He Xiaoyu's hometown is on a small island in the eastern sea. At least, it has been an island since she was born.
The name of the island is Qiulong Island. By the time He Xiaoyu came of age, there were 514 residents on the island, all with the surname He.
The elders in the family always say that Qiulong Island was once a high mountain before the world became what it is now.
It wasn't until floods swept across the world that the ground was submerged, and the mountains turned into isolated islands, guarding the few hundred remaining people.
In the beginning, the number of people on Qiulong Island was more than these 514. According to the high priest of Qiulong Island, thirty years ago, when the New World was just rebuilt, there were at most more than 3,000 people on the island.
But an island is only so big. Except for saline-alkali land and stone land, the area where crops can be grown can only support a small part of it.
So many of the three thousand people died.
Some of them got into quarrels because of hunger, which escalated into fights, which in turn escalated into armed fights, which in turn escalated into small-scale wars.
Until one night twenty-one years ago, as a ship docked, explosions like firecrackers resounded throughout Qiulong Island.
Just like the sudden restoration of power after a blackout, the first person wearing a red robe on Qiulong Island walked out of the ship. The emotional explosion that had been almost forgotten by everyone after that came back to memory.
Desperate people turned into bombs, blowing up thousands of red flowers for the entire island before dawn.
After that, the red robe who came down from the boat tapped the ground with his cane and said:
"Emotions are the original sin of the world, but the Crimson Mother will grant new life to believers."
Later, the man in red robe became the first high priest on Qiulong Island.
The name of the high priest is He Bule. It sounds like a fake name, but it is easy to remember and the high priest himself likes it very much.
So in the next twenty-one years, all the newborns born on the island were named He.
At this point, the blue scar on He Xiaoyu's face suddenly turned red. Zhou You stretched out his hand and used the power of the tide of longing to cover the scarlet again, and the pain on He Xiaoyu's face eased.
"So, the high priest of Qiulong Island is your father?"
Zhou You asked He Xiaoyu.
He Xiaoyu nodded and said that he was born to He Bule's twelfth wife, and He Shuiqing was born to his seventh wife.
Zhou You was dumbfounded and asked, why does this new world seem dirtier than the old world?
The Heavenly Court only holds a part of the authority of the circulators. Therefore, on the surface, the circulatory officers of the Dragon City Emperor are in charge of the whole world, but in fact, the emperor can only effectively control the land covered by 3,000 circulators. In these On land, heaven can almost perfectly guarantee the reset of time and allow order to last forever.
However, even if each of the three thousand circulation officials has the power of the fourth step or above, the land they can cover in total is far from being able to cover the entire planet illuminated by the huge moon. Wherever we go, private land that listens to the tune but not the propaganda has become the mainstream of the new world.
Private islands like Qiulong Island are just the tip of the iceberg.
He Xiaoyu said that the 120 households on Qiulong Island, with a population of 514, all belong to He Bule's family property. Even though He Bule is now in his sixties, the main house on Qiulong Island still plays music every night.
However, compared to being indulgent and sensual, Why Bu Le occupied Qiulong Island, which actually had a more important mission.
That's what he said when he first set foot on Qiulong Island, "The Crimson Mother will give believers new life."
One hundred and twenty households on Qiulong Island all believe in the original.
The Crimson Mother is the original Mother Goddess, a giant spider lying on the dark side of the moon.
In scriptures related to the Crimson Mother, the moon is depicted as a large cocoon wrapped in spider silk.
All the negative emotions in the world are in this cocoon, and the Crimson Mother feeds on everyone's negative emotions.
"The High Priest of Qiulong Island" is not He Bule's self-proclaimed title. He Xiaoyu said that she once attended a meeting between He Bule and the special envoy of the Original Church.
When we met, the other party called He Bule the priest.
Zhou You knows about this position. In the memory bank left by Xie Zhi, the position of priest, also known as sacrifice and animal sacrifice in the original church, is responsible for providing the crimson mother and the thousands of crimson demons bred by the crimson mother. Supplies.
The original church had many priests. According to the church's regulations, for every ten more crimson demons recorded in the church's roll call, one more priest must be registered for the church.
The priests prepare fresh food for the newborn Crimson Demon and Crimson Mother - those dying people who are full of negative emotions will be wrapped in cocoons for preservation by the high priest.
This is what you see when you travel around the lower cabin of the ghost ship.
The mouthparts of the Crimson Mother and many crimson demons crossed the abyss of despair, stretched out from the void, and came to the table prepared for them by the priest.
The eating of the crimsons is malleable. During their eating process, the area of the "dining table" covered by the crimson threads will become larger and larger. If there are any other emotional carriers in the covered area at this time, then the corresponding The carrier also becomes part of the food.
This is why He BuLe placed this meal on the ghost ship and let the empty ghost ship wander freely in the high seas.
"But you still haven't explained why you were tied up and burned on that totem pole that belongs to the church."
Zhou You pointed out the flaws in He Xiaoyu's words.
He Xiaoyu said, I was just about to talk about this.
She told Zhou You that the position of priest has its own stability.
The original mission left to the priests by the original church was to find enough food to support the crimsons. The fresh-keeping layer could extend the duration of the dining table to one month, so at the beginning of each month, the priests had to prepare for the next day. The crimson table is opened to find enough sacrifices. The number of sacrifices is usually three to five people.
If such a task could be accomplished, the priesthood would be preserved and the priests could continue to live happily on their own private lands.
If the donation task cannot be completed, higher-level administrators from the church will come to the priest's station, punish the priests, and appoint a new priest to take over the station.
Hebule has obviously completed the monthly donation task very well. The He family on Qiulong Island make a living as a rescue ship and as a pirate. While some juniors are fishing for Old World talents from the bottom of the sea for the Maritime Talent Hall, another group of juniors are also "filtering wealth" from New World ships at sea.
Every month, there are dozens of "human resources" handled by Hebule, and three to five are selected as sacrifices. It's just that the number reported on the books is smaller.
However, the mission of the church is not only the support mission. In addition, there is also a reward mission called "Promotion Mission".
As long as the priests can prove that they have the "ability to cultivate crimson demons for the church," the priests can be promoted to higher-level priests.
On the surface, this is naturally a reward. As long as they become priests, the priests can return to the center of power of the church from a remote and cold place, and embark on the road of becoming prominent figures in the church and holding high positions of power.
But for a priest like He Bule, becoming a priest is already his lifelong goal, and he doesn't want to go further.
He even said that he didn't want to and was determined not to go further.
Although Qiulong Island is located in Area 23 of the eastern sea, far away from the mainland to the west, almost reaching the edge of the civilized world, for He Bule, being a priest on Qiulong Island can enjoy more than 500 People's worship is free and comfortable.
The only thing the church is concerned about is whether it can complete the task of providing enough food once a month. Apart from that, all the time is left for itself to dominate.
And what if I unfortunately cultivated a crimson demon?
Then he will be valued by the church and be promoted to a priest by the front line of fire. After that, a slightly better future is to be transferred to be responsible for the supply mission inspection in the peripheral areas, but the greater possibility is to be directly transferred to the mainland to work in the main Under the supervision of the Holy See, things were done in accordance with various regulations.
Status is something you cannot have without, nor can you have too much of.
He Bule just wants to be his own local emperor. He is already sixty years old. Letting him compete with the people in the center of power is tantamount to punishing him.
Therefore, promotion tasks are absolutely impossible. Even if there is a crimson demon hotbed that meets the qualifications for cultivation, He Bule must suppress it and crush it to death.
He Xiaoyu pointed at himself,
"For example, this is me."
When He Xiaoyu said this, the scar on He Xiaoyu's face turned red again. Zhou You could clearly see that a third eye suddenly appeared in the corner of the right eye near the temple as the burn scar changed color. Xiaoyu's right eyes are side by side, just like her compound eye.
Zhou You shook his hand, moved the joints of his right hand, and put his palm on it again.
The blue power gently covered He Xiaoyu's face, and the place where the compound eye was was turned into skin again.
"The crimson demon is being born in your body? And what he wants to do is to burn you to death before the demon is completely born?"
Zhou You asked He Xiaoyu.
He Xiaoyu shook his head and said:
"He doesn't want to do this, and he can't do it."
"There is a process for the birth of the Crimson Devil, but from the moment the process of the devil's birth begins, the outcome of the birth is already determined."
"The process is just a cone of light, running back from the future and catching up with the tail of the past."
"The present is the tail of the past."
Zhou You nodded. He had personally experienced the theory of time light cone before the destruction of the old world.
That was before he finally decided to embrace the giant transformed by boiling blood. The moment his spiritual body decided to devote himself to the boundless giant, he realized that the destruction of the world had become an ongoing process. .
After that, no matter how the process changes, the ending point remains the same.
In a sense, the light cone of time is cause and effect. If there is an effect first, then the process will naturally appear. This is a kind of deducing cause from effect.
Zhou You asked He Xiaoyu: "Can you realize how long it will take before you completely turn into a crimson demon? The kind of evil spirit that cannot communicate and only feeds on human emotions?"
He Xiaoyu counted on his fingers and took out five fingers. Then he shook his head and held his hands:
"I have no idea."
"The totem pole you pushed into the sea is called the "Nail of Gaze" in the sect. If I am not watched, an age-appropriate and qualified carrier like me will hatch out normalcy within five days after the negative emotions overflow. The Crimson Demon comes. "
"It's those spiders. Maybe you've seen them in Heaven's promotional brochures. They have no human form and are very pure emotional spiders."
"The Nail of Gaze is a special blessing. The process of obtaining Gaze is as you can see. I was tied to a totem pole, and then the entire totem pole was ignited with special oil to obtain the Crimson Mother’s attention.”
"Like a mark?" Zhou You interjected.
"Yes, it's like a mark. For those who possess the mark, the way the Crimson Demon hatches will change accordingly, and the hatching process will also slow down."
He Xiaoyu nodded and continued:
"According to the high priest, the final form of the crimson demon transformed by the incubator who has received the gaze of the Crimson Mother is half human and half spider. Human consciousness can still prevail most of the time, unless you encounter those It is impossible for the Crimson Demons to maintain their sanity in the eating ground, so they will turn into pure emotional eating machines."
Zhou You thought of Zhang Hongmian, who turned into a spider girl in the end when the old world was about to perish. Thinking about it this way, Zhang Hongmian should also be this kind of crimson demon who "received the gift of attention"?
It's no wonder that she defected from her side at the last moment, and it can't even be considered a defection. Now it seems that it was just her biological instinct that took over her reason, causing her to change from a normal person who can use emotions to incarnate "Crimson" "Oath" state, he became a half-human, half-spider crimson demon.
if
The Crimson Demon can also be regarded as a kind of creature.
Zhou You looked at the scars on He Xiaoyu's face and recalled the compound eye that had been suppressed not long ago.
The birth of the compound eye was not real, but appeared in an illusion and covered He Xiaoyu's face.
According to the analysis of the data left by Xie Zhi in the memory bank, the Crimson Demon is also a manifestation of spiritual power, but this spiritual power is injected from the existence called the original, a primitive, external spiritual power. .
If the external spiritual power overwhelms the self, the Crimson Demon will be born.
The Crimson Demon is the Crimson Mother's tentacle reaching out to where the great moon shines.
Every tentacle, from the moment it is born, has the power of the third step or above.
The high-level demon form that is half human and half spider can even reach the fourth step.
Let’s stop thinking about things in the old world. Zhou You thought this way, suppressing his active thoughts and returning his attention to He Xiaoyu:
"So, High Priest of Qiulong Island, what your biological father wants to do to you is to postpone the birth of the crimson demon in you?"
He Xiaoyu responded, took the words and laughed:
"It's more than that."
"He also wanted the ghost ship to float further south along the ocean currents."
"Because according to the internal judgment standards of the church, the birth of the crimson devil follows the principle of territoriality. As long as I hatch into a crimson devil within the jurisdiction of other priests, why not be happy that the high priest did not claim it immediately, then the credit for this hatching will be Belonging to other priests.”
"The ghost ship we are on is drifting southeast along the ocean current. Qiulong Island is a hundred nautical miles to the southeast, which is considered high seas. Another hundred nautical miles will reach the sphere of influence of the high priest of Swordfish Island."
Zhou You also laughed:
"The jurisdiction of that court is really riddled with holes."
He stood up from the deck of the ghost ship, climbed up to the observation deck and looked into the distance. Sure enough, there was a long and narrow island full of greenery on the horizon.
Come to think of it, that is Swordfish Island.
"How many people are there on Swordfish Island?"
"There are more than six hundred people there, which is about the same as Qiulong Island."
"No wonder. The meaning of High Priest He is easy to understand. He cares more about happiness in reality than the power in the church."
Zhou You came down from the mast and slowly withdrew the tide of longing that had attached to his eyes to enhance his vision:
"The distance between Swordfish Island and Qiulong Island is only over 200 nautical miles. For High Priest He, it is obvious that it falls within the scope of 'How can I allow others to snore next to my bed?'"
"Using this method of transferring credit, he can remove the high priest of the same level from Swordfish Island through air conditioning, and Swordfish Island can easily fall under his jurisdiction. It can be said to kill two birds with one stone."
"What about us now?" He Xiaoyu asked Zhou You.
Zhou You pulled He Xiaoyu up from the deck and said:
"Of course we are going to Swordfish Island. What is the surname of the high priest there?"
He Xiaoyu said: "My surname is Lao."
Zhou You suddenly realized that no wonder He Shuiqing's wife's surname was Lao. This was a political marriage.
"What daughter is Lao Rongxiu, High Priest Lao's daughter?"
"Room 14, I guess. I don't really remember."
Zhou You couldn't help but laugh at this dilapidated new world.
"Then High Priest Lao and High Priest Ho are both destined to die in my opinion."
Zhou You shook his head, but suddenly he seemed to remember something:
"Oh, by the way, I plan to kill your father, don't you mind."
He Xiaoyu also shook his head and said:
"Of course I don't mind, I'll help."
