Chapter 26 - Li Hao takes revenge

The three of them traveled by car all the way to the village where the younger aunt had married. In the younger aunt's house, the second elder brother had gone to school, and the uncle had gone to work at the Highway Bureau and wouldn't be back until Sunday. There was no one else at home. The younger aunt quickly stir-fried several dishes. After the two brothers finished their lunch, she pulled them to the house of her close friend, believing that saving people was as urgent as putting out a fire. At present, the close friend's family was filled with a gloomy atmosphere. The husband and wife, along with their son, were by the side of the daughter-in-law, not knowing what to do. They had heard from a mage that someone had cast a spell to harm them, but they couldn't think of having offended anyone. After much thought, they recalled the process of their acquaintance when the reservoir was being built. They had severely beaten Li Hao from the neighboring Lijia Village. It was said that he was seriously injured, and later, he even went missing. Could it be that Li Hao was taking revenge on them? But they hadn't heard that he had returned. He had been missing for over 20 years, so it seemed impossible that it was him. However, they hadn't had any enmity or quarrel with anyone else since then. Li Mei and Li Hao were from the same village. Li Hao was a ne'er-do-well who engaged in all sorts of petty theft and was extremely lazy. He had taken a fancy to Li Mei and had been pestering her persistently. Every time, Li Mei refused him and scolded him, saying that a toad was trying to eat a swan. When gentle approaches didn't work, Li Hao resorted to force. One evening, after the work on the reservoir was finished and on their way home, he tried to rape Li Mei to make the situation irreversible. By chance, Zhu Chenggang, who was passing by, heard Li Mei's cry for help. Zhu Chenggang ran behind the haystack in the field and saw a man covering a woman's mouth. He immediately understood what was happening. He picked up a hoe and directly shattered the man's shoulder. Taking advantage of this, Li Mei managed to break free from his grasp. When Li Mei stood up and saw Li Hao lying on the ground screaming in pain, she became furious. She raised her foot and stomped hard on Li Hao's crotch. She exerted all her strength in that kick, and perhaps still not satisfied, she stomped several more times, turning Li Hao into a eunuch. The screams attracted a large crowd. After hearing Li Mei's explanation, everyone was enraged. Each of them stepped forward and stomped on Li Hao a few times. Someone went to report the incident to the secretary of the production brigade. When the secretary of the production brigade arrived at the scene with the militia, Li Hao was already beaten beyond recognition. The secretary could only order people to carry him to the commune police station. When the police at the station saw his condition, they had no choice but to send him to the hospital first. After treatment, Li Hao survived, but his testicles were crushed. He lay in the hospital for over a week before regaining consciousness. As soon as he woke up, he heard the police and the doctor talking about him. The police asked the doctor if he still hadn't woken up. The doctor said it might just be a matter of a few days. The other injuries had recovered well, but unfortunately, his testicles were crushed and useless, and he might become a eunuch in the future. The police said it didn't matter. Anyway, he would be sentenced to life imprisonment and stay in prison. Without that part of his body, it wouldn't be a problem since he wouldn't have a place to use it. Upon hearing this, Li Hao's heart sank completely. He had not only become a eunuch but also was going to be sentenced to life imprisonment. For the next dozen or so days, Li Hao kept pretending not to wake up. When his wounds had healed and everyone was asleep in the middle of the night, he tied a bed sheet to the window and slid down from the second floor to the ground and fled. The next day, when the police opened the door and found that he was gone, they immediately reported to their superiors and issued a full-scale wanted notice for Li Hao. After searching for several months, they couldn't find him. It was as if he had disappeared from the world. After running away, Li Hao stole a set of clothes from a farmer's house, then went to the railway and climbed onto a coal-carrying train. When it was dawn, he had already reached Hubei. He didn't dare to enter the towns and cities, so he could only go to the fields at night to steal some sweet potatoes to eat. After living like this for a few days, he didn't know where he had run to. Finally, he ran into a mountain and got lost. He felt that he might starve to death there. In the deep mountains and old forests, there was a Huilong Temple. Usually, no one came here. There was only an old Taoist priest in the temple. No one knew how long he had lived. He never interacted with people, and those who had dealt with him had mostly died. Because the old Taoist was practicing evil magic. He had lived from the Qianlong period to the present, already two or three hundred years old. Every time he was on the verge of death, he would go down the mountain and capture nine boys and nine girls. Using their blood together with a magic array, he could extend his life by 50 years. Li Hao collapsed in the forest in front of the Taoist temple. The reason why Li Hao couldn't run out was that there was a迷踪阵法 (maze-like formation) set up in the forest. How could he possibly escape? The old Taoist's formation was used to capture those who entered this area. Almost everyone who entered here was used by the old Taoist to practice evil magic, and in the end, only a pile of bones was left. The previous night, the old Taoist had known that someone had entered the formation but didn't pay attention. He waited until dawn to catch his prey. However, when he examined Li Hao, he found that Li Hao was also a eunuch, just like himself. The old Taoist had been a eunuch guarding the imperial library during the Qianlong period. Before becoming a eunuch, he was a scholar named Guo Huaicai, who was quite famous in the local area. Therefore, many young ladies from wealthy families wanted to marry him. This had also made the young masters of the local wealthy families jealous. They bribed the eunuchs sent from the palace and framed Guo Huaicai together, cutting off his genitals and sending him to the palace to become a eunuch. He had always wanted to take revenge. Anyway, there were few people visiting the library. So he had been secretly reading the martial arts secrets and books on Taoism inside. As a result, he found a hidden compartment in the library, in which there were several books on practicing evil magic. These books all required human lives as the price to improve one's cultivation. Guo Huaicai originally thought that he would never be able to take revenge in his life. Practicing martial arts and magic couldn't be achieved overnight. It had to be tempered through years of practice. But Guo Huaicai couldn't wait that long. By the time he mastered these skills, his enemies would all be dead. With these books on evil magic, he could take revenge in just a few years. However, these required human lives for cultivation, so he secretly killed those young eunuchs in the palace to practice his skills. At first, no one noticed the disappearance of a few people. But as more and more people went missing, it was discovered. The eunuch who had framed him in the beginning also became one of his victims. Guo Huaicai had avenged himself on those in the palace, but he still hadn't avenged himself on those outside. With the large number of missing people and the ongoing investigation, Guo Huaicai decided to go all the way and ran away. He directly returned to his hometown and used the evil magic he had practiced to kill all more than 100 members of his former enemies' families. Then he looted all their property and hid in the deep mountains and old forests, building a Taoist temple. Having avenged all his enemies and with his parents already dead, he had nothing left to worry about and was ready to cultivate here to become an immortal. The old Taoist was going to slap Li Hao to death at first, but seeing that he was also a eunuch like himself, he showed mercy and decided to wait until he woke up before making further plans. When Li Hao woke up, the old Taoist asked him how he had become a eunuch and why he still had so many unhealed injuries. Li Hao definitely wouldn't tell his glorious history. He made up a story, saying that his girlfriend had been raped by the son of an official, and when he tried to take revenge, he was beaten like this and turned into a eunuch. He was also being wanted everywhere. The old Taoist saw that he was a poor soul like himself and took him in as an apprentice. With someone to serve him, he didn't need to do things by himself anymore. The old Taoist never expected that the only time he showed kindness, he would die at the hands of his apprentice. Although the old Taoist taught Li Hao the evil magic, he still left a backup plan. Li Hao studied under the old Taoist for 20 years and had about 70% of the old Taoist's abilities. When the old Taoist was facing the need to change his blood again, Li Hao directly disrupted the old Taoist's magic, seriously injuring the old Taoist. Taking advantage of the situation, Li Hao attacked the old Taoist and stabbed a dagger into the old Taoist's heart. But he also suffered a counterattack from the old Taoist. The old Taoist slapped him, seriously injuring him, and he was almost killed. The old Taoist, a generation of the Evil King who had lived for two or three hundred years, was thus killed by his apprentice Li Hao. Li Hao knew that the old Taoist had been using him as a tool. If he didn't kill the old Taoist, he would never have a chance to get ahead. Moreover, the old Taoist had cast a spell on him. If he dared to leave, he would die a miserable death on the spot. Li Hao had always wanted to leave this place, but unfortunately, he was under the control of the old Taoist and couldn't help himself. He had been waiting for an opportunity, and after waiting for 20 years, he finally got this chance. As long as the old Taoist was dead, the spell on him would also disappear. He could then leave this damned place and go back to his hometown to take revenge. He had always remembered the harm caused to him by Li Mei and Zhu Chenggang.