Liu Chenghu didn't explain much, he just led Lu Ye to the village chief's home.
The village chief's house is located at the end of the village. It is still a thatched house with some simple furnishings.
However, Lu Ye saw something strange.
It was a transparent jar, and inside the jar was a red, almost viscous liquid.
The liquid gave off a strong scent of blood.
Liu Chenghu walked up to Lu Ye, stared at the jar and said, "Every household has this jar. I know you are very skilled in medicine, and I don't want to lie to you about what kind of cinnabar water this is. You guessed it right, this is human blood."
"Every household uses this blood to make lanterns and then sells the lanterns to make a living. This is the fate of Xiangdeng Village." Liu Chenghu patted Lu Ye on the shoulder and turned to chat with the village chief.
And Liu Xiangye had already run out to play with her playmates.
Until dusk fell, Liu Chenghu called Lu Ye outside.
Lu Ye went out and saw a strange red light in front of him.
The lanterns at the door of every house have been lit, and the fragrance is overflowing. When you are in it, it is like a fairyland, floating in the air.
Lu Ye followed Liu Chenghu to an empty square, where a blazing bonfire had been lit.
About two to three hundred people sat around the bonfire, chatting and dancing.
It's just that these people looked really creepy to Lu Ye. They were all skinny and skinny, and there was no one who weighed more than a hundred kilograms.
At this time, a misty song suddenly sounded in everyone's ears from far to near.
"Ah Lili...Ah Lili..."
"Holding your hand in the breeze, kissing your face in the drizzle..."
"Beside this small bridge and flowing water filled with the fragrance of flowers and flying snow..."
"In the legend, you and I will never be separated; in the song, we love you to death..."
"The third country of the Jade Dragon flying together in the wind and walking on the sea of clouds..."
"Oh... I love you so much that the jade dragon flies into the sky..."
"Oh... you love me so much that Lishui stopped flowing..."
"Believe me, follow me, I will let the mountains full of snow lotus bloom for you..."
"Let's just fly, let's just float, we are in the third country of Jade Dragon..."
As this ethereal song sounded, the faces of the villagers in Xiangdeng Village were suddenly filled with a mixture of sadness and joy.
It's like the mixed joy and sorrow of a pair of lovers learning that they are about to live and die together.
They stood up one by one, gathered around the bonfire, and danced.
The singer slowly came over.
It was actually Liu Xiangye.
Liu Xiangye was accompanied by several young girls.
They sang songs and joined the dancing team.
At the scene, everyone opened their mouths and sang this folk song that sounded very melodious but a little inexplicably sad.
Lu Ye was thinking about the lyrics of this folk song and was a little crazy for a moment.
Liu Chenghu's eyes turned red when he heard this. He took a sip of wine and said to Lu Ye: "This song is called "Jade Dragon Third Country". It sings about the hometown that these people can never go back to. The only thing they have about their hometown is
Come to think of it, it’s only in this song.”
"This is a love song. The third country of Jade Dragon sung in the song is the legendary holy land of love..."
When Liu Chenghu said this, he couldn't say any more.
Lu Ye looked at this group of people who were singing and laughing but with sad faces, and he vaguely understood the reason for their mixed feelings of joy and sorrow.
The sad thing is that the road of life and death never lasts an instant.
The joy is that we will go to hell together and see eternity in the blink of an eye.
"Let me take you somewhere." Liu Chenghu suddenly stood up and said to Lu Ye.
The two of them carried a century-old cinnabar lamp, one foot deep and one foot shallow, to the bulging hill behind the village chief's house.
When they reached the hill, Lu Ye suddenly felt like he had stepped into a peach blossom garden!
Is this hell?
I saw a large pool with a diameter of five meters on the mountain. There was gurgling blood in the pool!
The temperature of the blood seemed to be very high, forming wisps of blood that were constantly thickening in the mid-air of the mountain.
The smell of blood here is even stronger, making your body boil with energy and blood!
"You see, this place is a holy place that the villagers have guarded for generations. We call it the Eternal Life Pond." Liu Chenghu sat down on the edge of the pond and took out the wine he had prepared long ago.
Lu Ye stared blankly at the blood pool, feeling extremely shocked.
"The villagers have been craftsmen for generations. Their ancestral precepts and only craftsmanship are to make cinnabar century-old lanterns. Oh no, it should be called fragrant blood century-old lanterns. And the layer of paint on the outside of the lanterns is made from the water in this pool.
It is dyed red with fragrant blood and will not change color for a hundred years.”
"This pool is natural, with geothermal heat underneath. People in this village, once they reach the age of eighteen, join in the process of sacrificing blood, two a day, to keep the blood in the pool alive, and then add some secret spices
Medicinal materials form this eternal water."
"People outside will only find it fragrant and exciting when they smell it, but people in the village have long been immune to this smell."
"It's this group of poor people. They are people who live with flesh and blood all day long, but they are also the most bloodless people in the world." When Liu Chenghu said this, his voice choked up again.
Lu Ye was deeply shocked by this last sentence.
Some of the doubts in his heart were gradually solved.
Why does the Centenary Blood Lamp have the scent of blood?
Why are the people here so skinny and short of life?
It's all because of this pond and thousands of years of ancestral training.
After sacrificing blood for a long time, his body has completely collapsed.
This damn eternal pool, damn eternal water!
Lu Ye couldn't help but feel a trace of compassion and anger in his heart.
"Qin Tianlang already knows about this place and has made a declaration of war. He will bring people here in three days to fight me in Xiangdeng Village. I agreed." Liu Chenghu said again.
Three days later? Lu Ye's heart trembled.
"Xiangdeng Village is my first pure land of bliss and my final destiny. I have no regrets." There was a sense of relief in Liu Chenghu's words.
"Is it worth it?" Lu Ye suddenly asked.
Liu Chenghu's eyes flashed, and he suddenly looked at Lu Ye fiercely.
But this fierceness was evaporated by blood and became sad again. He suddenly asked Lu Ye, "Lu Ye, you are a smart man. I have a question I have always wanted to ask you. There are many ways to live in life, but in the end they are mediocre.
People have many choices, but in the end they can only embrace the ordinary. There are great immortality and small immortality in the world. The great immortality is to be praised by thousands of people for centuries to come, while the small immortality is just to protect the lover, even if he fails.
Yourong. Which one will you choose?"
Lu Ye choked for words and didn't know how to answer Liu Chenghu's question.
Liu Chenghu smiled bitterly and suddenly drank the last drink in one gulp. He stood up and turned his back to Lu Ye, "This Eternal Life Festival lasts exactly three days. I will live forever with these poor people."