Chapter 142: Utterly Deranged

Outside the tent, the voices of two Miao people conversing could be heard.

"Granny is not here, but the Saintess is inside the room. If you have anything to report, just tell the Saintess directly!"

The man fell silent for a brief moment before speaking up. "Where has Granny gone? I must go find her!"

Hearing this conversation from inside her tent, Dongnuo could not help but knit her brows. *What kind of matter requires keeping things from me? Why must it involve Granny?* Wondering thus, Dongnuo called out toward the outside.

"Who is it? Come inside and speak!"

After Dongnuo gave the command, the man outside hesitated visibly, but still pushed the door open and stepped into the room, bowing to Dongnuo.

"What is so urgent that it simply must be discussed with Granny?" Dongnuo asked.

The man wore a deeply conflicted expression. Seeing Dongnuo's displeasure, he forced himself to speak. "Reporting to the Saintess, I have just returned from the Miao village. According to the Grand Wizard's divination, the date of the Seven Stars Alignment is likely to be brought forward!"

Upon hearing this, joy initially flickered across Dongnuo's face, as this was favorable news to her. Composing her expression slightly, she then asked, "Did the Grand Wizard calculate approximately when?"

"About a month from now!"

Dongnuo nodded in acknowledgment, thinking that this was hardly a matter that needed to be kept from her. "Is that all?"

"No, there is more. But the Grand Wizard instructed that I must see Granny in person to speak of it!"

Zhou Yi heard every word of their exchange clearly. The Miao man was plainly hiding something from Dongnuo and did not want her to know. Yet what kind of matter required keeping secrets from the Miao Saintess? The Saintess was, after all, the successor to the Grand Wizard; Dongnuo's status was even higher than that of that old woman.

"Granny went out on a matter and will not return for over ten days. Just tell me what you have to say. If you continue to stammer and delay important business, I shall hold you accountable!" Experiencing the taste of being kept in the dark felt thoroughly unpleasant, prompting Dongnuo to resort to threats.

The Miao man felt a turmoil within his heart. In the Miao village, the Saintess was a figure second only to the Grand Wizard, and her noble status went without saying. It would be effortless for the Saintess to deal with him. Caught between the Grand Wizard on one side and the Saintess on the other, he could not help but be deeply conflicted.

"If you do not speak at once, I will let you taste the wrath of this Western Heavenly Wolf Spider!" As Dongnuo spoke, she retrieved a small box from her bosom, inside of which rested none other than a matching Western Heavenly Wolf Spider.

Daring not to conceal anything further, the man blurted out everything the Grand Wizard had instructed him with.

"Saintess, spare my life! The Grand Wizard urged that the search for the children must be accelerated. If we fail to gather ninety-nine infants by the time of the Seven Stars Alignment to transform that corpse into a fierce drought-demon, all our previous efforts will be completely wasted." Under Dongnuo's threat, the Miao man hurriedly dropped to his knees and spilled every single detail.

"What did you say? It requires the blood of ninety-nine infants under one year of age to nourish it?" Hearing the Miao man declare that turning the corpse into a drought-demon required feeding it the blood of ninety-nine infants under the age of one, Dongnuo cried out in sheer shock.

This revelation was far too staggering for her. She had never imagined the existence of such a secret art, nor such a cruel and ruthless method.

"Please listen to me, Saintess! The ones sacrificed now are merely a hundred children. Once our ancestors of the Jiuli tribe are resurrected, this entire realm will belong to the Jiuli. By then, our ancestor Chiyou will be the master of this world, and none shall ever stand in our way!" The more the Miao man spoke, the more agitated he became, prostrating himself directly on the ground and kowtowing toward the southwest.

"Those are the lives of a hundred infants! How could you be so cruel! Why was I kept in the dark about this? How dare you commit such heinous atrocities behind my back!" Dongnuo said coldly.

"This matter was approved by both the Grand Wizard and Granny. Resurrecting the ancestors of our Jiuli tribe is the paramount mission of our Sava Miao Village; it requires no consent from the Saintess!" At this moment, the man spoke in a manner entirely different from when he had first entered the door. The beliefs deeply ingrained in his heart had caused him to lose his basic moral compass as a human being.

Standing nearby, Zhou Yi had also listened closely to the entire sequence of events. The more he heard, the more alarmed his heart became, culminating in absolute shock by the end.

First, the purpose behind the Miao faction waiting for the Seven Stars Alignment was to resurrect Chiyou. Although Zhou Yi had previously guessed this possibility, having it verified through the conversation of the two still filled his heart with dread. What manner of figure was Chiyou? If Chiyou were to be resurrected, current firearms would be utterly useless, and even heavy artillery might fail to subdue him. By then, it would spell an unprecedented catastrophe.

Another crucial point was the process of turning the flying corpse into a drought-demon. Chiyou's power was simply too overwhelming; ordinary physical vessels naturally would not suffice. The bodies of cultivators had undergone the Nine Heavens Tribulation and were imbued with immortal aura; moreover, upon Chiyou's resurrection, he would be at his most vulnerable state, making such bodies entirely unusable.

Conversely, bodies that had not undergone the heavenly tribulation were far too fragile. When Chiyou attempted to seize such a vessel, the physical form would fail to withstand that immense power, inevitably resulting in the body exploding from the sheer force.

Corpses, being creatures of yin, were the most suitable vessels for Chiyou. However, the flying corpse in the mass graves had already been slain by Zhou Yi. Unable to find that specific flying corpse, the Miao people had sought another in the lands of Zhuolu—none other than the master of the burial pit beneath the ancient locust tree.

When Zhou Yi first visited that burial pit, the coffin had been empty of a corpse, a detail he had not dwelled upon at the time, but the Miao people had now successfully located it. Truly, all things in this world were governed by predestined karmic cycles.

This flying corpse from the lands of Zhuolu proved even more formidable than the one from the mass graves. Yet time was pressing, and if they wished to aid this flying corpse in transforming into a drought-demon, it had to consume the blood of infants. This explained why countless Miao people had been abducting swaddling babies across various regions.

However, even though all attention should have shifted toward the lands of Zhuolu, why was Dongnuo still lingering here guarding the blood spring? Because the current blood spring had already lost its utility. Of course, this was not something Zhou Yi needed to ponder right now; his immediate priority was figuring out how to rescue the ninety-nine infants and put a stop to this entire scheme.

He did not take it upon himself to save all living souls under heaven, lacking any such grand ambitions, yet he fully understood the logic that when the nest was overturned, no single egg could remain intact.

Everything was now crystal clear, but this realization only intensified Zhou Yi's anxiety. These Miao people had completely lost their minds! He could no longer afford to stay here, for Zhou Danjiang's life was in constant danger, and he had to leave immediately to rescue him.

Turning his gaze, he spotted a wooden staff standing by the table. Snatching it up in his hand, he brought it down with all his might toward the back of the Miao man's head. With a sharp crack, the wooden staff snapped cleanly into two halves. The Miao man glanced back at Zhou Yi before collapsing heavily onto the floor with a dull thud.

"What are you doing?" Seeing Zhou Yi's actions, Dongnuo instinctively took two steps backward and asked.

"Are you still planning to collude with them in this monstrous atrocity? Those are the lives of ninety-nine infants!" Having witnessed Dongnuo's momentary lapse of composure earlier, Zhou Yi knew her conscience was not entirely dead, prompting him to try and pull her back from the precipice.

"Resurrecting our ancestor Chiyou has been my dream since childhood. I knew people would die along this path—many people would die. But I never imagined it would involve so many infants! They have just been born; they haven't even had the chance to experience this world yet!" As Dongnuo spoke, tears streamed down her cheeks.

"You are right, those children are innocent. It is still not too late to turn back! Come with me!" Zhou Yi said, grabbing Dongnuo's arm as if to drag her away, but Dongnuo pulled back a couple of steps.

"I cannot simply leave with you like this. I must wait for Granny to return and demand an explanation from her!"