Chapter 40: Year-End Festival

Liu Shan paused for a moment and continued, "The so-called Welcoming the Year is actually the process of stripping away and sealing the power within the evil spirits."

"Preparations for Welcoming the Year begin after the previous year's Year-End Festival. Through an array, the source power is extracted from the evil spirits suppressed by the Stone Buddha and sealed within the bodies of the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts."

"Only a dragon-kind, naturally miraculous, can withstand such a massive amount of evil spirit energy without losing control."

Wu Chang glanced at the captive Mountain-Suppressing Beasts and asked, "After the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts have absorbed enough evil spirit energy, what then?"

"Next is the second step, Suppressing the Year," Liu Shan said.

At the mention of Suppressing the Year, Wu Chang’s brows twitched, and he couldn't help but think of red envelopes.

However, seeing the grave tone Liu Shan used when mentioning it, the Suppressing the Year during the Year-End Festival seemed to have nothing to do with red envelopes.

"Suppressing the Year?"

Liu Shan said, "Suppressing the Year means selecting the three small Mountain-Suppressing Beasts that have absorbed the most evil spirit energy, cutting them open to remove their hearts, and then choosing three strong, vigorous young villagers to eat the hearts—which are saturated with evil spirit energy—raw."

"Using one's own blood and energy to suppress the evil spirits is what we call Suppressing the Year."

Wu Chang: "..."

The Suppressing the Year in Huaigu Village was, to say the least, too hardcore.

With such a Suppressing the Year, it was no wonder the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts reacted that way when they saw Liu Shan.

"After Suppressing the Year comes the third step, Guarding the Year. This step requires the Four-Direction Palace Lantern that Hero Wu just retrieved."

"During the Guarding the Year, one must use the Year Fire from the palace lantern to light a massive bonfire. The three who performed the Suppressing the Year sit around the fire for a full day and night, using the Year Fire to assist in refining the evil spirits."

"After that, it is the Year-End. The village will select fifteen villagers to dress as underworld envoys, holding locust tree branches to whip the ones who performed the Suppressing the Year until they spit out black ash and the evil spirits are completely dissipated."

After hearing the entire ritual of the Year-End Festival, Wu Chang pondered at which stage the festival might fail.

First, rule out Welcoming the Year and Suppressing the Year.

Although the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts looked miraculous and extraordinary, they were ultimately just ordinary wild beasts, not divine beasts.

Having been kept in captivity by the villagers of Huaigu Village and having gone through the Year-End Festival many times, they should be unable to resist.

In the Guarding the Year stage, the Year Fire combined with the Year-End Grand Array could protect the people guarding the year from dying, so surviving for a day and night shouldn't be a problem.

The part that might go wrong was the final Year-End.

"If, during the Year-End, the people guarding the year do not spit out black ash and the evil spirit energy is not refined, what should be done?"

Liu Shan was silent for a moment, then finally said, "In the struggle against demonic entities, there is always a possibility of sacrifice. Those who volunteer to be the ones to Suppress the Year are the best young men in the village. If the evil spirit energy cannot be refined..."

"They will be cast into the Year Fire, and the evil spirits will be refined directly by the Year Fire."

Wu Chang asked in turn, "Is there anything I can help with?"

Liu Shan flattered him, "We are just rustic mountain folk and do not understand those magical arts or Daoist methods. Your presence to preside over the festival is the greatest help."

Wu Chang sorted through the current intelligence; there were two ways to complete the main quest, "Protect the village and complete the Year-End ritual."

One was to achieve the goal: simply eliminate the evil spirit.

As long as he lured the evil spirit out and used the Soul-Cleansing Command Flag to eliminate it, it would automatically be considered as completing the Year-End.

But he was unsure if eliminating the evil spirit and completing the Year-End ritual could be considered equivalent.

The other method was to have all four steps—Welcoming the Year, Suppressing the Year, Guarding the Year, and Year-End—proceed perfectly.

This mode of action was more rigid, but the judgment for quest completion was more lenient.

If one were to nitpick the wording of the quest, the main quest was for him to complete the Year-End ritual, not necessarily to actually kill the evil spirit.

It was entirely possible to complete the ritual in form without posing any threat to the actual entity of the evil spirit.

However, as a dungeon on the verge of spiraling out of control, could everything really go according to plan, whether by method one or method two? The entire Huaigu Village accelerated its operations, and in just one day, they had the Year-End Festival ready. That evening, the village prepared the three sacrificial animals, and Liu Shan, accompanied by two elders, recited prayers to sacrifice to their ancestors.

After the sacrifice, the three youths chosen to perform the Suppressing the Year walked out from the crowd.

They were bare-chested, wearing only light shorts, with animal-hide headbands wrapped around their foreheads.

The villagers formed three circles, each acting like a simple ring, where the ones performing the Suppressing the Year and the selected young Mountain-Suppressing Beasts fought.

This step was not strictly necessary, but the villagers believed that hunters had an innate suppression over the prey they caught themselves; this relationship of hunter and hunted helped to refine the evil spirits more easily.

Relying on agile footwork and superb martial arts, the three quickly killed the three young Mountain-Suppressing Beasts.

Liu Shan and the other two elders wielded the knives, and amidst the cheers of the villagers, they butchered the three young Mountain-Suppressing Beasts.

After drinking wine mixed with the blood of the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts, the eyes of the three who performed the Suppressing the Year faintly turned red, and heat steamed from the surface of their skin.

Immediately after, they took the hearts of the Mountain-Suppressing Beasts and tore into them like beasts, swallowing the bowl-sized black hearts, which were soaked in evil spirit energy, in a few bites.

The Welcoming the Year and Suppressing the Year stages were thus concluded.

After swallowing the evil spirit energy, the complexions of the three changed rapidly, and black energy swirled between their brows.

Seeing that something was wrong, Liu Shan shouted, "Light the fire!"

Liu Wei held the Four-Direction Year Fire Lantern and walked quickly to the giant bonfire prepared in advance. Without needing to be controlled, the Year Fire in the palace lantern reached out like a snake and ignited the massive bonfire.

The three who performed the Suppressing the Year sat cross-legged around the bonfire in a triangular formation.

Bathed in the Year Fire, the black energy on their faces eased, and their brows gradually relaxed.

Seeing everything back on track, the entire village breathed a sigh of relief.

Except for Liu Wei.

As the person in the village who most supported holding the Year-End Festival early and who had personally lit the bonfire with the palace lantern, his expression at this moment was the most awkward.

As his older brother, he could naturally guess what Liu Wu had left the village to do.

But he hadn't expected that just after Liu Wu left the village, Wu Chang would return with the Four-Direction Year Fire Lantern, and the events at Chenjia Village would accelerate the progress of the Year-End Festival to this extent.

Now, even if Liu Wu could return safely from Chenjia Village, he would likely not make it back for the big day of the Year-End Festival.

As the most radical proponent of the "early" faction, it was too late for him to change his stance and demand a postponement of the Year-End Festival.

All he could do now was pray that the ritual would have some hiccups and be delayed for two or three days, so he could wait for Liu Wu to return.

The giant bonfire burned from sunrise to sunset; in the blink of an eye, it was about to burn for a full twelve hours.

The Year-End Festival was proceeding very smoothly, and the accident Liu Wei had hoped for did not occur.

Fifteen burly villagers had already taken their positions, holding three-meter-long locust tree branches, their faces painted with black, white, and red oil paint, looking like fierce and menacing ghost envoys.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Liu Wei gave up completely, no longer expecting any twists.

Yet, just as the fifteen ghost envoys raised their locust whips high, waiting for Liu Shan’s order to start whipping, the three people guarding the year, who had been keeping their eyes closed, opened them prematurely.

Their eyes were no longer clear, covered instead by a layer of murky black mist.

Black energy spilled from their eyes, covering their entire bodies and turning into a suit of hard scales. Accompanied by their wails, their limbs transformed into sharp claws, and fangs grew in their mouths.

Before the villagers could react to what was happening, the three beast-transformed people who had performed the Suppressing the Year flashed to the side of the "ghost envoys."

With a wave of their sharp claws, in just a few breaths, they had sliced the fifteen ghost envoys into forty or fifty pieces.

Liu Wei, who was praying on the side, widened his eyes and slapped himself hard.

It hurt; it wasn't a dream.

His prayer had worked; an accident had really happened!