Chapter 1 Preparing to Cut the Tai Sui

After the New Year, back in the village, preparations had to begin for cutting the Tai Sui in the spring.

Logically speaking, it wasn't their first year, and the people of Hu Ma's village were already skilled at it. However, last year their village hadn't been popular and had been guarded against like thieves.

Throughout the months of cutting the Tai Sui last year, they'd only worked as warehouse managers, because they had no chance to come into contact with the Tai Sui. Naturally, there was no profit to be made, which was why the village's public accounts were rather poor last year.

But this year was different.

They were now on Xu Xiangzhu's big shot's good side, and everyone in the society was an acquaintance!

Upon arriving in the city, they presented the mountain goods brought from Second Master to his old buddies. Xu Xiangzhu immediately understood what was going on and whispered, "Once you're in our society, if you don't make a trip to the mines, you'll just have a reputation for relying on blood sacrifices to eat, when in reality, you're just doing the work of an escort."

"Of course, this trip to the mines isn't about us trying to make a profit. It's mainly about getting closer to the Tai Sui Lord and getting a bit of his grace, right?"

Hu Ma deeply agreed. "Exactly, we have no selfish motives. We just want to learn more about the Tai Sui Lord."

"I've already picked a place for you," Xu Xiangzhu said.

"No problems" meant the problems had been solved, not that there weren't any problems.

"Otherwise, within our Red Lantern Society alone, there are quite a few villages eyeing that blood sacrifice mine."

"Of course, a promise is a promise, and appearances must be kept. We just promised them last year that they could continue managing it, and now we're immediately dumping them. It wouldn't look good on the surface, so..."

The men were naturally worried and were on high alert the entire way. However, each time, Hu Ma personally escorted them, being careful and cautious, so there were no problems.

But they quickly discovered that things were different. This year, the work they received was completely different from last year.

After returning, he personally paid for a table of food and told the men that they would be busy.

The work of receiving and escorting had begun, and the risks involved had also increased. From the moment the blood sacrifice left the mine and arrived in their hands, all the way to Zhumen Town, the responsibility was entirely theirs.

Xu Xiangzhu lowered his voice and said, "There's a blood sacrifice mine in Blind Man's Ridge in the West Mountains. It used to be the property of the Green Robe Gang, but we took it over last year."

"For this season, we'll let them continue managing it. I'll find some faults in them, and then I'll punish them all at once, which will be perfect for you to take over. However, you also need to do a good job this year and establish a solid reputation, so I can hand it over to you directly."

The two of them immediately looked at each other and smiled, then quickly whispered a few things that they couldn't let the Red Lantern Goddess hear, only things that they could say among themselves.

Previously, the Red Lantern Society was based in the city, but now, the first temple of the Red Lantern Goddess had been built in Zhumen Town.

"This is clearly yours. I'm just going to keep an eye on it for you," Hu Ma said.

Along with the left and right guardians, as well as a group of worshippers, Xiangzhu, and incense burners, they all came to Zhumen Town.

He paused slightly, lowered his voice, and said, "We'll kill them in the second half of the year."

Last year, they only managed the warehouse, and even guarding the warehouse was guarded against. This year, however, they ran outside several times in a few months, receiving cart after cart of blood sacrifices from the blood sacrifice mine and then escorting them all the way to Zhumen Town to be recorded.

This was also due to the changes brought about by the construction of the Red Lantern Goddess's temple.

At first, the men thought it would be the same as last year, just fixing the rat holes in the warehouse, being diligent and careful when the people escorting the blood sacrifices arrived, and avoiding offending anyone.

"Later, you can go over there and take over directly. Then let Old Suanpan follow you to do the accounting. Our society will be at ease, and the Goddess will be at ease, right?"

Hearing his clear arrangements, Hu Ma was moved and then seriously criticized, "Uncle Xu, you're not right to say that. What do you mean by handing it over to me?"

"However, when taking over this blood sacrifice mine, in order to avoid trouble, we promised the people who were guarding the mine before that we would continue to use them. Only a fool would actually continue to use them. Once we're stable, we'll have to get rid of them."

There was no shortage of evil spirits attracted by the scent of blood sacrifices and unable to restrain themselves, but they were scattered by Hu Ma's shout.

There were also a few gangs of bandits who wanted to take over their batch of blood sacrifices. These weren't the kind of bandits in the mountains who would just block the road, ask for something, and then let you go. They were real bandits who wanted to kill, steal a batch, and then hide in the Old Yin Mountains until the wind died down before coming out again.

This group of people had one of them kicked to death by Zhou Datong, and Zhou Liang and Zhao Zhu also got blood on their hands.

After all, they had each learned a hand from the society.

Zhou Liang learned the left hand, Zhao Zhu learned the right hand, and Zhou Datong had already mastered his legs, specializing in the ghost climbing stairs technique, sneaking and picking locks, scaling widows' walls, and eavesdropping.

Hu Ma didn't know how his unique skill had become so different from his own, but it was indeed well-practiced and very distinctive.

Of course, the unified rule was that although Hu Ma taught them, Hu Ma was not their master, but Second Master was.

Hu Ma was only passing on the teachings on behalf of Second Master and was only considered their senior brother.

The only problem was...

Second Master didn't even know that he had four disciples in the trade.

For several busy months, Hu Ma and his village had escorted dozens of shipments of blood sacrifices to Zhumen Town. When they were busy, they had to make a trip every two or three days. They had just returned, and the livestock hadn't even had a good rest when they received another order.

But Hu Ma also knew that Xu Xiangzhu was helping him accumulate merit, so he didn't decline. He provided good wine and meat for the men every day, and the men were happy.

In this way, seeing that this busy period was about to pass, Hu Ma also thought that he had accumulated enough merit. The next step was to wait for Xu Xiangzhu to arrange things, and then he would go to Blind Man's Ridge to take over the blood sacrifice mine. At that time, the profits would be much greater.

And on this day, he received an order to pick up a batch of blood sacrifices sealed in large urns.

Seeing that they were sealed in large urns with layers of talismans drawn on them, Hu Ma guessed that the urns contained good things. He was tempted, but he warned himself to endure, to endure...

He would think about it after he arrived at the mine!

When he took over the mine, Little Hongtang could eat blood sacrifices every day.

He picked them up early in the morning and traveled for a day. He thought about resting for a day when he returned to the village, but he didn't expect that a flood had washed away a bridge, and he had to take a detour, which delayed his journey. Seeing that he was still a dozen miles away from the village, it was already getting dark.

"We're almost home, so let's not rest!"

Hu Ma thought that they were already around the village, and sometimes they would patrol here at night.

It would only take half an hour to rush back. On the contrary, resting here would only invite trouble.

So he spurred on his horse and quietly promised Master Horse that he would give him two pounds of wine to rest after returning, and then continued on the official road.

It was easy to encounter strange things when traveling at night, and escorting blood sacrifices at night would probably increase the chances of encountering strange things tenfold. But because Hu Ma and his men were so familiar with the area around the village, they knew who was sleeping in every grave.

Everyone had a friendship, so there weren't many who would cause them trouble.

But just as their carts and horses were rumbling along, passing through Yellow Dog Village, and they could almost see their own village in the distance, they suddenly saw a large flag standing on both sides of the dark official road ahead. Lanterns were lit at the top of the flagpoles, illuminating the words on the flag.

Fluttering in the wind, were the four words "Living People Avoid."

A group of sturdy-looking men stood behind the sign. As soon as they saw someone coming, they immediately shouted,

"Stay back and don't come closer!"

Hearing this, the men were all puzzled and turned to look at Hu Ma.

Hu Ma also politely jumped off the cart, took a few steps forward, and bowed from a distance, saying, "Which friends are ahead?"

"We are disciples of the Red Lantern Goddess Society and are now returning to our village. Can we borrow the road?"

"Red Lantern Society?"

The group of sturdy men sneered upon hearing this and said, "So what?"

"Our master is here exorcising demons and saving people. All idlers should quickly detour to avoid disturbing the altar."

"Exorcising demons and saving people?"

Hu Ma was slightly stunned when he heard this.

Now they were at the entrance of their village, and everyone was used to being arrogant. Moreover, they all had some skills. Hearing the other party's impolite words, Zhou Datong, Liang, and Zhu were all indignant.

But Hu Ma quickly told them to stop and retreated a dozen feet, not wanting to start a conflict with these people.

"Little Hongtang, what happened ahead?"

After retreating far enough and making sure that those people couldn't hear the movement here, Hu Ma came to the side of the road and asked in a low voice to the dark fields.

"Oh no, it's the big sister in the well..."

Little Hongtang quickly crawled out of the field, carrying a small basket in her hand, and said nervously to Hu Ma, "Brother Hu Ma, the big sister in the well is fighting with people in front. Those people keep whipping her, but she just won't let go of one person."

"The big sister in the well?"

Hu Ma was also stunned for a long time before suddenly realizing, "Is it her?"

Just ahead, between the two signs, in the middle of a crowd of people, was a carriage. The carriage originally had a roof, but now it had been dismantled.

Sitting in the carriage was a middle-aged man with a fair face and a long beard, dressed in luxurious clothes. But now he had a gloomy look on his face, his movements were twisted, his eyes were strange, and he looked at the man holding an oil lamp in front of him with hatred.

The man was wearing a black mage robe, had a mustache, held a willow branch whip in one hand, stared at the man, and shouted, "Evil creature, do you know who he is? How dare you harm him?"

"Quickly leave him, or I will make your soul fly away and you will never be able to reincarnate!"

"Of course I know who he is. He's my husband, who heartlessly pushed me into the well."

The man listened, but only laughed with hatred in his eyes. "I moved the grave later, just to guard him here."

"I didn't expect him to be so cruel, finally coming back, but first filling in my well. If I hadn't moved my home and waited for him by the official road, I wouldn't even be able to see him. Master, don't you think this is exactly our fate?"