238: Chapter 238 Night Fury No. 23

"The second story."

"In another deep valley of the Ten Thousand Mountains, there lived a tribe called [Heiya]."

"The ancestors of this tribe did not encounter a severe drought, nor did they dig up any immortal flesh. What they faced was a terrifying external threat."

"Deep within the Heiya Valley slumbered a huge monster shaped like a black mist."

"The ancestors of the tribe called it [Nightshax]."

"This Nightshax possessed no world-destroying spells; it had only one cruel habit: on every winter solstice night, it would awaken from the deep valley, crawl up to the stockade of the Heiya tribe, and demand that the tribe offer a living person as its winter sacrifice."

"If the tribe refused, it would whip up a black demonic wind, causing the crops of the entire stockade to wither and all the water sources to turn foul."

"Facing this invincible monster, the ancestors of the Heiya tribe chose to submit."

"In the initial years, every winter they would agonizingly tie a tribesman chosen by drawing lots to the sacrificial pillar in the center of the stockade, letting Nightshax devour them."

"Until one year, a brave young fellow appeared in the tribe, named Ali."

The Great Priest's voice grew somewhat passionate, as if proud of the young man in this distant story.

"Ali was an orphan born with divine strength and a resilient will. He was unwilling to let his tribespeople be slaughtered generation after generation by a beast like caged pigs and sheep."

"Therefore, he spent a full year atop the highest active volcano in the Ten Thousand Mountains, using scorching magma and the hardest mysterious iron to forge an 'Exorcising Blazing Sun Spear' exuding masculine energy."

"On the eve of the winter solstice, Ali gathered all the tribespeople to the square of the stockade, raised the Blazing Sun Spear high, and delivered an inspiring speech to everyone."

"Ali told everyone: 'Nightshax is not scary at all. The reason it is invincible is because it feeds on the fear within our hearts! As long as we don't lock our doors or put out our lamps tonight! As long as all five hundred men and boys of our stockade hold a torch in each of our hands, pick up wooden sticks and pitchforks, and stand with me! This beast will surely die under my Blazing Sun Spear! Our Heiya tribe will forever shake off this dark nightmare!'"

"Ali's speech ignited the anger that the tribespeople had suppressed deep in their hearts for many years."

"All the able-bodied youths raised their fists with boiling blood and responded loudly to Ali: 'We stand with you! We will never back down! We will make sure Nightshax never returns!'"

Hearing this, Helena's ice-blue eyes flashed with excitement.

In Western knight novels, this was precisely the most classic epic opening of a hero leading the people to rebel against a demon dragon.

A hero's courage would ultimately awaken the people, and together they would defeat evil.

"And then? This warrior Ali must have succeeded, right? He led everyone to kill that monster called Nightshax?"

Helena couldn't help asking, her hands involuntarily clenching into fists.

However, the Great Priest slowly shook her head.

"The winter solstice night arrived."

"Howling gales and black demonic winds carrying biting cold swept from the deep valley. Nightshax's terrifying figure, as massive as a mountain, approached the Heiya stockade step by step accompanied by dull footsteps."

"Ali held the Blazing Sun Spear, which exuded a faint red glow, standing alone in the square at the very front of the stockade."

"His gaze was as resolute as iron, resembling an unflinching god of war. He took a deep breath, preparing to welcome the shouts of the five hundred brothers behind him who were holding torches and fighting side by side with him."

"However."

The Great Priest's voice suddenly dropped.

"When Ali turned his head to look at the stockade behind him."

"What he saw was not five hundred blazing torches."

"What he saw was a dead, pitch-black darkness where one couldn't even see their own fingers."

The air in the hall seemed to be instantly drained at this moment.

Lin Ye's hand holding the teacup paused slightly.

"At the moment Nightshax's terrifying footsteps sounded, those tribespeople who had been so passionate and boiling with blood in the square during the day—"

"The seed in their hearts called 'fear' took root and sprouted in an instant, completely crushing their pitiful little courage."

"No one dared to step out of their homes, and no one dared to light even a single match."

"The wooden doors of every household were tightly bolted from the inside at the very first moment, and all windows were covered tightly with thick animal skins."

"They hid in the dark cellars, covering the mouths of their wives and children, covering their own ears, and trembling."

"When faced with true darkness and the threat of death, they backed down, using ridiculous silence and evasion to betray the only hero who dared to stand up for them."

"Ali stood alone amidst that absolute darkness and betrayal, his heart ten thousand times colder than the winter solstice wind."

"He did not run. Waving the Blazing Sun Spear, like a lonely madman, he charged toward that massive Nightshax."

"The battle lasted less than the time it takes to burn half an incense stick. Although Ali stabbed out one of Nightshax's eyes, he was ultimately just a mortal body. His neck was bitten off in one gulp by Nightshax, tearing him to pieces without even leaving bone scraps behind."

Hearing this, Helena was completely dumbfounded.

"These cowards! How could they do this? If they had all gone together, the hero named Ali wouldn't have died!" Helena gritted her teeth, her voice trembling.

"Indeed, they were cowards. But even more terrifying than cowardice was the hypocrisy they evolved after their cowardice to cover up their fear."

The Great Priest puffed on her dry tobacco pipe, exhaling a thick puff of blue smoke.

"After Ali died, Nightshax became extremely violent because one of its eyes was blinded. Before leaving, it angrily issued a new curse to the Heiya stockade: starting next year, every winter solstice, it would no longer want just one sacrifice; it wanted two!"

"Disaster struck, and the people in the stockade fell into extreme panic, facing a survival crisis even harsher than before."

"At this time, if they had felt shame and gathered courage, picked up the Blazing Sun Spear left behind by Ali, and fought desperately against Nightshax, perhaps there would still have been a glimmer of survival."

"But they did not."

"To calm the panic of the tribespeople and to cover up their own shame of leading the door-locking that night, several elders in the tribe shamelessly announced a new oracle in public."

"The elders said: 'Ali is a sinner! It was his arrogant behavior that angered the great Nightshax god! That is why the Nightshax god has brought down a double divine punishment! We must atone for our sins even more devoutly!'"

"They nailed the hero who died a gruesome death to save them forever to the pillar of shame of the tribe, and even smashed Ali's Blazing Sun Spear and threw it into a stinking ditch to show Nightshax their absolute loyalty of non-resistance."

"Not only that."

"To select those two unlucky sacrifices every year, the elders invented a high-sounding system—[The Holy Drawing of Lots]."

"They draped this cowardly compromise in a sacred cloak."

"They proclaimed that the person chosen was favored by the Nightshax god and was going to the blissful divine kingdom, making a great sacrifice for the survival of the entire tribe."

"And behind the scenes, the so-called drawing of lots had long been rigged by the elders."

"Those chosen were always the frailest elderly, sick children, widows without family backing, or those 'oddballs' who occasionally dared to raise questions just like Ali."

"The strong and powerful people hid with a clear conscience behind the blood of those weak ones, living on shamelessly."

"Year after year, passed down through generations."

"In this twisted self-hypnosis and extreme cowardice, the people of the Heiya tribe gradually lost the most basic light and backbone of being human."

"To avoid being seen during the day by Nightshax accidentally passing by, they began to morbidly fear sunlight."

"So they hollowed out the cliff wall behind the stockade, and the entire clan moved into dark, foul-smelling underground karst caves to live."

"Hundreds of years passed, and long-term cave-dwelling and inbreeding caused terrible degeneration in their bodies."

"Their eyes completely degenerated and went blind due to lack of light year-round, their skin became as pale and transparent as dead fish bellies, and their limbs became slender and suited for crawling on stone walls."

"They were no longer human, but turned into a group of monsters that could only eke out a living in the darkness, surviving on blind fish and bat feces."

The Great Priest knocked on her tobacco pipe, her hoarse voice echoing in the dead-silent hall.

"If the greed in the first story gave birth to the most venomous gu in the Ten Thousand Mountains,"

"then the cowardice and hypocrisy wrapped in a righteous cloak in this second story nurtured the most desperate 'darkness and malicious thoughts' on our land."

Hearing this second story finished,

the entire stilted building's hall was so quiet that only the slight crackling of burning firewood could be heard.

"Brilliant."

Lin Ye patted his hands disdainfully, his applause sounding somewhat harsh in the quiet hall.

"Auntie tells a story with such damn high skill. It's simply stripping human nature bare and roasting it under a microscope."

"The job of a hero has always been the hardest meal to eat in this world. Because the price you pay is your life, and the people you protect not only won't set up a monument for you, but after you die, they will even complain that your blood splattered and stained the bluestone slabs in front of their doors."

Lin Ye extended a finger, tapping the tabletop casually.

"Cowardice is a factory default setting that humans come with."

"In this world, being a bad person requires guts, and being a good person requires ability."

"And the vast majority of people neither have the guts to do bad things nor the ability to be good people. They can only choose to be a group of sophisticated egoists."

"When these egoists package their cowardice as so-called 'taking the overall situation into account,' they can peaceably commit the most disgusting things in this world."

Lin Ye's sharp gaze pierced toward the Great Priest.

"You old lady can't sleep in the middle of the night and tell me these two depressing dark fairy tales, dissecting human nature's 'greed' and 'cowardice' so thoroughly."

"If I guess correctly."

Lin Ye leaned forward slightly.

"You want to tell me that the thing suppressed beneath your Hulu Ancient Village is related to this."

The Great Priest's hand holding the tobacco pipe trembled slightly.

"The first two stories are the cause."

Lin Ye concluded with certainty.

"And that 'curse' that is about to drive Ayugu to a dead end..."

"is the 'effect' in the Ten Thousand Mountains that must be explained with a special story, right?"

The Great Priest was silent for a long time.

The firelight in the fire pit danced across her face.

Finally,

she nodded heavily, looking with loving yet resolute eyes at the pale Ayugu beside her.

"Manager Lin... truly possesses a heart of exquisite transparency."

"That's right. For everything in this world, where there is pitch-black despair, there will surely be a glimmer of light that opposes and complements it."

The Great Priest slowly stood up, her skull cane heavily striking the bluestone slab.

"This third story."

"It talks about 'hope.' But it is also a dead end regarding betrayal and imprisonment."

"It concerns the two-thousand-year destiny of our Wangu Ancient Tribe, and it also concerns... the true origin of the [Origin Mother Gu] inside my precious child."

"Tomorrow night. When the moon rises to its highest point, you two will accompany this old woman to the forbidden ground."

The Great Priest's voice became extremely ethereal, exuding a desolation as if facing death.

"There, this old woman will finish telling you this last story."