Chapter 222
Chapter 222
Suddenly, Cheng Miao remembered Tan Wu’s drawing.
Scabby kept saying the Tree Deity was a monster. What could look more monstrous than the thing in that drawing?
Cheng Miao took the sheet of paper out of her ring and handed it to Scabby.
He accepted it in a daze. The moment he looked down, his eyes widened, and tears came pouring out. “That’s it! The monster!”
Cheng Miao felt a little of the tension ease. She understood what had been tormenting him.
He had discovered that the Tree Deity he had worshipped for years was a monster. No one in the village believed him. They continued to worship that thing, even considering it the highest honor to be taken away by it.
That was what had truly driven Scabby to this state.
“I believe you. The Tree Deity is a monster.” Cheng Miao looked at him earnestly, without a trace of distaste or disgust.
Scabby wiped his tears. He pointed at the thing in the drawing, then looked at Cheng Miao. “Hundred-Person Pit.”
Cheng Miao’s heart lurched. Hundred-Person Pit?
“What’s the Hundred-Person Pit?”
But that was all Scabby knew. He simply repeated those same two phrases over and over.
Cheng Miao steadied herself and patted him without the slightest hesitation. “You did well. You’ve had a hard time all these years.”
Seeing how tightly he clung to the drawing, she did not try to take it back. She left it with him and headed straight for the village head’s house with Qiudong.
The village head now knew that three of their group had been married to the Tree Deity, and that everyone else had fallen ill.
They were all young people who had come to his village, only to have this happen to them.
It was not his fault, but he felt troubled all the same.
Cheng Miao had no time for pleasantries. She went straight to the point. “Village Head, do you know about the Hundred-Person Pit?”
His hands trembled, and fear filled his eyes. “How did you find out about that?”
Cheng Miao said nothing. He did not press her. Instead, he shakily got to his feet and closed the door.
“Strictly speaking, it wasn’t our village that committed that sin. But the Hundred-Person Pit is an evil place. You shouldn’t speak of it lightly.”
Cheng Miao suppressed her urgency and softened her voice. “Please tell us about it.”
The village head smacked his lips and sighed. “Ah, ours wasn’t the only village around here back then. There were several others.”
“One year, a famine struck. Our village had always been self-sufficient, and there weren’t many of us, so we managed reasonably well.”
“But the neighboring villages really had nothing to eat. That year, they couldn’t catch any wild animals in the mountains. All they could eat were wild fruit and leaves.”
“They could have held on and made it through. But some heartless bastard said the famine would last a long time, and that at this rate they’d eat the mountains bare sooner or later.”
“So they decided to abandon the elderly, because they could no longer produce anything or do physical labor.”
A pulse throbbed between Cheng Miao’s brows. “They buried the elderly?”
The village head sighed and nodded. “Yes. If they’d truly run out of options, abandoning the elderly wouldn’t have been entirely beyond understanding. But they were nowhere near that point.”
“Villages like ours, right beside the mountains, have no shortage of food. Even eating tree bark could keep you going for a few days. Yet with a whole mountain of resources at their doorstep, they buried the elderly. How could that not breed resentment?”
Cheng Miao pressed her fingers together and said nothing. After a while, she asked, “What happened to those villages afterward?”
The hand stroking his beard trembled. “Everyone died. It was quite a coincidence. Just a few years after the famine ended, a plague broke out.”
Cheng Miao nodded. “And the Tree Deity appeared after that?”
The village head stared, then shook his head, torn between laughter and dismay. “How could that be? The Tree Deity has been here for a very long time, ever since we founded the village.”
Cheng Miao understood. No wonder they trusted the Tree Deity so much. But why…
“Still, my great-grandfather told me the Tree Deity never used to give out Blessing Bracelets. Maybe people had more faith back then.”
At last, Cheng Miao had found a loose end in the tangled skein. “When did the Blessing Bracelets first appear?”
The village head remembered that. It had been in his great-grandfather’s time. “Now that you mention it, they appeared just a few years after the plague hit the neighboring villages.”
Cheng Miao continued, “And people in your village started falling ill more often in your great-grandfather’s time too, didn’t they?”
He nodded, then seemed to realize something. He stared at her in disbelief. “Are you saying…”
Cheng Miao narrowed her eyes. “If I’m right, either your Tree Deity mingled with the resentment in the Hundred-Person Pit and became an evil deity, or the Tree Deity faded away long ago, and what you’ve been worshipping is the resentment from the Hundred-Person Pit.”
She did not mention Tan Wu’s drawing.
In fact, the drawing made it clear that the Tree Deity was long gone. Ever since the plague, this village had been worshipping the resentment in the Hundred-Person Pit.
As for why it appeared in the Tree Deity’s form, she would have to inspect the site herself.
Worried about upsetting the village head, Cheng Miao did not explain in too much detail.
“Where is the Hundred-Person Pit? We’ll go take a look.”
The village head’s lips worked soundlessly for a moment. He pulled a village chronicle from the bookshelf, put on his reading glasses, and turned the pages with his fingers.
After a long search, he found the passage. “Go past the ancient tree and over a small hill, and you’ll be there. You may have to search for the exact spot. I’ve never been there myself, and the chronicle only mentions it in passing.”
Cheng Miao wasted no more time. She thanked him and hurried out with Qiudong.
Halfway there, she encountered Fan Rui’s vengeful spirit. The girl looked like a rag doll. She pointed in one direction, indicating that she had found it.
It was the same direction the village head had given. Cheng Miao’s spirits lifted, and she ran that way.
The cave Fan Rui had found was extremely well hidden. A large tree blocked its entrance, along with thick weeds and rocks.
Cheng Miao stared for a long time without spotting it. Only after she cleared away some weeds by hand could she make out a little of the entrance.
She drew the Kun-Bone Dagger and started inside, only to collide unexpectedly with an invisible wall.
This was not her first encounter with such a wall, but it was the first time one had provoked her into swearing furiously.
After scraping the Kun-Bone Dagger across it a few times to no effect, Cheng Miao sat on a rock by the entrance with her head in her hands.
The sun was slowly sinking in the west, but she did not move. It felt as though razor blades were scraping her throat. Even swallowing her saliva hurt, and the pain had started to give her a headache.
Lin Zhu was getting worse too. At this rate, they would die here.
As her thoughts spun in confusion, she felt a cool hand, carrying a crisp fragrance, gently squeeze her neck. She looked up into Qiudong’s concerned eyes.
Cheng Miao felt close to tears. Fear crept into her voice. “What do I do?”
Qiudong sighed and sat down. “An instance never leaves you with no way out. As long as you’re alive, there’s a solution. Don’t panic.”
His words sounded like ordinary reassurance, but Cheng Miao knew there was more to them.
He was telling her they were still far from having exhausted all their options.
“Do you need my help?” Sitting beside her, Qiudong massaged the back of her neck.
Cheng Miao took several deep breaths. His words had steadied her considerably. “Let me try again.”
She missed the flash of amusement in his eyes, because she had spotted something a short distance from the cave entrance.