"because this."
Zhu Xiucai took out several waist badges from his arms.
A man named Sun next to him, Xiao Qi, curiously took the badge and saw the words on it clearly in the moonlight. He raised his head and asked in surprise: "This is the tax collector's badge. Where did you get it?" "
"It's in the tiger's cave." Zhu Xiucai replied, "These are the relics left by the tax collectors who were eaten by the tiger."
A strong man behind Sun Xiaoqi took a few steps to catch up, looked at the tax collector's waistband, and suddenly realized.
"The tiger ate the tax collector who came into the mountain to collect taxes? No wonder the army was sent here during the second time to suppress the monsters. It turned out not to protect the villagers in the mountains, but to kill the monsters so that they could continue to collect taxes from the villages in the mountains. "
Another strongman next to him said doubtfully: "So, the tiger is still protecting the villagers in the mountains?"
Zhu Xiucai sneered and said: "Eating boys and girls, their sexual energy, what kind of protection is that? It's just the territorial awareness of monsters."
Monk Ma recited the Buddha's name and followed Zhu Xiucai's words: "The tiger regards himself as the lord of the mountain and regards the villagers as his livestock. Naturally, he only allows himself to eat and refuses to let others get involved.
However, he did benefit the villagers by eating the tax collectors.
Under such circumstances, if we tell the villagers that we have killed the tiger, they will probably not thank us and even curse us. "
Everyone was silent, but they all recognized Monk Ma's words.
With the tiger around, the villagers can avoid all kinds of exorbitant taxes.
Although tigers will swallow their essence and eat their children.
However, although the depletion of such things as essence will affect health and even endanger life, it is an intangible thing after all, which cannot be seen or touched.
Therefore, in the eyes of most villagers, money and food are not as important.
Especially food... the feeling of being hungry is really uncomfortable!
Compared to starving to death, even if one's essence is sucked dry and he dies suddenly, it is a more comfortable way to die.
As for tigers wanting to eat people... that's not even a problem.
In this world, it is not uncommon for women to sell their daughters and abandon and drown their babies.
For the villagers in the mountains, they would be reluctant to give up, feel sad, and blame themselves for using a baby that they could not afford in exchange for an opportunity to not have to pay exorbitant taxes, but they would not refuse.
Su Tingyu figured out the whole story and felt a little indignant: "These villagers are so heartless!"
No one in the team knew which warrior it was, so they sighed quietly.
"I can't blame these villagers for being ruthless. I can only say that the world is so fucked up that it turns people into ghosts."
Everyone sighed together.
Su Tingyu also sighed, then frowned and asked, "Will the tax collector come again in the future?"
"It depends on what the villagers do."
Zhu Xiucai said: "If I were a villager here, I would continue to spread the legend of the tiger, and spread it even more powerfully to scare people outside and prevent them from entering the mountain to collect taxes."
"But when you return to the Demon Suppression Department, aren't you allowed to report this matter?" Su Jianqing suddenly interrupted and asked.
Qin Shaoyou said: "Of course we have to report, but what we report is that we encountered a group of demons on the way to escort the children to Jade Emperor Temple and killed them all."
When he said this, he also glanced at the night watchmen in the team.
The night watchers instantly understood what he meant.
Qin Xiaoqi is using Chunqiu style of writing, not mentioning the name of the tiger or the place where he killed the monster, but only saying that he will kill the monster if he encounters it on the road.
In this way, the credit will not be small, and the villagers can be secretly helped.
Anyway, with the corpses and heads of the monsters there, no one would think that they were lying and taking credit.
None of the night watchmen in the team had any objections to this.
There were even a few people who were clever and knew what was going on. They immediately swore to heaven and earth that they would never reveal the details of the matter, and even led others to follow suit and swear the oath.
Even Sun Xiaoqi is like this.
They did this not only because Qin Shaoyou was Xue Baihu's brother-in-law, but also because he had made several great achievements as soon as he returned to the Demon Suppressing Division, and had owed Shilang Zhang a great favor, and he would definitely be promoted in the future.
No one would offend Qin Shaoyou for such a trivial matter at this time.
Zhu Xiucai even threw the tax collector's waistband into the mountain stream.
Seeing this, the other warriors also found several trophies that might expose the tiger's identity, and either threw them away or destroyed them.
The people watching the night thought that Qin Shaoyou felt sorry for the villagers in the mountains and wanted to help them.
In fact, Qin Shaoyou did have the idea of helping the villagers, but more importantly, he still did not want the news that they killed the tiger to spread and attract some unnecessary attention and trouble.
Whether it is a mysterious monk or a noble person, he is not someone he can provoke now.
When the strength increases, it will not be too late to take revenge one by one.
Qin Shaoyou will not tell anyone this consideration.
Just let them continue to misunderstand.
Half an hour later, everyone returned to the Earth Temple in Gumiao Village.
There was nothing unusual here, and those who stayed behind breathed a sigh of relief when they saw them returning safely.
Qin Shaoyou asked people to cover the trophies with linen and hide them. He reiterated not to tell the villagers about killing the tiger, and not to mention the name of the mountain and the tiger when he returned. He only said that he met a group of monsters on the road. Kill him.
The night watchmen who stayed behind also thought that Qin Shaoyou wanted to help the villagers in the mountains, so they agreed one after another.
For them, this is just a small matter. They can please Qin Shaoyou without harming their own interests, so why not do it.
The night passed like this.
The next day, just after dawn, the night watchmen in the temple noticed footsteps approaching.
The footsteps were very light, but they couldn't be hidden from them.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu hid immediately, while Zhu Xiucai went to open the temple door.
The door opened, and there was a man standing outside, bending over and raising his buttocks, trying to peek through the crack of the door and look into the temple.
"Good morning, village chief, what are you doing?" Zhu Xiucai asked, looking at the village chief's butt.
It was the village chief of Gumiao Village who came.
But after not seeing him for a night, there were a lot more white hair on his head and wrinkles on his face, and his body became weaker.
This is a sign that too much energy has been sucked away and the body is about to collapse.
In his current state, if the tiger did not die and tripled the rent, he would probably die suddenly on the next rent collection day because his energy had been sucked dry.
At that time, his soul will be enslaved by the tiger and become one of his subordinates, who will in turn harm the people in the village.
Being caught peeping made the village chief a little embarrassed. He forced a smile and said, "Let me see how you are doing."
"Thanks to you, we're fine. We just feel a little weak."
"This is a normal phenomenon of energy being taken away. It will be fine after two days of rest."
Zhu Xiucai shook his head secretly. If he could recover after just two days of rest, you wouldn't be like this...
After sending away the village chief, everyone packed up and prepared to leave.
Qin Shaoyou and Su Tingyu hid in the carriage and covered them with linen cloth to avoid being seen by the villagers.
After all, they should have been 'eaten' by demons last night.
They were put on the carriage together and covered with linen, along with the trophies captured from killing the tiger.
The night watchmen had already divided up the valuable things last night. At this moment, these trophies were all demon flesh, demon blood, etc. They needed to be used to prove their merits.
Of course, after the merits are verified, the demon flesh and demon blood will be returned to them as part of the reward.
After packing up, the convoy left Gumiao Village under the watch of the villagers.
No one mentioned the tiger thing.
The road ahead went relatively smoothly. Although we encountered several groups of bandits who wanted to rob the convoy, they were rushed and killed by Monk Ma before they even got close.
In front of the night watchmen who are fully armed and wearing armor, the bandits without armor are completely vulnerable.
Monk Ma showed no mercy to these people and killed them all directly.
No matter how pitiful these bandits were before, after they became bandits, each one became more ruthless than the other, killing and eating people, and they did as much as demons and ghosts.
It was afternoon in a blink of an eye.
The convoy arrived at Fengyu Mountain east of Luocheng.
The Jade Emperor Temple is here.
