Chapter 26
How Ruthless
“Speak clearly!”
Sikong Ya’s expression was cold.
“Old Master, you can’t say it. Hu’er’s reputation will be ruined and it will be difficult for him to rise to the top.”
The First Madam grabbed Song Wan’s hand and begged.
“Get lost! Otherwise, I’ll kill you immediately for obstructing the Demon Slayers’ investigation!”
Sikong Ya stared coldly at the First Madam.
The latter’s body trembled. She was a little afraid but still chose to act unreasonably, “How dare you! My son is a county magistrate. The Song family has backing in both the Imperial Court and the martial arts world. What right do you have to kill me?”
Song Shi’s expression was mocking. She was still making a scene at a time like this. It was indeed really hard for someone like her to change her nature.
Sikong Ya waved his hand, “Men, take this stupid old woman away!”
“Ouch!”
The First Madam sat on the ground, “My stomach hurts. You can’t touch me!”
Song Shi crossed his arms and thought to himself, “Go on, I want to see how you will continue to pretend.”
Unexpectedly, the old woman started rolling around, wailing in agony, “It hurts. There are worms eating my heart!”
“Commander, could this old woman have been poisoned?”
The Black Iron Guard who came in hesitated.
“It’s even better if she’s poisoned. Just kill her.”
Sikong Ya sneered.
This sentence scared the First Madam so much that she froze on the ground and said fearfully, “You… How dare you kill commoners so indiscriminately!”
“Enough. How long are you going to keep this up? Our enemies have already come to knock on your door, do you think you can still hide what you’ve done?”
Song Wan scolded. After clearly sensing the severity of the situation, he was prepared to come clean.
“Looks like there’s something wrong with this woman’s brain. Drag her away!”
Sikong Ya grew impatient.
If he delayed any longer, the demon might kill one more person.
“Yes, Commander.”
The Black Iron Guard stretched out his hand, but before he could grab the First Madam, she screamed again, “Ah! It hurts so much. There are insects eating my flesh!”
“Stop pretending!”
The Black Iron Guard snorted and grabbed her arm.
“Ah!”
A sharp scream came from the First Madam’s mouth. Her entire body convulsed and her flesh suddenly turned black. Her eyes rolled back and two streams of black blood flowed out.
Not only her eyes, her nostrils and ears were also overflowing with stinky blood. Blood directly spurted out of her mouth, falling to the ground. It was obvious that insects were squirming inside her body.
Song Shi frowned. The old witch who kept crying wolf previously had also been poisoned. This time, her internal organs were really being devoured by the insects.
The Black Iron Guard frowned and threw the old woman to the ground.
“Save… save me!”
The old woman’s shouts quickly became softer. Her chicken-claw-like hands waved wildly and her eyes were about to pop out. Song Wan retreated repeatedly.
Gurgle. Gurgle.
Black blood kept coming out of her mouth. The old woman’s stomach expanded as if she was pregnant and she kept squirming, as if something was skewering her inside.
“Mother!”
Song Jia cried out in grief, but like the others, she could do nothing.
Soon, the cry for help stopped abruptly. This woman, who had been mean all her life, died under the Gu worm’s bite. She did not close her eyes even until her death.
Song Shi sighed. The person he had hated his whole life died just like that, but he was not happy at all.
More than that, he felt like that of a fox mourning the death of a rabbit.
Wait a minute, since I can’t die, what’s there to be afraid of?
Song Shi’s expression changed for a moment before he calmed down again.
“It’s quiet now. Take them out and deal with them together. Be careful not to let the Black Blood Venomous Gu Insect leak into the water!”
Sikong Ya’s expression was cold. He didn’t care if the First Madam was dead or alive. At this moment, someone screamed and fell into the same situation.
“Liu’er!”
Song Wan was in extreme pain. This time, it was his son who died.
“Is this bug incurable?”
Helpless, Song Shi could only watch and do nothing.
After all, the insects had already dominated the entire body of the person who was poisoned. Even medicine could not cure this acute ‘illness’.
Perhaps only an immortal could do it.
“How troublesome. The time of being poisoned is different from the time of death!”
Sikong Ya frowned. “Minister Song, you’d better tell me quickly. Otherwise, if you die, not many people will know the truth.”
Song Wan looked at the few descendants left and sighed, “If I say it, can Commander Sikong protect the Song family?”
...
“You wish!”
Sikong Ya sneered, “I’m not interested in the continuation of the Song Family’s lineage. But tell me the truth so that we can subdue the demon. The sooner you kill Hei Duzi, the more people you can save.”
“I will say.”
Song Wan thought about it and agreed. He started to recount honestly, how the scandal had happened.
“Three years ago, there was a fisherman’s daughter in the south of the city who was very beautiful. When my third son met her on the boat, he fell in love with her. Later on, he got her pregnant with a bastard child. As that woman got pregnant before marriage, her reputation was ruined. Later on she found my third son and requested that he take responsibility. However, as we naturally didn’t want our reputation to be damaged, the main branch had someone to throw the woman into a well which drowned her. After that we also slaughtered her entire family.”
Song Wan’s expression was ugly as he recounted the shameful tale, “Later on, we spent money to bribe the officials and suppressed this matter. No one expected that the son of the fisherman’s family would survive and become a demon.”
Song Shi was speechless when he heard this. The whole gist of the situation was that the rich were too heartless and had colluded with the government to force the other party’s family to be destroyed! 𝘧𝓇𝗲e𝑤𝑒𝙗noѵ𝒆𝚕. 𝒄o𝓶
However, only the third son, Song Hu benefited from this situation. The eldest son, Song Jiang did all the dirty work whereas the entire Song family had suffered from this predicament.
Including him, Song Shi!
The female ghost in red that Big Smart said threw herself into the Song family well was actually deliberately drowned by the people from the main branch.
All for Third Brother’s reputation!
...
Is the chastity of an unmarried woman not considered a worthy reputation, but your third son’s reputation is?
Song Shi sneered in his heart. He knew that the darkness of this large family was far more corrupt and degenerate than what he had seen before.
For a moment, he did not know what to say.
From an outsider’s point of view, the Song family had brought this upon themselves.
From his point of view, he was implicated.
From the perspective of a member of the Song family, he still wanted to kill the so-called Hei Duzi!
“You have already killed the people from the main branch and I agree that every injustice has its perpetrator and every debt has its debtor. But since you provoked me, you will die.”
A cold light flashed in Song Shi’s eyes.
“Big Brother, Third Brother were actually these kinds of people!”
Song Jia muttered, unable to accept the true colors of her two dearest brothers.
“Hmph, the Great Qian Dynasty is in chaos because of you, corrupt officials and black-hearted landlords!”
Sikong Ya’s expression was cold, but he didn’t scold them. He had seen this kind of thing many times and was used to it.
“Tell me the name, address, and time of death of this fisherman.”
He continued with his work. He had to obtain Hei Duzi’s specific information to know about his enemy.
“The fisherman’s family’s surname is Zhang and his name was Sancai. Their son was called Wuji, and their daughter, Wuyou. He was originally a scholar who had dropped out. In order to survive, he had no choice but to start fishing in a small fishing village in the south of the city… Their daughter drowned about two and a half years ago. His family was killed by drowning in the river located at the foot of the Jinyuan Temple, at the intersection of the Yuan River and Jin river. Half a day after his daughter died, it was my eldest son who killed them.”
Upon hearing the old man’s words, Song Shi was shocked.
His father, the patriarch, was really ruthless.
As for Hei Duzi’s real name, Zhang Wuji, he did not think too much about it. There were many people with the surname Zhang, and there were many people with this name as well.
Sikong Ya seemed to be deep in thought, “Looks like Zhang Wuji inherited the cultivation techniques of some demon from the reed marsh. That’s why he managed to learn all the Gu and Hex techniques.”