The professor next to him thought that he had an accident and hurried to help him, but he was ordered by him in broken English!

"Get down - get down, tree...... God...... Can't watch! ”

The professor and Anne didn't understand what he meant, and Stern, who was surprised at the moment, went up to him and asked him what was going on in Khmer, but Kansa didn't explain anything and persuaded them to get down. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Stern didn't know why he was suddenly so nervous, but he understood that the locals had lived in their land for so long, and there must have been their national customs or taboos, and Kansa had just mentioned the sacred tree, so maybe this tree was their native god. So he didn't ask any more questions, and told the professor to do what Kansa told him first. So they all fell to the ground as Kansa lay on his stomach, and heard an incomprehensible spell coming from Kansa's mouth.

Professor Morrill was a materialist and did not believe in the so-called "gods", so he did not understand these Khmer customs very well. However, he has been engaged in archaeological research for more than 30 years, and has traveled all over the world, and more or less knows that different countries and different ethnic groups have their own set of belief systems, from ancient myths and beliefs in ancient Central Asia, ancient Egypt, ancient India, and ancient China, to the small nature worship of ethnic minorities in remote areas under these large civilizations. Most of them are born out of their worship of the ancient forces of nature that could not be countered by human beings.

So he thought that Kansa's behavior was a legacy of his own people's beliefs, and naturally there was a reason for him, but he thought about it, isn't this exactly what he was looking for, and the Brahmins of the Angkor Dynasty used the local beliefs of these low-level people and ruled them. And now it is likely that this belief is also being used to prevent outsiders from prying eyes, so the "sacred tree" in front of them is likely to be the "humanoid tree" on the relief, which means that the boulder that indicates the secret path through the jungle is located near here!

Thinking of this, the professor no longer ignored those inexplicable beliefs and taboos, and raised his head to observe the "sacred tree" in front of him......

As expected, about ten meters in front of him, there was a huge banyan tree - it was impossible to describe it as huge! It's a forest of one-man trees! The first thing that catches your eye is a wall of gray-brown roots that are so dense that they are impermeable, all of which are made up of aerial roots hanging from tree trunks to the ground, and they are like countless dragons entangled with each other and scrambling to drill into the ground. Above are several oil barrels, the size of branches, and a tall green umbrella is propped up under the faint green leaves. From afar, it looks like a giant green jellyfish, and the dragon-like roots in front of it are its tentacles.

The professor had seen a lot of solitary landscapes in Southeast Asia before, but it was the first time he had seen such a large scale, which was a great spectacle. It is no wonder that when Kansa saw it, he thought it was a "sacred tree" and worshipped it on the ground. The Professor's eyebrows tightened, his eyes focused on the dense forest of aerial roots in front of him, and his instincts told him that what he was looking for was behind the gloomy forest of roots......

At the same time, Stern saw that Kansa had stopped reciting those strange incantations, and asked him why he had come down to worship the tree, what its origin was, and whether there was any danger.

For he also noticed the unusually large banyan tree in front of him, occupying the space of the other plants, and the branches and leaves on the top and a large number of roots occupied the area of almost two football fields in this jungle.

Stern remembered that when he was in Phnom Penh, he met many people living in Cambodia, who were good at business, and many of them were in the timber business. What these people like most is to go to the mountains and forests in the northeast to buy all kinds of precious trees, and the older the hardwoods produced in the deep mountains, the more they like them. Rare tree species such as sandalwood and nanmu are often rushed to bid before the tree has fallen to the ground.

Of course, a thousand gold is easy to obtain, but a tree is hard to find, and a good ancient tree will only be cut less and less. Therefore, they usually buy more common tree species such as rosewood and teak. But they told him that there was one tree in Indochina that they didn't touch, and that was the banyan tree. First of all, the trunk of this kind of tree is not obvious, it is not easy to grow, and the wood is perishable and not durable. The reason is more because in the traditional Chinese belief, the banyan tree is a sacred tree, especially the old banyan tree, which is often planted next to ancestral temples for worship. There is also a saying that some ghosts and spirits have gathered under the old banyan tree over the years, and if the banyan tree is cut down to make wood, these ghosts and spirits will lose their shelter and will attach themselves to the wood, and if they are used to build houses, they will come out to make trouble.

Stern was also skeptical at the time, after all, he had never experienced this custom, and it felt too mysterious, but he felt that if some things were passed down for a long time, it was better to choose to believe them. Especially after spending two months in the jungles of South Vietnam, he also has an inexplicable sense of fear of these ancient and dark jungle trees.

Kansa had been lying motionless on the ground since he stopped chanting the incantation, and he heard Stern ask him about the tree's origins. Perhaps it is also the thought that foreigners from Western countries should not understand this kind of local customs and beliefs. So he explained to Stern that he had actually passed it on by word of mouth through his clan since he was a child, and whenever he saw such a large banyan tree in the wild, he would bow to the ground to show respect for the tree god and not offend him at will. As for the origin, he did not know whether it was dangerous or not.

However, Kansa didn't know that what the professor was looking for was hidden under this tree, and the professor on the side didn't know if he had lost his scruples after hearing Kansa's conversation with the sergeant, or if he was anxious to find a clue to the ancient path through the jungle. He immediately got up and walked under the banyan tree.

Anne, who first noticed the professor's unusual behavior, followed the professor with a look of trepidation.

Kansa, who was lying on the ground, couldn't react for a moment when he saw this sudden situation, and his eyes were full of fear in an instant, but because of his language barrier, he was at a loss, on the one hand, he was a god who could not be blasphemed in his mind since he was a child, and on the other hand, he was a foreign financier with a very different culture and high up. So he asked Stern behind him what they were going to do, and told them to stop, because it would offend the gods!

Stern looked at him and then at Professor Anne, and didn't know what to do, so he said to Kansa in a hurry.

"They may have seen the tree god and want to get closer to meet ......"

As soon as the words came out, Stern himself thought it was funny how he could make up such a reason, and what he didn't expect was that Kansa actually believed it! He reverently recited the incantations he didn't understand, and then immediately followed, wanting to see what the "god" looked like...