Chapter 48: Questioning the God's Blessing
Young missionaries came to the village and helped them clean up the polluted well. After salvaging and cleaning with chemicals, the green well water became clear and drinkable.
Such well water is indeed drinkable. Dogs and poultry drank it without any problems, so the villagers began to drink it boldly.
The arrival of missionaries gave the village hope, but soon became a huge force that led them into the abyss.
The young missionary, alone, saved an entire village. How admirable and desirable he is.
He gently touched the heart of Nina, a young girl in the village. It is very normal for a young girl to be attracted to a young man, so Nina decided to go and have a heart-to-heart with missionary Chuck under the cover of night.
If missionary Chuck was a normal man, the worst that could have happened to this night would have been for the heartbroken girl Nina to run home and cry her heart out in bed.
But Chuck is not human, and this result is very bad.
As a young girl, Nina was quite shy. She did not knock on the missionary's door directly, as it would be embarrassing if the neighbors heard it.
She first sneaked to the window and peeked into the house.
It was this action that made her see an unbelievable scene.
She saw through the crack in the window that the missionary was taking off his clothes one by one... She watched intently until he tore the skin off the back of his neck.
Nina's face turned pale in an instant. She immediately covered her mouth to prevent the scream in her throat from bursting out. After biting herself hard to wake up, she crawled away from here.
Early the next morning, Nina knocked on the door of the village chief Walton and told him everything that had happened last night in a panic.
Walton did not believe it immediately, but called a few young men to ambush outside the missionary's house at night and spy on him.
The missionary took off his skin, just as Nina said.
It was a very terrifying scene, but as a village chief, he could not retreat since he had already come here.
"We rushed in and beat the skinless monster to death with picks and shovels," Walton said with a shudder. "But looking back on it now, it seems like a wrong thing to do."
"Why do you say that? Where did you bury the missionary? Or did you burn him? Where is his skin?" Darien asked a series of questions.
"Because when he was alive, nothing unusual happened in the village, and the village maintained a superficial tranquility. But after he died, terrible things happened. He would come back here every night, going from house to house to demand his skin." Walton paused, "We simply buried him. Perhaps if we had burned him to ashes, this wouldn't have happened. I kept his skin."
"You are so brave. How could you think of collecting his skin?" Darien looked at the man with surprise.
"Because I felt uneasy, I always felt that something bad would happen if I burned the skin. So I put it away and buried it in the cellar," said Walton.
Darian felt that he was really brave. According to common sense, such a thing would be thrown as far as possible.
"Please give us the skin. What about the monster behind that makes human voices?" said Darien.
"They're dead people," Walton said.
"The dead?" Darien said.
"Yes, those who were lured out of the village by the monster and died," said Walton.
"Then tell me about the symbol on the stone. I have never seen such an amulet. And who is the god Ferros that you believe in?" Darien asked all the questions that confused him last night.
"These stones were not carved by us. Instead, they were found in a nearby ruin. They can protect us from harm and prosperity. Our beloved god, Ferros, was also found there," said Walton.
Seville had originally lowered his eyes, but after listening to Walton talking about the gods, he raised his eyes a little and glanced at the wood carving covered under the linen.
"Who discovered it? Can you tell me more specifically?" Darien frowned slightly.
"That was many years ago." Walton fell into reminiscence.
The god Ferros was brought back by a young man from the village. He said that he was chased by a pack of wolves into a ruin. The god Ferros protected him and allowed him to spend a peaceful night there.
When he woke up the next morning, he thanked the god very much and carefully asked him what thank-you gift he wanted.
The god Ferros said that he had disappeared from this world for a long time and had no believers left, so please come and worship him.
The young man initially believed in it for himself, but later he found that after he began to believe in Fellowes, the wheat in his fields grew better than that of others, and the traps he set on the mountains were more likely to catch rabbits and pheasants.
So he brought the god back to the village and everyone worshipped it together.
"This stone brings us luck. The power of the god Fellowes is protecting us." Walton pointed to the stone on the door.
"How do you worship this god?" asked Darion.
"It's very simple. The god Fellowes doesn't ask anything of us. We just need to place his statue in the house where we live and pray sincerely." Walton replied.
"Don't we need to put up other offerings, like flowers or slaughtering animals?" Darien asked.
"No need. He is a very good god who brings good luck to Feilin Village. We all respect him." Walton shook his head.
"I roughly understand. Then please take us to find the missionary's skin, we will need it tonight." said Darien.
"It's in the cellar, come here." Walton stood up and led them to another room.
The floors here are all made of wood, with a thin layer of wooden boards first, and a steep ladder leading to the underground.
Walton picked up an oil lamp and asked one of them to follow him down. The cellar was not very big and was rather narrow, so it would be better not to have so many people go down there.
Darien didn't want to go into a place where rats looked like they were running around, and Hawkins was an academic, so the task of going down to the cellar naturally fell on Sevier.
"We'll wait for you up there." Darien said this very naturally.
"Okay, master." Sewell smiled.
The entrance to the cellar looked dark, so Darien and Hawkins stared at it, waiting for them to come up later.
There was a sound of digging below. It should be Walton digging out the buried skin.
The sound of digging continued for a while, and Walton climbed up with an oil lamp.
Sewell followed closely behind, holding a wooden box covered in dirt.
"The skin is here, you can take it." Walton said.
"Tonight we will try to deal with the missionary and the villagers who have already died. No matter what sound you hear, don't come out." Darien warned.
"Yes, that's for sure. I'll leave it to you then." Walton nodded.
"I have one last request. Can you let me see the statue of Ferros? I also want to know where the ruins are." Darien said.
"Of course. You need someone to take you to the ruins, and the way there is a little difficult to describe. I will let Jack, the young man you met last time, take you there," said Walton.
The true appearance of the mysterious god Ferros was finally revealed before them.
It looks like a man, but has no face and its features are blurry. This statue looks like it was picked up from the roadside and there is nothing special about it.
They walked out of Walton's house and returned to their temporary residence, waiting for Walton to call Jack to come and take them to see the ruins.
Jack was the young man who had first asked them for help. He didn't seem to have any ulterior motives, so we could ask him more questions to see if we could hear anything extra.
Jack arrived here soon.
"I remember your name, Jack. Come on, take us to the place where the god Ferros was found." Darien said to him.
"Let's go. That place is a bit far, so we need to walk faster. If we walk faster, we can be back before noon," said Jack.
"Jack, do you know the god Ferros? Why is it that when there are stones with symbols engraved on them hanging inside the house, the monsters outside cannot get in?" Darien asked the same question again.
"Of course I know. He brings us a good harvest and food, and can cure diseases as long as we pray to him. He is a god we respect very much. He protects us, and we love him too. Those amulets were brought back together. Houses with amulets can be blessed by the god Ferros. All the houses in the village have amulets." Jack replied.
This statement is not much different from what Walton said. Curing diseases is a new thing to hear, and it is not easy to eliminate diseases.
Darien's suspicion of this Ferros grew a little.
They followed Jack, from the main road to the small road, from the small road to the end of the road, climbed over several small slopes, stepped on several patches of grass, passed through the woods, and finally came to the ruins.
This place is mostly made up of rotten stones, and the broken walls and ruins make it impossible to tell what it originally looked like. I don’t know how such a place could have sheltered the villagers who were being chased by a group of hungry wolves.
"Those stones were taken from this wall. The grooves above are the gaps left after the stones were taken away." Jack led them to climb up and then pointed to a slightly higher wall.
There is a totem on this wall, like a tree rising from the ground, and the empty grooves are like leaves, which were originally filled with stones.
Darien squatted down and felt the empty groove.
Hawkins touched his chin and frowned. "I feel like this pattern looks familiar, but I can't remember it right now."
Darien said, "Then think about it carefully on the way back."
Except for this wall, everything else in the ruins was destroyed so completely. They were all large pieces of rubble from collapsed buildings. Even if there was something there, it would have been completely buried.
"Let's go back to the village first and prepare to face the missionaries tonight." Darien stood up again and clapped his hands.
"Everything went well tonight," Sewell said.
They returned to the village and waited for night.
At night, the missionary knocked on the door as expected.
But this time, there was no one in the room.
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