25 Days of Scavenging
The sacrificial site, now covered with curtains, is filled with a large group of people.
The people who came to watch the ceremony were all on the outermost edge, and could only look at the center of the altar from afar. Even so, they did not come empty-handed. They brought fruit or food from their own homes, and some families even carried a pig's head together.
Even people from poor families would offer a steamed bun or an egg as a sacrifice to the gods.
Even before the gods have arrived, the people are already kneeling and kowtowing outside, praying for blessings in the coming year.
Those qualified to stand in the sacrificial altar were high-ranking officials and nobles.
Closer to the Altar of Loyalty were the royal family and ministers, represented by the King of Qing.
Envoys from other countries also stood in this circle, their gazes towards the Qing Kingdom's ruler filled with envy.
There was nothing they could do; after all, the Qing Kingdom had acquired the immortal, which naturally made these envious.
Among the envoys, the envoy from Zheng stood closer to the king.
The two did not look at each other much, but when their eyes met occasionally, they both understood the meaning behind it.
The young princes of Qing Kingdom were positioned opposite the king and the envoys. At this moment, these young people could not contain their excitement and were quietly whispering among themselves, discussing whether there would be any miracles or extraordinary phenomena in the heavens later, as this was a real sacrifice by the gods themselves.
Only the Third Young Master's lowered gaze held no excitement, only silence.
If you look closely, you'll notice that the two eunuchs following the Third Young Master are no longer the familiar faces he usually sees. Unlike the others, these two unfamiliar eunuchs don't discreetly survey their surroundings; instead, they keep their eyes fixed on the Third Young Master, full of vigilance.
The Third Young Master knew this.
These two eunuchs were personally sent to his side by the king.
Last night, the Third Prince wanted to help the Immortal Master escape, but was rejected. In the end, he couldn't hold back and went to the King in person to explain that he had overheard their plan and asked the King not to repay the Immortal Master's kindness with enmity and to abandon the sacrificial plan.
However, the king showed no remorse whatsoever. He angrily rebuked the third prince for his womanly compassion and immediately replaced the prince's eunuch, personally sending people to supervise him and prevent him from taking any actions that would disrupt the plan.
If it weren't for the fact that the absence of a prince on such an important occasion would easily arouse suspicion, the king wouldn't even want the third prince to appear during the sacrificial ceremony.
It was precisely this ruthless action that made the Third Young Master conceal the fact that he had already told the Immortal Master about the matter.
At this moment, the Third Prince looked at the group of jubilant spectators around the sacrificial ceremony and felt extremely ironic.
He believed that the immortal master who already knew the truth about the ritual must have a way to escape and would not let those people succeed.
He stood by and watched coldly as these people's hopes were dashed, offering no advice whatsoever.
.
As the auspicious time for the sacrificial ceremony drew closer, the procession of the immortals arrived at the sacrificial site.
As soon as the snow-haired youth in his elaborate attire appeared, the people waiting outside the venue immediately knelt down in unison, uttering a chorus of prayers filled with anticipation, joy, and reverence, creating an incredibly lively scene.
The musicians began to play their instruments, and solemn and majestic music immediately resounded above the altar.
Immediately afterwards, a hundred people began to perform the Nuo dance, tens of thousands of cleansed and incense-burned flower petals were scattered from the sky, and the scriptures that communicate between heaven and earth were recited, creating a solemn atmosphere.
The tedious procedures were followed step by step, and soon the sacrificial ceremony reached its final stage—
The patterns on the altar need to be smeared with fresh blood.
The king looked at the snow-haired youth: "Immortal Master, please stand in the center of the altar?"
The little robot followed the king's gaze and looked toward the center of the altar.
The entire altar floor was covered with dense array patterns. The little robot couldn't recognize the meaning of these mystical patterns, but he could tell that, through careful design, the center of the altar was the center of the entire array pattern. If a basin of flowing liquid were poured there, the liquid would quickly spread and flow throughout the entire pattern.
Clearly, the country's main plan is quite obvious.
This step should have been done with animal blood, but the king is planning to use a celestial master instead, to have blood drawn on the spot!
The little robot walked slowly towards the center of the altar.
As he drew closer, the king's eagerness and ambition became undisguised and unmistakable.
Standing beside the king, Zheng Jinqi, who had somehow squeezed in, handed him a large cleaver and placed it in his hand.
In their plan, the king would personally behead the person at the center of the formation!
They thought, "Even if you, the immortal master, are invulnerable to swords and axes, you still can't survive if your neck is broken, right?"
With the immortal master only a step away from the center of the altar, the king gripped the hilt of his sword tightly with both hands. But at that very moment, the snow-haired youth stopped moving.
"A Celestial Master?" The king's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
The little robot's expression remained as calm as ever.
He faced the King of Qing and asked, "Does Your Majesty's promise to me regarding the new department stand?"
New department?
The king was taken aback.
Then it dawned on me that it was the new garbage recycling department I had promised to the immortal master in order to make him cooperate with the ritual.
The king nodded: "It counts, of course it counts."
What a joke! Once I gain divine powers and achieve immortality, why would I care about garbage collection? How could I, the ruler of a nation, possibly touch such filth!
The perfunctory tone in his voice was easily detected even by the small robot, which couldn't discern human emotions.
The little robot sighed.
He no longer wanted to deal with this human who broke his promise and deceived the robot, and silently initiated the return-to-home procedure.
"Target search in progress."
"Return confirmed."
In the blink of an eye, the snow-haired boy in the center of the altar disappeared from everyone's sight.
.
Anjia Village, Daming County, Nanchuan City.
Today is the second day that the "Villagers' Attack" program crew is filming here. Yesterday, the five groups of celebrities who participated in the program introduced themselves through ice-breaking games and selected their first accommodations. Today is their second day of filming.
The sun had just peeked over the horizon, and the air was still cool in the morning, when the production team had already woken up several groups of guests.
The production team then assigned today's task: starting today, the guests will have to live on their own in the village, including earning their own meals and daily necessities.
As for how to earn money, there are no restrictions other than not being allowed to cheat by using their celebrity status to get autographs. Whether the guests want to exchange money by helping villagers with farm work, setting up stalls, or even directly harvesting free resources like wild vegetables, the production team does not restrict them.
"Here we go again with this trick!"
The guests groaned incessantly, then quickly tidied themselves up and prepared to head out to the village to see if there was any way to earn resources, otherwise they might not get anything to eat today.
Moreover, they need to be quick, because there aren't many jobs in the village that can be exchanged for resources. Most villagers prefer to be self-reliant and are unwilling to pay others to do what they can.
If you're too slow, the other guests who didn't get to do anything will find it much harder to get resources!
These are all hidden pitfalls that the production team didn't mention beforehand.
The guests have all become experienced at being tricked by the production team.
This is the second season of this show. The show had the same rules in the last season. When the guests first heard about the lenient rules, they were relieved by the show's friendliness. Little did they know, one pitfall after another awaited them.
The previously mentioned small share of helping villagers with chores was a trap. There was also the trap of guests who didn't exchange resources for food but instead used them to set up stalls, ultimately selling nothing and losing everything.
The option of getting free resources has even more pitfalls!
God knows that the guest who chose this direction last season encountered a plant he wanted to pick, only to be told that it was a protected plant and couldn't be touched. He set a trap to catch animals, but whether it was a pheasant or a sparrow, they were all protected animals and couldn't be caught.
"You can't touch this or that, it's against the law!" The guests were so scared that they trembled and left empty-handed, which must have brought a lot of laughter to the audience.
In this episode, none of the guests dared to harm any wild animals.
The five groups of guests split up and acted separately.
Mi Xia was a guest in the fifth group. She had already changed into long-sleeved shirts and trousers for work. When she saw the other two people in her group come out of the room, she quickly went up to them and asked, "Brother Xu, Sister Shiman, which way should we go?"
Before Xu Jing could speak, Gao Shiman looked at Mi Xia and said softly, "Xia, we had the lowest score in the game yesterday, so we have to work harder today. How about this, we split up, maybe we'll have a better chance of finding something to do."
Mi Xia hesitated.
Having experienced the previous season, Mi Xia knows that many of the segments set up by the production team require at least two people to complete. She worries that if she encounters something like this, finding a partner will be even more troublesome.
Before Mi Xia could voice her concerns, Xu Jing, the only male among the three, spoke up: "Shi Man is right. Okay, don't hesitate. The production crew is with us, so even if you're alone, there won't be any danger. Let's go, I'll go to the left."
Gao Shiman then chose the middle path: "Then I'll go this way. Xia, hurry up and go too, don't waste any more time, or others will take all the things we can do."
As they spoke, the two of them began walking down their chosen paths.
Left behind, Mi Xia could only go up the remaining path.
From an angle where her facial expression wouldn't be captured by the cameras behind her, Mi Xia couldn't help but reveal a hint of sadness and frustration.
She wasn't a big star on the show; she was originally just a filler character added by the company. At first, she planned to just stay in the background and behave herself, but unexpectedly, halfway through the first season, the show became a hit.
Thus, some intrigue and backstabbing began to emerge in the shadows.
Mi Xia was in the same group as Gao Shiman, who was of similar status. However, the latter's methods were much more sophisticated than the former's. In short, by the time Mi Xia realized what was happening, she found herself to have become a stepping stone to highlight Gao Shiman.
In the later episodes of the previous season, Mi Xia was edited into a pretentious, delicate, petty, and fragile princess. Even Mi Xia herself thought how annoying this person was when she looked at the finished product.
Not to mention the audience's opinions of her.
The other guests on the show all trended on social media for positive reasons, but she either couldn't get on the trending topics, or when she did, it was always negative.
The endorsements that were originally offered because of the show's popularity are now showing signs of wanting to break their contracts.
Before filming began for this season, Mi Xia was instructed by her agent to find a way to change her image in the eyes of the audience, otherwise the breach of contract fees from those endorsements could bankrupt her.
However, despite saying that, the editing rights were in the hands of the production team, and Mi Xia couldn't think of any way to change it.
Unless she follows in the footsteps of Charmaine Sheh and finds a wealthy patron who can influence the production team.
But Mi Xia knew she couldn't get over that mental hurdle; she couldn't take that step.
Am I really doomed?
Mi Xia became increasingly upset, but she couldn't cry. If the camera behind her caught her crying, who knew how the production team would edit it? It might just be another scene that made her look thin-skinned.
Thinking this, Mi Xia quickly turned her attention to her surroundings.
Upon closer inspection, she realized that she had unknowingly taken the wrong turn.
This road doesn't lead to the villagers' homes in the mountains. There are only grassy paths on the ground, which look like some trails where villagers used to graze their cattle or sheep.
Mi Xia quickly looked around, wanting to get back to the main road.
With this glance, Mi Xia spotted some movement in the tall grass.
"Could there be any wild beasts in these mountains?!" Mi Xia exclaimed in fright.
She glanced at the camera to bolster her courage, picked up a twig, and peered through the bushes.
She was startled when she saw it.
A teenager was squatting in the grass, covered in grass seeds, digging at a pile of trash that was half-buried by the grass.
Seeing that the grass had been parted from above, the boy looked up.
Mi Xia then noticed that the boy's hair, eyebrows, and even his long, curled eyelashes were all snow-white.
Even the color of his pupils was extremely pale.
Is this child albinism?!
Mi Xia was startled. Seeing that the child ignored her and continued to rummage through the trash, she quickly pulled the child out.
"Why are you picking up trash here all alone? Where are your family? It's not safe up in the mountains, let me take you back."
How could the adults let this child scavenge for trash outside by himself? This child is so thin, could he be eating garbage?! And he has this disease too, it's so pitiful!
At this moment, Mi Xia couldn't care less about her own mission; she felt that getting the child back safely was the most important thing.
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