"Go to hell!"

The entire village square was ablaze. Wang Wenfei and Merita pinned "Wang Lao San" and "Cui Hua," who had tried to scheme against them, to the ground. They used torches to light the firewood on the altar, which was originally meant to burn them both alive, and threw the two into the flames.

Immediately, screams and curses filled the air. Wang Wenfei paled for a moment as she watched the two humans transform into large, weasel-like creatures with furry snouts.

Even Merita recognized one of the faces as the monster that had frightened them on the balcony that night.

"I-is that a weasel?" Merita asked uncertainly.

"It seems… so," Wang Wenfei nodded slowly. She had also stared wide-eyed as she watched their original forms twist and contort in agony as they were burned alive before finally confirming it.

The surrounding villagers had been standing dumbly in place since Merita and Wang Wenfei had made their move, not moving at all, like puppets, like clay sculptures, lifeless and as if frightened out of their wits.

Finally, when a shrill scream from the flames once again pierced the sky, the crowd seemed to come back to life, and they scattered from the square.

"Wait… you…"

Noticing the villagers' reactions, Merita instinctively thought they were about to fight, but to her surprise, they all retreated, heading back to their homes, with no intention of engaging them.

"Hey, what are you…"

Merita reached out to stop the departing villagers, but no one paid her any attention. The warm and familiar faces from earlier in the day had completely disappeared.

"You should leave."

Er Bao's parents appeared before them again, holding Er Bao. Wang Wenfei was startled and pulled Merita back a few steps.

Earlier, through the torchlight, she had seen the most terrifying sight.

Two bodies without human skin, holding a child with a bloody, half-missing head, stood before them.

Moreover, when Merita had tried to stop the villagers, she had remained silent and still because she saw that everyone present was a skinless being.

"You don't belong here."

Er Bao's mother, as if she didn't see Wang Wenfei's expression, pointed towards the mountains outside the village and said, "Go up the mountain. You can leave the same way you came."

"What… exactly is this place?"

Wang Wenfei remembered that she and Merita were attacked in front of the mural. At the time, they were marveling at how realistically the mural depicted the village at the foot of the mountain. Could it be that they had fallen into the painting?

"This is a paradise that the Mountain God has created for us."

Er Bao's mother smiled at Wang Wenfei and Merita, at least that was the case for her and her husband.

"If the Mountain God is truly benevolent, why are the temple priests around her weasels?"

The more Merita thought about how she had been plotted against by those two weasels, the more she felt that the Mountain God was not a good deity.

"The Mountain God is, after all, just a Mountain God. Protecting us through generations of favorable weather and abundant harvests is already the best, but people are never satisfied…"

Er Bao's father gave a bitter smile. "Some people are always greedy and ask for too much, more than even the Mountain God can grant. So they are tempted by evil gods."

At this point, Er Bao's father sighed. "Many of the villagers here lost their lives after making wishes to the evil gods, but the Mountain God took them in."

"Is that how it is?"

…

"Wow, I'm so touched by myself just listening to this."

Ming Mei listened to Er Bao's family's description and sighed with emotion. She raised her eyes and looked at the golden statue, which was cracking inch by inch, revealing a face that was neither human nor beast, and said with disgust, "Ugh, now that Huang Er is dead, this disgusting thing is still here."

…

Wang Wenfei and the others were just about finished on their side, but Lu Xiaoyao and her team were still progressing slowly. Ming Mei saw through Lu Xiaoyao's livestream that the three of them were still at the home where the funeral was being held.

"Ah? Are you saying there are unclean things in the village?"

Ming Mei had been distracted, concerned about Wang Wenfei's progress, when Lu Xiaoyao actually started telling the mother, whom they had just met and whose son had just died, that there were unclean things in the village.

Ming Mei thought this operation was bizarre.

She looked at Mu Chen, who had been silent the whole time, watching Lu Xiaoyao and Julian perform. She saw his mouth twitch when he heard this, and then he pursed his lips slightly, as if he was speechless.

But he didn't stop them from acting, as if he could handle anything.

"Yes, we met your child yesterday when we were buying groceries in the village. We didn't see him being afraid of people like you said. Instead, he told us a lot of things. He also said that many people were missing from the village."

Lu Xiaoyao hadn't even seen that person yesterday, but at this moment, her rich expressions and varied tones made it seem as if she had personally experienced it all as she spoke to the other person in a clear and logical manner. "Auntie, have you ever thought that maybe your child isn't the problem? The problem is other people."

"Is it other people?"

The couple was stunned, and they looked at Lu Xiaoyao.

"Yes," Lu Xiaoyao nodded repeatedly. "Like you said, Auntie, if everyone goes to the Mountain God for everything, how can the Mountain God handle it all? And many people's wishes, can they even be called wishes? They're just desires that get deeper and deeper. Could the Mountain God agree to those wishes?"

Lu Xiaoyao asked this, and the couple shook their heads subconsciously. Then Lu Xiaoyao said, "Exactly, so those people who confidently say that their wishes have come true, what is it that's granting their wishes?"

Lu Xiaoyao's gloomy tone and words, accompanied by the cool night breeze, really gave people a creepy feeling.

"You say the Mountain God blesses you without asking for anything in return, but surely the things that help them fulfill their wishes won't ask for nothing either, right?"

In Lu Xiaoyao's mind, she once again recalled the scene of fighting those skinless corpses. She seemed to have heard a few words occasionally uttered by those corpses—

"Go home."

"I was wrong."

Just like Mu Chen and Julian had guessed, perhaps many people in this village were just evil beings wearing human skin.

Mu Chen had said something to them when they went down the mountain:

"Remember the couplet outside the Mountain God Temple?"

"The full text of that couplet should be, 'God appears and disappears to eliminate disasters, summoning wind and rain to ensure a good harvest,' with the horizontal inscription 'Blessings for Eternity.' But what we saw was missing several key words.

There was no 'God,' the three words 'ensure a good harvest' were also missing, and there was no 'Eternity.'"

"In other words, no god eliminates disasters, evil spirits summon wind and rain, and there are no blessings to bestow."

"Do you think the villagers who say their wishes have really come true are telling the truth or lying? If it's true, who is granting them their wishes? If it's false, why are they spreading the rumor that the Mountain God grants every wish?".oΓg

Lu Xiaoyao's mind was filled with Mu Chen's words, and when she asked the woman, she couldn't help but say, "Isn't it just for people?"