The rhythm of a dull life,
The peaceful atmosphere of a Republican-era village,
Down-to-earth scolding and clamor,
Notes carrying the fragrance of the soil.

This is its back view, the back view of this Sanxiang Village, and once you take a few steps and run to the front, you will be scared to death by the face.

Every detail here is like a crack, with drops of fresh blood gurgling out of the crack, then submerging people, suffocating them.

A cloud of terror has been shrouding this village, like a stage play, each character seemingly wearing a meaningful mask.

What hangs in the sky is clearly the moon;

But the light on the ground is an uneven pale white, as if an unqualified lighting engineer has adjusted the angle incorrectly, making everything very chaotic.

Some people are sleeping,
Some people are cooking,
Some people are drawing water,
Some people are cursing,
Some people are laughing,
And some people are crying.

Zhou Ze walked for a long time, almost wandering through the entire village.

What can be confirmed is that this place is indeed very different from when that landlord came last time.

If it was just coy when the landlord first arrived 9 years ago, then now, it really is like a huge tiger, having opened its mouth, and at the same time, its eyes are glaring at you.

It can eat you whenever it wants,

And that sense of anticipation of being eaten at any moment is the most tormenting and the most torturous.

If the landlord from nine years ago saw this scene today, he probably wouldn't have the courage to say that he wanted to come back to find evidence and take photos.

After taking a walk, Zhou Ze came to the outside of an ancestral hall.

This ancestral hall can be considered the most impressive building in the entire Sanxiang Village.

It’s not big,

But there’s a plaque hanging outside and carved beams and painted rafters inside. Although small and a little cramped, it reveals a kind of refinement and solemnity.

A blind old man in a long gown was sitting at the entrance of the ancestral hall, holding a cane in his hand, tapping the ground constantly, his lips trembling slightly.

Zhou Ze stopped in front of him, because in Zhou Ze's opinion, this old man was the most normal person in the entire village.

At least, the old man wasn't drooling.

But after getting closer,

Zhou Ze still heard the old man muttering to himself in a low voice:

"Hungry, so hungry, really hungry, I really want to eat white steamed buns, I really want to eat steamed buns."

The little monkey jumped up and grabbed the blind old man's goatee.

The blind old man raised his head. He was blind and didn't have sunglasses, but the location of his eyes was a blur. But at this time, he should have sensed that there was someone in front of him, a stranger.

He licked his lips, then swallowed,

And said:

"Leave, you should leave. The big guys are about to lose control."

The blind old man's words were full of vicissitudes and helplessness.

He was reminding Zhou Ze,

This,

Is a place of right and wrong, and the people here are very hungry.

A bunch of hungry ghosts are about to break free!

If you don't leave now, you won't be able to leave.

Zhou Ze still didn't move. To be honest, he wasn't very afraid of the fierce ghosts here. Even though there were so many, he was actually a little overwhelmed, but being unable to defeat them was very different from being unable to escape.

Zhou Ze believed that no matter what, he still had the confidence to escape.

"What exactly is going on here?"

Zhou Ze asked.

He hoped to get an answer as to how the people in this village had become like this.

Actually,

The darkness above the village and the blood moon had already explained many things. The village was a place of baleful energy, which was a common occurrence at ancient battlefield sites.

"Don't ask, don't ask, leave, everyone is very hungry, very hungry. If you don't leave, you will be eaten."

The blind old man kept repeating these few sentences, saying them over and over.

"Hungry? Were you all starved to death?"

That's impossible.

How could an entire village be starved to death? If they didn't have any food, wouldn't they go out to escape the famine?

Moreover, the grandma on the internet who used to be from Sanxiang Village replied that this village was massacred on the day the Japanese devils entered Tongcheng, so what does that have to do with hunger?

"Leave, you have to leave!"

The blind old man was angry,

And kept poking the ground with his cane.

"Leave! Leave!"

Zhou Ze still didn't move, which made the blind old man very anxious. Of course, while he was anxious, he also started sniffing constantly. Clearly, he was craving something!

"If you don't leave, you will be eaten."

The blind old man's voice began to get lower and lower.

He himself was about to lose control.

Zhou Ze still didn't move. He couldn't leave without figuring out what was going on here.

The police are in charge of the affairs of the living, but the affairs of the dead are his responsibility.

This village could previously be called a "modern version" of a Peach Blossom Garden, but now, 9 years have passed, and it has begun to gradually degenerate into a nest of fierce ghosts.

That little girl was probably lucky. She wasn't contaminated or greatly affected and came to his bookstore.

But at the same time, the fact that the little girl appeared in the bookstore also showed that the ghosts in this Sanxiang Village, the situation here, had begun to change.

Not only can people come in,

But ghosts

Can also go out!

Once so many fierce ghosts are released at once, how much impact and damage will they cause?

It would be fine if Zhou Ze didn't know, and he could just deal with it in time, but he was already here.

The little loli once said that the Underworld has a scale.

Zhou Ze believed that once he left it alone and left, the evaluation of his behavior in the Underworld would far exceed his coercion of the little loli to be his subordinate.

In the eyes of the Underworld,

Ghost messengers and constables are the lowest-level civil servants. You can fight among yourselves, compete for favor, and make noise, but you must do things well, and the work of maintaining stability is the most important thing.

Controlling the situation and preventing ghosts from affecting the human world is the most basic bottom line. Everything else is not a problem.

So, Zhou Ze couldn't leave, even though he could also smell that the feeling of oppression in the air was getting stronger and stronger.

But the most deadly thing right now is that if he doesn't know the secret of this village and the reason for its formation, Zhou Ze will have no way to solve it.

Just like the old grandpa and the little girl he encountered when he first came in, they instantly returned to their previous state after Zhou Ze killed them.

In this place, Zhou Ze couldn't kill them at all, let alone catch them to earn performance points.

"Leave!"

The blind old man suddenly stood up and stretched his cane towards Zhou Ze.

Zhou Ze reached out and grabbed the cane, two fingernails directly embedded in the cane.

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

The blind old man let out a low roar, then opened his mouth and bit Zhou Ze directly.

Zhou Ze took a step back, sidestepped, and entered the ancestral hall, while the blind old man was bounced off and fell down, rolling down the steps of the ancestral hall.

But then, the blind old man directly lay on the ground, propping himself up with his hands and feet, his stomach bulging.

"Bang!"

The blind old man jumped over again,

Zhou Ze spread his hands, black mist swirling around, directly trapping the blind old man, but Zhou Ze didn't use his fingernails to stab him to death directly, but reached out and patted his face,

And asked:

"Tell me, what exactly happened to this village!"

"Ahhhhhhh!!!"

However, the blind old man seemed to have completely lost his mind, constantly struggling, trying to break free from Zhou Ze's restraints and bite Zhou Ze.

There was no other way. Zhou Ze could only kick him away again.

Just like last time, the blind old man bounced up again after landing. Black juice was constantly coming out of the corner of his mouth, along with bark and root fragments.

Obviously, for a long time, he had been so hungry that he had been using these things to satisfy his hunger.

And at this moment,

Since when, villagers had slowly gathered outside the ancestral hall, one after another, their expressions numb, staggering as they gathered.

There was the old grandpa carrying a hoe,

There was the little girl holding a tanghulu (sugar-coated haws),

There was the widow eating her own hair,

There was the old woman holding cloth shoes in her hand,

There was the young couple eating their own flesh,

There were many, many people,

They gathered at the entrance of the ancestral hall, one after another,

Their eyes stared directly at Zhou Ze, they were hungry, they were very, very hungry.

The little monkey was so frightened that it shivered and jumped directly onto the offering table in the ancestral hall, shivering.

So many fierce ghosts,

It was too scary,

The baleful aura emanating from them was enough to suffocate people. When they stood there, it was as if a cloud of black clouds had been wrapped around the sky.

Zhou Ze gritted his teeth and asked:

"I know you are very hungry, but I really want someone with a clearer mind who can say something to come out and tell me what exactly is wrong with you.

I'm here to help you, to help you get rid of your pain. Even if you have become like this now, it's not completely impossible to reincarnate!"

Zhou Ze said very seriously and sincerely,

Moreover,

The position that hadn't hurt for a long time started to hurt at this time,

Zhou Ze subconsciously reached out and grabbed his chest.

He had almost forgotten its existence,

It hadn't hurt for a long time,

Tang Shi had told him before she left that it was because he had gotten used to living a heartless life, so now, was he starting to be conscientious again?

Yes,

He was being conscientious,

Because Zhou Ze couldn't bear to completely ruin the last hope of the people in this entire village. Eighty years ago, they were already very miserable, just like the 300,000 souls who died in Nanjing.

So, as long as there was a glimmer of possibility, Zhou Ze still hoped that they could have the opportunity to be reincarnated again.

It was for this reason that Zhou Ze was holding onto a fluke mentality, attempting to find another sober person in this village and obtain some clues.

Now, he was besieged by the entire village, losing the opportunity to advance and retreat freely that he had previously grasped.

It was possible to rush out, but he estimated that he would have to enter that state again amidst the tearing of the fierce ghosts,

And then he would be paralyzed and seriously injured for a long time.

It wasn't worth it,

And it was stupid,

It was a foolish act and choice,

So, his conscience hurt again.

"Roar!"

"Hungry!"

"Eat him!"

"Eat!"

No one seriously responded to Zhou Ze's words,

They rushed up together, swarming over.

Zhou Ze's ten fingernails were constantly flying, and one fierce ghost after another was overturned by him, but they were like an endless stream. Even if they were scattered, they would soon appear in some corner of the village and continue to rush to join the battle.

Zhou Ze was facing an undead army that could be constantly resurrected!

"Bang!"

"Bang!"

The ancestral hall was constantly taking hits,

The floor tiles on the ground also began to crack,

Finally, after Zhou Ze slammed a fierce ghost heavily on the ground,

A string of floor tiles under his feet completely broke,

But under the tiles,

A large area of white, glistening rice appeared,

Zhou Ze was stunned,

All the fierce ghosts present were also stunned,

The rice must be fake,

The village had long been leveled, and even a school had been built on top of it,

But the scene here was real.

This meant that

When everyone in the village was starving back then,

Under the ancestral hall in this village,

There really was so much food hidden!

Zhou Ze squatted down, reached out and grabbed a handful of rice, and waved it at the fierce ghosts in front of him,

And said:

"Eat it, eat it and you won't be hungry anymore, and then... you can go on your way."

However,

The fierce ghosts in the entire village in the ancestral hall did not move. They seemed to have no feeling for the rice at all.

Their eyes only stayed on the rice for a moment,

And then, they all turned to Zhou Ze.

They didn't eat rice,

But they were hungry,

So,

They could only eat Zhou Ze!

Zhou Ze really had a feeling of wanting to laugh out of anger,

What the hell,

Am I that delicious?