Chapter 1 The Beginning

After staying with Second Master for a few days, Hu Ma gradually heard about the Cui family's affairs.

This time, the Cui family's grandmother had committed a great taboo. Even the village chief, who was usually a nice guy, was unusually furious and resolutely refused to allow the Cui family's dead to enter the old fire pit.

Firstly, they were accused of using evil arts to harm people, and they had to be severely punished. Secondly, they had died from the backlash of evil arts, which meant they were considered "unclean" deaths. Sending them into the old fire pit might affect the ancestors.

Although the Cui family had many uncles and brothers, they didn't dare to argue with the villagers on such matters. In the end, they just put the Cui family's grandmother, along with the eldest, second, third, and fourth sons, into thin coffins, had a few people carry them, and buried them in the forest to be done with it.

The Cui family, which had quite a few members, couldn't say anything about it and even blamed the family more in their hearts.

As for Hu Ma, he didn't care much about these things and only thought about Cui Xie'er.

However, Second Master was afraid that the Cui family in the village would be detrimental to him, so he protected him too well, which deprived him of the opportunity to deal with Cui Xie'er.

And if he didn't take action himself and let Little Red Tang go, firstly, the ancestors in the village were watching now. Little Red Tang was familiar with the village and could play around without any problems. But if she had malicious intentions to harm people, she might disturb the ancestors.

Another point was that although Little Red Tang was an evil spirit, her nature was pure.

Hu Ma tentatively asked her if she had ever hurt anyone, and Little Red Tang admitted it very honestly.

"I have, the time I fought with you!"

"..."

This made Hu Ma feel a little uneasy. Even though she was an evil spirit, she looked like a little girl, and he couldn't bear to let her hands be stained with blood.

But if that was the case, how could he do this?

Find Second Pot?

Hu Ma thought to himself that if he asked the Second Pot brothers, they would probably agree.

However, killing someone was a big deal.

Even if the Second Pot brothers were truly powerful in this world, it would be very abrupt for him to ask them to help him kill someone.

Besides, if he killed Cui Xie'er, the favor he owed him would be truly wiped out, and he might even owe them a favor in return. Since he hadn't gotten the Shou Sui Ren (Year Keeper) methods securely in hand and still had many questions to ask him, this was undoubtedly very uneconomical.

As a result, all he could do was to have Little Red Tang keep an eye on Cui Xie'er's movements.

Because of the Cui family's incident, the village became much more tense, especially for those whose children had been selected to enter the Red Lantern Society.

When they thought that someone would actually harm others to snatch such a spot, they cherished their children even more and urged the old village chief three times a day, wishing they could send the children to the Niangniang Hui (Goddess Society) in the city half a month in advance.

The old village chief was also annoyed and consulted with Second Master, and they decided on the day of departure in advance.

"After all, they're leaving home, and they don't know when they'll be back. They should say hello to their acquaintances and relatives..."

After Second Master set the date, he said to Hu Ma, "Your mother-in-law is gone, but your Hu family's roots are here. You have to learn about human relationships!"

"Acquaintances and relatives?"

Hu Ma was a little stunned when he heard this. "Does our Hu family have that in the village?"

"Your godmother..."

Second Master said, "Your godmother is almost bald for your sake. Are you ignoring her now that you don't need her?"

"?"

Hu Ma suddenly remembered that he had such a relative and quickly agreed.

But he was still honest and followed Second Master, preparing a few incense sticks and some offerings, and went into the forest to find his godmother. After he had a pillar of Dao practice, he didn't need Yin Qi to seal the stove anymore, so he kept a few for his godmother.

When they arrived at the stream, his godmother was comfortably stretching her branches, absorbing the spirituality of the forest. When she suddenly saw Hu Ma and Second Master coming over, she shuddered in fright.

"Willow Mother, I brought your godson to pay his respects to you."

Second Master led Hu Ma to the willow tree.

"When he comes back after learning his skills, he'll bring you even better offerings..."

"..."

It didn't seem like they were here to trim willow branches? But his godmother was also on high alert, not daring to be careless.

Second Master had Hu Ma kowtow to his godmother, burn incense, and offer fruits and meat. After thinking about it, he also had him bow in the direction of the forest and said, "After all, your mother-in-law had a deep friendship with this forest, and they are all your elders. You can't leave out the etiquette."

Hu Ma thought it made sense, so Second Master brought back all the offerings that had just been placed in front of his godmother and placed them in the direction of the forest.

"Can you do that?"

Hu Ma felt a little sorry for his godmother. He thought that Second Master was born and raised here and understood the rules of the forest.

But he usually didn't encounter evil spirits, and he was rough in nature, so he didn't pay attention to the details.

But Hu Ma faced the forest, and after three incense sticks and four kowtows, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but the quiet and ethereal forest actually seemed to come alive faintly.

In the poorly lit forest, the shadows were fragmented, as if many things were shaking, looking at the polite Hu Ma with great satisfaction.

In particular, Hu Ma didn't know if he was seeing things, but when he got up after kowtowing four times, he actually saw a section of a broken tree stump vaguely visible behind several rows of trees.

If there were other things in this forest, they were just standing on the side when he was kowtowing, watching him smile.

But that tree stump, and the figure sitting on the stump that was looming, was sitting right in front of him as he kowtowed, peacefully accepting his salute, with a look of relief in his eyes.

"Is that mother-in-law's acquaintance?"

Hu Ma's mind flashed back to his mother-in-law.

Now that he was about to leave the village to learn skills, he had actually come to see him like an elder.

With the etiquette complete, Hu Ma followed Second Master back.

The village had prepared an ox cart, which was filled with dry food, bedding, and something that the old village chief had secretly stuffed into Second Master's hands. Zhou Datong, Li Wa, Zhao Liang, Zhou Zhu, and several other teenagers were already sitting cross-legged on the ox cart, waiting.

After Hu Ma put his bedding roll on the ox cart, the old village chief pulled him aside and instructed him:

"Your mother-in-law is gone, and there's no one in your family to pack your luggage for you. I had Datong's mother sew an extra jacket and make a pair of cloth shoes. The dry food is also ready."

"Keep it well, and when you get to the city, you brothers must take care of each other..."

"..."

Hu Ma cut thirteen times in a row and destroyed the Cui family.

Although this matter was passive, and Hu Ma was considered a victim, it caused a lot of shock in the village. The old village chief looked muddled, but he understood very well in his heart that these teenagers would have to rely on Hu Ma to take care of them when they got to the city.

He had already instructed Zhou Datong at home, and now he personally came to entrust Hu Ma:

"Remember, our Dazhai (Big Village) relies on blood sacrifices for food. When you enter the Niangniang Hui, you're mainly there to learn skills."

"Always smile when you meet people, don't be afraid of being bullied, and just be safe and stable."

"Save your wages carefully, it's okay to eat and drink a little, but you must never mess around in the Hutongzi (alleys). Don't be so greedy at such a young age. When you come back to the village after working for two years, we'll find you wives from all over the ten miles and eight villages. You must keep an eye on them..."

"..."

He babbled endlessly, and Hu Ma had actually heard a lot of it from Second Master.

He just smiled and said, "Village Chief Grandpa, don't worry, I know what to do."

The village chief was really hard to reassure.

Who would have thought that the two most troublesome kids in the village last year would now be going out to make a living together.

In particular, he didn't want his grandson to play with the bastard from his mother-in-law's family before, for fear that he would learn bad things from him. Now he actually had to put on an old face and personally say nice things to this spoiled grandson, for fear that he wouldn't help his grandson...

People, after all, have to grow faults and abilities together.

Unlike his grandson, who only knows how to be bad but doesn't have any brains, which is really a headache.

"Let's go..."

Seeing that the old village chief was talking non-stop, Second Master got annoyed, called Hu Ma to get on the ox cart, and then waved the whip.

The village chief and a group of people from the village stood at the entrance of the village to see them off. Some were happy, and some were crying because they couldn't bear to part with their children.

"Mother, I'll send you back to your mother's house in Snake Village to live."

But no one noticed that while this group of children followed Second Master to the city, on the other side of the village, Cui Xie'er, who seemed to have grown up overnight, also took his crazy mother, led the last green mule that he had protected with his life after their family property had been robbed, packed only a small amount of luggage, quietly left the village, and headed in another direction.

He knew the excitement at the other end of the village, but he resisted the urge to look back.

"Mother, this village won't tolerate us. We won't be scorned here anymore. When we get to Grandma's house, I'll give this mule to my uncle and ask him to take care of you."

He led the mule, walking step by step. His mother couldn't understand what he was saying anymore, as if he was talking to himself.

"And then I'll leave."

"I'm going to learn skills too. When I've learned them, I'll avenge Uncle, Third Uncle, Fourth Uncle, and my father and grandmother."

"The people in the village are not righteous. They don't remember any old feelings. They took Grandma to feed the wild dogs. Our Cui family's uncles and brothers are not righteous either. Relatives and friends, no one came out to speak up when something happened, only thinking about our family's mules and horses."

"As for the Hu family, Hu Ma... When I've learned my skills, I'll exterminate his family..."

He babbled on, constantly encouraging himself. His resentment was too heavy, blaming everyone, even forgetting that he was in the forest.

He didn't notice that the surrounding old tree branches had come alive at some point...

In the Lao Yin (Old Yin) Mountains, it was very difficult to survive if you cut yourself off from the village.

...

...

Not long after, Hu Ma, who was sitting on the ox cart and gradually moving away from Da Yang (Big Sheep) Village, heard the words that Little Red Tang had brought to him, and he was slightly surprised.

He didn't expect that he wouldn't have to do some things himself.

The Ren Qing Shi Gu (human relationships and worldly wisdom) in these Lao Yin Mountains is a very deep knowledge...