His gaze seemed to trace back to that earliest period of time.
The Jiao Family Stronghold was originally a rather unremarkable remote village.
The village mainly cultivated two kinds of plant-type Spiritual Roots unique to the nearby area.
The Spirit Farmer's Wine Rice.
Spirit Farmers and tailors were the lowest level of life-related cultivators and had no combat power.
They were similar to peasants in the ancient feudal era, providing various raw materials for higher-level regional powers.
As long as they continued cultivating these Spiritual Roots, they would never have a chance to rise for life.
Low-tier tailors of the Five-Body Realm.
Middle-tier tailors of the Four Viscera Realm, though higher in realm, they were only of greater value.
Without combat power, they were forever domesticated pigs.
In other powers, they might secure a position as a Tributor, but here they had nothing.
"Jiao Family Stronghold was this plain and ordinary until one day, the Dragon Head Incident happened," Li Youzhu said lightly.
"Dragon Head?" Su Yuniang asked.
"To be precise, it was a Jiao Dragon about to transform into a Dragon."
Li Youzhu chuckled, "What fell was the Jiao's head, continually thrashing in the village, causing tremors like an earthquake."
At that time, the villagers rushed over.
They watched from afar, frightened, recognizing that this Jiao Dragon might have been in a battle with some Great Cultivator, and after its head was severed, it fled and fell here.
The Jiao's head, gravely injured and near death, spoke human language, asking the villagers to save it.
Later, the elders of the village came up with an idea.
They took out the Mixed Spirit Roots, Winter Snake Root, Fish Scale Flower, Fish Tail Grass, Eagle Claw Vine, Tendon Bone Wood, etc., which grew throughout the village...
It's said that these weeds were originally degraded over generations, after being soaked in Ancient Dragon Blood!
Then they had the five maidens of the village open Three Flowers and plant these Mixed Spirit Roots.
Previously, these Mixed Spirit Roots would cause deformities in shape and were of no great use.
But now, after opening Three Flowers, the cultivator's form became deformed with Jiao claws, Jiao skin, Jiao body, Jiao tail, and Jiao tendons, which could be assembled into a complete Jiao body for the Jiao head to survive.
So, with the sacrifice of five maidens, the Sedon Spiritual Root tailors stitched skin and limbs and sewed for three days and nights to create a Jiao body, offering it to the Jiao head.
And the Jiao Dragon connected to this body, recuperating in the underwater Earth Vein of the village, became the Dragon King of the well, protecting the villagers.
However, how could the terrifying Jiao body be something that a Mortal Body patchwork could endure?
It would collapse once every three years.
From then on, the village would sacrifice five maidens every three years; each household's girls would open Three Flowers, sacrificing their lives and sewing a new Jiao body in turns.
The gravely injured Jiao Dragon could thereby continue its life, dragging its existence along.
The villagers heard that real Great Powers delighted in Dragon meat, said to be the finest food under Heaven. Secretly, they ate the discarded, headless Jiao Dragon body during the night, initially a few people eating behind closed doors and later more villagers joining.
Eventually, everyone stole out to feast during the night, calling it the Jiao Dragon Night Banquet.
Averaging once every three years.
They considered it their well-deserved prize.
Moreover, burying the discarded Jiao Dragon body was a waste.
Su Yuniang fell silent for a moment, astonished at the villagers here...
Previously, she thought they seemed quite nice.
But from their normal standpoint:
It wasn't unreasonable, for survival and better living conditions.
"Until one day, people saw a headless Jiao Dragon corpse crawling across the plain," Li Youzhu sighed, "The village elders immediately understood it was the headless Jiao seeking its head!"
Su Yuniang's Heart Mind was turbulent.
Previously she saw a body without a crow's head, instinctively searching everywhere for its head.
Those sand sculptors speculated: perhaps a powerful headless corpse would even cross mountains, forests, and towns to seek its lost head.
This turned out to be true!
"But they were scared of poverty, sick of hardship, unwilling to live a life with no hope, hoping their descendants could engage in cultivation and study and become great figures."
"They were afraid the Jiao would leave, so they secretly acted maliciously, using the trust the Jiao head held for them usually, creating a pig's head soaked in Jiao Blood, setting a trap to lure the headless Jiao body inside."
"The headless Jiao body had no thinking ability, only instincts, feeling the blood tie, it found the pig's head, was fitted with a pig's head, became a pig-headed Jiao body; the originally foolish and silly pig, once connected to the Jiao body, only kept instinct, fully content, flew away."
The village people were clever.
Though just villagers, reading had enlightened them.
The Jiao body was far too powerful!
They couldn't possibly keep it, and if it approached the village, the Jiao head would feel it.
They'd rather drive away the Jiao body.
And the pig's head receiving the Jiao body received a grand opportunity.
It might gradually gain wisdom, yet after transforming into a demon, it wouldn't return for fear the body would seek the head.
This strategy was a win-win for the pig and the villagers.
They had thought about attaching a villager's head, but couldn't agree and feared one villager obtaining great power and enslaving them.
Ultimately, it was left to benefit a pig.
If they couldn't have it themselves, then none should have it.
Since then, the Jiao Family Stronghold maintained a custom for three thousand years.
Each household took turns sacrificing, having five maidens cultivate five types of Mixed Spirit Roots, offering them to the village-protecting Jiao head.
Through offering to the Jiao head, partaking in the Jiao Dragon Night Banquet once every three years, their bloodline gradually altered, becoming Jiao descendants, each robust and strong.
The previously weak Jiao Family Village gradually became a stronghold, defeating the forces enslaving them, migrating continuously, and seizing this mining territory.
"When I was born, it was the most prosperous time of the stronghold," Li Youzhu sighed:
"At that time, I was still small. Everyone said I was dull, only knowing to sit in the yard reading, until the day I heard water gushing from the well. I looked closely, seeing a little girl with a snake tail in the well; in my trance, I seemed to see a beautiful Jiao Dragon..."
He became slightly dazed,
"I later found out, the one sacrificed last time was the gentle laughing sister from the neighboring house, and this time it was her turn in the well. She was the Jiao tail; her family locked her up, but she slipped out through the well, swimming to and fro, inadvertently seeing me reading."
"I will never forget the water that day, shimmering and radiant, her appearance was so stunning."
"She called me a bookworm, then we got to know each other, afterward she would often come out of the well to accompany me reading."
His eyes were filled with nostalgia.
Initially, the first generation of five maidens volunteered to sacrifice.
But afterward, every family was forced to contribute one girl in turns.
"You summoned the Demon Cultivator to save her?" Su Yuniang was audacious.
Li Youzhu shook his head:
"No, summoning a Demon Cultivator was the most foolish thing; afterward, we'd die ourselves."
"After years of offering, not only had the Jiao Dragon's injuries not healed but it had weakened to the utmost, something the villagers did deliberately, from which I conceived a daring thought."
"I tricked the villagers; during sewing in the Ancestral Temple as Jiao tail, I replaced that Jiao Dragon and became the Jiao Dragon myself."
"She became the Jiao when she gained that power, ending the tradition of the Jiao Dragon night feast."
"I plan to take down the villagers myself!"
That Jiao Dragon was truly unlucky to have fallen here!
Tricked by villagers, its body fitted with a pig's head, in the end, its head was seized through Possession by you, under the pretext of ending the villagers' barbaric ritual of sacrificing five girls periodically to an Evil Dragon.
In harsh mountains and waters arise cunning folk.
But he hadn't thought of letting some village head replace it as his own, yet they couldn't agree and feared one villager gaining power and enslaving them.
In the end, a pig benefitted
They maintained control over the stronghold, offering tributes to the Ancestral Temple, yet hadn't been in charge of the elders of the entire stronghold for many years.
Later, a batch of Demon Cultivators, somehow, got word and took advantage, with two Three Elements Realm, bringing five Three Elements Realm ancients, over three hundred strong. Newest update provıded by novelꞁire.net