Plains of the Holy Ghost, east.
It rained all night, and the wilderness was full of large and small puddles and slippery muddy ground. The tenacious white-stem grass fell to the ground under the erosion of the rain. You have to be extremely careful when walking on it.
Taka, the corpse hauler, drove the cart carefully across the wilderness. He had to focus on picking out solid places without stagnant water to prevent the wheels of the cart from sinking into the quagmire. Being so far away from the camp, it would be very troublesome if the wheels got stuck in the mud.
A gust of cold wind blew, and the unshaven strong man couldn't help shivering. He raised his yellow and cloudy eyes, looked at the low-hanging sky in the distance, and couldn't help mumbling. : "Holy Blood God - what a hell of a weather."
Raining on the night of Easter is not a good sign, especially for superstitious corpse draggers.
From a mystical perspective, the rain on the night of soul reunion will seriously affect the effect of the bonfire, and even prevent some small bonfires from burning smoothly. The souls of the lost ancestors will be trapped in the water vapor and flames. Wandering in the curtain, most of the terrible legends about evil spirits from the plains residents and mountain people come from this.
From a practical point of view - rain on Easter Day often means that the weather will turn cold quickly, and winter will come earlier and more rapidly.
No matter which one, it is not a good thing for ordinary people.
The cart seemed to have run over a rock on the road, and the whole cart suddenly shook violently. Taka hurriedly controlled the reins to maintain balance. Amidst the neighing of several pack horses, the cart stabilized again. , the strong corpse dragger quickly looked back - on the car board behind him, a dozen humanoid "cargoes" wrapped in linen were still well fixed there, and the ropes showed no signs of loosening.
"You should stay well," Taka muttered. "On the Easter Day next year, someone will light a bonfire for you."
Of course the corpse will not Responding to the words of the corpse hauler, but like every eccentric and shunned corpse hauler, Taka also has his own quirks. He is used to talking to the "cargo" he transports, pretending that they can understand his words. He believes that he must have a good relationship with the "passengers". Only by maintaining a good relationship can he avoid these "passengers" from causing trouble to him in the future.
Especially since these "passengers" died on the battlefield and are the remains of soldiers who are rumored to be most likely to turn into evil spirits, this is even more careless.
The road ahead was very slippery, and the puddles were difficult to bypass. The person dragging the body carefully controlled the car while cursing in a low voice: "This damn civil war... is not going to happen." You know how long the fight will last, right?"
Although he was cursing like this, Taka knew very well that if it weren't for this civil war, his "business" wouldn't be so good.
War will create a lot of corpsesThere are bodies, soldiers, civilians, and even occasionally knights and mages - of course, the latter are the noble dead, and it is not the turn of low-level corpse draggers like Taka to come into contact with them, but the former is different. , those who die on the battlefield and on the edge of the battlefield will become the main source of income for the people who drag the corpses. The commanders of both warring parties and the people in the village will hire professional corpse draggers to dispose of the corpses that are too late to collect or whose identities cannot be found. The corpse draggers do not have to bury them carefully, but only need to transport them to the designated pit. , Just avoid polluting water sources or generating evil spirits.
This is a lowly but well-paid job. People who drag corpses usually do it for generations. If they often have to deal with the dead, they will naturally form their own tradition. Set rules and taboos, such as never insulting the deceased, never reciting the name of Death when collecting the body (this is to prevent the deceased who should have entered the kingdom of other gods from being targeted by Death), and must end on Remembrance Day Deliver the body to the destination within two days.
It is precisely because of this rule that Taka has to rush on this muddy and slippery plain to prevent his "passengers" from missing the "day of return" after All Souls Day. And furious.
As the giant sun gradually rose into the sky, Taka finally arrived.
This is a place far away from the front line of the battle, and also far away from any camps of the Easterners or the king. It is a large natural pit, and now it has become stinky.
The corpse dragger put on a heavy scarf and hood, and wrapped his hands with strips of cloth. He jumped down from the cart nimbly, and then looked at this deserted place.
To be honest, this is not a very suitable cemetery. It does not conform to the teachings of the Death Gods and does not meet the requirements of the Blood God. However, this is the place designated by the client, so it is used as a tomb. Taka of the Corpse Man would not delve into why he had to dump all the corpses in this big pit.
You can see some scattered wooden carvings and metal frames around the pit. These are simple altars set up by the priests to appease the souls. They are very crude things, but they are used to deal with the lowest evil. The spirit is already sufficient. Taka walked towards one of the wooden sculptures next to the edge of the pit, and then according to the rules of the corpse dragger, he took out a wrinkled death chrysanthemum from his arms and placed it at the root of the wooden sculpture.
The small white flower lay quietly in the mud, its petals shaking slightly in the cold wind. This small flower that can be seen everywhere in humid and dark environments has amazing vitality. It can almost Growing and blooming all year round, and surviving for several days even after being picked off, the Ansu people firmly believe that this incredible vitality is evidence of their ability to communicate between the living and the realm of the dead, and the Ansu people also believe in another One thing: every death chrysanthemum grows in the realm of the living and the dead at the same time. The moment it withers in the world is the moment it blooms in the underworld, and the soul of the dead will wither and bloom in the death chrysanthemum. In an instant, he successfully reached the "other shore" through this secret connection, and embarked on the journey to various gods on the other shore.The road to the country...
"Little Flower, I hope you can guide these lost people to find their destination..." The corpse dragger whispered, drawing the mark of the Blood God on his chest, "Alas ...It’s really hard for you, one flower has to attract so many people..."
After saying this, Taka turned around and prepared to move the body to the cart.
However, before taking a step, his eyes suddenly noticed something else not far away.
It was the embers of a bonfire, and it was a small bonfire.
The man who dragged the corpse was a little curious. He stepped towards the embers of the bonfire and smelled a slight smell of smoke in his nostrils.
This bonfire was extinguished not long ago.
“Is there someone mourning the dead here?” Taka muttered, circling the small bonfire. “Is it possible that the relatives of some lucky guy in the mass grave came to take him away? Corpse..."
The man who dragged the body suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
It rained a lot last night, and I heard it rained particularly hard here in Dakeng.
It is difficult for such a small bonfire to burn smoothly in the continuous rain. Even if the bark of the black-striped tree is used, which can burn in the rain, it should not burn so thoroughly.
There is no trace of moisture around the bonfire. It is not that it has been dried by the fire, but it seems that no rain has fallen on the ground within a radius of more than ten meters.
In addition to the smell of smoke, there is also a strange sweet smell in the air. It seems to be the fragrance of some kind of flower, but it is not the smell of death chrysanthemum.
Taka has been a corpse hauler for half his life, and he is well aware of the spices that will appear on All Souls Day, but he has never smelled anything similar...
Although he can't say specifically. What's going on, but the corpse dragger instinctively felt a bit weird. This weird feeling made him uneasy and vaguely reminded him of the rumors that had been circulating among the corpse draggers recently...
It is said that there are ghouls haunting the night... There are flesh-devouring monsters active in the dark land... The number of corpses in mass graves seems to be inexplicably decreasing... The remains that are too late to be buried often disappear for no reason. ...
In the cold wind of late autumn, the corpse dragger couldn't help but tremble. He felt that something malicious was moving under his feet - although he couldn't see it, the thing seemed to have seen it. own.
He is not an extraordinary person, but he is a corpse dragger who has been dealing with the dead for half his life, and he is also a relatively devout Blood God believer. He knows that he has some intuitions that ordinary people do not have, and this kind of Intuition has indeed allowed him to avoid several attacks by evil spirits in his past life.
He began to step back carefully, trying to be as gentle and natural as possible, trying not to show panic.
However, a rustling sound suddenly reached his ears. Along with the rustling sound, he saw some turf and soil trembling in the mass grave below. ,andSeveral humanoid figures wrapped in linen - which he had thrown in three days ago - were squirming strangely.
The man who dragged the corpses widened his eyes. He clearly saw several vine-like things suddenly growing out of the soil and piercing the corpses. Then the land fluctuated like water, pulling those corpses away. The corpse was swallowed into the depths of darkness...
A huge panic struck him, and he finally couldn't control himself and exclaimed. After a exclamation, he ran away.
But the weird sweet smell that filled the air came out again, and it was more obvious than before. In this sudden sweet smell, Taka, the corpse dragger, was in a trance for a while, and then he Fell into a long and profound dream.
Vine-like things spread out from between the soil and grass blades, wrapping around the limbs of the person dragging the corpse. Amidst a burst of low grunts and rustling sounds, the soil rippled like water, moving Little by little he was dragged into the ground.
The cold wind in late autumn blew across the plains and past the deserted mass graves. It was quiet here, as if nothing happened.
A moment later, a sudden strong wind blew across the plain. The strong wind swept up large tracts of fallen leaves that came from nowhere. Amid the falling leaves, a woman wearing a green priest robe appeared. shape.
Bertila frowned, looked at the position where the corpse dragger was swallowed by the earth, and sighed slightly: "Unlucky guy..."
"Your pile of mourning for the dead The bonfire caught his attention," a vague and low voice came from the depths of the earth, accompanied by the sound of rustling, "I am very curious, who is it that deserves a dean to spend time in Anling? A bonfire is lit...Do you believe in the return of the dead like those ordinary people?"
"Priest Heaton, don't forget why you were punished to come here to collect biomass - —Just do your part."
"Ha...you are probably the most boring woman in the world..."
A vague voice came from the ground. A grunt, and then the sound gradually deepened, and the rustling sound gradually weakened - the person who made the sound seemed to have returned to the deeper soil.
Bertila stood quietly for a while, seeming to be thinking about something. After standing still for a few minutes, she took a step forward - under the priest's long skirt, there were countless roots , the "legs" made of vines squirmed, bringing her to the extinguished bonfire.
A blooming chrysanthemum fell among the embers of the campfire.
"I don't care what's in that body of yours... you can't stop this plan."
"Humanity will survive forever, even if it disobeys the gods." ”