A cool breeze blew from the lake behind Shen Mingde's head, and the rain that lasted for several days dispelled the gathered heat. The breeze is mixed with the fragrance of things in the woods. If there were no Shanmira, no believers, and no secret method of "immortality", what a wonderful summer resort this would be. The day after the inspection, Mr. Zhou was expected to rush into his office in ecstasy, adding fuel to the scene. And he himself calculates the costs and benefits of the entire construction in his heart...... It's all a dream. Shen Mingde closed his eyes, and for a while he couldn't tell which dream he was having. Is it a dream that just flashed through my mind? Or is it a nightmare in front of you?

The numbness in his wrists and the pain in the back of his head forced him to wake up. Shen Mingde's eyes widened slightly, and he saw torches swaying among the trees in the direction of the village in the distance. The vague words "they are coming" drifted into his ears with the breeze, but it was like a thunderclap, which made Shen Mingde tremble. He pulled himself together and asked anxiously, "What will they do to me?" Can I live after the sacrifice? Zhou Tengfei, Zhou Tengfei, where is he? ”

"I don't know, I really don't know. Most of the 'sacrifices' can be lived. But you are not a 'sacrifice', you were 'invited' by Shanmira...... Yamamira asked me to bring you, whether you can see the lake or not. Just bring you and give me 'eternal life' without my sacrifice." I've got to go, Minde. Takeoff is waiting for me. Thank you......" Xiao Jing's voice choked up and faded away.

Shen Mingde held his swollen, painful eyelids and looked at her back. The woman seemed to be covering her mouth with one hand and wiping her tears with the other, like a little girl who had lost her beloved doll. She lowered her head and passed through the crowd of people who were walking towards Shen Mingde with great momentum, and no one stopped her. The men were masked and silent, as if a solemn ceremony was being performed. The man in the golden hat and helmet walked in front of his mouth, followed by a loose and chaotic procession of believers. They did not line up in rows or columns, but maintained an even pace and spacing towards the shore of the lake. It seems that everyone has their own way forward, not crowded, not cut in line, not deviated.

As this group of people got closer and closer, Shen Mingde felt that "death" was becoming more and more real at the same time. She had never felt "death" from such a close distance. When several people talked to him about the "death mark" on his wrist, he somewhat felt it was a joke. When he was chased by a living corpse in the drama school, he had a bit of a sense of play. When he was chased by the black shadows in the hospital, he felt several layers of farcical ridiculousness. It is not because Shen Mingde has the courage beyond ordinary people, but because of the desire of life and the hope of life to "protect" him from being swallowed by despair. Now, however, he has reached a tipping point. Being tied to a ladder made him feel like a lamb to the slaughter, unable to find a glimmer of hope. The believers who are pressing forward are so real that it is like a dentist who puts a plate of medical equipment in front of him, and what needs to happen will happen.

A crowd gathered under the ladder and glared at him. There were about twenty, or even thirty of those people. Shen Mingde looked around at the crowd. Only then did he notice that there was a corpse lying on the beach of the lake not far beyond the human wall. The corpse was half-naked, and his heart seemed to have been pierced by a sharp weapon. Nearby, there were several mutilated corpses and stumps.

"It's him, it's he who desecrated the Holy Lake! It was he who angered the great god! ”

An old but loud voice came from Shen Mingde's ears. The owner of the voice wears a strange golden hat.

"This is the man who killed your father, your brother, and your son, so that they may never be resurrected." The mournful words trembled slightly, but there was ecstasy in them.

At this point, the crowd was stirred up by a short old lady. She squeezed through the wall to the front row, glaring at Shen Mingde with angry eyes with tears. Suddenly, a mouthful of spit spit on him, gritted his teeth and said: "You killed my son, he sacrificed himself, he should be blessed, it is because of you, the great god of Shanmira, is angry and unwilling to resurrect him, I will dig out your heart and replace it for my son!" ”

Shen Mingde silently glanced at the intact corpse and opened his mouth, but he didn't make any sound. Suddenly, the onlookers boiled and shouted, "Kill him!" Burn him! Bury alive! Ling Chi! The cruel words were blurted out, and they cursed angrily, raising their clubs, axes, and torches in their hands and shouting, but none of them stepped forward and did anything. Suddenly, the man in the hat raised his right palm into the air, and the noise suddenly fell silent. The loud voice sounded again: "I know this person from outside, and the great god of Shanmiluo, who knows everything, knows this person. He wanders in the forest, he comes to find our Divine Lake again and again, and he will bring officers and soldiers and minions to find the Divine Lake, he wants to steal the secret of our immortality! ”

Shen Mingde became surprised when he saw the expressions of some people, and some people became even more angry. "But how can the lake of the gods be found by the people who come from outside," the voice continued, "the people outside are all worshippers, and they all stay in their own houses, and the big boxy boxes are enshrined in the houses, and the voices in the boxes will believe whatever they say, and they will do whatever they are told to do, they are slaves of the evil gods!" ”

The crowd suddenly turned to joy and laughed contemptuously. In the midst of laughter, the voice still continued, "The people outside don't know what that great god is capable of. How saddened by the Great God for their fall. They don't know that the only purpose of living is to make the god happy, they don't know that they are alive because the Lord allowed them to live, they don't understand anything! ”

"Nope! I'm here to find someone! A roar blurted out, overpowering the laughter of the crowd. This roar seemed to have exhausted Shen Mingde's whole strength. Like a toy with a battery running out, he looked feebly at the crowd that had suddenly fallen silent and glared at him again.

"Are you looking for him?" The hooded man said in a sarcastic tone, waving his hand in the air.

In an instant, the human wall gradually separated a road. A slender man walked silently, slowly took off the hat on his head, and held it on his chest. What Shen Mingde saw was an extremely familiar face, a face that he had often sat at his desk with him in the past five years, a face that always had a handsome smile, and a face that confronted him when he was dissatisfied. That face did not look up at Shen Mingde, but always looked straight ahead.

A slightly meaningful voice said, "This young man has a high level of understanding, he can see the Divine Lake, and he believes that the Divine Lake exists. The god Yamamira allowed him to be part of our family. ”

"They forced you, right?" Shen Mingde asked questioningly.

"No, I volunteered. Yamamira resurrected me, and I saw its power." After a moment of silence, Zhou Tengfei continued: "I also know the truth, the God who created all things is about to return, and at that time, only Shanmiluo can protect us. ”

The one with the hat and helmet suddenly stopped Zhou Tengfei's words. "What do the people from outside know ......," he said sternly in the tone of an educating child, and then began to lecture to the crowd. And the crowd bowed their heads silently as if they had been instructed.

There is only one person in the human wall who is different. I saw that the man squeezed through the perimeter of the human wall little by little to the middle floor, and then slowly moved to the side and forward. The shabby hat covered his face, but it couldn't hide his figure. It was Yang Guangcheng, and Shen Mingde quickly recognized him. Although this veteran has been retired from the army for many years, he is really getting stronger and stronger. Shen Mingde thought excitedly, and his body suddenly felt blood boiling. At this point, the tone of the loud voice changed from preaching to begging: "We will be your slaves forever...... Please ask the great god of Yamamira to make decisions for us...... Punish those who come from outside...... Trying to steal our ......" the crowd imitated the hooded one and chanted this prayer in a chaotic voice, all with their arms outstretched into the air. The scene was chaotic for a moment, with prayers mixed with beastly roars, and the hands that reached into the air were not what humans should be. Shen Mingde saw the arm composed of countless huge earthworms again. The earthworms swirled and twisted into bundles, twisting and wriggling in the light of the firelight. Behind the group of earthworms, a hammer also rose into the sky and quickly fell. Shen Mingde seemed to hear the sound of bones shattering. Then the hammer rose again, fell again, rose and fell. As a result, blood splattered all around, and everyone around them began to shout and push in panic. It is like a wave in the water, which is stirred up from the center and spreads rapidly to the surrounding areas. Suddenly, the ladder began to shake, and Shen Mingde fell into the water with the ladder that bound him. His ears rumbled, but through the shallow water, he could still see the swaying of torches on the shore, the frightened crowds fleeing, the hammers wielding with all their might, and the villagers fleeing with their weapons and then turning back. The chaos on the shore continued, the bundle of the ladder that fell on the riverbed was still strong, the struggle was to no avail, Shen Mingde's eyes became blurred, his lungs tortured his whole body like a fire, and those petal-like tentacles danced within the range of Shen Mingde's afterglow.

When Shen Mingde woke up again, he found himself lying in the middle of a circular cave. The cave was bright, but he couldn't find a light source. Shen Mingde wanted to get up, but he couldn't feel his limbs, as if he was still working except for his eyes, and his limbs were no longer his own. He remained lying on his back, rolling his eyes to look around. The low, circular dome convinced him that the cave was definitely not a natural formation. With the dome as the center, it is decorated with three-dimensional reliefs in circles. It is a circle of reliefs that are very fine and three-dimensional, I can't say what style it is, and I can't tell which dynasty or generation it was carved in. The reliefs on the top of the dome are completely incomprehensible. It wasn't until there were several humanoid and humanoid carvings that the meaning of the reliefs became clear.

Shen Mingde saw that it was a sacrifice, and a person tied to the altar was dismembered by several tentacles and then stitched up. The lower circles of reliefs show animals being dismembered alive, and then parts and organs being selected and sewn together on another object. Shen Mingde, who had no research on carving, looked further into the lower layers of the reliefs, and gradually found that the meanings of these reliefs were clearly recognizable. They are like a machine's operating manual, easy to understand. It wasn't a sacrifice, it was an experiment or a surgery. Those carefully selected animals, Shen Mingde knew and didn't know, modern and ancient animals, among them there were humans, and all the animals were placed on the operating table. Their limbs or organs are removed and spliced and transplanted onto something else. And that thing, Shen Mingde has never been able to peek into its full picture. These surgeries were extremely bloody and brutal. The reliefs depict the expressions and behaviors of those animals during the operation. Shen Mingde seemed to hear the wails and roars, as if he was in hell, in the Yama Treasure Palace.

These reliefs recorded the details of each operation, so that Shen Mingde couldn't bear to look at it directly. He looked away, and was surprised to find that his neck could turn, but he still couldn't feel his limbs. When he turned his head to the right, the silhouette of a humanoid figure frightened Shen Mingde almost away. Fortunately, the thing remained motionless and just stared at Shen Mingde. If you look closely, it was an extremely old and shriveled old man, perhaps a dried corpse. The corpse's cheeks were sunken, its eyes were hollow, its legs were in a kneeling position, and its arms hung limply at its sides. He was dressed in a dirty shirt and baggy trousers, like a modern person. The long, unkempt hair and beard, black and white, were scattered all over the ground, as disgusting as worn-out cotton wool. The corpse leaned forward, its back and back of its head connected by silk threads to prevent him from falling. And the thread extended into another dark hole behind the dried corpse.

"Awake?" The voice was hoarse and low, squeezed out of the dry corpse's throat.

"Are you awake?" Another question. This time, because Shen Mingde was mentally prepared, he was not as frightened as he was just now. However, he still hoped that God would have mercy and let him pass out again. Unfortunately, he didn't, he couldn't ask questions, just lay quietly, staring at the dried corpse.

"Shen Mingde, we finally met." The old man's voice sounded again.

Hearing this unsuccessful old man mention his name, Shen Mingde couldn't help but feel terrified. He struggled to open his mouth, and after many attempts, he finally squeezed out a few words from the depths of his throat: "You?" Yamamiro? ”

A roar like a diesel engine came from the old man's direction. The cadre's face was stiff and expressionless. Maybe he just used this voice in place of his laughter, or ridicule. Following this roar, the old man said, "I, a devout believer in Shanmira, a faithful servant, a foolish seeker of immortality, Gao Zhongchen, am now a part of Shanmira. ”

When Shen Mingde heard this familiar name, he suddenly felt excited. Even if he wasn't sure whether this person was friend or foe, even if he didn't have a friendship with Gao Zhongchen. However, a hope for survival and a complex emotion like "meeting old acquaintances in a foreign land" blended with each other and emerged spontaneously from the bottom of my heart. A force supported Shen Mingde and continued to ask: "Me? What's wrong? I, which ...... Village? ”

However, the answer Shen Mingde heard dragged him into the hell of Ah Bi again. From Gao Zhongchen's vague, mechanical speech, he guessed that he might be in a cubicle like a "preparation room". Like those who seek immortality, and those sacrifices, there are horrific "surgeries" or "experiments" waiting here. Or, after that, it will be stored here for a while. Whether it was "before" or "after", it made Shen Mingde feel very uneasy. He stared in horror at the horrific reliefs on the dome, twisting his body in hopes of finding the wound after surgery. But what made him feel even more frightened was that there was not the slightest pain in his body, and even he himself could not feel the presence of his limbs.

"It doesn't take anything away from you. It just makes you immortal. Gao Zhongchen seemed to be comforted.

Although everything sounded strange and unrealistic, this answer made Shen Mingde happy. If that were the case, he would not only increase his hope of survival, but also get an unexpected thing

"Gifts".

"Why does the great god Yamamira grant me immortality?" Shen Mingde asked with that kind of joy. Although his voice should have been hoarse and terrifying, it could not hide his excitement. He deliberately added the word "great god" after "Shan Mira" to show his respect.

"Bestow?" Suddenly, Gao Zhongchen once let out a laugh like the roar of an engine, and said mockingly: "You are really a 'devout' believer." ”

Hearing this, Shen Mingde couldn't help but feel fear and shame. He suddenly felt that the shriveled old man in front of him might not be a human being, but a god-like existence like Yamamira.

Gao Zhongchen didn't seem to pay attention to Shen Mingde's emotions, and continued with a stiff expression: "Health and longevity are people's beautiful wishes. Whoever fulfills this wish is domesticated as a dog-like devout follower. How many cruel things they will do to express their 'piety'. I have seen people who have harmed themselves, who have killed their own children, and who have deceived their brothers and parents. They are willing to sacrifice everything in order to be 'given' so-called immortality. But they don't even know what they've been 'given' for. ”

The old man's face was thin and rigid, expressionless, and his tone was weak and weak. However, Shen Mingde heard the ridicule and anger from that passage, he did not expect Gao Zhongchen to be on his side, but he might be able to get useful information from him. However, before Shen Mingde could open his mouth to ask, Gao Zhongchen gave a creepy answer.

"Yamamira lays eggs on the body of the Immortal." This terrifying sentence flowed out of Gao Zhongchen's mouth like a mountain trickle.

At that moment, Shen Mingde's eyes showed the scene of man-eating flies wriggling under the skin, and he thought of the scene of the terrifying monster in the movie burrowing out of the human chest and abdomen, and recalled the description of the novel in which tiny white maggots swarmed and gnawed on brains. He felt trembling and gagging.

"Parasites?" Shen Mingde said the word unconsciously. He didn't expect an answer from others, perhaps he already had an answer in his mind. He thought of Fang Jiuling's novels, as well as those metaphors such as "fruits" and "breaking cocoons".

"It's the roundworm-like stuff," Gao Zhongchen affirmed, "and it tricks people here, cures diseases, prolongs life, and lays eggs." It was an egg so small that even the most advanced microscopes could not see it, and I even suspected that it was parasitic on the human soul. Only people who live a long and healthy life can feed these eggs constantly. This is the 'longevity' that people are pursuing. ”