Jiang Chuyan could feel that after he knocked out the monster, the atmosphere in this remote mountain village suddenly changed.
Although he was still being watched by the villagers of Longzhao, the gazes focused on him had changed. They seemed to have become more friendly and eager, but...
Jiang Chuyan's instincts still told him something was amiss. But at that moment, he had no time to assess the source of his rising wariness. After Jiang Chuyan received the so-called "Dragon God's Blessing," the villagers immediately became much more welcoming—so welcoming, in fact, that Jiang Chuyan felt a bit overwhelmed.
Amidst cheers, Jiang Chuyan watched as several villagers rushed into the red circle at the call of the village witch. They carefully pulled up the red cloth that was originally placed under the body of the albino giant salamander.
Having absorbed the blood of the giant salamander, blood was still dripping from one corner of the red cloth when it was pulled up.
But the villagers obviously didn't care about this small detail. The strong men had smiles on their faces. They carefully pulled a corner of the red cloth and walked towards Jiang Chuyan. They raised the red cloth in their hands towards the confused outsiders.
Even though he couldn't understand the local dialect, Jiang Chuyan could guess what they were going to do. They were about to cover him with the bleeding cloth when a chill came over him. Jiang Chuyan's face paled, and he instinctively backed away.
"*&&...%"
"￥#@%!"
…
Seeing Jiang Chuyan hiding, the villagers opened their eyes wide, stared at him, and uttered a series of anxious and vague words.
"I'm sorry, I, I don't want that..."
Jiang Chu spoke incoherently and waved his hands at them.
But the villagers still walked towards him regardless. The smell of blood on the red cloth hit Jiang Chuyan's face, and his stomach tightened.
A pair of hands pressed on his trembling shoulders.
"Don't hide, this is a rare blessing."
He Yuan controlled Jiang Chuyan. The boy lowered his head and spoke softly in Jiang Chuyan's ear.
"But--"
Jiang Chuyan wanted to refute, but when he turned around, he met He Yuan's face.
The boy's light-colored eyes sparkled brightly in the smoke.
"They don't mean any harm, and they're not going to hurt you. This is just a blessing."
He Yuan said.
Jiang Chuyan's lips moved slightly and his breathing became rapid.
But he did not refute He Yuan.
Yes, there are many customs like this among ethnic minorities. Some ethnic minorities will even dig out the steaming hearts of freshly slaughtered livestock and offer them to distinguished guests.
It's just a very traditional custom...
"You are someone who has been blessed by the Dragon God. They just want to express their gratitude to you."
As He Yuan whispered, another burst of thick smoke rolled in.
Jiang Chuyan didn't realize that his frightened eyes were gradually becoming blurred and dazed.
Perhaps it was indeed inappropriate for me to be so resistant.
There seemed to be a strange voice deep in my heart persuading me.
Jiang Chuyan was finally convinced. He stood there stiffly and no longer dodged.
In fact, he had no room to hide.
The villagers in the square were already singing and dancing. The air was filled with a cacophony of noise and joy. Jiang Chuyan felt as if he had stumbled into a carnival parade.
Then, he was forcibly swept into the excited emotional torrent of the people around him without any resistance, and he had no choice but to go with the flow.
By the time he reacted, the wet red cloth with a slight smell of blood was already draped over his head.
Jiang Chuyan's vision instantly turned blood red.
His breathing hitched, and a familiar panic came over him, but He Yuan quickly grabbed his hand.
"I'm right next to you, don't be afraid."
When the young man heard He Yuan's voice, his heartbeat suddenly quickened.
His hand was completely wrapped in He Yuan's cold palm, and even his fingertips could not tremble.
The sounds around them grew even louder and more chaotic. Beneath the red cloth, the villagers' chattering seemed to emanate from underwater. Jiang Chuyan was like a drowned person dragged into a deep pool by a water ghost, surrounded by a thick, vague, and endless wave of sound.
And he had nowhere to escape.
The pale young man lowered his eyes. He stared blankly at the bottom of the red cloth, his eyes wide open. Those people were holding hands, singing, and twisting their bodies, each one looking like they were dancing. Longzhao's traditional clothing was covered in intricate, curly patterns, and as the people danced, the patterns seemed to come alive, twitching and wriggling. Jiang Chuyan only watched for a moment before he felt dizzy and almost nauseous.
Jiang Chuyan silently prayed that this strange "blessing" would pass quickly.
"Wow, wow, wow..."
Then, Jiang Chuyan heard a faint howling sound.
That was the sound of a baby crying.
The chill crawled across his back like a snake. As he stumbled, he nervously lifted a corner of the red cloth, just in time to see the masked village witch and Budacuocuo carrying the already limp body of the albino giant salamander and stuffing it into the bottom of the pagoda in the red circle.
Then they set the tower on fire.
Flames rose up instantly, engulfing the tall and exquisite pagoda.
Amidst the twisted air currents and red tongues of fire, the dead giant salamander slowly curled up inside the pagoda.
…
Seeing this, Jiang Chuyan's breath hitched again. But he quickly realized that fish do indeed contract when heated.
This is just a normal scene.
This is very normal.
He kept trying to convince himself not to think too much, but in a trance he heard that strange crying sound again.
"Wow…"
"Wow… wow wow…"
The baby is screaming.
Howling.
But when he listened more carefully, the only thing he could hear was the laughter of the people around him and the crackling sound of the flames jumping on the wet branches.
After the pagoda started burning, the atmosphere reached a climax.
Before he knew it, Jiang Chuyan was surrounded by villagers and taken to the other end of the square, to an ancient building that looked like an ancestral hall.
The interior of the tall wooden building is very spacious, but because it is so spacious, there is a severe lack of lighting.
The light bulbs hanging from the high eaves were on even during the day, but the dim light was unable to illuminate the damp shadows inside the ancestral hall.
After entering the ancestral hall, Jiang Chuyan couldn't bear it any longer and pulled off the red cloth on his head. When he looked up again, he saw a long black wooden table in the middle of the hall.
At the end of the wooden table were two tall chairs placed side by side. Behind them was a tall shrine. However, Jiang Chuyan could not see the statue enshrined within the shrine at this moment, as the exquisitely carved shrine was already tightly covered by a thick layer of black cloth.
However, the shrine was indeed built too tall, and even the black cloth could not completely cover it.
Through the gap at the bottom of the black cloth, you can still vaguely see the shadow of the statue inside.
A thick dragon's tail, covered in dense scales. In the dim light, the mottled gold on the scales shimmered with tiny shimmers as the person moved.
It is indeed a place where people believe in the Dragon God.
Jiang Chuyan thought to himself.
Even if only a little bit is exposed, you can see that the statue is very beautifully carved.
It was as if there really was an ancient, rotten dragon corpse lurking beneath the black cloth, staring at the fanatical believers below with its empty eyes.
Jiang Chuyan didn't know why he thought so.
As soon as he entered here, his attention was uncontrollably focused on the shrine. It didn't feel good, but he just couldn't take his eyes away.
"Why do they cover the statue?"
He raised his head, stared at the shrine, and asked in a trance.
Compared with Jiang Chuyan, He Yuan didn't seem to care much about the strange furnishings in the ancestral hall.
Hearing the question, he shrugged: "I don't know. When I came here before, the door was always closed."
After he finished speaking, He Yuan turned his head and looked at the villagers outside the door.
"But when I came here before, I always felt that they seemed to be quite afraid of this damn place."
Just as He Yuan said, after sending Jiang Chuyan into the ancestral hall, all the villagers retreated quickly outside the door like a tide.
By the time Jiang Chuyan and his group of five reacted, they were left alone in the ancestral hall.
"What the hell is going on... Isn't this their own Dragon God? Why are these people acting like they've seen a ghost?"
Xu Yuanzhou scratched his hair, looked around a little panicked, and muttered to himself.
"Hey, stop talking, Brother Yuanzhou, you're scaring me."
Bai Ke softened her voice and deliberately leaned closer to Xu Yuanzhou.
While doing this, he deliberately looked in Jiang Chuyan's direction, but then he was disappointed to find that the latter hadn't noticed his little thought at all...
Jiang Chuyan was still looking up at the statue under the black cloth. Perhaps because he was still covered with the blood-red cloth, in the dark ancestral hall, the thin young man's cheeks were so white that they seemed transparent, and there was a faint hint of blue in his eyes.
Not long after, Budacuocuo hurried over, rubbing his hands. He Yuan went over and said a few words to him, then turned around and answered Jiang Chuyan's previous doubts.
"I've almost figured it out. The villagers aren't leaving us out on purpose... They don't dare come in because they're afraid of disturbing the Dragon God and provoking his revenge."
Finally, he added, "No wonder they didn't dare to open the door even though I came here so many times before. Today, it's all thanks to Chu Yan. If Jiang Chu Yan hadn't been blessed and regarded as a distinguished guest favored by the Dragon God, they wouldn't have dared to take such a big risk and let us in."
"Huh? This Dragon God is quite petty then."
When Bai Ke heard this, she curled her lips and said something sourly.
Before, he had felt a little uncomfortable when he saw those villagers being so respectful to Jiang Chuyan just because of a raw egg.
At school, everyone's eyes were following Jiang Chuyan, either openly or covertly.
Coming to this deep forest, a group of country bumpkins actually treated that guy as a treasure just because of a raw egg.
When Bai Ke thought of this, he almost gritted his teeth.
"True. Besides, who would cover their worshipped deity with a cloth in a normal place? Only evil gods in horror movies would be treated like this."
Xu Yuanzhou also said lightly from the side.
He was not in a very good mood either.
After what happened just now, the villagers have been surrounding Jiang Chuyan. He Yuan, the only one who can understand a little of the local dialect, naturally became Jiang Chuyan's translator.
The two of them inexplicably formed a small world. As for him, Bai Ke, and Liu Tianyu, they were just like the byproducts brought by those two people. Not to mention getting close, even talking to someone required crossing layers of people, and there was no way they could walk together.
He was in a bad mood, and he became increasingly disgusted with the so-called crappy dragon god worshipped by Longzhao.
"Don't talk nonsense."
He Yuan suddenly turned around and glanced at the two of them coldly.
Xu Yuanzhou met He Yuan's gaze without noticing for a moment, and he felt a chill all over his body, with white sweat breaking out on his back.
What's going on?
Xu Yuanzhou froze instantly.
At that moment, Xu Yuanzhou felt that something seemed to be flashing in He Yuan's eyes...
But when he calmed down and looked at the other person again, He Yuan's expression had returned to normal.
The tall boy was holding Budacuocuo and discussing something at the end of the long table, and he seemed to have not noticed the whispers between Xu Yuanzhou and Bai Ke at all.
A moment later, Budacuocuo's face was full of smiles as he invited everyone to come to the long table.
"Dear guests, this is where you will have your meal today. Please wait a moment. We will prepare the most sumptuous food for you..."
At first it sounded as if Budacuocuo was talking to everyone who had just arrived in Longzhao Village, but in fact his eyes could only see the young men who were "chosen" by the Dragon God.
The enthusiastic village chief kept pulling Jiang Chuyan and took him to the two seats at the end of the long table.
Jiang Chuyan was almost forced by Budacuocuo to sit on one of the high chairs.
Immediately afterwards, He Yuan also sat down next to Jiang Chuyan.
At the end of the long table, beneath the shrine covered with black cloth, a tall, handsome, dark-skinned boy sat side by side with a pale, fair-skinned young man draped in a red cloth.
The scene seemed strangely harmonious, but Jiang Chuyan felt extremely uncomfortable.
"Wait, why are you sitting like this? This is the main seat, right? Shouldn't it be where the village elders or the elderly sit?"
He asked hurriedly, trying to stand up as he spoke.
"No, no, we are not qualified. Only you can sit here."
Budacuocuo firmly held Jiang Chuyan down.
He stared at Jiang Chuyan without blinking, his eyes wide open as if they would pop out of their sockets in the next second.
And his voice was extremely earnest, almost to the point of being nervous.
"You are blessed, you are the noble, the only Mar."
After saying that, he placed his other hand on He Yuan's shoulder, and that stiff smile appeared on his face again.
"He's Sikani, you're Mal."
"You are recognized by the Dragon God, the embodiment of blessing and grace... You should be here..."
Budacuocuo spoke vaguely, and perhaps because he was too nervous, the following paragraphs of his speech were no longer in Chinese, but in Longzhao dialect.
"Sikani? Mal?"
Jiang Chuyan was confused by these unfamiliar words, but He Yuan turned around and blinked in his direction.
"Don't look at me. I don't know what this means either. It's their local dialect. I think it means something like 'the one who bestows blessings and gifts.'"
He Yuan muttered softly.
"Budacuocuo still has the same habit of reverting to his native dialect when he gets excited..."
The boy sighed.
"you?"
Jiang Chuyan suddenly realized something.
"Yes, I've cracked eggs before..."
He Yuan smiled and nodded in response.
Looking at He Yuan like this, Jiang Chuyan had a flash of understanding in his mind: No wonder, he had felt before that the attitudes of the people in Longzhao Village were always a little different when facing He Yuan.
Especially Budacuocuo, when communicating with He Yuan, there was an indescribable intimacy between them.
If anyone who cracked a rough egg would be considered a person blessed by the Dragon God, this would explain why He Yuan had such a transcendent status in the village before.
"You also cracked the hairy eggs?"
Jiang Chuyan asked very sympathetically.
He Yuan just smiled and didn't elaborate.
"About the same."
He responded, but a series of dark and bloody blurry images emerged in his mind...
A smashed skull.
The scalp was peeled off in one piece.
And... those monstrous things screaming in their yellowish brains...
…
As he spoke, Budacuocuo had already retreated to the entrance of the ancestral hall.
Seeing that the college students were already seated at the table, he bowed respectfully toward the two people at the main seats.
A series of dialects mixed with unclear Chinese poured out of his mouth.
Even if one strained to listen, it was just a bunch of meaningless, strangely worded blessings. Amidst Budacuocuo's exaggerated rhetoric, Jiang Chuyan felt as if he had somehow become the only thing the entire Longzhao villager could rely on, their only hope for survival...
The more Jiang Chuyan listened, the more embarrassed he felt. He finally waited for Budacuocuo to shut up, but as he heard a long and vague dialect, his ankles felt heavy.
Jiang Chuyan screamed and jumped up from his seat - and then almost fell to the ground.
Lifting the tablecloth, he was shocked to find a thick iron chain around his ankle. A naked mountain child, perhaps three or four years old, with dark eyes wide open, was squatting under the table, looking up at him with a grin.
"What are you doing?!"
Jiang Chuyan didn't care whether the child understood what he said or not, he screamed.
It was obvious that the child really couldn't understand Chinese.
Amid Jiang Chuyan's questioning, the child had a strange, foolish smile on his face and locked the chain directly around Jiang Chuyan's ankle.
With a "click".
The chain is locked.
One end was stuck on Jiang Chuyan, while the other end was wrapped around He Yuan's ankle.
The sudden change shocked everyone.
"Shit...what the hell is going on?!"
Xu Yuanzhou's face turned pale as he rushed over to help Jiang Chuyan unlock the chains. However, He Yuan, who was also chained, appeared remarkably calm.
There was even a faint smile on his lips.
"Ah, don't worry, don't worry, this is also a ritual..."
He Yuan muttered softly.
"Ritual?! What the hell is this ritual? A ritual to lock people up?! Is this a study group or human trafficking—"
Veins popped out on Xu Yuanzhou's forehead and he started yelling without caring about anything.
Seeing that Xu Yuanzhou was about to overturn the table, Budacuocuo hurried over and started to explain together.
"No, we mean no harm, we just want to lock the dragon's blessing here."
Budacuocuo blushed and stood in front of Xu Yuanzhou.
It took everyone a while to understand what was said. It turned out that the chain was indeed a symbolic ritual.
Because Jiang Chuyan cracked an "egg" with special meaning, he is now the incarnation of the Dragon God's blessing.
Just like the ginseng pickers in Changbai Mountain would use red string to trap the ginseng they found, the villagers of Longzhao Village also followed the ancient tradition. When the person blessed by the Dragon God appeared, they would symbolically and secretly lock him/her up with an iron chain.
"It's a loose knot. After dinner, you can untie it if you want."
He Yuan looked like he had encountered something similar before, with a hint of helplessness in his eyes.
Seeing that Jiang Chuyan's face was still covered with a layer of panic, he smiled bitterly and spoke again.
"But--"
"Didn't I tell you? I've cracked that egg before. That's the faith here. Don't be nervous."
The tall boy scratched the back of his head and stared at Jiang Chuyan intently while speaking.
"Trust me."
He said sincerely.