The surroundings instantly fell into a deathly silence.
Several women covered their mouths, tears rolling down silently, while the men's faces were as taut as cracked stone. Their fists clenched until they creaked, yet they were utterly helpless.
That band of bandits had occupied the mountain for several years. There were at least twenty or thirty of them, armed with blades and killing without blinking an eye.
The local authorities had attempted to suppress them twice, but both times they returned empty-handed, unable to do anything about this group of bandits.
Refugees fleeing the famine who passed through this territory feared nothing more than encountering these vicious outlaws.
For to cross their path was a death sentence.
The men were slaughtered, the women were abducted, and the children...
They were all boiled and eaten by them.
Gouwa was only seven years old. Everyone present knew exactly what his fate would be.
“Gouwa! My Gouwa!” Gouwa's mother collapsed to the ground, weeping so hard she nearly lost consciousness.
Her hands clawed desperately at the dirt, as if she could still feel her child's warmth there, but all she could grasp were cold gravel and mud.
The women nearby, their eyes red with tears, went to support her.
The men turned their heads away, their eyes brimming with moisture.
A breeze blew from the creek, lifting the mother's disheveled hair and revealing her tear-stained face.
Everyone wanted to say something.
But they couldn't find the words.
Just then, a chaotic sound of hoofbeats and wild shouting suddenly came from below the slope.
Everyone's expression changed instantly.
“Oh no, the bandits have caught up!”
Several women hurriedly pulled their children behind them. The men gathered in groups of two or three, clutching whatever they could grab—hoes, carrying poles, wooden clubs; the most formidable weapon among them was merely a wood-chopping axe.
A dozen or so bandits filed out from the corner of the mountain path.
Leading them was a one-eyed brute with his shirt open, revealing a chest of black hair, with two broadswords tucked into his belt.
The bandits following him were all fierce and sinister.
One of them held a rope, at the end of which was tied a thin, jaundiced child.
Gouwa’s hands were bound with hemp rope as he stumbled along behind the horse, his small face pale as death and his lips trembling.
“I heard you lot came into a fortune?” The one-eyed brute reined in his horse and grinned, revealing a mouth full of yellow teeth. “This little brat told me everything. He said you picked up a whole basket of gold, silver, and jewels by the creek.”
He flipped off his horse and gave a large wave of his hand.
Several bandits dug a pit on the spot, set up an iron pot, poured half a bucket of water into it, and piled firewood underneath. Their movements were so practiced it was as if they had done it countless times.
And indeed, they had.
“I’ll give you the time it takes for an incense stick to burn,” the one-eyed brute said, drawing a blade from his waist. “Hand over the treasures.”
“Otherwise.”
He gestured toward the pot with his chin.
“I’ll boil this little brat alive first. The meat on these young ones is tender; it’ll surely smell delicious when cooked.”
The flames beneath the pot flared up, their orange light reflecting on the faces of every refugee, illuminating their fear with terrifying clarity.
Gouwa’s mother fell to her knees with a thud and crawled all the way to the one-eyed brute’s feet, clutching his pant leg. “Master, we have no treasures! The child was just talking nonsense!”
“Nonsense?” The one-eyed brute kicked her over. “This brat told me all about you building a temple. Something about treasures left by a Divine Lady—did you think I wouldn't find out?”
He stood up and walked toward the iron pot, scooping up a ladle of water and slowly pouring it onto the ground.
“The water is almost boiling. Take your time thinking.”
The crowd was filled with indignation.
“That belongs to the Divine Lady! How dare you try to steal it? Are you not afraid the Divine Lady will punish you?”
“You will go to the eighteenth level of hell!”
“That’s right! You’ve committed so many evils, the Divine Lady will surely strike you down!”
The one-eyed brute threw his head back and laughed, and the bandits behind him joined in, doubled over with laughter.
“The Divine Lady?”
The brute laughed until tears came to his eyes, pointing the tip of his blade at the small temple. “This broken thatched shack? You peasants can’t even afford a meal, yet you’re making offerings to a god?”
He kicked over the bowl of wild flowers on the altar. The flowers scattered across the ground and were trampled into the mud.
“I’ve lived for forty years, and I’ve killed more people than you’ve ever seen. I’ve eaten more than one child, too.”
“Gods, Buddhas—why haven't I ever seen one? If there really is a god, let her come out!” He spread his arms, his laughter arrogant to the extreme. “I’d like to see what a god looks like! Let’s see if a god’s golden body is harder than my blade!”
His laughter echoed through the valley, lingering for a long time.
The refugees' expressions gradually grew despondent.
They had built the temple and offered worship to the Divine Lady of their own accord; they had never received her recognition.
No matter how they prayed silently in their hearts, the Divine Lady probably wouldn't care, would she?
Some closed their eyes, some wept silently, and some hugged the children beside them tightly.
Shen Yu’s brow was furrowed.
The refugees were all honest, simple farmers; how could they possibly fight off bandits who lived by killing and looting?
Furthermore, the enemy had superior numbers. He only had Shen Da, a capable guard, by his side.
Escorting him away wouldn't be a problem, but there was no chance of saving the child and the refugees from the bandits.
In this current situation, even if he had a thousand schemes in his mind, he couldn't make something out of nothing.
Seeing that no one moved, the one-eyed brute grew impatient.
He waved his hand irritably. “Go chop off one of his legs and throw it in the pot. Let’s see if these peasants hand it over then.”
“Right away, Boss.”
A bandit raised his blade and walked toward Gouwa.
“Impudent.”
“Who is so bold as to dare despise the divine?”
The voice fell from high above the heavens, as cold and clear as shattered jade, yet it drowned out all the clamor.
Everyone instinctively looked up.
The moon was as round as a plate, and amidst its clear radiance, an ethereal white figure descended from the heart of the moon.
Her sleeves fluttered like clouds, and her raven-black hair was held loosely by a white jade Butterfly Hidden Pin, trailing in the wind.
Her toes lightly touched the void, each step as if she were treading on invisible stairs, coming across the moonlight.
The moonlight stretched out behind her like a silver glow, resembling spreading wings or a path of clouds laid out for an immortal descending to the world.
The moment she landed, the night wind ceased, and the insects within a thirty-foot radius fell silent at once.
The blade in the bandit’s hand clattered to the ground.
Shen Yu gazed up at the Divine Lady in the sky, his eyes fixed as if frozen, unable to look away.
【Tang Dahu Shock Value +100】
【Zhou Xiong Shock Value +100】
【...】
【Current Shock Value: 3050】
“It’s the Divine Lady... She’s come to save us...”
“Divine Lady...”
“Goddess...”
The refugees knelt down, one after another, the sound of knees hitting the ground echoing through the area.
The one-eyed brute snapped back to his senses. He looked the woman in white up and down, a disdainful sneer appearing at the corner of his mouth.
“So you’re that Divine Lady?” He spat on the ground. “I thought it was some kind of deity, but it’s just a delicate little woman.”
He gripped his blade and walked toward her step by step, the tip of the blade carving a shallow groove in the ground.
“I’ll chop you into mincemeat right now and see how you play god then!” He swung his blade down.
Everyone heard the sound of the blade cutting through the air.
But the strike didn't hit anyone.
The blade slammed into an invisible golden barrier, letting out a heavy, bell-like boom.
The shockwave traveled up the hilt, numbing the brute’s entire arm and splitting the webbing between his thumb and forefinger.
Blood trickled down the hilt of the blade.
And his blade had already snapped into two pieces.
The barrier, however, remained unmoved, golden light flowing across it without a single crack.
【Protection Amulet -1】
The System watched the consumption of the amulet with a heavy heart.
It had shamelessly acted as a lackey for the Cultivation System for three whole months just to get that.
However, seeing the Shock Value soaring rapidly, its heart didn't seem to ache as much.
【Current Shock Value: 3350】
The Divine Lady stepped forward slowly, treading over the gravel and mud. Her white robes trailed on the ground, touching the dust yet remaining unstained.
“Just now, you said you would chop me into mincemeat?”
Her expression remained unchanged, cold and composed.
“Monster...” The one-eyed brute’s eyes were filled with terror.
He instinctively backed away but tripped over a stone, falling onto his backside and scrambling backward with both hands and feet.
“Don’t... don’t come closer...”
The Divine Lady looked down at him. “You cannot even distinguish between a deity and a monster, yet you dare to eat humans?”
She raised her hand, palm facing upward.
A dark token turned slowly in her palm, the thunder patterns upon it shimmering with a silver-white light.
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