The stench was emanating from the pool of pus that was once the village chief’s wife.
The apprentice hurried to the bed where his master lay, and in the process, he could feel the dampness beneath his feet.
He dared not speculate further and continued walking, but when he saw the scene on the bed, it was as if he had been struck by lightning, rooted to the spot.
There on the bed where the physician once lay, was only a blackened skeleton, missing its left leg.
The truth lay before him. Even though he didn’t want to believe it, he had no choice but to accept this reality.
His master had been killed by the poisonous snake.
The villagers who had just settled the injured rushed to the entrance upon hearing the sound from inside, asking, "What happened?"
As soon as they asked, they too caught a whiff of the stench, which triggered mories and inford them that the physician was dead.
"The physician is dead!!"
"Didn’t the physician cut off his own leg? How could he still have died?"
"Does this an that once bitten by a poisonous snake, even if you chop off the injured part, you still die?"
These words cast a shadow over their hearts, as they sympathetically looked at the injured they had just brought in, shaking their heads in resignation.
At this point, the apprentice, with reddened eyes, walked out of the room, holding a package, and said to everyone, "Go tell the village chief, my master is dead. Cutting off the bitten part can’t cure the snake venom!"
After saying this, he hunched over, holding the package in his hand, and walked out.
Seeing this, everyone left the physician’s house.
...
Zhang Hao suppressed his sorrow as he directed the villagers to clean up the ss at the altar.
"Village chief, it’s bad!!"
"Village chief, it’s bad!!"
"Village chief, it’s bad!!"
A shout ca from the distant darkness, and Zhang Hao looked up to see a torch erging rapidly towards them.
In no ti, several out-of-breath people appeared before Zhang Hao.
"Vi...Vill...Village chief...the Phy...Phy...Physician is dead..."
The group stamred out the details of what happened to the physician to Zhang Hao. Upon hearing this, Zhang Hao was so shocked that he collapsed to the ground, his eyes vacant, mumbling incessantly.
"The physician is dead, the physician is dead, the physician is dead..."
The villagers who were tidying up the wreckage heard the commotion and surrounded them.
"What happened?"
"Village chief, why are you sitting on the ground?"
"Village chief, the ground is cold, please get up."
"Didn’t you go to the physician’s house with the injured? Why are you back?"
Soone questioned the ssengers.
"We just ca from the physician’s house and learned that the physician is dead. Severed limbs can’t cure snake venom!!"
These words caused a great stir among the crowd, with even so won collapsing to the ground like Zhang Hao.
"Ah~ The physician is dead, my husband is dood?"
"My husband was just bitten by a snake and had his hand chopped off, how could he not be saved?"
"Impossible, you’re lying to us, aren’t you!!"
...
Suddenly, the ruins were filled with cries of grief, and no one could accept the situation.
So had already given up struggling and lay directly on the ground.
"Tonight, the poisonous snake wasn’t killed, nor was anyone saved, our Great Wilderness Border Village is utterly finished!!"
"It won’t be long before our Great Wilderness Border Village is wiped out by the poisonous snakes, just like Stone Village!!"
"Rather than worry every day about whether or not you’ll be bitten by a snake, might as well take your own life!!"
...
All negative emotions exploded at that mont, and so couldn’t withstand the shock and took their own lives.
In no ti, the entire Great Wilderness Border Village was soaked with blood, whether from chickens, snakes, or people...
The next morning.
A matchmaker, over fifty and with a large black mole at the corner of her mouth, dressed in red linen, holding a few portraits in her hand, arrived at the entrance of Great Wilderness Border Village.
"Today is once again the annual matchmaking festival. I wonder how many couples will form in Great Wilderness Border Village this ti?"
The matchmaker muttered to herself as she walked, pondering over her prospective performance this ti.
When she reached the village entrance, she noticed a plu of black smoke rising from the center of Great Wilderness Border Village, as if a fire had just swept through.
Moreover, the entire village was eerily silent.
"Huh? What’s going on in Great Wilderness Border Village? In a place reliant on raising chickens for a living, how co there are no roosters crowing this early in the morning?"
The matchmaker spoke as she walked towards the place where black smoke was rising.
Along the way, she could sll a stench.
"The chickens in Great Chicken Village, their droppings are so foul-slling? What are they being fed?"
Saying this, she arrived at the place where the black smoke was coming from.
"Ah!!!"
Upon seeing the scene before her, the matchmaker scread.
The scene before her was sothing she would rember for the rest of her life.
On the ground, there were corpses everywhere, with severed limbs being a common sight, and each body was black, as if stained by ink, terrifying the timid matchmaker.
"Dead bodies!! Dead bodies!! Dead bodies!!"
The matchmaker scread as she ran outside.
While running, her legs would occasionally give out, causing her to fall.
From the center of Great Chicken Village to the village entrance, the matchmaker lost count of how many tis her legs gave way and she fell.
...
Matchmaker Village.
Matchmaker Village was, besides Great Wilderness Border Village, the most popular village in the Great Mountain.
That was because, in this village, every elderly woman beca a matchmaker, each holding records of nurous single n and won.
For anyone from nearby villages wanting to marry, they almost always had to go through a matchmaker from Matchmaker Village.
At this ti, a group of matchmakers was gathered at the village gate, discussing this year’s matchmaking events.
"Hey? Where’s Cui Hua?" soone asked.
"Cui Hua, oh, she went to Great Chicken Village early in the morning, she should be back soon?"
Just as they finished speaking.
Cui Hua’s voice ca from outside the village.
"Help! Help! Everyone in Great Chicken Village is dead!!"
In the villages of the Great Mountain, nothing is more enduring than gossip, especially explosive gossip.
When the matchmakers heard the voice from outside the village, their gossip-loving hearts ignited instantly, and when Cui Hua rushed back in a panic, they imdiately asked her.
"What happened?"
"Cui Hua, what did you just say? It wasn’t clear!??"
"Cui Hua, you went to Great Chicken Village this morning, why are you back so early?"
The barrage of questions left Cui Hua, who had just returned to the village, no ti to catch her breath.
After a mont, Cui Hua finally spoke.
"I thought I’d go to Great Chicken Village early this morning to help soone find a good match, but..."
As she spoke, Cui Hua’s face was filled with horror, as if she had experienced the most terrifying event of her life.
"What happened? What was the result?" soone urged.
"Gulp --" Cui Hua swallowed before continuing, "After I arrived at Great Chicken Village, I found nobody there, only a continuous black smoke rising in the village center."
"I walked quickly over, and on the way, I could only sll the stench in the air. At first, I thought it was the sll of chicken droppings from Great Chicken Village."
"But..." At this point, Cui Hua’s voice rose sharply, the fear on her face growing even more intense.
"I found, in the center of Great Chicken Village, the ground stained with fresh blood, with hundreds of corpses lying around, like a mass grave, and so of them were dismbered."
"At the sa ti, beneath the corpses, there were puddles of black pus, emitting an unbearable stench, a sll I have never encountered before in my life..."
As Cui Hua described, she gagged, the nauseating scene replaying in her mind, unable to be shaken off.
The matchmakers listening to Cui Hua were all stunned, their faces showing horror, shock, and disbelief.
"Cui Hua, your storytelling skills are on par with the traveling storytellers, you don’t need to be a matchmaker anymore!!"
"Cui Hua, it seems there are many people in Great Chicken Village needing matchmaking this year, why else make up stories to scare us, making us avoid going there?"
Upon hearing soone doubt her words, Cui Hua beca anxious, "I’m telling the truth, if you don’t believe , go see for yourselves in Great Chicken Village, but I won’t be responsible if you get scared!!"
Cui Hua made this disclair.
Hearing Cui Hua’s determined words, most of the people believed her, engaging in fervent discussion.
"Everyone in Great Chicken Village is dead, and in such a tragic state, who could have done this?"
"Could a human have done this? Can humans do such a thing?"
"What kind of animal could it be? Great Chicken Village is a hundred miles away from Great Mountain, what could travel that far to massacre a village?"
"Could it be that Great Chicken Village angered so deity? How else could they die so horribly?"
"Do you think that with everyone in Great Chicken Village dead, our Matchmaker Village will also be massacred soon, since we’re not far apart??"
This remark plunged everyone present into panic, each feeling constantly at risk.
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