Chapter 144
Chapter 144
Before the sacrificial table, Qin Ying’s Soul-Container Puppet suddenly lowered its head.
Whether there was even a trace of living presence was very important-Hulan, kneeling behind it, felt that most keenly of all.
She abruptly realized that the Divine Envoy… seemed to have died.
Dead in the ordinary sense of the word, its vitality drained away until it became a lifeless object.
Just as the features of Qin Ying’s Soul-Container Puppet began showing signs of melting and vanishing, the sky suddenly darkened.
The sunlight in the Chixia Desert came with its own orange-red filter, and there was nothing to block it anywhere across the sands.
When the sun suddenly disappeared, everyone felt as though they had been placed beneath a slab of stone.
Before the sacrificial table, the twenty-three Shamans all sensed something and raised their heads.
Waves of faint fragrance drifted over with the wind. The scent carried a coolness that made the tips of their noses itch when they breathed it in.
Everyone looked up at the sky. At the same time they saw the enormous silhouette blotting out the heavens, they also saw raindrops falling from above.
At the same moment, beyond the dunes came the enormous White-Spotted Canine Deity’s shrieks, like a dog being slaughtered.
Wangcai hated mint leaves and hated floral water. It howled strangely as it ran off into the distance.
Humans, however, were different. Everyone kneeling before the sacrificial table spread their arms to catch the rain.
This rain, tinged with the faintest blue, was exceedingly gentle. The instant it touched their skin, it brought a chill so refreshing it was almost icy.
The shriveled old man with three silver studs piercing horizontally across the bridge of his nose stared blankly at the blurry Shadowy Figure in the sky, watching as it held something and sprayed it down upon the mortal world.
Only after he was soaked through, his scalp chilled as if his soul were about to leave his body, did he lower his head and bury his face in the yellow sand.
After a lifetime as a Shaman, this was the first time his prayers and sacrifice had received a response. Qin Ying could not understand what the Old Shaman was feeling.
She accepted the medicinal herbs and Immortal Grass offered as tribute.
Holding a facial mist sprayer, she sprayed watered-down floral water into the Box.
This… counted as a miracle, right?
She was not entirely sure whether this would achieve the desired effect.
While she was still wondering, cheers rang out from inside the Box, one after another.
Seeing that every tiny person in the Box looked quite happy, Qin Ying breathed a sigh of relief.
Once she felt the atmosphere had been built up enough, she closed the lid of the Box and shifted into a relatively comfortable position on the bed.
Then she began connecting to the Soul-Container Puppet’s location inside the Box.
Qin Ying traced an infinity symbol in the air with her finger.
Within the black fog, she found the brightest point of light-Han Lie.
Using Han Lie as the anchor for her descent, she located the Soul-Container Puppet beside him.
The puppet, posed in prayer, trembled once and lifted its head.
Its features, which had been on the verge of melting away and disappearing, solidified in an instant.
Han Lie, who had been standing guard beside it, knew she had safely made a round trip. He let out a long breath.
Qin Ying descended into the Box feeling a little dizzy.
She was nauseous and wanted to throw up. Then she caught the heavy fragrance permeating the air and truly wanted to slap herself twice.
She decided that next time she would prepare something like rose hydrosol instead. She was never messing around with floral water again.
Fortunately, the huge commotion she had caused this time had quite a good effect.
At the very least, the middle-aged Shaman Han Lie had hauled out with a pole had crawled back and knelt sincerely before the Blackstone Tribe’s Altar Table for two full hours.
On Qin Ying’s side, she could see that another small point of faith had lit up.
After the sacrifice, Qin Ying looked at the meal offered before her, and her pupils shook violently.
Last night, she had drunk rice porridge and had thought there was not much of a dietary barrier between them.
Who knew today would broaden her horizons?
Several things lay on an exquisitely handmade silver platter.
One large piece looked like a lizard’s tail. After being roasted and sliced crosswise, the meat could be seen arranged like a flower around the edge of the thick tailbone.
The skin had been peeled away, and the meat had been roasted to just the right doneness. Its charred-brown surface was covered with a layer of oil.
Sitting beside her, Han Lie explained, “This is the tail of a Sand Lizard.”
“Sand Lizard tails regenerate, so for the Sand People Tribe who raise them, the tails are an important source of meat.”
Qin Ying thought it over, then shuddered. “They cut them off while they’re alive?”
From the sound of it, they regularly chopped off Sand Lizard tails and roasted them to eat?
Han Lie nodded honestly. “Yes.”
“The piece you have is close to the Sand Lizard’s haunch. It’s the best part.”
Hulan was a woman, after all, and seemed to realize what Qin Ying was thinking. She explained, “When Sand Lizards encounter a powerful enemy, they shed their bulky tails on their own to make it easier to escape.”
“Losing a tail isn’t especially painful for a Sand Lizard.”
Qin Ying’s hand, hidden inside her sleeve, hesitated slightly.
It would be rather tactless to refuse the best portion someone had respectfully offered her.
Qin Ying still found it hard to get past mentally, but she picked up the small knife beside her plate and cut off a piece.
There were no chopsticks or forks, so she used the tip of the knife to put the meat into her mouth.
The tail had been severed from a living creature less than fifteen minutes ago, then skinned and roasted. The meat could not have been fresher, and it had been seasoned with rock salt.
Objectively speaking, it did not taste bad.
The texture was somewhat like the meat close to the bone in a pig’s tail, but not as oily, and chewier.
It was just that the presentation was rather horrifying.
“It’s delicious.”
She gave a polite smile.
Hulan was delighted. This Divine Envoy always wore a cold expression and rarely spoke. If good food could make her smile, that was wonderful.
Under Hulan’s enthusiastic gaze, the small knife in Qin Ying’s hand lightly touched the chunks beside the roasted Sand Lizard tail.
These chunks had been roasted in the Sand Lizard tail’s fat until their edges were charred brown, then sprinkled with a thin layer of salt. They looked like the roots or tubers of some plant.
This should be safe to eat.
Having forgotten something important, Qin Ying had only just cut off a bit with her knife when the cooked chunks on the plate began to visibly squirm.
The hand Qin Ying was holding the knife with froze in midair. In the short span of time that followed, the unidentified cube on her plate completed the entire routine of wriggling and rolling around, and was only a hair’s breadth away from escaping the plate.
“What is this?” Qin Ying asked Hulan with a wooden expression.
Hulan said, “This is the Delicious Mushroom, a specialty of Chixia Desert.”
Once she said that, Qin Ying remembered.
This was that bizarre thing with the mushroom stem that had slapped Wang Chang across the face several times.
It could still move after being roasted?
Before that piece of mushroom could escape the plate, Qin Ying pinned it down with her knife.
As someone bursting with curiosity and fond of courting death, she had wanted to try eating it before.
Relying on the fact that she was currently in a puppet body, she skewered the madly twisting mushroom chunk and put it into her mouth.
The texture was dense and very fragrant. The only strange part was that it was still twisting when her molars crushed it.
It was like eating some bizarre meat-flavored popping candy, sliding around in her mouth. She had to use her tongue to nudge each piece under her teeth and bite it apart one by one. Very chewy!
The novel experience made Qin Ying’s brows relax.
Seeing that she seemed to like it, Han Lie stole a few glances and thought he would ask Aman for some later.
Perhaps they could even raise some.
Just like the Auspicious Spirit Menagerie in Luoyang, which specialized in raising Monstrous Beast and Monstrous Plant for nobles to enjoy.
The Supreme Deity ought to have a menagerie like that too!
Qin Ying had no idea he was solemnly planning out a vegetable garden in his head. She was earnestly experiencing the feeling of the mushroom flesh wriggling in her mouth.
Just then, a travel-worn guard arrived and whispered a few words into the ear of the Old Shaman whose face was covered in nails.
The Kuxi Tribe Shaman’s expression changed.
Combined with the intelligence from Yunwu County, Qin Ying knew that the team sent to investigate had arrived ahead of schedule.
Qin Ying set down her dining knife and looked at Han Lie. “Let’s go.”
First, they would send Wangcai and the others out of the Box. Then they would go take a look as well.