“What?”

Hearing Monkey Wine’s crazy words, Hu Ma was dumbfounded, “It’s you?”

His mind raced. He'd encountered so many reincarnators, mostly with aligned interests, working together on a scheme. Now, he’d finally met one with opposing interests?

Suddenly, he couldn't quite grasp this reincarnator's mad, rambling thoughts, but he reacted quickly, laughing, “We’re all reincarnators. When chatting with me, there’s no need to be so dishonest, right…”

“Brother, if you sealed our valley, then how can you say you don't know the reason for sealing our blood food mine?”

“…”

He finished speaking and listened patiently, wanting to see what he would say and judge whether this was someone he could negotiate with.

Unexpectedly, Monkey Wine sighed softly and said, “It’s true that I sealed your blood food mine, but I really don’t know the reason.”

“Because the one who wanted to seal your blood food mine is my father. He told me to seal it, so I sealed it…”

“He suddenly said he wanted to seal the blood food mine, but didn’t say why. He only said that the matter was very important, and that no living person could leave this blood food mine, nor could any blood food leave the valley.”

“…”

This was a bit awkward…

Hu Ma had contacted many reincarnators, and they all chatted quite well. Only this time did he find that the conversation was a bit stuck. He had found the person blocking the road, and he also knew the person who wanted to seal the blood food mine, but what was the use?

Why did this guy sometimes act like a pervert and sometimes like a good boy who listened to his daddy?

However…

…It wasn’t completely useless.

Hearing Monkey Wine’s words, he also remembered what Chief Zhuang had told him before. That Chief Zhuang thought the shaman’s clansmen were his friends and, upon discovering that someone had sealed the blood food mine, immediately sent someone to deliver a letter to that clan leader, asking him to help.

But how could he know that the person who ordered the sealing of his mine was that clan leader?

He pondered quickly in his heart. This matter was probably deeper than he thought, involving both a mysterious, unknown mine and a shaman with an unclear attitude.

He had just arrived here, caught off guard and unprepared. Gaining more information was very important…

So, even though he felt that Monkey Wine seemed a little abnormal, he softened his voice and said with a smile, “Although this is your father’s arrangement, it seems like many things don’t need to be so confrontational, right?”

“There aren’t that many zero-sum games. Win-win is the basic principle…”

“To be honest, I was planning to go to that blood food mine to find something, but now that your valley is sealed, I can’t get in. So, do you think it’s possible for you to figure out your father’s secret for sealing this mine, and I can also make some preparations…”

“We can work together…”

“…”

It wasn’t good to say things too directly, but Hu Ma believed that Monkey Wine had understood his words, so he paused slightly.

Sure enough, Monkey Wine was silent for a moment, then suddenly laughed and said, “You’re trying to persuade me not to listen to my father, but to cooperate with you?”

“You truly are a high achiever…”

Hu Ma flattered him, then smiled and said, “It doesn’t necessarily have to be so absolute, but there can be more options, right? If we can manage it well, cooperation between me and your father isn’t impossible.”

“You can’t cooperate with him, because he only believes in the shamanic god and won’t cooperate with mortals.”

Monkey Wine interrupted Hu Ma’s thoughts as soon as he spoke, slowly saying, “But if you just want to persuade me, then it comes back to the original question.”

“Which of these two worlds is real?”

“…”

“?”

Hu Ma was puzzled, “Why are we going back to that again?”

“If this world is real, I can’t help you.”

Monkey Wine slowly said, “Because he’s my father, and also the clan leader of our shamanic branch. Opposing him is the same as opposing the shamanic people who gave birth to me and raised me. I would become a disgrace to our shamans, and even bring eternal damnation upon them.”

Hu Ma listened, his heart sinking slightly. He took a low breath and said, “Then what if our world is real?”

“If our world is real, then at this moment we are true acquaintances, trustworthy people in a strange, foreign land.”

Monkey Wine slowly said, “And the person who is now ordering me as my father is actually the lunatic who filled my body with Gu worms when I was five years old, because I was most afraid of insects in my previous life…”

“Guess what I’ll do to him?”

“…”

“…”

“Insects filled your whole body?”

Monkey Wine spoke very simply, and when he spoke, he always had a kind of ethereal, confused feeling, but Hu Ma was still shocked.

Vaguely, he glimpsed a bit of this guy’s fate.

He said that he was awakened at the age of seven, but he was filled with Gu worms at the age of five. That is, he just remembered the things of his previous life, and then found himself in a nest of insects?

Ew…

Just thinking about it was creepy, no wonder he looks a little crazy now…

“Brother, I’m an outsider after all, so it’s not good for me to say…”

Thinking in his heart, Hu Ma slowly opened his mouth and said, “But I just feel that whether it’s in the past life or this life, whether intentional or unintentional, people who attack ignorant children have committed a crime, right?”

Speaking to this point, he quickly stopped, waiting for Monkey Wine’s answer.

There seemed to be a moment of silence, and then Monkey Wine took a light breath, slowly saying, “I’ve lived in this village for more than twenty years, but I still feel that only when I meet reincarnators can I truly hear some words that speak to my heart…”

“This means…”

Listening, Hu Ma couldn’t help but get excited, “Is there a chance?”

But before he could ask this final confirmation, he heard Monkey Wine say, “But I still can’t help you deal with my father…”

“?”

Hu Ma was a little annoyed. This crazy person was wasting his feelings? Did he believe he wouldn't gather the Red Lantern Society and flatten him?

Then he heard Monkey Wine slowly say, “Because it’s useless to only deal with him. If we want to cooperate, we have to deal with the shamanic god worshipped in our village together, right…”

“Just like it’s always trying to get into my head, I also really want to study the structure of this thing…”

…

…

“What the hell is this?”

After retreating from his Natal Spirit Temple, Hu Ma felt a little unbelievable.

So, he really did meet a crazy person this time?

He just invited him to do a job, at most join hands to kill his father, but he wanted to directly pull him to destroy the god believed by their clansmen?

However, it’s no wonder that the people in the mine felt that these shamans were strange, sealing the mine, but not saying hello, not communicating, and not exchanging information…

Suppressing the pressure in his heart, he sat silently on the bed for a while, practicing his cultivation while waiting for dawn. Then he walked out with the others and looked up. The Red Lantern Matron’s lantern was still hanging above the village gate tower, emitting a little red glow in the morning light.

The early-rising miners had already seen it and were discussing it. When they hung up this red lantern yesterday, they were still unsure, but seeing that the night had passed peacefully, they felt a lot more at ease.

Of course, the other party was originally just sealing the valley and hadn’t attacked the mine. This peaceful night might not have much to do with the red lantern.

But some ideas also needed to be changed. Having done a few things earlier in the identity of a descendant of the Hu family, he gradually underestimated the Red Lantern Matron’s reputation. But in reality, the more you were in this kind of place, the louder her name would be.

Not to mention that he hadn’t even entered the manor yet, even if he did, a manor warden from Ming Prefecture would definitely not have as much face as the Red Lantern Matron in the eyes of these shamans and miners.

This was still the Red Lantern Matron, the great evil spirit who hadn’t yet come ashore. Now that she had built a temple and become a god on the altar, her intangible deterrence was actually even more powerful.

Before communicating with Monkey Wine, using the hanging of the Red Lantern Matron as a way to deter unknown enemies was originally a good method, but now, it could indeed be confirmed that the Red Lantern Matron’s prestige was probably useless…

…That person was a reincarnator, and not a very normal one.

“As for now…”

While pondering and pacing, Hu Ma glanced towards the southeast corner of the valley, where a huge, wriggling mass of flesh could be vaguely seen, growing together with the mountain soil and rocks.

There were ugly black scars everywhere, and some were seeping bright, glistening liquid.

Connected to this huge mass of flesh were rows of shelves built with bamboo and rough wood. Between the shelves, there were square holes, and many had traces of harvesting.

That was the Flesh Mountain. Vaguely, it looked like a mountain range that had come alive. Most of it was black in texture, emitting a smell similar to asphalt. Between the holes, there were still some white or cyan traces.

The Flesh Mountain wouldn’t rot, but would slowly heal, so it looked terrifying and cruel.

However, Hu Ma’s gaze first looked at an inconspicuous place where the Flesh Mountain was connected to the hillside.

There, layers of rough wood were piled up, sealed off, and covered with red curtains. It could be seen that the flesh cutters in the valley would bypass it from a distance when approaching, indicating that something had indeed happened there that made them palpitate.

He stared at it from a distance, and vaguely felt as if there was something invisible to him, but extremely terrifying, causing him to panic inexplicably, and he suddenly withdrew his gaze.

So, what exactly was inside?

Monkey Wine said that his father had ordered the sealing of the mine. Could it be that even the mine chief and the old masters couldn’t judge what was inside, but these shamans, who usually hadn’t eaten much blood food, knew instead?

As for himself now, what should he focus on?

While silently pondering, he suddenly heard a sharp whistle in his ear. Turning his head to look outside the valley, he saw a vast mist gradually approaching the valley.

In the crowd, some who were closer to the gate suddenly shouted excitedly, “Quick, tell the mine chief…”

“Clan Leader Wu is here…”

(End of chapter)