"What price did the Patriarch mention?"
"You'll know in a moment." Chen Shi'an smiled faintly, his smile lingering on his skin. "In ancient times, there was a god who descended to the end of a deep mountain valley. He was nameless and existed for hundreds of years, but no one worshipped him. Finally, one day, he waited for the distressed tribesmen who drifted here due to the flood, and he gained his first followers."
"At first, it promised its members immortality and a strong body. By donating blood, it passed on its power to those who worshipped it, allowing the family to harness fire and rapidly grow in size. It then enslaved its members for nearly a hundred years. It would select children from each year's birth, keeping those with near-perfect bodies as vessels, and disfigure those with flaws to use as tools for the world."
It is Puhuna.
The huge puzzle pieces twisted and fit together with a roar, creating an incredible picture in Xiao Nanhui's heart.
The young children have lost their own faces and cannot even recognize their closest relatives standing in front of them. They are gathered together to develop the skills of killing and taking things. Emotions are a burden to them, and the only meaning of life for them is obedience.
Over time, the children became killers. While enslaved, they also sought the next generation to succeed them. They would visit remote villages at night, abducting the children they ignored, selecting those they deemed suitable successors, performing a ceremony to swear an oath with the gods, and then plunging them into an endless cycle of sin.
Wu Xiaoliu was the one who slipped through the net back then.
"However, a borrowed body is still borrowed. No matter how carefully nurtured and carefully selected, mortals cannot bear the will of the gods. Over time, the flesh borrowed by the gods will gradually decay and rot due to the loss of the soul. Gradually, people began to resist this act of serving the gods, but the blood connection has been accumulated for generations, and it is not easy to break it. Some strong-willed people can struggle for a year or two, while those with weak wills will completely succumb to being puppets in less than half a month. The longest-lasting resistance among this tribe only lasted three years."
Chen Shi'an, who was telling all this, looked detached. She casually took off a hairpin from her head and played with it in her hand, then used the tip of the hairpin to scratch the stone wall casually.
The scraping of metal against the rough stone surface made a harsh sound, and the young descendants of the Shen family remained silent amidst the sound.
"With power comes a price. The family, tormented by the gods, finally grasped this truth and embraced it as a creed, beginning to engage in commerce, shifting from warp wood to pig iron, and then from pig iron to coal. Nearly a hundred years ago, the Shen family faced annihilation due to a shift in dynasties, and the gods began to decline in this land. A few years later, the shrines vanished, Buddhism flourished, and a monk from the south crossed the sea to exile the last god from this land. The god took the family's last vessel and vanished, his whereabouts unknown for many years."
The descendants of the Bone Burning Clan are the Shen family, the monk from the south is Wu Shan, and the god whose whereabouts are unknown is "the man" behind Pu Huna.
"Since you are not a descendant of the Brocade Clan, how can you interpret the prophecy?"
Shen Shian seemed to like this question very much, and he paused deliberately before speaking slowly.
"I heard that except for Xiao Zhun, the Qinghuai Marquis, all the rest of the Xiao family died in the Yu'an Rebellion. So, the person who could decipher the prophecy is no longer alive. You can only rely on me. After all, once a person has passed away, we can only summon their spirit to ask."
Xiao Nanhui was stunned. She had never expected that the Xiao family would suddenly appear in the puzzle in her heart. The broken traces gradually matched up, and the last piece of the puzzle was finally about to be put together.
"That letter that was delivered to the Qinghuai Marquis's residence by Bai Heliu over a decade ago, was it yours?"
Shen Shian thought about it and nodded.
"The letter was indeed written by me, but I don't know the Xiao family. To be precise, the letter was sent to the person hiding in the Xiao Mansion."
"Who?" Xiao Nanhui's heart began to pound, and he took a step forward involuntarily. "Don't talk nonsense. I'm from the Qinghuai Marquis Mansion, so why have I never heard of this person you mentioned?"
"Since you're from the Xiao Mansion, how could you not know that Xiao Dai isn't the old prince's biological daughter?" Chen Shi'an pretended to be surprised and paused for a moment before nodding, "That's right. Anyone would be cautious about harboring a traitor. It's best to keep the secret to oneself until the grave."
Xiao Nanhui's wildly beating heart stopped for a moment.
She still stood there motionless, but a huge wave of emotions was rising in her heart.
Aunt Dai wasn't a member of the Xiao family? How could that be? They were so similar in appearance, and they had lived together for so many years...
But it was precisely this absurd setting that made her recall some doubts and details from the past.
For example, why had Aunt Dai been weaving ribbons day and night in that side yard all those years after she lost her mind? Why did she tell stories that would come true when she was distracted? Why did she risk her life to protect that ribbon and survive the Yu An Incident, while Xiao Zhun knew nothing about it and instead locked it and the blood-stained shirt in a pile of old things? Why did she see Aunt Dai in that strange dream...
All the past events came flooding back, leaving her stunned and confused.
Who is Aunt Dai? Does Xiao Zhun know about this? Or is this the real reason behind the Xiao family's annihilation?
Xiao Nanhui stared at Chen Shi'an, and his voice was a little hoarse when he spoke again.
"Tell me clearly, who is the traitor?"
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