Chapter 50
From what Am saw, the direction in which the villagers and tribesmen left was deeper into the forest. It was also the direction in which the priest and other leaders of the tribe left when they performed the sacrifice.
The Tree God is the most devout object of faith for the Tree God Tribe. They believe that the Tree God is the incarnation of Lin Ling, the supreme god who gives them all food and water and maintains the balance of the world. Therefore, not everyone has the opportunity to see the sacrifice to the Tree God.
Many tribesmen did not even know the exact location of the sacrifice, but Am once chased the naughty little Una and discovered a hidden path to the place of sacrifice.
If the middleman's target is the tree god, then he must be there.
Eminem was very sure.
She quickly cheered up and volunteered to serve as the guide for the four-member group together with little Una - the safety of the tribesmen was controlled by the middleman and manipulated at will, and there was no way they could just stand by and watch, and could only wait for the four big brothers to help.
"The middleman... Monks, and those ordinary members... Ceobe really made a big move this time."
There was anger in Zheng Qiuji's voice. Gu Qingming noticed that his palms were clenched tightly into fists, with such force that it seemed as if he wanted to crush something.
Every time Ceob is mentioned, Zheng Qiuji's attitude becomes strange.
It's like... facing an enemy that is absolutely unforgivable.
But Chu Zhongyuan, Gu Qingming and Luo Dong all tacitly agreed not to ask.
They are classmates and colleagues in the same group. They are together all the time. There is no need to expose the truth when Zheng Qiuji does not speak up.
Even if you are the best friends in the world, there should be some privacy between each other.
They will wait until the moment when Zheng Qiuji is willing to reveal his inner thoughts.
"They gathered so many people together through some special means... what on earth do these crazy people want to do..."
Chu Zhongyuan's face looked quite ugly, and he felt similar to the two little girls, Am and Xiao Una.
After all, the villagers who occupied an important position in his childhood are now in danger because of Ceobe.
"…Don't worry, they'll be fine."
Gu Qingming didn’t know how to comfort Chu Zhongyuan. All he could offer was sincerity.
He had learned some fragments about Chu Zhongyuan's past from He Song. Although they were just fragments, they could be pieced together to reveal traces of a child who had tried his best just to survive.
"Thank you, Xiao Ming."
Chu Zhongyuan shook his head to indicate that he was fine.
Although it was rough, Gu Qingming's comfort obviously made his frown relax slightly.
Chu Zhongyuan grew up in his grandparents' house. His grandfather didn't know how to cook, and every time he cooked, the neighbors would call the police. When Chu Zhongyuan came home from elementary school and saw the house in the distance with black smoke coming out, he thought the house was on fire, and he was so scared that he called 119 on his mobile phone.
My grandmother knows some medical skills, and the villagers nearby are more inclined to come to her for help when they have some illnesses rather than go to the hospital. She is always busy and not often at home.
In addition, the people of Linling are honest and simple, so Chu Zhongyuan often goesssips about other people and eats at other people's houses.
He was handsome and very likable. He would always receive various gifts from Grandma Wang, Aunt Chen, Uncle Zhang and Uncle Li just by pushing his bicycle, which was taller than himself, all the way home from school.
Homegrown loofah, sweet frozen pears that taste like smoothies, hot sticky bean curd dumplings fresh out of the pot, and a bowl of freshly stewed pork elbow.
Sometimes even the bicycle basket is not big enough.
"We have plenty here anyway, you can take some back and eat with your grandfather."
The connections between the people in Laoshugou Village are as clear and transparent as the snow in early winter. They help each other in the extremely cold weather and go through winter after winter. If Chu Zhongyuan does not accept those things, it will hurt their feelings.
He is a burden that his parents try to avoid, but he is also the child that the entire village holds in their hands.
This kindness was deeply engraved in his wandering childhood and he could not forget it.
Although they looked worried, they all followed Am and little Una closely without any retreat.
The enemy and us are outnumbered, and the middlemen will have more people than Monks, but they still have to do something, at least to delay until the CPA support arrives.
Am followed the path in the dense forest, and even without Zheng Qiuji's warning, he avoided all the wandering black three-headed dog shadows along the way.
Somehow or another, Ceobe's forces have completely formed a dense patrol network in this ancient forest.
If it weren't for locals like Am and Xiao Una who were very familiar with the local terrain, Gu Qingming and others would never have been able to pass through so easily.
At a relatively flat slope, Am's tense spirit finally relaxed a little. She breathed a sigh of relief: "This is it."
"here?"
Luo Dong felt a little strange. The slope in front of him was extremely flat and covered with snow. There was no sign of any sacrifice at all.
Am nodded, pulled out a birch branch from the snow beside her, and walked back and forth a few steps, as if trying to find the right position.
She poked the birch branch fiercely into the snow. The next second, the snow, whose balance was destroyed, suddenly slid down, revealing a dark entrance to a snow cave.
"Snow Nest..."
Gu Qingming looked at the dark cave entrance and suddenly felt extremely grateful that Am and Xiao Una were leading the way.
Snow pits are huge holes formed by the accumulation of snow in the snowfield. They are extremely dangerous terrain unique to the north. When people walk or slide on the snow, if they cannot tell where the snow pits are hidden under the snow, they are likely to step on the pits and fall into the snow pits, resulting in injuries, suffocation, coma, or even death.
Gu Qingming got a geography question about snow nests wrong in his final geography exam, so he was very familiar with this natural phenomenon. He reacted faster than the local Chu Zhongyuan and blurted out the answer.
Although Am and Una are young, they have learned many methods to identify snow holes from the elders in the tribe. They have avoided countless dangers of lurking people along the way by leading a few high school students who have very little knowledge about snow.
"This is the path we found to sneak into the priest's land."
Am stood up, looking solemn. After going down from here, they would face the middleman and Ceobe's large army.
"Let's go, guys."
Chu Zhongyuan took a step forward. Without his reminder, everyone walked towards the snow cave without hesitation.
Gu Qingming wanted to persuade Am and Xiao Una to wait up there. After all, the situation down there was unclear and very dangerous. They had already completed a lot of tasks and could be considered reliable underage professionals.
But Am and little Una both shook their heads.
"They are our people. We cannot stand idly by. Besides, the terrain below is very complicated. You will need me to lead the way for you."
Am's expression was so determined that Gu Qingming swallowed his last words of advice.
Several people followed the narrow snow cave and fell into a spacious cave tunnel that went straight forward below. Am led them through various unexpected cave entrances and cracks. After passing two cracks, faint voices and sticky strange sounds came from below.
The cave was filled with branch-like strips of stone. Am searched for a long time before he found a larger crack in the ground between the branch-like stones. Through the crack, Gu Qingming and others could clearly notice that there was a huge underground space beneath the cave.
A man wearing a black crying face mask stood on the stone platform below, with his arms outstretched, sighing about something. The silver three-headed dog logo on his shoulder reflected the light.
There were two familiar people standing behind him. One of them had shoulder-length red hair and was Monks, whom they had just met. The other one was also familiar to Chu Zhongyuan and Gu Qingming.
It was the two weird "foreign students majoring in folklore" whom they had met at the door before.
The kerosene lamps beneath their feet were terrifyingly bright, barely illuminating the vague shadow of the vast underground space.
The priest in strange robes stood silently by the side. In front of the priest was little Una's brother, Ulig, whose face had become even paler and grayer.
Below the stone platform, behind them, were the villagers and tribesmen who stood silently, as if their souls had been taken away.
"Uncle Zhang... Granny Wang... Uncle Li..."
Chu Zhongyuan quickly recognized the villagers of Laoshugou Village among the densely packed crowd. The other three also recognized the people with whom they had a pleasant conversation on the day of the pig-killing dinner.
The auntie who held Gu Qingming's hand and praised him constantly, the old lady who smiled but was a little reserved in front of the camera, the old lady who stopped Luo Dong and asked him to take a photo with her old sisters, the stewed meat chef who saw Zheng Qiuji staring at the pot and gave the first bowl to Zheng Qiuji...
Those warm and powerful people were now covered with strange branches and stood there with their lives uncertain.
Am and little Una looked at their tribesmen and tried hard to hold back their tears.
“How abominable…”
Chu Zhongyuan punched the ground, not caring at all about his red finger bones.
The hatred for Ceobe and the powerlessness of his own strength burned his heart, making his breathing almost hot.
If only he wasn’t a rookie CPA who had just been working for a few months.
If only he had a stronger power, strong enough to protect everyone he wanted to protect...that would be great.
Suddenly, tremendous malice and a beast-like giant flashed before his eyes. It seemed that someone had thought the same thing before, and then jumped into the bottomless pool of blood.
"Is that... a tree?"
Gu Qingming's trembling voice brought Chu Zhongyuan back to reality from those vague memories in time. The young man pointed to a place not far below, and his usually calm face actually broke a little.
Chu Zhongyuan quickly put those blurry shadows behind his mind.
...Zekei-ki +1, a moment they will never forget.
That's a tree.
A huge tree.
A tree so huge that it is beyond description.
The entire tree has been completely embedded in the mountain behind it, and its entire width cannot be seen at all.
Gu Qingming suddenly realized that perhaps the branch-like stone layers around them were just part of the tree in front of them.
Just by existing there, one can feel the ancient atmosphere from the vast years.
That is a mysterious atmosphere.
"This is Grandpa Tree, and also Grandpa Alin."
"...How beautiful it is, it is the mountain god - and also the forest ridge itself."
The middleman's exclamation finally came to an end, and he praised the magnificent scenery in front of him as if he was praising the most wonderful work of art in the world.
Little Una's crisp voice overlapped with the middleman's crazy chanting, like the whisper of the mountains.
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