Safe City Ch.224.2

Chapter 224.2: The Mountain God of Songbird Village

Accompanied by the Ginseng Doll, Lu Song watched as Zhou Dagen carried the sack of grain seeds over his shoulder and held the seven rabbits in his hands. With unsteady steps and barely contained excitement, the man made his way out of the mountain.

Lu Song could only hope that Zhou Dagen would keep his promise and return tomorrow.

If Zhou Dagen didn’t come… then he would have no choice but to send the Ginseng Doll out to steal from someone else’s home again. He swore that once the person came chasing after them, he would return everything, with interest.

People, people, people. He needed people!

“Mountain God, he’s gone.”

The Ginseng Doll watched Zhou Dagen leave the mountain with longing eyes. Then, imitating the old villagers, it let out a deep sigh.

“Alas! I’d worked so hard to snatch those things!”

Lu Song comforted it. “It’s fine. Bringing back a person is much better than bringing back a bag of grain seeds.”

The Ginseng Doll’s spirits immediately lifted. “Really? Does the Mountain God like mortals?”

Lu Song suddenly had a bad feeling about where this was going, and hurriedly added:

“But I never said you were allowed to kidnap people and bring them into the mountain! Men, women, old people, children—none of them are allowed!”

Sure enough, the Ginseng Doll’s excitement immediately faded.

Lu Song secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It really had been thinking about kidnapping people!

Blue Sea’s people were all upright and honest to a fault. If they ever found out that he, Lu Song, had turned into a human trafficker…

Lu Song grew serious. “All right. I know you don’t understand these things. Tonight, I’ll teach you the ways of conducting yourself as a ginseng. It’s about time you learned to read, too.”

The Ginseng Doll had never attended school, so it had never thought there was anything particularly important about being literate. It tilted its head back to look at the towering Mountain God.

“Isn’t the Mountain God going to absorb the essence of moonlight tonight?”

Ever since arriving in this world, Lu Song had been diligently cultivating day and night, without taking a break.

As far as the Ginseng Doll was concerned, the Mountain God was the most hardworking deity it had ever met.

Granted, he was also the only deity it had ever met.

Lu Song replied, “No cultivation tonight. We have work to do.”

The Ginseng Doll was curious. “What kind of work?”

Lu Song gazed at the open patch of mountain wilderness before him and took a deep breath.

Effort always brought rewards. Hard work always bore fruit. He, Lu Song, would surely become a believer of the great Blue Sea Creator God one day!

With that thought in mind, his face took on the earnest, industrious expression of an old farmer. He began rolling up the sleeves of his divine-power-formed robes.

“Digging. We’re going to dig out twenty mu of farmland.”

…

When Zhou Dagen had first arrived, his legs had been weak. He had run there empty-handed, yet still felt exhausted and weighed down.

But on his way back, with a sack of grain seeds slung over his shoulder and seven rabbits in his hands, his steps were practically flying. His heart was brimming with joy.

Back at the Zhou family home, everyone except a baby who was still nursing and a child who had only just turned three and was too young to understand what was happening was gathered in the dim, gloomy courtyard, looking deeply troubled.

Earlier that day, all the adults in the family had been working in the fields. Zhou Dagen had only returned home to fetch something. When the rest of the Zhou family waited and waited but still didn’t see him come back, they had returned home to look for him. It was then that they learned from the three-year-old child that a thief had broken into their house and that Zhou Dagen had gone after him.

And after setting off in pursuit, he had never returned.

The entire family was on tenterhooks. At one moment, they feared that Zhou Dagen might have lost his footing and fallen somewhere because it had become too dark to see the road. The next, they worried that the thief might have been driven to desperation and, to prevent Zhou Dagen from recovering the stolen grain seeds, simply killed him.

Then they thought about how, recently, several households in the county town and surrounding villages had inexplicably been found dead in their own homes. Rumors claimed that ghosts and monsters were responsible. This only made the family’s anxiety and distress worse.

Zhou Ergen was only thirteen years old. He had grown so anxious from waiting that, being young and full of courage, he couldn’t help heading toward the door.

“It’s already dark, and Big Brother still hasn’t come back. Why don’t I go out and look for him?”

“Get back here!”

His mother barked at him. “It’s dark. Don’t go wandering around. Stay here and wait.”

His father chimed in, “Listen to your mother.”

Seeing that Zhou Ergen was still unwilling to give up and seemed ready to go out anyway, Shen Cui, Zhou Dagen’s wife, also spoke in a hoarse voice.

“Second Uncle, you’d better listen to your parents. If nothing has happened to Dagen, he’ll come back on his own.”

Ordinary people had their own practical wisdom for surviving.

In this family, Zhou Dagen was clearly the main breadwinner. But if something happened to him, Zhou Ergen would have to take his place.

And if both of them met with misfortune, what would become of a family full of elderly people and young children?

Just as the family sat in the darkness, worrying helplessly, they suddenly heard three knocks at the door.

It was Zhou Dagen calling from outside.

“It’s me! I’m back! Hurry up and open the door!”

The entire family’s faces immediately lit up with joy. Zhou Ergen was closest to the door and was just about to open it when his mother suddenly shouted:

“Wait!”

She raised her voice and called out to the person outside.

“Dagen, what was the first thing your mother ever beat you for?”

The person outside muttered:

“That was so long ago. How would I remember? Mother, why are you asking me that? Hurry up and open the door! It’s freezing out here. I’m about to freeze to death!”

Zhou Ergen hesitantly turned to look at his mother.

His mother asked another question. “How could you possibly have forgotten something like that? Your father was sick, and you broke his medicine. You cried so loudly when I beat you that the neighbors could hear you!”

The person outside replied, “I remember now! Yes, that did happen. Mother, why are you suddenly bringing up such ancient history? Hurry up and let me in. I’m freezing out here!”

His mother’s expression changed drastically. She hurriedly called Zhou Ergen back.

“Don’t open the door! That’s not your older brother!”

Zhou Ergen didn’t understand what was going on, but hearing the sharpness in his mother’s voice, a cold sweat instinctively broke out across his back.

Confused but obedient, Zhou Ergen quickly retreated and rejoined the rest of the Zhou family. He grabbed a wooden rake used for farming along the way and warily fixed his gaze on the front door.

Shen Cui asked, “Mother, what’s wrong?”

His mother replied, “The first time Dagen was beaten was because his father fell ill, but our family had no money for medicine. He heard someone say there were medicinal herbs in the mountains, so he wanted to go in and gather some for his father. But all the mountains around our village belong to wealthy landowners and gentry from the county. He was caught by the mountain guards while gathering herbs. They accused him of stealing medicinal plants and dragged him back to our village.

“I was furious and anxious at the time. I was also afraid they’d punish him, so I gave him a thorough beating right in front of them. Only then did the mountain guard say he wouldn’t report the matter to his master. From that day onward, Dagen never went into the mountains again.”

Zhou Dagen was already twenty-five years old, yet he still never ventured into the mountains. That showed just how deeply the incident had stayed with him. How could he possibly have suddenly forgotten it?

The entire family huddled together, their hearts growing cold with fear. They simply couldn’t imagine what sort of creature was waiting outside.

If it wasn’t Zhou Dagen, how could it have his voice? How could it even call her Mother?

Then they remembered the rumors. Several households in the county and surrounding villages had been found brutally murdered. Could those families have suffered the same fate as they were now facing? Had they been tricked into opening their doors before meeting their deaths?

The thing outside continued knocking, and its knocks grew increasingly frantic.

“Mother! Let me in! What’s wrong with you?”

“Father! Father!”

“Cuicui! It’s me, Dagen! … Ergen, hurry up and let your big brother in! Big Brother is freezing out here!”

The frantic knocking, combined with the familiar pleas of a loved one, made the Zhou family increasingly terrified.

Zhou Dagen’s father cursed angrily, “Get lost! You filthy thing! Don’t think you can trick us into opening the door! Our village worships an Earth God! Get out!!!”

There was a brief silence outside.

Then suddenly, they heard a scritch, scritch sound, like fingernails scraping against the wooden door.

Zhou Ergen’s hair stood on end. “Is it climbing over the wall?”

Was this thing planning to force its way inside after failing to trick them into opening the door?

Scritch, scritch—

The sound gradually moved higher, accompanied by Zhou Dagen’s pleading voice.

“Open the door… I’m so cold. Let me in…”

The entire family was trembling with fear. They could only grip whatever weapons they had managed to get their hands on, preparing to fight to the death if the thing outside broke in.

But then another voice, also unmistakably Zhou Dagen’s, rang out angrily from somewhere outside, much farther away.

“You little thief!!! How dare you climb over the wall of my house!!!”

Zhou Dagen’s mother, who had been huddled in the middle of the family, immediately stood up.

“That’s Dagen! My real Dagen is back!”

Just as the real Zhou Dagen stood outside his home, confronting the dark figure whose face was impossible to make out, the Earth God, who had been sitting in the village temple counting how many sweet potatoes he would get to eat today, suddenly raised his head.

As the Earth God of this village, He was familiar with the aura of every single villager. So when “Zhou Dagen” had first arrived at the family home, the Earth God hadn’t noticed anything unusual.

Until now.

Why were there two auras belonging to Zhou Dagen?

The Earth God carefully distinguished between them. Sure enough, one of the auras was mixed with the stench of blood. It had to be a demon or monster in disguise.

—A demon had impersonated a villager and infiltrated Songbird Village!

He hurriedly grabbed his walking stick and began hobbling toward the Zhou family home.

Meanwhile, Lu Song, the Mountain God, was working hard to clear the land. Through his faith connection, he too sensed that something was amiss with Zhou Dagen.

But he couldn’t quite make out what was wrong.

He simply had a strange, inexplicable feeling:

‘My first believer seems to be about to die.’

Lu Song had no idea what he should do. But he soon remembered that back in Blue Sea, when believers were exhausted or needed a rest, they would occasionally receive blessings from the great Blue Sea Creator God.

Why didn’t he try giving a blessing too?

But could someone please tell him how the whole blessing process was supposed to work?

In a fluster, Lu Song could only close his eyes and tell himself, Blessing, blessing. I want to give a blessing. Then he imagined channeling his divine power into Zhou Dagen.

Although the man was very far away, so what? It was all in his imagination anyway!

And in that very state of mind, inspiration suddenly struck Lu Song. A surge of power really did travel along some invisible thread and land on Zhou Dagen, far away.

Zhou Dagen had originally thought that some thief was trying to steal things from his home. (His family was already so poor, yet somehow they still had thieves to contend with!)

But when the “thief” turned around and revealed a huge, blood-red mouth, Zhou Dagen instinctively took a frightened step backward.

The moment Zhou Dagen showed weakness, the creature immediately grew bolder and more arrogant.

Just as the dark figure was about to pounce on him, a surge of inexplicable strength suddenly welled up inside Zhou Dagen. It was as though, at that very moment, there was nothing in the world he needed to fear.

He opened his eyes wide and glared at the creature.

“You little thief!!! Take this punch!”

This creature had always bullied the weak and backed down before the strong. Seeing Zhou Dagen suddenly filled with courage, it was so frightened that it shrank back before turning tail and fleeing toward the outskirts of the village.

The Earth God arrived at a brisk hobble, leaning on His walking stick, just in time to witness the entire scene. He also caught sight of the flash of spiritual light that briefly appeared around Zhou Dagen.

Had Zhou Dagen actually received the protection of a deity?

Which deity was it? And how could that deity possess such tremendous divine power?

Meanwhile, the Zhou family finally opened the door and rushed to embrace Zhou Dagen, crying with relief. They bombarded him with questions, asking where he had gone and why he had only returned after nightfall.

The Earth God quietly crouched nearby, eavesdropping.

He heard Zhou Dagen explain that he had gone into the mountain that had suddenly appeared. Not only had he recovered the stolen grain seeds, but the Mountain God had also offered him compensation and granted him twenty mu of farmland in the mountain to cultivate.

The Mountain God…

The Earth God was momentarily filled with admiration and longing. Unable to resist, He looked toward the enormous mountain resting quietly near Songbird Village in the darkness.

Just how powerful was this Mountain God?

…

“I can’t do this anymore, I can’t do this anymore…”

Lu Song was half-kneeling on the ground, completely drained of strength.

So blessing just one believer required this much divine power?

Right now, he felt as though he had gone to eat hotpot in the middle of summer, immediately followed it up with an ice-cold drink, then devoured an entire watermelon straight from the fridge, and finally spent three hours squatting on the toilet.

In one word: wiped out!

But he had only blessed one person! And all he’d done was give that person a little courage. He hadn’t even done anything else.

Yet when the Blue Sea Creator God bestowed blessings, it was always upon hundreds of millions of people simultaneously.

Lu Song couldn’t help looking up at the sky, his heart filled with reverence.

—Just how powerful are You?

Then again, could the reason he had never managed to become a believer before be that the mighty Blue Sea Creator God simply hadn’t noticed him?

‘Our God, please notice me soon. Please, let me become Your believer!’

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