Chapter 64: Chapter 64

Chapter 64: The Devil’s Gate of Hell

“Please, Python Demon—no, Great Python Lord, Great Mo Lin, we beg you to spare us!”

“Yes, Mr. Mo Lin, we know we were wrong!”

“We should not have hunted snakes, we should not have been disrespectful to you back then! Please spare us!”

“As long as you are willing to forgive us, we are willing to do anything!”

Hong Wen looked at the villagers kneeling in a heap, weeping bitterly, his face dark:

“Stand up, all of you stand up! Don’t give up hope! Even without begging it, we can still survive!”

“It is a Python Demon that eats people! If you beg it for mercy, will it really not eat you, will it really let you go?”

“As long as we unite and fight it together, even if we can’t kill the Python Demon, someone will surely survive to go to the Bureau of Heaven Monitoring for help, and they will come to slay the demon!”

Hong Wen still wanted to rouse the villagers, but saw one of his elders raise his head:

“Hong Wen, I know you are very capable, and you hate that you cannot kill all the snakes, but we still have children, wives, and parents!”

Hong Wen’s body trembled:

Mo Lin gazed with meaning at Hong Tianxin, who was kneeling on the ground but lifted his head, and looked on with great interest:

He had thought he would need more words, but unexpectedly things progressed so smoothly.

Humans, ah, they were such creatures...

Hong Tianxin, still kneeling on the ground:

“You also said, only if we risk our lives do we stand a chance to defeat them, only then is there a chance to send for help from the Bureau of Heaven Monitoring.

But in that process, how many people must die?”

“Will it be you who dies? Or me? Or them?”

Hong Tianxin stretched out his hand and pointed at the trembling woman and two small children kneeling beside him.

They were his dearest family.

“I am not afraid of death. Otherwise, just now I would not have fought the snake horde desperately alongside Tianyun and you, Hong Wen.”

“Because I always believed, even if I died in the snake horde, my wife and children would still have hope of survival.”

“Tianyun and you, Hong Wen, you would certainly protect my family and help them retreat safely.”

But Hong Tianxin’s eyes were now filled with despair:

“But now it’s different, Hong Wen!”

“Great Mo Lin has appeared! He didn’t die two years ago! He is still alive and well, and his body has grown even larger. In these two years, he must have become even stronger!”

“The Taoist from the Bureau of Heaven Monitoring who helped us two years ago has died, and he has even become Great Mo Lin’s assistant to block our retreat. My family has no way out!”

“If we fight to the end, what will happen to my family? They have no ability to protect themselves, their only road is death!”

“If I beg Great Mo Lin for mercy now, perhaps he will show compassion and spare my family’s lives!”

“Hong Wen, I beg you, let us go! We truly can’t hold on anymore!!!”

Hearing Hong Tianxin’s confession, Hong Wen stumbled back three steps, staring in disbelief at the large group of villagers kowtowing:

“Is this what you think? Is this what all of you think too?”

All the kneeling villagers dared not lift their heads to look at Hong Wen.

A big hand pressed onto Hong Wen’s shoulder—it was Hong Tianyun.

“Hong Wen, give it up. We no longer have any hope of breaking out. When Hong Xiu escaped back, you should have realized: from the very beginning, it didn’t even leave us the option of running.”

Hong Tianyun sighed, then slowly and resolutely dropped to his knees, bowing his head before Mo Lin:

“Great Mo Lin, it was we snake-hunters who overestimated ourselves and provoked your dragon’s might. We deserve ten thousand deaths. Even if you slice us into a thousand pieces, we will not resent it.”

“But our families are innocent. We beg Great Mo Lin to show mercy and grant them a chance at life.”

The kneeling villagers shouted together:

“Please, Great Mo Lin, show mercy and grant us a chance at life.”

Mo Lin coiled his body and gazed at the hundreds of villagers kneeling before him.

Their figures now looked so small, so powerless.

Humans were just such creatures.

Once the enemy before them was powerful enough to drive them to despair, collapse was almost inevitable.

Whether it was like Hong Xiu, abandoning his mother to flee, or like Hong Tianxin, surrendering for the sake of his family, both were choices made after realizing they could not contend with “authority”—that authority being Mo Lin.

And at this moment, so long as Mo Lin, the superior being, was willing to open them a door to survival, no matter how narrow that door was, no matter if that road ultimately still led to death—

Before death truly arrived, they would blindly, fearfully, and even gratefully walk that path.

And this very scene was precisely what Mo Lin, as the superior, had arranged for the inferiors of Hongjia Village: a “death gate” written with the word “life.”

“All from Hongjia Village who have hunted snakes in the mountains, step forward.”

Villagers like Hong Tianxin, who were willing to sacrifice everything for their families, were overjoyed when they heard Mo Lin’s words.

They scrambled out of the crowd and crawled before Mo Lin.

Naturally, there were sounds of disturbance and weeping among their family members, but they were suppressed.

“If you want to kneel, then kneel! I will not kneel!”

Hong Xiu, who had also once hunted snakes, and others like him—who would even abandon their mothers just to survive—naturally did not possess such awareness.

They chose to scatter and flee at once.

Mo Lin did not move at all. Follow current novels on NoveI~Fire.net

He only looked coldly at Hong Tianxin and the others kneeling before him.

Hong Tianxin immediately understood Mo Lin’s meaning and made a swift decision:

“Everyone stop them! Don’t let them escape! Think of your wives and children! If you don’t stop them, the ones who die will be your wives and children!!”

Immediately, all the snake-hunters willing to kneel before Mo Lin suddenly leapt up and pinned the fleeing snake-hunters to the ground:

“Forgive us, Hong Xiu, Hong Lei, ... we have no choice. Don’t blame us. When we all go to hell together, let us atone to you then!”

Hong Xiu’s face was pressed hard into the blood-stained dirt.

Tears, snot, and blood mingled together, his expression twisted:

“I gave up everything, just to live! But with nothing left, what did I gain? Damn it!!!”

Snake-hunters who became Mo Lin’s dogs, snake-hunters who wanted to live but could not, women and children cowering and shivering atop the altar—

Among them, Hong Wen stood as the only snake-hunter still upright, suddenly feeling wrapped in malice.

This malice did not come from Mo Lin, but from his fellow villagers.

In just one night, Mo Lin had nearly turned the once-loving, harmonious Hongjia Village into the devil’s hell.

“Is this the ending you wanted to see, Mo Lin...”