly finished making the arrangements and then strode towards the hinged door.

A cold wind blew in from the dark opening. The curly-haired man crouched down and jumped in, followed closely by seven other men who rushed into the dark opening one by one. Three women turned and ran out of the room, rushing towards the well, eager to bring reinforcements as soon as possible.

The last four men stood in the center of the room, looking at each other nervously for a while before they began to speak.

“We’ll just guard the gate… guard this place and the well. Do we need to lock this hinged door again? What if that thing comes in from the outside? The village chief always makes us lock it when he goes out from here.”

“We don’t need to lock it this time, right? We don’t have a key. What if they come back and we can’t open the door? Ah Man does have one, but that woman took his key.”

“Alright, then the two of us will go and guard the wellhead, and the two of you will stay here—hopefully this won’t happen again. I don’t know if we can still catch them after all this time.”

Gu Mian saw two men leave the room through the crack.

He was in the closet.

He hadn't left the room at all; he had simply lifted the carpet and unlocked the hinged door to create the illusion that he had left.

After all, Gu Mian was new to the place and didn't know where the dark cave entrance led. What if it was just a warehouse down there? Wouldn't the people who caught up later be caught in the act?

Although Gu Mian absolutely denied having any connection with "turtle".

The candlelight shone through the cracks into the closet, illuminating a small patch of darkness. Gu Mian held a meter and a half-long shovel tightly in his hand; it was a tool he had captured from the enemy. In addition, he also found the village chief's logbook in the closet, similar to the class logbook written by the class monitor in school.

But this is no good place to look at the logbook. People who leave can come back at any time. He needs to find a chance to escape this hellhole first. Gu Mian looked outside again. The other two people had been gone for almost two minutes. It was about time.

"If I can't beat four people, how can I not beat two?" Gu Mian thought to herself as she tried to control her character to jump out of the closet.

He wanted to surprise the two people outside who were discussing 'what to eat tomorrow'.

But at that moment, the screen suddenly flickered and went black for a second; Gu Mian stared intently at the screen and noticed that the view outside the gap in the closet had changed slightly after that instant, and the layout of the room had returned to a normal house.

Outside, the firelight still flickered, but it was no longer the glow of candles; countless torches had somehow entered the house, and Gu Mian saw a group of people dressed in black holding torches. They had the same strange symbols tattooed on their bodies, and their mouths opened and closed as if they were shouting something in unison; unfortunately, the subtitle team suddenly went on strike at this moment, and Gu Mian had no way of knowing why they were so excited.

He saw a woman hanging on the wall, an iron hook used for hanging pork piercing her ribs, suspending her there. Blood flowed down the white wall, leaving a small pool of crimson blood on the rough wooden floor. Dismembered bodies were being distributed by men in black. Gu Mian saw a man's head being passed from one hand to another, finally impaled on a thick, sharpened stick, raised high like a victory flag.

Everyone laughed.

For some inexplicable reason, Gu Mian seemed to understand what one of them was saying—

"We killed the saint's parents."

The bloody scene flashed by in an instant. A few seconds later, Gu Mian saw that the view outside the crack had returned to normal. It was still the simple mud house, and the same two men guarding the house.

The two were still talking when the subtitles resumed working, and Gu Mian saw the subtitles appear below.

"The Holy Maiden ran away, so what are we going to eat tomorrow? Should we eat Ah Man and the others first?"

"We should be able to catch them..."

"Although I don't know what happened just now..." Gu Mian muttered to herself as she controlled the character, and then jumped out of the closet in a magnificent manner, "but there still has to be a surprise."

However, this sense of grandeur was only Gu Mian's own perception, though she was also pleasantly surprised.

Judging from the wide-eyed expressions of the two people in front of her, Gu Mian's attempt to create a surprise didn't seem to be very successful.

They were just expecting the Holy Maiden to be captured and brought back, but now that she's right in front of them, they're acting so terrified. It's really baffling.

Gu Mian steered her character forward swiftly, then raised the shovel in her hand: "If it doesn't work, it doesn't work. Never mind, let's get out of here first."

The men's cries for help appeared at the bottom of the screen.

"Help!"

"She's still here!"

They no longer had the mind to discuss what to eat tomorrow, nor did they have the opportunity.

The two sallow-faced, emaciated men were clearly no match for the fierce Gu Mian wielding a shovel. In no time, their heads began to deform, and they lay motionless on the ground. Gu Mian then added a few more shovelfuls before finally stopping.

"It feels like I'm hitting someone a bit easier this time than before?" Gu Mian paused for a moment, then controlled her character to walk towards the hinged door and snapped the rusty lock shut.

He couldn't defeat those who went in if they suddenly returned, so he locked the door first.

Gu Mian has decided to eliminate these two people first, then the two people at the wellhead, and then go directly up from the wellhead. This way, she can avoid running into Curly's team as much as possible.

However, the cries made by the two people inside the house before they died should have alerted the people in the well, who may be heading this way or have simply run out to find someone to bring back.

"In either case...escape is necessary."

Gu Mian looked into the dark passage and quickly walked out.

"Did you hear that sound just now?" In the darkness, two men were running one after the other toward the village chief's house.

“No, we just got to the well and you said you heard something and had to come back to check, but I didn’t hear anything. I haven’t even had a chance to rest tonight. I was so happy to see the Holy Maiden, but who knew she’d cause such a mess. When we catch her again, we’ll have to tie her up properly and chop her up.” The man behind him spat as he spoke. At that moment, the fork in the road appeared before them.

To the right is the saint's mortuary, where the butcher's corpse still lies across the passageway; to the left is the village chief's room.

The two of them shifted their feet and walked into the left fork in the road.

"I wonder if they can catch that woman. Oh well, even if they can't catch her for now, there's still other food to eat. This time we've got a lot more food than usual."

"But the Holy Maiden's generosity continues unabated..."

The sound behind him abruptly stopped. At the same time, the man walking in front heard an indescribable sound coming from behind. It sounded like a sharp blade cutting into flesh, like the sound of a skull breaking, or like a ghost slowly approaching from behind.

He suddenly stopped and twisted his stiff neck to look back.

But its head stopped turning forever after it had only turned halfway.

A sixth body has now been found underground.

Gu Mian emerged from the darkness. He had been hiding in the right fork in the road, intending to ambush these two from behind. Fortunately, he got his chance.

"Now I can finally escape in peace." Gu Mian said, holding up the bloodstained murder weapon and looking at the corpse on the ground. This time, it seemed to go particularly smoothly.

Without wasting any time, Gu Mian immediately ran towards the well after dealing with the two men.

While escaping, he also took the opportunity to flip through the village chief's record book in his inventory. The handwriting on these records was of varying shades, suggesting that they were recorded at different times.

The Crusaders killed the saint's parents, and the saint witnessed it all from a closet. Oh, what a poor girl. Is it because she was the reincarnation of a goddess that they went so crazy?

Learning from past mistakes, the saintess must not harbor hatred; we can only advise her to let go of her sorrow.

The next section is a darker color, Gu Mian said, looking down as she moved forward.

Today, the elder brother who had been with the saintess for many years was found in the well. When we found him, he was already emitting a foul stench, and a large rock had been pushed to the well's edge by someone. Although the saintess's expression was calm, I knew that the rock had nothing to do with her; she didn't have that much strength.
The well also bears the markings of the Crusaders, indicating that they have not yet ceased their revenge against the goddess.

But the saintess cannot harbor hatred; we can only advise her to let go of her sorrow.

The next paragraph features handwriting in a slightly different color.

The wicked finally got their comeuppance; most of them perished in a mysterious fire, and the survivors were caught by us as they fled here. They prostrated themselves before us, begging for mercy.
The kind villagers forgave their misdeeds towards others, and the saintly woman, of course, did not pursue the matter; she magnanimously forgave these erring children.
They were settled in the easternmost part, near the cliff.

Today, someone actually tried to take the Holy Maiden away from here. They were orphans living next door to her. This land, which is so prosperous because of the Holy Maiden's protection, would be destroyed. Of course, we brought them back.

The saintess left only because she was bewitched. We burned the orphan girl who bewitched the saintess at the easternmost gallows, hoping to serve as a warning to others.
But the saintess seems a little different.

There is a long blank space after that.

Just when Gu Mian thought the record would end there, the last line appeared before his eyes.

This is a line of hastily written characters, as if the ink is about to run out—

The legend is true: those who harbor hatred will eventually become demons.

The exit was now right in front of us.

Gu Mian stared at the last line of the village chief's notes and complained, "This can't be called harboring hatred, can it? This is a blood feud."

“What if my parents were killed in front of me…” Gu Mian pondered for a while before suddenly remembering, “No, I don’t have parents.”

Instead of dwelling on questions like where her parents had gone, Gu Mian began to seriously consider the village chief's records.

The last line, "Those who harbor hatred will eventually become devils," likely refers to the fact that the saint became abnormal after experiencing the three events mentioned above, doing things that only a devil could do.

Perhaps that's why the village was abandoned, and why people had to live huddled underground.

Thinking of this, Gu Mian remembered the scene he had seen in the closet before. It was probably a fragment of the saintess's memory. Since the character he was controlling was the saintess, he could see the past scenes when he was hiding in the closet.

"Speaking of which..." Gu Mian had already arrived at the wellhead. He even clicked the button to climb up, and his hands were already on the long ladder on the well wall.

"The village chief's records say the saintess has become a devil, so why am I still the saintess?" Compared to a weak girl, Gu Mian is more used to being a devil.

"And after seeing the fragments of memories about my parents' deaths, it seems like I'm much more comfortable fighting people now," Gu Mian said, recalling what had just happened. "That's right, it's much easier. Could it be related to the fragments I saw in the closet? The village chief's records say that the Holy Maiden turned into a demon after experiencing the deaths of her parents, brother, and friends. Does that mean that as long as I see a fragment, my hatred level will increase, and then I'll become stronger?"

After becoming stronger, I won't be afraid even if I directly encounter the Curly Hair Squad.

He had already seen his parents' deaths in the closet.

The elder brother died... in a well.

Gu Mian was standing in the well at this moment, but no memories were triggered.

He looked down and saw that the reddish-brown scratches were still attached to the bottom of the well wall. Only half of these scratches were visible, while the rest were buried in the soil.

Gu Mian controlled her character to descend the long ladder, then took out a long shovel from her inventory.

After taking out the fetus, he was pleasantly surprised to find that the ground beneath his feet indeed had a digging option.

Without wasting any time, Gu Mian immediately picked up the shovel and began her hard work.

The brother wasn't buried very deep. After digging for a while, Gu Mian pried up a white object with five holes in it. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a skull.

Although it's unclear why my brother's body is still here, now is not the time to investigate that.

Gu Mian quickly dug downwards again, and then the entire skeleton appeared on the screen.

Oh no, Gugu is doomed! Everyone, please vote for me!

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(End of this chapter)