New Times, New Hell

Chapter 104 - Wuqi Citizen

After hearing Daoist priest Mu’s explanation, Yu Zhengdu finally learned that their country had always had a special department responsible for taking care of these special matters.

He had already guessed this in the past. After all, since he had started working at Luofeng, he had encountered quite a few out-of-the-ordinary situations. Yet, the majority of people didn’t seem to realize that anything weird was happening. The most likely explanation was that there was a governmental division taking care of these things in secret.

The drought in Si Mountain Ridge this time had happened both abruptly and over a wide area. Additionally, very unusual things were occurring. For example, several ponds had dried up overnight, the river’s water levels had suddenly dropped, a few wells didn’t have water anymore, etc. Originally, the media had already received this information and had been preparing to come here to conduct interviews. However, after the local officials had reported these conditions to the higher-ups, this incident got quickly hidden away. Following this, the higher-ups rapidly dispatched members of the special department. They also contacted Daoist priest Mu and the other religious masters, asking them to come to this location.

“We were planning on going to the resort tomorrow to further understand the situation. This way, it might be easier to determine where the drought demon might appear,” Daoist priest Mu said. Their assumptions were basically the same as Shang Que’s. They believed that it was very likely that the previous rainstorm had caused the mountainside to collapse, resulting in the stuff under the mountain to see the light of day once more.

Daoist priest Kou Buzhi added in from off to the side, “In just a few days, the drought has become so severe. This drought demon is not a normal drought demon. Right now, we still don’t know if it formed from a zombie or some other creature. We must do our best to find the solution as soon as possible. However……”

Yu Zhengdu noticed that these Daoists all had somewhat troubled expressions on their faces. Out of curiosity, he asked, “Are you guys worried about something?”

Daoist priest Mu sighed while shaking his head. Yuan Qing responded for him, “Yu ge, you don’t know this, but the people here in Si Mountain Ridge really hate foreign religious monks. When we arrived yesterday, we originally wanted to find a few locals to get an understanding of the situation, but those people completely ignored us. If not for the fact that the higher-ups’ department arranged our hotel rooms for us, the hotel might not even be willing to accept us.”

Yu Zhengdu was shocked. “Really?”

He remembered the receptionist’s reaction to Daoist priest Mu and the others just now and reached a sudden realization.

Shang Que fell into thought. “Because of special geographical reasons, Si Mountain Ridge has historically worshipped ghosts instead of gods. They’ve always had their own system of faith that truly is very different from the religious organizations of the outside world. However, it shouldn’t be so bad that they would hate others.”

“I hadn’t thought that Householder Shang would have an understanding of the history of Si Mountain Ridge too.” Daoist priest Mu was slightly surprised. After, though, he nodded in agreement. “This place really has been on opposing sides with the religious organizations of the outside world since ancient times. In the past, though, they would still send out representatives to attend the National Religious Assembly meetings.”

According to Daoist priest Mu’s explanation, though Si Mountain Ridge had previously had their own system of faith, they had still maintained communications with the outside world. Until a few decades ago. Because of a reason that everyone knew about, all the religious organizations had gone through a renewal. Eventually, though these religious organizations had restructured themselves, Si Mountain Ridge had completely disappeared from the National Religious Assembly, never attending a meeting again. In the beginning, some religious organizations still tried to enter the Si Mountain Ridge area, but the locals rejected outside religious organizations in an exceptionally aggressive manner.

Yu Zhengdu felt confused. “Why have things become like this?”

Yuan Qing said, “Apparently, it’s because this area completely got rid of all superstitions. Nobody believes in these things anymore.”

Yu Zhengdu’s expression was filled with disbelief. “That doesn’t fit with normal logic.”

Normally speaking, it was harder for isolated places to stop worshipping gods and ghosts. Especially a place like Si Mountain Ridge that had developed its own system of faith. It was quite unlikely that they would completely give up on superstitions.

“That’s what I think too.” Yuan Qing mysteriously scooted closer and said, “I think that the real reason might be because this area has become obsessed with entertainment. People already have spiritual sustenance, so no longer believe in religion.”

Yu Zhengdu was bewildered. “……How would that work?”

“A few years ago, I once heard from a fellow Daoist who had passed through this area that the people in Si Mountain Ridge all loved entertainment shows.” Yuan Qing’s expression displayed arrogance at having found out the truth. “That Daoist had passed through Si Mountain Ridge during a holiday. He personally saw members of the local village committee handing out sets of burned CDs containing all episodes of《Where Are We Going, Mom?》to each household……”

Yu Zhengdu was shocked. “How come they’re pirating the show so confidently?”

“That’s not even a big deal.” Yuan Qing held his hands out. “Just now, I wanted to buy a drink. The little shop was full of Sqrite and Caca Cola.”

Yu Zhengdu was rendered completely speechless.

The Daoist priests had left their rooms to eat. As such, this group of people conversed while walking into a little restaurant. As expected, as soon as the restaurant servers noticed their robes, their attitudes instantly became very cold. It seemed like they didn’t care about these customers at all.

Yuan Qing wiped his sweat and worriedly said, “Our original plan was to walk around and interview the people around the resort. We were going to try and see if we could find out the whereabouts of the drought demon. But given the attitude of the locals around Si Mountain Ridge, it’s honestly hard to tell if they’re going to cooperate.”

Yu Zhengdu briefly thought about it and suggested, “Boss and I were initially planning on visiting the resort too. How about we go together?”

Yuan Qing’s eyes lit up. “That’d be great. If you guys can help communicate with the villagers on our behalf, things might go more smoothly.”

The Daoist priests all made eye contact. Among them, Daoist priest Mu was the most qualified and experienced. He was the one in charge. Daoist priest Mu pondered for a bit before nodding. “I’ll submit a request to the relevant department later.”

After coming up with tomorrow’s plan, everyone casually chatted for a bit. Yu Zhengdu didn’t forget to do some homework in advance. He asked the Daoist priests for ways to determine the whereabouts of the drought demon.

“That depends on the situation. Low rank drought demons don’t have self awareness. Normally, they’ll attack all living beings, such as humans, animals, etc.,” Daoist priest Kou said. “However, some drought demons look very similar to normal humans. Apparently, it’s very hard to tell the difference if one doesn’t look closely.”

Yu Zhengdu humbly asked, “Then how should we discern those drought demons?”

Daoist priest Kou was a bit embarrassed. “To tell you the truth, we’ve never seen a living drought demon before either, so we don’t know for sure.”

Daoist priest Mu nodded. “It has already been hundreds of years since such a monster has appeared in the mortal realm.”

“It’s actually not too hard,” Shang Que suddenly butted in. “No matter how similar a drought demon looks to a human, it ultimately isn’t a human. It’ll behave in very strange ways. For example, stiff movements. Also, the simplest way to tell drought demons apart from humans is through eating habits. Drought demons don’t know what humans normally eat. Thus, no matter what you give them, they’ll eat it.”

The Daoist priests rapidly nodded upon hearing this. Daoist priest Mu revealed an awed look. “Householder Shang truly knows a lot of things. You even know facts about drought demons.”

Shang Que was unbothered. He didn’t respond. Fortunately, Daoist priest Mu was already used to Shang Que’s personality. Upon seeing this, he didn’t continue inquiring.

This meal passed very quickly. The group paid for their food and made to head back to the hotel. Just as they reached the door of the restaurant, they suddenly saw two girls running in their direction; they looked panicked. One of the girls kept looking behind her while running. In a moment of carelessness, she bumped into Yu Zhengdu and almost fell.

Yu Zhengdu quickly grabbed her by the arm and helped hold her up. He asked, “Are you okay?”

“Yes, yes,” that girl said.

Only to hear the other person urge, “Hurry, we have to go. That lunatic is going to catch up again soon.”

Yu Zhengdu felt like something was off after hearing this. Thus, he kindly asked, “Have you guys encountered a bad person?”

The girl who had bumped into him was too embarrassed to immediately leave after that incident. She nodded. “Just now, while we were shopping, we encountered a pervert. Out of the blue, he told us to eat dirt. He’s also been following us for several streets.”

Yu Zhengdu furrowed his brows. “Eat dirt? As a descriptor or?”

“No, literally eat dirt.” That girl had an expression of disbelief. “Additionally, he scooped up a handful of dirt and ate it in front of us. So perverted!”

Upon hearing this, Yu Zhengdu instantly glanced at the Daoist priests. As expected, everyone had noticeably become more alert.

Yu Zhengdu quickly asked that girl, “May I ask where that person is now?”

The girl was confused. “Why are you asking that?”

Yu Zhengdu, very righteously: “We must immediately call the cops and lock up such a pervert in order to prevent other people from becoming victims.”

That girl was so touched by the halo of righteousness around him that she promptly became respectful. Just as she was about to point him in the right direction, her friend yelled while pointing in the direction that they had come from, “That pervert has caught up again!”

After, she completely ignored Yu Zhengdu and them, grabbing her friend and darting away.

Yu Zhengdu and the others turned around to look, only to see a person, whose gender was hard to discern, walk towards them with his hands outstretched. He was wearing tattered clothes and running straight in this direction. He incessantly yelled, “I can eat dirt, I can really eat dirt.”

If one looked closely, they could tell that this person’s movements were slightly stiff.

Drought demon!

These two words simultaneously flashed through Yu Zhengdu and the Daoist priests’ minds. Only to see the Daoist priests immediately pull out their copper coin swords, eight trigrams mirrors, and other magical tools as they got ready to charge forward.

Yu Zhengdu hurriedly tried to pull something out of his pocket too. However, after a long time of digging around, he only pulled out a phone. He opened his photo album and clicked into a photo of a talisman. Then, he enlarged the photo. This was something Zheng Yan had sent him. Apparently, this talisman had been personally drawn by the other’s father. Yu Zhengdu hadn’t been able to reject this gift, so had accepted it.

Yuan Qing wow’d from the side. “Yu ge, even your guys’ talismans have gotten digitized?”

Daoist priest Mu looked at the picture on Yu Zhengdu’s phone too. He exclaimed, “And it’s been blessed too! The magical energy is quite strong!”

Shang Que observed the way it seemed like they were facing a great enemy. He asked in confusion, “What are you guys doing?”

Yuan Qing pointed at that person who was running over stiffly. He nervously responded, “Taking care of the drought demon ah!”

Shang Que, very expressionless: “That’s not a drought demon.”

Everyone quickly looked at him with gazes of suspicion. Yuan Qing asked, “Weren’t you the one who said that drought demons move around stiffly and eat strange things? That person’s limbs are so stiff. He also eats dirt…… If not a drought demon, what is he?”

Only now did Yu Zhengdu understand. He sweatdropped before saying, “Um, those are probably only the necessary conditions for a drought demon, but not the sufficient conditions.”

In other words, though drought demons satisfied these conditions, that didn’t mean that everything that satisfied these conditions were drought demons.

As they spoke, that person had already run up to them. The Daoist priests couldn’t bother with anything else anymore. They instantly spread out in a line in front of that person, blocking him from proceeding.

That person was immediately shocked. He took two steps back. “What do you guys want?”

Yu Zhengdu stared at the two fistfuls of dirt the other was carrying. There were also mud traces around his mouth. He couldn’t help furrowing his brows and asking, “Why are you eating dirt?”

That person’s gaze flickered. “What does that have to do with you?”

It really had nothing to do with anybody else if one person wanted to eat dirt. However, Yu Zhengdu wasn’t so easily stumped. He immediately replied with, “Then why did you force two girls to eat dirt?”

“When did I force them?” That person loudly expressed that he had been wronged. “They were the ones who clearly said that they knew how to eat dirt. That’s why I asked them if they were the same kind of person as me!”

His tone was sorrowful. “To prove that I know how to eat dirt too, I even gave them a live demonstration. Who knew that they would run away after watching it?!”

What he was saying was a bit strange. The Daoist priests all looked very confused after hearing his words. Yu Zhengdu realized what was going on, though. He gazed at the other, expression conflicted. Then, he asked, “When you heard them speaking, did they say something along the lines of ‘I’m going to eat dirt this year’ or ‘I’m going to eat dirt soon’?”

If he wasn’t remembering wrong, those two girls from earlier had said that they had been shopping. It was truly very easy for girls to eat dirt while shopping.

That person hurriedly nodded. He looked at Yu Zhengdu in delight. “Yes yes yes, exactly so. Could it be that you’re someone from my country too?”

“No,” Yu Zhengdu calmly denied this. “I’m not someone from your country. Neither are they.”

But that person had on an expression of disbelief. “If you’re not from my country, why would you be eating dirt?”

He thought about it and mysteriously leaned in closer. After, he softly said, “Don’t panic. I’m on your side. I won’t expose you.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……” Haven’t you basically already exposed yourself?

The Daoist priests were all completely lost. Yuan Qing couldn’t help asking, “Who actually are you?”

Shang Que calmly said, “A Wuqi citizen.”

That person jumped in surprise. “How did you know?”

On the other hand, Yuan Qing looked completely lost. “A Wuqi citizen? What’s that?”

But Daoist priest Mu knew. He instantly revealed a shocked expression. “Householder Shang, could it be that you’re saying this householder is a Wuqi citizen?”

Shang Que didn’t respond to Daoist priest Mu. He only stared at that person. Then, he lowered his gaze and asked, “You got flushed out by that rainstorm too, right?”

According to legend, there used to be a Wuqi country during ancient times. The citizens of that country were genderless, lived in tombs, ate dirt, and their hearts wouldn’t decompose after death. After being buried for a hundred years, they could still come back to life, good as new.

Nobody had expected for this person to neither be a drought demon nor a normal person. They immediately started discussing amongst themselves before deciding to take him back to the hotel to get a better understanding of the situation.

As Shang Que had guessed, that person truly was a Wuqi citizen who had been buried at Si Mountain Ridge after death. The country of Wuqi had been a small country overseas. Eventually, times had changed and that small country had disappeared. Only very few of their citizens had wandered into the mainland region of Huaxia. However, Wuqi citizens – who lived in tombs, ate dirt, and could come back to life – were basically monsters in the eyes of ordinary people. After many of their brethren had been slaughtered as monsters, Wuqi citizens could only hide their identities and start lives of roaming. This one had ended up in the Si Mountain Ridge area by himself. Because he had thought that the dirt quality here was excellent, he had decided to stay. Before his death, he had buried himself here.

He had experienced innumerable months and years under the ground, only seeing the light of day again after the rainstorm a few days ago. When he re-emerged, he tried to familiarize himself with this new world while also maintaining the cautiousness of a Wuqi citizen. He didn’t dare to expose the fact that he ate dirt, until he heard those two women talking about eating dirt along the walkway today. He had thought that they were Wuqi citizens who had resurrected too. In shocked joy, he had performed the eating of dirt to express that they were kin. Who knew that this act would frighten those two girls away?!

As for the fact that he moved stiffly, this was also because he had been buried underground for too long. He hadn’t completely regained control of his limbs yet.

The more the Wuqi citizen spoke, the angrier he got. “I was trying to show those two that we’re brethren out of the kindness of my heart, but they actually responded so heartlessly. I had never thought that the citizens of our Wuqi country could be so cold!”

The group of people who were listening to him: “Emmm——”

“Um——” Yu Zhengdu dryly explained, “The dirt eating they were talking about isn’t the same as the dirt eating you’re thinking about.”

The Wuqi citizen looked confused. “Then what does it mean?

Yu Zhengdu: “That they’re broke.”

The Wuqi citizen was astounded. “These days, broke people have to eat dirt?”

Yu Zhengdu facepalmed. He patiently clarified the situation to the Wuqi citizen. Only now did the Wuqi citizen display a look of realization. He lamented, “The language of the Huaxia people is still so broad and profound.”

After confirming that this was only a misunderstanding caused by eating dirt, everyone slightly heaved out sighs of relief. Originally, they were supposed to report the appearance of rare individuals to the relevant department, but this Wuqi citizen had survived until today by relying on his extremely careful observational skills. As soon as he noticed that Daoist priest Mu and the others seemed to be planning on reporting the situation to someone, he instantly shouted in fright and begged them to not expose his existence.

Since historical times, Wuqi citizens whose real identities had been discovered had all either been slaughtered as monsters or examined as specimens that could resurrect. Especially if they got caught by emperors who were obsessed with seeking out immortal life: the consequences would be incomparably terrible.

That Wuqi citizen desperately cried, “I’m the only one from Wuqi left. If anything happens to me, our country will really be completely gone……”

Everyone: “……” This Wuqi citizen’s acting and lines were delivered so familiarly. With such a strong desire to live, no wonder he had ended up becoming the last surviving Wuqi citizen.

Fortunately, the modern world was no longer a horrible feudal society. Everyone had been given a fair and advanced education. Upon seeing that he was begging, they started feeling reluctant too.

Everyone exchanged glances. Daoist priest Kou was ultimately quite young. He was also a Daoist who had learned about Marxism. Thus, he said, “This Wuqi citizen isn’t harmful at all. It shouldn’t matter if we don’t report his presence.”

These people were all Daoist priests who were good friends with each other. Additionally, they were only collaborating with the relevant department; the people in the department weren’t actually their superiors. Since Daoist priest Kou had already shared his thoughts, the others pondered for a bit and agreed with him.

However, Daoist priest Mu still erred on the side of caution. He suggested, “How about we have this Wuqi householder follow us around for these next few days? After we resolve the situation in Si Mountain Ridge, we’ll make a decision depending on the circumstances?”

The rest all thought about it. This was technically part of the Si Mountain Ridge issue too. Thus, they all agreed with Daoist priest Mu’s suggestion.

After their discussion, it was already quite late. As such, everyone headed back to their own rooms to rest. At this time, they needed to figure out where the Wuqi citizen was going to stay. All the hotel’s rooms were already full. The Wuqi citizen could only squeeze into a room with one of them.

The Wuqi citizen pitifully stared at Yu Zhengdu, who was more handsome and kinder than the other people present. “Can I sleep in the same room as you?”

Before Yu Zhengdu could say anything, he saw Shang Que coldly turn around. “Do you know the four different ways to write ‘death’?”

Everyone: “……”

Wuqi citizen: ??? Is this also a new way of speaking in Huaxia?

The author has something to say:

Xiao Kui: Right now, I permit you to first run 49 meters away.

Wuqi citizen: I don’t know what this means either?