Lei Fenfei breathed a sigh of relief and said politely, "Thank you, Grandpa."
"Young man, don't try to claim kinship with me. Only my clan members can call me Grandpa." The white-haired old man glanced at Lei Fenfei with displeasure and said, "Don't be too happy too soon. Although you are all healthy now, three of the four of you are cursed."
Lei Fenfei cursed in his heart: You old fool, I don’t even want to call you grandpa, and you actually despise me, I...
"I... am cursed?" Lei Fenfei smiled ingratiatingly. "Can it be removed?"
"Yes. It's a small problem." The tear mark between the white-haired old man's eyebrows lit up again.
…
…
In the next few days, Lan Tiao and others settled down completely in the territory of the Compassion Clan.
Lan Tao's tasks were to clean the room every day, go out to pick fresh leaves, dry them, and sew them into clothes.
Gongsun Zimang's tasks were to fetch water, pick wild vegetables and feed pigs.
Chu Zhuzhu was a girl and was taken care of and treated well by the beautiful girl. The girl saw that she was always holding a kitchen knife, so she asked Chu Zhuzhu to be responsible for cooking and washing clothes.
Lei Fenfei was assigned physical work and was responsible for cultivating the farmland.
If someone accidentally enters the village where the Compassionate People live, they would probably think it is just a village where ordinary people live, because the spiritual power of every cultivator has been sealed, and the aura of the Compassionate People is also very ordinary. Their life is plain but warm. Every household does not lock their doors at night, no one picks up things on the road, and the children's laughter is innocent and joyful.
The only special thing is that every morning at dawn, everyone has to kneel down to worship the statue and recite poems praising the gods. At night, the compassionate people will organize some small activities to publicize the greatness and kindness of the gods and try to brainwash everyone.
Lei Fenfei bribed a child with candy and asked the child how to get out. The child replied: "When the sacred feet turn white again, it means that the gods need sacrifices. At this time, we will get out."
"Feet?" Lei Fenfei followed the Compassionate Tribe to kneel and worship the statue every morning. He noticed that only the toes of the statue's feet remained red today; the rest had turned white. He calculated the time and realized he had only been here for five days. "Only five days, and you need a new sacrifice already?"
Lei Fenfei expressed shock.
The child ate the candy and said distressedly, "I don't know what's going on. I used to hear my mother say that sacrifices are usually only needed once every ten years or so. But recently, for some reason, the statue has been needing sacrifices more frequently. From the original ten years or so, it has become five years, three years, two years, one year, and even a few months..."
"Has it become necessary to offer sacrifices every few days now?" Lei Fenfei stroked his chin and fell into deep thought. He asked again, "Can I come with you when we go out to catch sacrifices?"
The child shook his head and said, "The mark on your forehead is a leaf. What can you do outside? You're not even as powerful as me, so you can't go out. You can only stay home and wait for us to come back... If you really want to go out, then work hard to become the most devout believer. The gods will grant you strength."
"I understand..." Lei Fenfei frowned. He didn't want to be trapped here for the rest of his life. He decided to escape while the Compassionate People were out looking for sacrifices.
The next morning, everyone went to kneel down and worship the statue as usual. At this moment, the statue's feet had turned pure white. The high priest saw this and said solemnly, "The gods need more sacrifices. This time, we need to capture 500 sacrifices."
"Five hundred...what if we can't catch enough?" a young child asked timidly.
The high priest did not reply.
The other tribesmen said one after another: "Gods, if the offerings are not enough, I am willing to offer my own body as a sacrifice!"
"Yes, it is our honor to sacrifice our lives for the gods."
"Don't scare the children. We believers have a heavy responsibility. If we all die, how can we offer more sacrifices to the gods?"
"So, we must catch enough people!"
"We can carry out the sacrifice in batches, first capturing 200 people, then 300."
…
The Compassionate people went down the mountain again to arrest people.
Lan Tiao concentrated on sewing clothes. According to the beautiful girl, only when the mark on the forehead turned into a teardrop would one be qualified to wear clothes made of grass leaves and animal skins. Such clothes symbolized being close to nature. Lan Tiao didn't feel anything natural or unnatural. His daily life was very simple anyway. He didn't think about escaping for the time being and planned to let others explore the way first.
Lei Fenfei was unwilling to be trapped, so he sneaked away and walked down the mountain. The whole process was extremely smooth, so smooth that he himself was a little nervous. After going down the mountain, Lei Fenfei walked towards the path leaving the mountain with a nervous mood.
The road was filled with a faint green miasma. Lei Fenfei felt like he had been walking for a long time. The miasma in front of him was getting thicker and thicker, so thick that he could no longer see the road. He continued to walk carefully. As he walked, the fog became thinner again. Lei Fenfei seemed to see hope. He quickened his pace. After a long time, the green miasma completely dissipated. Lei Fenfei turned a corner along the path. Just when he thought he had returned to the miasma forest, he was horrified to find that he was back to the mountain again!
Not far away, there was a stream. Situ Bailian, wearing a white dress, was washing clothes by the stream, while the puppet Situ Lianzi was catching fish with his bare hands. However, since he was a lifeless puppet, without the control of his master, his movements were not agile and flexible enough. After catching for a long time, he only caught one fish.
"How could this happen... I remember that after I came down the mountain, I kept walking along that path... I walked very far, but why did I come back?" Lei Fenfei's face looked grim. He had realized that he had no ability to escape at all.
Perhaps the miasma on the path acted as a decoy or hallucinogenic, causing him to go in the wrong direction and walk back up the mountain.
However, Lei Fenfei has another way to leave here, which is...
surrender.
Since we can't defeat the Compassionate people, then join them.
As long as one makes their faith sincere and firm, and then participates in a transformation ceremony to transform the leaf icon on their head into a teardrop, they can become a member of the Compassionate Tribe. That way, when the next sacrificial offering is sought, they can escape in the chaos...
Lei Fenfei felt that his plan was perfect.
So, every night, when everyone was asleep, Lei Fenfei would secretly run to the top of the mountain, cry bitterly to the statue, and praise the greatness of the God of Compassion while crying.
This method really worked. After a few days, the leaves above Lei Fenfei's head had turned dark green.
It just so happened that the high priest brought back a large number of sacrifices. When he came back and saw Lei Fenfei, the high priest almost suspected that his eyes were blurry. How long had it been since then, and the color of the mark on this kid's head had become so dark?
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