Chapter 935
Stealing Meat and Killing!
"Stop!" the black-robed law enforcement disciple shouted abruptly, looking up.
"What are you shouting for!" The old man's eyes turned red. He brought the jar to his lips and took a deep drag, a look of almost intoxication on his face. "It's real liquor... and it's been aged for three years."
"Are you crazy? This was delivered by that guy surnamed Zheng!"
"What's wrong with what was delivered? Is it poisonous? Go test it!"
The old man snatched the wine jar into his arms, like a hen protecting her eggs. "The people have been brought back. Are we just going to throw away the wine and meat? Who's going to care if we do? Will the Enforcement Hall provide us with food? Or will the sect leader provide us with pills?"
The black-robed disciple choked on his words, his face turning ashen.
A tall, thin inner sect steward, who was staring at the bowls of meat, suddenly whispered, "Don't make a fuss. Take the corpses upstairs first, and at least report to the Taiqing Palace."
"Carry it up?" The old man from the Lingwu Hall sneered. "And then what? Let those old geezers sit in the hall, smelling the aroma of meat, and discuss it? After they've finished discussing it, are we still supposed to drink rice porridge and gnaw on tree bark?"
"Watch your mouth!" a disciple from the Enforcement Hall shouted angrily.
"I'm not clean?" The old man stood up abruptly, almost dropping the wine jar he was carrying. "Go check the storeroom! Check the pots! Check the fire in the alchemy room! Then you can talk about whether my mouth is clean or not! My nephew was with Elder Mo yesterday! Where is he now? Huh? He hasn't even brought back half a hand!"
His voice cracked from shouting, but no tears fell; only his face was covered in dry, angry fury.
The people around quieted down a bit.
But this quiet didn't last long.
Because when the wind blows, the aroma of meat comes over again.
A disciple from the Enforcement Hall stared at the pot of braised lamb leg, his Adam's apple bobbing several times. Finally, he couldn't help but mutter under his breath, "These beasts... they did it on purpose..."
"Nonsense." The old man from Lingwutang, holding the wine jar, chuckled twice, his laughter chilling. "Deliberately sent to the mountain gate, deliberately let us smell it. If you don't eat it, your stomach will feel uncomfortable. If you eat it, your heart will feel uncomfortable. Brilliant, truly damn brilliant."
"Shut up, all of you!"
A cold, eerie voice came from the steps.
Everyone looked up and saw Qin Yuancheng, the head of the Deacon Hall, leading a dozen or so trusted confidants down the stairs.
Qin Yuancheng was in his forties, with a sallow complexion and dark circles under his eyes. His brocade robe was noticeably too big, as if he had starved himself to death recently. When he saw Mo Ku's corpse, he paused for a moment, but quickly suppressed the shock on his face.
"Who allowed you to gather here? This is a sacred place; what kind of order is this, huddled together like this!"
The crowd automatically separated.
The black-robed law enforcement disciple hurriedly stepped forward: "Steward Qin, the people from Hongyun City just left, leaving behind Elder Mo's and the others' corpses, as well as this wine and meat..."
"I saw it," Qin Yuancheng interrupted him coldly.
He walked step by step to Mo Ku, stared down at the dead face for a long time, and slowly clenched his fist in his sleeve.
"Carry the body to the side hall of the Law Enforcement Hall, but don't disturb the Taiqing Hall yet," he said.
"Master Qin!" someone exclaimed, "Such a big matter, and you didn't report it to the sect leader—"
"You teach me how to do things?"
The man immediately fell silent.
Qin Yuancheng looked at the bowls of wine and meat again, his face darkening further.
"All of these things should be sealed up."
"Where should we seal it?" the old man from Lingwutang asked immediately.
"The deacon's storeroom."
"Storehouse?" The old man thought he'd heard a huge joke. "Qin Yuancheng, is there a rat hole in your storehouse? Once the good stuff goes in, you can't see anything at all?"
Qin Yuancheng's eyes turned cold: "Old man, what do you mean?"
"I don't mean anything by it." The old man held onto the wine jar tightly. "I just want to ask, are these jars of wine and these dishes of meat meant to curry favor with the Taiqing Hall? So that the elders can eat and discuss matters while we just stand outside and smell the aroma?"
"presumptuous!"
One of Qin Yuancheng's trusted confidants suddenly drew his sword.
The next moment, seven or eight people in the crowd simultaneously took a step forward.
The atmosphere changed instantly.
These people may not actually dare to make a move, but their eyes no longer just held reverence; something else had been added to them.
Resentment, craving, hunger, hatred.
Qin Yuancheng saw all of this, and his eyelids twitched involuntarily.
He knew very well that this was not a matter of a few jars of wine or a few bowls of meat.
This shows that people's hearts are completely rotten.
Just as we were frozen in place, someone suddenly came running up from behind, panting heavily.
"Report—"
A messenger disciple stumbled down the stone steps, his voice trembling: "People have come from Chixiao Peak and Heishui Peak! They say the disciples who survived last night have spread the news all over the mountain. Several peaks are in chaos. Some are demanding to open the storerooms, and some are trying to storm the Taiqing Hall!"
Qin Yuancheng's expression suddenly changed: "What?"
"And, and..." The disciple swallowed hard, looked at the corpse on the ground, and said in an even lower voice, "Several disciples from the peaks heard that Hongyun City had sent Elder Mo and the others back, and even... and even sent them wine and meat, so they all came to the mountain gate."
These words were like pouring boiling oil onto snow.
Everyone present instinctively looked at the bowls of meat.
Sure enough, after a short while, shadowy figures appeared at the end of the mountain path.
more and more.
There were outer disciples wrapped in tattered quilts, handymen carrying swords, and a few inner disciples. They all staggered, yet seemed to be drawn by something, moving straight toward the mountain gate.
First they looked at the corpse, then smelled the aroma of meat, and then their eyes changed.
"It really is meat..."
"Wine...there's wine..."
Elder Mo…
"They brought Elder Mo back?"
"Where are the people from Hongyun City? Have they left?"
"Who is the meat for?"
The last question was asked by a female disciple.
She was so thin that her eyes were sunken, her lips were pale, and she had an old, patched blanket draped over her shoulders. She stared at the pot of pork knuckles, her eyes devoid of any life force, only filled with pure hunger.
Qin Yuancheng suddenly shouted, "Get back! This is sect business, who dares to approach—"
"Sect affairs?" The old man from the Spirit Affairs Hall suddenly chuckled and interrupted him. "The sect is practically starving to death, and you're still talking about sect affairs?"
"Old man, if you keep spouting nonsense, I'll hold you accountable!"
"Come on." The old man tightened the wine jar around his chest, his eyes hardening. "Chop me up first, then pour this jar of wine into my mouth. I'll die a peaceful death."
The crowd behind them began to stir.
"Master Qin, is it true? Are the city folks really saying that there will be plenty of wine and meat?"
"The senior brothers who escaped yesterday said that the walls of Hongyun City were covered with braziers, and there were pots of stewing meat inside..."
"I don't believe it. Where would mortals get so many things?"
"If you don't believe me, smell this!"
Is it poisonous meat?
"Why would they send something poisonous? Who's going to die? Do we even need poison? We'll just freeze for another two days and die anyway!" "Get out of the way! Let me see where the people from Blazing Fire Peak are!"
"My elder brother went down the mountain with Elder Mo!"
“My son went too!”
A jumble of sounds swirled together.
The dozen or so trusted men that Qin Yuancheng brought with him could no longer be contained.
It wasn't that they couldn't stop people; it was that they themselves were glancing at those bowls of meat. Although they were holding swords, their feet weren't firm at all.
Just then, a series of hurried footsteps came from the mountain path.
A middle-aged cultivator dressed in the robes of a Blackwater Peak elder arrived with a dozen or so disciples. Upon seeing the corpse on the ground, his face immediately tightened.
"Who told you to leave Elder Feng in the snow!"
"Deacon Tian!" someone immediately called out.
This man was none other than Tian Kui, the Grand Steward of Blackwater Peak, who was usually the most sinister and ruthless. But now, as he rushed to the corpse and saw the several jars of wine and the several bowls of meat, a strange, undisguised expression appeared on his gloomy face.
"We'll take the body from Blackwater Peak," Tian Kui said in a deep voice. "We'll also take the wine and meat as a funeral offering."
"Bullshit!" The old man from the Spirit Affairs Hall was the first to jump up. "Your Blackwater Peak lost an elder, so you take away his flesh too? What about the dead people from Crimson Cloud Peak and Yin Wind Ridge who died for nothing?"
"Old man, do you want to die?" Tian Kui suddenly turned his head.
"You try!" The old man wasn't intimidated at all, holding the wine jar and puffing out his chest. "If you dare to snatch the wine, I'll smash the jar on your head!"
A few suppressed laughs broke out from the crowd.
But there was no ease in that laughter, only an uncontrollable madness.
Qin Yuancheng took a deep breath and shouted sternly, "Silence! Take the corpse and belongings to the Hall of Affairs first! The Taiqing Palace will handle it!"
"It's the Taiqing Palace again."
From the back of the crowd, a weak but clear voice drifted out.
Everyone turned their heads.
He was a young inner disciple, his left arm empty, the sleeve knotted, his face as pale as paper. He leaned on his sword, dried scabs of blood still clinging to his shoulder, clearly one of the survivors who had been pulled out of Hongyun City last night.
"It's Taiqing Palace again." He repeated slowly, raising his reddened eyes. "Steward Qin, where was Taiqing Palace last night when we were blown up, shot, and poisoned in the snow?"
Qin Yuancheng's face darkened: "Li Chuan, your injuries haven't healed yet, go back and rest!"
“I can’t rest.” The disciple named Li Chuan grinned, his smile extremely miserable. “When I close my eyes, all I see is that piece of flesh under the city wall. Elder Liehuo was blown to bits, and Elder Mo was lying in the snow like a rag doll. My senior brother’s intestines were hanging out for half a meter, and he was still complaining of being hungry.”
The surroundings suddenly became quiet.
Li Chuan moved forward step by step until he reached the wine and meat.
"Do you know what those mortals on the city wall are doing?" He stared at the meat basin, his voice trembling. "They're eating beef and drinking yellow wine. The aroma is so enticing that it makes your legs weak. Before our people even get close, some are already drooling as they run."
Someone gasped softly.
"Elder Mo went mad, rushing up to grab that guy surnamed Zheng." Li Chuan's eyes didn't blink. "And what happened? He crashed into a layer of light, his bones shattering inch by inch. I still remember that sound, like breaking dry firewood."
He suddenly looked up at Qin Yuancheng.
"Master, do you still want to carry these things to the Taiqing Hall?"
Qin Yuancheng felt a chill run down his spine under his gaze, but forced a smile and said, "The sect has its own rules—"
"Rules?" Li Chuan suddenly laughed, his shoulders shaking with laughter. "The three hundred or so people who ran back last night almost couldn't get through the mountain gate when they entered. The gatekeepers said they couldn't let them in without a token. Several senior brothers froze to death at the gate. And now you're talking to me about rules?"
"Nonsense!" a trusted confidant of the Enforcement Hall shouted angrily.
"I'm talking nonsense?" Li Chuan suddenly ripped open his shirt, revealing a gruesome arrow wound that cut diagonally from his collarbone to his ribs. "I got this wound for the sect! My master is dead, my senior brother is dead, and I've lost half an arm. Now Hongyun City has sent back the elder's body, along with some meat. Are you going to carry the meat to the Taiqing Hall? Am I supposed to kowtow and thank them?"
People in the crowd began to breathe heavily.
That feeling was no longer just hunger, but a burning resentment that Li Chuan had gradually spurred out.
Qin Yuancheng sensed something was wrong and immediately said, "Li Chuan, you are in a state of mental and physical turmoil, step back!"
"No refund." Li Chuan stared at the bowl of meat, his throat bobbing. "I want a bite."
"you dare!"
Why wouldn't I dare?
Li Chuan suddenly reached out and grabbed the bowl of braised beef.
Two of Qin Yuancheng's trusted confidants drew their swords at the same time.
But the crowd is even faster.
"I'll go get a bite too!"
"Leave some for me!"
"This was originally intended for the people on the mountain!"
"Get out of the way!"
Suddenly, more than a dozen hands reached out at the same time.
The scene spiraled out of control.
Some people grabbed meat, some grabbed wine, some rushed to the corpses and wailed, while others took advantage of the chaos to stuff wine jars into their arms. Qin Yuancheng's trusted men drew their swords to suppress the commotion, but someone pushed one of them from behind, causing him to slip and his sword to pierce the stomach of an outer disciple with a "thud."
The outer disciple paused for a moment, looked down at the sword in his abdomen, and when he looked up again, the reason in his eyes snapped off.
"You're going to kill me?" he stammered, then lunged forward and clung tightly to the confidant's leg. "I saw it all! The Deacon's Office killed someone! They wouldn't let us eat; they wanted to take it all away and eat it themselves!"
That shout was like tearing off the last layer of skin.
"Rob it!"
Someone let out a howl first.
The crowd exploded instantly.
Some people overturned the meat basins, knelt in the snow, grabbed handfuls of meat, and stuffed them into their mouths, refusing to let go even as their mouths bled from the heat. Others grabbed wine jars, biting down on the seal, and poured wine down their throats. Still others picked up wooden basins from beside the corpses and rushed out, only to be tackled by more people as they did so.
"Stop them! Stop them all!" Qin Yuancheng's face turned purple as he roared hoarsely.
But just as he took a step forward, a starving servant rushed into his arms carrying half a leg of lamb. Lamb fat smeared all over him, and the servant, his eyes red, looked up and yelled, "Get out! I stole this!"
Qin Yuancheng could hardly believe what he had just heard.
"you wanna die--"
He struck out with his palm, causing the servant to spit out blood and crash into a snowdrift, where he lay motionless.
Now, the way people looked at him completely changed.
It wasn't fear, it was hatred.
"He killed someone!"
"Qin Yuancheng not only stole meat but also killed someone!"
"Damn it, let's fight him!"
Tian Kui had initially tried to maintain appearances, but seeing the situation turn out this way, his eyes instantly hardened. He abruptly snatched the wine jar next to the Blackwater Peak elder's corpse, turned around, and shouted, "Blackwater Peak people, carry the elder! Anyone who dares to stop us, we'll kill them!"
"Who dares to touch the people of Chixiao Peak!" Another group of people rushed down the mountain path, led by Cao Xuan, the second deacon of Chixiao Peak, whose face was ashen and who was carrying a short axe. "No one is to touch Elder Mo's corpse or his belongings!"
"Bullshit! Elder Yin Feng's wine is still right there!" (End of Chapter)