Volume 8: Future · Gap 4 · Competitive Games Chapter 109: Day of Mourning
Leaving the river and passing through the woods, we soon saw residential houses.
The few of them did not approach rashly.
Instead, they chose to take a detour and sent some people who were proficient in stealth skills to gather intelligence information.
The gourd Taoist was naturally among them.
He sneaked into this small village and did not contact the people here, but quietly observed their lives.
Later I found that life here was relatively rich, with enough food and clothing, the elderly were taken care of, the young were educated, the poor had someone to rely on, and the needy had help.
Although everyone's face has its ups and downs, there are still more smiles.
In their daily conversations, they often hear various messages conveyed by the temple priests.
"The temple keeper can influence the weather to a certain extent, so there is good weather and good harvests all year round. They can also travel and work according to the information given by the temple keeper."
From this aspect alone, the temple priests have done a good job and enjoy a high prestige in this area.
Taoist Hulu even saw a man dressed in temple priest's clothes. From the moment he entered the village, he was welcomed by many villagers.
The temple keeper also had a friendly smile on his face, and it was not a fake smile.
From sporadic conversations, they learned that this temple priest was from their village.
Every year, people come to the village to test those of appropriate age to see if they can inherit the power of the mountain god.
Once they succeed, they will rise to the top in one step and become powerful people who possess extraordinary powers.
Afterwards, the temple keeper issued a notice to be careful of strangers, saying that some cult members had come to the vicinity of Chengtian Mountain.
Once a stranger arrives, he or she needs to report to the local temple priest.
After telling the news, he did not forget to remind the villagers that if they really met someone, they should be careful, not act rashly, and that protecting themselves was more important.
For a moment, Gourd Taoist even felt like he was the villain.
However, this feeling was no longer of concern to Taoist Hulu in an instant.
So what if he is really a villain? As long as he can achieve his goal, that's enough.
"But this kind of mentality cannot be expressed." Taoist Gourd thought in his heart, but did not let the thought out.
He did not forget that he was now in some kind of illusion that contained everyone's mind.
Your every move will be included in a certain assessment mechanism. Once you show your true nature, then perhaps you will not be able to complete your own power inheritance.
Therefore, he cannot just look at the appearance of this illusion, but should pay more attention to the inner meaning of the other party's symbol.
“Perhaps the background of this illusion is not as simple as simply defeating the evil god.”
As of now, there are two points that can be confirmed about the God of the Mountain. One is directly explained in the background, that the God of the Mountain requires people to sacrifice one hundred boys and girls every year.
The other is that the mountain god is not as cruel as imagined. At least the area under his rule is still peaceful and prosperous.
"Interesting." The gourd Taoist did not let his gaze linger on the temple keeper. After finding out some information, he quietly left the village.
As it stands, these temple priests display two abilities.
One is to control things, and they rely on this ability to fly in the air.
The other is to create things out of thin air, and can make things like weapons and even city walls.
Both of these abilities are extremely versatile, and if they are truly applied, they can unleash unexpected power.
If the aristocratic family camp really devotes themselves to being temple priests, then the power they may be able to control may be several points higher than those of ordinary temple priests.
Return to the team and share the information.
I immediately felt it was difficult to deal with.
They don't have any power now, and only have some fighting skills, so they are in a weak position in the early stage.
In this situation, not only were the people outnumbered, but most of the locals were close to the enemy.
To put it bluntly, they can mobilize the masses at any time to beat them to death.
Of the three elements of heaven, earth, and man, they seemed to have lost them all.
"But since the crusade camp has such a big disadvantage in the early stage, it must have a bigger advantage later!" The man with a mustache comforted his teammates.
Then they discussed how to sneak into the city at the foot of the mountain.
They still have ways to bypass these villages or towns, but they have no way to avoid the cities that follow.
After all, the most important thing for them now is to sneak into the tomb group, obtain the so-called magic weapons from there, and gain power.
"This is not a big problem. I found out some important information before."
"That is the annual day of mourning, and it will begin in two days." said Taoist Gourd.
"This is a local festival. It is said to be held to commemorate the miracles of the mountain gods and the sacrifices they made for the world, and to mourn them."
"During this festival, many people will go to Mount Chengtian to worship, and there will be a large flow of people from the surrounding towns and villages."
"We can blend in and hide here, so it shouldn't be a big problem."
After a pause , Taoist Gourd continued, "And there is another problem. That is, there is only one annual festival of this nature. Perhaps this is not a festival to mourn the sacrifice made by the mountain god."
Hundreds of boys and girls are sacrificed every year, and there is only one so-called day of mourning each year. This coincidence is enough to illustrate the problem.
"This festival is a festival to mourn the death of hundreds of virgins!"
"That is to say, there are perhaps hundreds of boys and girls transported from all over the world and imprisoned in the city."
"They will sacrifice these boys and girls to the mountain gods in a few days."
"From the conversations with the locals, they didn't mention anything about this. It's very likely that most of the locals don't know what the sacrifices are for this festival."
"If we expose this matter, we may be able to cause a riot and help us obtain the magic weapon."
The preliminary plan was thus finalized.
Several people traveled overnight.
After finding out the situation several times, they began to disguise themselves as people from other towns who were going to Mount Chengtian for pilgrimage.
He successfully blended into the crowd and became inconspicuous.
However, this disguise is still imperfect. They do not have any identity documents, so it may be relatively troublesome for them to enter the city.
They have also made a budget for this. When the time comes, someone will cause riots outside the city, and they will take advantage of the chaos to enter the city.
However, the expected investigation did not come.
The entire city, built on the mountain, is decorated with lights and looks joyous and festive.
There were no temple priests guarding the city gate, only some ordinary guards who simply maintained order.
They easily followed the pilgrims into the city.
After some investigation, I found out that this is a normal phenomenon.
Every once in a while, most temple priests and apprentice temple priests need to go to Chengtian Mountain to perform sacrifices.
It is said that only in this way can the Tianshan Mountain be stabilized, prevented from getting angry, and ensure good weather and harvest in the local area.
