Old Sun, a seasoned farmer, didn't understand why Old Man Zhang was running.
"Going home!" Old Man Zhang had no time to spare for weeding now. He had to get back first, so his third son, lying in bed, could receive the baptism of the divine nectar.
Hadn't Old Sun said that the divine maiden's nectar could cure the gravely ill, even bring the dead back to life with flesh and bone?
Their third son had a chance to be saved!
"Eldest, you keep working here!" As his figure was about to disappear from the field's edge, Old Man Zhang left words for his eldest son, who had been toiling at the other end.
Old Man Zhang wasn't sure if it was his imagination, but drenched as he was, he felt an inexhaustible surge of strength. His legs, which had always troubled him, were now carrying him swiftly. Truly, the divine maiden's nectar possessed miraculous effects!
Word of the divine maiden's nectar's miraculous properties spread from Old Man Zhang and folks like him, passing from one person to ten, from ten to a hundred. Those who heard the rumors no longer only marveled at the beauty of the divine maiden's carriage but instead spoke of the nectar's healing powers.
In places yet to be reached by the nectar, families with sick members, upon hearing these tidings, began placing their patients in courtyards or at their doorsteps during the day, waiting for the rain to arrive.
The object of the people's devotion, Yue Fuguang, was at that moment resting in a guesthouse arranged by the city government of Huacheng.
After her evening meal, she finally had time to ask the system about what it had seen during the day. "System, tell me, how is it that there are so many places around Huacheng—its villages and counties—tainted with such thick, baleful energies of resentment?"
Though her studies at the Hongwen Academy had been middling over the past two years, Yue Fuguang had read no small number of strange books and unusual accounts.
Based on the knowledge she had acquired, baleful resentment rarely formed so easily in places brimming with human vitality. Even those who died from rage or violent deaths didn't always give rise to resentment radiating a reddish glow. For such energies to manifest as a blackish-red haze, the deceased must have died with a heaven-defying grudge and unimaginable agony.
[Host, need you ask? Some died unjustly, plain and simple!]
Yue Fuguang was speechless. Of course she knew that; it was precisely because she knew people had died wrongfully that she wanted to find out why.
She could have asked the assistant prefect of Huacheng, but asking him was no match for the clarity the system could provide.
"So, tell me, how unjust were those deaths?"
[Uh... They were tied to wooden frames and burned alive, on suspicion of being reincarnated drought demons—the Hanba. The belief was that they had caused the great drought across the land. What do you think? Unjust? Horrific?]
Bang!
Yue Fuguang slammed her hand on the table. The rosewood table before her shattered into pieces with a sharp crack.
"Ma'am! Ma'am, what happened? Are you all right?"
Hearing the commotion from Yue Fuguang's room, He Jin knocked on the door but dared not enter without permission.
"He Jin, no need to worry. It's just that the table broke—I'm fine." Yue Fuguang glanced at the fragmented table, waved her hand, and collected the pieces into her storage ring.
"Ma'am, shall I fetch a new table for you?"
"No need. You may go now. I'll call if I need anything."
After dismissing He Jin, Yue Fuguang continued questioning the system. "The Hanba—that old rumor. Didn't the emperor ban its spread?"
She had heard about it in a letter from her grandfather, but as the tale spread, it grew more distorted, seeming to target her subtly.
Yet, because she had been blessing the land with rain along her journey, though the common folk still spoke of the Hanba, none associated the demon with her. Even if some malicious individuals tried to pin the blame on her, the people wouldn't believe it. So the matter had soon been quelled.
As for the origin of the rumors, Wei Ping and Cai Xian had already tracked it down. After interrogation, it turned out the rumors had spread from refugees crossing the border from Nanzhao.
It was said that in Nanzhao, various rumors about droughts and demons were circulating, and as a result, many young women had been burned alive.
"The flood in Nanzhao's southern regions is still more than half a month away. I wonder if, when they’re drowning in water, they’ll ever think of the innocent girls they burned as drought demons?"
She didn’t care about Nanzhao’s affairs for now, but she wouldn’t ignore people being burned alive on the outskirts of Huacheng based on some baseless nonsense.
"Because of your rainfall, people in other prefectures just took the story as gossip. But Huacheng was different—less than a hundred li from Nanzhao, with frequent exchanges between the people on both sides.
That’s why the commoners here were more inclined to believe the drought demon theory. However…"
"However what? There’s more to it?" It wasn’t that Yue Fuguang was being overly suspicious—it was just that the death list the system had showed her included men and women, old and young. Unlike in Nanzhao, where only young women were targeted as drought demons, this situation was clearly problematic.
"However, only about twenty percent of the victims were women burned as supposed reincarnations of the drought demon due to blind belief—others were victims of personal grudges and property disputes. Take that girl, Liu Fuling, for example."
Yue Fuguang’s gaze fell on the third name on the list. "Was she deliberately killed under the pretext of being a drought demon?"
"She was an only daughter with a modest inheritance. Her father was a town doctor who, not long ago, encountered wild beasts while gathering herbs in the mountains and never returned.
Her uncles then set their sights on her family’s property—the town house and the small medical clinic in front of it.
After several failed attempts to extort the estate from her, they initially planned to sell the girl off in secret and then seize the property. But because Doctor Liu had built up good karma through years of practicing medicine, the neighborhood neighbors were willing to protect the orphan.
At a loss, the Liu family heard about a girl from a nearby village being branded a drought demon and burned alive. So her uncles conspired to have her bound and burned as a drought demon on the outskirts of town!"
Outrageous! Yue Fuguang was so furious she wanted to smash something.
"And the local authorities didn’t intervene?"
"Well… this was considered a clan’s internal matter. Although they initially acted in secret, the entire Liu clan was present when they carried out the burning, so it wasn’t a secret murder.
Moreover, there was a ‘reason’ for it…"
"An internal clan matter? A reason? How lovely! It seems it’s time to replace these local officials!"
Yue Fuguang first laughed coldly, then her face turned icy. If they liked mediation so much, they could all go home and mediate there.
She might not be able to control the whole world or completely stop this kind of clan behavior, but she had one trump card—she would make them reap what they sowed!
She would show clans across the land what the consequences of evil deeds truly were. She refused to believe that if they ignored the law, they would remain indifferent when their own lives were at stake.
The system, not feeling that was enough, continued to fan the flames. "Look at that one, Zhang Shitou. The reason he was burned alive was simple—his family were refugees who had fled to the area. With clanspeople few in number, they were often bullied by the dominant surname clans in the village."
It turned out that Zhang Shitou’s wife was quite a looker, and a local ruffian from the village had taken a fancy to her. After Zhang Shitou beat him up for trying to harass his wife, the ruffian held a grudge and falsely accused Zhang Shitou of being a reincarnated drought demon—a creature blamed for famine. That very day, Zhang Shitou was tied up and burned alive at the riverbank at the edge of the village.
This ruffian came from a prominent family in the village and was even the grandson of the clan chief. Although the villagers all knew Zhang Shitou was innocent, no one dared to speak up for him.
Hearing this, Yue Fuguang grew even angrier. She had gone to all the trouble of calling down rain to save both the people and their parched crops, only to discover that she had ended up saving such wretched scum!