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“Divine signs, is this what you mean?”
Pei Hu held a tightly wrapped oil-paper cylinder in his hand, twisting the thin string at the top and igniting it with a flint.
With a humming sound, the sky above the village entrance was filled with red light, seamlessly blending with the lingering red hues from within the village.
The villagers stared blankly, gazing up at the sky, unable to comprehend what was happening.
“If you haven’t had enough to see, we can do it again,” Pei Hu said with a grin, pulling out two more paper tubes. “We’ve got plenty; we found over ten of these!”
The villagers: “…”
At this point, even the simplest among them should have realized that the so-called divine signs were merely a trick.
However, the constant brainwashing had made them reluctant to waver in their trust of the Holy Maiden.
After all, while the divine signs might be fake, the help that the Holy Maiden had provided them was very real!
The Holy Maiden had saved lives right in front of them!
Thinking this way, their earlier doubts quickly vanished, and they looked at the Wei family and Pei Hu with renewed hostility.
“What are you people?”
“Did you create these things on purpose to tarnish the Holy Maiden’s reputation?”
“It’s a shame that the Holy Maiden wanted to bestow blessings upon you just now, and you repay her kindness with malice!”
“Tsk, do you really believe in this so-called Holy Maiden?” Pei Hu rolled his eyes in disbelief.
“The Holy Maiden is not someone you can slander!”
“Our village’s Old Man Huang had a severe rash and was on the verge of death this morning. Was it not the Holy Maiden who used her celestial powers to save him?”
“You have no idea of the Holy Maiden’s abilities!”
Old Doctor Yu stroked his graying beard, looking at the Holy Maiden with curiosity. “The Holy Maiden is skilled in medicine as well?”
“I may not be much, but I have practiced medicine for over forty years and am particularly good at difficult and complicated cases. May I ask where this Old Man Huang is? Perhaps I could take his pulse and make a diagnosis?”
“Doctor Yu, there’s no need to trouble yourself.” Pei Hu tossed aside the paper tubes and casually grabbed a white-robed Taoist standing next to the Holy Maiden.
The Taoist attempted to resist, but Pei Hu firmly grasped his chin and forced his mouth open.
Feng Ping took out a paper package from his pocket, opened it, and poured half of the medicinal powder into the mouth of the white-robed Taoist.
Once they let go, the Taoist hurriedly…
The white-robed Taoist desperately clawed at his throat, gagging repeatedly as if trying to expel the medicinal powder.
Unfortunately, Pei Hu had employed a bit of technique while gripping his chin, and the powder had already slipped down his throat into his stomach, making it impossible to expel.
Seeing that he couldn’t induce vomiting, the white-robed Taoist knelt before the Holy Maiden with a look of despair. “Holy Maiden, save me!”
The villagers watched in confusion, thinking it seemed reasonable that these outsiders had intentionally poisoned the Holy Maiden’s protector, and that he was now pleading for help from her, considering the Holy Maiden was said to possess miraculous powers.
However, the Holy Maiden instinctively took a half-step back.
Wei Yunlan asked, “Why won’t the Holy Maiden save him?”
The Holy Maiden averted her gaze, unable to meet Wei Yunlan’s penetrating eyes that seemed to see through everything. She felt a chill of dread.
Wasn’t the Wei family just an ordinary family of imperial historians? How could they have so many formidable figures around them?
If only she had known…
If she had known this would happen, she would never have dared to target the Wei family.
How could she resolve this situation now?
The matter had already exceeded Suixin’s control.
In just a moment, someone noticed that red rashes were beginning to appear on the neck of the white-robed Taoist, and soon more appeared on his face.
At the same time, those nearby seemed to hear his breathing becoming increasingly labored.
“Look, aren’t those rashes just like the ones on Old Man Huang…”
“Indeed, Old Man Huang looked like this in the morning, struggling to breathe, his face red and swollen.”
While the crowd murmured, the white-robed Taoist was on the verge of collapse, wildly swatting away the white-robed individuals who tried to help him. He lunged forward, gripping the Holy Maiden’s shoe and pleading, “Holy Maiden, please save me! Quickly bring out the antidote!”
“I don’t want to die; please give me the antidote!”
“The antidote?”
“What antidote?”
Just moments ago, the villagers had been praising the Holy Maiden’s achievements; now they began to realize there was a problem.
If the poison had truly been administered by these outsiders, why would the Taoist demand the antidote from the Holy Maiden? Shouldn’t he be asking those outsiders instead?
The identical symptoms could only be cured by the antidote that the Holy Maiden possessed.
A series of connections clicked in the villagers’ minds, and some less devout villagers suddenly realized.
“Old Man Huang isn’t sick; he’s been poisoned! The poison was given by the Holy Maiden!”
“She doesn’t possess any miraculous powers of resurrection at all!”
“The divine signs are fake, and the saving of lives is fake too! You bunch of frauds!”
Old Man Huang was one matter, as he had indeed been saved, but there were many children from nearby villages who had died after the prayer ceremony due to insufficient blessings.
The villagers, now furious, turned their ire away from the Wei family and directed it towards the Holy Maiden.
“Quick, protect the Holy Maiden!” The members of the Sacred Moon Sect hurriedly gathered around the Holy Maiden, trying to shield her as they made their escape.
But it was too late.
There were well over a hundred villagers!
Earlier, only the able-bodied men of the village had surrounded the Wei family’s carriage to prevent them from leaving. Now that they believed the Holy Maiden and the Sacred Moon Sect were the true culprits behind the children’s deaths, even the women had joined the fray. The crowd surrounded them in layers, making it nearly impossible for the Holy Maiden to escape or even shift her feet.
Moreover, the fighting skills of the white-robed Taoists from the Sacred Moon Sect were nowhere near the proficiency of the guards from Tianshu Pavilion; they were even inferior to Dong Da and Liu Quan.
To rescue the Holy Maiden from the siege of hundreds was indeed a tall order.
At the edge of the crowd, Qi Xu had returned near the carriage and instructed, “When the villagers have vented their anger, let’s take them away. We don’t want anyone to get killed.”
“Understood.”
While the villagers were still attacking the members of the Sacred Moon Sect, the village chief of Xiqi came forward to the Wei family, his face filled with shame. “I apologize for the rudeness of my villagers earlier. I hope you can forgive us.”
After expressing his apologies, he went on to thank them.
“Thanks to your warnings, we would have never known how many more lives could have been lost at their hands. Though the Holy Maiden is a fraud, she did say one thing correctly: your family has truly made great contributions!”
After a moment, the guards from Tianshu Pavilion finally managed to pull the Holy Maiden from the crowd. By this time, she no longer possessed the ethereal grace she had earlier; instead, she appeared disheveled, with bits of rotten vegetable leaves stuck to her head.