The village chief walked out tremulously. "I'm here, what are your orders, Envoy?"

The envoy glanced at the village chief and said, "The village head of Lower Village failed in his supervision and is guilty of the same crime as these four!"

Before the village chief could argue, the envoy's attendants threw out several iron chains with hooks, piercing the village chief's shoulder armor and dragging him to an empty wooden cage, where they prepared to flay him alive.

The executioners were clearly not very professional; they couldn't peel off the skin in one piece, but instead tore off pieces of his skin.

The village chief's screams echoed incessantly. None of the villagers in Lower Village were in the mood to watch the village chief being tortured, but were instead eager to leave.

After a long while, the executioners finally finished the execution and hung the village chief in the wooden cage with iron hooks.

The envoy said, "Add another hook to seal their mouths. The village head likes peace and quiet, don't let them disturb the village head day and night."

The executioners sealed the mouths of the men with hooks and turned to walk into the gate of Upper Village.

As soon as the gate closed, the villagers in the square scattered and ran towards the small shop. The constable held by me pleaded bitterly, "Let me go! At least let me grab something!"

I threw the man on the ground and quietly groped towards the wooden cage. I found a place that could block the line of sight and stood there, whispering to the village chief, "I have something to ask you. Blink your eyes if you can answer."

After the village chief blinked twice, I carefully pulled out the iron hook that pierced his chin.

Before I could speak, the village chief said vaguely, "I know you must have a purpose for coming in. Tell me what you want to do!"

"I have nothing left now. My only hope is in you."

The village chief was right!

He knew that we had ulterior motives, but he didn't expose us, allowing us to act in the village, in fact, planning to let us expose our purpose ourselves.

If we wanted to harm Da Meng Xiang, he might be able to find the people in Upper Village and report us in exchange for some benefits.

Now, he hopes that we can raze Da Meng Xiang to the ground.

Only if we succeed will he have a chance to escape.

I asked, "How can I quickly enter Upper Village?"

"Either buy your way in with money, or knock on the door directly and solve the village's riddles. As long as you solve the riddles, you can immediately become the village head of Upper Village. You can do whatever you want in the village!"

My eyes lit up. "What riddles? Has anyone solved them before?"

The village chief said, "I don't know. Only those who really want to solve the riddles can see them."

The village chief quickly added, "Remember, never drink the village's water. Don't drink it even if you're dying of thirst. Drinking the village's water will make you like us."

I was startled. I had a few bottles of water in my backpack, but they wouldn't last long.

Even the most powerful expert can only go without food for two or three days, but they can't go without water for two or three days. Moreover, after fighting, people will definitely be thirsty. Without water, Ye Yang and I would probably not even have a chance to fight after passing one village.

I asked, "Don't the people here have any weaknesses? Can't they be killed?"

"They do!" the village chief said. "The people here can only be killed with ghost artifacts (yin jian gui qi). For example, the soul-snatching chain (ju hun suo) of the ghost messengers (gui chai) will work."

"Ghost artifacts are contraband in the village and are not allowed to be privately possessed. Otherwise, the consequences will be a million times worse than what I'm going through now."

I lowered my voice and asked, "Do you have a soul-snatching chain?"

The village chief hesitated for a long time and said, "I only have one. I hid it under the old locust tree. In a moment, cut off my right thumb and insert it into the tree hole of the old locust tree to get it."

"If anything happens to you, don't say that the soul-snatching chain came from me!"

I hummed. "Don't worry, I have that much integrity."

After the village chief finished speaking, he lowered his head. "Put the hook back on for me!"

I was surprised. "Aren't you going to act with us? Maybe..."

Before I could finish, the village chief shook his head. "No, take care of yourselves! If I don't go with you, maybe the village head of Upper Village will be happy and let me go."

"If I go with you, and you fail, I really won't have a chance to turn things around."

The village chief obviously didn't believe that we could solve the riddles.

After I hung the hook back in its original place, I cut off the village chief's thumb with a knife. According to him, I retrieved a soul-snatching chain from under the locust tree.

The soul-snatching chain was probably something that a ghost messenger had broken. It was not in the same class as my Soul Chasing Chain (zhui hun suo) at all.

I originally wanted to give my Soul Chasing Chain to Ye Yang and use the old one myself. But Ye Yang said that his Wandering Soul Thread (you hun si) was also a ghost artifact, and its quality was above the Soul Chasing Chain, so I had to keep the chain for myself.

Nie Xiaochun and Qin Xin's paper umbrellas were originally ghost artifacts, so they didn't need the Soul Chasing Chain.

As I walked back with the two chains, Qin Xin whispered, "Since we have something to restrain those people, why do we have to solve the riddles? Wouldn't it be better to just go straight up?"