Volume 5 Chapter 58
by Need_More_SleepVolume 5 + Chapter 58: The Evil Dragon Is Here
At night, the village square of Pine Blossom Village was crowded with many villagers.
The White Night cultists lit a massive bonfire, its flames casting a flickering glow across the villagers’ pale faces in the darkness.
“You will suffer retribution!” The village chief of Pine Blossom Village had both hands bound and could not move. He shouted angrily at the White Night cultists.
“Retribution? Ridiculous. We are carrying out the will of Lord Fox God, purging the false-god believers within Fox Hill. This accords with the divine will, how could we possibly suffer retribution?”
A senior White Night cultist replied coldly:
“On the contrary, it is you false-god worshippers who should receive divine punishment! You have already angered the true Lord Fox God! The Red Fox is a false deity, Lord Azure Fox is the only legitimate one!”
“For generations, Pine Blossom Village has worshiped Lord Red Fox. We’ve never even heard of any Azure Fox God. Even if you demand that we believe in the Azure Fox, we cannot do so, ”
“Insolence!!”
The senior cultist struck the village chief across the face with a vicious slap, knocking out several of his teeth.
“His Majesty the Nine-Tailed Fox Emperor has already proclaimed that our White Night cult is now the nation of the fox tribe, and the Azure Fox God is the sole orthodoxy. As for the Red Fox, it is a vile usurper. Anyone who irreverently worships a false god must receive the punishment they deserve!”
“D-damn you…”
Blood streamed from the village chief’s nose and mouth. His head rang violently, and his vision blurred almost beyond recognition.
He was nothing more than a commoner. Faced with the violent White Night cult, he had no means of resistance.
He could not understand it. For generations, the people of Pine Blossom Village had lived here peacefully, hardworking, law-abiding, never offending anyone. Why had they fallen to such a fate today?
Was it simply because they believed in the Red Fox God that they were branded guilty and subjected to such humiliation?
“Have all the supplies here been gathered?”
Unmoved by the villagers’ fury, the senior cultist merely turned to his subordinates to inquire about the progress.
An ordinary cultist stepped forward and saluted. “Reporting, sir. All the grain in Pine Blossom Village has been collected. Please inspect it.”
The senior cultist saw piles of grain that had been seized from each villager’s home, stacked together in heaps, ready to be loaded onto carts and transported away at any time.
“Very good.” The senior cultist smiled faintly.
“What are you planning to do with the grain of Pine Blossom Village?!”
At the sight of the grain, the village chief was overcome with rage. His bloodshot eyes widened, his teeth grinding as if they might shatter.
“That grain is what all our villagers prepared to survive the winter! Without it, how are we supposed to live through the cold season?”
“We are taking this grain out of mercy,” the senior cultist replied. “Lord Fox God is willing to grant you heretics who worship false gods one chance to repent. So long as you abandon your faith in the false god, we may spare your lives. Consider this grain an offering to atone before Lord Fox God.”
“No, absolutely not!! If you take that grain, we’ll starve to death in winter! How is that any different from killing the people of Pine Blossom Village?!”
“Enough nonsense! Do you want to die right now? We’ve already told you, taking your grain is giving you face, you ungrateful heretics!”
The senior cultist strode up to the village chief and raised his fists, striking down like a rainstorm.
Before long, the chief’s face was bruised and swollen, beaten into silence. He collapsed onto the ground.
“Village Chief!!” the villagers cried out in anguish.
But this time, he did not rise. His breathing grew faint, without immediate treatment, death would soon claim him.
“Tch. You’ve dirtied my hands.”
The senior cultist shook the blood from his hands, his expression full of disgust.
“What are you waiting for? Load the carts.”
“At once, sir!”
The ordinary cultists began loading all the village’s grain onto wagons, leaving nothing behind.
It was not just grain, they took every bit of property they had looted from the village, sparing nothing.
Such behavior was no different from that of bandits.
The villagers did not understand notions of Azure Fox or orthodoxy. They only knew that these people meant to cut off Pine Blossom Village’s lifeline.
Some of the more hot-blooded villagers could no longer endure it. They rushed forward, attempting to stop the White Night cult’s atrocities.
But in the end, they were ordinary people.
Very quickly, like the village chief before them, they were beaten unconscious, covered in blood, and left sprawled upon the ground.
“Stop, please! Lords of the White Night cult, have mercy, spare us!!”
“At least leave us some grain for the winter!”
“If there’s no food, my child will starve to death!”
The villagers begged desperately.
The scene made the senior cultist burst into laughter.
“Ha! Hahaha!! You worship the false god Red Fox, why doesn’t she come save you now?”
He mocked them openly.
“If the god you believe in truly exists, why does she not appear at this very moment to protect her followers?”
The villagers fell silent, unable to respond.
At that moment, a faint voice rang out.
“The White Night cult… will face… heavenly retribution…”
“Oh?”
The senior cultist narrowed his eyes and followed the sound, discovering that the speaker was an elderly man lying on the ground.
He was Xiao Hong’s grandfather. Gravely wounded while helping her escape, he now clung to life by a thread.
“Old fool, you’ve still got the nerve to talk.”
The senior cultist strode over, seized Xiao Hong’s grandfather, and dragged him to the side of the bonfire.
“Now I’ll throw you in and see whether this so-called heavenly retribution appears!”
With that, he hurled the old man into the flames.
The villagers screamed, their minds on the brink of collapse.
“Come on! Come on!” the White Night cultist shouted arrogantly. “Let heavenly retribution strike me!”
“Anyone, whoever it may be… please… punish these demons…”
The villagers knelt upon the ground, praying desperately.
Suddenly, the winds shifted and the skies changed. A blast of snowy wind swept through, extinguishing the bonfire in an instant.
“What’s going on?”
The senior cultist froze in confusion and stepped forward to investigate. After only two steps, he realized a massive shadow had fallen over him.
He looked up. A gigantic dragon claw filled his entire field of vision, and in the next instant, he was crushed into pulp.
Boom!
A colossal dragon descended upon the square of Pine Blossom Village.
Xia Yi leapt down from the dragon’s back with Xiao Hong in her arms. Facing the stunned foxfolk, she curved her lips into a faint smile.
“The evil dragon… has arrived.”
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