The villagers did not immediately offer their plaid shirts, presumably because the date of the sacrifice had not yet arrived. Plaid Shirt was imprisoned in the basement for many days, with several villagers taking turns guarding him. He asked why he was being treated this way, but no one answered him.

Occasionally, he could faintly hear the sounds of the village's regular meetings and speeches, as well as the sound of Gospel readings sounding from the loudspeakers set up in various places. It's anomalous. Although when he was still living in the village, there were lectures and the Gospel was read on the radio, but now it is so frequent that he can hear it almost every day. There seemed to be a poisonous, creepy fog of fanaticism that spread to all corners of the village.

I don't know how long it has been, but he finally saw his hair small. The latter walked into the basement with a blank face.

The plaid shirt asked dryly, "Why, in the end, why ......?"

"You have been chosen as a living sacrifice." Hair, "dedicated to the god of ceres." ”

It was only then that the plaid shirt understood his situation, "Human sacrifice rituals? Am I a living sacrifice? ”

Here we need to talk about the origin of Ceres.

Combined with the knowledge he had learned from the outside world and the myths and legends passed down from mouth to mouth in the village, there was no doubt that the so-called god of grains had been fabricated by previous people.

In the Hell's Havoc era, death infects the soil, making it impossible to grow crops. At that time, the village should have had psychic people, or people with relevant skills, who managed to pull out the dead qi to make agriculture possible.

For the sake of administrative convenience, the leaders created a simple religion and promoted this feat as the divine power of the "god of ceres".

Later villagers would sacrifice to the god of grains, but only for livestock. And in order to prevent waste, the villagers can also divide the livestock after the sacrifice. As for human sacrifice rituals, that is unheard of.

"I've just figured it out now. It's really sluggish. Only then did the villager in charge of the guard speak. Maybe it's because the plaid shirt is not popular in the village, and Fa Xiao is the opposite, the popularity is very good, and the left and right are all over the place, so the villagers seem to have a little bit of interest, "It's not that you don't know." I don't know how many times this kind of ceremony has been held in the village before. Now it's just your turn, why all the fuss. Or are you just playing dumb and want us to be there for you? ”

"What?" The plaid shirt was shocked, "It's been held before?" Many more times? He asked, "When?" How did I not know? ”

"How could you not know? Your grandfather and grandmother, your uncle's son, and ......" The villagers gave a lot of examples, and Fa Xiao didn't say a word, and then the villagers said, "It's all a living sacrifice to the god of ceres, isn't it?" ”

Plaid shirts, even the shock was forgotten at this moment, and it only felt magical. Because although the people in the example of the villagers did all die, the cause of death was old age, sickness, accidental death, and even he witnessed how he died, how could it be because of a living sacrifice? He couldn't help but wonder if he had accidentally traveled to a "parallel world" in science fiction stories when he returned home.

"Could it be that my parents are also ......?"

"Yes. Your father, who had been to the outside world, and your mother, who had come from the outside world, were the least popular people in the village, so they were chosen as living sacrifices. "At that time, I thought that you had left the village anyway, so I deceived you, so that you would not hate the village and bring trouble back from the outside world, but now there is no need to continue to hide the truth." ”

After a long moment of silence, he suddenly asked, "You are the living sacrifice?" ”

Now it's Fa Xiao's turn to be silent. Although the plaid shirt is just a hypothesis, the attitude of the hair is small, and it says it all.

"I ask myself if I have a holiday with you, and I should even say that you are one of the very few friends in my village who are friendly. And your personality is definitely not bad enough to frame me for no reason. So you must have summoned me back to the village so that I could die for you. The plaid shirt stared at him, "I'm right!" ”

Fa Xiao didn't seem to dare to meet his eyes anymore and hurriedly left the basement.

I don't know how many days have passed, but the date of the ceremony has arrived, and the plaid shirt has finally seen the light of day.

The villagers untied the ropes that bound their plaid shirts to their feet, but they still had them on their hands. Sandwiched between two strong villagers, he walked out of the house and crossed the dirt road to the door of a temple-like stone building. The villagers surrounded him, and he noticed two strangers standing in front of the building, one of them a swordsman and the other an old man in a brown robe.

The old man was kneeling down by many villagers, and when he heard the plaid shirt, some people called him "Ceres" in awe and fanatically. The old man turned a deaf ear, but held a piece of wood in his hand and looked at it with his eyes down. It seems to be a Buddha carving.

Suddenly, the old man raised his eyes, glanced at him, turned to the swordsman again, and asked, "Is that him?" ”

The swordsman nodded without saying a word.

Plaid Shirt looked incredulously at the villagers and shouted, "Are you all crazy, is he Ceres?" No matter how you look at it, he's a human being! ”

Hearing this, the old man showed a cold-blooded smile.

The sound of plaid shirts could not reach the ears of the villagers at all, and they were even beaten in the stomach with their elbows. He bent up in pain, but instead of succumbing to the violence, he looked at one of the people in the crowd again. That's his uncle, who used to take care of him a lot, although he was a little cowardly, but he was kind and would never interfere in such evil things. He stared at his uncle, his voice was both frightened and angry, "Are you really going to sacrifice me to such an inexplicable fellow?" ”

The uncle seemed a little timid, and replied insincerely: "Since it is a rule that has been in place since ancient times and continues to this day, it must make sense." …… Right? He said as he asked for the consent of those around him.

The people around him looked at him and nodded, "Yes, always." ”

The uncle's gaze looked at the others, and the others also showed affirmative attitudes. At this moment, the uncle's tone became unwavering, "Our village can continue to this day because of the blessing of the god of grains, and you are not allowed to tarnish your words." ”

The heart of the plaid shirt was swallowed up by even more overwhelming despair. Even if he didn't have the magical perception of a psyker, he could feel a resilient bond that connected the people of the village. They affirm each other, and even incite each other, forming a kind of hard and evil whole.

He knew in his heart that this was definitely not a rational, naturally developed collective psychology. There must have been some kind of profane foreign thing that invaded their minds and caused them to fall into such a twisted frenzy. And this must be closely related to the old man, but he can't decipher the truth anymore.

He struggled with all his might in fear, but at that moment, something strange happened. He felt that the ropes in his hands were actually broken free by himself, so that the two villagers who were clamping him around him were also caught off guard and were knocked away by him. He himself was taken aback. At this moment, he even had a thought in his heart, should he take this opportunity to fight the "Ceres".

But no matter how sad and angry he was, he didn't dare to fight back. He just turned and ran, and ran away from the villagers who tried to stop him, and rushed into the dense forest outside the village.

I don't know if it was because the villagers were not chasing him as fast as he was extremely frightened, or because the villagers didn't chase him out of the village at all, he found that there was no pursuer behind him. But he still didn't dare to slow down, and ran until he was exhausted.

And then he realized that he was too panicked and accidentally lost in the forest.

For the next few days, he had been sleeping in the forest, and he was unspeakably embarrassed. He didn't even dream about being caught in a temple by the villagers and then woke up, but the reality was not easy, and he even suspected several times that he would starve to death in the forest.

Eventually, he managed to get out of the forest, found the road, was lucky enough to catch a hitchhike on a passing car, and made his way to the nearest city, Beaver.

*

With that, Plaid Shirt took a big sip of water to rehydrate his mouth and throat.

I silently pondered what he had seen and heard.

The reason why the swordsman appeared there was probably to lock the plaid shirt and then lock me later. And that "Ceres", since he is with the swordsman, then, as expected, he is also a withered believer.

Plaid Shirt said that he saw the Buddha sculpture in the hands of the god of Ceres, if it was not a coincidence, then the god of grain should be the "withered believer with the Buddha carving" I was looking for in the first place.

It seems that the plaid shirt is indeed a clue to the divination, and I did not miss it in vain.

"And then?" I asked, "Did you go to the police?" ”

"Yes, I went to the Beaver Public Security." He put down the water glass, but his face showed an unbearable color, "But I didn't expect that they even bought the security guards of Beaver City." I had only been sitting there for a short time when I saw two villagers being brought over......"

"Wait a minute." I said, "Didn't you say before that they didn't want to go to the outside world anyway?" ”

The plaid shirt nodded, "I was also shocked at the time, but then I thought about it, for them who had become extremely fanatical for some reason, during such an important living sacrifice ceremony, the living sacrifice to the god of grains ran away, and this matter may be as serious as the sky falling." ”

In other words, the reason why they were able to overcome the fear of the unknown outside world was because they were even more afraid of the same unknown but close to Ceres? There may be other factors, for example, because of the precedent of his parents and himself, the outside world in the eyes of the villagers is no longer as extreme unknown and terrifying as before.

The power of religion is terrifying, and for fanatics, even if God really told them to swim in Cockroach Lake, they might actually swim.

However, villagers like them, who are not deeply involved in the world, should not be able to buy the beaver police. This should be with the help of the Ceres and the swordsman in the outside world.

Otherwise, they might not even touch the door of the beaver police, and they would be eaten clean by the other beaver people first.

"After that, did you run away again?" I asked.

"Well, I was caught, but I struggled and broke free again, and then ran away." He said happily, "Even I feel lucky, it seems that there is a divine help along the way, and they just didn't catch me." ”

He described it as if he had some kind of latent power that he didn't consciously have, so he couldn't be the touch of an alien god. This rather far-fetched idea came to me. However, I have another plausible hypothesis: it was actually the swordsman who was secretly helping him.

For the swordsman, the plaid shirt is the only clue that can lock me in, so he will help the plaid shirt out of all danger to his life until he locks me on.

However, there is also a place for this assumption to be untenable. The Turin physician said that the person who knows the prophecy is itself the most destructive agent of the prophecy. The swordsman has interfered so many times, and the prophecy must have been affected to the point where it is not enough to realize the scenario of "MONOCULUS just rescued the plaid shirt just like in the prophecy". Or is this also within prophecy's margin for error?

I quietly swirled around and thought as I thought about another question: Should I go to Harvest Village and try to capture Ceres?

Although "catching a withered believer" was my original goal, the situation is different now. I know I'm not tactile, but the swordsman doesn't, and touch is the enemy of withered believers. The swordsman has lost to me, and perhaps the next step is to call for backup. If I position Harvest Village as my next stop, will I be besieged?

On the other hand, even if I don't calculate the original purpose, I do want to "do something" to the god of Ceres, who has brainwashed a group of villagers and engaged in barbaric and bloody sacrifices in a remote and closed mountain village. According to what I have said about Violent Violence, I am a kind of heroic complex that is inhumane, and the moral pleasure that comes from often greedy for killing bad guys. What's even more hopeless is that I don't have the intention of struggling at all. On the contrary, I actually like myself very much that I am doing it. Even though I know that this can sometimes cause problems that I can't handle.

I slowly closed my eyes and made a quick decision.

Going to Harvest Village? To go.

Do we need to guard against the support of withered believers? Be on your guard.

How to prepare? Make your way to Harvest Village as fast as you can, and solve all problems with lightning speed before the enemy can support you.

Although I don't know how strong the grain god is, I am not without a way out. If you can't beat it, run away; If you can beat it, then kill them all.

No, that's not right...... Even if you can beat it, you can't kill them all. I have to at least catch someone and ask for clues about the remaining two main materials of the withdrawal drug. His mind is full of trying to kill the bad guys, and he almost forgets the most important purpose, and only remembers the means.

I reopened my eyes and asked the plaid shirt, "What are you going to do next?" ”

"This ......," he couldn't decide. Even if he wants to go to other places to call the police, he may already have a psychological shadow about calling the police.

I said to him, "I'm going to Harvest Village, can you show me the way?" ”

"Huh? This ......" he looked at me in surprise.

I took out my phone, pulled up the electronic map, and asked, "Where is Fengshou Village on the map?" ”

He pointed stupidly, and then he reacted, "You're going now?" Harvest Village is at least 150 kilometers away. ”

"Is it only a hundred and fifty kilometers...... "I looked at the map, "and that might be solved tonight." With that, he walked to the window.

"By the way, what's your name?" I asked him back.

As he followed, he replied, almost subconsciously, "Napo Musino. Remedios. Trinidad. He added, "My mother gave it to me." ”

For convenience, he will still call it "plaid shirt" in the future.

I reached out my left hand and pushed open the window while grabbing his shoulder with my right hand, "Let's go." ”

Plaid shirt: "Huh? ”