The crowd burst into a heated discussion.
"Shitou, have you lost your mind? The evil spirit is going to refine you into the living dead! Didn't the storytellers in the city say it? Those whose souls are snatched by evil spirits can't even be reincarnated!"
"But... but if the evil spirit really wanted to harm us, he should have just killed us all then and there. There would be no need to go to all this trouble, right?"
"Usually, you only hear about evil spirits harming people. This is the first time I've seen an evil spirit saving someone. Strange, truly strange."
"Didn't we hear from the city folk before? Only the immortals they worship take mortal souls to the Celestial Realm to enjoy bliss. Why does an evil spirit take them too?"
"Then what do we do?"
"Are we still going to run?"
"Run? Where else can we even go..."
Shitou fell silent for a moment, then looked up at the group before gazing toward the direction where the evil spirit had vanished. His eyes gradually filled with resolve.
He gently pulled his hand away from his mother's and pulled a smooth wooden plaque strung with grass rope from his tunic.
He had found it in the mountains when he was a child and had carried it as a protective charm ever since.
"Mother, Grandpa Zhao, uncles and aunts,"
Shitou's voice wasn't loud, but it reached everyone's ears clearly.
"I know everyone is afraid of evil spirits and demons, but I cannot forget this kindness.
"If it weren't for the Lord Evil Spirit, we would all be snake demon fodder by now.
"He accepted my soul promise, so I must acknowledge him as my master."
He paused, crouched down, and dug a small pit with his fingers near the residual blood of the snake demon.
He placed the wooden plaque inside, covered it with soil, and ceremoniously kowtowed three times.
"I have nothing worthy to offer, so I will give this protective charm to the Lord Evil Spirit."
Li Dazhu opened his mouth to argue but found himself speechless.
He remembered the skeleton's hollow eye sockets and the ease with which its bone palm had crushed the snake demon's skull.
Li Dazhu suddenly felt that perhaps Shitou was right. Evil spirits might not necessarily be like the legends—killing everyone they saw.
A woman nearby gritted her teeth, opened the ragged cloth bundle in her arms, and took out the last bit of dry food she had left.
Then, she reverently laid it down and followed Shitou's example, kowtowing three times.
As she kowtowed, she murmured, "We are just ordinary people without the protection of immortals anyway. Sooner or later, we'll just end up as fodder for demons and monsters.
"The evil spirit saved my life. This small thing is only right for him to enjoy as my offering."
The crowd stared at the half-piece of dry, gray flour bun on the ground, their eyes turning green with hunger.
Someone subconsciously swallowed hard, and another's breathing grew heavy, yet not a single person stepped forward to snatch it.
It was as if everyone silently agreed that this was an offering for the Lord Evil Spirit and could not be touched.
Li Dazhu froze for a long while before letting out a long sigh.
He thought back to the past of Daliang Village.
Their village didn't worship any immortals. Immortals only accepted offerings from mortals in the great cities.
In years past, White Jade City would send envoys to Daliang Village to select a few children with decent aptitude to be sent to the White Jade Sword Sect as disciples.
Only then could the village catch a glimpse of the White Jade Immortal's grace, allowing them to survive for a few years in a corner of this chaotic world.
But in recent years, the village had not produced a single child worthy of selection.
Without the protection of that grace, they had fallen to the point where demons destroyed their village, forcing the entire population into exile.
They were, in truth, a people abandoned by the immortals.
And the White Jade Immortal was precisely the god who protected White Jade City.
The legends the crowd had heard most were those described by the envoys—of how beautiful life was in a city protected by immortals.
Li Dazhu thought about many things in that short span.
He had never seen a real immortal in his life, nor did he know the rules for worshipping one, let alone what an immortal protecting mortals was supposed to look like.
But in his limited imagination, an immortal should be just like that evil spirit from before.
When a mortal’s life hung by a thread, divine light would pierce the sky, and the deity would descend upon the glimmer. With a light wave of the hand, they would slay the man-eating beast.
"I think Shitou is right."
Li Dazhu pursed his dry, cracked lips, his voice carrying a sense of reckless calm.
"If an immortal can protect mortals, and the evil spirit protected us too, then there is no difference between the evil spirit and an immortal.
"I've heard city folk say there are also gods in charge of the Underworld, and they take care of people after they die."
He paused, his eyes brightening as if he had suddenly figured something out.
"Maybe the one in the Dead Man’s Forest is actually a god from the Underworld!"
"You mean... the Underworld?"
A brawny man froze, then slapped his thigh.
"Right! That makes sense! Look at that lord's incarnation; it's white bone. When he appeared, there was soaring divine light. If that's not a god from the Underworld, what is?"
"No wonder! When I saw that lord just now, I felt cold and terrified all over. That must be the lord's divine technique for controlling life and death!"
"Then those rumors about living dead in the Dead Man's Forest..."
"Ha! That was definitely the lord's handiwork!"
"Even the dead can be brought back to life. You can see how merciful the lord is!"
"I don't know which bastard started calling the lord an evil spirit. They deserve a thousand cuts."
The hot-tempered Widow Li cursed angrily.
"Then let's hurry up and worship this lord!"
"How do we do it?"
"Do what Shitou did!"
With someone leading the way, the rest found their backbone and began pulling out their most precious belongings.
None of them were truly valuable items. There was a wooden comb with many broken teeth, half a yellowed wolf fang, and a ragged handkerchief covered in patches.
One by one, they laid them by the pit and followed Shitou's example, kowtowing three times.
With an uncertain path ahead and nowhere to go, they could only remain here.
But fortunately, while the Dead Man’s Forest was rumored to have an 'evil spirit'—no, it should be called an Evil God now—there were no reports of any demons.
They held onto infinite hope.
The Evil God was merciful; they wondered if he would be willing to take in homeless refugees like them.
...
Chen Zhou grinded all night, harvesting over 200 portions of normal bone material and normal flesh, along with over 100 portions of normal blood.
The results were quite substantial!
He used Bone Summoning again to summon 6 more skeletons, consuming 30 portions of normal bone material.
Chen Zhou discovered that although the little netherflame ghost servant was a bit of a mascot with poor combat strength, it was quite nimble with its hands and feet.
Processing corpses, moving materials, and organizing the warehouse—it handled everything without a hitch.
Now that the number of skeletons had increased, the efficiency of hunting zombies had risen significantly, and one netherflame ghost servant was becoming a bit overwhelmed.
With a wave of his hand, Chen Zhou summoned another netherflame ghost servant, filling all 10 ghost servant slots.
Watching the Bone Snake lead the 6 skeletons in and out of the Dead Man's Stele while the two netherflame ghost servants diligently dismantled materials around the corpses, a strange sense of satisfaction washed over him.
"Seeing my own pals working themselves to the bone while the warehouse slowly fills up... this feels great!"
Chen Zhou couldn't help but sigh.
Chen Zhou felt like an evil capitalist.
After his brief moment of reflection, he immediately reassigned tasks to his ghost servants.
The Bone Snake and 6 skeletons continued their manual labor, while one netherflame ghost servant stayed behind to dismantle materials for the time being.
He personally took one skeleton and one netherflame ghost servant out of the Ghost Domain.
To get rich, one must first punch trees.
He would chop some trees to get normal wood and finish the second novice tutorial as soon as possible.
Rate on N.U.
