Qi Family Gang (23)

The people in the stilt houses looked like a group of monkeys, all fidgeting and scratching themselves, but their condition was indeed slightly better than before.

Manager Wu was overjoyed. "Headman, then you should touch everyone every hour!"

Headman Qi: "..."

Nan Yue and Jiang Siyan exchanged a look; it seemed the King’s Coin was indeed on Headman Qi's person.

They quietly went back to rejoin the others and shared what they had just thought of.

"Old Gu's idea was also correct; the other layer of the rainwater's transformation should be to make the blisters on our bodies spread and become more severe."

Nan Yue patted Gu Xiang Kai's shoulder. "The blisters are indeed related to the way Zhao Laoqi died, but we don't know exactly what it is yet."

Zhu Xi Ning threw two pieces of wood into the fire; fortunately, there was still some wood stored here, otherwise, they wouldn't even be able to light a fire.

"But there is a very strange point. Since the dragon god in the deep pool has a way to confuse the minds of animals and make them jump into the deep pool themselves, why doesn't it do that to us?"

Manager Wu had asked this question before, but Zhu Xi Ning's meaning was different from his.

What she meant was, since it could use such a method to devour humans while they were unconscious, why go through the trouble of making it rain, creating illusory creeks, and making them grow blisters?

What was the point of all this?

Yin Qian and Jiang Haoyu had been listless and silent, but since it was Zhu Xi Ning who asked, Jiang Haoyu still tried to use what little rationality he had left to think.

"Maybe humans are hard to control, or maybe they have to die in a way that turns them into human skin for them to be more delicious."

Zhu Xi Ning's mouth twitched; hearing Jiang Haoyu describe it like that made it feel as if they really were a dish on a menu.

The dragon god wasn't just toying with them; it was considering how best to eat them.

Nan Yue looked at Jiang Haoyu thoughtfully. "That's actually possible."

The reason the dragon god didn't devour them like it did the horses, but instead went through the trouble of constant transformation, seemed to be for the sake of a more exquisite enjoyment of its meal.

"Don't you think... this method looks a bit familiar?"

The others didn't quite understand what Nan Yue was saying, but Zhu Xi Ning and the others seemed to grasp something upon hearing her words.

"You think... the dragon god is maximizing fear?"

Nan Yue nodded to Zhu Xi Ning. "Yes. The greatest fear of a horse is being devoured by an animal stronger than itself, so there's no need to do much else; just controlling them and eating them is enough."

"But humans are different; the human brain can process more emotional issues and can also generate more fear."

"Or rather, negative emotions."

Nan Yue realized that the mysterious transformation in this mission was very similar to the scavenger pollution worlds they handled.

It seemed to be about squeezing out negative emotions like fear and despair.

Only, the Federation did it to strip away and discard negative emotions so they wouldn't affect the Federation's rule.

But the dragon god was the exact opposite; it was for the purpose of extracting and then enjoying them.

In other words, it was a creature that lived by absorbing fear.

At this point, Nan Yue and the others were already certain that this was no dragon god.

They had never heard of a traditional totem that lived by absorbing negative emotions.

This was more like a monster born from chaos and filth that had grown in a specific geographical environment.

"Do you think... the villagers of Fish Fry Village would really worship such a monster?"

Zhu Xi Ning couldn't quite figure it out; although they had done many purification missions involving evil god worship, the reasons for worshiping usually boiled down to two types.

One was having a request, and the other was having guilt.

The Ant God existed because the ancestors of Antswamp Village felt guilty in their hearts, believing that all living things were equal and fearing that one day such a calamity of genocide would happen to them.

Their fear and worry had manifested into the Ant God.

And the vast majority of worship was for the sake of making a request to a deity.

Praying for safety, for a bountiful harvest, or for longevity.

But the monster in the deep pool seemed to belong to neither.

This thing appeared by absorbing negative emotions; it was impossible for it to fulfill any wishes for humans.

Not to mention that this thing lived deep in the pool, and when it appeared, it was to devour humans; it wouldn't have any causal entanglement with humans.

Would villagers really believe in such a thing?

"They would."

Jiang Siyan said calmly, "There is another kind of worship: power."

"Many who worship evil gods admire precisely that kind of massive, unstoppable evil power."

He had seen it in some books; of course, connecting it to the truth now, what he read might not have been stories, but biographies.

"They believe that by sacrificing themselves to an evil god, their souls can obtain a similar powerful energy."

Jiang Siyan paused after saying that. "But I don't think that's the case with Fish Fry Village."

Nan Yue turned to look at him; seeing that she was interested, Jiang Siyan softened his tone and explained patiently.

"I observed it when I first came here; Fish Fry Village was a very simple village. Based on the state of the village's decay, it should have been destroyed a hundred years ago."

"The people who died in Fish Fry Village recently should have been tricked into coming here, just like the Qi Family Gang."

"And the fish totems carved on the doorposts seem to date back to around the time the village was destroyed, so it wasn't generational worship, but something carved suddenly."

Nan Yue seemed to understand what Jiang Siyan was trying to say. "They were suddenly bewitched, or perhaps they understood what was happening to them, so... it was a warning."

Jiang Siyan nodded. "Of course, the bigger piece of evidence is the monster in the deep pool. Even if the people of Fish Fry Village worshiped it as a totem, the more likely scenario wouldn't be a total village sacrifice, but a gradual one."

"Otherwise, if the whole village died, leaving their god to find its own prey, they would be very incompetent as believers."

Jiang Siyan's voice was calm. "The people of Fish Fry Village lived here for generations; they understood the things in the rainforest better. In my view, those signs were not so much totems as they were a kind of hint."

Nan Yue thought about it and had to admit Jiang Siyan had a point.

If the people of Fish Fry Village really worshiped fish, then besides the patterns carved on the doorposts, there should have been many fish-related decorative totems inside the village as well.

Faith should permeate every aspect of life.

But there were none; compared to the many crookedly drawn fish patterns outside, the inside of the stilt houses was very clean.

There was nothing related to it at all.

It was more like the villagers were wary of letting these patterns enter their homes.

"As for the name Fish Fry Village, it's even easier to understand; as villagers who lived in the rainforest for generations, they had no way to grow crops due to the geographical conditions, so they could only rely on hunting in the rainforest to satisfy their hunger."