Chapter 500 Living Human Stake

"Can you even do that?"

Hu Ma choked on Di Gua Shao's words. "How can there be so many?"

"Ah, there's no helping it." Di Gua Shao sighed. "None of the three signature moves my master taught me were good. The problem is, that's all she knows. I have to research on my own. Some powerful techniques are hard to learn, but others are simpler and very effective..."

Hearing this, Hu Ma immediately understood. Any method that was both simple and effective couldn't possibly be legitimate. Just to deal with the Five Fiends Envoys of the Five Fiends Altar, she had sacrificed three villages at once, although she had found plenty of reasons to silence the three reincarnators, including himself.

It wasn't easy to criticize her, but making up reasons was easy, while deceiving ghosts and gods was not. Every single debt of sin was recorded on the Karma Soul. By now, she must be past caring about adding more debt.

"But..." Although he understood, he couldn't help but sigh and ask Di Gua Shao, "Aren't you afraid of bearing so much sin?"

He remembered Di Gua Shao used to discuss reincarnation and retribution with him, but that was only because Miss White Wine thought she was too wild and deliberately brought it up to her. Reading time: 10 seconds. Why did she seem so much less concerned now?

"I'm only sixteen," Di Gua Shao said. "Why should I be afraid of debts a hundred years from now?"

"Besides, I think this world's values are wrong. Like those bandit villages, and the guys I usually catch to practice on, they're clearly bad people, but I'm still said to be accumulating negative karma."

"Luckily, it's enough that we reincarnators understand me. Who cares about the others?"

Hu Ma was speechless for a moment, sighing softly in his heart. Since Di Gua Shao didn't care about the cost of such techniques, he could indeed borrow her hand to drive the stake. At worst, he would remember the favor and repay her accordingly!

Just as he was feeling pleasantly surprised and things were looking up, he heard Di Gua Shao ask expectantly, "So, Senior, how do we drive this stake?"

"Huh?" Hu Ma was taken aback. "You don't know?"

"No!"

Di Gua Shao said, "My master didn't teach me."

"..."

"Then I'll have to figure something out." Hu Ma was stunned. He calmed Di Gua Shao for the time being, then got out of bed again.

He nodded to Little Red Tangerine on the rafters, signaling her to continue sleeping. He got up, took the Penalty Official Saber from the table, tucked it under his arm, turned, and went to Old Abacus's room next door.

He gently pushed the door open and walked in. Old Abacus was sleeping groggily, muttering a few curses at his ancestral master in his sleep. He tossed and turned, his breathing becoming lighter and lighter, then suddenly flipped over, clutching a small flag in his hand. Then he saw Hu Ma's face.

The faint light from outside the window fell on half of Hu Ma's face. Although the saber tucked under his arm was still in its scabbard, he could still feel the chilling baleful aura emanating from it, casting a green hue on his face.

"You," he stammered, his heart seemingly stopping, his voice trembling. "Why aren't you sleeping in the middle of the night? What do you want?"

"This old man doesn't like that kind of thing..."

"There's no other way." Hu Ma sighed heavily and said, "I'm asking for your help, old man. I still need your guidance on how to drive this living human stake!"

Old Abacus's voice was on the verge of tears. "Do you people always come with a knife in the middle of the night when you're asking for help?"

"Don't be afraid. I just carry it for self-defense when I go out at night."

Hu Ma said, "But I don't think you'll refuse to help me, after all, we've been through thick and thin together. I haven't been in a hurry to settle the debt of those four hundred blood ration pills, have I?"

"But I, I this..." Old Abacus looked bitter, stuttering, then suddenly realized, "...Wait, how did it become four hundred pills?"

"...You just said a hundred!"

Hu Ma waved his hand and said, "A hundred it is, whatever you say, old man. I won't argue with you about the blood ration pills, but you have to teach me how to drive this living human stake, right?"

As he spoke, he slowly lowered his head, glancing at the saber tucked under his arm.

Old Abacus was dumbfounded. With a knife at his side and surrounded by his fellow apprentices, he was intimidated by Hu Ma's murderous aura and didn't know what to do. After hesitating for a long time, he slowly spoke.

"It doesn't sound too difficult." Hu Ma was a little surprised as he carefully memorized it, smiling and nodding. He tucked the saber under his arm and left, not forgetting to say to Old Abacus, "You're so stingy."

"Is it just a matter of difficulty?"

Watching Hu Ma leave so easily, Old Abacus was almost in tears. "There are gods three feet above our heads, and the ancestral master is watching! Just helping you come up with this idea is enough to burden me with a lot of karma, let alone the fact that I'm the one who told you the method!"

Hu Ma ignored these details and returned to his room excitedly, carefully pondering the method Old Abacus had told him. He became more and more confident.

There was no time to delay. He had to get the Hu family's heirloom as soon as possible. Now was not the time to be long-winded.

He started that very night by informing Di Gua Shao and explaining the method to her in detail, agreeing on the time and the details of the technique.

When he got up the next day, he ate a hearty meal, then called Zhou Da Tong, Zhou Liang, and Zhao Zhu over, saying to them, "There's nothing going on at the mine right now. A few days ago, I even went out with Brother Abacus to the lantern festival, leaving you to guard the mine. You haven't seen a pretty girl in days. Now that I'm back, I'll give you some time off."

"Take some silver from the account and take everyone in the valley out for a stroll. Take the livestock from the mine with you. When you get to the market, groom them and reshoe them."

"Have fun for two days, but remember... no going down those back alleys!"

Hearing this, Zhou Da Tong and the others were overjoyed and started cheering. They were all energetic young men in their late teens, and who could stand this loneliness every day! Back in the village, they could still interact with people from the surrounding villages, but in this mine, the only ones they could interact with were ghosts!

Only Old Abacus knew what Hu Ma was up to. As soon as he heard Zhou Da Tong and the others coming to ask for silver, he immediately said indignantly, "Take it, take it all! I'll go with you. I didn't get enough of the festival last time."

Hu Ma laughed. "I thought you'd stay in the valley this time, I was afraid you'd get tired!"

"You trust me that much?"

Old Abacus glanced at Hu Ma and said, "I still don't dare to be alone with you. Whatever it is, let's talk about it when I get back in three days!"

With that, the group immediately packed up, took the silver, changed their clothes, and led the livestock from the mine. By noon, the entire valley was left with only Hu Ma, without a single other living thing.

Hu Ma calmed down. He first went to the wooden shed at the mine and chose a good black wooden coffin for himself. He found a place to stand it upright on the ground, took out the lid, placed it aside, and then sat down quietly, cultivating to wait for nightfall.

When night fell and the darkness deepened, the entire valley was without a single lantern because there were no workers. Everything was dark and gloomy. He slowly opened his eyes, first sprinkling a circle of soot around the coffin, then lighting four oil lamps.

He placed a stick of incense next to it to keep time. He made detailed preparations while silently waiting for the hour.

When the time was right, he straightened his clothes, stuck a yellow talisman on his forehead, and then, holding the coffin lid, lay down... or rather, stood in the upright coffin.

Outside, Little Red Tangerine stretched her head to look. Hu Ma tried it from inside, but found that the coffin lid was difficult to fasten. He didn't know how others got in and out, so he asked Little Red Tangerine for help. She ran over and carefully closed the lid for Hu Ma.

"Little Red Tangerine, you should also hide out and come back when it's dawn!"

Inside the coffin, Hu Ma instructed Little Red Tangerine in a muffled voice. She obediently nodded, slung her basket over her arm, and skipped away.

The entire valley became even quieter. There was only an upright black coffin, four oil lamps, and the wind in the empty valley, constantly blowing in, swirling around the valley, and then leaving. But it always turned back when it blew on the ashes outside, failing to extinguish the oil lamps.

He didn't know how long he waited, but when less than a quarter of the incense stick he had lit was left, he heard footsteps outside the valley. Then a beautiful head with jade hairpins inserted into her bun peeked into the valley.

Hu Ma was in the coffin, but he had already set up the altar, just without using any magic power. He could see her appearance through the candlelight in front of the coffin. It was Di Gua Shao, who had come as promised. She walked with a slight limp, but it was much better than before. It seemed she had treated her leg, but it wasn't completely healed.

She had arrived a little early. Seeing that there was no one in the valley, she muttered to herself and wandered around the valley with her hands behind her back. She looked at the cabinets in the hall and also checked the urn for storing rice.

Seeing that there was nothing of value, she came out again and even looked at a vein in the blood ore mine. She picked up a bit of meat residue, put it in her mouth, chewed it, and spat it out, looking disgusted, as if she disliked the meat of this mine being too dry.

After circling around a few times, the incense stick had almost burned out. Hu Ma was a little worried that she wasn't reliable, but he saw her turn around at just the right time, standing in front of Hu Ma's coffin. Then she took out two rough paper figures from her bundle.

She slowly unfolded them and propped them up with tree branches she had picked up. They were two thin figures that could stand on their own, with rosy faces and strange, sinister features.

"Huff!" She stood between the two paper figures and took out an iron nail, inserting it in front of the coffin. Then she burned incense and began to silently chant a mantra: "Heaven and earth are dark, vast and silent.

The three souls are absent, the seven spirits do not act.

Fate dictates entering the earth, do not blame others.

Reincarnation sacrifices the earth, guards the body and returns to its place."
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