After Being Offered to the Evil God, He Comes to My Room Every Night - Chapter 3

Chapter 3

The turning point came seven days after our marriage.

That evening, a black mist suddenly rose over the town.

It wasn’t the usual miasma from the mountains. It seemed to surge violently from deep underground-pitch black, smelling of rot and corpse water.

In less than an hour, the entire town was thrown into chaos.

Panic ensued as cries rang out everywhere. Some hammered on the temple Gate, while others knelt outside, kowtowing and shouting, “Evil God, save us!”

Standing behind the Gate, I felt like laughing.

Usually, they were the ones calling him a monster. Now, they were the ones begging him for their lives.

I hadn’t intended to open the Gate, but then I heard the heart-wrenching wail of a child outside.

My heart tightened, and I cracked the Gate open just a sliver.

The black mist was roiling in the streets, looking as if countless things were crawling within it.

A boy of seven or eight had fallen to the ground. Something was dragging him by the leg, pulling him toward the mouth of the well.

His mother knelt nearby, weeping hysterically, yet she didn’t dare step forward.

The next second, every candle in the temple extinguished at once.

A surge of even denser black mist lunged out from beside me.

The wind whipped so hard I couldn’t keep my eyes open.

I only saw a massive, pale hand reach out from the mist. Its fingers were like blades as they clamped down on whatever was dragging the boy.

*Crack.*

It sounded like bone being crushed by sheer force.

The boy was tossed back onto the ground, and he scrambled into his mother’s arms. The black mist in the street seemed intimidated by something and actually retreated all at once.

Clinging to the frame of the Gate, I realized for the first time that my husband-the one who never showed his face-wasn’t the kind of “enshrined Evil God” the townspeople whispered about, someone who just huddled in a temple.

It felt like he was guarding something.

He had been guarding it for a long time. And he had been enduring for just as long.

Once the black mist dissipated, Town Head Song Changshan led a group of people to the temple Gate and fell to his knees with a thud.

“God-Bride, please, persuade the Divine Lord to suppress the evil in the well once more!”

I looked at him coldly. “Divine Lord?”

“Weren’t you calling him an Evil God just yesterday?”

The flesh on Song Changshan’s face quivered as he forced a smile.

“That was just the nonsense of ignorant women. As long as the Divine Lord is willing to protect the town, we will increase the annual offerings. We won’t be negligent.”

I finally understood.

They weren’t just afraid of him. They feared him, yet they wanted to use him.

When they needed him, they called him Divine Lord. When they didn’t, they cursed him as an evil thing.

I stared at Song Changshan and spoke slowly. “Then tell me, what exactly is in that well?”

Song Changshan’s eyes flickered. “It’s just some filth that has accumulated over the years.”

“If it’s just filth, why must a bride be sent to the temple every three years?”

He was instantly silenced. The people around him lowered their heads; no one dared to answer.

Only my sister, Feng Xiaodie, hid behind the crowd. She cradled her pregnant belly, looking at me with a venomous gaze, as if blaming me for not being dead already.

I suddenly felt it was all very pointless.

“Get lost. If you want to beg, beg him yourselves.”

I slammed the Gate shut.

That night, I sat by the bed and, for the first time, proactively waited for him to come.

When the black mist drifted up, I didn’t pretend to be unaware as I usually did. Instead, I reached out and grabbed that ice-cold hand.

“What is your name?”

The hand visibly stiffened.

I looked up at the mist before me and said softly, “You protected them, yet they tell me nothing. But I am your wife in name. I should at least know the name of the man I married.”

Silence stretched for a long time. It lasted so long that even the wind outside the window died down.

Then, I heard three syllables drift from the depths of the black mist.

“Yan Xuanshuo.”

The voice was low and raspy, as if he hadn’t spoken in years.

I repeated the name slowly in my mouth. “Yan Xuanshuo.”

“It’s quite a nice name.”

Someone’s breath hitched within the mist.

That inexplicable itch in my heart suddenly grew stronger. I looked at him and teased him on purpose.

“With such a nice name, your face probably isn’t bad either, right?”

The hand was instantly snatched away.

The black mist retreated rapidly, as if fleeing in panic.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

That was the first time I had laughed so genuinely since marrying into the Black Temple.