My Years in the Folklore World

Chapter 526: New Year Passes Away the Old Year

A good start.

As soon as Jiang Xinghuo entered the main hall of Xingmenmai, he was strangled to death with a rope. However, this was expected. Xingmenmai is not a small map, so it is normal to die a few times.

"Do you want to activate the effect of the scapegoat?"

"You activated the scapegoat, escaped, and used the scarecrow to replace yourself, thus avoiding the fate of having your cervical vertebrae broken."

"And the hemp rope around the scarecrow's neck seemed to sense that you had used other means to avoid certain death, so it began to wriggle slowly, like a poisonous snake, suddenly jumping out of the scarecrow and wrapping around your neck again, as if it would never stop until it killed you!!"

"How do you plan to deal with this sudden situation? Do you dodge or face it head-on?"

Jiang Xinghuo thought quickly and chose to face the attack head-on. This rope should not just be a mechanism, but could be a powerful prop. It would be best if he could get his hands on it.

"You chose to face the hemp rope head-on. You stretched out your right hand and grabbed it tightly. Then a brilliant flash of lightning passed by, and you heard a scream from the rope. A wisp of black smoke dissipated with the wind, and the rope turned into a normal shape, wrapped around your arm."

"You have obtained it, the ghost rope."

"Ghost Rope (rare item), a blood-stained hemp rope that has hanged more than a thousand people. It contains a very strong evil spirit and weirdness. As long as you hold it in your hand, you can strangle the target until they are dead. And every time you kill a person, the soul of the hanged person will be collected into it as the source of power for this rope. If you want to destroy this hemp rope, you have to destroy all the souls."

"Be careful. You just used the power of heavenly thunder to disperse the resentment left by the previous rope master. The soul bound in the hemp rope has also fallen into silence. It will take some time to recover. You can't use it to fight the enemy for the time being."

“Do you want to equip it on your game character?”

Jiang Xinghuo thought about it and temporarily chose no, because if this ghost rope magic weapon was equipped on the game character, it would not be usable in the real world.

Therefore, Jiang Xinghuo planned to first take a look at what this ghost rope looked like, and then decide how to arrange its position.

He clicked on the corresponding text content, a red light flashed, and a bundle of blood-stained hemp rope as thick as a thumb quietly appeared on the palm of his hand. It was stained with mottled blood and exuded a heart-pounding breath.

At the same time, the talismans and spells for refining the hemp rope also flooded into Jiang Xinghuo's mind as if he had suddenly realized something.

According to the extra memories in his mind, Jiang Xinghuo pierced his fingertips, dripped a drop of blood on the hemp rope, and used his magic power to turn it into a spell mark, which was imprinted on the rope. The next moment, the rope seemed to come alive, winding and squirming, wrapping around Jiang Xinghuo's wrist, and constantly shrinking and thinning, until it was like an inconspicuous bracelet, loosely worn on his right wrist.

As long as Jiang Xinghuo has a thought, this ghost bracelet will turn into a rope and wrap around the enemy unknowingly. It can definitely be used to ambush people.

Jiang Xinghuo was very satisfied and continued to advance the game.

The map of the Xingmenmai is very large, with one ring inside another, and it is full of dangers. In the next few days, Jiang Xinghuo basically explored the Xingmenmai. During this period, he died many times and found a lot of things, but they were all weird and strange torture instruments, and many ways of torturing people, such as the original version of the art of killing people without dying, the method of skinning and slow slicing, lighting sky lanterns, human candles, leather lanterns... all kinds of methods are available.

Even though Jiang Xinghuo lived in the modern world and was used to seeing strange things, he couldn't help but frown when he saw those contents. He had no interest in touching them at all, nor did he hang them up in the niche to sell. Instead, he threw them deep into the magic bag, ready to let them disappear into thin air.

In a blink of an eye, it was New Year's Eve and the house was very lively. The two old men and Jiang Miaozhen all went to Jiang Xinghuo's house to celebrate the New Year.

The sound of firecrackers continues, and every family celebrates the coming of new years.

The family gathered around a round table, eating New Year's Eve dinner and watching the Spring Festival Gala on TV.

Although the Spring Festival Gala has not been very interesting in recent years, the purpose of celebrating the New Year is to have a festive occasion. Especially for the older generation, the meaning symbolized by the Spring Festival Gala is different.

In the real world, New Year's Eve is a special day, and in the gaming world, it is no exception.

Jiang Xinghuo felt that the popularity of the Kitchen God's incense had been increasing in the past few days, and more and more people were making wishes. Most of the people in the secular world worshipped the Kitchen God at this time.

Jiang Xinghuo was watching the Spring Festival Gala and replying to a friend's WeChat message when a new prompt message suddenly came in the game.

"On the 30th day of the lunar calendar, the new year replaces the old year, and the Nian beast fights the evil bird. Do you want to go to the secular world to see this rare sight?"

According to legend, the Nian beast was a monster in heaven that was chained to a stone pillar. It was extremely ferocious and was guarded by the God of Purple Star.

It is said that in ancient times, every New Year’s Eve a ferocious monster would break into the village and eat people, so people named this monster the Nian Monster.

Later, common people discovered that the Nian monster had three fears: loud noises, the color red, and fire. So every household began to set off firecrackers, post Spring Festival couplets, and light lanterns every year to scare away the Nian monster.

Over time, these habits gradually became Chinese New Year customs.

It is said that the Nian beast has another name, called "Xi", which in ancient times also referred to plague and evil spirits. Setting off firecrackers and lighting lanterns were to dispel these things, which is also the origin of the word New Year's Eve.

However, this is just a folk story after all. Although the Nian beast nominally existed since ancient times, it actually did not appear very early. It was only around the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China that the legend about the Nian beast appeared. It was published in "Shanghai Huajiu Lu" and then spread among the people.

Before that, the monster story related to Da was about a kind of monster called Suo Niao.

Some people say that this monster is completely black and often comes out to hunt for food on New Year's Eve, but it does not harm people's lives. It only eats the souls of children. Any child whose soul is swallowed by the evil bird will become stupid and foolish from then on, completely different from a normal child.

Therefore, people developed the custom of staying up late on New Year's Eve, which was called "staying up late on New Year's Eve", but was actually "keeping away evil spirits". Setting off firecrackers and pasting Spring Festival couplets were also for driving away evil birds. Later, the culture of welcoming gods emerged, and thus the custom of celebrating the New Year was formed.

Of course, in the real world, there are probably no creatures like the Nian beast and the evil bird. Even if there are, they existed a long, long time ago.

However, in the game, these two creatures do exist. According to the description in the game text, they are fighting fiercely in the sky. "Look up at the sky, and you will see two ferocious monsters fighting under the bright moon. The Nian Beast and the Suo Bird are mortal enemies. They will only appear in the world on New Year's Eve. But no matter whether these two monsters live or die, they will still be affected by the stars of destiny and reappear in the world on the New Year's Eve of the following year. As long as the world is not destroyed, the Nian Beast and the Suo Bird will not disappear."

When the game text said this, a picture suddenly popped up. The background was a black sky with a full moon in the sky. Two creatures that existed in mythology and legends were fighting each other under the moonlight.

Jiang Xinghuo felt his heart beating as he watched, and wanted to activate the effect of Risui, projecting his consciousness into the secular world to watch the battle with his own eyes. However, the text that popped up next dissuaded him from this idea.

"Pay attention, your Sun is affected by the destiny of the morning and the universe's astrology. It will fall into a temporary dormant state when the year is about to end and the moon is about to end. It will not be revived until after the Lantern Festival."

Jiang Xinghuo sucked his teeth, he didn't expect such a thing to happen. The above sentence could be simply translated as, during the half month before and after the New Year, Risui would be temporarily unusable, and his innate ability could only be activated again after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month.

There was no way. Jiang Xinghuo could not violate the rules and order of the secular world. He could only look at the photos to satisfy his eyes and could not go to the secular world in person.

"When you were wandering on the streets of Peking, you met a beggar dressed in silk and holding a golden bowl. Would you give him some alms?"

"You have lost, incense -1000."

"The beggar looked at the incense in the bowl, wiped his hands on his body, took out something from his arms and gave it to you. On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month when you enjoy the lanterns, you can take this thing to Fuchun Teahouse, and it will be rewarded handsomely then."

"You have obtained the tokens of the eight major martial arts sects."

"This is the token of Beggar Tongtian, the former leader of the Eight Great Sects of Jianghu. You can take this token to Fuchun Teahouse on the night of the fifteenth day of the first lunar month and talk to Beggar Tongtian. You may gain something."

"When you were strolling in the alleys of Beiping, you met the mysterious peddler again. There were two Taoist soldiers behind him to protect him. After seeing you, he walked over and said Happy New Year, and gave you a red envelope."

"You have received the red envelope from the big buddy."

"Do you want to open this red envelope immediately?"

"You open the red envelope and find a Treasure Coin inside. You can use this coin to make items of rare quality or lower quality lose their original effects."

"You were wandering around the Bafang Courtyard in Daliang City and rescued a storyteller apprentice who had accidentally fallen into a dry well. The storyteller was very grateful to you. You can go to the Fuchun Teahouse in Daliang City during the Jingzhe season when all things come back to life. He will definitely thank you with a great gift."

"You are wandering in Sanchi Street in Daliang City and you see a familiar ghost hunter. He invites you to eat dumplings with him. Do you want to go?"

"You have come to Bafang Linglou. There are steaming dumplings and glutinous rice balls, as well as a pile of glutinous rice cakes, on a long table. You can choose according to your taste."

"You ate three plates of dumplings, five bowls of glutinous rice balls, and two plates of fried rice cakes with brown sugar..."

"Your physical fitness has been improved, +10."

"When you were resting in the middle of the night, you suddenly heard some strange footsteps in the Eight Directions Spiritual Tower. These did not sound like the sounds left by the ghost hunters. It seemed that something unclean had sneaked into the huge Eight Directions Spiritual Tower..."

"You followed the direction from which the footsteps came and found that the place where the footsteps disappeared was the entrance of the Bafang Spiritual Tower leading to the underground ruins of the old secular world."

"You remembered the warnings of those old and experienced ghost hunters. On the night of New Year's Eve a hundred years ago, the same footsteps appeared in the Spirit Tower. At that time, several ghost hunters also came to the entrance of the old secular ruins and followed the footsteps. But since then, those ghost hunters have never appeared again. Two of them were from the same race as you and disappeared without a trace from this world."

"Since then, the Linglou Altar has closed the entrance to the old secular ruins. No one is allowed to approach here again, lest they lose their lives in vain."

Seeing this, Jiang Xinghuo was shocked. Could it be that those ghost hunters all died in the ruins of the old secular world?
And what do those exiles mean?
Are they the tribesmen who did not leave the secular world at that time?
Or are they the tribesmen who came to the mortal world from Earth?

Jiang Xinghuo guessed that the former was most likely the case, because this game had only been around for a short time, and even if someone had come into contact with these things before, it would have been impossible for them to appear in the secular world.

But on second thought, since Tiangongye, Fengdu and others have all been to Earth, it means there must be a way to travel between the two worlds. Could it be that someone has found those ways and successfully teleported to the secular world? !

Jiang Xinghuo thought of some people who disappeared in mysterious areas, such as Kunlun Mountains, Lop Nur, Greater and Lesser Khingan Mountains, Black Gobi Desert, Shennongjia and so on. Maybe those places might hide the road to the secular world.

"Do you want to go in and explore?"

“Although the entrance to the old world ruins has been sealed, on New Year’s Eve, due to the influence of the universe and the stars, the seal outside the entrance will also reveal a flaw. There is a high probability that it will pass through the seal and go to the old world ruins behind.”

Jiang Xinghuo fell into deep thought. To be honest, he wanted to go to the back to see what was going on and see what the relic of the old world was.

However, when Jiang Xinghuo saw that the two exiles might have died here, he began to have some doubts in his heart.

The exiles are called this because they are cursed by the secular world and have lost the protection of the Golden Law. Even the kingdom of death refuses their arrival.

So from a certain perspective, the Exile can wander around as he pleases, and as long as he is not infected by the Madness Fire and the Scarlet Corruption Curse, it will basically not affect his real self.

But now, the two exiles were suspected to be dead. What if he encountered the same situation after he went there? Would his real self be in danger?
Jiang Xinghuo didn't dare to gamble, nor was he willing to gamble, using his own life and property as a bet. Only true warriors and desperadoes would dare to do such things.

Therefore, after some consideration, Jiang Xinghuo gave up on going to the ruins of the old secular world and just stayed there honestly.

He also planned to go to Ping'an Village to see what secrets the village was hiding on New Year's Eve.

I have something to do tonight, so I spent the morning slacking off and made 4000
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(End of this chapter)