"So, what happened to Ying Ying in the end?" Song Siyuan said so, she probably guessed the ending of this woman.

"Just come with me."

Without further ado, Banshu led them up to the verandah, walked around the verandah and up the steps, and when they reached the top of the terrace, they could already see the magnificent and quaint palace at the end of the square.

Walking around the verandah and entering the main hall, the crisp echo was clear in their ears as they tapped on the footsteps, and the picture in the hall also clearly entered their eyes.

Chaoyuntai is half a temple and half a palace, the main hall has been changed into a Wushan goddess temple, and a huge screen stands on the back wall of the hall from the ground, reaching the roof.

The screen is wooden, the seven doors are evenly divided, the picture is thick and colorful, drawing Wushan Wanluo, the goddess peak is in the middle of the picture, the mountains are craggy and steep, the delicate cistanche, the cirrus clouds are rushing in the sky, the glow is extinguished, a round of red sun radiates ten thousand golden rays from the clouds, and all things are born in the red sun!

In front of the screen, it is probably the statue of the goddess of Wushan mentioned by Banshu.

This statue is much smaller than the screen, the height of the upright screen is two-thirds of the screen, about five or six meters high, the whole body is carved in stone, and brass is poured outside, although it is a stone carving, it has the feeling of a bronze statue.

The land of Jingchu is immersed in witchcraft, and the idol is completely different from the statue of the Han land, and it is a completely different style.

The immortals of the Han land, but all the immortals who have a serious god name, most of them are like emperors and queens, with jewels, sitting upright, full of compassion, and solemnity, so they almost write their very high status and high quality on their faces, although they look solemn, but there is a trace of anger.

This statue is closer to the concept of wild gods and witches in the southwest, with graceful posture forming concave and convex curves, wearing a grass-colored dark green half-arm on the upper body, a pale pink smoky skirt that reaches the feet, and a red, blue, green and white color banner hanging from the waist, which is complex and wrinkled.

Outside the snow-white arm, three green ribbons can be seen wrapped around the top of the head, bending ethereally on the left and right of the wrists, flowing like water, and a half-arm-wide flower brocade falls from the shoulders, wrapping around the arms and falling down the skirt, intertwining with the three wrist-thick ribbons, creating extremely dynamic lines.

Everyone looked at her head again, and the Wushan goddess's hair was in a snail bun, and the black hair was completely tied up, standing in the center of her head like Wushan, and there was a round hair crown the size of a copper basin at the back of her head.

In the golden jewelry circle, it can be seen that the sun, moon and stars are exquisitely carved, the flower branches overflow from the side, and the golden crown circle is integrated, leaning on the hairpin hairpins on both sides of the head, dragging the red ribbon, and two begonia flower hairpins are at the forehead corners, which does not look so magnificent, but it is extraordinarily beautiful and unconventional, and the dust is weird.

Yue Guanchao looked at the face of the statue of the goddess of Wushan, the face is an almond face, the slender phoenix eyes have extremely long eyeliner, the willow leaf curved eyebrows are gentle and charming, the peach rouge between the eyebrows and eyes is smudged to the tip of the eyebrows, the eyebrows can be seen a little red, the delicate nose is matched with red red lips, there are peach blossom earrings on both sides of the ears with tassels hanging down, and the neck and snow-white arms are hung with five-color gemstone beads.

The overall shape, mostly to the grass and flowers as the pattern, the sun, the moon and the stars as the decoration, gestures in the heart to pinch out the flower print, a bit close to the Dunhuang murals in the flying sky, the statue is probably the fusion of the Buddha and the image of the goddess.

There is very little sunlight in the main hall to shine through, the red lacquer pillars on both sides, there are many flowers and plants candlesticks to light the lamp heads, illuminating the bright fire extinguishing light, very close to the Wushan goddess, there are also bronze tree lamps, the candles on all sides are bright and extinguished, so that the statue body shakes the dim light and shadow.

In the shadows, they felt that the goddess was not a cold statue, and for a moment, they even felt that every shaking of the lamp was the goddess breathing.

"Why is the goddess of Wushan like this, isn't she the god of Wushan?"

Xu Xiake, as a Taoist priest, is very familiar with the water and land paintings of Buddhism, and the goddesses are mostly dressed up with jewels, and no matter how bad they are, they are also harmonious and serious.

"Wushan Goddess is a very special god, she was born in the era of Taoism has not come out, even Buddhism has not yet appeared, it is Buddhism that later absorbed Wushan Goddess into the belief system, before that, she was not a god, but a ghost!"

"Ghosts?"

The crowd seemed to have something in mind.

Banshu nodded at them: "The goddess of Wushan is called Yao Ji, she is the daughter of Emperor Yan, she was just an ordinary person when she was alive, she had neither merit nor cultivation, she was a complete person, she died because she was seriously ill, and such an ordinary person turned into a ghost after death." ”

"It can be said that Yao Ji was a remnant soul after her death, and it was Heaven who took pity on her and died unmarried, so she sealed her soul into Yao Cao, allowing her to preserve herself with Yao Cao's spiritual power, and at the same time relying on Yao Cao's cultivation, it may also be a blessing in disguise, Yao Ji and Yao Cao merged into one and became the soul of mountains, rivers and plants!"

"But!" Ban Shu's words changed: "Even so, Yao Ji is not a god, she is just a ghost with divine powers. ”

"Mountain ghosts?"

Song Siyuan's eyes lit up, she felt very familiar when she saw it just now, and then thought about the statue of the mountain ghost and god in the ancestral land of the witch coffin, it was clearly the same feeling.

Banshu nodded at her: "Yes, in ancient times, the goddess of Wushan was a mountain ghost, if it was in the Yanhuang era, she was also one of the ten witch gods sacrificed by Chiyou, Mountain Witch, although Chiyou was driven out of the river plain by the Yanhuang tribe, the belief in the mountain witch was retained." ”

"This land was once ruled by Chiyou, and then returned to Jingchu, has been infiltrated by witches for thousands of years, from mountain witches, mountain ghosts, and now to the Wushan goddess, the name or many changes, but its essence is the sacrifice of the mountains, rivers and plants represented by the Wushan goddess."

"The southwest is mountainous and watery, and there are many plants and trees between the mountains and rivers, for the southwest, the belief in the goddess of Wushan is to believe in the thousands of mountains and rivers, and the rotation of power for thousands of years, but the landscape has not changed, and the people of the southwest of course believe in the goddess of Wushan more."

Song Siyuan listened to Banshu's words, and couldn't wait to see the women who were fallen by the goddess of Wushan, she asked anxiously: "Then, where are those fallen goddesses after they die?" ”

Banshu did not speak, his eyes shifted to the carved porch doors on the left and right, and as the porch door was pushed open, everyone walked into the covered bridge on the left, and entered the Que Tower along the covered bridge.

Compared with the main hall, these towers have become lighter and more agile, and the roof of the temple has many open windows, and there is a patio in the middle, which can be seen that the sunlight enters the flower windows and falls in the temple, gathering colorful spots of light in the courtyard.

Most of the corpses of the Fallen Goddess they were looking for were concentrated in the two towers, but they seemed to be a little different from what they imagined.

Yue Guanchao thought that these fallen goddesses were stuffed into coffins and fixed in the hall intact, but he didn't expect that the way the corpses were disposed of was completely different from what he thought, and it had reached the point of surprise to them. \\

In the tower, there are flowerbeds several meters wide around the walls, these flowerbeds are mostly soft soil, and the branches of the camphor trees grow luxuriantly, as if weaving a green velvet curtain along the flower beds, and for thousands of years, the camphor trees have been constantly pulling branches and stretching their branches, and the thick body of the tree is covered with vines!

These corpses, directly leaning against the trees and covered with vines, merged with the camphor tree!

"Why did you tie all these fallen goddesses to the tree?"

Song Siyuan approached the flower bed and looked carefully at one of the prosperous camphor trees, the body of the tree was crooked and twisted and tilted back, just enough to completely hold one of the fallen goddesses, and send it into the trunk arm like a cradle.

Look closely, this goddess seems to be asleep, wearing a gauze dress in the style of a goddess of Wushan, her complexion is white and delicate, her eyebrows are charming and smart, and the vines penetrate into her body from everywhere, intertwined into a fine rattan net, covered with weeds, dense with moss, and the grass silk and green whiskers stretch out from everywhere, constantly shaking.

What's even stranger is her eyes, ears, nose and mouth!

Although the appearance of these fallen goddesses was the same as when she was alive, she was no longer a living person, and her eyes, ears, mouth, and nose had been pierced with many vines, and the vines were covered with strange flowers and plants, as if their faces were covered with a mask of flowers, revealing only a pair of eyes, as if they were asleep and closed forever.

"Why is this happening?"

Song Siyuan became curious about the state of these goddesses, if these goddesses were corpses, then the earliest corpses were at least two thousand years old, and they could still maintain their appearance after death after thousands of years, which was indeed very strange, if you counted the vines and strange flowers and plants sticking out of their bodies, it would be a little strange.

Banshu nodded: "After the death of the Fallen Goddess, she is indeed different from ordinary people, she needs to raise these people with trees, and when they die, they will drill vines from their bodies and burrow into the soil, and at the same time, they will also climb on the ancient trees and coexist with the ancient trees, so that they can maintain their appearance even if they die." ”

"But is this still called death?"

Yue Guanchao looked at these fallen goddesses, saying that death is actually similar to eternal life, but they will never be able to wake up.

Banshu glanced at the many fallen goddesses who were wrapped in vines: "They are indeed dead, and they are no longer breathing, these vines are all produced from the body, and when they grow, they will also consume their flesh and blood, it seems to be a complete skin, most of it has been filled with vines, only bones and skins remain. ”

"For you, the fallen leaves return to the roots, into the soil for peace is the right way, the southwest people have hanging coffin burial, cave burial, tree burial, not necessarily to bury the body in the soil, as long as it can return to nature in different forms, it is considered a funeral, these fallen goddesses represent the people's belief in the mountains, rivers and plants, it is reasonable to bury them with trees, and it can be regarded as using their flesh and blood to make the last contribution to the mountains and rivers in the southwest."

"Of course, you're right to say they're dead, and it's normal to say they're not, at least the camphor trees will react."

With that, Banshu picked up the flute at his waist and blew the sound in the open space, and the sound of the whistle was sad and tactful, but in a moment he could already see the camphor trees swaying and shaking, and countless flying insects flickering from the flowers in the treetops.

"Boss Hua, why are you still crying?"

Sun Daqiao saw Hua Yuxiu's two lines of tears falling, and asked curiously.

"Yes, yes?"

Hua Yuxiu wiped her cheeks, and if there were really tears on her hands, she immediately frowned: "I'm obviously not sad, why don't I feel it when I cry, it's like ...... It's as if these tears weren't mine! ”

In order to make everyone surprised, Song Siyuan was curious: "It's not your tears, then whose tears are they?" ”