Chapter Thirteen: Only Worship the Snake Immortal, Not the Land
In fact, Jiang Chaoge has always had a question in his mind.
If there are ghosts in this world, then are there gods?
Now, the answer is obvious.
However, the stone statue of the earth god in front of him is definitely not a 'god'. At most, it is just something that seals the old man's memory.
"The old man acted like he didn't know Ali just now. It should be that his memory was sealed by this stone statue. The only way to read the old man's memory is to break the stone statue."
Of course, doing this may offend the 'god' in the temple, but the other party has already taken action against him, so it doesn't matter whether he offends him or not at this time.
Jiang Chaoge decided to give it a try. He wanted to see if he was really strong.
He rushed forward.
Turning his palm into a sword, he slashed towards the stone statue's throat.
"boom!"
The stone statue shook, and then cracks appeared on it. These cracks spread like spider webs, and soon the stone statue collapsed and shattered.
Turn into little bits of light.
At the same time, Jiang Chaoge truly saw the old man's 'memory'.
Success!
So simple?
…
In the Earth Temple.
A Li's stone statue suddenly opened its eyes.
A bit of golden light shines from the eyebrows of the stone statue, which seems to be a character. It looks a bit like the word "earth", but it exudes an ancient atmosphere.
The two Ali seemed to sense the anger of the stone statue and shouted together.
"Grandpa, what's wrong?"
…
"Grandpa, grandpa...I'm hungry."
On the wooden bed, a thin child opened his mouth, his arms were as thick as wood, and his eye sockets were sunken.
Next to the child, there was an old mother-in-law lying with her eyes tightly closed.
The old man is holding a small bag of rice in his hand, which is reserved for seeds to be sown next spring. Apart from this, the chicken coop at home has long been empty, and there is no other food.
"Grandson, grandpa is useless. Just wait, wait... Grandpa will cook porridge for you now. Old lady, you must hold on."
The old man seemed to have made up his mind and walked towards the kitchen with the rice.
At this moment, there was shouting outside the door.
"The bandits are coming!"
"The bandits are coming!"
Bandits?!
The old man was frightened and hurriedly wanted to hide the rice in his hand, but it was already too late because several bandits had already rushed in.
"Are you the mayor of this village? Where is the food? Hand it over quickly!"
"No, these are seeds for next spring. If we eat these, our whole family will starve to death."
"Bullshit, I clearly saw you preparing to enter the kitchen? You still want to lie to me! Beat me!"
“Bang bang bang!”
The rice was snatched away with fists and kicks.
But the bandits did not give up there. They ordered the old man to gather everyone in the village and provide food to each household one by one. Otherwise, they would kill people.
The old man kept praying to the bandits and told him that there was a flood in the "Kong River" during the rainy season this year, and the rice fields were submerged and there was no harvest, but the bandits only had a fierce look in their eyes.
The more calamitous the year, the more ferocious the bandits become.
There were cries and cries in the village, and the faces of the villagers were full of despair, because if all the food was taken away, they would have to wait to die.
"Why, why is this happening? We worship the God of the Earth every year. Why doesn't the God bless us and lets the river burst its banks?" The old man was filled with reluctance.
At this moment, the girl came to him. She had two braids on her head and a snake-shaped birthmark on her face.
The old man remembered that the girl's name was A Li, a child that Granny Liu at the west entrance of the village picked up in the mountains two months ago.
However, Granny Liu died soon after she picked up A Li. Everyone said that A Li was a disaster star who killed Granny Liu, so the children in the village bullied her.
"Grandpa, village chief, they are robbing us, why don't you beat them away?" A Li tilted his head, looking innocent.
"Fight...beat him away?" The old man was startled, and covered A Li's mouth: "Don't talk nonsense... If... is heard, we will all be killed."
"I'm not afraid!" Ah Li broke away from the village chief's hand.
For the first time, the old man felt that A Li was very powerful. However, he vaguely remembered that when the children in the village bullied her, she always smiled and did not resist.
"A-Li, don't go!" The old man wanted to stop A-Li.
But A Li had already stood in front of the bandit, raising his thin little fist.
"Bad guy!"
She bared her teeth and looked fierce.
The villagers were horrified. Even if A Li was the disaster star, they were not willing to watch A Li being beaten to death by bandits.
But then, the old man and the villagers of Xiaoshan Village saw a scene that they would never forget.
A Li was standing in front of the bandits, but none of the bandits could hurt him, as if there was an invisible force around him.
"Monster, she is a monster!"
The bandits shouted loudly and fled from the village.
The villagers looked at the thin A Li with frightened expressions on their faces.
The old man didn't care about this. He rushed back to the house with the rice he grabbed like crazy. However, when he boiled the rice into gruel and ran to the bedside.
The child has expired.
Tears fell from the old man's eyes, and he fed the gruel into the old woman's mouth bit by bit.
Then, he walked out of the house.
In the village, A Li was isolated under a tree. No one dared to approach A Li. The villagers looked at A Li with fear in their eyes. Only a few children boldly threw stones at him.
"Monster, kill the monster!"
But in the face of all this, A Li still kept smiling and let the stone hit her face: "Haha, I'm not a monster, I'm a human!"
"No, you are not human!" the old man shouted loudly.
All the villagers looked at the old man, including A Li.
"Grandpa Village Chief, I am really a human being. I like Xiaoshan Village and I like everyone." The smile on A Li's face was warm and healing, like the peach blossoms blooming in March.
The old man looked at A Li seriously and said word by word: "Grandpa believes in you, but you are indeed not a human being. You are a snake fairy, and you are the reincarnation of the snake fairy!"
"The reincarnation of the snake fairy? I am the reincarnation of the snake fairy?" A Li was a little unbelievable.
The same goes for the villagers.
But the old man has already made a decision in his heart. Since the land god cannot protect Xiaoshan Village, then he no longer believes in the land. He only believes in the 'Snake Fairy'!
"Yes, you are the Snake Fairy, and your responsibility is to protect the village, do you understand?" the old man affirmed.
"Yes, I will!" A Li nodded excitedly.
"Snake Fairy...she is the Snake Fairy Empress?"
"It turns out that Ali is a snake fairy!"
The way the villagers looked at A Li gradually changed. No one called her a monster anymore, and the children no longer threw stones at her, but instead circled around her.
"Snake Fairy Queen!"
"Snake Fairy Queen!"
"We should build a temple for the Snake Fairy Queen!"
"Yes, we want to build a temple for her!"
I don’t know who made the suggestion, but it was quickly recognized by the whole village.
So, the villagers began to plan to build a temple in the village. However, Xiaoshan Village was so poor that they could not afford food, so how could they afford to build a temple?
The old man stood up again at this time: "There is a Earth Temple five miles outside the village. How about we change the Earth Temple into the Snake Fairy Empress Temple?"
"Yeah!"
The villagers all agreed.
Then, the villagers ran to the Earth Temple, knocked over the stone statue of the Earth God, and carved a new stone statue in its place.
So far, the villagers in Xiaoshan Village only worship the snake fairy, not the land.