Chapter 1 After Hearing the Role of the Paper Figure

Upon hearing the paper figure's purpose, everyone couldn't help but be surprised, "When Da Heitian comes, will the color of the paper figure also fade?"

"Yes, it will!" Old Man Yao raised his hand, pointing to the child paper figure's head. "I even put a little of my blood on the child's brow."

"Opening brow blood?" A young man in camouflage frowned.

Old Man Yao looked the young man up and down in surprise. The other party looked scholarly, like a schoolteacher. "Young man, you're not old but you've seen a lot. That's right, it's opening brow blood. This is an old method passed down from my ancestors. It's said to give the child a spirit."

In Old Man Yao's explanation, the paper figure with the opening brow blood would have some of the aura of a living person. When Da Heitian came, he would take away the color of the paper figure, which was equivalent to finding a substitute for the living person.

"Does Da Heitian come according to any pattern, like a time?" This was very important. Old Man Yao's words were all over the place, and Jiang Cheng wanted to confirm this point.

"Pattern..." Old Man Yao shook his head without even thinking. "How could there be any pattern? If there was, our village wouldn't have lost so many people. But Da Heitian doesn't come often. Maybe it's because there are fewer and fewer people in the village, so Da Heitian appears less and less often. It hasn't appeared for almost ten days now."

Fatty opened his mouth, but after thinking about it, he swallowed the words in his mouth. He wanted to warn the old man not to be so sure, because he might see Da Heitian tonight, now that they had arrived.

"But there is an approximate time. Except for the second time he came to take someone away, Da Heitian only appears after zi shi (11 PM-1 AM)." Old Man Yao said with certainty.

Speaking of the time, Old Man Yao suddenly slapped his forehead, and then stood up. "Oh dear, my memory. No, I have to go. It's getting dark."

"Go?" The old man stood up quickly. "Where are you going, Brother Yao?"

"There are too many people here, the target is too obvious. I'm taking my wife back to our old house to live. We have to make another pair of child paper figures when we get back."

After speaking, Old Man Yao left the room and stood in the courtyard, pointing towards the back of the house. "It's over there, that's my old house. I'll go back first. By the way, the nights in the mountains are different from outside. There are many wild beasts and poisonous insects. You should just stay in the house and don't walk around. There's food in the pot. Visitors are guests, so don't stand on ceremony."

After speaking, Old Man Yao didn't care about everyone's retention and hurriedly rushed towards the old house.

In normal times, Jiang Cheng would have tried to keep the old couple, but now that Wu Zai was here, if he said the old couple was fine, then they must be fine. What's more, there were four powerful reinforcements like the old man.

However, he still needed to be cautious. Jiang Cheng and the others walked around the entire courtyard and found four dead roe deer in the firewood room behind the house. The roe deer were beheaded and bled, and tied with ropes, hanging under the beams.

One of the roe deer only had its upper body left. The internal organs had been hollowed out, and a thick layer of salt was smeared on its body to prevent decay.

Then, following the aroma of meat, they came to the kitchen, where a black pot was on the stove, and the firewood below was still crackling. The aroma of meat wafted from the cracks around the pot.

Lifting the lid, there were four roe deer heads stewing inside, now stewed to the perfect point, the aroma of meat was overwhelming, the meat separated from the bones, and the constantly bubbling thick soup was constantly challenging everyone's taste buds.

"It's... it's so fragrant. What kind of seasoning did the old woman use to make it so fragrant?" Fatty couldn't help swallowing, a completely subconscious action.

Seeing this scene, the old man put the lid back on, and warned vigilantly: "Little Friend Jiang, brothers, this is obviously another mission world. We are unfamiliar with the place, so I suggest we be careful. We brought enough dry food this time, and there is still some water left. As long as everyone uses it sparingly, it should be no problem to hold on until we break the game and leave."

Soon, Tang Qisheng, who had been inspecting the pair of paper figures, also returned. The scholarly young man who had spoken before followed behind them. "There is nothing wrong with the paper figures, just like what Old Man Yao said," Tang Qisheng explained to Jiang Cheng.

They returned to the original room, which was also the largest one. Entering the door was a hall, with a bedroom on the left and right, furnished simply, but fortunately, it was relatively clean.

At this moment, the unconscious Li Bai, Yao Shun, and Yu were arranged in the bedroom on the right, and Zhu Jie was taking care of them.

A man in camouflage took off his coat and skillfully tied it around his waist, revealing a light blue ribbon wrapped around his left arm.

"What is this?" Jiang Cheng asked curiously.

"Little Friend Jiang, this is specially prepared by the higher-ups for this operation," the old man said, taking off his coat, with a similar light blue ribbon on his arm, "This ribbon is specially made, the material is very special, and the ribbons have different numbers, each person's is different, to distinguish between friend and foe."

Jiang Cheng went closer to look at the old man's ribbon, and sure enough, he saw a row of numbers on the edge of the ribbon. The old man's number was ..., which looked like he ranked very high, and the feel of the ribbon was indeed very special, at least Jiang Cheng had never touched such a thing.

"What is Lin Wan'er's number?" Jiang Cheng asked after putting down the ribbon.

Unexpectedly, the old man slowly shook his head. "Her number is.... Although Commissioner Lin's efforts to turn the tide were commendable, she is only the nominal commander of this operation. Higher-ups have sent down a more important figure to coordinate the overall action. After all, to integrate the various families, the dark forces, the folk scattered people, especially to command the military's secret forces, Commissioner Lin's qualifications and background are far from enough."

The old man's words were sincere, and Jiang Cheng also roughly understood the complexity of this team. However, the trouble facing them now was still the so-called Da Heitian. They knew almost nothing about what this thing was.

Seeing the atmosphere gradually becoming depressing, Tang Qisheng hesitated and finally spoke, "I've heard of the name Da Heitian, but... but it seems different from the one in this mission."

"The Da Heitian I know is the Dharma protector deity in Esoteric Buddhism, with unparalleled power to ward off evil spirits, eliminate disasters and resolve difficulties, especially to subdue demons and eliminate devils. Da Heitian never presides over reincarnation, nor does he ask about cause and effect. Once he makes a move, hundreds of miles turn into scorched earth, and ten thousand ghosts wail, without even a chance to be reincarnated. So all kinds of demons and monsters are afraid of him."

Hearing Tang Qisheng's words, Fatty couldn't help but be surprised. Da Heitian's methods were so ruthless, which was completely different from the Buddhist compassion he had in mind.

After a pause, Tang Qisheng cautiously glanced out the window, and his voice lowered, "It is rumored that Da Heitian uses all means to slaughter demons, and even deliberately drives living people to places where evil ghosts haunt, just waiting for the evil ghosts to eat people, then Da Heitian will brazenly take action to kill all the evil ghosts and monsters within a hundred miles!"