Just as I was about to crash into his chest, that lame peasant woman suddenly rushed out of the woods, waving the sickle in her hand to cut off the vine.
I felt a sudden looseness around my waist and plopped down on the ground.
Seeing me fall, the peasant woman quickly helped me up and shouted, "Girl, run!"
I took a look at the peasant woman and then glanced up at Wu Qingyun.
His face was ashen as he stared intently at the peasant woman. His eyes were burning red. With a hook of his five fingers, he grabbed the peasant woman by the collar.
Wu Qingyun tilted his head slightly, looking a bit crazy. His words were squeezed out through his gritted teeth, and he was completely different from before.
"Do you know the consequence of blocking me?"
"Master of Witchcraft, she's just a child. I really can't bear it. Please spare her. Spare my daughter. I'll do anything you ask."
"You've deceived me again and again. Do you think I can still spare her?" After saying that, he flung his arm forcefully, sending the peasant woman flying.
Seeing that she was about to hit a tree, I don't know where I got the strength. I kicked off the ground and darted in front of the tree. The peasant woman's body crashed heavily into my chest.
The pain made me kneel on the ground, covering my chest and coughing violently.
At the same time, Wu Qingyun's shadow loomed over me.
I quickly shielded the peasant woman behind me and grasped the dagger in my hand, ready to fight him.
"You don't appreciate my kindness. Today, I'll let you taste the feeling of snake gu entering your body."
After he said that, the night sky, which was originally filled with sky lanterns, suddenly went dark as the lanterns burned out. The dense forest was plunged into complete darkness.
Immediately afterwards, I heard the creepy hissing sound.
As my eyes gradually adapted to the darkness, I saw that the ground was completely covered with countless colorful little snakes, which gave me goosebumps all over my body.
The little snakes surrounded the two of us. They raised their necks and wriggled their bodies in various ways, looking extremely eerie.
Strangely enough, the snakes stopped about a meter away from me and didn't move forward.
Even Wu Qingyun was surprised. When he flew over to check the situation, a cloud of yellow smoke suddenly rose into the air. The smell was realgar.
As the saying goes, snakes are afraid of realgar, and it's not just a baseless claim. After the little snakes came into contact with the realgar, they all wriggled their bodies and scurried away in a hurry.
No matter what, Wu Qingyun was a local god, so he wasn't afraid of realgar.
However, when it came to scheming, he was still a bit inferior to a fox.
Just now, Wu Qingyun had focused all his attention on me.
He was probably curious as to why the snakes didn't dare to approach me. The next moment, the realgar fell, and the snakes scurried away, which really flustered him.
When he finally came to his senses, Bai Qi was already behind him, pressing the short gun in his hand against Wu Qingyun's neck.
Bai Qi's voice was cold. His narrow blue eyes narrowed slightly, and he said word by word, "You're tired of living. How dare you have such evil thoughts about her."
Wu Qingyun had seen a lot in his life. With the gun pressed against his neck, he remained calm and said, "Tricking me. What kind of hero are you?"
"For a scumbag like you, any means is just doing justice for the heavens."
While Bai Qi was holding Wu Qingyun in check, I quickly helped the peasant woman up.
However, the peasant woman refused to get up no matter what. She knelt on the ground and begged Wu Qingyun to spare her daughter. Her cries were so heart - rending that it suddenly made me wonder if my mother had also begged the old beggar like this to save me back then.
Wu Qingyun was extremely stubborn. He was unmoved by either soft or hard tactics because he was convinced that Kua Ye was his woman, and he would rather die than let Kua Ye live.
In the end, Bai Qi showed his trump card.
He directly took out the ancient painting that was enshrined in our house.
When Wu Qingyun saw this painting, he immediately knelt on the ground.
"How did you get this painting?" Wu Qingyun suddenly looked nervous.
"This girl is the mistress in this painting."
Wu Qingyun's body went limp, and he seemed to suddenly understand. "No wonder she's immune to the snakes. It turns out she has the protection of the benefactor's magic power."
"Is Gu Yuan your benefactor?" I quickly asked.
Wu Qingyun respectfully kowtowed to me and said, "Back then, I violated the Heavenly Rules and was besieged by the Heavenly Soldiers. I was almost killed. Fortunately, I met the God Gu Yuan. He snatched me back from thousands of Heavenly Soldiers, so I'm still alive today."
"Later, when he encountered trouble, he gave me one of his paintings to keep. So I swore to guard it and have been waiting for him to come and get it. But I've been waiting for hundreds of years."
"God? Is Gu Yuan a god?" I stepped forward and asked.
Wu Qingyun knelt on the ground and didn't dare to look up. He continued, "That's just my respect for him. As for whether he's a god or not, it's not for me to speculate."
I bit my lip and continued, "So you got bored waiting here and couldn't control yourself. You forced yourself on Kua Ye. For the past five years, you've made her a wreck. If Gu Yuan knew about this, your life would probably be over."
"The truth of the matter should be told by Kua Ye's mother."
When the peasant woman heard her name mentioned, her body trembled.
"Xiaolan, I'm sorry. I lied to you and the whole village. I did it to protect Kua Ye's reputation."
"Actually, it was Kua Ye's fault. She was attracted to the appearance of the God of Witchcraft and threw herself at him. At first, they were very much in love."
"Later, after Kua Ye saw the true form of the God of Witchcraft, she had nightmares every night and was extremely scared. So she had a bad idea. She thought that if she had an affair with another man, the God of Witchcraft would abandon her."
"Who would have thought that by then, she was already pregnant with the God of Witchcraft's child. But the child was a black snake. Kua Ye had been afraid of snakes since she was a child. In a panic, she asked the village head to kill it, which angered the God of Witchcraft and brought down the disaster."
"Now my daughter already knows she was wrong. Please spare her and give her a chance to live. Woo - hoo - hoo." The woman knelt on the ground, begging.
Wu Qingyun heaved a heavy sigh and said, "Actually, I've given you guys many chances. As long as she gave birth smoothly and released the snake, the snake gu would be lifted. But you've slandered me again and again, making the villagers think of me as an evil god. Today, you even tried to use another girl as a substitute. How can I spare her now?"
"But if the snake isn't killed after it's born, it will bring floods." I quickly added.
"Except for the first time when Kua Ye killed the snake after giving birth and I got angry and caused a flood, when did the village really get flooded after that? Gossips are terrifying. They can destroy a person. It's just an excuse for them to kill the snake."
After hearing what the God of Witchcraft said, the peasant woman finally understood. It wasn't the God of Witchcraft who had harmed her daughter, but their own inner fear.
They were afraid that the snake would bring disasters and floods, so they killed it before it was born, which had caused their daughter to suffer for five years.
Finally, we found a way to resolve the feud. That is, this time, we should let Kua Ye give birth smoothly, and then the gu on her would be lifted.
We had to act quickly. I asked Bai Qi and Wu Qingyun to go and get the ancient painting, while I supported the peasant woman and went to the small thatched cottage where Kua Ye lived to check on her situation.
By now, the village head had already returned. He had a serious look on his face and was standing outside the door with a sickle in his hand. From inside the room came Kua Ye's painful screams. It seemed that the black snake was about to be born.
As Kua Ye's screams grew louder, large black clouds began to gather over the thatched shed. The dark clouds rolled menacingly and hung low over the roof.
As big raindrops began to fall, the midwife in the delivery room opened the door and came out to get the sickle.
"Her father, don't kill the snake again. We've met the God of Witchcraft. It's all our fault. As long as we let Kua Ye give birth this time, everything will be fine."
But the midwife didn't listen to the peasant woman. She took the sickle and went back into the delivery room. I quickly followed the midwife in, trying to stop her.
But as soon as I entered the room, I couldn't help but get goosebumps all over my body, and I almost knelt on the ground out of fear.