Chapter 397: Chapter 360: Must Feed the Lord Mountain God His Fill
As the black cloth fell to the ground like a heavy, dark cloud,
everyone’s gaze was transfixed, finally able to see the true face of what the people of Xia Shui Village called their Mountain God.
It was a colossal, ancient tree, its form incredibly majestic,
like a giant standing between heaven and earth, soaring straight into the clouds as if to pierce the sky.
Its lush branches and leaves spread wantonly in all directions, resembling an enormous green umbrella,
while the layers of tangled vines looked like countless slithering snakes, densely interwoven,
forming a massive, overwhelming net that shrouded everything around it,
exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.
This tree was no ordinary thing. Its trunk and vines were all stained a dark, brownish-red.
The color was rich and deep, as if over the long river of time,
it had been repeatedly soaked in thick, viscous blood that had then slowly dried with the merciless passage of years,
ultimately leaving behind these shocking, horrifying stains,
silently recounting tales of a bloody and terrifying past.
What was even more chilling was that from every single vine on the tree hung a hemp rope.
These ropes were meticulously woven into the shape of nooses, like deadly shackles,
each one cinched tightly around a once-vibrant life.
Those lives...
There were handsome, resolute young men who should have had a bright future in this world.
There were gentle-faced, graceful young women who should have been blossoming like flowers under the sun.
And there were even innocent children, their youthful naivety still apparent,
their worlds cruelly devoured by darkness before they had even truly begun.
Their bodies crisscrossed the tree,
painting a gruesome, heartbreaking, and terrifying picture of utter devastation.
Children made up the vast majority. On their tender little faces,
traces of innocent smiles still lingered,
but these smiles were now completely shrouded by the cold breath of death,
twisted and grotesque, as if a taunt from Hell itself.
Every person hanging there was completely naked,
and though their flesh had lost the warmth and breath of life, it bizarrely retained a lifelike appearance,
as if merely slumbering in eternal darkness, never to be awakened.
The ropes were cinched deep into their necks,
the sunken marks like deep furrows,
stark and brutal, a naked declaration of their long-vanished lives.
Even more terrifyingly, all the hanged people had their eyes tightly shut,
their faces as peaceful as if they were in a sweet dream—
a dream of endless darkness and death.
Their bodies were so light they seemed to have no weight at all.
Whenever a gust of night wind whispered past like a ghost, the hanging ropes would sway gently,
causing their bodies to slowly rock back and forth,
like a macabre dance conducted by the Death God.
Under the dim yellow glow of the firelight, these scenes were magnified,
pushing the horror and strangeness of the entire tableau to its absolute limit,
making one feel as if they were in Avici Hell, their very soul trembling uncontrollably.
Lai Yu Yao, Sun Canxing, and Yu Yingjie,
along with the group of young men and women around them,
witnessed this nightmarish scene firsthand.
Shock, fear, and anger crashed through their hearts like a torrential tide.
Their hearts felt as if they were being squeezed by an invisible hand,
their breathing becoming rapid and difficult.
Every breath drew in nothing but endless fear.
This impossibly bizarre giant tree,
along with the innocent lives hanging from it,
wove together a terrifying story that was hair-raising and sent shivers down their spines,
plunging them into an abyss of terror.
Their bodies trembled uncontrollably,
yet their eyes, as if under a spell, could not look away from the horrific scene for even a second.
In that instant,
a realization struck the minds of Chu He, Sun Canxing, and Lai Yu Yao like a bolt of lightning.
The scattered fragments of information they had gathered before suddenly snapped together like pieces of a puzzle,
and all the mysteries and doubts became crystal clear.
"I get it now!"
Lai Yu Yao’s eyes flew wide with fury.
Her hands were clenched into tight fists, her slender knuckles turning white from the force.
She spat out fiercely, "This explains why we snuck into Xia Shui Village last night,
and saw such an obscene sight.
It turns out you villagers of Xia Shui Village,
spend your nights frantically trying to procreate as if you’ve gone mad,
all so you can have more children,
and then offer those poor children as sacrifices to this grotesque tree!
Some damn Mountain God! It’s clear you people are the ones committing these evil deeds!
Now you’ve deliberately led us here,
claiming the Mountain God will protect us and grant us blessings,
helping us smoothly and safely survive this Evil Spirit crisis.
But in reality, you plan to sacrifice all of us to this wicked tree as well.
That way, for this sacrificial ritual,
your Xia Shui Village won’t have to offer up any more of its own people.
You, Chang Bailin, your heart is so utterly wicked! You deserve to be cut into a thousand pieces!"
"You snuck into Xia Shui Village last night."
Chang Bailin reacted as if his most sensitive nerve had been struck.
He instantly ignored the rest of Lai Yu Yao’s accusations,
his gaze like a cold, sharp blade, stabbing towards the few able-bodied men.
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