Paintings of Terror

"Sister Cen, if the cat meowing last night was the appearance of the cat and tiger god, one of the eight waxes, why is the granary still empty?" Ke Xun really couldn't understand the reason.

Yue Cen also fell into deep thought for a moment: "I always feel that this empty Bawa Temple seems to be waiting for us to invite the eight gods back... As for the cat and tiger god last night, where did he go after he appeared on the shadow play stage?" gone?"

The gods come and go without a trace, but the temple is also empty, which is really unreasonable. At the very least, there should be a statue of a god enshrined in the temple, whether it is a golden body or a statue, the common people must be able to see what they worship Idol.

"Even if we invite the gods back, don't we have to worship them before they can appear?" Ke Xun leaned forward to the entrance of the temple, "The incenses in the temple, as well as fireflakes, are used to worship the gods, right? ?”

"Incense? Huozhezi?" Yue Cen didn't notice this at all in the temple just now.

"Just under the sacrificial altar, there are these items." Ke Xun was sure, "There are also sacrificial dishes in the corner."

Yue Cen unconsciously admired Ke Xun's observation ability, at first he thought he was just a young man with plenty of physical strength and willing to help others, but unexpectedly he was as careful as a hair.

"Xiao Ke, you just said that there are still plates for sacrifices?"

"Yes, there is such a tall pile," Ke Xun said, returning to the temple to look again, and then he came out and said, "I counted, there are a total of forty plates, forty, what can I say? ?”

"Eight gods, forty pieces of pans, that is to say, on average, each god needs five pans of tribute to sacrifice." Yue Cen calculated, "It seems that we need to find five kinds of tributes."

When mentioning the word tribute, Ke Xun couldn’t help but think of the indescribable tributes in "Faith", and now these tributes are divided into categories: "Well, sister Cen, generally speaking... what are the tributes? Yes Cattle and sheep or something?"

"I don't think so." Yue Cen said in denial, "There are different opinions about the time of the sacrifice of Bawa. Some say it is in October of the lunar calendar, and some say it is in the twelfth lunar month. There is no specific record of the sacrifice of Bawa in the historical books. However, during the Yin and Shang Dynasties, the Wax Sacrifice was called "Qing Sacrifice", and Emperor Yan Shennong's family was mainly responsible for farming. I always think that these tributes should be mainly crops."

This argument makes sense. Ke Xun looked at the green farmland in the distance: "If there are five crops, would they be 'five grains'?"

Yue Cen once again looked at Ke Xun differently: "In ancient times, there was a saying of 'Shen Nong passing on five grains'. I think it is very likely that the sacrifices will be 'five grains'!"

"Then let's go find the grains first?" Ke Xun thought about it carefully, "But what's the use of those hints of moss?"

"How about this, let's go to the field now, in addition to looking for grains, we should also pay attention to the moss, looking for it as we go?" Yue Cen didn't have a better way for a while.

This seems to be the only way right now.

Ke Xun pushed Yue Cen to the distant field. There was a small forest between the ancient temple and the field. The two of them walked into the woods and found that the forest was densely shaded and shady.

There are birds chirping and insect sounds in the woods, and a gust of wind blows, and the leaves and treetops sound like a gust of wind.

Moss is everywhere here.

There are green moss on the stones under the tree, emerald green moss on the wetland under the feet, even the trunks of the trees are covered with dark green moss.

Perhaps it was because Yue Cen had similar moss on his calf. At this time, when the two of them saw the moss everywhere in the woods, they both felt a little inexplicable.

"There is too much moss here. If the moss is a clue, then there are clues everywhere in this forest." Ke Xun pushed Yue Cen forward slowly, the wet moss under his feet was very slippery, and he might be caught if he was not careful slip.

Yue Cen secretly touched his still unconscious calf, resisting the discomfort in his heart, and scraped off some moss on the ankle with his hand.

"Xiao Ke, I think the moss on mine is somewhat similar to the moss on the tree trunk, at least the same color." Yue Cen said.

When mentioning the changes in Yue Cen's legs, Ke Xun felt very uncomfortable, and he didn't know how to comfort her, but now it seems that this person doesn't need other people's comfort at all, and she can digest and handle these things properly.

"Sister Cen, what do you mean, the moss we are looking for comes from the trunk? The clue is also on the trunk?"

"I think it is," Yue Cen looked up at the trees, "You can see the light above the trees, so there is no moss. What we need to find is the lower half of these trees that are covered by thick shade."

Ke Xun looked at this small forest: "Fortunately, this forest is not too big. Although it is very dense, there are only more than 100 trees. We can observe every tree. And the moss is distributed under the trees. For half, there is no need to climb trees or anything, we just need to observe what is unusual about these trees."

"It's a waste of time for you to push me." Yue Cen observed that the forest belongs to a horizontal forest belt, and the vertical distance is not long. "Well, I'll go to the border between the forest and the farmland, which is not far ahead. You I searched in the woods, I searched by the field, I think there is a hut over there, there must be a well, maybe it has something to do with the god of 'Post Biao Huan'."

"Success, then let's split up and do what you can, and we'll talk about some things when I come." Ke Xun said.

"Don't worry." Yue Cen's voice was still steady, "You too, do what you can."

Although it was the first time for the other party to be in the painting, and Ke Xun had only known each other for only an hour or two, it always felt like an old friend who had cooperated for many years, and there was a tacit understanding in many things.

So, the two split up, and Yue Cen came to the edge of the field by shaking the wheel device of the wheelchair, while Ke Xun observed every tree covered with moss in the dense forest.

When Ke Xun was running and searching in the dense forest, he couldn't help thinking of the painting "Restart" that he had just experienced. He was exhausted looking for kapok trees in the woods...

In the end, Ke found an unremarkable tree. The trunk of this tree was also covered with dark green moss, but in the moss, there was a huge tree hole one person tall, and it seemed to stand tall in the tree hole. There is something on it, which is also covered with moss.

At first glance, it seems that there is a small tree hidden in the empty tree.

Ke Xun lightly touched the moss-covered "little tree" inside. It had a familiar texture, just like the feeling of Yue Cen's calf, it was a stone.

Ke Xun scraped off part of the moss on the stone, revealing the original appearance of the stone sculpture, which was actually a pair of stone wings as long as half a human, not birds' wings, but a pair of insect wings similar to cicada wings.

Ke Xun did not continue to act rashly, thinking that this discovery should be shared with Yue Cen first.

The location of this tree is easy to remember, but Ke Xun still made some marks before running towards the edge of the field.

Yue Cen arrived at the ridge in the field in a wheelchair, and waved vigorously at Ke Xun.

Ke Xun did not expect that Yue Cen had "walked" so many roads with the help of a wheelchair. He did not forget to take a closer look at the huts and wells all the way, but he didn't find anything special.

"Xiao Ke, I discovered a phenomenon." Yue Cen said his discovery immediately, "The huts and wells in these farmlands are all arranged regularly, to be precise, they are arranged according to a fixed distance."

"Is there any particularity to these arrangements?" Ke Xun really didn't notice this.

"Before we mentioned the governors of Postiaowan. In addition to supervising farming, they were also responsible for measuring and dividing farmland. I think these huts and wells should be the signs of measuring and dividing farmland." Yue Cen said.

Ke Xun felt a little excited: "Then is it possible for us to find the God of Piaobiao from one of the huts or a well?"

"I think there must be a center in this farmland, and we should be able to find the center according to the measurement marks." Yue Cen expressed his thoughts.

The center, based on the measured center of the field, is likely to find something.

"Okay, then we can just look for this center while looking for grains." Ke Xun said and saw the ears of wheat in Yue Cen's hands. The farmland they were in was just a wheat field. Green ears of wheat.

Yue Cen said: "Wheat is one of the five grains. We have already found one." Then he looked at Ke Xun, "Xiao Ke, did you find anything in your hurry?"

"Yes..." Ke Xun was too busy analyzing the post form, and hurriedly told what he found in the tree hole.

"A pair of insect wings?" Yue Cen asked.

"Yes, it's the kind of cicada-like wings, could it be an insect god?" Ke Xun scratched his head and expressed his inference, "Anyway, it's the kind of insect wings with texture, but it's a pity that they are made of stone. If there is no color, I think it should belong to Lepidoptera or something."

"Insects of the order Lepidoptera are butterflies or moths," Yue Cen had already shaken the wheelchair device and was about to take a closer look. "If it's the kind with cicada wings, it should belong to the order Hemiptera."

Ke Xun didn't expect insects to have so many specialties: "Sister Cen, what do you study? How do you know so much? These are all biological knowledge, right?"

Yue Cen: "This... should be the biological knowledge in middle school."

Ke Xun: "Oh, is that so..."

The two had already walked into the woods again, and Yue Cen continued to ask: "I suspect that the pair of wings you saw may belong to Orthoptera insects."

"Does the insect god have a special appearance? What kind of Orthoptera does it belong to?"

"Yes, the insect god is the locust god."

"Locust God? Is it a locust?" Ke Xun was surprised that he could guess the word "locust" from the word "locust god".

"Yes, it's locusts." Yue Cen's expression gradually became serious, "For farmers, locust plagues are no less than floods and droughts, and the damage to crops is fatal, so there will be "locusts cover the sky colorless." , Ye Lao Tianzhong’s tears and blood’ said. The government and the people were helpless in the face of the locust plague, so they simply respected him as the ‘king of insects’, included him in the eight wax gods, and worshiped him devoutly in order to seek peace.”

Hearing this, Ke Xun felt uncomfortable: "It is the nature of locusts to eat crops. Begging it is like asking mosquitoes not to suck their own blood. How can it be effective!"

Yue Cen: "So, in the Qing Dynasty, some places changed the Temple of Locusts into the Temple of General Liu Meng. This General Liu Meng was a locust control hero in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties."

Ke Xun listened very seriously: "According to this, one of the Eight Wax Gods should be General Liu Meng."

Yue Cen: "This is a matter of the Qing Dynasty. What we are looking for should be the relatively primitive Bawa God. The "Jiaomiao Geci" on the stone tablet is from the Tang Dynasty. There was no General Liu Meng at that time."

After the two said this, they had already come to the tree with the huge tree hole.

There is still a stone statue covered with moss standing in the tree hole. The moss on the pair of huge insect wings has been wiped clean by Ke Xun just now, and the ancient stone carving texture is full of gorgeous majesty in this dense old tree.

Yue Cen looked at the stone statue with his back to the two of them, and was silent for a while.

Ke Xun stepped into the tree hole with one foot and turned the stone statue around vigorously. The front was still covered with green moss.

Yue Cen stood up with the help of the wheelchair, and wiped the face of the stone statue clean with his own cloth towel, revealing the facial features that were dignified and not angry.

This is a stone statue as tall as a person. It is carved with a man in armor, with a pair of huge locust wings growing from his back. From the front, it looks like he is wearing a majestic hunting cloak.

Yue Cen: "This should be the statue of the locust god. We have to find a way to send the statue back to the Bawa ancient temple so that the insect god can return to his place."

Ke Xun looked at the Locust God and remained silent for a while.

Yue Cen thought for a while, and said to Ke Xun: "It doesn't matter whether the people worship locusts or not. The sacrifice itself is actually a simple hope and hope. What the people want is no insects, no disasters, and a good harvest. A healthy family."

Ke Xun turned his head and pointed to the field in the distance: "There is hemp planted there, I saw it when I passed by just now, and I couldn't tell whether it was ramie or flax. The rope, I'll get it right away, we can use the hemp rope to send the statue back."

Yue Cen looked at Ke Xun, and seemed to understand now why this young man was able to pass through so many dangerous levels and still stand here calmly.