菠萝蜜最新地址

The burly man, noticing that the siblings had no intention of escaping, left the wooden cage satisfied. With a “clang,” he closed the door and secured the iron chains.

Inside the cage, the young boy who had just been arguing was now scared like a covey of quails, trembling in his sister’s arms. Just a mere glance at the burly man had completely evaporated his little courage and defiance.

“Sister, what are the sky gods?”

A silent pause filled with a sense of depression and repression lasted for a while. The boy finally mustered up the courage, curious and cautious, to ask his sister about what the hulky man had been referring to.

“Sky gods…”

The question stumped the girl. What did she know about sky gods? She guessed they were similar to the deity statues placed inside temples, accepting admiration and offerings from followers, but it was all for naught.

“Sky gods, pah! The thing living up in those mountains is a man-eating evil deity.”

Suddenly, a soft cough echoed. The “person” flung in there by the burly man stretched his body, struggling with pain, gnashing his teeth, and sneering with disdain.

“That evil god feasts on a pair of boy and girl children every day, just like the two of you.”

The “person” looked up, his face revealing a bone-chilling smile. Even with his face etched with blood stains and flesh torn to reveal terrible wounds, he was scarier than the burly man, reducing the children almost to tears.

“Have you seen this evil deity?”

The girl asked, glancing at the other prisoner. Fear was overwhelming, but in order to survive, she had to understand the situation. Perhaps there was a chance to escape.

“I’ve never seen it. If I had, you’d be seeing my ghost instead of this ghoulish form.”

The being, whose gender was unclear, chuckled ominously.

“If you’ve never seen it, how can you be certain that it’s a man-eating evil deity?”

“How can I be sure? Guess how many people used to be in the cage where I was kept?”

The person started laughing, his battered body creating an eerier venomous dread than a ghost.

“People disappeared before my very eyes every day, taken as tribute for the so-called ‘sky god’, the evil deity which grants them everything they could ever hope for.”

“How could they do this?”

The girl sat frozen, stunned as she realized that her own kinsmen had captured her to be part of these offerings. The thought sent a shudder down her spine.

“It’s either capturing unfortunate passers-by like us for sacrifice or sacrificing their own children.”

“Do the gods really have to eat people?”

The frightened child couldn’t resist asking.

“Can’t they choose not to?”

“I’m not sure. If you get the chance to meet the evil god, ask him why he eats people.”

“There’s no need for that. We never want to meet such a god.”

The terrified girl quickly wrapped her arms around her brother.

“It’s not up to you. The cage I was in is now empty. My turn is coming soon. That’s why I tried to escape, but unfortunately, I failed.”

The “person”, blood still trickling from the corners of his eyes, looked at the siblings.

“With my current state, I can’t be given as a sacrifice to that deity in the mountains. Perhaps by tomorrow or the day after, it’ll be your turn.”

“My sister and I are very dirty, not tasty at all, really not tasty. Can you please ask the god not to eat us?”

Frightened by the terrifying countenance and words of the man, the child burrowed into his sister’s embrace.

“If I had such power, I wouldn’t be lying here. You’ll have to fend for yourselves. Perhaps, just perhaps, a celestial being might come to save you, who knows, hahaha!”

In the silent dark night, a man severely beaten and covered in wounds laughed with a harsh sound. His cackles attracted several monstrous creatures, their eyes gleaming like eerie green ghost fires floating in mid-air.

However, these creatures dared only to loiter around the cage, none daring to pounce, despite their salivating mouths and audible gulping. Their fear of something kept them at bay.

In the early dawn light, a girl, exhausted and clutching her brother, was abruptly awakened by a commotion. Upon opening her eyes, she saw a crowd of people surrounding their cage.

“What do you want?”

She recognized these people. They were the same ones who had led their group of refugees into the village, graciously hosting them during the day to lull them into a false sense of security, only to reveal their true predatory nature at nightfall.

“What else would they do? Of course, they have chosen you as today’s offering to the heavenly deity living in the mountains!”

The bloodied man, his wounds scabbed over, woke up at this moment, laughing uncontrollably.

“Shut up.”

A seemingly honest and simple villager jabbed his stick into the man, ripping open a freshly formed scab, causing blood to pour out.

“Come out.”

The iron lock was undone, and several men with cloth over their faces stepped out. Ignoring the struggling girl and the crying child, they brutally dragged them out of the cage.

Then, a woman brought clean water and coarse cloth to wash the siblings. Given their previous heinous acts akin to demons and this generous act of cleaning, everything pointed to the grim truth that they would indeed become offerings to the mountain deity, just as the bloodied man had predicted.

“No, I don’t want this, I…”

The girl’s cries and screams of despair were met with indifference. Her mouth was quickly gagged as she was given clean clothes and bound tightly.

These simple-dressed, seemingly kindly villagers were slaughtering livestock, some even smiling. They sang and danced, engrossed in jubilation.

Yet this joy, tinged with festivity did not belong to the terrified siblings, tied to a stake like animals, being taken up the mountain.

These seemingly ordinary villagers showed their unusual side once they stepped into the mountain forest. Even in their panic, the siblings noticed the villagers’ peculiar behaviour.

In the mountains, grass and shrubs, thorns and brambles were abundant. Yet, these could not impede their march. On the contrary, they accelerated their pace. Everything seemed to part ways to clear their path.

Toward the end, the girl even felt as if these villagers were about to take flight. In fact, it turned out to be so. Clouds flocked from all directions, whisking her and her brother away from this group of men with beastly hearts.

But this didn’t ease the girl’s heart, instead, it intensified her fear for she finally saw the deity mentioned the previous night, standing atop a peak surrounded by a sea of clouds.

It wasn’t a majestic deity too awe-inspiring to behold, nor a terrifying demon too gruesome to gaze at. It was an elegant man reading a book.

If she were somewhere else, the sight of such a handsome man might have stirred a bit of spring warmth in her heart. But, here in this forsaken place, her heart knew only fear.

“Uninvited guests, probably bearing evil intentions.”

The trembling siblings saw the elegant man suddenly look behind them, his face adorned with a gentle smile, as if warmed by the March breeze.

“What brings you here, sir?”

Terrified, the girl turned around only to find a serene, celestial-like youth wielding a sword, standing behind them. Facing the burly and handsome scholar, the youth said nothing, simply drew his sword, and lightly swung it out…