Hua Shi could clearly see the emotions reflected in his pupils, which were full of worry, and she also saw her own figure, reflected in a small way in those dark eyes.
Her heart trembled slightly, and the words on her lips stopped...
Xie Mingchi waited for a long time, but didn't hear her speak. He blinked and asked uncertainly, "...How did you get rid of it?"
He had fought the wolf demon several times and knew it was cunning. He also vaguely guessed that it was hiding with the child, seemingly very afraid of contact with humans...
Hua Shi came back to his senses and suddenly chuckled: "I told it that I was a follower of the mountain god, so it let me go."
Hua Shi took the initiative to omit the other dangerous scenes of chasing each other and simply told the outcome of what happened.
"You didn't tell me last time that the child who got lost in the mountains was sent there by the villagers. I thought he ran into the mountains and got lost on his own. I saw him just now and tried to persuade him to come back to the village..."
Hua Shi turned and said, and his brows furrowed as he thought of this.
Xie Mingchi was stunned for a moment, his eyes lowered, his mood obviously becoming a little depressed, as if he had thought of something bad. He said slowly and helplessly: "He was indeed sent to the mountain by the villagers as a sacrifice to the mountain god."
"Ah?!" Hua Shi stared, so shocked by his words that she was unable to react.
As a sacrifice to the mountain god? Using a living person as a sacrifice? ...
She had heard of this kind of thing before, but it usually happened in backward and feudal areas. Where she lived was prosperous and bustling, filled with all kinds of fast food information. In her memory, this kind of thing had only been seen on TV...
Hua Shi came back to his senses in a trance.
By the way, the world she lives in now is no longer the same as before. It is closed and backward. It is not surprising that people sacrifice living people because of their belief in mountain gods.
She just didn't expect...
Xie Mingchi looked at her stunned and astonished expression, and his expression was also stunned, as if he didn't expect that she didn't even know this.
It was not said explicitly before because human sacrifice was considered a taboo by the villagers, and they would never talk about it verbally.
Everyone knows that this is wrong, but no one stops it. There is no need to say it openly if it is something that everyone knows tacitly.
In the eyes of the villagers, sacrificing one person in exchange for the peace and happiness of the entire village is a very worthwhile thing. They agree that such a thing should happen, but they are unwilling to admit it...
Besides...
Xie Mingchi frowned, his eyebrows drooping. He whispered, "This kind of thing might only happen once every ten years. Younger people might not know, but the sacrifice for the past five years has been Aunt Suhua's seven-year-old child... Whenever a natural disaster strikes the village, everyone thinks it's the angry mountain god, so they choose a sacrifice and offer it to the mountain to appease the god and bless the village with good weather and prosperity every year."
Hua Shi: "So, is this also the reason why the villagers choose to worship the mountain god on that day every year during the New Year's Eve?"
"Well, it was a winter about five years ago. It snowed heavily for nearly three months straight. Because it was so cold, many people didn't have time to clear the snow from their roofs, causing many houses to collapse under the heavy snow. The harvest that year was also poor, and some people even starved to death or froze to death..."
Xie Mingchi carefully recalled the past events and narrated them in a deep and explaining voice.
"Then, they thought of taking a child for sacrifice, sending it into the mountains to please the mountain god?" Hua Shi asked in a low voice, with a frown on her face, and it was obvious that she disagreed with this.
Xie Mingchi nodded. "That's about right. The village has had this rule for a long time. Whenever the village encounters a major disaster, they will sacrifice six or seven-year-old children into the mountains..."
As he spoke, his mood became increasingly gloomy, his eyelids drooped, and he looked a little listless...
Hua Shi's brows were furrowed tightly, and he kept muttering, "This is just nonsense, right...?"
Because Xie Mingchi had told her that there was indeed a mountain god in Linhai Mountain, so after hearing Xie Mingchi's words, Hua Shi was a little uncertain whether this was something the villagers decided on their own, or was it true... that the mountain god needed human children to be worshipped.
"If you ask me, the mountain god never thought of asking the children in the village to offer sacrifices to him. It's just the villagers' self-righteous thoughts."
When Xie Mingchi said this, his tone unconsciously revealed his deep disgust for this.
As the mountain guardian, he was the one who could most intuitively sense the mountain god's will. How could he not perceive the mountain god's intentions...
Because of this, when he knew that the child was still alive, he had been searching in the mountains, hoping to find him...
Hua Shi pondered for a moment and suddenly said, "But have you ever thought that the child doesn't want to go back with you?"
After roughly understanding the whole story, Hua Shi couldn't help but recall the reactions of the wolf demon and Xiao He just now. Xiao He's attitude and emotions clearly showed that he was unwilling to return to the village, and he even showed hatred and disgust towards the villagers.
To put it another way, even if he was willing to go back with Xie Mingchi, what would the villagers think of a child who was pushed out by the whole village for sacrifice and suddenly returned to the village intact?
Xie Mingchi lowered his head, his voice a little hoarse: "There were seven children in the sacrifice five years ago, but only Aunt Suhua's child survived. Of the other six, only a few stumps of limbs were found, eaten by wild beasts."
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