Plains of the Holy Spirit, East.

It rained all night, and the fields were full of large and small puddles and slippery muddy land, and the tenacious white-stemmed grass fell to the ground under the rain, and you must be very careful when walking on it.

The corpse dragger, Taka, drove the cart cautiously across the field, and he had to concentrate on picking out the more solid places where there was no standing water, so as to prevent the wheels of the cart from getting stuck in the mud, which would be a nuisance in such a place far from the camp.

A cold wind blew, and the bearded man couldn't help but shiver, he raised his yellow, cloudy eyes, looked at the low-hanging sky in the distance, and couldn't help muttering, "The blood god is above—what a hell of weather." ”

Rain on Revenant night is not a good sign, especially for superstitious corpse draggers.

From an occult point of view, the rain on the night of the reunion of souls can seriously affect the effect of bonfires, and even make some small bonfires unable to burn smoothly, and the souls of lost ancestors will wander in a curtain of water vapor and flames, and many of the terrible legends about evil spirits of the plains and mountain dwellers are derived from this.

And from a practical point of view, the rain on Annun Day often means that the weather will get colder quickly, and winter will come earlier and more quickly.

Either way, it's not a good thing for the average person.

The cart seemed to have been crushed against stones on the road, and the whole car suddenly shook violently, and Taka hurriedly controlled the reins to maintain his balance, and the car stabilized again to the neighing of several pack horses, and the strong corpse tower quickly glanced back - on the board behind him, a dozen humanoid "goods" wrapped in linen were still firmly fixed there, and the ropes showed no signs of loosening.

"You'll have to stay put," muttered Taka, "and someone will light a bonfire for you next year's Revenant's Day." ”

Of course, corpses don't respond to the words of the corpse towers, but like every eccentric and shunned corpse dragger, Taka has his own quirks, he has a habit of talking to the "goods" he transports, pretending to be "passengers" who can understand his words, and he believes that it is necessary to have a good relationship with the "passengers", and only by maintaining a good relationship can he avoid these "passengers" from going into trouble with him in the future.

Especially since these "passengers" are still dead on the battlefield, the remains of the soldiers who are rumored to be the most prone to turning into evil spirits, it is even more sloppy.

The road ahead was slippery, and the puddles were difficult to navigate, and the towman, carefully controlling the car, cursed in a low voice, "This is a hell of a civil war...... I don't know how long it will take. You say yes, right? ”

Despite the curses in his mouth, Taka knew very well that his "business" would not have been so good if it weren't for this civil war.

War produces a lot of corpses, soldiers, civilians, and even the occasional knight and mage - of course, the latter are noble fallen and not touched by low-level corpse draggers like Taka, but the former is different, those who die on the battlefield and on the edge of the battlefield will become the main source of income for the corpse draggers. Commanders on both sides of the warring and the people of the village will hire professional corpse draggers to dispose of corpses that have not had time to be collected or identified, and the corpse draggers do not have to bury them carefully, but only need to transport them to the designated pit to avoid contaminating the water or generating evil spirits.

This is a lowly but well-paid job, and the corpse draggers usually do it for generations, and often do this kind of work with the dead, and the corpse draggers naturally develop their own set of rules and taboos, such as never insulting the dead, never reciting the name of the god of death when collecting the body (this is to prevent the dead who should have entered the realm of other gods from being targeted by the god of death), and the body must be delivered to its destination within two days after the end of Soulful Day.

It was because of this rule that Taka had to make his way through the muddy and slippery plains to prevent his "passengers" from becoming angry because they missed the "Day of Return" after Rehomsin.

As the sun was getting into the sky, Taka finally arrived.

Far from the front lines of the war, and far from any of the Easterners or Kingdom Army camps, it was a natural crater, and it had become stinking now.

Dressed in a heavy scarf and hood, and wrapped his hands in strips of cloth, the towman nimbly jumped out of the cart and looked out over the deserted place.

Frankly, this is not a very suitable cemetery, it does not conform to the teachings of the gods of death, and it does not quite meet the requirements of the blood gods, but this is the place designated by the client, so Taka, as a corpse dragger, will not dig into why he has to dump all the corpses in this big pit.

Around the pit you can see a few scattered wood carvings and metal frames, which were simple altars set up by priests to appease their souls, they were crude, but they were enough to deal with the lowest evil spirits. Taka walked over to one of the wooden carvings next to the edge of the pit, and then, according to the rules of the corpse dragger, took a crumpled death chrysanthemum from his bosom and placed it at the base of the carving.

Lying quietly in the mud, the petals trembling slightly in the cold wind, this small flower that can be seen everywhere in a damp and dark environment has a surprising vitality, it can grow and bloom almost all year round, and even after being plucked, it can survive for several days, the Ansu people firmly believe that this incredible vitality is the evidence that they can communicate the kingdom of the living and the dead, and the Ansu people also believe in another thing: every death chrysanthemum grows in the realm of the living and the dead at the same time, and it withers in the worldIt is the moment when it blooms in the underworld, and the soul of the deceased will successfully reach the "other side" through this secret connection at the moment when the death chrysanthemum withers and blooms, and embarks on the road to various divine kingdoms on the other side......

"Little flower, may you guide these lost people to their destination...... "The corpse dragger whispered, drawing the mark of the blood god on his chest, "sigh...... It's really hard for you, one flower has to attract so many people......"

With that, Taka turned around and prepared to go to the cart to carry the body.

Before he could take a step, however, his gaze suddenly noticed something else not far away.

It was the embers of a campfire, and it was a very small one.

Curious, the dragging man walked over to the embers of the campfire, smelling a faint smell of soot in his nostrils.

The bonfire was extinguished not long ago.

"Someone here mourning the dead?" Taka grunted and circled around the small campfire, "Could it be that a relative of one of the lucky guys in the mass grave came and took the body......"

The dragging man stopped abruptly in the middle of his words.

Last night's rain was not light, and I heard that it was especially heavy on this side of the big pit.

In the continuous rain, it is difficult for such a small bonfire to burn smoothly, even with the bark of a black-streaked tree that can burn in the rain, it should not burn so thoroughly.

There was no trace of dampness around the campfire, not that it had been dried by the fire, but that there seemed to be no rain falling on the ground in a radius of more than ten meters.

In addition to the smell of soot in the air, there was a strange sweet smell, which seemed to be some kind of floral fragrance, but it was not the smell of death chrysanthemum.

Taka had been a corpse dragger for half his life and knew all about the spices that would appear on Euphoric, but he had never smelled anything like it......

Although he couldn't say exactly what was going on, the corpse dragger instinctively sensed a hint of weirdness, which unnerved him and reminded him vaguely of the rumors that had been circulating among the corpse draggers in recent times......

Ghouls are said to haunt the night...... There are flesh-devouring monsters roaming the dark lands...... The corpses in mass graves seem to be inexplicably decreasing...... Bodies that are too late to be buried often disappear for no apparent reason......

In the cold wind of late autumn, the corpse dragger shivered, and he felt something malicious moving under his feet—although he couldn't see it, it seemed to have seen itself.

He is not a transcendent being, but he is a corpse dragging man who has dealt with the dead for half his life, and he is still a relatively devout blood god cultist, and he knows that he has some intuition that ordinary people do not have, and this intuition has indeed allowed him to escape several attacks from evil spirits in his past life.

He began to step back cautiously, as gently and naturally as possible, trying not to appear panicked.

But a rustling sound suddenly reached his ears, and with the sound of rustling, he saw some turf and clods of earth trembling in the mass grave below, and several humanoids wrapped in sackcloth—which he had thrown into three days before—were squirming strangely.

The corpse dragger's eyes widened, and he could clearly see several vine-like sticks suddenly grow out of the soil and pierce the corpses, and then the earth rippled like water, swallowing the corpses into the dark depths......

A great panic struck, and he finally let out an uncontrollable exclamation, and after an exclamation, he ran away.

But the strange sweet smell that filled the air poured out again, and it was more obvious than before, and in this sudden sweet smell, the spirit of the corpse dragger Taka was in a trance, and then fell into a long, deep dream.

Vine-like things spread out from between the dirt and blades of grass, wrapping around the limbs of the corpse dragger, and in a low grunt and rustling sound, the soil rippled like water, dragging him into the ground little by little.

The cold wind of late autumn blew across the plains and through the deserted mass graves, and it was quiet as if nothing had happened.

A moment later, a sudden gust of wind blew across the plain, and the wind swept up a large expanse of fallen leaves from nowhere, and in the midst of the falling leaves, a woman in a green priest's robe appeared.

Bertila frowned, looked at the position where the corpse was swallowed by the earth, and sighed slightly: "Unlucky guy......"

"Your bonfire in memory of the dead has caught his attention," a muffled voice came from the depths of the earth, accompanied by the sound of rustling and weaving, "I wonder what kind of person is worthy of a bonfire lit by a patriarch on Anrehom Day...... Do you, like those ordinary people, believe in the return of the dead? ”

"Sheak Heaton, don't forget why you were punished for coming here to collect biomass - just do your part."

"Hah...... You're probably the most boring woman in the world......"

There was a muffled grunt from underground, and then the sound sank and the rustling faded away—the person making the sound seemed to be back in the deeper soil.

Beltila stood still for a moment, as if thinking about something, and after a few minutes of silence, she took a step—under the priest's long skirt, the "legs" of countless roots and vines wriggled and led her to the extinguished bonfire.

A blooming dying chrysanthemum fell into the embers of a campfire.

"I don't care what's in your shell...... It's a plan you can't thwart.

"Mankind will live forever, even if it disobeys the gods."