Chapter 188
Selecting the Saint is a major event in Nanmao.
Once every ten years.
This is different from the tribe leader. A new one will be chosen only when the tribe leader dies, but the saint can only serve for ten years.
The people of Nanmao believe that once people grow up, their minds are no longer pure, and if they have selfish desires, they will defile the gods.
It would be better to come down early and become a priest, or go home to reunite with your family.
Sometimes the former saint will become the teacher of the new saint.
But this requires the consent of the mountain god.
He usually disagrees.
As the people closest to the mountain god, the saints are all instructed by the mountain god himself. They will learn some things, such as praying for rain, raising poisonous insects, and communicating with all living things.
These abilities are bestowed by the Mountain God. Once they are no longer saints, they will be taken back and cannot be taught to newcomers. If the Mountain God agrees to let the former saint stay and be the teacher of the new saint, it only means that the Mountain God likes this person and wants her to stay.
However, this saint has asked three times, and she does not have that blessing.
The mountain god wanted her to go back, back home.
But she didn't want to listen and wanted to ask after the new saint was chosen.
This made the people of Zhuwa Village feel a little embarrassed, because this saint girl also came from their place. If she stayed like this and refused to leave, others would think that she was greedy for power and wealth.
In addition to sending people over, the big clan leader’s other task this time is to bring her back.
So the one walking in front was an empty sedan chair.
Next came Yunque and the others.
Shen Jiao stood in the crowd and waved at her.
Yun Que saw her and leaned forward to call out to her loudly, "Stranger, you really won't come with me?"
Shen Jiao responded by putting on a veil to cover her face and standing at the back.
Yunque was greatly disappointed and sat back with a puffed face, but she was only unhappy for a moment, then she became elated and greeted everyone she met.
Everyone was also unusually enthusiastic.
After they left, they sang and danced to pray for them.
But we only played until the evening and then dispersed.
Shen Jiao did not go and returned to the inn early.
One reason is that I don't want to see the scars that appear when they raise their arms.
Another reason was…she was sleepy.
Maybe she is used to being lazy, she loves to sleep now and feels sleepy if she goes to bed a little late.
After plugging her ears with spiritual power, she fell asleep and had a dream.
In her dream, she woke up in a daze, took off her human skin mask, took a bath, burned incense, dressed up, then walked downstairs, opened the door and went out to the street.
It was pitch black all around. It was the time for the mountain god, and she shouldn't go anywhere.
But she seemed to have made up her mind. Not only did she go out without fear of death, she also walked towards the mountain.
When they reached the tree where the traveling merchant had been hung, they did not stop but went deeper into the tree in many twists and turns.
She seemed to be preparing to go somewhere.
The place was hard to find, so she had to ask the old trees.
They also have bad tempers.
But in the end she found it, and in front of her was a temple that was about to collapse.
She walked in and knelt down to kowtow to the mountain god whose head had been chopped off.
Ask Him to grant you immortality.
He promised to serve God all his life, do good deeds and accumulate virtue...he said a lot of nonsense.
He never responded.
So she began to cut the flesh... but in the blink of an eye, the person kneeling there cutting the flesh turned into a half-grown boy, and in front of him lay a woman... who seemed to have been dead for a long time.
He prayed to the mountain god to save her and called her mother, but the mountain god did not respond either.
He cut one piece after another, and took a bite of the holy fruit every time he cut one piece, but every bite was white.
He asked the mountain god again if his mother could come back to life.
This time it's black.
He still didn't give up. He knelt there and ate the whole black holy fruit. He cut his flesh again, asked again, ate again, and cut again...
Finally, he stopped placing his hopes in the gods and said, "You can't tell right from wrong, you're not fit to be a god."
He picked up the meat and stuffed it into his mouth.
He collapsed before finishing his meal, perhaps he was going to die. The blood on the ground dyed the holy fruit red. After he died, he waited for the mountain god to appear.
He and his mother both survived.
They looked no different from ordinary people. Flesh had grown on the exposed bones, and the boy's wounds had healed. The two of them happily hugged each other in the mountain temple, expressing their gratitude to the mountain god for his kindness.
It was already dark outside, so they planned to leave tomorrow morning.
Shen Jiao watched them go down the mountain.
But in the blink of an eye they were back, the boy dragging the woman back, and she had turned back into the look she had been in long ago.
The ground was clean and there was only a knife.
He seemed to understand something and raised the knife again.
Halfway through the cut, he suddenly raised his head and looked at Shen Jiao, then rushed over with the knife raised...
Of course Shen Jiao was going to run away.
You can’t be a target in a dream. She ran back to the inn in anger and woke up suddenly.
In a dimly lit room, she was sitting in front of the dressing table.
Shen Jiao:?
She pinched herself and it hurt a lot. It wasn't a dream.
But didn't she go to bed?
What are you doing here?
Did you go to bed before finishing your hair?
With the help of the moonlight, Shen Jiao looked down at her clothes. She had changed into a new set, but they were dirty and had grass seeds on them.
It feels like there's a stone stuck in my shoe.
The moment she bent down to take off her shoes, a boy's face appeared in the mirror.
He was standing behind Shen Jiao, staring at her silently.
Shen Jiao also noticed it. She half turned around to take off her shoes, but there was an extra pair of feet beside her, so it was hard not to notice it.
Without any hesitation, she punched the foot with all her strength.
She heard the sound of bones breaking, but the man didn't move at all.
Yes, how can someone who cuts flesh every day be afraid of pain?
Thinking of this, she opened her eyes again.
This time she was lying on the bed, covered with a quilt. It was already daybreak, and the crickets outside were chirping happily.
Shen Jiao sat up and looked down, finding that she was still wearing the clothes stained with grass seeds.
So...it wasn't a dream?
She rolled up her sleeves and saw that her arms were fine, without any cut marks.
Only then did Shen Jiao feel relieved.
It’s okay if there isn’t any, it’s okay if there isn’t any, nothing else matters, what matters is that she doesn’t want to get hurt.
Shen Jiao put the human skin mask back on, changed his clothes and went downstairs.
The shop owner and the clerk acted as if nothing had happened. It seemed they didn't know she had gone out last night.
The guests were still eating breakfast as usual.
Shen Jiao also ate something, then went upstairs to pack up his things and left, finding another inn to stay in.
She didn't ask for a single room, but a dormitory bed with more than a dozen people squeezed together. She wanted to see what kind of thing could take her away secretly.
If she could still... then she would run away.
Nanmao is a somewhat weird place and not suitable for long-term residence.
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