Chapter 49

Green slept for a while, and when he woke up, he was tied up and sent to the river. Some people in colorful clothes were dancing, mumbling something.

Those people had their eyes closed, their faces were painted with red, yellow and green oil paint, their hair was messy, and their foreheads were made of a huge feather, like the hat that comes with birthday cakes.

On their necks was a wolf's tooth, and some dried peppers and round wooden beads were strung together to make a necklace.

Their hair was tangled together like dry straw, emitting a sewer odor, and their bodies exuded the smell of alcohol. The closer the flames were, the hotter they would be.

Their clothes were open, revealing their flat chests. Two arms stick out from the clothes, like a dough with two carrot strips inserted. There

are many eye patterns painted on the clothes, and the overall tone is black, with a little sparkle hidden in the darkness, as if glitter was added to create a night starry sky effect.

There is a rope tied around the waist, which may be long or short, wide or thin, or tied with a bow, or simply tied in a knot, then wrapped around the other side and tied in another knot.

The lower body is something like a grass skirt, and under the skirt are pants. Some people wear shorts, some wear long pants, and some wear half-length pants, with the left side longer and the right side shorter, or the left side shorter and the right side longer.

The shoes are slippers, with some decorations, which look very cumbersome at first glance, as if kicking something by accident will cause double damage.

There was a person in the crowd with a face full of wrinkles, loose skin, and hands that clenched and unclenched. At first glance, they looked like dry chicken claws.

When their hands were waving in the air, they would accidentally pull their hair, and the hair would fall from their heads.

They had no expression on their faces, and ignored the falling hair, as if it was not their own hair, but straw blown down by the wind.

A slightly younger woman had a red face, and the original skin texture and pores could not be seen, as if she was not a living person.

This person's hair was a little longer, but it did not grow below the shoulders. When dancing, her hair swayed back and forth, as if it was also stained with a hint of fiery red. For a moment, she looked like a flamingo.

The sound coming out of his throat was sharp and strange, like a real bird that had turned into a human but couldn't speak normally.

His left arm was bent upward, and so was his right arm, but there was a string of amber on his left arm and a string of stones on his right arm, and there were rings on all ten fingers.

The rings were also gray, as if no matter what it was, it would be covered with an invisible shadow.

After a series of complicated rituals that made no sense, the village chief separated from the crowd and walked out.

He raised his cane and said to everyone, "Now, we are going to start the sacrifice.

As long as the sacrifice is completed, this ceremony will end. As long as the gods receive our sacrifice, this disaster will end."

The village chief's voice was very old and weak, but the people around him were quiet and silent, and his voice seemed to be turned on by a loudspeaker, echoing in the crowd.

Across the crowd was a gurgling stream. When no one was talking, the sound of the water was particularly clear.

The sky was slightly blue, and dark clouds were floating from afar.

The cold wind blew one after another, making a sound like ghosts crying and wolves howling. It seemed that if you closed your eyes, you could see a village woman in red sitting on the ground with her head down and crying.

There were some stones on the ground, uneven and sunken in the soft soil, like a pockmarked face with a grin.

At this time, the sound of the stream became particularly terrifying, as if it had suddenly changed into a hoarse laugh squeezed out of the throat of someone who had just escaped from a fire scene.

Green and Xiaomai were thrown into the stream, with black cloth on their heads and ropes tied around their bodies. At the other end of the ropes were two heavy and huge stones.

At this point, the village chief stepped forward and announced that the sacrifice was over and the villagers could go home.

The villagers all breathed a sigh of relief, turned around, and with a smile of surviving a disaster on their faces, they walked home and chatted.

"The gods will be happy after the sacrifice."

"We can go home and sleep happily, and nothing will happen when we wake up the next day."

"The gods will not abandon us, because we have offered sacrifices to the gods, and the gods will love us, and we will be healed and get well soon."

But when they were talking, an old man among the villagers suddenly fell to the ground with a thud, face down, with a walking stick in his hand, motionless and stiff.

Everyone was stunned for a moment, rushed over to turn the old man over and hold him in their arms to check, and found that he was no longer breathing.

Everyone was stunned, and the old man's body gradually became cold.

People's eyes fell on the old man's face, and after a careful examination, they finally confirmed that the old man died of illness, and the bodies of the villagers who died of illness before were no different.

They had to admit one thing, if their sacrifices really worked, so far, their sacrifices have not made the gods play their due role.

A sudden cry of grief broke out among the crowd, like a stone flying in the air suddenly cracked.

No one knew where the first cry started.

People burst into tears, but crying could not save anything. They still could not leave here and could not escape their fate of death.

After crying, someone wanted to find the two people who fell into the water, but he didn't find them. The village chief found them and ordered them not to look for them anymore and returned to their homes.

Of course, they couldn't find them because the two people had already drifted far away with the current.

It is undeniable that the stones chosen by the villagers for the two people were very heavy, but the turbulence of the water was obviously beyond expectations.

Even such a heavy stone could be pushed by the current, not to mention the two people holding the other side of the stone.

In the current, the stone got stuck in a place and the rope was torn.

Green, who did not need to breathe, raised his arms in the current, tore off the black cloth bag on his head, floated to the surface and took a breath.

He began to look for traces of Xiaomai who had entered the water with him.

Xiaomai was farther away and seemed unconscious. He dragged Xiaomai to his side and then dragged him from the water to the shore. At this moment, they were already very far away from the village.

Even if the villagers changed their minds and wanted to track them, they would not be able to get here in a short time, unless the villagers also jumped into the water and drifted with the current, maybe there was a chance to find them.

However, the villagers thought that jumping into the water was a way to death, and they probably would not jump into the water just to find two people.

In other words, they are safe now.

Green patted Xiaomai's face, Xiaomai took a breath and spit out a lot of water, and it seemed that he was about to wake up.

Green waited for a while, and Xiaomai opened his eyes.

"Are we dead?"

Xiaomai lay on the ground, rolled his eyes, saw Green who was watching him, opened his mouth, and asked in a very weak voice.

"We survived."

Green smiled at him.

"That's great."

Xiaomai also smiled at Green.

But before he finished speaking, he fell into a coma again because of his weak body.

Green found a place to put him down and managed to light a fire.

Under the light of the fire, the sky became darker and darker, and dark clouds floated above their heads. There was a loud bang, lightning and thunder, and heavy rain poured down.

Fortunately, this place was not a low-lying area, and there was some shelter above their heads. For a while, the fire around them would not be extinguished by the rain.

The rain was blown to the two of them by the wind.

Xiaomai's teeth hit each other, making a sound that made people's hair stand on end.

Although he hadn't opened his eyes yet, he seemed to be gradually recovering his consciousness, but his body was shivering, as if he couldn't rest because of the extreme cold.

Green hesitated for a moment, moved him deeper into the darkness, and half-hugged and half-supported him to keep warm by the fire.

His body was no longer shaking, and in the light of the fire, he even looked a little calm and docile. In the second half of the night, he squeezed into Green's arms, and he felt that it was a little warmer there.

There was a stone behind Green. The more Xiaomai squeezed into Green's arms, the closer Green got to the stone. Because the stone felt too hard on his back, Green woke up.

He pushed Xiaomai twice, and Xiaomai woke up.

Xiaomai opened his eyes in a daze, looked at Green's face so close, and was stunned for a long time before coming back to his senses.

"I suddenly feel like this is heaven."

Xiaomai smiled at Green and muttered to himself.

"It's raining outside and we don't know how long it will rain. We can't stay here all the time or we'll starve to death. I didn't collect food and store it here before it rained."

Green reminded Xiaomai.

"Then I'll go out and find food now. You wait for me here."

Xiaomai said as he stood up and was about to go out.

"Don't you feel cold?"

Green looked at him suspiciously.

He was shivering with cold before, but the temperature was not as low as it is now.

"It doesn't matter. I was unconscious before, but I'm awake now. I know a way to ask God for help. As long as I use this prayer, I will have more powerful power.

God will give me strength, protect me, and let me get what I want."

Xiaomai explained to Green.

"Since God can give you strength, why don't you just pray to God to give us some food?"

Green asked.

"Because God doesn't like believers who get something for nothing, I can't get something for nothing, I can only get a little strength from God and then do what I should do."

Xiaomai smiled apologetically at Green.

"Go."

Green said.

Xiaomai used the prayer technique, left the resting place, and soon came back with a bunch of red fruits.