"Why does the Forbidden Nightmare keep coming after your Holy Daughter?" Yuze suddenly spoke up, catching the key point.
The Priest lowered his head, and even Yue Xi frowned, "This..."
Josh looked at them, "If you want us to help you, then you need to speak clearly."
The Priest sighed and explained, "Actually, it’s a long story. The Forbidden Nightmare was originally ant to be the Holy Daughter, but she violated the village’s taboo, was removed from the position, and soone else was made the Holy Daughter. So she’s been resentful and has always targeted our village’s Holy Daughter."
"What taboo?"
The Priest shook his head, "We’re not sure either. The entanglent between the Forbidden Nightmare and the Holy Daughter has a long history, and we don’t know the specifics."
Josh suddenly thought of the mountain song he heard earlier from the ghosts.
Sothing about the Holy Daughter running off with a man...
The ga won’t give pointless clues. Even if she didn’t run off with a man, this clue must have so significance.
The Priest sighed again, "It’s because you caused trouble earlier that the Forbidden Nightmare’s curse couldn’t take effect on the Sacrificial Girl and instead rebounded onto the Holy Daughter. To save the Holy Daughter, we had no choice but to lure you into the mountains to sacrifice you to save her..."
Josh pondered, "One more question. If what you say is true, why does the Holy Daughter look a little younger every ti soone dies?"
The Priest replied angrily, "Isn’t it because the Forbidden Nightmare can’t kill the Holy Daughter, so she deliberately does this trick, removing a part from the corpses and then placing the curse on the Holy Daughter? This has caused panic in the village. People initially trusted the Holy Daughter, but now many rumors are spreading, saying the Holy Daughter is the murderer. The Forbidden Nightmare wants to use such despicable ans to bring down the Holy Daughter!"
Having asked enough, Josh finally said, "We will help you deal with the Forbidden Nightmare, but likewise, you can no longer assist her in harming us."
The Priest looked at her skeptically, "You can solve it? How do you plan to solve it?"
Josh smiled slightly, "You don’t need to worry about how I solve it. I will return the Holy Daughter to you."
She tossed the Holy Daughter back to them and untied the spider silk from their bodies.
The Priest held the Holy Daughter, hesitantly watching them, "Since you say you’ll handle the Forbidden Nightmare, can you help us wake the Holy Daughter first?"
"No," Josh replied expressionlessly.
The crowd slowly dispersed, leaving only Josh and Yuze in the ancestral hall.
Yuze looked at her, "What do you think?"
Josh sat cross-legged by the table, "I’m a little skeptical. Part of what they said is true."
Yuze frowned, "Which part?"
Josh replied, "I’m not sure. We need to investigate."
She recalled when they were trapped in the array on the mountaintop; the whirlwind targeting everyone, including the Priest and Yue Xi.
Yet the whirlwinds veered away when they touched the human-shaped lanterns lifted by the won.
It felt strange, as if the whirlwinds were afraid of damaging those lanterns.
As far as she knew, those human-shaped lanterns were all crafted by one person...
Josh looked at Yuze, "Let’s go ask Old Mrs. Cao..."
Yuze pulled her to sit down, "What’s the rush? It’s the middle of the night, and people need their sleep. We’ll go tomorrow."
Josh glanced at the ti, realizing it was already 2:30 AM, having spent most of the night on the mountain.
She nodded in agreent.
The ancestral hall had multiple mats, and they laid them out and slept on the spot.
Josh suddenly asked, "What’s the date today?"
After waiting for a while and not hearing a response from the person next to her, she propped herself up and saw that Yuze was already fast asleep not far away.
Typical...
Josh shook her head and lay back down.
They needed to protect the Holy Daughter, not just because their lives depended on her, but also because of the monthly tide when the Holy Daughter’s presence was required.
But now the Holy Daughter was in a coma. If she rembered correctly, the tide was due in just a few days, wasn’t it?
Either awaken the Sea God or the Holy Daughter; one of them must wake up.
She didn’t want to be swept away by the sea water.
But upon further thought, the villagers were quite odd.
Did they not worship the Sea God?
They just discarded the Sacrificial Girl’s bodies under the thatched beach, letting the tide wash them away?
How was that different from dumping them directly into the sea?
Was throwing defiled objects into the sea a way of showing reverence for the Sea God?
As Josh pondered, she stared numbly at the Sea God statue.
A wave of sleepiness hit her.
Josh yawned, taking one last look at the Sea God Statue, then slowly closing her eyes.
"I’m here waiting for you to find ."
In whispers, soone seed to be talking to her.
"Who..." Josh looked around, seeing nothing but endless darkness.
"Josh, I’m waiting for you to awaken ."
A subtle blue glow erged behind her.
Josh spun around, but all she could see was a blur of blue light with a faint outline of a rmaid inside.
"Sea God... Sir?" Josh tentatively called out.
The blue light enveloped her, its serene warmth calming her spirit.
"I’m waiting for you to awaken ."
The light said.
Josh was puzzled, "How can I awaken you?"
There was a long silence, then, "Aren’t you my follower? Don’t you aspire to devote your body and soul to ? Use your love to awaken ."
"Oh..." Josh was a bit confused, "Why must I awaken you?"
rmaid King: "..."
Code 7 grinned, "She’s got you questioning yourself."
The rmaid King pushed him down, saying to Josh, "If you don’t want the village to be flooded, you need to awaken ."
Josh was still puzzled, "Why will the village be flooded? Aren’t you the Sea God? Why don’t you control the sea water? Why..."
From the blue light, a large, distinct hand erged, covering her face and forcibly silencing her.
Josh: "...?"
rmaid King: "Don’t you want to know the truth? Then co awaken ."
Josh pushed his hand away, trying to get a closer look at who he was, but the blue light seed to be welded to his face, preventing her from seeing clearly.
She frowned slightly, "Why are you hiding behind the light, rmaid King?"
rmaid King: "..."
"She recognized you! She’s really smart!" Code 7’s voice was a little excited.
The rmaid King closed his eyes and once again erased Josh’s mory, sending her back to reality.
Code 7 looked at the soundly sleeping Josh, confusedly asking him, "Why don’t you just tell her we need her to awaken us to escape?"
"Scram!" The rmaid King snapped coldly, suppressing him completely back into his body.
Code 7 was a bit bewildered.
Why could Josh ask why, but he couldn’t?
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