Mangjia Village had already vanished into the river of history, and the villagers now living in Du Family Village, who seemed neither human nor ghostly, were once the people of Mangjia Village.
"Could it be that the Du Family Villagers who were killed truly believed in Buddhism, and precisely because of this, they were unwittingly laying the groundwork for being deceived into opening the gates?"
Following this hypothesis, Liu Haiping continued, "When the desperate people of Mangjia Village arrived at the town walls, the original inhabitants of Du Family Village were reluctant to open the gate, fearing treachery. But at that moment, an itinerant monk stepped forward. Unable to bear seeing the women, children, and elderly slaughtered, he sat down cross-legged under the town walls, lit an incense as an offering to Buddha, and vowed to vouch for the people of Mangjia Village."