New Times, New Hell

Chapter 105 - Human Face Sores

Yu Zhengdu was scared that the last remaining Wuqi citizen would die by Shang Que’s hand. Thus, he hurriedly rejected the Wuqi citizen’s request with a polite smile and dragged Shang Que back into their room, leaving the confused Wuqi citizen and Daoist priests behind.

The Wuqi citizen curiously asked the Daoist priests, “So what are the four ways to write death?”

The Daoist priests looked bewildered too. “There are actually so many different ways to write death?”

Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que returned to their room. Yu Zhengdu had originally thought that Shang Que would continue cussing out the Wuqi citizen. Unexpectedly, Shang Que only remained silent. His expression carried a rare solemnity.

Yu Zhengdu felt that something was slightly off. He asked, “What’s wrong?”

“The Wuqi citizen resurrected.” Shang Que’s tone was meaningful.

Yu Zhengdu: “Is there a problem?”

“After death, Wuqi citizens’ hearts don’t decompose. They can come back to life even after being buried for hundreds of years.” Shang Que gazed at Yu Zhengdu. His voice was deep. “That was in the past, when there was still a lot of energy remaining between the Heavens and earth. But now, there is no more magical energy left in the mortal realm. Fifty years ago, the Heavens and Hell already collapsed. So where did the Wuqi citizen get the energy to resurrect?”

Yu Zhengdu froze for a moment. He reacted very quickly. In only an instant, he had already connected all the dots. “According to Daoist priest Kou, it has already been hundreds of years since a drought demon has appeared……”

The drought demon and Wuqi citizen – two things that were buried deep under the surface of the earth and required an abundance of energy to be able to resurrect. They had appeared one after the other. Yu Zhengdu’s expression became solemn too. “There’s something wrong with Si Mountain Ridge.”

Shang Que’s gaze was heavy. “Si Mountain Ridge’s reincarnation point has never reported any abnormalities.”

The next morning, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que got out of bed and prepared to go buy breakfast. When they walked out of their room, they coincidentally encountered Yuan Qing and Daoist priest Mu, who were here to seek Daoist priest Kou out.

Daoist priest Kou’s room was quite close to Yu Zhengdu’s room. Yuan Qing said, “Yu ge, please wait a bit. I’ll call Daoist priest Kou out. We can leave together.”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. Thus, Yuan Qing knocked on Daoist priest Kou’s door, only to hear a creak in response. The door opened and a beautiful young woman in a dress walked out. She smiled sweetly at them. “Hello.”

Everyone’s eyes almost simultaneously popped out of their sockets: “……!!!”

They hadn’t thought that Daoist priest Kou would actually be that kind of Daoist priest!

Yuan Qing started stuttering, “W-w-we, have we knocked on the wrong door?”

Yu Zhengdu instinctively looked at the room number. “I don’t think so?”

Just as he finished speaking, Daoist priest Kou walked out after the young woman. He was about to greet everyone when he noticed all of them looking at him with expressions of shock on their faces. Yuan Qing was scandalized. Even his hands were shaking. “Daoist priest K-K-Kou, even if you’re in the prime of your youth and can’t subdue your desires……at least wait until going home before y-y-you……”

Daoist priest Mu’s expression was embarrassed too. “Daoist priest Kou, you……”

Only now did Daoist priest Kou realize what was going on. He immediately waved his hands around, explaining in panic, “That’s not it!! She’s the Wuqi citizen. The Wuqi citizen!”

As he spoke, he glared at the young woman in rage. He was close to pounding on his chest as he said, “I told you that you can’t dress like this. You’ll be the death of me!!”

The young woman pinched the edge of her dress as she spun around in a circle. “But the dresses these days are so pretty.”

This made question marks pop up over everybody’s heads. Yu Zhengdu looked completely surprised. “I hadn’t thought that our Wuqi citizen bro would be a lover of crossdressing!”

“That’s not it.” Shang Que glanced at the Wuqi citizen and calmly explained, “Wuqi citizens can resurrect and aren’t part of the cycle of reincarnation. They have no offspring. As such, they’re genderless.”

Everyone heaved out sighs of relief at this. Yuan Qing patted Daoist priest Kou on the shoulder. “My apologies, Daoist priest Kou. I wronged you.”

“I only took him shopping for new clothes because I saw that his clothes from last night were honestly too shabby. Who knew that he was adamant about……” Daoist priest Kou had suffered a great injustice. He almost burst into tears on the spot. He complained, “You guys don’t know what the clothing shop employees’ gazes were like when they looked at me. They even secretly called me an animal! I heard them!”

All the people present revealed sympathetic expressions. Yu Zhengdu comforted him, “Don’t be so hung up, Daoist priest Kou. Think about it this way. The shop employees don’t know who you are anyways. Even if rumors get out, they’ll only say that a young Daoist priest took a young woman out shopping for dresses. Who would know which specific Daoist priest it was……”

As soon as he said this, the scene immediately fell into a different type of silence. Yuan Qing practically wanted to beat the Wuqi citizen up. With resentment in his eyes, he yelled, “I’m a young Daoist priest too!!!”

After the shock from seeing the “crossdressing” Wuqi citizen had passed, everyone went to eat breakfast. Then, they followed the rest of the relevant department members and departed towards the resort area on a big bus together. Only now did Yu Zhengdu discover that there were honestly a lot of impressive people on this trip.

Aside from the few Daoist priests that he had already seen before, there were also enlightened monks and nuns that were apparently from famous Buddhist temples. However, the members of different religious organizations obviously had their own little social circles. For work arrangements, it was all people who already knew each other working together too.

Because there were a lot of people, including undercover members of the special department, Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que’s addition didn’t attract too much attention. Captain Ming Peiran, the one in charge of this special department task force, came over to greet Yu Zhengdu and them, though. Yu Zhengdu directly handed him a business card. The other didn’t say anything else when he received it. Yu Zhengdu knew in his heart that this person had probably already double-checked his and Shang Que’s identities.

But their company was operating legally and paying taxes on time. They weren’t scared of being looked into.

The bus only stopped after almost an hour on the rather bumpy road. Ming Peiran organized everyone to get out of the bus. He pointed into the distance and said, “Religious masters, that is where the landslide happened.”

Si Mountain Ridge had many forests. The vacation resort’s main theme was “forest oxygen bar.” The area Ming Peiran had pointed at was Si Mountain Ridge’s most famous mountain peak. From afar, the peak could be seen, covered in fog. Through the fog, the silhouettes of a few vacation villas were visible. The highway up to the top of the mountain wrapped around the outside of it; it was a smooth and flat path. But now, the smooth highway had been cut in half. Around the middle of the mountain, yellow dirt had fallen, along with trees and plants that had been unearthed at the roots. Almost half of the mountain was covered. It was easy to guess how terrifying the landslide from a few days ago had been.

But now, all traces of the rainstorm that had caused the landslide had completely disappeared. The water vapor in the atmosphere had all evaporated. The yellow dirt was so dry it was practically turning white. The nearby plants were almost completely withered. The forest of trees that was deep within the mountains suffered from lack of water, rendering the leaves wilted.

“According to our plan, everyone should walk around and visit each village first.” Ming Peiran ordered his employees to hand out communication devices to the religious masters while also saying, “If it’s necessary, we will then arrange for professionals to protect everyone while we take a trip up the mountain.”

He added, “Additionally, we’ve already told the villages in advance. Each village will have a village head guiding everyone along during their tour. The villagers will definitely be cooperative.”

The villagers’ refusal to cooperate was the thing everyone was most worried about. Here, everyone finally heaved out sighs of relief. After accepting the communication devices, they headed out in their predetermined units. Daoist priest Kou was one of the most unfortunate ones. The Wuqi citizen wasn’t familiar with anyone else, so could only stay with him. The entire way, he was the victim of all the other religious masters’ criticizing gazes. Daoist priest Kou had endless complaints, but he could only explain to these religious masters one by one, “A man. He’s a man.”

Thus, the religious masters then turned to look at the Wuqi citizen meaningfully. The Wuqi citizen was quite unbothered, though. He very naturally slapped his flat chest a few times. Then, with no stress at all, he relayed what Yu Zhengdu had just taught him, “I am a crossdressing badass.”

The religious masters: “……”

The fact that Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que weren’t cultivators was to their advantage. They naturally requested to head off separately from the religious masters. Daoist priest Mu agreed with his suggestion too. As such, that was what they decided on.

Ming Peiran apologetically said, “Boss Shang, Boss Yu, so very sorry. You guys joined at the last minute and we weren’t able to transfer another employee over in time to be your guide.”

Yu Zhengdu waved his hands. “It’s fine. We can use the GPS.”

Only now did Ming Peiran nod. He added Yu Zhengdu on WeChat and sent him an address. “Other people have already been assigned to the other villages. This is the only one left. It’s kind of a hard trip. You guys might end up a bit tired.”

Yu Zhengdu glanced at the village’s location. It truly was slightly isolated: it was basically already on the mountain. Additionally, the village was very small. No wonder nobody had been assigned to visit it originally. He said with a smile, “It’s fine.”

In an instant, Ming Peiran’s impression of him became much better. He shook hands with Yu Zhengdu. “Then be careful, you guys. I’ve already notified the village head in advance. He’ll be waiting for you at the village entrance.”

Yu Zhengdu nodded. He bade farewell to Ming Peiran and headed towards the village with Shang Que.

According to the GPS, a little over half an hour was needed to reach that village. But with Shang Que present, they naturally wouldn’t actually trudge up the mountain trail. Five minutes later, the two of them had already appeared in the vicinity of the village.

Yu Zhengdu teased Shang Que with a smile, “You’re actually using magic in public!”

“What else?” Shang Que acted like he was in the right. “It’s not like there are taxis here that we can take!”

Yu Zhengdu: ……How come he had never discovered that Boss’s judgement of whether or not to use magic to travel was actually dependent on if there were taxis available locally?

This village was right at the foot of the mountain. Half of the village was built on the slope of the mountain. The front portion was covered in vast fields of farmland. The back portion was right up against the dense forest. Looking at this village, it gave off a strange sense of eeriness.

The two of them reached the entrance of the village, only to see a little shop built out of iron sheets standing there. It was selling various rip-off snacks and agricultural products. There were two chairs outside the little shop. A middle-aged man in a Chinese tunic suit sat in one, casually chatting with the owner of the little shop while smoking a cigarette.

When Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que neared, they just so happened to hear the owner of the little shop say, “……Village Head, if it were up to me, I’d directly chase those stinkin’ monks and Daoists away. Why are you personally receiving them?”

“What do you understand? This is a task assigned by the higher-ups. I couldn’t not accept it.” The man in the Chinese tunic said, “Just as well that I’m personally receiving them. If I’m keeping an eye on everyone, doesn’t that make it less likely for them to say something wrong?”

“Well……”

The two of them hadn’t expected for Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que to arrive so early. Thus, they didn’t try to whisper at all. Upon seeing Yu Zhengdu, they jumped in fright and immediately stopped talking. The village head shot up from his chair and stared at the two of them. He asked, “You guys are?”

Yu Zhengdu politely stepped forward and shook hands with him. “We’ve been sent here by the higher-ups for an examination.”

The owner of the little shop asked curiously, “You’re not monks and Daoists?”

Yu Zhengdu said with a polite smile, “No, we’re in charge of ecological balance management. Because Si Mountain Ridge has been suffering a drought recently, the higher-ups were worried about the ecology being disrupted. Thus, we’re specially here to investigate.”

Though the village head was very surprised, since the visitors weren’t monks and Daoists, his attitude became a lot better. He led the two of them into the village.

Yu Zhengdu subtly examined their environment the entire way. This village didn’t look to be too different from any other place. Aside from the people working in the fields, there were also some villagers drying stuff out and doing craftwork along the side of the road.

The village head reminded the villagers, “These two have been sent over by the higher-ups to conduct a few interviews.”

These villagers had already been notified ahead of time. Upon hearing this, they robotically acted friendly. Yet, there were still guarded looks in their eyes from time to time.

On the other hand, the village head was very natural and generous. He cheerily said, “You guys can talk to whoever you want to.”

“Thank you guys for your cooperation.” Yu Zhengdu was being polite on the surface, but he knew in his heart that they probably wouldn’t be able to get any information out of these people just by asking. As such, he didn’t ask any questions that were too sensitive. He only randomly found a few people and asked them about the weather.

Nobody had expected for his questions to be so simple. They slowly lowered their guard and actually told him a few things. However, Yu Zhengdu very quickly discovered that these villagers seemed to honestly not know about the drought demon’s appearance. They also had no clue about the drought demon’s whereabouts.

The goal for this trip was to find out more about the drought demon. If they couldn’t get any answers in this regard, it seemed like there was no need to continue asking around.

Yu Zhengdu was good-looking and wasn’t the type to continuously pester people with questions. The villagers’ attitudes towards him became much better. There was also an auntie who honestly liked him. Upon seeing that he was incessantly sweating because of the heat, she walked out with a porcelain cup from her house and handed it to him. “Look at how warm you are. Have a drink of water.”

“Thank you.” Yu Zhengdu accepted the cup with a smile and immediately glugged down the contents. While returning the cup, he offhandedly asked, “May I use your bathroom?”

He had only brought this up in passing. But Auntie froze after hearing this. She was a bit hesitant.

A thought struck. Yu Zhengdu immediately changed his tone so that he sounded frantic. “I’m sorry, I can’t hold it in anymore.”

After the village head noticed this, he gave the auntie a meaningful look. The auntie could only nod. “Then come with me.”

Thus, Yu Zhengdu profusely thanked her and followed her into her house.

Auntie’s home looked like the usual outdated village home. The furniture was simple and the electronics were old. Yu Zhengdu scanned his surroundings. His gaze fell on the TV. The TV was old-fashioned too; there was also a DVD player next to it.

He suddenly remembered what Yuan Qing had said about how the local village committee would hand out pirated DVDs to every household. Thus, he smiled and asked, “Auntie, what shows do you guys normally watch?”

The auntie naturally responded, “‘Mom, Where Are We Going?’”

“My mom likes watching that too,” Yu Zhengdu said. “Which celebrity’s child is your favorite?”

The auntie suddenly froze. Then, she pushed him into the bathroom. “Aren’t you in a rush?”

As such, Yu Zhengdu didn’t ask any more questions. After coming out of the bathroom, he heard the faint sounds of an infant crying from the small room nearby. Then, he saw the door open as a young woman carrying a swaddled baby tried to get some fresh air. Impatiently, she said, “Stop crying, stop crying. It’s not like you’re going to die from heat.”

As soon as she opened the door, she bumped into Yu Zhengdu. The woman’s face was full of surprise. She immediately backed into the room and slammed the door shut with a bam.

After, the auntie appeared from off to the side. Slightly nervous, she looked at him. “That was my daughter-in-law. She has a bad temper because she has to care for the baby. She didn’t scare you, right?”

“No,” Yu Zhengdu answered, seemingly nonchalant. “It’s very normal for kids to cry and throw tantrums. Not a big deal.”

Upon noticing that he hadn’t seemed to notice anything, the auntie finally sighed in relief. She then led him out.

Yu Zhengdu and Shang Que casually chatted with everyone for a while longer before getting up and leaving. The village head hadn’t thought that his mission this time would be so easy. While sending them off, there was a huge smile on his face.

At the little shop at the entrance of the village, Yu Zhengdu paused. He said, “It’s really too hot. We need to buy some drinks for the way back.”

The owner of the little shop enthusiastically asked, “What do you want to drink?”

Yu Zhengdu scanned the store and calmly said, “Sqrite, then.”

The owner immediately took two cans out. Yu Zhengdu pulled out his phone. “Can I pay with my phone?”

The owner’s expression darkened. “No. We haven’t set phone payments up yet.”

Yu Zhengdu looked troubled. “Then what can I do? These days, we don’t carry cash anymore when we leave the house.”

The village head gave the owner a look. The owner instantly replied, “That’s fine. You guys can just take those for free. They’re not worth much.”

“How could they not be worth much?!” Yu Zhengdu exclaimed. “We want two packs.”

The owner instantly sputtered out, “Two packs?”

Yu Zhengdu nodded with composure and placed the blame on Shang Que. “My friend drinks a lot. It’s really hot too. On the way back, he’s going to drink at least one pack.”

The village head looked pointedly at how lightly they were travelling. They didn’t even have a bike. The corner of his mouth twitched. “How are you guys going to carry two packs?”

“With our hands.” After saying this, Yu Zhengdu watched as Shang Que reached out, gathered the handles of the two packs together, and lifted them up with one hand.

Extremely easily. He hadn’t even used both hands.

The owner wanted to cry, but had no tears. He turned to the village head. “I can’t give away……two packs……”

The village head was exasperated. After brief thought, he pulled out his own phone. “Because of work needs, I have mobile banking. You can transfer the money to me first and I’ll give him cash.”

“Okay.” Yu Zhengdu readily transferred the money to the village head. Then, he and Shang Que, who was single handedly carrying two packs of soda, bade them farewell.

While walking, Yu Zhengdu said, “When we get back, I’ll make a tracking software and investigate the village head’s phone.”

Shang Que offhandedly stuffed the two packs of Sqrite into the qiankun in his sleeve. Then, he opened another can and handed it to Yu Zhengdu. “Want one?”

“Yes.” Yu Zhengdu honestly felt very warm. He accepted the can and took a sip before saying, “This place is very strange.”

Shang Que made a noise of acknowledgement. “I’ve realized.”

Yu Zhengdu pondered: “They clearly aren’t discriminatory against outside cultivators only. They’re discriminatory against all outsiders.”

No matter how friendly those villagers had acted, that innate sense of scorn had been impossible to hide. Only, for some unknown reason, their discrimination against outside religions just happened to be more obvious.

Shang Que suddenly said, “The actual population density here doesn’t match that of the one listed on the Life and Death Accounts.”

Yu Zhengdu was struck with shock. He gazed at Shang Que. He wasn’t like Shang Que; he was only a normal human. He needed to depend on systems and numbers to make judgements about a certain geographical region’s population. However, Shang Que didn’t need these things.

Yu Zhengdu fell deep into thought. “That’s not all. They’re also hiding something.”

Shang Que looked at him. Yu Zhengdu asked, “Did you notice that everyone was wearing long sleeves and long pants?”

Ever since entering Si Mountain Ridge, Yu Zhengdu had faintly had a feeling that something was amiss. It hadn’t been too obvious in Tongkeng, but in this village at the foot of the mountain, the sensation had gotten much stronger.

At first, he hadn’t been able to understand what was off. Until he had seen that infant who had been incessantly crying and heard what the infant’s mother had said.

It’s not like you’re going to die from heat.

That infant had been wearing long sleeves and long pants. His face had been bright red with heat. Since he was so hot, why hadn’t they given him short sleeves instead?

Only now did Yu Zhengdu realize why he had felt that something was strange. It was so hot, yet everyone in this village had been covered from head to toe. It was the same with the villagers in Tongkeng – some people’s faces had clearly turned red from heat, but they refused to even roll their sleeves up in the slightest. In Tongkeng, though, only some people had been acting in this manner. In this village, everyone was acting in this manner.

Yu Zhengdu pondered, “What are they hiding under their clothes?”

Shang Que suddenly looked at him. “Do you want to see?”

Yu Zhengdu was bewildered. “How?”

Shang Que lifted his chin. Yu Zhengdu looked in the direction the other was pointing. Only to see that not far off in the distance, in the middle of a plot of farmland, there was a man wearing long-sleeves and carrying a hoe. As he passed by the edge of the field, a strong gust of wind suddenly blew past. That person’s sleeves ripped open because of the wind.

“Where did that strange wind come from?!” That person had been caught extremely unawares. His entire arm became revealed. He immediately shouted in shock and used one hand to cover up his other arm. Then, he rushed home.

However, Yu Zhengdu had already seen what was on that person’s arm. A feeling of terrified disgust crawled up his back.

There had clearly been a slightly twisted human face on that person’s arm. In the moment the sleeve had ripped, he had seen that human face reveal a faint smile.

Yu Zhengdu could sense that the veins in his neck were already pulsing. “What was that?”

Shang Que’s gaze was cold. “Human face sore.”

This place obviously wasn’t suitable for discussing these things in detail. The two of them very tacitly remained silent and hurriedly made their way back.

Yu Zhengdu did his best to get rid of that disgusted feeling. In order to calm himself down, he forced himself to joke, “I hadn’t thought that you would know such a technique. Whoever you look at becomes naked!”

Shang Que fell silent for a moment. Out of the blue, he refuted, unimpressed, “But I’ve been looking at you for so long and you haven’t become naked.”

Yu Zhengdu: “……”

Fuck, his mood that had finally calmed down!

The author has something to say:

The idea for human face sores comes from《Miscellaneous Morsels From Youyang》. Many original changes have been added in this novel’s rendition.

Xiao Kui: Looking at you!