"What do you mean? Go on." Xiao Tangqiu said coldly.
"Those over thirty... when they know their time is up, they'll return to the sacred tree the day before they die..." The middle-aged man hugged himself and trembled. "They'll transform into a tree, and then... be absorbed by the sacred tree... and eventually become a part of it..."
All the people who come to this island come to this island through the sacred tree. They usually find themselves under the sacred tree when they open their eyes, then leave the sacred tree and come to the village. After living in the village for a while, before their death, they will return to the sacred tree again on the night before they die, turn into a tree, and then be absorbed and devoured by the sacred tree.
They came down from the sacred tree and eventually went back down again.
Tang Mianmian asked in disbelief, "What about the trees near the sacred tree? What's going on with those trees?"
The middle-aged man trembled and said, "Whenever someone dies and is devoured by the sacred tree, a tree will grow where he died the next day..."
"So you're so scared because you think your end is near?" Xiao Tangqiu raised an eyebrow. "But you can still transform from a tree into a human, which means you won't die for now. However, you get food from the sacred tree, and the sacred tree treats you as food. This is really a short food chain... You also get water from the sacred tree, right?"
The middle-aged man trembled and said, "Yes, after cutting open the bark of the sacred tree, clear and clean water will flow out. We can only survive by drinking that water..."
Xiao Tangqiu sighed. No wonder the worship of the sacred tree was so prevalent on the island. Everyone came down from the sacred tree and would eventually return to it. All resources for human survival came from the sacred tree. To the people on this island, the sacred tree might really be like a "god".
"The sacred tree only appears in the evening?" Xue Junli asked the middle-aged man.
The middle-aged man shuddered and nodded: "The sacred tree only appears at dusk, so all of us arrived on this island at dusk..."
Xiao Tangqiu and Tang Mianmian looked at each other and said, "It seems that we came here at dusk as well." But they didn't come down from the sacred tree.
At this moment, Xiao Tangqiu suddenly remembered something: "Oh, right, you said before that among the first group of people who came to the island... there was still one person alive?"
"Yes," the middle-aged man said tremblingly, "but he..."
"What's wrong with him?" Xiao Tangqiu asked subconsciously.
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment and continued, "He said before that he would return to the sacred tree today..."
Xiao Tangqiu was shocked: "He is going to die today?"
"He said the time is almost up," the middle-aged man's voice gradually became quieter. "We all know that sooner or later this day will come..."
Xue Junli immediately said, "Take us to find him!"
The middle-aged man hesitated for a moment and nodded.
He led Xiao Tangqiu and others out of the door. At this time, other people had gradually woken up. These islanders looked at Xiao Tangqiu and others coldly, with more indifference in their eyes than curiosity. They didn't seem curious about the origins of outsiders like Xiao Tangqiu. Most of them just glanced at them and turned around to continue doing their own things.
Xiao Tangqiu secretly observed these islanders. Perhaps because time passed too quickly, there were no young people on the island. Most of them were middle-aged men or elderly people in their forties, and they exuded an air of impending death.
A moment later, they stopped at the oldest and most dilapidated house in the village. The middle-aged man knocked on the door and then pushed it open without waiting for a response.
A white-haired, shriveled old man sat cross-legged on the ground. He had sparse hair, cloudy eyes, and skin like dry and wrinkled bark. After noticing someone coming in, he didn't move or react at all, as if he didn't notice anyone coming in at all.
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