Patriarch Wenjie hurriedly shook his head and said, "No, no, no, the place of the festival is under the canopy of trees, and the top of the mountain here is only equivalent to a post station on the way. Tomorrow is the day of the vernal equinox, and the festival begins at noon, and the tribesmen have to pass through the valley after dawn. I remember when I was a child, when I first came to the festival, my hat fell off when I looked up, and I couldn't see where the highest part of the canopy was. ”

Huwa nodded again and said, "I have to hurry tomorrow, so the patriarch should rest early." Rest assured, I'll see with my own eyes what has happened to this tree. ”

......

As soon as it was dawn the next day, the villagers packed up their things and set off. The way down the mountain was easier than expected, because there was a ready-made path in the jungle that had been trampled by the people of the area for a hundred years. Walking through the valley to the opposite mountain, at the foot of the mountain grows a large and lush green oak, which resembles the back mountain of the Huwajia village.

Huwa noticed that the villagers not only carried various sacrifices and camping items, but also carried a lot of empty baskets and bags, and also collected acorns, medicinal herbs from the mountains and other useful things along the way. Many men in the prime of life walked at the front of the procession and at the end, with bows and arrows and pike spears in their hands, and also hunted the beasts they encountered.

The Shenmu clan also has armor and weapons, and most of the ones brought in the early years have decayed, and the descendants have built some more, but the number is not much, and it is useless to put them in the village treasury on weekdays. It is only taken out when such a large-scale assembly is carried out for a suburban festival, not only for self-defense in the deep mountains, but more importantly, it is also a kind of ceremonial guard.

More than 1,000 people entered the mountain, except for the first trail opener, who occasionally encountered some wild beasts, and the beasts in the mountain had already scattered and frightened away. Therefore, there are not many prey that everyone catches, and these prey will also be sacrificed. Most of the people's bags are filled with acorns, medicinal herbs and other mountain goods.

Most of the acorns in the mountains fell to the ground after last autumn, and the wild animals in this area, from squirrels to wild boars, like to eat this kind of thing. It is covered with a hard shell, if it falls in a dry place. By the spring of the following year, they will be able to pick up the perfect ones. The villagers here have long cultivated large tracts of farmland, so they do not need to feed on acorns to survive their hunger, but they believe that the acorns here carry the blessings of the sacred tree and can prolong their lives.

Halfway up the mountain, the terrain gradually became gentle, and there was a large open slope facing them, and the tall and lush green oak forest was no longer visible around them, because they had already walked under the canopy of the sacred tree. It is impossible to describe the extent of this canopy, and the slope halfway up the mountain is covered with fallen leaves, and there are many shade-loving flowers and plants. Look up. The branches and leaves unfurl to obscure the sky.

Patriarch Wenjie introduced on the side that when the sacred tree was at its most luxuriant, all the snow in winter accumulated on the canopy and could not fall to the ground, and the tree looked like a snow peak from afar. When the spring flowers bloom, the snow melts from the canopy and forms a trickle down the hillside.

However, the tiger baby looked up and saw the branches and leaves in the high places, and found that many of the leaves were withered and yellow, and the young leaves of the new branches that had just sprouted were also very sparse, and they had obviously shown the appearance of withering. Let's just say it's just a normal tree. It's just that because the years have survived so far and grown very tall, it is normal for the tiger baby to wither, and the tiger baby has not seen the dead wood in the mountains.

But the tiger baby has grown up in the wilderness since she was a child, and knows very well that it is almost impossible for such trees to grow in the mountains. It was still far from its current heights. I am afraid that it has already been blown by the wind and swept away by the torrents, and even if I can get away with it, I will definitely not be able to escape the lightning strikes that occur every year.

But this tree just appears here, so it must not be ordinary. It has its own supernatural powers, which can resist strong winds and floods, dodge or defuse thunderbolts. But now that it has shown its withered appearance, can it still survive here? The tiger baby walked under the canopy and could not see its height, and for the time being, it was impossible to tell whether the tree had been repeatedly struck by lightning in recent years.

If you go further, you will see the roots of the tree. Its root system is so large that it has spread all over the hillside, and in many places it has exposed layers of soil, and its roots are intertwined like dragons. Looking up, I finally saw the trunk of the tree rising from the ground, and I could not describe how thick the roots of the root system were, and the main trunk was more than two zhang wide more than ten zhang above the ground and had not yet spread its horizontal branches.

Standing under a tree, a person may have the illusion that he can carve out a spiral ladder from the tree and climb along the trunk all the way to the sky! At a distance of more than 20 zhang from the main trunk, the roots of the surface of the ground are firmly wrapped around a huge stone with a square circumference. The boulder only exposes the upper and front sides, the upper part is gentle, and the front side is smooth as a sharpening, like a natural high platform or altar.

This is the place where the Shenmu clan worships the sacred tree, and the distant brother of the tiger baby narrowed his eyes, because he saw a three-foot-sized rune in front of the boulder, which resembled a naturally formed pattern. But Tiger knew it was artificial, as he had seen the same rune marks elsewhere.

In the fiefdom of Huwa in the depths of Pengshan, in the valley blocked by the poisonous mist of flying snakes, there is a strange cave on the cliff where the strange golden bell vine grows, which obviously leaves traces of artificial excavation. The tiger baby also found a rune on the cave wall, the left part of the rune resembled a tree, and the right part was a pig-shaped totem with a long nose.

At that time, Huwa had deduced that many years ago, a master had been there and excavated a stone chamber to cultivate. And he asked Fujijin and Fujihua, but the two mastiffs had no impression of this, it seemed that it was a long time ago. The man did not leave any bones, indicating that he had left again.

Huwa also had a bold speculation that the golden bell vine that had grown for more than 300 years under the high cliff was probably planted by the master himself, but he did not expect that in the depths of the Western Wilderness today, the same rune sign was found on the boulder under the sacred tree worshipped by the people of this place for generations.

Huwa stopped Wen Jie, pointed to the pattern on the boulder and asked, "What is that?"

Wen Jie replied: "The lines on the stone are a kind of mark. It was there when my ancestors came here. Mr. Qing guided his ancestors here, and he finally jumped on the boulder on a giant lion and told the villagers that they could spend the winter here and feed on the acorns in the mountains. This mark belongs to Mr. Qing in the eyes of the clansmen. ”

As he spoke, the crowd had gathered in the clearing under the tree and laid out all kinds of sacrifices on the boulder. Wen Jie commanded the people of the six villages to form a formation, fanned out in the order of the eldest and youngest, and bowed in front of the boulder in the direction of the main trunk of the sacred tree, and the spring sacrifice ceremony began.

The tiger baby did not stand among the villagers, he also saluted to the sacred tree on the side of the boulder, and since he was here to participate in this festival, he also had to respect the customs of the villagers.

When the offerings were offered, Patriarch Wenjie led dozens of elders and began to sing: "What a tree is evergreen, what day is not good." Who will not be, run the Quartet. He is not mysterious, who is not subtle. Mourn my husband, and be a bandit alone. Lead the wilderness, bandits and tigers. In the oak mountain, it is called my paradise. ”

This hymn not only laments the fate of our ancestors in the war, but also thanks to the guidance of the great people and the protection of the sacred tree, so that they were able to live here in peace. After the elders finished singing the tune for the first time, all the clansmen, young and old, sang the harmony repeatedly, and the sound echoed in the mountains for a long time.

The tiger baby stood on the side of the clansmen, listening to the solemn and pious ode, and her heart seemed to be affected by an inexplicable impact. He suddenly felt something, but he couldn't describe what he felt.

When the hymn was finished, the people of each tribe, led by the elders, went to the altar and took turns to pray to the sacred tree for blessings, which were nothing more than prayers for good weather, abundant crops, good health, and good harmony, as has been the case for most of the people's prayers to the gods since ancient times. When the prayer was over, the patriarch Wen Jie stood up again and said loudly to all the clansmen-

"Since our ancestors came here 100 years ago, they have sacrificed to the sacred tree every spring, summer, autumn and winter to thank and pray for its protection. And now the sacred tree that protects us is about to wither, and the miracles are gone. For hundreds of years, the clansmen only prayed to the sacred tree, but never prayed for the sacred tree. In this spring festival, we ask heaven and earth to bless this sacred tree, hoping that it can regain its vigorous vitality for thousands of years. ”

This year's Spring Festival has an unprecedented ceremony, not only praying for the blessing of the sacred tree, but also for the villagers to pray for the blessing of heaven and earth on this sacred tree. More than 1,000 people bowed down the next time, and the patriarch of Wenjie sang a new song: "There is wood in the western wilderness, in the middle of it." Zixi, Jingjing. There is wood in the western wilderness, and blessings will be there. When I see a gentleman, my heart is happy. There is wood in the western wilderness, and I am dedicated to music. Tonight, its leaves are green and ......"

He sang it many times in a row, and when all the people heard and remembered it clearly, he asked everyone to sing along with it. When the sound of the carol echoed in the heavens and the earth again, the hazy feeling of the tiger baby seemed to become clearer, and the divine consciousness seemed to be able to touch a power. This power seems to touch the soul, and along the guidance of this power, the primordial spirit of the tiger baby also seems to be able to penetrate the minds of everyone present.

The tiger baby was trying to concentrate on this feeling clearly, and the villagers' singing was over. Patriarch Wenjie turned to him again, bowing down: "Lord Divine Doctor, all the clansmen thank you for what you have done for you since you came here, and we have also witnessed with our own eyes that you have great powers and the ability to heal all things!

As the patriarch bowed, more than 1,000 clansmen all got up and turned around, all kneeling down to the tiger baby, and praying to him in unison. This spring festival was supposed to worship the sacred tree, but at this moment everyone bowed down to the tiger baby, and they were still praying for the blessing of heaven and earth on the sacred tree, and in the blink of an eye, the object of prayer became the tiger baby again.

For heaven and earth could not hear their prayers, but the great healer could hear them. (To be continued......)