"Because We Are the Same..."
Dusk had arrived. A hazy halo fell on the lush peach orchard. The light and shadows were mottled, and the gaps between the branches, leaves, and flowers were reflected in layers of strange shadows.
From a generally rational point of view, shadows do not have thickness. They are just an optical phenomenon, the silhouette of a projected object.
But at this moment, the peach orchard was both beautiful and strange.
The shadows on the ground were indistinct, as if they had come to life, writhing and twisting, trying to break free from the cage that bound them—light and matter.
Li Mo's blood had cultivated this blood peach orchard.
The night in Yae Village was extremely dangerous. To avoid attacks from ghosts and their derivatives, evil-warding objects were necessary.
Although, no one knew if, after being contaminated with bizarre blood, they could still maintain their purest evil-warding nature.
Would their strength be higher? Or would they become strange and twisted?
That was not important.
Li Mo had learned this lesson a long time ago. If he couldn't even handle the present, he wouldn't be able to reach the future.
"Save her..."
"Save her..."
"I know... you're here..."
Just as Li Mo walked up to the peach orchard, wanting to briefly verify the function of the blood peach orchard, a faint, hoarse voice came from his ear.
"Who's inside?"
Li Mo scanned his surroundings. He did not rashly enter the blood peach orchard, but stood outside and asked.
But after a long time, there was no echo from the blood peach orchard, as if the words just now were just an illusion.
That voice was fragile and tender, but from a direct auditory analysis, the vocal cords seemed to be broken.
Under these circumstances, she still had to endure the pain and cry for help.
But why wasn't she asking for help for herself?
Her?
And who was she?
Li Mo tried hard to think about these doubts. The bizarre phenomenon had appeared after he had watered the peach orchard with his blood, so it must be inextricably linked to him.
"I'll go in and have a look at the outermost layer."
Li Mo stepped into the blood peach orchard. The moment he stepped in, his sense of direction was completely lost. Forward was forward, but also backward.
This was a confusing rule for ghosts.
As long as a ghost entered this blood peach orchard, it would be impossible to get out by chance or luck. They could only break through by wearing down the rule of getting lost.
"The effect is not bad. Even I can't get out immediately, unless I pay a certain price."
Li Mo tentatively tried to leave. Although he was only one step away from leaving the blood peach orchard, there were hundreds of thousands of peach trees blocking his way.
His sense of direction was completely lost, and his cognition was twisted by the rules of the blood peach orchard. He couldn't tell if he was moving forward or standing still.
After confirming the rule, Li Mo took out his Bizarre pistol and walked forward, wanting to find out the source of the inexplicable cry for help.
He would not dismiss the cry for help from the blood peach orchard as a delusion. What's more, this bizarre phenomenon was born from him. Perhaps he could catch a glimpse of what he was like in his state of three deaths.
Of course, there was another consideration.
If he ignored the bizarre phenomenon in the courtyard, it would be easy for things to go wrong.
It might not be able to kill him, but little Chiyo and Grandma Chiyo would not be able to escape. He couldn't use his blood to supplement their vitality again.
He didn't have many chances left. The pollution on him had accumulated enough.
If he couldn't find a way to break the situation, he would die in this village in at most half a month.
Yae Village was like a tomb, a place forbidden to the living. Any living person who entered the village would step by step towards death.
It was only a matter of time.
Middle-aged and elderly people would be better off. Children and people like him who were already contaminated, every wisp of life that dissipated was death knocking on the door.
"..."
"..."
Li Mo walked for two minutes but still didn't notice anything unusual, nor did he feel any similar bizarre aura.
So he stayed where he was and shouted to the surroundings, "I'm here."
"..."
"..."
Soon, Li Mo keenly noticed a rustling sound behind him.
He turned around and saw only half a body desperately crawling towards him. The intestines and tubes in its stomach were all pulled out of its body.
The two hands had a very healthy skin color. They were raised, grabbing the ground, and forcefully pulling the body forward.
But the speed was too slow. Even in an hour, it might not be able to crawl in front of him.
Li Mo released the safety of his Bizarre pistol and walked straight to the half-body.
For some reason, he always had an urge to touch the other party.
He couldn't see the other party's physical features or face.
He took out his phone to take a picture, but the phone couldn't even scan a face. The photo was just a blank.
A conceptual rule...
Li Mo thought to himself.
Since it was a conceptual rule, it meant that no matter what means he used, he couldn't find out the other party's identity.
He couldn't judge by his five senses.
But Li Mo didn't quite understand why there would be such a strange rule, not letting him see them?
Or was it because of a special reason that he couldn't see them for the time being?
The half-body felt Li Mo approaching and stopped crawling. Instead, it struggled to raise its right hand and said for the last time, "Save her... I... I know... you... are here..."
Li Mo was silent for a long time. He squatted down and reached out his Bizarre Sprout left hand to hold the other's right hand.
It had a normal body temperature.
And the wet blood on its skin.
"Who?" Li Mo wanted to ask for the target.
But the cry for help came to an abrupt halt. The half-body dissipated. When Li Mo stood up and came back to his senses, he suddenly felt that he could walk out of the blood peach orchard.
Just like... a living person.
After examining his physical condition, Li Mo still couldn't find anything wrong.
His emotions were still indifferent, and his rationality was still online.
"A bizarre phenomenon."
"She..."
"Who is she?"
Li Mo walked out of the blood peach orchard, thoughtfully staring at the fresh blood on his left hand.
The aura of life behind him had completely disappeared. The only thing that could prove that everything had just happened was the still-warm blood on his left hand.
It was the blood of a living person.
"Big brother! What are you standing there for in a daze? Come and eat dinner~"
Little Chiyo stood at the entrance of the main hall and waved at Li Mo.
Li Mo glanced over, then looked back at the sky.
The sun was about to set.
Returning to the main hall on the first floor, little Chiyo and her grandmother were eating. Li Mo leaned against the door, thinking about who "she" was.
"Aren't you going to eat, big brother? Grandma didn't even prepare a bowl and chopsticks for you! I've never seen big brother eat before. Look how pale his face is. He must be starving."
Little Chiyo tugged at her grandmother's sleeve.
Grandma Chiyo shook her head helplessly, "Grandma made dinner for Mingyue long ago. He has already eaten."
As for his pale face, that was probably because he had been dead for a long time from a physiological point of view.
Grandma Chiyo didn't explain much, because she didn't understand either. She just roughly knew what kind of existence Li Mo was.
"Oh, okay." Little Chiyo did not doubt it at all. After all, Li Mo's stomach was indeed not growling.
Li Mo silently walked to the stairs. As he went upstairs and back to his room, he reminded them, "Tonight, go to bed early. Don't be curious."
With that, he went upstairs, back to his room, and closed the door.
Little Chiyo tilted her head, not quite understanding what Li Mo meant by that.
She only knew that her grandmother had been urging her to finish eating quickly, and had said that she would sleep with her tonight.
That night, the wind howled.
As expected, the small hill reappeared outside the courtyard, and the giant rat silhouette that had always been standing on the small hill was there.
Li Mo sat on the window, staring straight at it.
Unfortunately, the other party didn't seem to care about Li Mo's gaze, always casting its line of sight into the adjacent room of little Chiyo.
In comparison, Li Mo's life was not worth mentioning, like a candle in the wind, no different from these ghosts.
"The festival is a periodic event with a regular pattern."
"The phenomena that appear before the festival are just because the Bizarre source needs to supplement its vitality, which is why ghosts will kill people at all costs, regardless of evil-warding objects and dangers."
"Little Chiyo dying once cannot cancel being locked on by the ghosts."
"Because she is always full of vitality. To cancel the lock, she can only live until after the festival when the Bizarre source is satisfied, or lose a large amount of vitality like me."
There was a saying that if a group of people encountered a bloodthirsty wild bear while on an outing.
You didn't need to run faster than the bear, you just needed to run faster than your companions to survive.
The festival and survival were the same.
In the festival, you only needed to be less polluted than your peers to escape disaster.
In survival, you only needed to be more polluted than your peers to escape disaster.
"Equilibrium."
Li Mo called out softly.
"What exactly is the Bizarre source of Yae Village pursuing?"
As Li Mo was thinking, a large number of rats had already broken through the courtyard gate and gnawed through the threshold.
They came aggressively, completely ignoring the feng shui layout and the evil-warding objects, at all costs, regardless of the consequences, their eyes flashing with a crazy and eerie green light.
But when they entered the blood peach orchard one by one, the courtyard returned to its original silence.
Rustle, rustle—
Rustle, rustle—
Li Mo caught a glimpse of the rats frantically gnawing on the blood peach orchard, the trunks, branches, leaves, and flowers.
They had completely given up on hunting little Chiyo.
It was as if these were more tempting than little Chiyo.
When Li Mo shifted his gaze to the hill, he found that the giant rat silhouette had moved.
He took the initiative to come down from the hill, crossed the broken threshold, and entered the blood peach orchard, imitating the rats and gnawing on the blood peach orchard.
If this momentum continued, it was only a matter of time before the blood peach orchard was completely devoured.
However, the bizarre blood was endless.
It gushed from underground, nourishing the peach trees.
The peach orchard became strange. A thin, scarlet blood mist seeped out from the bark and gradually spread.
The rats that inhaled the blood mist let out tragic wails, and their bodies rapidly expanded, and then suddenly exploded after a short while.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
"..."
"..."
Knowing that the giant rat silhouette had inhaled the blood mist, its already bloated body expanded again and exploded like a rat.
Derivatives did not have the ability to restart, but ghosts did.
The moment it died, the giant rat silhouette restarted itself and was completely restored.
But it still had no intention of leaving, still greedily gnawing on the bark, inhaling the blood mist, and expanding and exploding again.
The continuous huge explosions were like setting off firecrackers during the New Year, unceasing.
"There's something wrong with that mist."
Li Mo glanced at the next door. The window was tightly closed.
He closed the door and window tightly when the blood mist spread in front of him.
This mist seemed to be fatal on contact, whether to humans or ghosts.
"I don't need to worry about ghost attacks tonight. Although there are still many things I don't understand, the most important thing is tomorrow's festival."
"With the ability of the bizarre omamori, I can see the true form of the Bizarre source. If possible, perhaps I can find out what the real ritual is."
"At least it's definitely not the festival."
If the festival was the ritual, then there would be no need for him to deal with it at all.
For thousands of years, the festival had sacrificed all sorts of people, but it still hadn't made the Bizarre source disappear. On the contrary, it had become more and more rampant.
Was the problem with the festival itself? Or the sacrifices?
Li Mo didn't know.
He held the white omamori on his neck and kept thinking about that cry for help in his mind.
It was very familiar, but due to some extremely special rule, he could hear it completely and record it.
But no matter what means he used, he couldn't find the corresponding template in his memory.
It was as if...
the voice of help existed in the present, but it was wandering in the cracks of time. Human hearing could only catch a corner of it, not its original appearance.
But a rule with a conceptual nature still needed help. What exactly had the other party encountered?
A living person, with their body cut off, only half a body prostrate on the ground, struggling to move forward, their vocal cords broken, enduring the piercing pain to let out a hoarse cry for help.
Most importantly, it was related to him.
So far, this mission had had too many strange and unknown phenomena related to him.
Black mist, blood mist, weak cries for help, true name revealed...
An inexplicable unease welled up in his heart.
"I can't understand."
"I'll just wait and see."
He patiently waited for dawn. With a few crisp rooster crows, the tipsy sunlight shone into the room.
This time, although it was still early morning, the streets were crowded with people.
Li Mo opened the window and found that everyone was relaxed and well-dressed, like a long dragon flowing towards the shrine.
He shifted his gaze. The blood peach orchard was still flourishing, as if the damage from last night had never happened.
The effect was unexpectedly good, but relying on the characteristics of the blood peach orchard itself probably wouldn't be able to stop the giant rat that had personally come down. Fortunately, the killing power of the blood mist that spread later was very great.
The reason for its birth was unknown, but for now, it was a friend, not a foe.
Knock, knock, knock... a knock on the door sounded. Li Mo reflexively scanned his surroundings, wanting to check the state of the candlelight.
Of course, he didn't find it.
Because it was daytime now, and there were no candles in the room.
"Big brother! Time to get up!"
Little Chiyo pushed open the door and looked at Li Mo standing on the bed with a look of confusion.
"What are you doing standing on the bed, big brother? And you haven't taken off your shoes! If Grandma finds out, she'll beat you with a bamboo weave!"
Little Chiyo thought with pain.
"Don't worry, I won't tell Grandma, so get off the bed quickly."
After a while, Li Mo came back to his senses and realized that his actions were indeed a bit of an overreaction, violating the behavioral logic of a normal person. He got off the bed.
"..."
"..."
"What are you looking at your hand for, big brother? The shrine is holding a festival today. Everyone in the village has to go. If you don't go, the Guji will personally come to visit."
Her words came to an abrupt halt. Little Chiyo seemed to have remembered something unpleasant and hugged herself, shrinking away from the room.
The room was empty, with only Li Mo himself.
One person.
Countless jumbled and intertwined memories.
"I... my memories were confused just now."
Li Mo calmly stated the fact that he had overreacted just now because he had heard a knock on the door.
In that instant, he had mistaken the past for the present.
But that shouldn't have happened.
Li Mo looked down. The omamori was still white, which meant his cognition was normal.
Without the interference of external factors, then the only remaining possibility was... his memory had reached its limit.
Just like Nuwa, Fuxi, and Xiao Yun back then.
If he returned to a normal state at this moment, two deaths, one death, or even a complete living person, this situation would only become more serious.
He might even be unable to distinguish reality.
Memory was a deep sea. As a diver sank into the ocean of memory, countless peeking eyes were exposed in the darkness.
Li Mo shook his head and walked out of the room.
He would think of a way to deal with this matter after returning to the primeval world. The top priority now was to figure out the festival and the bizarre source of Yae Village.
Little Chiyo, led by her grandmother, joined the procession to the shrine.
Following the crowd, Li Mo walked at the end, observing every move around him.
He memorized every person, every moment, every action, and every gaze in his mind, throwing them into the deep sea of memory...
The people's expressions were relaxed, their faces rosy, and they were at ease.
They were completely indifferent to the heart-wrenching howls of the sacrifices in the center of the procession.
"What are you doing?"
"Let me out! I'm not a sacrifice, I'm a person! I..."
Shackles and a cage trapped two familiar people, Chiyo's parents.
They stretched their hands out of the cage, trying to unlock the cage lock.
The next second, their arms were cut off, blood splattered everywhere, and the cut surfaces revealed white bones and terrifying flesh and blood tissues.
The butcher held a pig-killing knife, his face beaming with a smile. He said to everyone with a grin, "This demonic beast is quite cunning. It actually tried to use its hooves to open the cage lock."
The villagers joked, "Don't do the work of the miko. The sacrifices can't die before the festival!"
"Don't worry, I know my limits. These demonic beasts won't die if their limbs are cut off. They can only end their tenacious lives when the miko cuts off their heads," the butcher swung the pig-killing knife in his hand. The blade was covered in scarlet blood.
Drop by drop, it fell from the tip of the blade, forming circles of blood puddles on the ground.
The festival procession quickened its pace, and the screams from the cage became more and more shrill.
Perhaps even now, Chiyo's parents in the cage did not understand why everyone had put them in a cage and used them as sacrifices for the festival.
They kept explaining, constantly begging.
However, the villagers outside the cage just laughed happily, like guests watching a performance from below the stage, watching the dramatic scene of the clown on the stage.
Even if it tore out its own heart and liver and rolled on the ground crying.
People would only think it was grandstanding.
After all, they were on the stage, in the cage.
Soon, the procession arrived at the shrine.
A high platform had been erected in front of the cherry blossom tree, obviously for the festival.
The villagers formed a circle, quietly watching the struggling demonic beasts being sent to the altar and bound by heavy chains.
In fact, there was no need for such heavy chains. After all, what was bound were not two ferocious demonic beasts, but two living people on the verge of screaming their lungs out.
It was just that their vitality was too low, so low that it was difficult to maintain a human state. Under the influence of the rules, they were perceived as demonic beasts by others.
"Big brother, you're here. You came so quickly. Let's go to the front and have a look." Little Chiyo pulled Li Mo's hand and was about to walk forward.
Li Mo stood still, thought for a few seconds, nodded, and went with little Chiyo to the bottom of the altar.
"Chi, Chiyo?"
"Chiyo! It's me, Mom! Tell everyone to stop!"
"Chiyo! We are not sacrifices, not demonic beasts! Can you hear me?"
On the altar, Chiyo's parents seemed to have seen their last straw of hope. They twisted their bodies desperately and shouted loudly at Chiyo.
However, in the eyes of little Chiyo and the others, the two demonic beasts seemed to have gone crazy, roaring at little Chiyo.
This action scared little Chiyo so much that she hid directly behind Li Mo.
Unfortunately, the living could not hear the words of the sacrifices.
"I gave you a chance."
"You were the ones who ran towards death."
Li Mo said coldly to Chiyo's parents.
Little Chiyo and the people around her found it strange, but because Li Mo didn't specifically look at the demonic beasts when he spoke, everyone just thought Li Mo hadn't woken up.
But Chiyo's parents were different. They instantly realized that Li Mo could see their true faces.
They also recognized that this was the mysterious person who had brought them to the outside of the village back then.
"You can see me? You can see us!?"
"I was wrong! I was really wrong! Please save me, we are not demonic beasts!"
Li Mo didn't intend to meddle, and said nothing.
Little Chiyo trembled and tugged at Li Mo's sleeve, and said timidly, "Big brother, the demonic beasts seem to hate you very much."
Li Mo replied faintly, "They don't have that qualification."
Fate was so dramatic. A small, inconspicuous action, a sudden idea, could bring great grace, from which one could rise step by step, or it could lead to a complete loss, burying oneself.
He had tried to go against the Bizarre's nature, using the way of giving them a chance to live to prove that his humanity still existed.
Until a hard stone smashed the back of his undefended head.
For a normal person, that would have been fatal.
Li Mo had proved that his humanity still existed, because he had given up on rescuing, and also given up on proving.
Repay malice with virtue? No... human nature was to repay malice with directness.
Thump, thump...
Footsteps sounded. The crowd made way. The young Yae Sakura walked to the stairs of the altar with her head buried, with no intention of stopping.
The Sakura Blizzard in her hand turned a vivid red, gradually transforming into Crimson-Dyed Sakura.
The meaning of this was self-evident.
Looking at Yae Sakura's not-so-good expression, Li Mo hesitated for a moment.
Before Yae Sakura could step onto the altar, Li Mo suddenly said, "You have chosen, and you must bear the consequences. Once some things are started, there is no turning back."
Hearing Li Mo's voice, Yae Sakura suddenly stopped in her tracks and stood there.
She looked down at the spiritual blade in her hand, without looking back.
Yes, killing. Once you've done it once, you can't explain it away.
Before, she could have used the excuse of not knowing the identity of the demonic beasts, and being forced by the situation.
But now...
She knew very well what the identity of the demonic beasts on the altar was, and... who they were.
They were people, they were the elders who had greeted her before.
Knowing their identities, to raise the blade again and cut off their heads and bodies... she... would become a real executioner, a murderer.
"Mo-kun, have you ever done something like this?" Yae Sakura asked in a low voice.
Because there were many people around, Yae Sakura did not reveal the truth of the matter.
Only the two of them knew the meaning of each other's words—
killing.
Li Mo's eyes were cold. He glanced at his pathologically white palm, as clean as jade.
But faint traces of blood seeped from the pores, and inside were desperate, ferocious human faces.
"..."
"..."
Li Mo did not answer, choosing to remain silent.
But silence was not the final answer. After a while, Li Mo directly answered Yae Sakura's question, "What I am doing now is this kind of thing."
Standing by and watching.
Turning a blind eye to the pleas of the living in front of him, letting them step by step towards the end of their lives.
Their limbs bound by chains, their bodies tied to the execution block, waiting like livestock for the executioner's slash.
And the only one with the ability to change anything stood below the stage, indifferent.
He had become an accomplice.
Yae Sakura turned around, the smile on her face seemed to brighten a little.
For some reason, she actually let out a small laugh.
"That's great. Mo-kun must be able to understand Sakura, right? Some things have to be done, even if you know it's wrong."
"Originally, Sakura was very hesitant. I felt very ugly and despicable from the bottom of my heart. But now I feel much better."
"We are the same..."
Yae Sakura stepped onto the altar, drew Sakura Blizzard. The moment the blade reflected the faces of Chiyo's parents, a blood-red luster swept over Sakura Blizzard.
Like a monstrous sea of blood, it covered the splendid cherry blossom blade.
Sakura Blizzard was stained with a bizarre crimson, and was named Crimson-Dyed Sakura.
Before the two of them could cry out, two heads rolled to the feet of Li Mo and little Chiyo.
"..."
"..."
Little Chiyo tugged at Li Mo's sleeve. When Li Mo turned around, he found two lines of clear tears on little Chiyo's cheeks.
She stared blankly at the ferocious "demonic beast heads" on the ground, and an inexplicable sadness welled up in her heart.
Just like at a funeral, the one who cries the most is certainly not the lover or friend who had the best relationship with the deceased.
But the innocent children.
An ignorant child, after learning the difference between life and death for the first time, becomes extremely afraid.
So much so that the moment they witness the death of a loved one, the huge sense of loss is like a gushing tide, bursting out uncontrollably.
Perhaps they just think that they will never see them again, never again...
Drip... drip...
The sound of raindrops sounded. It started to drizzle from the sky, and the clouds were also sad like a child.
Li Mo did not comfort her. He looked at the omamori on his neck.
It was turning from white to black.
Cognitive pollution had appeared. Before his cognition was completely polluted, he had to remember everything that had happened.
The sky...
Li Mo immediately looked up at the sky. Although he had expected it, he was still slightly stunned, staring at the huge, dark cocoon that blotted out the sun.
A few strands of spider web hung from the sky, connected to a huge cocoon.
The moment Chiyo's parents died, the cocoon in the sky shook continuously, as if something inside was about to come out.
Immediately after, strands of spider web fell from the sky, connecting to the corpses of Chiyo's parents.
The last remaining vitality was quickly absorbed.
The spider web was like a pipeline, absorbing the vitality from the corpses and transporting it to the cocoon in the sky.
And the pollution was all absorbed by Crimson-Dyed Sakura.
"Grief Seed," Li Mo called out its true name.