Mystery: The Returner of the Stars

Chapter 283 The Harvest and the Spider

Desire and reproduction?
This was the first thought that came to Hastur's mind. He looked at it carefully for a while, but he didn't find the key element of desire, only pure reproduction.

It is also feasible to use it on crops for reproduction, but it is still a bit inappropriate to hide in the red cloth and gather people like this... after all.

In one's own territory, it is better to have fewer such things.

Hastur began to think about how to change the concept of the town residents holding the Valley Sacrifice Festival. If they believed in the festival held by the Goddess of the Earth, he would not pay attention to it.

Because of the belief in the Mother Earth, there will be no uncontrollable events.

But this small town believes in reproduction, not the mother of the earth. If it continues to develop like this, it will be dominated by reproduction, and sooner or later it will fall into the arms of the mother tree of desire or the fallen mother.

This is something he will never allow.

"There should be wind here, strong wind!"

Hastur murmured softly, preparing to blow up the red cloth with a gust of wind, and expose the true face of the so-called goddess of the breath of spring to everyone.

But when the wind blew in the distance, the corners of the red cloth were lifted, but the red cloth in the middle seemed to be pressed by something, allowing the wind to blow.

There is a situation.

Hastur turned on his spirit vision, looked towards the direction of the red cloth, and vaguely saw an illusory figure lying on the red cloth, admiring the reproduction art between the five couples inside.

That figure looked like a spider, but it didn't have so many spider legs, and it didn't have long hair all over its body. Its belly was round, as if it was pregnant, but its upper body was slender and elongated, like a person being planted into a flower bed Inside, and then stood up, dragging the flower beds like walking.

Xu Shi felt the staring eyes, and the figure looked back. It should be a human face, but there are no facial features on it.

Face spider?Is this the true face of the so-called Goddess of Breath of Spring?
Hastur didn't bother, and still chose to watch quietly. The human-faced spider didn't do anything else, it was still lying on the red cloth, admiring the great event of reproduction inside the red cloth.

When the sun's rays came from the sky, the somewhat illusory human-faced spider disappeared in the sunlight without leaving any traces.
With bursts of cheers, this year's Sigu Festival has come to an end.

Under the order of the priestess, some strong young men brought the firewood that had been prepared by the side, piled it around the red cloth, and lit it.

During the whole process, the red cloth was never lifted, and the idol was burned to death along with the flames.

According to the residents of the town, all living things will eventually return to the soil and turn into nutrients that nourish the growth of all things.

The same is true for the Goddess of Breath of Spring. When she takes the wishes of her believers and turns into ashes and melts into the soil, she will nourish the crops and usher in a joyful harvest.

This statement is well-founded and convincing, and it is difficult to find faults.

But Hastur still didn't want to let the goddess of the breath of spring exist. He didn't believe in the benevolence of the gods.

Everything is equal, what is gained is what is lost.

This protection is by no means free.

In the City of Silver, the gift of the land formed by the remains of the giant queen Omebella allowed the people living here to have black-faced grass as a staple food, and to survive in the harsh and dangerous land abandoned by gods.

And the price that the residents of the City of Silver have to pay for this is: from then on, they will bear the fate of being cursed, and only those who are killed by their immediate relatives will not become terrible evil spirits.

Good harvests come at a price.

Hastur did not act immediately, but went to the bathroom to wash up, then went downstairs to have breakfast, and then went out to hang out.

Although the sacrifice has ended, the festival is still going on, and this kind of excitement usually lasts for a week.

Every household will display the fruits and vegetables produced by their own homes in this festival.

The quality of the fruits and vegetables here is indeed better than the crops produced in other regions. The fruits and vegetables that Hasta’s castle needs on weekdays are all purchased from this small town.

One is because it is near, and the other is because the quality is really good.

Hastur walked around, intentionally or unintentionally asking about the priestess. In such a remote village, what a respected priest said was often more useful than a mayor.

The priestess in Moira town is not fixed, but changes every year. As for why it happens so frequently, the residents here give the same answer.

A good harvest needs to be brewed, just as women always need a certain amount of time to recover after giving birth.

The same is true for offering sacrifices to the Goddess of Breath of Spring. After a good harvest, a new priest needs to be replaced to re-brew the good harvest.

This argument makes sense, but it didn't convince Hasta, and he specifically asked the priestess who held sacrifices every year, if he could still see her in the coming year.

The answer I heard is that it can be seen, and it is even more popular when you marry, because many people believe that the priestess who presides over the sacrifice is also good for reproduction.

This made Hasta aware that something was wrong. In his impression, priests had a lofty status. In order to maintain their own holiness, most of them did not allow marriage and childbearing, and needed to remain single for life.

However, according to the customs here, female priests can not only marry and have children, but are also very popular.

Not only that, but Hastur also found that the residents of the small town attach great importance to reproduction.

Some families gave birth to seven or eight children and continued to have children. The tallest family had 23 children!
"You must be a foreigner. Everyone here knows that the more offspring you have, the easier it is to receive the blessing of Ceres, and the easier it is for your fields to have a bumper harvest, and you can even live without bugs throughout the year. ’ A half-drunken drunk taunted Hastur for his ignorance.

Some people think that Hastur came to their town specially to find a suitable girl to marry.

This is not a new thing, there are always many foreigners who value the blessings of the harvest here, and want to marry a daughter-in-law here, so that the fields in their homes will also have a bumper harvest.

But in the end, it is often a failure. A bunch of children are born, but the harvest in the field is still poor, and it should be barren or barren.

People came to the conclusion that only an area around the town could enjoy the blessing of Ceres' harvest.

Hastur disagreed with such remarks, but he still took the opportunity to say that he was indeed here to find a suitable wife for marriage, and he successfully obtained the home address of this year's priestess.

"Old Jeff's daughter is not so easy to marry. You have to prepare at least 100 gold pounds as a dowry, and you have to have a field enough to cultivate ten cows before you have a chance to marry his daughter." Someone muttered loudly. .

"I think you are hopeless. Although you look good, old Jeff's daughter is only 14 years old this year. He is reluctant to let his precious daughter marry far away."

"Young man, let me teach you a way. Take out 500 gold pounds and put it on the table at Old Jeff's house. I guarantee that Old Jeff will not say a word of objection, but will happily accept you as his son-in-law."

Hastur walked away from these discussions. He didn't go to Old Jeff's house immediately, but went back to the hotel to rest, and then went out to act at night.

After all, he didn't come to covet someone else's daughter, and he was only 14 years old, so he didn't have this bad habit.

After ten o'clock at night, Hastur came to the vicinity of old Jeff's house according to the news he inquired during the day.

Old Jeff's home is located in the northwest of the central square of the town. It is a two-story row house, which belongs to a relatively wealthy family in the town.

Jeff Sr. has two sons and a daughter. The eldest son is married and has moved out to live outside. The second son currently lives on the farm and is responsible for guarding the crops. Only he, his wife and 14-year-old daughter are left at home.

Hastur was really surprised by this. When he observed the priestess last night, he couldn't tell that he was only 14 years old at all. It should be because of the heavy makeup.

When the family turned off the lights to rest, Hastur appeared in the room of old Jeff's daughter.

Liv, a fairly easy-to-remember name.

In order to find out the problem of the priest in this small town, Hastur casts his nightmare ability and enters Liv's dream.

I don't know if it was because she had just experienced the sacrifice last night, she was very impressed by it, or it was because of other reasons.

In the dreamland, there is a splendid harvest field, with golden ears of rice hanging down, and there are drops of shining dewdrops on it.

Corn, pumpkins, carrots, cabbages and other crops are growing luxuriantly and pleasingly, and there are many fruits in sight, and even the color of the sky is extremely blue.

There is only one thing that makes Hasta suspicious. The roots of every crop here are entwined with white silk threads, extending deep into the ground.

These threads are very thin, and some of them are covered by the soil. If you don't lie down, it is difficult to see the problem inside.

Silk threads, spiders with human faces... Could it really be the blessing of the Goddess of Breath of Spring?
He is sleeping deep in this land?

Hastur couldn't help but have such doubts in his heart, he walked straight into the depths of the field, and finally saw the protagonist of the dream.

Holding a bamboo basket in her right hand, she is picking fresh melons and fruits in the field. A young, immature and delicate face is full of joy of harvest, and she picks the bright red tomatoes neatly and puts them into the bamboo basket.

It soon filled the bottom of the bamboo basket, and she started picking cucumbers, cabbages and other things again.

She seems to be able to keep picking like this if no one bothers her.

Hastur watched for a while, but found nothing unusual, and finally opened his mouth to break the tranquility here.

The little girl seemed to be taken aback, subconsciously took a few steps back, and dodged behind the cucumber shelf.

After she saw the person coming, her eyes lighted up slightly, and a red cloud appeared on her cheeks.

Her eyes dodged shyly for a while, then she slowly came out from behind the cucumber shelf, and said in a low voice, "Who are you? Why are you in our field?"

This made Hastur frowned slightly, and looked at the girl seriously again.

According to Nightmare's ability, she should be in a daze, without much wit, and just ask and answer.

Could it be that the blessing from the Goddess of Breath of Spring has not completely dissipated, which allowed her to temporarily resist the nightmare's ability to enter the dream?
Maybe Hastur was silent for too long, and the girl pouted unhappily, "You really have no manners at all, I even took the initiative to ask you something."

"I'm a foreigner. I came to your place by chance and found that the crops here grow beautifully. I was attracted here unconsciously."

"Oh, you want to steal our food!" The girl showed a look of enlightenment.

(End of this chapter)