"The Great Shaman's dying words were that the Cave God was dead, and the Eighteen Villages would no longer be protected by the Cave God. And whatever was sleeping in the mountains must not be disturbed. To ensure safety, let us hold a Sacred Fire Festival ceremony on the fifteenth of July every year to protect the peace of the Eighteen Villages."
So that's how it is. Yue Qi never expected that the origin of this Sacred Fire Festival was actually because of this.
However, what exactly does "the god dies and the ghost emerges?" mean?
The old man lit another pipe and continued puffing away.
“This old man doesn’t know either. For decades, the village’s great shamans have been researching this. If you’re interested, why don’t you go ask the great shaman?”
Yue Qi nodded. He would definitely go. For some reason, he always felt that this "divine death and mysterious emergence" must be related to the supernatural.
"By the way, is there anyone named Chu Jiang in your Eighteen Villages?" Yue Qi asked abruptly.
The old man rejected it without even thinking, "This name sounds like an outsider's name; it's definitely not from around here."
It seems that Chu Jiang's identity is most likely that of the outsider who accidentally stumbled upon the female ritual in the Falling Flower Cave a hundred years ago.
"By the way, there's one more thing I wanted to ask. Old man, do you remember the day Wuyun Mountain disappeared more than a hundred years ago? Wasn't there a girl from Luohua Cave getting married then?"
Upon hearing Yue Qi's words, the old man's eyes widened as if he had seen a ghost, and he almost uttered incoherently.
"This, this, how, how did you know?"
This is a top secret of the Eighteen Villages. Before his death, the Great Shaman said that no one should deliberately spread this information at this time, unless it is the will of Heaven.
Therefore, after the Great Shaman's death, the eighteen villages issued a strict order that everyone who knew the truth must remain silent. Sixty or seventy years later, he originally thought that it would have long been a buried secret.
But how did this outsider know all this?
"It's fate, it's fate—"
The old man muttered to himself for a long time, then went directly to the back room. After a long while, he came out shakily carrying a small wooden box and handed it directly to Yue Qi.
"Before the great shaman died, he said that after the Sacred Fire Festival on the fifteenth of July this year, a stranger would come to this place and he would uncover the long-buried secret. At that time, you need to give this wooden box to that person."
He looked at Yue Qi and said with certainty, "I suppose the outsider the Great Shaman was talking about is you."
Yue Qi opened the small wooden box, inside which lay a fragment of white jade.
"Isn't this—?"
Yan Che immediately recognized it; it was the item that Ami had deliberately left behind when he was dragged away by the spear-wielding guards. At the time, there was only a small half of it, and although he had a piece, it wasn't enough to complete the set. He couldn't find a use for it, so he had kept it unused.
Unexpectedly, we found the remaining piece here.
After thinking for a moment, Yue Qi took out the half-piece of white jade they had obtained earlier. Comparing the two pieces, they fit together perfectly.
"By the God of the Cave, you are indeed the people the Great Witch prophesied!" The old man had been incredibly excited ever since Yue Qi took out the other two pieces of white jade fragments, and now he was even more certain that it was true.
"By the way, old man, where is the Great Shaman?"
Yue Qi put away the fragments and prepared to say goodbye to the old man and leave. He had something to discuss with the Great Shaman.
"Wait—" the old man suddenly called out to them.
Then, as if making a great decision, he finally spoke, "Actually, I've been hiding something—"
Yue Qi raised an eyebrow. This person had indeed kept something in reserve!
So he turned around and said, "Tell me, did Ami leave you a message?"
The old man's eyes widened. "How did you know?"
“Many years have passed since Ami died, and he has never appeared again. The old man had actually prepared himself mentally, but starting more than a month ago, people in the village would occasionally see Ami.”
"At first, the old man didn't believe it at all, until one of her former friends saw Ami suddenly appear in their group going to the market and came back to tell the old man. Only then did the old man have to believe it."
As the old man spoke, he began to smile bitterly. "I do know a little about the reason behind it all. Ami told us herself the night before the wedding of the woman from Luohua Cave that she would appear again sixty years later, on the fifteenth day of the seventh lunar month in 2024. It's just that we didn't believe it at the time."
"Later, too many people in the village saw Ami. Although the old man didn't see her with his own eyes, he heard a lot about her. — Ami seemed to only appear when the big market was held, as if she was waiting for someone."
He looked at Yue Qi and the other two, "Before you, many outsiders went to Cangyun Mountain, and most of them encountered Ami. So, I roughly know that she is waiting for outsiders, but I don't know who exactly."
“I can’t be sure until you successfully escape from Cangyun Mountain. For the locals, Cangyun Mountain is a love-hate relationship. The people in the Zhang family’s old house there are indeed very generous, but those who go there never return, except for the money.”
The old man's tone carried a hint of relief as he said this, "But now, I'm absolutely certain that she's waiting for you."
At this point, the old man suddenly knelt down.
Yue Qi and the other man were startled by his sudden, grand gesture and immediately bowed to return the greeting. However, no matter what they did, the old man refused to get up.
“The old man knows this is a bit much, but we can only rely on you now—the Cave God needs you to save it.”
"The Cave God?" Yue Qi asked, puzzled. "Didn't you say the Cave God was dead?"
The old man shook his head. "That's just a way to fool outsiders. In reality, strictly speaking, the Cave God seems to be under someone's control, trapped in a state that's neither alive nor dead. Since Ami can still appear, it means that the Cave God is definitely not dead now."
Since it concerned the lives of everyone, and the rescue of the cave god was clearly not an easy task, he couldn't make a decision so easily.
"I need to discuss this matter with everyone." Yue Qi did not refuse outright, but left room for maneuver.
"In that case, can you tell us what Ami said the night before her wedding?"
The old man was a little unwilling; this person was really troublesome. He had originally wanted to force the other party to agree, but he hadn't expected the man to be so stubborn.
This is a classic case of not acting until you see the benefit!
Left with no other choice, he had to confess, "Ami said the truth is hidden in that nursery rhyme."
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