The Price of Peace

　　"I have only one question. Why clean up a haunted house and let foreign tourists like us stay here?" Ning stared intently at the woman on the bed.

　　Milana bit her lip tightly. 

　　She originally wanted to remain silent, but when she saw the ancestral tablet in Ning's hand, her whole body couldn't help but tremble!

　　"It wasn't our intention… We didn't want it to be like this…"

　　Milana's voice was filled with deep guilt and helplessness.

　　"But the temple festival is coming soon... If we haven't prepared enough…"

　　She had just arrived when she heard the middle-aged man in the room roar, "Milana!"

　　"Shut up! Do you want to die?!"

　　"How can this be talked about?!"

　　The three of them were startled by the middle-aged man's sudden yell. 

　　They turned to look at him and found his eyes bloodshot, his mental state somewhat abnormal.

　　"We can't… This kind of thing… It can't be revealed!"

　　"If the Shaman finds out... we're finished!!"

　　Mentioning the Shaman, the middle-aged man seemed to have mentioned some taboo. 

　　He was extremely fearful, his expression almost collapsing.

　　Milana, who was about to tell Ning and the others everything, seemed to be awakened by the middle-aged man's roar. 

　　She bit her lip tightly and stopped talking.

　　Seeing that the atmosphere in the room had fallen into a stalemate again, Bai, who had been quietly staying by Ning's side, suddenly pulled out a sharp knife from her pocket!

　　There was a name engraved on the knife—Zhi.

　　"I've killed enough people outside, so… I don't usually like to kill in the world after entering Blood Gate."

　　Bai's voice suddenly became extremely cold, completely different from her usual lazy and casual demeanor! 

　　Her aura became terrifying, and a thick murderous intent filled the room. 

　　Even Ning and Liu, who were beside her, were frightened!

　　"If we can't find out the truth, we'll die."

　　"Since we're all going to die anyway, we might as well kill a few more… as stepping stones!" A

　　s she spoke, she walked step by step toward the middle-aged man with the knife.

　　The man picked up a wooden bench beside him, intending to fight back. 

　　However, he obviously underestimated Bai's skills. 

　　With a slight sideways dodge, the sharp blade in her hand plunged into the middle-aged man's neck, subduing him on the ground!

　　The icy coldness of being close to death finally calmed the middle-aged man down. 

　　He dared not move.

　　Ning and Liu were dumbfounded. 

　　What just happened?!

　　 She directly subdued an NPC in the Blood Gate with force?

　　"Let me tell you, this knife avoided your artery, but if you dare to act rashly, I just need to twist the blade slightly, and you'll be dead!"

　　"Do you understand?" Bai's charming and icy temperament was fully revealed at this moment.

　　She was like a demon, riding directly on the middle-aged man. 

　　It should have been a very sensual scene, but the sharp and cold blade in her hand did not evoke the slightest distracting thought!

　　Under the threat of death, the middle-aged man nodded slightly. 

　　He didn't dare to move too much, because Bai's knife was still stuck in his neck!

　　"Now, answer our previous question."

　　The middle-aged man closed his eyes in pain and hesitated for a long time before saying in a hoarse voice, "I can tell you the truth you want to know, but you must not tell anyone else."

　　Bai smiled, her previously cold face suddenly becoming friendly. "Don't worry, we will never tell anyone else."

　　"But we also know quite a lot. If I find out that you are lying… You know the consequences." 

　　After speaking, she withdrew the knife in her hand and elegantly wiped the blood off it.

　　The wound on the middle-aged man's neck was not deep, and it obviously did not hurt any important blood vessels.

　　 It only bled a little before it stopped. 

　　He let out a long breath, obviously aware that if the three people in front of him did not get the answers they wanted today, he and his wife would have a hard time surviving.

　　"This matter is too old, and we don't know everything. Long story short…"

　　"The village needs to hold a temple festival every year, and the sacrifice for the temple festival… is a person!"

　　Hearing that the sacrifice for the festival was a person, although the three of them were mentally prepared, they couldn't help but shiver slightly.

　　"What are you sacrificing to?"

　　The middle-aged man's face turned ugly. 

　　"Sacrificing… to some people who died a hundred years ago."

　　"Why sacrifice to them?"

　　"I don't know about that… The Shaman has always been in charge of all this. We… We are only responsible for providing sacrifices according to what she said, and we don't care about anything else…"

　　Hearing this, Ning suddenly asked a strange question, "Why is the village so poor?"

　　The middle-aged man fell silent when the topic was brought up. 

　　After a long time, he said, "Every year, every household in the village needs to sell a large amount of food and meat, and use the money they earn to build mountain temples and land temples, so that we can have good weather and peace in the coming year…"

　　Ning laughed suddenly. 

　　"All of this is also organized by the Shaman, right?"

　　The middle-aged man nodded. 

　　"Yes, it is precisely because of the Shaman that everyone can live a stable life. This kind of thing is for everyone's common benefit, and we have no reason to refuse. Although we are poor, at least… everyone can live in peace."

　　Ning thought for a moment and raised a finger. 

　　"One last question for you, and we'll leave."

　　The middle-aged man: "Okay… Okay."

　　Ning asked, "How did the Guangxiu family die in that famine year?"

　　As soon as he finished speaking, before the middle-aged man could open his mouth, a strange, cold, old woman's voice suddenly came from outside: 

　　"A hundred years ago, during the famine in the village, the Guangxiu family not only hoarded a large amount of food, but also killed the villagers who went to borrow food. They even made them into food… This family usually rode on everyone's heads, domineering and amassing wealth and food in the name of the Misty Rain Temple. It's fine, but at this critical moment of life and death, he actually did such an outrageous thing, causing the villagers to live in poverty, and there were starving people everywhere. Fortunately, my ancestor Ruan Huang stood up and led the villagers. We rushed into Guangxiu's house and ended his wicked life!"

　　As soon as this voice came out, the bodies of the five people in the room instantly tensed up!

　　Especially the middle-aged man and Milana on the bed, their bodies were trembling violently, their faces pale...