The Blade-Wielding Legend
Chapter 344 - 217 Breaking Through, Catastrophe_2

Chapter 344: Chapter 217 Breaking Through, Catastrophe_2

In this moment, Li Yan faintly understood the Prophetic Technique.

What constitutes the world is not just vast stretches of rivers and mountains, cities and troops, but also the hearts of the people—even the Earth God and the God of the Grain must be considered secondary.

Therefore, the people are the most important, the state comes second, and the ruler is the lightest.

When the Emperor disregards the Human Dao, the way of the world falls into chaos, the people cannot make a living, and complaints fill the air; if someone predicts that a great disaster is imminent, they can create prophetic texts to push for a transformation in the mortal world.

Of course, carrying it out is definitely more complicated.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be referred to as an inner study by Confucianism, and it wouldn’t have become a Forbidden Technique feared by both the court and Confucianism.

At least, in this world, it was so.

Wang Daoxuan rebuked angrily, and the villagers turned their gaze towards the river.

Under the moonlight, the surface sparkled, and occasionally small fish leapt out of the water—there was harmony and tranquility, with no trace of any demon.

From then on, the villagers truly believed.

Someone immediately gritted their teeth and said, "That old scholar is truly malicious and scheming, poor great uncle, his life lost in vain!"

A person beside him cursed angrily, "It’s all because you didn’t discipline properly. Your nephew did wrong, and you were proud, claiming you had powerful support at home and weren’t afraid of being bullied."

"Now look, not only have you lost your life, but you’ve also brought a disaster!"

The speaker wanted to retort but seeing the angry glares from the surrounding villagers, he felt guilty and dared not say more.

Village Chief Zhu, leaning on his cane, came out and sighed, "Don’t blame anyone else, this is all my fault."

"As the village chief, I only thought of my own family and hoped for the best, not wishing to make more trouble, and thus allowed these disturbances to occur."

"From now on, we must reestablish the village rules and people’s agreements; every family must have its rules, and every nation must have its laws. No one is allowed to ignore these!"

Wang Daoxuan, seeing this, nodded slightly.

Breaking the ill intentions in their hearts, at least no more lives would be lost.

Next was to resolve the matter of the ancestral grave...

...

The next day, during mao hour.

The sky was not yet bright, and the light was dim and hazy.

Li Yan accompanied Wang Daoxuan up the mountain, with Village Chief Zhu supported by two people behind them, and other villagers carrying various fruits, offerings, incense, and Paper Money.

The Zhu Family Castle’s ancestral grave was not far, just up the mountain behind.

After the crowd trudged up the mountain, Wang Daoxuan immediately took out the Compass and started examining it at the mountain top, at the foot, and along various directions on the mountainside.

At the site of the ancestral graves, the Compass became even more chaotic.

The needle fluttered, sank, spun... constantly shifting.

Wang Daoxuan’s face grew stern, and he had people burn Paper Money in fixed places; the firelight and paper ashes twirled up and down in spirals...

The scene in front of them startled the villagers into stunned silence.

After pondering for a moment, Wang Daoxuan looked towards Li Yan, "Brother Yan, the fluttering of the needle indicates that there’s a strange rock or deep pool underground affecting the spirits, making them restless. Some graves have certainly had issues; it’s up to you now."

Li Yan nodded, pinching the Yang Jue spell and wandering among the tombs.

With his current Dao, he could smell anything unusual ten meters underground. Ordinary family graves certainly wouldn’t be that deep, and he quickly found the problems.

"This one, this one, and this one!"

Li Yan determined the positions and Wang Daoxuan immediately took action.

He began by performing a simple Soul Calming Ceremony, then chanted spells, strewing grains around, and setting up the offerings and incense.

"Dig up the earth!"

At his command, the throng of villagers immediately moved forward.

They wielded their hoes, dirt flying everywhere, quickly uncovering the graves, and upon seeing what was inside, they involuntarily inhaled sharply.

The entire inside of the graves were soaked in filthy water, turning white and gray, and the unbearable stench of rotting corpses permeated the air instantly.

"Boundless fortune and life!"

Wang Daoxuan also had a grave expression upon seeing this.

The other graves were dug up and found to be similarly filled with dirty water.

This realization struck everyone as wrong.

There were rules for choosing burial grounds. Though the Zhu family’s ancestral graveyard wasn’t considered to have the best Fengshui, it was located mid-mountain with stored winds and gathered qi.

Even in torrential rain, such water accumulation seemed impossible.

Wang Daoxuan became more certain and turned to Village Chief Zhu to ask, "Has anything happened around here, where a great number of corpses have been buried?"

Village Chief Zhu paused, then recalled, "According to the old stories, there was indeed such an incident."

"That was during the late Tang Dynasty when the world was in turmoil. The Jingnan Jiedushi, Guo Yu, died in battle at Jun Mountain, and Lei Yangong seized the opportunity to invade, resulting in a fierce battle near Zhu Family Castle, with tens of thousands dead or wounded."

"Lei Yangong came from the Cave Barbarians, leading many wizards in his army. Rumor has it they summoned many demons and ghosts, and used witchcraft and plagues to kill people. After death, the soldiers’ resentment didn’t dissipate, turning into Corpse Soldiers that caused havoc everywhere."

"Later in the Song Dynasty, a high-ranking Daoist from Dragon and Tiger Mountain came here and finally suppressed them. There’s a suppression tablet on a nearby mountain; its inscriptions have long since become illegible with age."

"But that event is too distant, and our Zhu Family Castle is so remote, that even when there was warfare between the north and the south in the last dynasty, we were unharmed, and no large number of skeletons were ever found."

"There’s only a remaining fragment of a stone tablet."

"Quick, take me to see it!"

The crowd immediately set off and ran to a nearby mountain top.

Indeed, there was a stone tablet on the mountain top.

Worn by the ages, its inscriptions had long since become illegible, marked with cracks as if it would collapse at any moment.

Beneath the tablet, there were numerous black traces of blood.

"It’s really been tampered with."

Wang Daoxuan, looking at the frenziedly spinning Compass needle, became somewhat overwhelmed and climbed higher to look into the distance.

At this time, the sky had cleared, with blue skies and white clouds, the breeze blowing gently, and the surrounding mountain ranges were all in view.

What he saw made his heart quake, "What powerful methods, using the momentum of killing dragons to create a trap, compressing all those evil beings underground!"

"After so long, the Corpse Soldiers must have completely decomposed, but their resentment lingers, and the poisonous corpse water accumulation has created an evil land."

"Get some people to dig ten paces out in the southeast, northwest, and see if the burying objects have already been destroyed!"