Through the conversation between the other children and the old village chief, Cao Chao finally understood.

It is true that this is no longer Earth, but a strange world.

In this world, there are not only human beings, but also all kinds of powerful alien races, as well as countless magical beasts.

And Cao Chao also knew that all children must pass the test of sacred rituals when they are ten years old.

And all the survivors, in the coming year, will follow the old village chief and learn martial arts together.

If you succeed in your studies, you will be able to break through the rules and join the hunter team and become the strongest force to defend Montenegro Village.

Although there are no powerful martial arts in the mountains of Black Mountain Village, at least these children can have a good ability to protect themselves.

Cao Chao, who was listening silently on the side, although he was not very interested in learning martial arts, saw that the other children were all excited and inexplicable, and it should not be a bad thing to come and learn martial arts.

In fact, learning martial arts is indeed not a bad thing.

After participating in the sacred ceremony every year, all children can study with the old village chief for a year.

During the year, the children can learn a lot from the old village chief, which they would never learn at home.

After a year, no matter how well you study, all the children will be assigned to several living groups in Montenegrin Village, where they will work in related jobs, which is also a kind of internship life.

If someone is not used to it, they can also apply to change to another group.

Since the Black Mountain is so barren that there is no arable land available, and the village cannot afford any decent livestock, it is impossible to go hungry if you do not participate in the work of the living group.

As for the children's parents?

When the children reach the age of ten, they can no longer control these children, and all the children who have participated in the sacred rites are no longer nominally belonging to that family, but officially become a member of the village, serving the entire Black Mountain Village.

Adult people, in addition to their daily work, also have a very important job, that is, to constantly create people, and only in this way can they make up for the annual population loss.

Until the age of ten, children live with their parents.

And when the children are ten years old, they have to leave their parents and participate in sacred ceremonies, and those who survive have to come to the old village chief to learn martial arts for a year.

This is also the happiest time of everyone's life, and in the old village chief's place, they only need to concentrate on learning martial arts.

Of course, if someone doesn't want to learn martial arts, it's okay, they can also learn something else, or just go and play, and no one will blame you, so this year is the happiest time in life.

And this time, there were a total of twenty-three children who participated in the sacred ceremony, and fourteen of them passed in the end, although this proportion is not much, but it is not small.

In a village of less than 1,000 people, that's already a very good pass rate.

Once, in some special years, after more than a dozen children went to the high platform, but no one came back in the end, it also happened.

You must know that in the dozens of villages living near Montenegro, although people die every day, even the strongest hunter team can't avoid it, but the casualties of children before the age of ten are very rare.

As a result, the children are usually forbidden to leave the village until they go through the sacred rites.

Because once you leave the village, there is no one to keep the children safe.

This is also the reason why every year when the sacred ceremony is performed, many people go to the bottom of the cliff to watch.

On the one hand, it is to say a final goodbye to these children, and on the other hand, it is to protect the safety of the children's lives.

After all, if the children are gone, it is likely that this life will be goodbye, even if the children survive by luck, they will not be able to return to their original days in the future.

This can be regarded as a kind of compensation for those parents who have lost their children!

Anyway, everyone's children, from the moment they stepped on the high platform, no longer belonged to anyone.

The difference is that some of the children are still living in the village.

And some of the other children went forever, to another place.

Although it is cruel to do so, this is life.

Villages within a few hundred miles of Montenegro are all living like this.

"If it were possible, I would change this tragic fate. ”

This is Cao Chao's first life vow after coming to this world.

......

The children, who originally thought that they would be able to go home after waking up, couldn't help but be a little disappointed after hearing the words of the old village chief.

All of a sudden, the children started to make noise.

However, the old village chief obviously has a lot of experience, and when he saw his big hand, he said loudly.

"Everyone, come with me. ”

Then, including Cao Chao, the fourteen children who had just woken up all gathered beside the old village chief.

At this time, all the children were looking at the kind-looking old village chief with a strange face, and everyone didn't understand, what was he going to say?

And at this moment, the old village chief said to the children.

"It's time for dinner, what do you want to eat?"

This time, except for Cao Chao, all the children shouted in unison.

"Meat, eat meat, I want meat!"

Seeing the children's unusual enthusiasm, the old village chief was proud, opened the cauldron on the side, and suddenly a large pot of wild boar, just like that, appeared in front of everyone's eyes, and it was accompanied by a strong aroma, which spread throughout the whole room.

"Phew!"

"Suck!"

"Whew!"

A strange sound immediately attracted the attention of the old village chief and Cao Chao, and then, they found that the children all showed a look of longing, if it weren't for the cauldron still boiling on the fire, they hated it so much that they even picked up the cauldron and ate it together.

But the cauldron was so hot that although the child wanted to eat the meat very much, he didn't dare to take the fire, so he could only watch anxiously from the sidelines.

The old village chief standing on the side looked at everyone thoughtfully, no one knew that he was actually observing the children's character.

I saw some children scratching their ears and cheeks, some children were like ants on a hot pot, hurrying around, and some children kept encouraging other children to grab the meat in the cauldron.

All fell into the eyes of the old village chief one by one, of course, a child like Cao Chao, who was hiding on the side and watching coldly, naturally could not be missed.

It was a long time before he asked.

"Can anyone help me get some soup bowls?"

As soon as these words came out, all the children were confused, this is not their home, and where do they know where the soup bowl is?

Originally, Cao Chao didn't want to get the soup bowl, but when he saw that the other children were all confused, he had to take the initiative to stand up.

After all, Cao Chao also wants to eat meat! He is not a superman, and he will be hungry.

Cao Chao can't remember when he ate his last meal.

At the beginning, Cao Chao really didn't know where the soup bowl was, but he had just seen that the old village chief took out a medicine bowl made of huanghuali from a dark pavilion on the wall.

I think that the dark pavilion should be a cupboard, and the bowl for soup should be hidden in it.

So, Cao Chao quickly found a hidden cabinet from the wall, and found a large number of soup bowls from inside, and then he laboriously took out fifteen large bowls of soup from the cabinet.

In fact, this kind of bowl for soup is similar to the bowl of medicine used by the old village chief before.

It's just that on the medicine bowl that contains the medicine, there are dense scales, which are supposed to be used to accurately control the amount of medicine.

On the bowl of soup, there is no specific scale, and it is not only twice as large as the bowl of medicine, but also thickens the bottom of the bowl.

In this way, even if you pour hot soup into the soup bowl, you don't have to worry, you will be burned by the hot soup, and I have to say that the level of human wisdom here is still very high.

However, when Cao Chao handed over the soup bowl to the old village chief, there was an accident.

The old village chief did not take the soup bowl immediately, but asked with a serious face.

"Why did you take so many, you have only fourteen people here?"

Although there were already other children's laughter around him, Cao Chao replied calmly.

"Grandpa, plus you, aren't there exactly fifteen people? Don't you drink soup?"

As soon as he heard the word "grandpa", the old village chief suddenly softened, and in an instant he changed to a smiling face and said.

"Hey, good boy, grandpa won't drink soup, grandpa just had dinner, these broths are specially prepared for you, so you must not live up to the expectations of the village and you!"

Then, the old village chief took the soup bowl from Cao Chao's hand, but he quickly picked up two more soup bowls and returned them to Cao Chao.

"These two soup bowls are no longer needed, so you can put them back first. ”

Then, the old village chief ignored Cao Chao and took care of the soup for the children.

At this time, Cao Chao was confused, he wanted to say to himself, old man, you don't want to drink soup, but I want to drink it!

But looking at the old village chief's determined face, he had no choice but to frown and put the soup bowl back in the cupboard.

And when Cao Chao put the soup bowl and turned around.

He only saw that the old village chief had already finished dividing all the broth in the cauldron.

The old village chief is now packing up his things, looking like he is about to leave.

At this moment, Cao Chao was suddenly depressed, after all, he was still hungry?

Although he held back his tears, Cao Chao at this time was still just a child after all.

Just when Cao Chao was depressed and wanted to smash something to vent.

The old village chief said to most of the children.

"Those who have finished drinking the soup will go back first, and wait in the big bed, and in a while, I will have something to teach you. ”

The children who were drinking the soup immediately squeaked and agreed, and it was obvious that the broth was delicious.

At this time, the old village chief turned his head, and he said to Cao Chao.

"You take the cauldron to the sink outside, scrub the pot first, and come back later!

After finishing speaking, the old village chief left regardless of it.

In an instant, there was only a group of children left in the whole room, and when there were no adults.

Everyone let go of all kinds of taboos, and they all ate and drank, and they ate so fast!

First, he drank all the hot soup in the soup bowl, and then let go of his arms and ate the wild boar in the soup bowl in a big gulp.

All of a sudden, except for Cao Chao, all the children were full of oil.

Seeing that everyone was burying their heads in eating, and no one took care of him at all, Cao Chao was even more depressed, but he still walked over, ready to take the cauldron to the outside sink first, and slowly wash the pot.

However, when Cao Chao really picked up the cauldron, he found that the weight of the cauldron was wrong, so he still yelled.

"It's so fucking heavy!"

As a last resort, Cao Chao had no choice but to use both hands, and then he reluctantly lifted the big stone pot.

Then, under the schadenfreude of the other children, Cao Chao carried the cauldron in embarrassment and staggered towards the outside of the house.

After walking outside the gate with great difficulty, Cao Chao's original stumbling steps suddenly became extremely brisk, and then, with a slip of smoke, the person had already run away.

It turned out that when Cao Chao picked up the cauldron, he realized that he had lost his eyes.

This thing is not made of stone or iron at all, but a pot made of some unknown material, but because it has been used for too long and lacks cleaning, it will become black and black, so that he mistakenly thinks it is a large stone cauldron.

However, in order to hide people's eyes and ears, Cao Chao will use both hands, and will make a cautious appearance, holding the pot with great effort, for fear that he will smash the pot.

And when Cao Chao was uneasy and lifted the lid of the cauldron.

A huge pig thigh bone appeared in front of his eyes.