49. The Ghost Village Worships the Gods (15)
I see.
[The amount of paper money increases year by year.]
[The paper money stained with dog blood and chicken blood increases year by year.]
[But none of this could suppress their greedy desire to be resurrected and to escape the haunted village.]
Xie Yunhuai silently recited the mantra in his heart, and Qin Fu'an listened attentively.
Finally, he stood beside the boy, watching with him the villagers outside the barrier who looked wary, and chuckled, "I see."
He seems to have introduced the main storyline between the village and the mountain god.
They were nothing more than a group of people who died tragically, trapped in the same place and became earthbound spirits, filled with resentment, and they regarded the mountain god who originally protected them as an opportunity to be resurrected.
Whether they were instigated by others or came up with this insane method on their own, they ultimately decided to worship the mountain god day and night as living dead.
Human faith can imbue mountain gods with spirit, but what about the faith of the supernatural?
It's nothing more than harming the mountain god, poisoning the incense, staining the yellow paper with blood, turning all the divine and the miraculous into the bizarre, and forcing a perfectly good little mountain god into an unkillable little monster.
Why do those people worship mountain god statues with indistinct facial features?
Why do all the households have the same statue enshrined in their shrines?
Because Qin Fu'an originally guessed that the "newly appointed mountain god" they worshipped, the evil god that should have existed, was actually these living dead themselves.
Not content with enjoying their own offerings and beliefs, they also try to seize and exploit the offerings and beliefs of the lesser mountain gods.
With no one to provide faith, the mountain god himself became the source from which they divided the faith.
Therefore, Xie Yunhuai would be hung upside down in front of the mountain god temple every year, where the living dead would drain his blood. They would then use the statues of gods from their own shrines, like steamed buns dipped in human blood, to dab the blood of a deity.
It's the same every year, repeating itself year after year.
From Xie Yunhuai when he was five or six years old, to Xie Yunhuai who just turned eighteen today.
These villagers, who had drunk their fill of the blood of the gods, started as wandering spirits, drawing on the mountain god's blood and faith, and year by year were nurtured into physical forms, eventually becoming living dead with solid bodies...
Humans cannot distinguish between gods and ghosts, but ghosts can easily tell the difference between humans and gods.
Therefore, what the village chief said to Qin Fu'an that day was a mixture of truth and falsehood, and he may have thought he had completely deceived Qin Fu'an.
After all, in order to cover up the truth, he even described all sorts of ways the whole village tried to kill Xie Yunhuai, portraying himself as so vicious that who would think he was lying?
No normal person would think he was lying.
But Qin Fu'an was no human being either.
His eyes could see people's souls. When he first entered the ghost village, he found that the people in the village seemed to have no souls.
Later that night, when I saw Xie Yunhuai, I suddenly realized that it wasn't that I couldn't see their souls, but that all the people in the village were just ghosts left behind in the world.
The people he saw were ghosts; there was no extra soul left.
In Qin Fu'an's eyes, whether a spirit or an evil being lies or not is something that can be seen through at a glance.
Therefore, Qin Fu'an never believed what the village chief said.
The unkillable little monster, the villagers who would die a miserable death if they were even slightly kind to Xie Yunhuai, and even those cruel stories of murder and dismemberment—it was all a lie.
Qin Fu'an accepted the letter because he was very curious about what was so special about Xie Yunhuai that made the ghosts of the Ghost Village go to such lengths to scheme against him.
On one hand, they labeled Xie Yunhuai a monster cursed and rejected by the mountain god, while on the other hand, they forbade Xie Yunhuai to leave the ghost village. They subjected him to extreme humiliation and abuse, while pretending to be kind and taking his life.
This contradiction precisely piqued Qin Fu'an's curiosity.
Then he saw Xie Yunhuai's soul trapped inside the statue.
Pitch black, weak, and disgusted by the incense in the temple.
This is completely opposite to the souls that originally existed within Xie Yunhuai's body.
Qin Fu'an couldn't understand it, so after going down the mountain, he took Xie Yunhuai to the hillside below the mountain god temple to cut down trees to make a bed.
The facts proved that it was indeed Xie Yunhuai's soul. Because Xie Yunhuai was there, or perhaps he remembered the scent of their incense stick, the plants that seemed to have come to life all over the mountains did not attack them.
Under what circumstances would Xie Yunhuai's soul be imprisoned inside the mountain god statue?
Qin Fu'an found out tonight.
That plant, and Xie Yunhuai himself, who was killed time and time again.
Perhaps the plant was indeed part of Xie Yunhuai's body, but Xie Yunhuai must have found a way to break free from the shackles of the statue, which is why he suddenly appeared in the ghost village as a child more than ten years ago.
Or perhaps that plant was nourished by Xie Yunhuai's blood and life force, condensing a core of vitality and spiritual energy, which is why it was buried under the altar, allowing the faceless statue to absorb its vitality and fortune, attempting to become a new god.
While the statue was hanging upside down under the eaves of the mountain god temple, and its features were drawn with blood, Xie Yunhuai was in unbearable pain at the foot of the mountain. This was probably the preparation before the "auspicious time" that the villagers were talking about.
This year is a special year because Xie Yunhuai has just come of age.
The villagers were so eager to offer seven outsiders as a blood sacrifice that they were perhaps certain they could truly raise a new god this time.
Or perhaps, this time they will be able to fully absorb the life force from the corpse, completely kill Xie Yunhuai, and then get rid of their status as earthbound, flexible dead people, truly leaving this hellish abyss-like mountain.
Unfortunately, they encountered Qin Fu'an, who didn't play by the rules.
He cut the ropes, disrupting the ritual before the mountain god's sacrifice.
He then kicked the mountain god statue, which was about to grow facial features, to the ground, covering its face with dirt and dust.
He also took advantage of a moment when no one was paying attention and stole the mountain god's "remains" and went straight down the mountain.
Now, he stood beside the real mountain god, separated by a barrier, slowly and methodically speculating on the origins of the decades-long scheme devised by this group of living dead.
"If I'm not mistaken, these temple guardians are actually the only living people left in your village, right?" Qin Fu'an smiled as he looked at the astonished and uncertain group of people with his long, beautiful green eyes.
"You were lucky to survive, but you are unwilling to keep company with ghosts, and you also covet the power of the gods..."
As Qin Fu'an spoke, he suddenly reached out and put his arm around the thin shoulder of the boy who had been quiet all along. He turned his head and whispered with a smile in the boy's ear, "These rats are really annoying. On one hand, they kneel on the ground and covet everything you have, and on the other hand, they recklessly suppress and hurt you. Little Mountain God, now that you have had your memories taken away, tell me, do you still want to let them go?"
Qin Fu'an is probably rotten to the core.
They had already decided to leave no way out, yet they deliberately stirred up the desire of the living dead to survive at this moment.
Instead of saying things properly, they would lean against someone's shoulder and turn their face to the side, deliberately making an intimate gesture of whispering sweet nothings.
With just a few words, he not only unsettled the villagers but also stirred up Xie Yunhuai's emotions.
Xie Yunhuai couldn't help but take a small step to the side, turning his head away with reddened ears to avoid Qin Fu'an's approach. However, the words he had spoken earlier had already caused a slight, tingling itch, making him feel inexplicably awkward even when he wanted to put on a cold face and say some harsh words.
Seeing this, Qin Fu'an suppressed a laugh and didn't let go of Xie Yunhuai's silently struggling shoulder. Instead, he acted like two good buddies and shrugged helplessly at the group of anxious villagers: "Look what you've done! The little mountain god doesn't even want to talk to you anymore. Silence is the most direct rejection, so you're all doomed~"
His blunt and harsh remark, "It's all over," immediately ignited the ferocity of the group.
"This is the only chance left! Let's all go together! How could we possibly lose if we all combined our strength?!"
The village chief completely abandoned his original human appearance, and after saying this in a ferocious voice, he transformed into a ghost and pounced on the barrier again.
Seeing the menacing posture of this group of ghosts, Qin Fu'an stood still without flinching or dodging, innocently reminding them, "Everyone, you're not adults yet, please call yourselves ghosts, don't taint perfectly good people, okay?"
In short, it was like adding fuel to the fire, or pouring water on boiling oil. Xie Yunhuai even watched as several villagers were so enraged by Qin Fu'an that they exploded on the spot, turning into a cloud of black mist that wouldn't dissipate.
"..."
Compared to Qin Fu'an's mouth, these villagers were actually no different from him, a mute who couldn't speak.
[Author's Note]
Thank you so much for the free tickets and nutrient solution, my darlings! Love you all~
There's only one short chapter tonight, but a much longer one tomorrow.
.
Thank you to the little angel who launched the rocket:
One "Close Your Eyes When It Gets Dark" message;
Thank you to the little angels who watered the nutrient solution:
One bottle each of Mukawa Megumi, Le Ran, and Jing Xi;
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