After the Fairy Disappeared

   "It's cheaper for him to avoid God's favor." The beheader snorted, climbed out of the pit, and said to the two heads, "Please execute!"

  Bihu got impatient for a long time, and rushed up to the unconscious prisoner with a big mouthful.

   With a chirping sound, blood spattered three feet.

  The man woke up in severe pain. When he screamed out, a large piece of flesh had been bitten off from his belly, and his abdominal cavity was ripped open.

  Of course he struggled desperately, but the strength of a human being is like a cockroach shaking a tree. The imitation tiger held him down with one paw, and devoured the internal organs.

  The offal is the most delicious and nutritious, and ligers and tigers eat in this order.

  The other tiger, not to be outdone, joined the fight, but failed to grab a few bites, and broke the prisoner's thigh in a rage.

   For a while, the tiger roared and the people howled, and the noise was extraordinary. The foreign merchants who saw this scene for the first time turned pale.

  He Lingchuan finally knew how the stains in the sunken execution platform came from.

  The local townspeople couldn't take their eyes off, and the little girl stretched her head down, trying to see better. But soon she complained: "Ah Dong is lying, the pit is so deep, blood can't splash out at all!"

  After only a dozen breaths, the prisoner was silent in the scramble between two imitation tigers.

   One end was still feasting on the delicious food, while the other simply turned around to look for the dead criminal who hit the pole.

  Deliciousness cannot be wasted, this is the reward they have earned with great difficulty.

  The "click" sound made by the sharp teeth gnawing on the bones scared many foreigners.

At this time, the guard brought a huge black cloth, covered the entire execution platform, and said to everyone: "The execution is over, let's go." The two prisoners are dead, and the imitators don't want to be disturbed while eating, so they suppress The villagers dispersed reluctantly.

  Shi Congshui could also see cold sweat on his forehead, and asked He Lingchuan, "How is it, can you still drink the wine?"

He Lingchuan has seen all sorts of strange monster cannibalism scenes, far worse than this, but he saw that Shi Congshui swallowed his saliva, obviously feeling uncomfortable in his stomach, so he forced himself to calm down, so he stretched himself: "No , I'm a little tired, I want to go back to the station to rest."

  Shi Congshui secretly breathed a sigh of relief: "Okay, okay, I'd better go to bed early tonight."

  Passing by an alley, the smell of oil came from the roadside stalls. He Lingchuan's stomach growled, and he went to buy some sesame seed cakes.

  He had just gnawed on the second cake, when he saw a guard also turn around the small alley, followed by another person, his eyes were red as if he had just cried, and he was sniffing as he walked.

  He Lingchuan walked over while gnawing pancakes, and stood at the base of the wall.

  With his ears, eavesdropping on the conversation in the alley is a piece of cake.

  But first he heard the jingling sound of copper plates colliding, as if the guards weighed them, and then said: "Okay, wait for the two Mr. Tigers to finish eating, and then you go to collect the corpses, at most half an hour later."

  The man thanked him repeatedly, saving his son from suffering.

  The guard hurriedly booed him: "Let's go, let's go, stop talking nonsense."

  He Lingchuan also understood when he heard this. It turned out that the death row prisoner suddenly hit the post just now, not because of the negligence of the servants, but because he had accepted a bribe.

  The other death row prisoner was ignorant of the world, or maybe he had no money, so he could only suffer the death sentence of "eating punishment".

   Two lives were lost, the townspeople didn't care, and continued to live their lives.

  He Lingchuan didn't go back for a while, just wandered around the town.

  It was getting dark, and the lights of each house were lit up, full of fireworks.

   In this town, monsters and humans live together, and they get along without incident. He Lingchuan also saw a cat demon waving his paws to help count the money.

  The townspeople are also very friendly to the out-of-towners. When they learned that He Lingchuan was a guest from the south, they enthusiastically showed him the way.

  It seems that these people just have a special hobby of watching the excitement.

A woman selling handicrafts smiled at him and said, "Lao Cai wonton, the tenth store on the left in the market, is the best wonton here. You go now, his house should not be closed yet." At this time , the bazaar has also dispersed.

   Thank you, He Lingchuan, seeing that she was selling masks at the stall, there was a long row of colorful masks, and he just picked up one to look at: "This is it?"

  「This is the Nuo opera mask

   There will be the Nuo Dance Festival in ten days. No matter adults or children in our place, they should wear this to drive away evil spirits and avoid filth. "

   "Is this a ghost head mask?" The pattern on the mask is a ferocious cyan ghost head, um, maybe a beast head?

  Use ghosts to ward off ghosts?

   "No, no." The woman smiled, "This is Qingyao, the mount of the **** of tea naphthalene. It specializes in eating ghosts."

  He Lingchuan thought of the mask of the Red General, and suddenly became playful, and gave her two copper coins: "Then I want this."

  It is very light in the hand. I don’t know what kind of wood it is. It is also good to play as a handicraft.

  At this time a little girl ran over, and he remembered that the mother and daughter were also on the edge of the execution platform just now.

   This little girl is called Ah Yan.

  He asked Ah Yan: "Aren't you afraid when you see the prisoner being tortured?"

   "Why should you be afraid?" Ah Jing's eyes were big and clear, "Bad people are not considered human beings. They are judged by divine grace. Only by being punished in this way can their sins be washed away."

  「Then you know, what crime did they commit?」

  “They set fire to the army barn. There will be a lot of people hungry this summer because of them.”

   At this moment, two imitation tigers walked across the street and headed out of the town.

   They have washed their fur, but He Lingchuan can still smell the blood on them. Pedestrians on the street should walk, talk and laugh, and no one makes a fuss.

  Two imaginary tigers are stalking the street here, which seems to be a daily routine in this town.

  He Lingchuan pointed at their backs: "You're not afraid of them, huh?"

   "Don't be afraid!" Ah Yan took it for granted, "They don't hurt us, and I even rode one."

"so smart?"

  He Lingchuan stood up, followed the woman's instructions, and went to the market to eat a bowl of large vegetable and meat wontons. It really tasted surprisingly good.

  After he returned to the post station, the door of Shi Congshan's guest room was closed and all the lights were turned off.

  Early the next morning, he went to Shi Congshui to solve his doubts.

  The second head of the stone family has returned to normal today, drinking hot tea:

  "'Eating punishment is a tradition. The northern demon country stipulates that monsters cannot eat people at will, otherwise they will be arrested. But nature and instinct are indelible, and it is better to be sparse than to be blocked, so Bega made this law, criminals will be punished, monsters will be satisfied, and both will be perfect. "

  Is this reasonable? A buddy who was new to the team next to him couldn't help but said, "Second leader, isn't this too cruel?"

  Shi Er was in charge of talking nonsense, which made people panic. But on the surface, he remained calm and calm: "Punishment does not cause the prisoner to suffer. How can the purpose of "punishment" be achieved? What kind of corporal punishment can you say that does not make people suffer? Isn't Ling Chi cruel? Isn't hanging cruel? Are you cruel?"

   "But it's too scary." The man was puzzled, "Aren't the other people in this town scared after seeing it?"

   "On the contrary." Shi Congshui waved his hand, "I also thought about it for a long time before I figured it out. With the punishment of devouring, the monsters will only eat criminals, which will greatly increase the sense of security of the townspeople."

   "As long as you are a good person and don't do bad things or violate the law, the monsters won't eat you. Do you understand?" He plausibly said, "On the other hand, these ferocious monsters are also a sharp weapon to deter Xiaoxiao."

  He Lingchuan remembered what the little girl said yesterday, that she had ridden a full-grown imitation tiger.

  Perhaps what ordinary people need most in their lives is "certainty". Others come second, anyway, I can live anyway.

  He said indifferently: "With a legal order, no monsters dare to eat people casually?"

  Human nature cannot withstand temptation, let alone the nature of monsters?

  He no longer believes in things that are as good as ideals.

   "We only come here to do business." Shi Congshui said with a smile, "Why do you understand so clearly? But I heard that there are occasional headless cases in various places."

"By the way, I went around the town yesterday and found that there are actually three temples here, and people offer incense and prostration in each of them. I also saw that they enshrined raw sheep heads." He Lingchuan sighed a little when talking about the new discovery last night. , "Where I come from, there may not be a temple in a town, and it is strictly forbidden to worship blood food

   Stopped. "

   Isn’t it because of being falsely accused of rewarding the gods that the He family was in bad luck?

"Oh yes, some countries strictly prohibit "rewarding the gods." Wu Jinsong just came back from the outside, and he heard what He Lingchuan said, "But in Bega, every household does this. If you go to any townsman's house now, you must There is a shrine. I worship every morning and evening, and I have to find a way to offer blood food on the first and fifteenth day of the Lunar New Year.”

  He laughed again: "Beja is known to the world as the country favored by heaven, a country favored and protected by the gods. The weather here is smooth every year, and there are fewer disasters and disasters."

  His expression was a little proud.

  He Lingchuan traveled all the way with the caravan, and heard Shi Congshan say no less than several times that Bega is the country of divine favor and heavenly favor, and even the capital city, Lingxu City, is named after the title of the **** of heaven, the Holy Lord of Lingxu.

  The demon emperors and kings of Bega must also be appointed by the gods and baptized by the gods before they can take power and succeed to the throne.

   It has been like this for five or six hundred years.

  Da Yuan is the opposite. He has educated his subjects since the founding of the country that gods cannot be trusted.

   I don’t know which of these two approaches is more practical. He Lingchuan remembered that Zhu Erniang always sneered in the magic nest swamp and said that credulous people will not end well.

  It really is a cynical ex-fairy.

  But Beijia Guozuo has stretched for nearly six hundred years, laughing at the vicissitudes of other small countries, changing owners like a lantern.

   So what?

  ￥￥￥￥￥

  Three days later, the Shimen caravan arrived at Fufeng City, the capital of the Treasure Tree Kingdom.

   To be able to walk so fast, on the one hand, the road is straight and wide, which is convenient for horse racing. There are only two toll checkpoints on the road, and the toll fee is still quite low.

  The commercial tax and horse tax collected by the entire Beja Kingdom are not high, but the infrastructure is very complete, and the business orders are complete, so the economy and trade are developed. He Lingchuan often found that there were more business travelers than townspeople.

  When Bega founded the country, sixteen demon kings were enshrined, and the treasure tree king was one of them. However, with the passage of time, the number of demon kings increased and decreased, and once dropped to twelve, until more than a hundred years ago, another king was added. Therefore, there is currently one emperor and thirteen demon kings in Bega Kingdom.

The thirteen demon kings all have vast feudal kingdoms, or vassal kingdoms. Except for the prime minister and the grand master who are appointed by Lingxu City, the rest of the personnel, laws and taxes are independent, and they also have their own army. country".