Chapter 19: The Sacrifice of the Cave God

Hanbao's "home" is in a cave on the cliff, which is just blocked by an abrupt mountain rock, which is more than ten meters away from the ground, and it is necessary to walk a stone stack.

The door of the cave was cut into a square, and the arches and eaves were carved, and two guards with short swords stood outside the door.

The furniture in the cave is actually made of bamboo and wood, and there are several copper lamps hanging in the cave hall. When we entered, the shaman was writing on a piece of linen, the font was a bit like a big seal, and I vaguely recognized a few, among which the "outsider" two Yu did recognize it.

Does this "outsider" refer to me? Although the pen was a brush, the hair was very long, and it was tied to a thin wooden stick, which is what the "ancient" brush looked like.

The ink is polymerized from charred charcoal strip powder, which is ground out on a piece of pottery inkstone after adding water.

When the priest saw me come in, he was a little surprised, and did not get up, but looked at me strangely.

I bowed my head and greeted him in an unfamiliar native language, and the priest squeezed a smile on his face, nodded in response, and continued to write.

I followed Han Bao into the inner cave to his room, and the furniture was all made of bamboo and wood, but it was a little simpler. Han Bao took out a set of brocade robes from the wooden cabinet and put them on just right, and sure enough, it was made for me, and I couldn't help but be full of gratitude. If there were no treasures, I really wouldn't know how to live in this valley.

When he came out, Han Bao was stopped by his father, pointing to the scissors hanging from his waist and asking what it was. Yin Bao took off the scissors and handed them to the priest with both hands, saying that I was a gift to him.

The priest looked at the scissors, not knowing what they were for. Yin Bao told his father about the function of the scissors, and the priest used the scissors to cut off a strand of his hair, and suddenly said to Yin Bao: "You go out and wait for a while, I have something to say to him." Han Bao hesitated, but went out anyway, and only the priest and I were left in the cave.

"Young man, can you still say that you don't understand me?" The priest's eyes stared at me, and he spoke the standard Central Plains official dialect, without the arrogance and murderous aura of the past.

"How do you know?" I knew it wasn't necessary, and I had a lot of mysteries that he needed to help me solve.

"I knew it from the first time I asked you, your eyes told me, and your shaking of your head proved my judgment. ”

"I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do at the time. ”

"You are doing the right thing, if you can understand my words, it proves that you are not a person of the Emperor of the Emperor, but if you do not understand the language of the Ba people, you will not be able to prove that you are the messenger of the Emperor of the Emperor. Who, then, young man, are you from, and why are you here?" the shaman's eyes returned to majesty and vigilance.

"I'm not anyone's person, I just got here by accident. "As it stands, that's all I can say.

"I'll take your word for it, now you tell me, is Han Bao your friend?"

"Yes, the best friend of my life. "That's true, I have never met someone like Han Bao who selflessly helped me and trusted me other than my parents.

"Would you like to help him, then?"

"I do. ”

"Very well, you are a smart man, I will persuade King Ba to give you a proper position, and if you are willing to stay, I can ask the Gadenji Cave Lord to marry his beautiful daughter Liya to you. ”

I was stunned for a moment: "Thank you, I appreciate your kindness, but I can't accept it." ”

"Why?"

"For sooner or later I will have to go back to the valley. "Of course, I can't say that Liya is Hanbao's sweetheart, so I have to risk the taboo in the valley.

"You can only enter here, not go out, and in the future Hugh will mention the word 'out' again, unless you ......" the priest finally finished speaking.

"But ......"

"Alright, go out and remember what I said. ”

The Sacrifice of the Cave God

Han Bao was waiting for me outside the door, and when he saw me come out, he asked eagerly, "What did my father say to you?" I smiled lightly and patted him on the shoulder: "It's okay, let's go out for a walk now." ”

The weather was very cloudy, drizzling, and there were no pedestrians outside, so I deliberately chatted about some light topics: "Thank you for the clothes, they look good, but you have been isolated from the Central Plains for more than 2,000 years, where did you get the silk?"

"It's very simple, there are mulberry cocoons in the valley, we weave them ourselves, but the number is very small, and only a few people can wear them. ”

"Oh, I see, then I'm one of the few. ”

"But we can't weave the kind of garment you wore when you entered the valley, so what kind of material would it be made of?

"It's a plant that grows in a very hot place, and the climate in the valley can't grow it. "Of course I can't tell him it's chemical fiber, it can't be grown at all.

"There are so many amazing things outside the valley, such as your strange pen and the 'double-edged knife' that you gave me, and that strange big bird, I really want to go out and see it. He called the scissors I "invented" a "double-edged knife".

"Strange big birds?"

"A big bird with strange wings and a thunderous cry, haven't you seen it?"

"I've never seen it. "What kind of big bird is this? Maybe it's another rare animal in the neighborhood.

"It's also appeared in the last two years, and I haven't seen it before;"

"You don't want to be a prime minister's shaman? That's a beautiful thing under one person and above ten thousand. ”

"What if you become a prime minister and a priest, you can't live your own way, let alone change. ”

"Do you really want to go out? There are many dangers outside the valley, how do you know that you can adapt to going out? It is better to be safe and stable in the valley. ”

"That's what stimulates me, and I'll have to ask you if I don't understand it. ”

"I fled to the valley because I couldn't get used to life outside. ”

"You don't need to lie to me, people who don't have extraordinary courage and ability can't get to the valley, you must have some kind of special mission, you can not tell me, but I believe you are not a bad person. ”

"If you go out of the valley, what will Princess Yiga do? Who will sit in the seat of the prime minister's priest?"

"So I need your help, don't you like it here?"

"I like it here, but I can't leave the valley!"

"Why did you go out of the valley? You are already familiar with the outside world, is there a beloved waiting for you?"

"No, but ......"

"Are you my friend? If so, please do this a favor, at least not for now. ”

"Well, do you know what your father told me, he wants me to make you stay in peace, why don't you marry Princess Yiga?"

"Didn't I tell you? Even the prime minister and priest can only marry one woman, and it would not be fair to Lia to marry two. ”

I was speechless, I didn't expect Han Bao to be such a stubborn and determined person. If Han Bao goes out of the valley, I will have a difficult time here, whether to help Han Bao or to help the priests? If he helps Han Bao, that is, he can get out of the valley, how can he, an ancient man who lived "2,000 years ago," adapt to modern society, and most of them are regarded as crazy people and fall into the streets, and they can't even beg, wouldn't it hurt him? If the priest forced Han Bao to stay, but betrayed his best friend, it would hurt him even more.

What the hell am I supposed to do?

"Can I ask you another question?" I suddenly remembered an important question.

"Brother Pi, you and I don't have to be polite, I will know everything. Han Bao patted me on the shoulder and expressed his intimacy with me.

"Do all the Ba people worship tigers?" I put my hand on his hand and pressed it gently.

"No, only we, the White Tiger Tribe, worship tigers, and it is said that there are four other tribes with snakes and bears as ancestral gods. After listening to Han Bao's answer, it seemed to understand that the country of Ba was formed by a combination of several powerful tribes, and the tribes of this combination were not stable, and at some point, they were even enemies among themselves.

I remembered the words of Uncle Qin, a farmer in Longqiaohe.

The sacrifice of the cave god took place in the huge funnel hall we once visited, large enough to hold one or two thousand people, men and women, young and old, dressed in the most beautiful costumes, with faces full of devotion and hope.

The most excited were the girls, whose heads, necks, and even ankles and wrists were adorned with ornaments made of colored stones or animal teeth, and their spicy eyes swept everywhere, like a ball of flame burning on the young man's body, and Han Bao and I became the center of the fire.

The hall is surrounded by torches, and in the middle is a high platform made of artificial masonry, divided into two levels, with steps, and the base platform is about 10 meters wide and 1.2 meters high. There is a row of stone chimes and a chime on the stage, and a stone incense burner under the stage. There are five people beating on it, the small platform is about 5 meters wide and 1 meter high, and there is a wooden case in the middle of the platform, on which two pillars of incense are burned, and two puffs of green smoke are running straight up.

Under the gaze of more than 1,000 people, the king, priests, queens, princesses, and elders of the cave lord slowly came to the stage. Among them, there were two boys, one big and one young, the eldest of fourteen or five years old, with very thin feet, like a polio patient, sitting on a wooden chair, and the younger one was white and fat, five or six years old, with the shadow of the third princess in his eyebrows, and I think this is the eldest and the youngest prince.

Hanbao and I stood at the front of the crowd, surrounded by Liya, Runge, Namo, Zag, and a whole bunch of girls with flowers.

The queen and the princess looked at us with very different meanings, the queen's eyes were full of warmth and smile, and the princess was shining with anger, probably because of Liya.

Looking up from the bottom of the cave, in the dark blue night sky, a bright moon hangs high, just in the middle of the top of the cave, like a huge jade plate, exuding silver light pouring down, holy and mysterious.

The drums sounded in unison, and the shaman dragged the floor in a robe and coat, holding a wooden box on the high platform, and his thin body actually looked very tall.

The wooden box opened, and the shaman's long, pointed fingers took an object out of the wooden box and raised his hands high. I was suddenly shocked, it was exactly the same strange rock I found in Longqiao-Cong.

The people in the hall, including King Ba, knelt down in unison and shouted. Probably words like "Divine Blessing" and "Long Live the Gods", I knelt down with the people, but I wondered in my heart: how could the same artifact be outside the valley and one inside the valley, and how could such an important artifact be discarded?

The priest continued to chant words on the high platform, and the people in the audience could not kneel, and I peeked at the front of the stage, and met the queen unexpectedly, and a strange smile flashed in the queen's eyes, as if she had some kind of tacit understanding with me. Turning his head to look at Han Bao, his hands folded with Lia's, his eyes burning with lust.

When the incense on the stage was burned, a live sheep was carried up to the high platform by two natives, and the priest raised his sword and cut it at the neck of the sheep, and a stream of hot blood spurted out and shot into the perforation of the jade cong.

There was another shout from the crowd, followed by several loud bangs, and colorful sparks erupted from the holes in front of the stage, and I was in a burst of ecstasy—gunpowder! The people here know how to make gunpowder!

The chime drum beats out a rhythmic sound, the people in the hall hold hands to form a three-layer circle around the hot spring ruler, the most primitive dance begins, and the most unrestrained ** is about to erupt......