"I used to be a weapon smith..."
Knock, knock, knock—
"Who's there?" Rong Chu got up and put on his robe. The knocking stopped for a moment, then resumed with even greater force as if the person was hammering on the door.
"I'm coming!" Rong Chu peeked out through the crack in the door.
Standing outside was a woman in black. She wore a black hood, revealing only the lower half of her sharp and cold face. In her hand was a hammer, which was what she had been using to knock on the door.
"This woman doesn't seem like a good person," Yaohua frowned slightly. "Did you open the door for her?"
Rong Chu forced a smile. "As you said, this person looks vicious and is holding a weapon. How dare I open the door?"
He really didn't intend to open the door.
At that time, just after the meteor disaster, people in Henan Prefecture were in panic. Those without the ability to protect themselves didn't dare to go out casually.
However, just as he was observing the woman through the crack in the door, the woman leaned closer to the crack, revealing a pair of vertical fluorescent purple pupils. She stared directly at him through the crack.
Then she kicked the door.
Bang—
In the clouds of dust, Rong Chu was thrown out along with the kicked-open door.
Then a huge meteorite iron was thrown at the side of his head.
"I'll come back for the eighty-one daggers in three years," the woman said and then walked away without looking back.
Rong Chu slowly recalled, "Meteorite iron is not an ordinary thing, and eighty-one is not an ordinary number. I searched through all the ancient books and guessed that those daggers might not be used for good. I know a little about the art of talismans and arrays. To prevent her from using the daggers to harm people, I took out the nine-colored divine stones from the ancestral December Crown. I also mixed them with ordinary gemstones of various colors to confuse others and secretly set up a Nine-Number Rebirth Array on the daggers to prevent that person from committing great evils."
Yaohua couldn't help but look at the green gemstone in his hand. "Is this the nine-colored divine stone you mentioned?"
"You're right," Rong Chu smiled dejectedly. "I originally wanted to prevent the stones from being used by evil people, but I didn't expect that my skills were not good enough and I ended up harming people's lives instead." He threw the green gemstone away forcefully. "The Taiji gives birth to the two polarities, and the eight trigrams determine good and bad fortune. But the Robbery Array on this mound actually conceals bad fortune with good fortune. It absorbs the vitality and resentment of the so-called sacrifices and runs day and night, covering the sky and harming countless people!"
And the gemstones he had attached to the daggers had actually become part of this array.
"No wonder when I first came up here, the mound kept absorbing my spiritual energy," Yaohua suddenly realized. There was actually such a mysterious array on this mound, but it was a pity that it was not used for good.
"That's all I know," Rong Chu gradually calmed down. "God Chongming, the crime has been committed. Please do what you must."
Chongming lowered his head and waved his sleeve, restoring his usual appearance. "The cause and effect have been determined, and the fate book is not yet cleared. There's no need for me to judge."
Did this mean that Chongming had no say in whether Rong Chu should live or die?
Yaohua's previously low spirits immediately lifted. "Rong Chu, the evil god has not been eliminated yet. If you're so eager to die and so discouraged, how can you be worthy of those who were harmed just like you?" She walked up to Rong Chu and pulled his arm. "You haven't told us what happened to that little flying insect yet."
Rong Chu seemed not to have reacted. He hesitated for a moment. "I only remember that I was taken to this sacrificial altar that day. I was disemboweled, my eyes were gouged out, and my nose was cut off. When I opened my eyes again, I saw you guys." He frowned deeply. "It seems that there's more to this matter."
Yaohua nodded vigorously. "You're right."
Rong Chu knew Henan Prefecture like the back of his hand. With his help, they should be able to find the souls of the victims soon and expose the so-called conspiracy of the Moon God.
"It's almost dawn," Chongming suddenly said.
He rarely spoke on his own initiative, so he wouldn't say something meaningless on purpose. Yaohua quickly understood. "Then let's go back to the inn first. Rong Chu, sorry, but you'll have to stay in my pocket again."
"It's too late. The protective array outside the drill ground has been activated," Rong Chu said calmly. "Quick, hide!"
As soon as he finished speaking, Mo Qing set up a barrier and quickly hid the three of them.
A steady and unhurried footsteps slowly sounded, and a black figure appeared on the street.
"Why is she back?" Yaohua looked at the approaching priestess in confusion and noticed that the woman was looking around. "What is she looking for?"
"She's not looking for something," Rong Chu frowned and then showed a look of understanding. "It's because we left some traces when we entered the array just now."
"This array is so powerful!" This time, before Yaohua could say anything, Mo Qing couldn't help but complain. "I've never seen such a frustrating thing before."
Yaohua agreed deeply. "Then won't she find our traces sooner or later?"
She had an idea and raised her finger, drawing a circle in the air.
Meow~
A weak meow came from under the mound.
A little cat was lying on the ground, on the verge of death.
"A cat?" The priestess walked over in surprise.
Yaohua hooked her finger, and the cat arched its back. Just as the priestess was about to get closer, it suddenly darted into a deep alley.
The priestess didn't notice anything abnormal and slowly left the drill ground.
As soon as she left, Mo Qing withdrew the barrier.
"Get that," Rong Chu pointed at the green gemstone in the corner. "It can't fall into the priestess's hands."
The moment the green gemstone returned to Rong Chu's hand, Yaohua always felt that there was a look of sadness on his face. "Rong Chu, we'll help you get the daggers back from the priestess."
"These gemstones have been contaminated," Rong Chu shook his head. "It's enough to get one back."
"Can we leave now?" Yaohua was a little afraid of the array outside the drill ground that Rong Chu had mentioned.
After getting a positive answer from Rong Chu, they returned to the inn.
Just as Yaohua was about to enter the room, she suddenly remembered the person who had been disemboweled.
"Master, why did you stop me just now?"
Among the people present just now, Rong Chu had lost his mind, and Sixth Brother seemed even more angry than her. Master was the only one who had a reason to stop her.
"Save one person, and a hundred will die; let a hundred die, and one will be saved. Yaoyao, have you ever thought about how to achieve a win-win situation?"
Before Chongming asked this question, Yaohua had never thought that saving or not saving a person could be so complicated.
"But Master, how can you be sure that one person's fate is tied to the lives of those one hundred people?"
Chongming shook his head. "Do you believe in the existence of the Moon God?"
The Moon God he mentioned must not be the proper Moon God in the Celestial Realm. Yaohua thought for a while and then carefully said, "Master, I believe that this Moon God must exist. The priestess clearly doesn't have much spiritual power and can't maintain such a powerful array at all."
"But so far, have you ever seen the Moon God appear?"
"I understand," Yaohua felt a little relieved. "But I still hope that one day, Master can do whatever you want according to your own heart and no longer be restricted by the Heavenly Dao."
Under the dim yellow light, Chongming's eyes were as gentle as the moonlight.
"Then Master, if the priestess discovers us, what will you do?"