The Diye Mountains traverse Tianzhu from east to west, dividing the entire subcontinent into two parts, north and south.

On the plateau in the north, there are hundreds of city-states, large and small.

The city-state was surrounded by numerous tribal villages, ruled by local elders.

It's summer, but the rain is surprisingly low, the land is dry, and many streams are dry.

Humans and beasts alike were weary and powerless, suffering in unbearable heat.

However, the more this was the case, the more the local Brahmin elders demanded that they make offerings to the gods.

From grain to livestock to young maidens, a large number of sacrifices were sent to the temple, and large gatherings were held again and again, but the drought did not improve in the slightest.

On the contrary, it became more and more severe, and the city-states faced widespread famine, and the peasants were miserable.

In a village called Elam, the local Brahmin elders, looking at their storehouses full of offerings, did not worry that they would survive the drought.

But he was very worried about the safety of the gods.

Because through prayer, he had learned about the chaos in the heavenly and human realms.

There is a terrible demon king who destroyed Mandala Mountain, sealed and slaughtered the gods.

How can this be? How could the gods have suffered such a terrible calamity?

The elder was indignant, took his wife and children by the way, cursed the demon king day and night, and prayed earnestly for the gods.

In Tianzhu, the power of blessings and curses is quite powerful. If countless people curse one person, then Brahma will make it work, and if countless people bless one person, it will also work.

On this day, he gathered all the villagers together, knelt outside the shrine, and chanted and prayed together.

Many of the crowd were hungry and fainted after kneeling.

When the elder saw this, he was furious and ordered the servants to drag them out and whip them dozens of times.

Several people were killed on the spot.

It was not until the evening that a wizened woman, with her daughter in her hand, came to the edge and came boldly to look for her husband.

There was not a grain of food left in the house, and she stayed up all day, but she did not dare to come to it, because the woman was not allowed to participate in this puja.

But it was too late and hungry, so she took her daughter to watch from afar, intending to remind her husband to ask the elders for some food after the puja.

Who would have thought that he would see her husband's body from afar, along with several neighbors lying in a pool of blood.

She was completely stunned, and couldn't care less, crying and pounced on her.

When the daughter saw her father who had been whipped to death, she was also frightened and cried.

The noise rushed into the prayer assembly, and the elder was extremely angry: "You servant's daughter, how dare you approach here and make noise!" ”

"People have been praying for the gods all day, but you have ruined them, and everyone's efforts have been in vain!"

When he said this, the crowd immediately glared at the mother and daughter in anger.

They worked hard for a day, but it turned out to be in vain, how can they not be angry?

"Your husband interrupted the prayer before he was beaten to death by the elders, and your daughter also collided and quarreled, your family is a pariah full of sinful karma!"

The woman didn't know what was going on, but when she heard this, she couldn't help but say, "My husband has given everything to God, even his eldest daughter to you, just so that the gods can spare him from suffering and let the whole family have something to eat." ”

"Now that we have prayed for blessings again and again, how many people in the village are starving to death, but the suffering is still intensifying, is this also our problem?"

"You killed my husband and left me and my daughter with nothing, how are you going to live?"

Her words resonated and stirred up many villagers, and many of them were indeed unable to hold on.

Isn't it a matter of the power of the Brahmin elders to pray so many times and the gods have not solved the suffering?

Unexpectedly, the elder was even more angry: "Don't you know that the gods are fighting against the demon king, and it is the time when they need the dedication of the world?" ”

"Pray for the gods to help them defeat the demon king, and you will be blessed. Even if you starve to death, you will be a clean soul, and you will be reborn in a noble family in the next life, free from suffering. ”

"And ask me how to live? For a pariahs like you, life and death don't matter. Following the Dharma, dedicating to God, and washing away one's sins is the first priority,"

"I will teach you this, it can be seen that your heart is not pure and full of dirt! You make a noise about the puja and dare to question the authority of the Brahmins? ”

"Not only do you want to reincarnate as a hungry ghost yourself, but you also want to add sinful karma to everyone else!"

After saying this, the woman couldn't refute it, she was dumb and tearful, hugging her daughter and trembling.

The villagers who were in turmoil immediately pointed the finger at her.

Yes, all the sufferings in this world are tempering, and the more bitter and difficult it is, the more we must be willing to serve the gods wholeheartedly and follow the Dharma.

In this way, you can wash away your sins and enjoy happiness in the next life.

It is like putting the cart before the horse when a woman turns her mouth back to a brahmin for the sake of eating and eating and the death of her husband! Forget what you're living for!

and multiply one's own sins, and harm others.

"You woman who harms others and yourself, kill her!"

"Let her go to hell!"

Angry villagers picked up rocks and threw them at the woman, who cried and hugged her daughter and ran away desperately.

The Brahmin elders shouted for people to chase after them, and suddenly many people picked up wooden sticks and chased after the mother and daughter.

The woman's brain went blank and she ran away.

The villagers were also very hungry, and after kneeling for a long time, their legs and feet were numb, so they couldn't catch up, so they could only be stoned from afar.

They made a lot of noise until they reached the foot of a rocky mountain in the Diye Mountains, and they finally gave up.

The terrain here is complicated, full of dead trees and rocks, and the villagers think that she can't survive in this wilderness alone, so they go back with a curse.

As the sun waned, the woman stumbled along with the child in her arms.

Her head was bleeding and her body was covered in stones.

Barefoot, stepping on the rocks, is also a blood mark on one foot.

The woman's eyes were dazed and desperate, it would have been difficult for her to survive if her husband had died, and now that she had been driven out of the village and had nothing left in the wilderness, she would definitely die.

In this way, she numbly went deep into the mountains with her children, hoping to go to other villages.

Although there is famine within a radius of hundreds of miles, maybe there is a slight chance of survival in other villages?

She didn't want to die with her children, and she didn't dare to die, after all, she was deeply sinful.

"Poof!" Finally she couldn't walk anymore and fell beside a rock.

"Mom...... You don't want to die. "My daughter is in a hurry, only five years old, thin as wood, and I don't know what to do.

"I'm not going to die, Mom just stopped and prayed to the gods to forgive us for our sins." The woman said weakly.

Mother and daughter lay next to each other, huddled in prayer.

However, the gods she knew, pleaded again, and there was no response.

Only the prayers of the brahmins will be answered by God, and she is just really out of touch at the moment.

"Great God, guide me, and spare the wretched man from suffering."

Suddenly, she heard the howl of a wolf, and she couldn't help but feel excited.

She heard some time ago that a group of wolves came on this barren mountain and could eat people, but she didn't expect to encounter this for herself.

Frightened, she got up and forced herself to transfer.

But no matter how she went, the wolf howl only got closer.

Night was about to fall, and the shadows of wolves could be seen faintly in the dim distance.

"It was my blood that brought the wolf ......"

The woman was so desperate that she knew that she couldn't run away, so she covered her mouth and wept, trembling all over.

But when she saw her daughter, she plucked up the courage to hide the child on the hill while she ran to the other side.

"Kid, you're not hurt, the wolves can't find you."

"Mom, don't you go...... I'm afraid ......," the little girl cried suppressed.

The woman was also crying: "Mother has prayed to the gods, and the gods have responded to mother, sparing you from suffering, and the gods will protect you." ”

Unexpectedly, the little girl grabbed her tightly: "I don't want gods, I just want my mother." ”

“……”

When the woman saw that the wolves were getting closer and closer, her daughter refused to leave, so she could only run away with her.

But she couldn't run far, and when she came to a dead forest, she stopped decisively and pulled the dead branches and leaves on the ground.

An ant nest, which she turned out.

But she didn't care, just collected the branches, desperately trying to make a fire.

While she was lighting a fire, she was still praying, hoping that the gods would focus all their sins on her and forgive the child.

However, she had no tools, her hands were worn out, and she did not make a fire.

Wolves approached from all sides, staring at the mother and daughter.

"Whew!" A wolf pounced and tore wildly.

It was followed by other hungry wolves, and as soon as they swarmed up, the woman instantly felt that she had been bitten in several places on her body.

The sharp pain instantly made her scream: "Run! Run! ”

She pushes her daughter away, hoping that she will run away, but the next scene is when a wolf strikes from behind and instantly pounces on the girl.

Hearing her daughter's cry, she finally broke down completely, crying and screaming.

He cursed desperately in his mouth, and resisted desperately in his hands.

The gods had only given her suffering, and now she was left to fight the wolves on her own.

I can't wait to become Shura in my heart!

However, even if she died, she would not want to become a Shura, because the Asura Path is the 'Upper Three Paths', second only to the heavenly beings and the human beings, and is more noble than the Brahmins in the human world.

She is just a pariah, she is not worthy of being reincarnated as a demon, and it is a blessing to be an ant in the next life.

"Poof!"

Just as she was in hysteria, blood splattered and fell into the ant's nest, soaking.

I don't know what was alarmed, a domineering aura struck, and the wolves suddenly let go of their mouths like a fried pot, barking at the ant nest!

The hungry wolf barked wildly as he stared at the lair and retreated, not daring to approach.

The lair exudes an astonishing domineering aura that is becoming more and more shocking, causing the wolves to blow up their fur and run away with their tails between their whimpers.

The woman was also stunned, lying on the ground and dying, she struggled to get up.

I don't know where this is the shocking breath, but when she locks her eyes on the ant nest and makes sure that it is coming from there, it is even more creepy.

Because she can understand that this is a kind of kingly atmosphere. It seems that in the mound, there is a peerless king!

swallows mountains and rivers, domineering and shocking.

A mound where ants live, with a king? Neither of these two go together!

Is it God? Or are you a monster? Or is it an artifact? The woman could only guess that under this mound, there might be something like a god and a demon buried.

But she soon didn't care about these things, and now she didn't care about any gods or demons.

At the moment, he just frantically crawled towards his daughter to check on the injury.

Seeing that her daughter was bitten and covered in blood, she whimpered to stop the bleeding, not caring about her own bleeding.

But fortunately, the daughter was not worried about her life, and she was still crying with anger.

"It's all right...... It's all right......" The woman comforted, leaning against a dead tree.

She was so weak that she could barely move.

His eyes were staring at the ant nest, where countless ants poured out, and the black pressure was crawling everywhere.

Obviously, they were all alarmed by the domineering that suddenly appeared.

What's more, she saw a huge queen ant, dragging her bloated belly, and crawled out.

After a while, the domineering disappeared as if nothing had happened.

The swarm protected the queen and wandered around the ground twice in a daze, apparently not knowing what was happening.

"There must be something terrible hidden down there."

The woman guessed, but what could she do? Barely able to move, helpless, just lying on the edge of the nest.

Whatever it was, even if it was a demon or a monster, she didn't care.

As long as the child lives, she is willing to feed the devil.

Suddenly, she felt a sharp pain in her foot, followed by a tingling of itching.

Looking sideways, a swarm of ants was attracted by the smell of her blood and climbed up her body.

"Uhh

These are all fire ants on the mountain, and the bite is extremely painful.

The pain was unbearable, and the woman struggled and writhed, slapping desperately.

But her whole body was wounded, her clothes were stained with blood, and it was difficult to move, and the ants only gathered more and more.

For this reason, she simply didn't struggle, just separated her daughter and let herself be bitten by a swarm of ants.

Then free your hands and continue to light the fire.

I don't know how long it took, but she endured the devouring of ten thousand ants and excessive blood loss, and finally lit the fire.

She hurriedly roasted herself with fire, and suddenly crackled, and many ants curled up and fell.

In this way, the flames were burned back and forth, smoked with smoke, and wiped with soot, and finally all the ants on the body were removed.

And she was also completely black, her eyes were black, and she was lying there to the limit.

Suddenly, she felt something crawling on her body.

Slightly lowered his eyebrows, and saw that there was still an ant left in his hand.

It is a worker ant, very small, compared to other worker ants, it is obviously not too long to be born, and the shell has not been completely hardened.

At this moment, some of the limbs were melted by the curled up by the roast, but this did not seem to affect the ant.

Even after it casually bit two bloody scabs, it became energetic and dragged the remnants of the body to life.

Because he ran too happily and tore it, the little ant actually tore off his burned leg.

At this scene, it itself was stunned for a moment, turned around, shook its tentacles, and seemed to be a little confused.

"Whew!"

The woman didn't think much of it, raised her hand slightly, and smoked it in the smoke of the fire, trying to roast it off.

Unexpectedly, the ant didn't know what was going on, and he was not afraid of the heat.

The woman approached the fire, the small flame flickered for a moment, and then her pupils shrank: "What? Without any damage? ”

"Obviously, there are still traces of being roasted."

Just as the woman was stunned, the little ant tilted its head, its tentacles shook, and suddenly a flame erupted.

The flame was extremely shining, rising into the sky, like a meteor against the sky, piercing into the clouds!

"Boom!"

The terrifying explosion swept through the clouds, and a powerful shock wave swept in all directions.

The dim clouds suddenly burst open! For a while, it seemed like a cloudless sky!

Only the flames are left in the air, and all the night is reflected red!

The woman was stunned, what is this? A powerful fireball in her hand?

No, it was the little ant who put it!

She looked at the ant, which stood on the back of her hand, its tentacles pointing to the sky, as if sensing something.

And it was only then that the shock wave that burst in the sky spread down!

Boom, the whole mountain resounded, echoing sound waves, and there was a field of flying sand and rocks in front of me.

"It's so powerful! It's like blowing the sky apart! ”

"Do fire ants really breathe fire?"

The woman was already seriously injured, and her brain was buzzing at the moment, and she didn't know what was going on.

But she soon realized that this ant was probably the owner of the domineering aura before.

She thought that something god-like was buried under the mound, but it turned out to be just a small ant.

Bugger...... What kind of god could this be? Or is it a demon?

Lord of the Ants? The god of the Zerg?

……

:I'm sorry.

(End of chapter)