The Bad Man was nearly dead at the beginning and was picked up by Yang Shuzi and taken home

Right side of Nanshan

The sunlight filled the country path, leaving only the sound of wind blowing through the willow leaves and the swaying shadows of the trees. Anton couldn't help but tighten his hands holding the branches.

It was clearly noon, and a small sun spot slanted down on his face. The sunlight, which should have been warm, made people feel a chill.

Anton Jun also noticed that something was wrong with this place. He discovered on the way here that although there were footprints here, they were disorganized and of varying depths.

It doesn't look like a human, but more like it was stepped on by a group of corpses. Perhaps the legendary "mountain god" is nearby.

After carving marks on the trees along the way and wandering around in the forest for about half an incense stick of time, they finally found a cave hidden by bushes, and it seemed that it had used some means to block the breath.

If it weren't for the wave mental method, Anton Jun might have really missed it, so after activating the protective sword energy, he walked into the cave.

After entering, they found dozens of corpses standing everywhere in the cave, two of which actually had the cultivation level of the late minor star level.

The howling wind made people feel creepy. With the faint light coming in from outside, one could see that the walls of the cave were engraved with various strange patterns that looked like those on huge rocks.

While he was still observing, the sound of gongs and drums rang out, and the corpses around him seemed to come alive, pouncing on Anton Jun with their fangs and claws.

However, before they touched Anton Jun, he simply waved a tiny sword energy and directly killed all the corpses without even a trace of dust.

Then, the short figure who had just been beating the gong in the cave saw that the situation was not good, and ran quickly, trying to rush out of the cave.

And Anton-jun would naturally not give him this opportunity.

In just a moment, he came behind him, pressed his head with his right hand, and then smashed it to the ground. Sand and stones flew everywhere, mixed with a trace of blood.

I grabbed him by the back of the neck with one hand and lifted him up. I found that he was hunchbacked, wrapped in rags, with a skinny face and skin that was like a layer of skin attached to his bones, without the slightest luster.

The facial features seem to be pressed into a ball, extremely ugly. To sum it up, it is "dirty, messy, smelly and ugly".

"Are you the so-called mountain god?"

Anton-jun looked at the dwarf in front of him and asked in disbelief.

The dwarf saw this situation and knew that he was no match for this man, so he quickly said in a cunning way: "Master, please spare my life, Master, please spare my life, I just happened to be passing by."

Anton found it a little funny that he could actually say such nonsense. He really admired this guy. Did he really think he was a fool?

"Passing by? In the cave? And with the corpse?"

After saying this, he used his internal force to break his left leg to prevent him from talking nonsense to him again.

"Ahhhh..."

Ignoring his wailing, Anton-kun continued to threaten:

"The skills I practice can distinguish the truth from lies in a person's words, so I advise you to tell me everything obediently and don't play tricks on me. Maybe I will let you go if I am in a good mood."

The dwarf seemed to have grasped a life-saving straw and asked hurriedly, "Master... hero, are you serious?"

"Hmm? You are not in a position to bargain with me now."

Seeing that the dwarf was still trying to fool him, Anton Jun said coldly, and then broke his left hand again.

“Ahhh…I’ll tell you, I’ll tell you!”

After being abused by Anton-jun, the short figure didn't dare to say anything extra and told the whole story honestly.

-

the other side

Nian Ling seemed to sense the situation on Anton Jun's side, so he took Zizaitian and rushed towards Anton Jun.

When they arrived, they found a short figure kneeling in front of Anton Jun, with one hand and one foot broken and his face bruised and swollen.

At this moment, Anton's face turned pale, as he had just heard everything the dwarf had done.

The so-called living sacrifice of the mountain god is a means of performing a show for the villagers by using the corpse controlled by the dwarves using the corpse-driving method.

And that strange inscription was just a blood mark that provided a coordinate for the corpse. The person who was used as a living sacrifice would be killed there and brought back to the cave.

-

Let's go back some time...

Inside the cave, the dwarf was explaining to Anton-kun:

"I'm just a corpse chaser. How can I know anything about detoxification or poisoning?"

Anton asked back, "You mean to say that the illness of the villagers in Qinghe Village was not caused by you?"

The dwarf answered Anton Jun tremblingly, "It is... it is the Xuanming Sect."

"How is it related to the Xuanming Sect?"

After listening to him talk about Xuanming Sect, Anton Jun felt a little interested.

Although there are not many good people in the Xuanming Sect, this is the border between Qi and Shu, and it is not appropriate to throw all the bad people to the Xuanming Sect.

"Oh, I really didn't lie to you, sir. If you don't believe me, just look."

Seeing that Anton Jun didn't believe it, the dwarf took out a token of the Xuanming Sect and pointed at several figures in black in the distance.

Anton-Jun frowned, "What's going on?"

"Well, it's like this. About three years ago, I was hunted by the Xuanming Cult and fled here..."

……

three years ago

Qingshui Village, Top of Nanshan Mountain

There were five figures dressed in black and wearing iron masks standing here, each with a scimitar on their waist. They were the minions of the Xuanming Sect.

The little leader standing in the middle looked at the village on the hillside and spoke slowly:

"Hey, why is this guy so stubborn?

It would have been enough for him to just surrender and die, but now you have run into this hellhole and the villagers will be buried with you."

After that, he turned to a soldier and ordered, "Zhu Zi, put the medicine powder into the source of this spring water."

The Xuanming Sect soldier called "Pillar" stepped forward and bowed, saying:

"Sir, our mission is just to kill the thief. To do this, we are directly poisoning all the innocent villagers. Isn't this method inappropriate?"

The leader of a higher rank asked coldly, "Hmm? Are you questioning my words?"

"The villain dare not!"

As if he was somewhat disdainful of Zhuzi's inexplicable kindness, the little leader continued:

"Humph~ This place is the border between Qi and Shu. The people here are not citizens of Daliang, and they have no relationship with us. If they die, they die. What does it have to do with you?

Zhuzi, in this chaotic world, human life is the least valuable thing. If we fail to complete the mission, our fate will not be good either. So you know what to do, right?"

"……Yes"

From that day on, Zhuzi would go up the mountain whenever he had time and watch from afar, no one knew what he was thinking.

Until one day, a woman named "Nianren" was forced by the pressure from the villagers to go up the mountain to collect herbs in order to find a cure...

There she met Zhuzi. After a conversation, Zhuzi was persuaded by Nianren and gave him a detoxification pill. The dwarf witnessed it all.

So, when Nianren was going down the mountain, the dwarf led her into the cave, took advantage of her kindness and killed her.

Then he used the corpse-driving method to control Nianren to find the pillar, and once again led him to the cave and killed him.

After repeating this several times, the dwarf killed all those who knew about this, including the Xuanming Sect soldiers who came to look for the pillars and the little leader.

He also learned from Nianren that the mountain god of Qinghe Village was just an identity passed down from Nianren's family.

The main task is to solve problems that Nianren's family is not convenient to solve.

Nian Ling didn’t know about this simply because she was not old enough.

Later, the dwarf discovered that these corpses that died of poisoning could greatly improve his internal strength as long as he stayed with them.

Originally, he was thinking of just taking his time like this, and only going down the mountain to exorcise the bodies after the villagers were poisoned to death.

But later he discovered that Nianren actually had a family, and that they all knew some medical skills, so he tried to avoid any further mistakes.

He played the role of the ancestral mountain god that originally belonged to Nianren's family and found the village chief. He used some tricks to make the village chief believe in him.

Then he lied to the village chief and said that if he let Nianren's family be sacrificed alive, he would cure the villagers of the poison.

So the village chief agreed.

-

Back to the present.

Zizaitian, who knew the truth, was no longer as calm as usual, and a hint of anger flashed across his face.

Nian Ling's face was also pale, and her slightly trembling body proved that her heart was not as calm as it seemed:

"Brother, I regret it. I originally thought that we villagers were just forced into a desperate situation.

But I didn't expect that the ones who killed my family were those beasts in human form. I want to go back to the village to confirm some things, okay?"

"Okay, brother will accompany you!"

Zizaitian echoed, “And me!”

"Ling'er, what do you want to do with this dwarf?"

"I don't want to see him again."

Nian Ling just glanced at him and left.

After hearing this, the dwarf hurriedly said, "Don't bother the hero to do it yourself, I can do it myself."

Then he hit himself in the chest with a palm and fell to the ground, his life or death unknown.

Seeing this, Anton Jun and Zizai Tian followed closely behind.

Not long after the three men left, the dwarf stood up again:

"Phew~ Fortunately, I have a way to fake my death, otherwise I would have really been in trouble."

But he had just finished speaking when a branch fell from the sky and pierced his head. He was nailed to the ground and died completely.