(Extra Story) Eighth Uncle

Old Man Ma’s face turned pale.

Staring at the child’s aggressive gaze, he gritted his teeth. Beside him, Wang Qianyue had already started rolling up his sleeves.

In his view, beating up an old man wasn’t exactly bullying.

“I… I really have no other choice!”

He squatted on the ground, clutching his head.

Worshipping the Mountain God in Black Mountain Village was real, but it wasn’t at all what he had described. Someone had discovered that if you worshipped the Mountain God, it would give you something nice in return—sometimes gold and silver, sometimes porcelain.

Blinded by greed, the villagers gradually lost their heads over the treasures.

At first, the village sacrificed girls, but there weren’t that many girls in a single village to offer to the Mountain God. After a while, the villagers came up with an idea.

They bought or kidnapped young women from outside, broke their legs, tied them up, fed them just enough to keep them alive, and when the time came, they sent them to the Mountain God. Because they were engaged in such filthy business, they didn’t dare report it to the authorities.

To keep their own families from being targeted, quite a few households even drowned their newborn daughters outright, which led to an imbalance of men to women in the village.

Old Man Ma’s family had also benefited from all this. The village chief was very fair—every time the Mountain God gave something, he split it among everyone.

But what he hadn’t expected was that this year, as the Grass Lantern Festival was approaching, the village chief suddenly showed up at his door and said that this time they wouldn’t be getting a girl from outside—Old Man Ma would have to offer his own granddaughter.

The reasoning was simple: almost every household in the village had offered a sacrifice to the Mountain God, but the Ma family were outsiders who had enjoyed these benefits for years without giving anything. It was only right that they now showed some sincerity.

Old Man Ma looked at his granddaughter, then at the village chief, and he knew—from the moment they had moved here, his granddaughter had already been seen as a sacrificial offering they could trade for money.

To prevent them from fleeing, the villagers posted guards outside their home.

That was why Old Man Ma had said he was going out to buy clothes for his granddaughter; after much pleading, he had finally been allowed to leave the village.

In his youth, he really had been a hunter, so his body was still wiry and strong. He hurried as fast as he could to the city.

He had thought about going to the authorities, but with the village chief’s threats ringing in his ears, he didn’t dare. He had taken that money too.

At his wit’s end, Old Man Ma walked around looking for experts, but these days there were few Daoists or monks around. By chance, he happened to see Wang Qianyue just setting up his stall, so he decided to take a gamble.

“You’re just plain wicked, you know that?” Wang Qianyue kicked him.

The old man sprawled on the ground. Seeing Wang Qianyue about to leave, he shouted desperately, “I’ll pay! Master Daoist! I’ll pay!”

Wang Qianyue spat.

“So what if you have money?”

That said, when he saw the old man pull out another ingot of silver, Wang Qianyue couldn’t help but slow down.

“Little Mouse, quick—check the book. Does it say how to deal with monsters?” he whispered.

Little Mouse sighed.

“It’s there, but it’s going to cost you some pain.”

“Ahem, you’re lucky you ran into Master Daoist me! Slaying demons and vanquishing evil is my duty! Sure, you’re a scumbag, but this Master Daoist can’t stand to see monsters running wild! Lead the way!”

Say what you will, when Wang Qianyue put on his act, he did have some flair.

Old Man Ma scrambled to his feet, rubbing his backside, and walked on ahead, all smiles and flattery.

“Once we get there, I’ll take the money first, then while the old man isn’t looking, we’ll make a run for it.”

Little Mouse stared in shock at Wang Qianyue as he strutted along, chest puffed out.

This guy had no shame at all!

Little Mouse had actually thought Wang Qianyue was really going to take the money and do the job.

As if reading his thoughts, Wang Qianyue said, “If their money isn’t scammed, it’s wasted on them anyway. Hope the monster eats every last one of them!”

Little Mouse sighed.

Because they couldn’t reveal themselves, Old Man Ma led them up to a cliff and pointed out the spot where the Mountain God was worshipped. From there, they could see it clearly.

Wang Qianyue also took the opportunity to jack the price up considerably. It was plain to see that Old Man Ma was hurting from it, but after mulling it over, he nodded—for his granddaughter’s sake—and said he would go back now to fetch the money.

But once he left, he never came back.

Wang Qianyue felt something was off. He got up to leave, only to find that mist had started rising around them, and the air carried a faint smell of decay.

“Damn it, that old bastard tricked us!” Wang Qianyue cursed.

Little Mouse curled his lip. “You really think everyone’s an idiot? Who pays first and works later?”

“Forget it, forget it—I already got ten taels off him. Let’s go, let’s go! I marked the path on the way up.” With that, Wang Qianyue grabbed Little Mouse and made for the way out. He had been careful to leave a small mark at every turn, and the fog wasn’t too thick yet. After winding this way and that, Wang Qianyue actually managed to get back down the mountain.

But just as they were about to reach a narrow path, a sound came drifting through the mist.

Wang Qianyue shoved Little Mouse’s head down, and the two of them dropped flat onto the ground.

Not far off, a group of people came walking slowly. At the front, someone was blowing on a jarring suona, and behind them was a simple palanquin carried by two men—a frame of bamboo poles, without so much as a curtain or a canopy.

The girl was draped in a red cloth, her hands and feet bound tightly to the bamboo-pole sedan chair, unable to move an inch. Her mouth was stuffed, leaving her only able to writhe her body.

Behind them, someone shouted, and a figure chased after, but was quickly grabbed and dragged back by others.

Wang Qianyue raised an eyebrow at Little Mouse, signaling: this is Old Man Ma's granddaughter?

Little Mouse nodded.

Luckily, the fog had rolled in, so they hadn't been spotted. The villagers set the girl down beneath the cliff. An old man held incense and bowed in every direction, then waved to the people beside him. The suona player blew even louder—not like music, more like making noise—and another man with a gong started pounding away too. The racket echoed through the woods. Just a few breaths later, the whole group scurried off in a hurry.

"Go, go." Wang Qianyue sprang up at the sight, but after a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

He turned to look back. The crude sedan chair sat there, abandoned.

Around them, the fog thickened.

A stench of rot began to seep through the air.

So that’s what all that racket was about—telling this "Mountain God" that the sacrifice had arrived.

"Damn it!" Wang Qianyue stomped his foot hard. "More money! You'd better charge more for this!"

He turned to Little Mouse, his face pale. "You said you had a way? What way?"

Little Mouse looked like he was holding back a laugh, but he pulled out that book anyway and tore a page from it. "Summon a god."

"Summon a god?" Wang Qianyue suddenly saw something, and his face changed.

Little Mouse looked back. A snake-like dark shape slithered through the fog, darting with incredible speed toward the sedan chair.

"Maybe we should just forget it..." Wang Qianyue muttered, but then he felt a pat on his back. Little Mouse gave him an apologetic look. "Master, you should have said that sooner!"