Chapter 63: Weeping Before Marriage (33)

"Your second uncle won't care about this," Su Man reminded him. Right now, what Miao Sheng cared about should only be the art of resurrection.

"No, he has to care!" Zhang Gui slapped his thigh in urgency. "You might not have understood what I meant. This grand formation isn’t meant mainly for the dead in the river, but for the Heavenly Masters of the village who have passed away over the years! My second uncle is also a Heavenly Master of the village—he will definitely be affected by this formation!"

The original purpose of this formation was the same as those sinister arts that existed on Shu Yi—it was to leave a glimmer of hope for the village at the brink of life and death.

The Heavenly Masters who had died in years past, some of whom were powerful like Miao Sheng, would, under the influence of this formation, be turned into warrior puppets, exhausting their final worth in battle for the village.

He had no desire to face off against his second uncle. He knew himself well—he could not defeat him.

After speaking, he hurried to leave again, but Su Man called after him, "Do you think you can defeat the village chief? How do you plan to stop him?"

Zhang Gui’s face fell, but the next second he straightened with determined righteousness. "It doesn’t matter if I can stop him or not—I have to try! If my second uncle finds out about this, there’s no way he’ll sit by and do nothing!"

He still pinned all his hopes on Miao Sheng.

Hearing this, Su Man did not stop him further. She simply watched him run toward the ancestral hall, his figure growing smaller in her sight.

Retracting her gaze, she turned to Sun Li and thought for a couple of seconds before saying, "You..."

She and Sun Li whispered together for a while. Sun Li nodded throughout, and finally, carrying Lin Qi’s severed head, he happily ran off.

As for herself, she headed in the direction of the ancestral hall.

When she arrived, the ancestral hall was unusually quiet—you could hear a pin drop.

She pushed open the door, and a heavy stench of blood assaulted her senses.

The floor was strewn with the bodies of villagers, many of their faces still twisted in terror from the moment of death, each with a fatal wound piercing through the chest.

Judging by their appearance, they must have been desperately trying to escape the courtyard. She could imagine that something uncontrollable had erupted in the hall; in their panic, everyone rushed to flee, only to be slaughtered en masse just as they reached the gate.

That’s right—it was a massacre. These people were not killed one by one, but all at once, in a single instant.

To achieve this... it had to be a formation.

She walked around the courtyard and indeed found traces of a formation in one corner.

These people would later become undead puppets, enemies.

She now had only two resurrection cards left—she was feeling the pressure.

Staring at the corpses, she felt that even if it was futile, she should do something. So she went into a side room, dragged out tables and chairs, chopped them up for firewood, and then used candles to set them alight.

But without any accelerant, the fire burned slowly. Su Man didn’t have time to wait for it to become a blaze. She glanced up at the sky—at least it wasn’t a rainy day—then turned and left.

Sometimes, luck is part of one’s strength. Whether Lady Luck was on her side depended entirely on fate.

She then headed to the room where Shu Yi’s coffin had been kept. When she arrived, the door stood open, and the coffin was gone.

This, too, was within expectations. If Miao Sheng hadn’t taken it, then the village chief must have.

But what surprised her was the absence of Zhang Gui. She was sure she’d come here with him.

She scanned her surroundings. The space wasn’t large—there was no way she’d missed him. The only possibility was that there was space below ground.

Having confirmed this, she searched the courtyard again. Sure enough, she found something odd—a rockery in the courtyard. It was clearly just a decorative mound, but its front was worn smooth, the soil compacted hard.

As she expected, she found a mechanism on the rockery.

But she did not act rashly—she was still waiting for the right moment.

In the meantime, she kept busy, piling up and burning the other corpses as well.

When she was done, she counted—between the front and back courtyards, she’d built five burning piles. No fewer than fifty bodies.

Suddenly, a thunderous roar exploded, and the ground trembled. Su Man looked up sharply and saw wisps of fine lines appearing in the sky, slowly weaving together into a symbol that covered the sky above the village.

Was it the resurrection art, or had the ultimate formation been activated?

Behind her, the rockery suddenly emitted strange sounds.

Two figures emerged, one after the other.

Both were surprised to see Su Man.

Miao Sheng and the village chief spoke in unison.

"Why are you here?"

"Have you found the key to the formation?"

Miao Sheng was still clutching Zhang Gui, who seemed to be unconscious, but it was obvious the two had met.

"Didn’t Zhang Gui tell you that Shu Yi is still alive?" she asked, watching him. If he had been told, why was he still obsessed with the formation’s key?

"He did, but I don’t believe it," Miao Sheng replied coolly. "Since you all found your way here, you must know that the resurrection art requires the lives of all the villagers. You’re lying to me to save yourselves, trying to stop me. I can understand that, but I won’t believe you."

He no longer trusted the village, let alone them. Most importantly, "If Shu Yi were still alive, how could she possibly bear not to come see me!"

Hearing this, the village chief sneered. "Of course Shu Yi is dead! The resurrection art could never bring that monster back! Only by reviving the First Heavenly Master can the true value of the resurrection art be realized!"

"The line of Heavenly Masters has fallen into decline—we need such a great one to lead us back to the summit! Cough, cough!" The village chief, impassioned, was suddenly short of breath—Miao Sheng had struck at him.

He was not to be outdone, forming a seal and striking back, his breath returning to normal.

"You don’t understand now, but in the future, when the Heavenly Masters rise again, future generations will praise the decisions I made today! Everything I’ve done is for the Heavenly Master Village! Any sacrifice is worth it!"

His eyes blazing, he turned on Miao Sheng. "If you hadn’t wasted your talents, I wouldn’t have had to take this path! Among the younger generation, you had the most promise—I pinned all my hopes on you! I wanted you to lead our village to new heights, but what did you do? You fell for a monstrous creature! You even wanted to leave the village and abandon your responsibilities!"

The village must rise again, even if he had to become a villain for the ages.

He glanced up at the formation in the sky and grinned, "Now, all of you must contribute to that glorious future."