Chapter 165 The Fifth Day After the God's Departure (2) "I said, where is Xie Tan...?"
A terrifying wildfire unfolded before Xie Tan's eyes, just like the scene Xiao Liu experienced in the comics, but the sense of despair he felt was something that even the best artist could not capture.
Xie Tan felt the heat of the fire, but with such intensity, his sensation was too mild.
When the fire touches your body, it feels more like mist.
It might really be fog, because he saw all four seasons.
The Four Seasons Mountain was clearly covered in snow, a silvery white expanse, but now, he saw burning leaves in the fire.
Driven by the terrain, wind, and dry vegetation, the fire spread like wildfire.
The gale whipped the burning branches and leaves through the air, colliding with raindrops and creating a constant crackling and popping sound, igniting new fires.
The airflow spun into a pillar of fire, swirling and crashing like a whirlwind.
Under normal circumstances, a fire of this intensity would be enough to burn or kill people from heat radiation alone, along with toxic gases from the smoke.
But Xie Tan still remembered the "non-existent Four Seasons Mountain Fire" mentioned on the forum. This mountain fire was more like a huge curse, separating it from the real world.
And the curse is coming true.
Amidst those flames, countless scenes flickered in and out, encompassing people, things, and events.
So that's how it is. He thought that Xiao Liu started the ceremony in spring and summer in the comics, but that was just the scenery of the four seasons appearing at the same time in the sun's fire. More accurately, it was something that happened at different times, and these records were dug up and played together.
Xie Tan saw strangers going up and down the mountain, people living in the luxury residential area halfway up the mountain, black goats, and later, members of the cult.
A wail came from the fire. He saw the skeleton going mad, as if he had returned to the burning town of Fushui. But this time, the skeleton could not be fixed in human form and was burned away little by little by the fire.
They are black goats.
Why did they collectively return to the sheepfold on the inauspicious day when God departed? Was it for ancestor worship or sacrifice?
He soon learned that he saw a herd of black goats kneeling in the fire, much like a religious ceremony, the fanaticism even more vivid in the distorted flames.
They worship the sun god, claiming this place is where the sun rises, and that their head of household is the incarnation of the god on earth.
Xie Tan ignored the second half of the sentence, so Four Seasons Mountain is the place where the Smoke Mirror first appeared? This place happens to represent the Tiger Day.
He brushed past the bones in the fire and walked up the mountain, the direction in which the black goats knelt in worship.
He also complained that it was too noisy going down, with all the wailing and howling.
Once the ceremony began, the whistles never stopped, sounding like a million mouths screaming; perhaps this was the true meaning of a chorus of voices.
So the cult leader is here too, but who is the other one?
As if sensing something, he took out the hair knot he always carried with him. He observed that the second hair knot had been burned, and the talisman in the Yin Peach Blossom chapter had been used. Like the hair ghost's clump, only a small piece remained, the same size as the normal hair knots of other black goats.
This should be what Xiao Liu's hair originally looked like.
The last talisman was bound inside the Vajra knot.
Suddenly, a fiery whirlwind swept across his palm, then vanished in an instant, burning everything to ashes.
Xie Tan noticed the incantation moving around, so he looked away.
Xiao Liu prepared everything, so she naturally knew where to use it.
As the whirlwind passed, his vision cleared briefly, revealing a thick fog that brought a damp chill, quite different from the wildfire, like a real rain after a storm.
A drop of water slid across the veins of a leaf, causing the leaf tip to tremble as it fell, and the rain landed on Xie Tan's forehead.
He looked up, and the desolate chill of the forest after the rain and mist enveloped the wildfire.
Under the tree in front, a little girl stood with her white dress splattered with mud, holding a small black umbrella, her back to him.
Xie Tan paused for a moment. "Not necessarily," he thought. The little girl's upper body was covered by the umbrella, but he could be sure that her lower body was facing away from him.
The girl noticed his presence and turned around.
She has a pair of calm eyes.
Xie Tan breathed a sigh of relief.
She stared at him for a while, then asked, "Are you a mountain spirit? A cat demon?"
“No,” Xie Tan said. “Why do you ask that?”
“You are very beautiful,” the girl said objectively, “unlike any human being, and you’re not carrying an umbrella… but I was wrong, I’m sorry, I offended you.”
It's okay. Actually, I also thought you were a monster with your upper body growing backwards, hiding behind the umbrella and watching me. Xie Tan thought.
The girl asked, "Do you need an umbrella?"
"No need, the rain isn't heavy."
Are you lost too?
"I guess so."
The mountain was ablaze, and he had no destination, just wandering aimlessly, waiting for the story to unfold on its own.
He wondered if Su Huang was among the many cremated bones he had passed by.
Girl: "Have you seen my family?"
It turned out she had gotten separated from her family while hiking, and she described what her family looked like and what they were wearing.
"No." Xie Tan saw too much and too many things, and his attention was more focused on the burned black goats. He didn't look at the unrelated ordinary people, some of whom might only come to this mountain once in their lives.
He looked in the direction the girl had been looking: "You want to go to the top of the mountain?"
Girl: "The further I go, the less I can find my way. I've been going around in circles for a long time. Maybe the least likely path will lead me to a better way."
She remained calm throughout, beyond her years, giving Xie Tan a sense of familiarity.
But when he said that, he still revealed a hint of unease befitting his age.
Thinking about it, it makes sense. At first glance, it sounds philosophical, but the way down the mountain can never be found on the way up, which sounds more like there's really no other way.
Xie Tan looked at the face but still couldn't identify who it was. The child and the grown-up look completely different. If you put two photos in front of him at the same time and told him that it was the same person, he would be able to find the common ground between them and then naturally exclaim, "He's always looked like this since he was a child."
He walked forward, entering this fog that seemed to belong to some unknown point in time or timeline, and stopped beside her.
"you're right."
The girl looked up at him with some surprise.
Xie Tan extended his hand to her: "Let's go."
The girl looked at him quietly for a few more seconds, then placed the umbrella in his hand.
Xie Tan paused slightly, switched the umbrella to his other hand, and took the girl's hand, the two of them, one big and one small, heading up the mountain.
After the rain, all was quiet in the mountains.
Suddenly, the girl asked, "Did you see a group of people on your way here?"
"Who is it?"
“I don’t know, but they were carrying a white lantern with a sheep printed on it, like a family crest.”
Xie Tan looked down at her.
The girl was also looking at him, as if observing his reaction: "Black goat."
...
The black hem of his coat fluttered in the wind like a drawn sword, and the tall figure draped in a cloak moved through the flames.
He stood out among the sheep, for he was the only one who stood quietly, observing the black goats' madness until they turned to ashes, and then he moved on to the next flock.
They're all the same scene.
He has been here since he woke up, and this is how it is.
The fire scalded him, burning him intensely. His consciousness and body seemed to melt and merge with the fire.
He was completely confused, but a persistent thought led him.
In the flames, the skeletons bowed and kowtowed three times and nine times, their praises like songs and their screams like flutes, rising and falling in waves.
A skeleton had its arm pecked off by flying fire. It opened its mouth to scream, but instead, a pair of bright red lips parted, and as its body moved in extreme pain, it let out a series of horrifying laughs.
Hahahaha—
The bones turned to ash, and the same mouth appeared on another skeleton. This time, it opened its mouth and let out a deafening cry, but it sounded like an act, too exaggerated, and thus seemed mocking.
This mouth appears randomly on every skeleton, satisfying its desire to perform and uttering its own pleasure.
Before long, the bones were burned to ashes, which were then broken down into dust, which was swept into the flying fire and swept across the mountains with a whooshing sound.
With a sigh of disappointment, his lips returned to the human skin of a black goat he had bitten off, and drifted away with the wind to find the next playground.
Suddenly, it stuck out its tongue, as if peeking out its eyes to take a closer look.
There was another figure in the firelight!
The glint of a blade hidden in the firelight suddenly pinned that mouth to the ground. The figure leaned down and asked in an extremely sinister voice, "Where is he?"
His tongue trembled, yet he was still laughing and could still make sounds: "Of course it's on the mountaintop. You're already in the ritual, don't you understand the rules? As soon as the Eye of Observation enters, you'll be automatically locked on the mountaintop, which is the Spell Tower, the place where the furnace is. Once midnight arrives, it'll be done."
The cult leader chuckled, "What, you old codger, you're feeling sorry for her too? You don't seem to care much about my sister either. I told you long ago, I'm against this marriage..."
The knife advanced another point, and Su He asked, "Where is Xie Tan?"
The leader said, "Perhaps he's touring the mountains? The scenery at Four Seasons Mountain is quite nice. It's also an eye of observation, so it sees more than we do."
Su He: "I couldn't find him."
“I’ve wanted to say this for a long time. You’re not the child’s father, are you? Wasn’t that child born from the curse of the Ghost Mother, from a reversed cause and effect? Why do you always act like his parent? I’m the parent, aren’t I?” The cult leader reached up, the knife piercing deeper, as if craning his neck to look at him. “Oh dear, an old-fashioned person like you with no official status and a strong fatherly attitude won’t be popular with the child. He’ll definitely prefer an open-minded, cool uncle like me who lets him have his way.”
Su He, too lazy to listen, drew her knife to stab him again, her lips, though bleeding profusely, still smiling, not flinching at all: "You're so scared, aren't you? You underestimate him? Wasn't this all that child's scheme? You don't trust him because of my sister, right? You trusted her back then, and the result was loss. Oh, actually, you hate yourself for being unable to do anything, you're afraid of losing another one, hahahahaha—"
Even as the dagger was plunged deeper, it did not stop the cult leader's voice; in fact, even more voices rose up.
"Alright, you poor thing, don't ruin our plans. It's almost midnight. Keep your eyes on the mountaintop and don't miss it. Aren't we looking forward to this fireworks display? Let's celebrate! Come on, count with me, ten, nine..."
Su He wanted to hold his mouth, but his heart grew more and more uneasy as he counted down, until "one," when a loud rumble came from the mountaintop and black flames shot into the sky, like a furnace lid being blown open.
Starting from the mountaintop, all the fires gradually turned black, and the mountain seemed to be covered by night.
Su He suddenly opened his eyes wide, his heart pounding with fear. A gust of wind blew open his cloak, revealing his terrified face.
The still-unblackened pillar of fire brushed against his hair, but he felt nothing.
His fear was not because the fire was heading straight for them.
The incantation he had hidden on Xie Tan's body broke.
Since entering the Four Seasons Mountain, he has been unable to pinpoint the location of this incantation, getting lost in the fire, but at least he knows that Xie Tan is also here.
But it's gone now.
Su He suddenly realized that when the cult leader answered "he is on the mountaintop," he didn't say "he" was Su Huang. The cult leader was referring to Xie Tan!
Xie Tan, like Su Huang, was also on the mountaintop!
However, after the ritual was started, it violated the rules of spell writing and entered the Xie Tan for refining after the ritual was initiated!
Su He's eyes instantly turned red, like a maddened beast, but the wind from her falling blade severed that mouth: "So it really was you who killed her back then—!"
His lips were cracked and bleeding from the wind, but the sounds in his ears didn't stop.
The demonic voices continued to laugh.
"You're the one who killed her."
"Otherwise, how would you be here?"
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