After the first frost, the mountains become the final resting place for the mountain people, for every year at this time, the elderly mountain people, who know they are no longer able to survive the winter and are no longer as strong as in the past, will quietly rest in peace with the mountains.
The body born in the mountains returns to the mountains after death, allowing hungry wild beasts to devour it, in exchange for another bountiful harvest for the mountain village hunters the following year.
This is a covenant signed by our ancient ancestors in the mountains. It is a covenant that the wind cannot blow it down, the rain cannot wash it away, and that the mountain people will live on forever, standing firm on the ground like a rock, relying on their bloodline to continue from generation to generation.
If I break this oath, I shall be punished by being devoured by rocks!
This is the cycle of life and death for the mountain people, and it should have continued in this way for a long time, but now things are different.
"A despicable outsider has bewitched our ignorant people with sugar, salt, food, and promises of children. More and more people are choosing to abandon this custom. If I hadn't appeared here, the mountain god would have lost the offerings from the contract, and the sky would have fallen and the earth would have collapsed!"
"You are sacrificing the future of the Li family for temporary comfort! If this continues, we will truly be extinct!"
The vegetation is lush, with vines spreading and tall trees gathering in abundance. Although the frost has passed, the temperature here is not low. Similarly, if you look around, you can see a patch of red and green that looks delicious.
This is natural, because this is the land of the covenant between the ancestors and the mountain god, the promised land given to the Sigang people, a place where they would not suffer from hunger or cold.
The old man sat on a layer of half-rotten leaves, dressed simply in a coarse rattan leather coat. The coat was made from the skin of his parents, which was peeled off after their deaths so that the old man could search for his relatives after his death.
He resolutely refused the request from the two young men beside him, who were dressed in thick clothes and had their heads wrapped in heavy turbans, to return to the village, and resolutely prepared to end his life in Lingmeng Mountain.
"Elder Lüze, why are you doing this? Doctor He is a very good person. What you said is exactly what the village needs, but what does the doctor want?"
They just want some medicinal herbs for making medicine, and they want us to keep an eye out for poisonous insects while hunting for research purposes. It's all for our own good! How is that despicable?
"Yes, yes, Elder Lüze, what is there in our mountain village that would make them go to such lengths to care about us? They are renowned scholars from Xin Su, here to educate and convert us, they are truly good people! What other village has such good fortune?"
Indeed, this is true. As an inconspicuous little village on Lingmeng Mountain, they don't even have meat seeds and can only obtain them by luck. For example, the village hasn't produced a martial artist for five years now.
Without martial artists, there's no way to deal with the increasingly intelligent demons in the mountains. If a demon targets a village, fewer and fewer people will remain until the village is destroyed.
For five years, the village had survived only by paying taxes and tributes to larger villages to invite martial artists. But this year, they couldn't afford it. They thought the village was about to collapse, but then a physician from Xin Su suddenly arrived, and everything changed.
He was skilled at using insects to expel toxins, and also adept at acupuncture. He used a miraculous bloodletting therapy to treat wounds and diseases, and could even use mysterious medicinal herbs to increase the village's birth and death rates.
They even have the ability to grow amazing plants that produce sugar and the technology to extract salt from blood, which has made life in the village so much better!
Despite it being such a good thing, some people are still unhappy. For example, in the situation in front of us, the two young people looked at the healthy old man with resentment in their eyes.
Burying oneself in the mountains is indeed a custom, but it is subject to strict restrictions. On the one hand, the village cannot abandon any living force, and on the other hand, the mountain god does not eat live sacrifices. Live sacrifices are forbidden in the mountains! They only occur under circumstances of absolute injustice and unfairness.
The old man in front of us was in his prime in every way. If other villages found out about him lying here like this, their villages would probably be in trouble, and the doctor would probably have to leave as well.
"There's no such thing as free meat in the mountains; it's just a trap set by tigers and leopards! That doctor from Xinxiu was the same way! How could there possibly be someone who asks for nothing in return and only wants others to be better? Absolutely impossible!"
"He's just after my blood! He's after our flesh! He's trying to control us! Look at those he's treated, aren't they all becoming more and more obedient to that doctor! More and more disobeying the village rules!"
Green Ze spoke sternly, revealing his long-standing contempt for the outsider. His reasons included what he stated, but another was that the man was infringing upon his interests and his control over the village! The village could be destroyed because of him, but it absolutely could not be infiltrated by anyone else!
The intricacies involved were beyond the comprehension of the two young people beside Green Marsh, but their mission was to bring the old man back, and they were unwilling to let their current lives change.
"Elder, let's go back and discuss this further. It's too dangerous here."
“Yes, Elder, your son will soon become a martial artist in the village. He will be at the peak of his life. What kind of man would you be if you left now? Go back first.”
The young man held the bow behind his back and the weapon at his waist. If they still didn't obey, they wouldn't mind using a little violence. After all, Green Ze was no longer the all-powerful Grand Sigan he once was, when he was preparing to destroy the sugar-producing plant.
"What are you doing? Are you trying to rebel? Bury yourselves in the mountains! This is a covenant with the gods! Are you trying to stop us by force?"
The lingering power of the former demon god still solidifies the god's supreme status. The Heavenly Moon Eye left behind by the Xuanpin Dao Venerable's ascension still manifests in the sky on time. The young man stopped in his tracks, looking at the elderly Lü Ze with some apprehension.
This chapter is not finished yet. Please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
