Demon Hunter: I have a red gourd

Chapter 58 Fairy Mother
Ivan lay on the horse's back, his fiery red mane fluttering in the night wind, undulating like waves as he ran.

The closer he got to the hill, the more violently the griffin emblem on his chest vibrated, as if guiding him in the direction of progress.

The sound of Chiyan's hooves was particularly clear in the silent forest. When Ivan pulled the reins, the moonlight happened to pierce through the clouds, illuminating a sudden altar in the low valley ahead?

Ivan dismounted, his boots crushing a few leaves of dried mistletoe. He walked towards the dilapidated altar. As he approached, the badge's vibrations became more and more intense. By the time he reached the front of the altar, the vibrations had reached their peak—it was about to jump out of his arms.

Although it is impossible to confirm whether this is the reason for the accelerated formation of demons, the badge vibrates so strongly, which means that there must be something strange about this altar.

Ivan looked at the altar and felt an inexplicable sense of incongruity.

The edges of the altar's hexagonal base have been gnawed away by time, leaving jagged gaps. The surface is covered with dark green lichens, and delicate spiral carvings can be vaguely seen on the broken pillars at the four corners.

The wooden sculpture at the top was leaning and about to fall - it was an old woman in a long robe. On her cracked pine face, the craftsman had carefully carved a kind smile, which was now twisted into a strange arc in the shadows of the moonlight.

The three wooden carvings of young girls are half-kneeling around the old woman's feet. Judging from their clothes and movements, they are most likely the old woman's daughters.

But unlike the statue of the old woman, the details of these three statues appear to be much more vivid and delicate.

The girl on the left is holding a tangled ball of twine in her hand, with strands of wool scraps clinging to the hem of her skirt.
The girl in the middle was holding a broken clay pot tightly with her arms, and a few shriveled fruits were scattered out of the crooked mouth of the pot;

The statue on the far right is the most damaged. On the remaining half of its face, its lips are slightly open and its empty eye sockets are looking straight up at the sky, as if telling an unknown secret to the sky.

In front of the wood carving, there were moldy millet and several dried rabbit heads. It was obvious that no one had been here for a long time.

What deity is this dedicated to? Ivan was a little confused. The sight of multiple female sculptures immediately reminded people of the goddess Meliteli, who usually appeared in three female forms: a carefree young girl, a mature pregnant woman, and a hunched old woman.

However, there are four wood carvings in front of me, and the image is completely inconsistent with the goddess Meritelli.

Ivan snapped his fingers and lit a nearly extinguished candle in front of the altar. The flickering flame suddenly blazed, illuminating the statue in the shrine.

At the bottom of the statue, Ivan saw two small words engraved in the common language: Fairy Mother.

Fairy Mother, what kind of deity is this? Ivan remembered that when he first encountered the skinny elder who instigated the villagers to attack him in order to collect the spirits of the water ghosts, he also muttered something like "Fairy Mother".

Ivan's eyes swept over the three wooden carvings of young girls at the old woman's feet, searching hard in his memory, trying to find their origins in the knowledge taught by the two witcher teachers and the memories of his past life.

Wait, Ivan's eyes swept over the twine and pottery jar in the hands of the girl statue. Suddenly, a flash of inspiration came to him, and he suddenly realized something.

Could these two things represent weaving and cooking? And the third girl statue's lips are slightly parted, could it be a whisper?

Fairy Mother, Fairy Mother, Lady of the Woods?

Aren't these the same old witches who rule Velen? Who would have thought there would be an altar dedicated to them on the border between Temeria and Kaedwen?

So the old woman above represents the tree heart that makes players so confused in the game?
"And these three," Ivan said, looking at the three wooden sculptures at the old woman's feet, "represent the legendary 'Three Beauties of the Forest'?" [Three Beauties of the Forest↓]

Ivan scratched his head. This situation was really beyond his expectations.

He vaguely remembered that the tree heart in the game should be the fairy mother worshipped now, also known as the learned woman.

She and her three daughters were collectively known as the "Lady of the Woods."

In the game, there were two books that introduced these four ladies: "The Lady of the Woods" and "She Who Knows All".

【Lady in the Woods↓】

【She who knows everything↓】

However, many clues in the game indicate that the credibility of these two books is not high, and it is very likely that they were fabricated by these "ladies of the forest" themselves in order to consolidate their rule.

The only thing that is certain is that the three "daughters" of this fairy mother later joined forces to kill her and imprisoned her soul in an oak tree in Whispering Hill.

In the current timeline, looking at the statue, the Fairy Mother is still the dominant figure. Does this mean that she has not died at the hands of her three daughters?

But these are not important now. What is important is why an ordinary wooden statue would trigger changes in the souls of the nearby villages and lead to the accelerated formation of demonic spirits?

There were too many strange powers in this world, and Ivan didn't dare touch the wooden sculpture of the Lady of the Forest directly. He just kept his distance and observed it carefully. But even so, no matter how hard he looked, he couldn't find anything unusual.

If there is really no other way, we can only try to burn the wooden sculpture with the Igni Sign.

Although the evil spirits in the three villages have been eliminated by Ivan, this does not mean that the souls of the dead villagers will completely disappear.

If the root causes that influence the formation of demons and spirits are not eradicated completely, their souls will sooner or later gather again and transform into demons and spirits again, trapped in this world forever.

Although it sounds like it is possible to exploit the system bug and continuously generate essence and spiritual essence here, Ivan is not planning to do so.

First, even if the formation of the demon spirit is accelerated, it will still take several days. He doesn't have the time to waste here all the time. He has other things to do.

Secondly, he couldn't bear to torture the souls of those poor people repeatedly like this. It would be better to send them to rest in peace as soon as possible, as Roche said.

If there is no problem with the statue, is there something wrong with the altar itself?
Ivan stood up and looked at the broken pillars around him, squinting his eyes to carefully observe the spiral patterns engraved on them.

Such delicate patterns do not seem to be something that can be carved by the villagers who worship the Fairy Mother. After all, even the statue of the Fairy Mother is made so simply.

In contrast, given their style, these patterns look more like the work of elves.

　Thanks to Xiaobai for the angry reward, and thanks to everyone for the recommendation votes and monthly tickets
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(End of this chapter)