Once upon a time there was a greedy snake.

Chapter 62 The Long-Awaited Harvest Festival
Following the stranger who appeared to be from the mountains, the young guard ventured deeper into the mountains.

He hadn't walked far when he smelled a mouthwatering aroma of meat—even though he was already full, his belly was bulging, but after smelling the aroma of sizzling fat, he couldn't resist taking a couple more bites.

"This is……"

Following the aroma of meat, the young guard ventured even deeper into the area.

He witnessed a solemn sacrificial ceremony.

It was a small square that had been specially leveled. A group of people, just as robust as the stranger from before, were gathered there. In the center of the crowd, a giant snake statue made of hardwood was coiled up. The snake statue was so huge that even from a distance, one could feel one's own insignificance.

Before the giant serpent stood a rammed earth altar, from which billowing smoke rose as if to attract the serpent's attention.

Beneath the smoke was a dazzling array of delicacies: roasted meat, berries, honey, and all sorts of rare and delicious foods he couldn't even name, piled up on the altar as if waiting for the giant serpent to devour them.

"This is……"

Seeing this familiar scene, the young guard couldn't help but slap his forehead.

He had been so busy with the tasks assigned to him by the Second Akakage that he lost track of time—and today was the Harvest Festival, wasn't it?

However, the harvest festival of the Ignivas no longer involves worshipping the serpent god. After all, having migrated to the southern swamps, they have no serpent god to worship. It is more like a carnival, led by the Second Akakage. Everyone brings out their stored ingredients to have a big meal, enjoy the harvest of the year, and look forward to another good harvest in the coming year.

However, adhering to the original custom, many people still choose to sew a small snake out of the alligator skin and hang it at their door or on the hunters' spears on the day of the harvest festival. They believe that the small snake will bring good luck and help them find more prey.

As for the current situation, where even rammed earth is used to build the altar, he had only heard of it in the ancient legends told by the old people.

"They still retain the tradition of the harvest festival...they must be Ignis people!"

Upon realizing this, the young guard wanted to go over and ask. If these people were indeed Ignis, or even the Ignis of yesteryear, he would give anything to obtain the secret of eternal youth if they were willing to teach him.

However, just as the young guard was about to take a step...

The giant snake in front of them suddenly moved.

Despite being a giant wooden snake, complete with wood grain, it actually raised its head!
"Rumble, rumble—"

The giant wooden snake raised its head and stretched its body, then, as if it had discovered something, it turned its head and sniffed around.

Immediately afterwards, the wooden snake turned its gaze to the altar.

With just a flick of its head, the giant snake swallowed the mountain of roasted meat whole.

"How can this be?"

The young guard immediately felt his brain not working properly.

No matter how you look at it, it's just a wooden snake. How could a wooden snake possibly move or even eat?

But right before the young guard's eyes, the giant serpent was indeed devouring the food. Soon, the delicacies piled on the altar were swept away by the enormous wooden serpent.

"How did they do that...?"

The young guard was completely baffled; everything before him was far too challenging to his understanding.

But at that moment, he suddenly noticed that among the crowd surrounding the giant snake, there was a young man just like him pointing in the direction of the snake.

With a flick of the finger, the giant wooden snake returned to its coiled position once more. Only its raised head still exuded its majestic aura.

"What... what kind of power is this?"

The young guard was stunned for a moment.

His intuition was frantically telling him that he seemed to have seen something, something extraordinary.

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"It seems that this harvest festival went fairly well."

Before the giant wooden serpent, the former Ignis people nodded in agreement.

Although they had fled into the mountains to escape the harvest festival's sacrificial offerings, after living there for a while, they had come to miss the festival. Of course, they didn't miss the tyrannical magicians; they simply missed the atmosphere of the festival back then.

So they recreated the festival from that year. Although the snake god seemed to be still asleep and did not allow them to worship it as a deity, it did not stop them from carving a wooden snake to enhance the festive atmosphere.

"But I still owe you a lot for today's matter."

Thinking of this, people turned around and thanked the rather young figure behind them.

“If you hadn’t intervened, this wood carving probably wouldn’t have been able to move… After all, our understanding of the Dao is still far from complete.”

"How could that be? What do you mean by 'hard work'?"

Faced with everyone's gratitude, the young man waved his hands repeatedly.

"While it is true that I made this wooden sculpture move, the premise is that the structural support of the wood is stable enough... The person who carved this wooden snake, Tiberius, and the craftsmen who followed him in the path of craftsmanship, are the ones who truly worked hard."

These humble words naturally garnered even more approval from the people, who praised him as truly worthy of being the first person to arrive at the sacred mountain.

After that, they all gathered around the wooden snake. There was a wooden slide on the snake's back, and the food that the snake had just swallowed would soon slide down the slide.

As for the delicacies that slid down, they were shared by everyone present, so as not to waste these specially prepared dishes.

However, there was only one person who did not participate in this grand event: the young man who had manipulated the wooden snake earlier. He simply hid among the crowd, gazing into the distance.

Looking into the distance, I could see the direction where another young man was hiding.

"In that case, I guess I've fulfilled the promise I made to you back then?"

Recalling the last words he heard that day, the young man sighed.

"I have asked you to protect your people, and I have done so before, but your people are just... sigh."

"So I won't deliberately give him anything; I'll just let the kid see for himself."

"I hope he can understand, and then take the Dao back to your people."

"Otherwise, your people will have no future."

(End of this chapter)