Dong——!
That heavy and ancient sound rang out, coming from within the thick fog. Before Jiang Wen could clearly hear what the drumbeat was, it was as if the voices of ten thousand people rose in unison.
“Here is a god.”
“Where does he reside?”
“May the soul return.”
“To sacrifice to Heaven and You.”
“Bless our tribe.”
…
The strange cadence was like that of ancient people praying to the heavens. Amidst the heavy drumbeats, countless people clapped their hands and stamped their feet.
Jiang Wen and Jiang Wenji stood at the entrance, peering through the thick fog to see a procession slowly moving forward not far away.
Dozens of Tuoba clan members were carrying wooden frames, walking step by step past the gate. On top of the wooden frames, a dozen old men wearing brightly colored feather robes were performing strange dances, making bizarre movements.
They wore masks, held vibrant bird feathers in their hands, and emitted mournful sounds from their mouths, like the desolate sigh of the mountain wind passing over a cliff, leaving people uneasy.
“Where are they going?” Jiang Wen felt a sense of sorrow for some reason, even though the atmosphere of the ritual was supposed to be joyful and lively.
“Let’s go take a look.” This time, Jiang Wenji did not explain to him, but instead signaled for Jiang Wen to follow behind the procession. Countless Tuoba clan members walked out of the gate, waving the feather fans in their hands to disperse the surrounding fog.
In the vast fog, the crowd carved out a clear path.
The voices of the Tuoba clan members were low and deep as they spoke words that Jiang Wen had never understood, constantly prostrating themselves forward.
Moving forward slowly, various mentally unstable people gradually appeared in the procession. Some suddenly burst into loud cries, while others laughed maniacally. Still others lay on the ground in strange postures. All sorts of strange phenomena emerged one after another, appearing particularly bizarre in this quiet yet uneasy procession.
However, everyone seemed accustomed to this situation, simply lowering their heads and muttering something as they moved forward. Jiang Wen felt out of place in this procession, and a thought slowly grew in his mind to destroy everything around him.
Just as his mind grew hotter and his killing intent grew stronger, the golden core in his qi sea released a cooling energy, instantly dispelling his killing intent.
Jiang Wen woke up as if from a dream, and his whole person calmed down.
“What happened to me just now? Why did I suddenly feel such killing intent?” Jiang Wen thought with lingering fear. The feeling just now was too peculiar. He inexplicably wanted to destroy everything, to destroy everything before his eyes.
“This is the fog?” Jiang Wen felt lingering fear. Only now did he truly understand why the immortal cultivators were so afraid of this fog. He prided himself on his well-cultivated divine soul, but he had almost lost himself in this fog. If it were someone with a weaker spirit, they would probably have already succumbed to the killing intent.
He circulated his mana to protect his consciousness, only to find that the mana was running sluggishly. Even the recovery speed was slower by a few points, which was truly uncomfortable.
Along the way, people kept falling down, but the procession still did not stop.
Until even Jiang Wenji could hardly bear it, staggering beside him, the procession stopped.
Jiang Wen looked over and saw a huge cauldron standing on a high platform in the distance. The cauldron was now burning with a raging fire, dispelling the surrounding fog.
Under Jiang Wen’s gaze, the old men kneeling on the ground got up. One after another, they walked to the great cauldron, and then threw themselves into the sea of fire without hesitation.
The fire in the cauldron instantly blazed, and the old men simply stood quietly inside the cauldron, without any struggle.
What a heart-wrenching scene this was. Jiang Wen had never seen anyone sit so quietly in a fire, allowing the fire to engulf them. He watched as the old men’s bodies were burned into coke, smelling the charred flesh emanating from them, until they finally became a pile of charcoal, making the fire in the cauldron even more fierce.
The entire ritual was incredibly quiet, and no one dared to make a sound. Jiang Wen saw the old men’s families weeping, covering their mouths to try not to make any noise.
Dying silently, dying in that great fire.
Jiang Wen stared at the cauldron, not understanding why these people were doing this.
Until he saw the fog around the Tuoba clan slowly dissipate, and the sky revealed its true color.
The Tuoba clan members cheered, dancing around the high platform. Everyone shouted about the retreat of the fog, and the people who had fallen on the ground slowly woke up.
Only at this moment did Jiang Wen understand what this ritual was for, and also understood what the phrase “people as firewood” meant.
He silently left the crowd, no longer listening to the joy of the Tuoba people.
Finding a secluded corner, looking at the clear surroundings, all this was the living space that the old men had exchanged with their bodies. It was also something that the Tuoba people had no choice but to do. No one knew when the fog would dissipate, and no one could survive in the fog. The Tuoba people needed to survive, so someone had to sacrifice themselves.
It was such a simple principle, but Jiang Wen only felt a little sad.
“Are you really a cultivator?” Jiang Wenji walked to his side and said again. She looked up at the distance, at the figures of the tribe’s children playing. “I have never seen a cultivator like you.”
“A cultivator?” Jiang Wen narrowed his eyes, looking out at the white fog in the distance, and said, “Rather than saying I am a cultivator, it is better to say I am a Daoist.”
“Daoist? What is Dao?” Jiang Wenji asked in confusion.
“Dao? Dao is life, is all phenomena. It is the river water, flowing back and forth, never returning.” Jiang Wen sighed softly. “Dao, in the end, is in the heart.”
“Cultivating the Dao, cultivating the Dao. Sounds good.” Jiang Wenji smiled sweetly. “Then, how about I call you Daoist from now on?”
“Daoist? Hahaha, alright, calling me Daoist is fine.” Jiang Wen was stunned for a moment after hearing Jiang Wenji say the word Daoist, then laughed heartily. He didn’t expect that tens of thousands of years ago, there would be such a wonderful thing. It was truly wonderful beyond words.
In the following days, the Tuoba clan would perform the ritual every day. From the elderly to the young, there would always be people throwing themselves into the cauldron, burning themselves to dispel the fog. And with each ritual, the Tuoba people would replace sadness with joy.
During this time, Jiang Wen tried to come into contact with the fog. He wanted to find out what exactly was in the fog, whether it was really the turbid air transformed after the gods created the world, as the myths said.
By the ninth day, the fog had finally receded, disappearing cleanly overnight, as if it had never been there.
