Fucheng is very big. Beyond the city area and to the south is Mianshan District.

If you go west, you will find Tai'an District. There is Mishan County in Tai'an District. The westernmost part of Mishan County is Xianyang Village.

Further west of Xianyang Village is the Fucheng area, which is completely a stretch of ancient mountain forest with no trace of modern development.

Mishan County is unremarkable, but the Xianyang Village there has something to say.

That is also the origin of the name of Xianyang Village.

Legend has it that hundreds of years ago, people fleeing from the north wandered all the way to Mishan County.

But the fertile land in Mishan County has long been occupied by people, and the remaining land cannot support so many fleeing people.

Seeing a group of people tired, hungry and on the verge of death, a black sheep suddenly appeared.

It didn't even bark, its long pupils just stared at the group of refugees.

As if possessed by a demon, the group of refugees began to follow it in a daze.

When we stopped, we had reached a land with beautiful mountains and clear waters!

A group of refugees were overjoyed and settled here, naming it Xianyang Village after the black sheep that led the way.

Of course, creatures like sheep have also become a sacred object worshiped by the villagers of Xianyang Village.

Xianyang Village even holds the Sheep Transformation Festival every three years.

The lucky one who is selected will wear sheep horns and sheep fur and be a sheep fairy for three days.

August 19th.

Tomorrow is the Sheep Festival that happens every three years.

The villagers of Xianyang Village gathered together to sing and dance, each household served a dish, and set up a long banquet that stretched for hundreds of meters.

This is indeed a place with beautiful mountains and clear waters, similar to Peach Blossom Spring. It is surrounded by mountains on all sides. The only way to enter the village is a winding dirt road. The road is bumpy and uneven, and ordinary drivers dare not walk on it.

So even though the style here is unique, it still has little reputation.

The Huayang Festival lasts for three days. During these three days, the entire Xianyang Village has issued a death order. All villagers must be present and are not allowed to leave the village. The ban can only be lifted after the Huayang Festival is completed.

It is hard to imagine that modern society would still have this kind of feudal patriarchal style, but this is the reality in remote villages. The words of the village chief are even more effective than the law.

However, that night, a sneaky figure appeared outside the Xianyang Temple in the village.

His name is Chen Ping, and he is one of the few young people in the village who has been admitted to university and has left the mountains. This time he also asked for leave and came back to participate in the Sheep Festival.

Chen Ping received a higher education. When he was in the village, he didn't think it was anything. But now that he has gone to college, he feels that the Sheep Festival is a bit weird.

My mother was selected to be the Sheep Immortal for the Hua Sheep Festival. According to the old man in the village, the lucky person who is selected can make a wish. As long as they are not too greedy, it will usually come true.

The wish that his mother made at that time was that he could successfully enter college.

A strange thing happened.

Chen Ping, who had always been stubborn and had no interest in studying, suddenly seemed to have a sudden enlightenment and successfully completed junior high school and high school, and was actually admitted to a key university!

But just after he was admitted to college, his mother died.

Chen Ping was able to get into college, at least his IQ was good. He soon realized that his mother's death was just like making a wish to some evil god in some works of art and having to pay other prices to fulfill the wish.

In addition, since he was young, he had an out-of-the-box personality and strong mobility. After returning to Xianyang Village this time, although he continued to eat and drink with the villagers on the surface, secretly, he had always wanted to sneak into the Xianyang Ancestral Hall to take a look. The place was really too big.

It is so mysterious that people have been guarding it since childhood, and no one is allowed to enter. Only the day before the Fairy Sheep Festival can the selected "Sheep Fairy" enter. When they come out the next day, the Sheep Fairy has already dressed up.

My mother was like this back then.

Tomorrow is the Sheep Transformation Festival. I heard that the lucky winner in this round of the Sheep Transformation Festival is the daughter of the Lao Li family?

That girl...

Chen Ping didn't have much memory. He only remembered that she was a bit dark, honest, and didn't talk much since she was a child.

Chen Ping secretly took a look into the ancestral hall, feeling a little annoyed.

There were more guards than usual, and the security was simply too tight.

But the more this happened, the more problems there were in this ancestral hall. He was almost certain that there must be secrets here.

When Chen Ping was thinking about how to enter the ancestral hall, he suddenly saw another sneaky figure.

That's...the village chief's son?

Why didn't he take the main entrance?

Chen Ping followed secretly.

Seeing the night falling, the village chief's son pushed aside the grass, lay down on the ground, and got into the ancestral hall.

I'll go...and there's a dog hole!

Chen Ping was surprised and overjoyed.

After the noise in the wall had gone away, he came to the wall and pulled away the grass, imitating the village chief's son.

After getting into the hole, he looked up and saw a tall, ancient wooden ancestral hall in front of him, which made him feel inexplicably panicked.

The walls of this ancestral hall were much larger than he imagined...

He walked deeper for a while, becoming more and more frightened as he went.

The night was already dark, and the surroundings were too quiet. There was not even a sound of insects. This situation was a bit strange.

As the saying goes, the smarter a person is, the easier it is to scare himself. This is the case for Chen Ping now. Various horror stories and horrific scenes are constantly appearing in his mind, and he can't help but tremble in his calves.

suddenly!

"I don't want to be a sheep fairy!"

A shrill cry made him tremble.

Wait...that voice is Li Rong, the daughter of the old Li family?

As expected, she was sent to the ancestral hall to dress up one day in advance.

While still in shock, Chen Ping's nose suddenly moved and he smelled some strange fragrance.

This is... longevity incense?

Someone is lighting incense?

The fragrance entered his body, making him feel at ease inexplicably, and the girl named Li Rong suddenly stopped screaming.

"Bringing people to such a gloomy place to dress up in the middle of the night, no wonder they don't want to..."

Chen Ping muttered.

He glanced around and happened to see the village chief's son, who had slipped into the ancestral hall before him, entering a room.

He hurriedly followed him, raised his ears, and quietly approached the wooden window.

When he got closer, Chen Ping frowned, "It stinks!"

Even longevity incense can't cover up the stench.

This is a highly putrid smell.

He had seen a dead wild boar by the river before. The wild boar had been soaked in water for an unknown period of time and was completely rotten. The smell it gave off was the smell in the house at the moment.

What are they doing?

Chen Ping's heartbeat was getting faster and faster. He quietly inserted his fingers into the crack of the wooden window, tiptoed to lift it up a crack, and looked into the house through the night and lights.

There were many more people in the room than he had imagined, including the village chief's family, several elders from prominent clans in the village, and several middle-aged clan leaders who often left the village to communicate with outsiders and do business.

These people formed a circle, each holding a stick of longevity incense in their hands. The village chief's son, who had just arrived, received a glare and quickly went to get a stick of longevity incense and joined the crowd obediently.

Chen Ping struggled to look in through the crack in the window. There were two people surrounded by them, a girl of seventeen or eighteen years old, who should be Li Rong.

There was another person kneeling on the mat with rickets and wrinkles on his face. Chen Ping took a closer look and saw that that person was the village chief.

The village chief is already over 90 years old, and he still has to stay up late doing such tiring work?

When Chen Ping was confused, he suddenly saw that Li Rong had taken off his shirt!

What are these people going to do?!

Chen Ping sensed something was wrong. Could it be that these people wanted to invade Li Rong?

He was hesitating whether to call the police or not when he saw the village chief take out an extremely simple brush, soak up the ink from the brush, and place it on Li Rong's naked upper body.

When the first stroke was written, Li Rong suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes were red and tears flowed out.

"ah!!!"

Chen Ping was so frightened that he had goosebumps all over his body. He had never seen Li Rong, who didn't talk much, scream so loudly and shrillly.

However, the surrounding clan elders and middle-aged clan leaders all held longevity incense in one hand and pressed her shoulder with the other.

She didn't look very strong, but Li Rong couldn't move.

She could only move her eyes, but she could only shed tears and her whole body was shaking uncontrollably.

But the old village chief who was drawing peach charms on her body didn't even raise his eyelids, his expression was focused and serious, as if he was performing some kind of sacred ritual.
To be continued...