Chapter 802 Retribution is the Ultimate Equalizer
Qin Ye completely ignored Bu Wantian's desperate cries as he dragged him to the front of the Huang Clan's earthen building.
Clatter... Bu Wantian was tossed in front of the entrance alongside the net of chains around him. Qin Ye then cast his gaze toward Chu Renmei and Huang Jiansen and said in a calm voice, "I've brought him here. You can do whatever you want to him, but I'll be taking his soul. Rest assured, his soul will suffer infinitely more in my hands than they will in yours."
"You idiot!!" Bu Wantian was panting heavily as he struggled up into a sitting position before turning to glower at Qin Ye with gritted teeth. "You are a true idiot! Hehehe... Hahaha! To think that I, Bu Wantian, would be captured by an imbecile like you! How ironic!"
His voice abruptly trailed off here.
Chu Renmei and Huang Jiansen had already arrived before him, and Huang Jiansen was using his horrifically mutilated body from the Taisui coffin. Chu Renmei had returned to her human form, but there was turbulent Yin energy raging all around her.
"BU! WAN! TIAN!" She grabbed onto the chains with her deathly pale fingers, and a twisted smile appeared on her face. The smile was filled with boundless hatred and the joy of finally being able to exact her revenge after a grueling wait of over 100 years.
"Do you still remember me? Your wife?"
Bu Wantian's lips were trembling slightly, and he cast his gaze toward the sky in silence.
Huang Jiansen also strode over before grabbing onto the chains with one trembling hand while closing his other hand around Bu Wantian's throat. "Do you still remember your son? Your daughter-in-law? Your grandson? What about your uncles and aunties? You encountered a storm during one of your sea voyages all those years ago, and it was your granduncle who dragged his sickly body onto the beach and carried you back to our village. We were so impoverished at the time that we couldn't even afford food, and it was only with kind offerings from everyone in the village that we were able to survive."
A tragic smile appeared on his face, revealing rows of stark white teeth. "You are a disgrace to the human race, truly... Everyone's waiting for you inside, Bu Wantian. You are by far the worst thing that has ever happened to our village..."
They didn't even speak to Qin Ye before turning and dragging Bu Wantian into the earthen building, but Qin Ye didn't blame them at all.
With 1,000 years of pent-up hatred and resentment acting as a backdrop, someone else with less self-restraint would've already pounced on Bu Wantian right away. It was already quite remarkable that they had the willpower and restraint to drag him into the courtyard first.
"It's probably going to be a little gruesome and violent in there. Will you be alright to come in?" Qin Ye asked.
"You're underestimating me way too much," Lee Jung-sook replied with a smile. "During these past centuries, I've seen even more bloodshed than you have. Besides..."
She heaved a faint sigh before continuing, "I probably won't be able to sleep tonight if I don't see him get torn to shreds."
Thus, they made their way into the earthen building, and the gate promptly swung shut after them.
Tonight, this place was a prison, a court, and an execution ground all rolled up into one.
Tonight, this place belonged to the dead, not the living.
Qin Ye had only just made his way into the courtyard when he was greeted by Huang Xiaoqing and a pair of elderly men.
Behind them were all of the residents of the village with the exception of the people that were currently dragging Bu Wantian away.
The elderly man standing at the forefront didn't say anything, but his entire body was trembling, and tears were shimmering in his eyes. All of a sudden, he slammed the bottom of his cane onto the ground and yelled, "Kneel!"
All of the village's residents knelt down toward Qin Ye in unison before kowtowing once, twice, thrice in succession.
Such was the force with which they were slamming their foreheads into the ground that even the ground trembled slightly with each kowtow. As they rose to their feet, the elderly man was already sobbing uncontrollably as he said in a trembling voice, "It's been 1,000 years... I didn't think that this day would ever come! Words cannot express our gratitude toward you. You will be blessed for all of eternity for what you've done! We will never die, and we will all pray for you every single day! You showed us that there is justice in this world after all!"
His voice was on the verge of breaking, and he wiped away the tears flowing down his face with the back of his hand as he spoke.
"We are no longer even fit to be called humans, yet you still upheld justice for us. Thank you, thank you, thank you so, very much! I will never forget this! I will remember you for all of eternity [1]!"
"It's alright," Qin Ye replied with a smile. "Just do what you need to do, I'm content with just watching."
"Thank you for being so accommodating!" The elderly man wiped his tears dry before turning to Huang Xiaoqing. "Prepare our esteemed guest a seat from the best viewing location! If he's unhappy with our hospitality, you'll be held accountable!"
Qin Ye made his way up the staircase to the second floor, where he would get the best view of the courtyard. The view on the higher floors was obstructed by the canopy of the giant locust tree. All of the villagers gathered on the first floor, and Bu Wantian was dragged like livestock over to the locust tree.
The shackles were finally released, and Bu Wantian was quite out of breath as he stood up. His chubby body was trembling slightly, and having been dragged along the ground for so long, his clothes were in tatters.
He bit down tightly onto his lower lip and appraised his surroundings with an indignant expression.
There were cold suits that were burning with bright red netherflames hanging all over the place, and at this point, the giant locust tree had already been incinerated into an inky-black dry husk. In front of the locust tree sat a coffin.
The coffin was bound by red thread that resembled blood vessels, and on top of the coffin was placed a book containing the genealogy records of the Huang Clan's village.
"Bu Wantian..." The elderly man strode over to Bu Wantian while holding his cane before looking straight into Bu Wantian's eyes. "Is there a heart in your chest? For the past 1,000 years, we've lived like puppets in this tiny earthen building, unable to do anything and not daring to wish for anything... I am your uncle!! I dragged you out of the sea that day, saving your life at the risk of my own! Do you have any conscience left?"
"Hmph..." Bu Wantian gave a derisive harrumph as he slowly smoothed down his hair with his hands. His lips were trembling, perhaps from fear or from fury, and he replied in a raspy voice, "So what? You saved me, and I thank you for that, but if it weren't for me, this entire village would've perished during the floods and famines, so all of you should be thanking me!"
"Have you no shame, Father?" Huang Jiansen's chest was heaving drastically, and his voice was full of unadulterated hatred and bitterness. "I begged you... Once every 100 years, I would beg you not to kill me! I was only in my twenties, I didn't want to die! I also begged you to spare Ah Lian. If you had to kill me, then at least spare Ah Lian and my child! That child is your grandson!!"
Tears were streaming down his face as he grabbed onto Bu Wantian's neck and shook him violently. "You! You killed Ah Lian and my son over and over again right before my very eyes!! How could you?! HOW COULD YOU?!"
Bu Wantian looked calmly up at the pitch-black sky, and as his gaze fell upon Qin Ye on the second floor, he shook his head and chuckled, "To think that there would be a day when I would be at the mercy of mere maggots. Are you going to question me as well?"
He lowered his head and cast his gaze toward Chu Renmei, who was standing right in front of him.
Chu Renmei tucked a few stray strands of hair behind her ear, and her expression was extremely calm and placid as she replied, "No."
However, as soon as her voice trailed off, she pounced toward Bu Wantian like a madwoman, and beneath her head of long black hair, her face had reverted to her evil ghost form.
Her features were completely twisted, and veins were bulging on her forehead. Her mouth was smeared with reddish-black blood, and her deathly pale eyes stared into the very depths of Bu Wantian's soul as she bit down onto his shoulder while letting loose a guttural roar.
Finally, she pulled back, while Bu Wantian let loose a blood-curdling howl. A massive chunk of his flesh with blood still dripping from it was sitting in Chu Renmei's mouth.
"ARRRRRGH!!" She chewed the chunk of flesh like a vicious lioness, and after swallowing, she let loose a sharp howl of grief.
There was no need for her to question him; she already knew all of his crimes!
"I'm going to kill you!!!" She pounced toward Bu Wantian like a madwoman, and Bu Wantian's eyes were completely bloodshot, but he somehow managed to refrain from crying out in agony. Just as he was about to raise his hand to grab at the wound, a burst of sharp pain suddenly speared through his right hand, and he turned with an astonished expression to find that Huang Jiansen had already bitten off his finger. His face was splattered with blood, but he wore a content smile.
"This is the finger that you would always cut off first every single time... I've remembered this for over 1,000 years!"
"You..." Bu Wantian's face became contorted with agony and rage as he spat through gritted teeth, "You're an imbecile!!!"
Huang Jiansen and Chu Renmei's actions were like the spark that ignited the fuse, and all of a sudden, all of the residents of the earthen building pounced on Bu Wantian with scorching fury and hatred in their eyes.
"Die, you heartless scum!"
"It's time for you to return the debt you owe us!"
"Die! Die! Die!"
"Bu Wantian, give me my life back!!!"
Qin Ye's eyelids were twitching slightly as he watched the residents of the earthen building swarming Bu Wantian before tearing into him like a school of piranhas that had been starving for far too long. Blood began to splatter all over the place as Bu Wantian let loose one indignant howl after another.
"No... Piss off!! You useless maggots! ARRGH!!"
"I am the one who saved all of you! How dare you turn on your savior like this?!"
"I was the one who... who..."
Surprisingly enough, this wasn't a nauseating scene to behold.
On the contrary, it evoked within the beholder a sense of joy, as if they were watching justice being served.
What would be truly tragic and disturbing would be if Bu Wantian didn't suffer such a gruesome fate.
The sound of chewing and shrieking echoed throughout the first floor, and Bu Wantian was quite literally being eaten alive. Qin Ye cast his gaze toward the charred locust tree, and he felt as if a massive load had been lifted from his shoulders.
It's finally over...
This was a starting point to the rebuilding of the six paths of reincarnation, and only now did he get a chance to think through everything that had happened during the past few days.
………………………………………………….
At the tail-end of the Southern Song Dynasty, Bu Wantian was living in the most mundane of fishing villages when he heard about the legend of the Peach Blossom Spring. At the time, everyone wished to be freed from their unstable and impoverished lives. Having lived in poverty and misery all his life, the legend of the Peach Blossom Spring became Bu Wantian's only psychological pillar. In particular, after witnessing the complete transformation undergone by that Taoist priest, that psychological pillar before a religion to which he was a devout follower.
He acted according to the Taoist priest's instructions, creating the Taisui Crossbred Karmamudrā, and his son, daughter-in-law, and grandson died over and over again by his hands, only to be resurrected each time in a nightmarish cycle.
It was clear that he was initially rather unfamiliar with the process, but he had plenty of time to perfect his pursuit. In fact, the technique that the Taoist priest had first taught him was incomplete, yet through trial and error, he was able to perfect it over time. During this process, Bu Wantian discovered a problem, which was that consuming a Taisui fungus of this nature only granted one a finite number of resurrections.
Time could perfect everything, and it could also put an end to all of this.
The strange events taking place in the Huang Clan's earthen building attracted the attention of the Imperial City Division, and they sent people to investigate, upon which they discovered that the entire earthen building was full of zombies. Thus, they set up the equilibrium array as these zombies were unlike any that they had seen before in that they were truly unkillable. Thus, as opposed to leaving them be and relegating them to a life worse than death, they used the equilibrium talismans to restore a shred of clarity within the zombies, thereby allowing them to live like normal people and preventing any potential mutations.
It was from that point onward that the earthen building was sealed.
[1] [Old man now: "I will remember you for all of eternity!" Old man 100 years later, when their memories get wiped by the equilibrium talismans: "Who was that guy again?"]