Secular world: My destiny has no taboos

Chapter 248: Natural Disasters and Human Hearts
Lin Beixuan led his men into the village. When he looked up, a feeling of desolation and desolation came over him.

The village was very quiet, with only the footsteps of Lin Beixuan and others echoing.

Wu Huo looked around but found no signs of anyone having been in the village.

"Commander-in-chief, it seems that no one has lived in this village for a long time."

Judging from the broken walls and dilapidated houses, it is obvious that this place has been abandoned for a long time.

Lin Beixuan nodded without saying anything. His eyes passed through the collapsed houses and fell on several broken shrines.

In the secular world, people will more or less offer something in their homes. Some of them are the souls of respected people in the village after their death, similar to the land of Huangshi Village.

Some are more straightforward, worshipping famous and promising secular gods, some of whom are good and some evil.

Both of them have one common feature, which is that they can protect the believers who worship them.

Even the evil gods among the secular gods will not be ambiguous on this point.

After all, if one can't even protect his own believers, how can he collect offerings?

In this world full of evil spirits at night, no one will continue to serve a secular god that cannot bring them protection.

Lin Beixuan walked to the broken shrine, squatted down and looked at the statue inside.

It was a fox that had lost half of its head and arms. It was wearing a monk's robe and had a gourd hanging around its waist.

It is neither a venerable land nor a well-known secular god, but...

"The people of this village used to worship the immortal Hu?"

Lin Beixuan raised his eyebrows and was about to withdraw his gaze from the shrine, but suddenly he noticed a gleam of light in the eyes of the broken fox statue.

"Is he not dead yet... or is there still a little bit of soul left?"

Lin Beixuan felt a little confused, and then he saw the light in the fox statue's eyes gradually rising, and the shadow of a lying fox gathered in the niche.

The fox shadow slowly opened its eyes and looked at Lin Beixuan.

"But the court finally sent someone?"

Its tone was gentle and sounded very weak.

"The Commander-in-Chief..."

Wu Huo also noticed something strange happening with Lin Beixuan and hurried over.

The fox shadow in the shrine seemed to be a little uncomfortable with Wu Huo's murderous aura, and it seemed to be disappearing.

"Don't come over yet, let me have a good chat with this guy." Lin Beixuan raised his hand expressionlessly to repel Wu Huo's action.

Upon hearing this, Wu Huo had no choice but to stay where he was, staring at the fox shadow in the shrine, fearing that his commander would be ambushed by this little god.

However, he forgot that Lin Beixuan's strength was far stronger than his.

Others also noticed the situation here and gathered around.

The fox shadow became even more frightened when seeing this. It curled up in the shrine and stared at Lin Beixuan, as if expecting his reply.

However, Lin Beixuan just shook his head: "I am not from the court."

The fox's spiritual light dimmed noticeably after hearing this.

Lin Beixuan would not miss the opportunity to ask the other party, and asked while sitting on the ruins nearby.

"This village is not far from the border of Luozhou. It should have been the last to be affected by the starving ghosts. Why didn't everyone escape?"

In his opinion, even if the starving ghosts spread to the whole Luozhou, this process would take time. During this period, with the geographical location of Zhangcun, it is completely possible to leave the border and go to Qingzhou or Changzhou.

However, the silver and money were found in some households in the village, but the villagers were unable to escape, and even the shrines where they worshipped the gods were destroyed.

The fox shadow sighed.

"You can't escape!"

"Since the source of the starving ghosts became powerful, the entire Luozhou has been transformed into a ghostland. Apart from the hungry ghosts, if people want to escape, they will end up getting lost in the ghostland. The lucky ones can still escape, but the unlucky ones may end up being eaten by the starving ghosts while walking."

"Why does it do this?" Lin Beixuan frowned and asked in confusion.

"Because we are all the food that it keeps locked up in its house." The fox's shadow spoke with some sadness: "That starving ghost hates everyone in the world, so he wants to make everyone become like him."

"Do you know why there are more and more starving ghosts?"

"Because when a certain emotion reaches its extreme, even ghosts and gods will be affected!"

"The drought in Luozhou killed countless people. Although they died with resentment, they would not easily turn into starving ghosts. This is because the source of the starving ghosts continued to pollute Luozhou. It cursed this land, so those who died of starvation would turn into starving ghosts."

"There was once a secular god who wanted to eliminate the source, but was swallowed by it instead, making its power even greater."

Lin Beixuan looked at the barren and cracked earth beneath his feet, and a sentence came to his mind.

People can die in any way except starving to death!
Being starved to death is countless times more cruel than any other way of dying. It not only tramples upon one's dignity as a human being, but also causes one to accumulate resentment due to constant hunger, making it easier for one to turn into a powerful evil spirit after death.

This is also the reason why death row prisoners are fed a full meal before being executed.

"So the destruction of your shrine was caused by starving ghosts?" Lin Beixuan asked.

The fox shadow shook his head: "It was broken by someone. What's the point of worshipping a god that can't bring protection to people!"

"But my physical body was killed by the starving ghosts, and now only a bit of my soul is left on this broken shrine." The fox shadow said helplessly.

Compared to those real secular gods, these kinds of spirits that are worshipped by people are actually nothing but elves guarding the house.

Lin Beixuan stood up upon hearing this, and the forbidden area formation pattern appeared on his palm.

"If you don't want to stay in this shrine any longer, you can enter my domain. At least you don't have to worry about your soul disappearing."

The fox shadow looked at Lin Beixuan's palm, and felt a little moved.

Ever since its physical body was killed by the starving ghost, it had been hiding in the shrine relying on the last bit of incense in the village. If Lin Beixuan and the others had not shown up, it would not have been able to hold on for long, but it was a little worried that it would be deceived by the other party.

In a dilemma.

Seeing the fox shadow lying there in silence, Lin Beixuan smiled.

"It doesn't matter if you don't want to join."

Just when he was about to take back the forbidden area, the fox shadow saw the situation and shouted loudly impatiently.

"No... Thank you very much, sir! Hu Mei is willing to enter your domain!"

As it spoke, its spirit floated into the forbidden area in Lin Beixuan's palm like a wisp of green smoke.

As a result, I regretted it not long after entering the forbidden area.

This is not a good place at all, it is simply the underworld! Hu Mei's eyes widened. Nourished by the Yin Qi of the red spider lily, he was not as weak as before, and immediately struggled to escape.

However, two ghost soldiers suddenly appeared beside it twice, dragged it into the gates of hell, and reminded it in its ears at the same time.

"My general is kind enough to save you. Please don't be ungrateful. The general will have something to ask you in the future."

"..."

After taking Hu Mei into the forbidden area, Lin Beixuan did not plan to stay in Zhang Village any longer, so he left with Wu Huo and his party.

"The next destination is... Pingyang County." Lin Beixuan muttered as he looked at the map in his hand.

With their speed, it should be dark when they arrive in Pingyang County and they will be able to settle down in the county.

As the group walked on the barren land, they would occasionally encounter wandering starving ghosts.

Most of these starving ghosts were the foodless minions that Lin Beixuan met at the beginning. They belonged to the lowest level of starving ghosts. There were different numbers of them, and they could be used as training targets.

Most of these hungry minions are only slightly stronger than ordinary people, but among the strange people from Qingyun Village who follow him, even the weakest one has learned a few tricks from them.

But Lin Beixuan did not allow them to use it, and instead wanted to strangle the enemy with formation attack techniques.

After all, on a real battlefield, each using their own means to fight the enemy is far less powerful than a united army. Just a charge can make it impossible for individual means to be used.

So Lin Beixuan asked them to start practicing from forming a formation. Actual combat is the best teacher. In the face of life and death crisis, no one dared to slack off.

It was soon dusk, and the already gray sky of Luozhou had become even darker. From time to time, the sound of cold wind whistled around, making people feel cold in their hearts.

The nights in Naju are extremely dangerous.

Fortunately, just as night was about to fall, the group successfully arrived in Pingyang County.

This county town was also deserted, even worse than Zhangcun. The city gate looked like it had been knocked down by a gigantic monster, and it was covered with cracks and a huge dent.

Countless bricks and stones were piled up nearby, and long drag marks remained on the ground from the city gate to the inside. It seemed as if the entire county town had been breached by such a monster.

The crowd entered the city along the recess, and all they saw was ruins and debris, with human corpses scattered everywhere on the roadside.

If Zhangcun is the entire village that has disappeared, then Pingyang County in front of us was once a hell on earth.

Lin Beixuan walked in front, avoiding a skeleton at his feet, and looked around the city with a frown.

His eyesight was much better than Wu Huo and others. He could see clearly even at night. The number of people who died in Pingyang County was far more than what they saw.

"These people don't look like they died of starvation, but rather like they were bitten to death." Shen Tingmiao walked up to Lin Beixuan and said.

Lin Beixuan lowered his head and looked carefully at the bones on the ground, and found that many of the bones had marks similar to those left by human teeth.

"Were all these people bitten to death by starving ghosts?"

It's just a peripheral county town that is so tragic, I can't imagine how terrible the areas closer to the center will be.

Lin Beixuan arranged some people to find a place to rest in the city, while he and Shen Tingmiao looked around.

He took Hu Mei out of the forbidden area and asked.

"Do you know Pingyang County?"

Hu Mei looked around the ruins and then nodded.

"I know them. I have many relatives who work as shamans in this city." Hu Mei said sadly, "Before my physical body was killed, I heard that Pingyang County was massacred by the Xie's men. I didn't expect it to be true!"

"Xie Chen?"

"It is a starving ghost that looks like the legendary Xiezhi. It is extremely large, covered with thick black hair, and has a single horn on its head."

"I didn't expect you knew this." Lin Beixuan was a little surprised. He guessed that Hu Xian should know something, but he didn't expect that he could even describe the appearance of Xie Qian.

"Of course I know. Our Hu Xian family has a unique secret method. If another Hu Xian dies in the family, the last scene of his death can be passed on to Grandfather."

"Then Grandpa will immediately send a ghost messenger to inform us of the news."

"Did your great-grandfather tell you anything else?"

Lin Beixuan grabbed Hu Mei, he felt that he should be able to get more information from him.

Hu Mei's life was now half in the hands of Lin Beixuan, so he did not dare to hide it and said frankly: "Grandfather once reminded us to abandon our believers early, not to be dragged down, and quickly return to Sheshan."

"It was because I failed to leave in time that my body was killed by the starving ghosts, leading to my current fate."

As Hu Mei spoke, his tone was somewhat lost. He had tried his best to protect the villagers of Zhang Village, but he did not expect that in the end his shrine would be destroyed by his own believers.

"I didn't expect you to be such a kind person."

Lin Beixuan let go of Hu Mei's hand and let the other person follow him.

Hu Mei didn't think about escaping. He found that although the other party's forbidden area looked terrifying, they didn't do anything to it.

On the contrary, considering that only a wisp of soul is left in it, it is safest to stay inside.

So Lin Beixuan quickly searched Pingyang County while Hu Mei told Lin Beixuan some things she knew.

Listening to Hu Mei's narration, Lin Beixuan had a deeper understanding of the situation in Luozhou.

Because Zhang Village was the last group of people to suffer from the disaster in Luozhou, many things that happened before had been heard by it through various channels, so the information obtained from Hu Mei can basically represent the entire process of the Luozhou starving ghost incident.

It turns out that the reason why Luozhou suffered such a severe drought and famine, in addition to the impact of natural disasters itself, was more seriously an experiment conducted by the imperial court.

Originally, the drought was not that serious. However, the governor of Luozhou at that time followed the instructions of a geomancer from the imperial court and wanted to use Luozhou as the starting point to forcibly continue the dragon vein that had been severed for generations.

It turned out that this geomancer was a half-baked one. Instead of continuing the dragon vein, he destroyed the geomantic energy of Luozhou. The turbid geomantic energy of the entire Luozhou rose and dissipated, making the drought even worse. No rain fell for two consecutive years.

In order to conceal the incident, the governor of Luozhou and the geomancer watched many refugees starve to death, but they used methods to cover up the secret so that the imperial court of all dynasties would not know about it.

Landlord families also took advantage of the food shortage to drive up food prices and forcibly buy people's land. Corrupt officials colluded with each other to embezzle the original relief food, further exacerbating the famine.

Finally one day.

When the despair and suffering on the land of Luozhou accumulated to the extreme, the first starving ghost appeared. It was the source of all the starving ghosts in this famine.

With the appearance of this starving ghost, the souls of those who died of hunger turned into starving ghosts and followed it. Driven by it, one county after another was breached, and soon the disease spread to the entire Luozhou.

By the time the local master and the governor reacted and reported the incident to the court, it was already too late.

The starving ghosts have already brought with them a tremendous force, devouring large areas of Luozhou. Countless lives have either died in the mouths of the starving ghosts or become new starving ghosts and poured into this huge turmoil.

They devoured the culprit state governor and geomancer, devoured the landlord families who were still sucking blood at the critical moment, and dragged the entire Luozhou into an endless hell.

This has led to the current situation in Luozhou.

Although it is a natural disaster, it is actually caused by human nature.

(End of this chapter)