Outside the door came light, brisk footsteps. Several men entered carrying large bamboo baskets covered with white cloth.

The sight of the white cloth instinctively disgusted Fatty. The cloth was stained with large yellow splotches, and he strongly suspected it was the same cloth that had covered the corpse of the fake grandfather.

Lifting the white cloth revealed bowls of white rice, still steaming hot. The aroma of the rice, as if by magic, captivated everyone.

A very senior old woman picked up a bowl and handed it directly to Li Bai, her face filled with anticipation. "Miss Li, you're hungry. You eat first."

The villagers chimed in, their eyes glued to Li Bai. It seemed the play was nearing its end.

Jiang Cheng smiled, took a bowl of white rice from the bamboo basket, and a pair of chopsticks. He chuckled, "What a pity. Miss Li had a stomachache last night and probably won't be able to enjoy it right now. What a shame to waste such good white rice."

Li Bai feigned a regretful expression and casually placed the rice on the table. "I'm sorry. Thank you for your kindness, but my stomach is upset. I can't eat anything."

"Since Miss Li isn't up to eating now, we'll eat first. What, you outsiders aren't going to give us any face?" A man with a scar on his face said unkindly, "This is the best food in our village. Don't be unappreciative."

Jiang Cheng's situation suddenly became awkward, as he was the only one holding a bowl of white rice, and everyone was staring at him.

Without panicking, Jiang Cheng turned around and smiled, handing the bowl of rice to Shao Tong. "Brother Shao, I'm allergic to rice. You deal with it."

Shao Tong naturally knew Jiang Cheng was trying to use him as a shield. As he tried to repeat the trick and push the rice away, he realized the others were already two meters away from him.

Even Shao Tong's thick skin couldn't hide his embarrassment. These people truly had no bottom line.

Fortunately, as the last bowl of rice was placed on the table, the villagers seemed to lose interest in him. They all sat down and began shoveling rice into their mouths like starving ghosts.

The strangest thing was that they only ate rice; there wasn't even a salted fish on the table.

At Jiang Cheng's signal, they all sat down. Although each of them had a bowl of white rice in front of them, none of them made a move to pick up their chopsticks.

Jiang Cheng excused himself to go back to his room to get something, turning his back to everyone. After walking a few steps, he dropped his phone on the ground. He bent down, using the opportunity to look at the villagers through his legs.

The saying went that bending over and looking through your legs allowed you to see ghosts. But to Jiang Cheng's surprise, the villagers seemed perfectly normal, save for their strange eating habits.

He took a special look at Xiu Ling, but the result was the same.

"They're all human..." Jiang Cheng rose, puzzled. "How is that possible?"

He returned to his room and took a few pictures with his phone without attracting attention, but the photos showed nothing amiss.

"Could it be that the method is correct, but the problem lies with the people?"

Looking at Li Bai, who was being watched intently by the villagers, Jiang Cheng pondered for a moment and decided that this was highly possible. Perhaps he couldn't see it, but Li Bai could.

Before going out, Jiang Cheng sent Li Bai a message, telling her to find an opportunity to confirm. It was very important.

Jiang Cheng returned and sat down next to Li Bai, naturally joining the conversation between the villagers and Li Bai, helping her share the pressure. Li Bai excused herself to go back to her room to get a piece of clothing.

In the same position, when Li Bai bent down again, everything was different. The scene before her sent a chill down her spine.

What kind of sight was this? The villagers sitting at the dining table had no heads!

No, that wasn't right, they weren't headless, but... but they didn't have real heads. Atop their bloody necks were clumps of rice straw, or rather, spherical heads made of rice straw, with crude facial features made of dough stuck on them. The scene was utterly bizarre!

"Rice Head Village!"

The phrase flashed through Li Bai's mind like a bolt of lightning. She finally understood the origin of the village's name.

It really was... Rice Head Village!

However, Li Bai was someone who had seen many things, and her mental fortitude was far beyond ordinary people. In a few breaths, she adjusted her emotions, returned to the room, grabbed a random piece of clothing, and sat back at the dining table.

Of course, she also sent the scene she had witnessed to everyone via her phone.

For some reason, after confirming that these villagers were ghosts, Jiang Cheng felt relieved.

Li Bai continued to talk and laugh, politely answering the questions posed by the old woman, but Jiang Cheng noticed that her smile was somewhat stiff.

This time, Jiang Cheng interjected several times, but the villagers ignored him. Their gazes toward Li Bai grew increasingly audacious.

The most important thing now was to investigate what exactly had happened in this village, and why all this was happening.

Find the source to prescribe the right remedy.

"Grandma, why is our village called Wugong Village?" Li Bai asked sweetly, holding the old woman's hand.

The old woman was stunned for a moment, then overjoyed by the sudden address of "Grandma." Tears welled up in her eyes as she immediately explained, "Good granddaughter, you don't know this, but even though our village is just a small fishing village, let me tell you, our village has a great history! Once, a martial arts champion came from our village!"

"A martial arts champion?" Li Bai feigned curiosity, then smiled and said, "Then it should be called Champion Village."

Hearing this, the old woman sighed, her eyes becoming deep and distant. "What you said isn't wrong, but alas, in our Da Feng Dynasty, martial arts are declining while literature is flourishing. Those civil official lords look down on our martial arts champion and won't allow the name Champion Village. Hey, but let me tell you, our martial arts champion didn't disappoint. He made great contributions to our Da Feng Dynasty, decisive in battle and always victorious. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call him a god of war. He even won the favor of the Emperor and received the title of Grand General Who Pacifies the Army, bringing glory to our ancestors!"

The old woman's face was filled with pride as she spoke of this, and the other villagers also praised the god of war. But Jiang Cheng and the others were shocked. They never expected that this unremarkable small fishing village was actually the hometown of General Guo.

This explained why the Marquis of Zhennan had sent elite troops to encircle the village.

He wanted to eradicate the roots.

"By the way, our village even built a living shrine for this Grand General!" The old woman was very excited as she spoke of this. "The living shrine is very grand, but unfortunately, good granddaughter, you are an outsider, so you can't go in to see it according to the rules."

The old woman paused for a few seconds, then smiled again, staring at Li Bai with her cloudy eyes. "Hehe, but it doesn't matter. Soon... soon there will be an opportunity."