Yin Xiu silently met each of those hostile gazes, subtly gripping the hilt of his sword while simultaneously unleashing an even stronger killing intent in return.
Those who were pale and thin saw Yin Xiu's knife and probably realized that the person in front of them was not someone to be trifled with. Some of them who were about to slowly get up sat back down and continued to hang their heads.
But one of them, with a fawning smile, approached Yin Xiu. He rubbed his withered hands, his body reduced to skin and bones. His sunken eyeballs rolled around in his sockets as he looked Yin Xiu up and down. He smiled and said, "Looking at you, you must be from out of town. Is there anything I can do for you in our Hai Village?"
Yin Xiu calmly raised his eyes and stared at the people in front of him. "Is this Hai Village? What's wrong with you all?"
"Well... it's all because of the famine." The person opposite him rubbed his hands awkwardly. "In other places, famines happen because crops can't be grown. But it's rare to see famines in coastal areas because you can't catch a single fish. Everyone is close to starving to death."
Although the person on the other side was more mobile than the others, their voice sounded weak and listless.
Yin Xiu turned around and looked around again. He saw that all the fishing gear used by the families was broken and dilapidated, and it seemed that they hadn't been used for a long time. He was even more puzzled. "Are you just going to starve to death here? Why don't you leave here and go somewhere else?"
"We would like to go out, but we have to be able to get out first…" The person in front of us pointed into the distance, "People outside say that our village has been haunted by evil spirits. At first, it was the fish we sold that brought bad luck to whoever bought them. Later, even though so many people from the whole village went out to sea to fish, they couldn't catch a single fish."
He sighed and said wistfully, "Perhaps our village is truly destined to die."
Yin Xiu found it rather strange, and there must be something fishy about it.
"You weren't like this from the beginning, were you? Do you know why you changed?"
The person in front of him smacked his dry lips and looked away, seemingly unwilling to speak.
Yin Xiu immediately pulled out a bag of small bread rolls from his pocket. It was food that Ling Feng had given them when they were in the snow mountain, but he had already started to mutate at that time and could not feel hungry, so he had kept it without eating it. Now it came in handy.
As soon as this thing was taken out, everyone who was lying around lit up and hurriedly got up and moved closer.
The man in front of Yin Xiu immediately became anxious, "Give this to me! Give it to me! I'll tell you everything! I know more than they do! I used to be a cadre in Hai Village!"
"Tell me first, then I'll give it to you." Yin Xiu put the bread away without saying a word.
When the people around him saw that he had put it away, they all went back to their places, leaving only the person in front of him anxiously saying, "Let's talk over there."
He pulled Yin Xiu to a secluded spot and made sure no one was around before slowly saying, "Actually, in the beginning, our village wasn't rich. When everyone first arrived, they couldn't even build houses, they couldn't get enough to eat, they had no experience in fishing, and life was impossible. Many people starved to death in one winter."
"It was in that winter that a mysterious person appeared and told us that as long as we offered sacrifices to an unknown person, we would receive a great reward."
"Everyone was excited at the time, so they immediately started making arrangements. Although some people objected, there weren't many who objected. There were quite a few who were worried, but no one wanted to starve to death."
"So they held their first sacrifice."
Listening to this, Yin Xiu had already grasped what was going on, and asked again, "What did you sacrifice?"
The other person shook their head. "Back then, the village was too poor. We had nothing to offer, so we just sacrificed some leftover fish. But it worked. It was as if the spirit that we couldn't open our eyes to appeared. In the next two days, many fish jumped onto the shore on their own. We couldn't even pick them all up. As a result, the sea village prospered."
Yin Xiu crossed his arms. "Isn't this a good thing? Why has it turned out like this?"
The once prosperous Xiaohai Village survived the disaster and even became wealthy because of the sacrifice. Everything seemed to be developing in a positive direction.
The person in front of me avoided my gaze for a moment. "That's because… initially only fish were offered as sacrifices. After the sacrifice, the village received quite a lot, but later someone suggested that since the village was getting richer, offering something better to the gods might bring even better results. So the offering changed from fish to pigs."
Yin Xiu narrowed his eyes slightly, "The result was even better, right?"
The person in front nodded. "After the pig sacrifice, some wrecked ships drifted over on the sea. Inside were some boxes containing old antiques. They provided a large sum of money to the sea village, and everyone was very happy. Then, for the next sacrifice, someone suggested that if we offered better offerings, we could receive even better results."
He slowly lowered his head, as if he had understood the reason himself, and couldn't help but sigh, "The third time, we sacrificed sheep and cattle, and prepared many other things. The harvest that time made the whole sea village rich."
"Villagers who went out to sea to fish discovered a shipwreck containing a lot of gold coins near the coast. In an instant, almost the entire village abandoned fishing and went to salvage the gold coins."
"Not long after, people no longer wanted to live on this damp seaside, so they built a small town outside the sea village and all the villagers moved there, and the sacrifices stopped."
Yin Xiu listened quietly, waiting for his next turn of events.
"At first... everyone chose to do business, and with the funds they could buy and sell, but for some reason, the things they sold would bring bad luck to the other party, and our business got worse and worse, and we even faced resistance from other villages."
"We lost money and houses. Everyone kept losing money and couldn't stay outside anymore, so they all came back."
"Many people believe this is God's punishment, so they started offering sacrifices again in an attempt to regain God's protection. But this time, no matter what they offered, it was no use. God never came down, and everyone is now waiting to die."
The man sighed, utterly dejected. "The people in the villages outside see us as evil beings and forbid us from leaving. Even the gods have abandoned us. We can only wait to die."
Yin Xiu listened quietly, staring at him intently. "Is there really no will to struggle anymore? Do you really want to give up?"
"Of course, what else can we do besides wait to die? We've offered all our food as sacrifices, but we still couldn't summon the gods. We can't offer anything better than cattle and sheep. We can't think of anything else." The other person shook his head and then stretched out his hand to Yin Xiu. "Can you give me the food now? I'll live on this today."
Yin Xiu tossed the small bread to the other person, who quickly caught it and began to devour it.
While eating, he didn't forget to remind Yin Xiu, "Since you saved my life today, I'll kindly remind you one last time: leave here quickly."
"In a little while, God's punishment will come."