Butterfly pattern
After ten months of pregnancy and giving birth to a child, no matter whether the mother likes it or not, or whether she resists the child or not, the child will be watched over and carefully fed.
After breastfeeding the child for about a month or two, they all softened their hearts because of the child's arrival, and gradually, they all regarded the child as a refuge in this dark cage.
However, her child would be taken away without mercy. The men treated her like a rag doll, pulling her wildly in the fight, without any regard for the possibility of hurting the child.
Only mothers care.
So, when they let go, they saw their child again.
In fact, there was a woman who had her child taken away and was found to be pregnant again after being diagnosed. She had seen her child.
But we didn’t know each other when we met, and we only had the food on the plate.
She never knew until her death that the piece of tender meat she was eating was her child who was taken away from her. Like the other three women, she never knew until her death that the so-called days of eating meat every day to fill their stomachs after being imprisoned were actually cannibalism.
They were trapped in that dark, cramped, damp and cold little house their entire lives, suffering numbly from forced abuse, giving birth to children continuously, wearing their bodies down, and in the end, they couldn't even leave their bodies intact when they died.
Some also died of hemorrhage during childbirth and were steamed and eaten along with the fetus in their womb.
After reading their memories, Yuanli was greatly shocked. The more she knew about the past of Huamian Village, the more shocking it became and the harder it was to accept.
"Yuan'er, have you noticed that from the time we first entered Huamian Village until now, there have only been the souls of the adults in Huamian Village, not the souls of the babies who were steamed and eaten shortly after birth."
"The soul of the man from Huamian Village is trapped in the iron steamer. Just like the situation with the souls of these four women, I do think they are trapped by some kind of magical weapon or formation. But the baby you mentioned, if there is a magical weapon or formation, then the baby's soul should be here as well."
"There are too many suspicious points in Huamian Village. These men's souls have been in the steamer for so many years, but Meimei and the others didn't even notice before the monster collected their souls. Moreover, they became residual souls out of nowhere, which is also quite suspicious."
Meimei cautiously raised her hand to indicate she had something to say. When Broom Star Lord nodded, she said, "Could it be that there's something wrong with the iron steamer? We all thought they were disgusting and unlucky, and we didn't want to see their tablets anymore, so we never touched the iron steamer."
Hearing this, Heng Jin walked towards the scattered iron steamers and picked out a relatively intact one to examine.
After using magic to explore, Heng Jin indeed found some tricks on it, and picked up a few more to check and found the same thing.
"Chen Wanmei, the four of them were all imprisoned in Huamian Village. They probably don't know that the souls almost regard you as their leader. Do you know how to make an iron steamer or anything related to it?"
"The iron steamers were all made by men, and women were not allowed to set foot in the ancestral hall. Even when the village chief called the men together to discuss matters, he was wary of women. However, after he died, I talked to Hua Qingming's mother, and she mentioned that Hua Qingming's father told her that the method of making the iron steamers in the ancestral hall of Huamian Village came from an immortal. The iron used in the steamers was actually a gift from that immortal. After the blacksmith made them according to the immortal's instructions, they would use them to steam newborn babies. Only when a man died would the oldest used steamer be given to him."
"Immortal?"
"Yes, Immortal. Except for Hua Qingming's mother, none of us have even heard of this, but even she only knows this much."
Yuanli asked Hengjin, "Did you find anything wrong with this iron steamer?"
"Yes, that's right. The inner circle of the iron steamer has some patterns. The patterns are dense and chaotic, and the depth of the engraving varies. However, the spell has made the patterns appear more vivid, and the words appear more clearly in the deeper areas. This character looks a bit like the symbols created by the group of butterfly demons that disappeared from Mount Daimu. I don't quite understand their writing, but I have seen some of the symbols on their flags and soul banners."
After saying this, Heng Jin cast a spell to fill in the patterns on the iron steamer for her to see.
"It's so winding and unclear, it's hard to imagine it forming a single character, like a pattern."
Heng Jin gently took off a hairpin from her head and used the slender tip of the hairpin to trace the words along the lines for her to see.
"The words created by the butterfly spirits are more like patterns. Sometimes, such a word even represents a sentence."
"Oh, I understand a little bit. By the way, the flag soul pennants? What does the Butterfly Clan use them for? Are they the kind of flag soul pennants I'm thinking of as soul-summoning pennants?"
"Yes, that unique butterfly spirit only lives in Daimu Mountain. They're almost always ruled by women, including the elders. Their spiritual power is shallow, but their strength lies in the soul flags they wield. I don't know much about them; I've only fought them a few times. However, there's a butterfly spirit named Cai Dai who really likes Xiang Yao and pursued him for a while. He should know more about them. I'll go back and ask him."
Yuanli asked in confusion, "If it's a butterfly spirit and not a butterfly demon, why would it use something as insidious as a spirit-summoning banner instead of a magical weapon?"
"I don't quite understand. The souls in their spirit-calling banners are not human souls, and the souls that are taken in are all willing. They are not souls that they have captured. Therefore, the heavenly realm has not interfered. I will tell you more about them when I get back."
Yuanli and Hengjin also cast spells and searched in Huamian Village, but they also did not find any hidden strange things.
To prevent the monsters from arriving early, Yuanli and Hengjin took them into hiding inside the stone statue of the mountain god left by Su Yang. She then discovered that the statue still held some of Su Yang's power, though it was very weak. Furthermore, her statue, placed inside, also had some protective and evil-repelling properties, which was perhaps why they were spared.
We waited until it was almost dark before Abang and Ayi came back.
Ah Bang and Ah Yi restrained their auras and hid in the stone statues. "How is it? We didn't miss anything, did we? Ah Yi and I brought the soul back to the Netherworld and handed it over to the other Yin messengers, and then we hurried here."
"The monsters haven't come yet. We found something else."
Yuanli cast a spell to reappear before Abang and Ayi the butterfly spirit characters that Hengjin had just drawn for her. "Take a look, do you recognize them?"
After saying this, Yuanli sent a telepathic message to Hengjin and asked, "When I reproduced the butterfly spirit's text pattern just now, I paid special attention to reproducing it in front of Abang and Ayi alone. Did you see it just now?"
Heng Jin chuckled subconsciously, the soft and gentle laughter mixed with his breathing. For a moment, everyone's attention was on him.
He met everyone's different looks, quickly suppressed his smile, and replied to Yuanli through telepathy, "I didn't see it. What's wrong? Because I heard you just now, after you told Abang and Ayi about it, are you feeling any shadow in your heart?"
After getting the answer, Yuanli secretly breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it wasn't that all the spells she hadn't mastered were not perfect.
She said to him through telepathy, "I didn't. You're the one with the shadow in your heart! It's your fault that you, Emperor, either eavesdropped on my thoughts or listened to my telepathic communication with Abang and Ayi!"
The smile that had just been doubling on Heng Jin's lips rose again. He telepathically transmitted his words to her, "Yes, yes, I have a shadow in my heart. That's why I want to be your dog-skin plaster. I'm afraid that the psychological shadow will reappear. If I'm not careful, a beautiful peach blossom will seduce my wife away."
His tone was slightly flattering and coquettish, and his eyes were gentle and affectionate as he brought up old matters with her. Coupled with his beautiful face, which was only vaguely visible in the dark, it was inevitable that her heart would be moved.
Yuanli looked at him twice more and found that the curve of his mouth was getting more and more arrogant. She then realized her behavior and touched her nose in embarrassment and panic to hide her guilt.
Turning her head away, she angrily cursed herself in her heart: When will I be able to change this lustful habit of mine? Damn it! Alas, this playboy is beautiful, really beautiful, but he deserves to die!
Just as she finished her angry scolding, she heard Heng Jin telepathically transmit to her, "I also think, my lady, this lustful problem will never be resolved! However... today, Rong Yan was able to please my lady again, and I can feel the joy of a concubine who has been sent to the cold palace and regained favor. But you are such a playboy, you really wronged me, my lady. I have given you my whole heart and my whole self."
He said this jokingly with a hint of pleading sincerity in his tone. Yuanli's face instantly turned red with embarrassment, as if someone had caught her pigtail.
She turned her head and sent a telepathic message to him, angrily cursing, "Heng Jin, you bastard, you're eavesdropping on me again!"
He secretly tugged at the corner of her sleeve, hiding from the eyes of others. Heng Jin spoke innocently, feigning grievance, and telepathically said to her, "It's unfair! Didn't you touch the tip of my nose yourself, signaling me to listen to your heart? Have you forgotten the agreement between us? You, you even called me a bastard..."
She turned around and looked at him apologetically. He had a pursed mouth, drooped shoulders, and a slightly furrowed brow. His aggrieved eyes fell on her, making him look pitiful and innocent.
Yuanli understood very well his tactics of pretending to be pitiful whenever he found some small flaw or vulnerability in her.
But this little trick of his, which she knew very well, was very effective for her. He was really good-looking, and in her heart, she really liked him.
After he reminded her, Yuanli remembered that it was indeed she who touched her nose in the awkwardness and panic to hide her guilt. They had agreed that she was too lazy to waste her spiritual power to communicate with him and wanted to talk to him with her mind, so she touched her nose to indicate that he was listening.
Yuanli touched the tip of her nose again and said in her heart, "I didn't forget, I just did it for a while."
Heng Jin, still aggrieved, asked through telepathic communication, "Calling me a bastard, was that just something you said casually?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
