Old Liu Tou kept sneering, but there were tears in his smile.

Back then, the Liu family was determined to keep the cannon to defend against the water ghosts. Now, it had become a sharp weapon to remove the Seven Stars Grand Formation in the village.

Who could have imagined it? Who could have foreseen it?

Gratitude and resentment, love and hate, sometimes they only transform in an instant, then gradually ferment until they explode.

Old Liu Tou tugged at the iron chain hanging the cannon and said, "There are three hundred and twenty-one graves on the mountain. There's an old peach tree over there. Cut it down and make peach wood nails. That'll be enough to nail them in their graves. I'll take care of the cannon. I'll definitely be able to use it before dark."

After I nailed all the graves with peach wood nails, Old Liu Tou also set up the cannon. The two of us waited on the mountain for night to fall.

Night arrived as scheduled, and a drizzle began to fall on the river.

The rain, stretching for miles, seemed to be controlled within the river's boundaries, stirring up wind and clouds along the shore but never touching the land.

I stood up and said, "Old Liu, how accurate can you be? Can you hit the target with one shot?"

I had never used a cannon before. In my opinion, the accuracy of Qing dynasty cannons wouldn't be very high. Whether you hit the target or not depended on luck. Moreover, cannons were difficult to load. If Old Liu Tou hit the target twice, the villagers would be able to rush up the mountain. At that point, we wouldn't be able to avoid fighting even if we wanted to.

Old Liu Tou puffed on his dry tobacco pipe and said, "It depends on luck! I've never used this thing before either."

As we were talking, a storm suddenly rose on the river. The sound of the raging rain could be heard clearly from miles away. White waves in the river rolled like dragons, surging towards the shore in a line, pushing several meters onto the bank in the blink of an eye.

The ancient tree guarding the entrance to the village suddenly bristled in the wind, dancing wildly.

At first, the branches and leaves of the ancient tree were simply moving with the wind. But after a moment, the branches actually began to rise against the wind, the branches on the tree were like sharp arrows. The moment they pointed towards the river, Old Liu Tou couldn't stop the tears from flowing: "They're too ruthless, too ruthless to our Liu family! That's the Qu family's tree! They even sent people to carry me to block the water yesterday!"

Old Liu Tou couldn't help but cry.

If the ancient tree at the entrance of the village could move against the wind, it must be the result of a术士 (shùshì - Taoist sorcerer)'s manipulation. If the tree could block water and control ghosts, why would they need Old Liu Tou to lie in a coffin and become a magical artifact to block the water?

Before Old Liu Tou's cries stopped, the white waves on the river pushed forward several more meters, directly threatening the small house on the shore.

I narrowed my eyes and said, "Old Liu, can you blow up that house first?"

Old Liu Tou had already loaded the cannon. As soon as I spoke, he turned the mechanism to adjust the muzzle and lit the fuse with a torch.

As soon as the sparks appeared on the fuse, ghostly wails rose from the hillside.

When I was hammering in the peach wood nails, I deliberately only hammered them in three inches, enough to seal the ghosts in their graves, but not completely nailing the graves shut. I was deliberately letting them see the outside world.

Old Liu was planning to bombard the water house, and the ghosts in the graves would definitely cry out to stop him.

"Seal!" I grabbed two spirit talismans with both hands and stuck them on Old Liu Tou's ears at the same time, sealing his hearing. Unless I lifted the talismans, even if the ghosts on the mountain cried their throats raw, Old Liu Tou wouldn't hear a sound.

Old Liu knew what I was going to do and deliberately turned his head away, not even looking at the grass sticks swaying up and down on the graves. Once hatred arises in the heart, even if the enemy kneels down and kowtows, there won't be the slightest bit of softness, let alone when those ghosts were just bowing to him with grass leaves.

In a few short seconds, the turret on the mountain let out a deafening roar. Violent flames shot out of the muzzle, and the red-hot cannonball drew an arc in the air, whistling through the sky like the Grim Reaper's scythe, directly hitting the target.

The water-guarding house shattered into pieces in my sight. As the broken beams flew into the sky, the river water instantly surged, pushing past the broken walls and rushing towards the entrance of the village.

I lifted the spirit talismans from Old Liu's ears: "Load the cannon, quick!"

While Old Liu Tou was quickly cleaning the barrel, a vortex the size of a roof suddenly churned up in the water covering the riverbank. The滔滔 (tāo tāo - torrential) river water poured into the ground from the center of the vortex, but the more violent water flow seemed to be manipulated, bypassing the vortex and涌 (yǒng - gushing) towards the entrance of the village.

The water ghosts hidden under the white waves had divided into two groups!

This was the result I wanted.

Only by making Fish Basket Village unable to attend to both ends could they not come to trouble me and Old Liu, and I could completely force out the secrets of Fish Basket Village!

I lifted the spirit talismans again: "Old Liu, seize the opportunity. As long as the river water approaches the ancient tree, blow up the tree. Hit it as many times as you can. It's best to uproot the ancient tree for me!"

Old Liu Tou nodded repeatedly as he began to reload the cannon. Behind me, a ghostly roar sounded: "That kid, Fish Basket Village has no grudges against you, aren't you afraid of losing阴德 (yīn dé - virtue that accumulates in the unseen world) by being so ruthless?"

I crossed my arms and turned around, facing the direction from which the voice came: "Are you begging me or threatening me? If you're begging someone, you have to act like you're begging. As for threatening me? I'm not someone who can be threatened."

"Whether Fish Basket Village is destroyed or not has nothing to do with me. At worst, I'll blow up the ancient tree and leave. Can you stop me?"

The ghosts in the graves seemed to be suppressing their anger: "What do you want?"