Walnut used me to boost her sales performance.

"What's the point of being the island's owner here? There's not even a ghost in sight..."

Jiang Bai paused as he spoke.

He thought he had just vaguely seen someone.

Strange, hasn't this island been deserted for a long time?

Or is it, as that adventurer said, a ghost on the island?

"Master, did you see that?"

"Yes, I saw it too. Let's go after them and see."

Jiang Bai passed through a gate made of stone and saw a little boy.

The little boy's clothes were very rough, as if he had simply cut a few holes in the fabric and put it on.

However, with a belt around her waist and a small bag hanging from it, she didn't look so simple and rough anymore.

As the group approached, the little boy's appearance finally came into clear view.

Jiang Bai was taken aback.

This little boy looks exactly like the little boy he saw in the Thunderbird's memory fragments.

The little boy who sang for it, named it, and in the end, only a cold corpse remained.

Hu Tao frowned.

She felt that the little boy and his aura were very strange, not like a person with flesh and blood.

"Big brother, big sister!"

The little boy was clearly very excited to see them, jumping up and down to greet them.

"Are you from out of town? It's been so long since we've seen outsiders!"

"Yes, we're from outside. What about you? What's your name? Have you always lived here?"

"Big brother, my name is Aru, and I've always lived here."

"You've lived here all this time?" Hu Tao's brows furrowed even deeper.

That's strange, so very strange.

"Little friend, how old are you?"

"Me?" Aru thought for a moment seriously, "I'd be several thousand years old, wouldn't I?"

Jiang Bai's pupils contracted slightly as a conjecture surfaced in his mind.

Yi Dou immediately thought the kid was talking nonsense:

"Thousands of years old? How is that possible? Are you kidding me? How do you keep track of time?"

Aryu stared wide-eyed at Ichidou, completely bewildered.

"According to what everyone says, hearing thunder marks the passing of a year, so I must be several thousand years old..."

"Uh..." Yi Dou got stuck.

Did you see anything in Chapter 551?

Yi Dou, feigning composure, took out a comb and combed his hair.

"Ahem, let me introduce myself to you. My name is Araki Banwanzai Ichito, and I'm already alive, living forever!"

If hearing thunder counts as being a year old, then he must have heard thunder countless times on Qinglai Island.

So the claim of him living to the fullest extent is not an exaggeration at all! He really has lived that long!

"Wow! That's amazing!" Aryu's eyes sparkled, and she looked at Ichito with extraordinary admiration.

"Aru also wants to live to be a million years old!"

Jiang Bai's gaze was unusually complicated. If this Aru really was that child, his life would probably have ended long ago.

"You're very confident!" Ichidou patted him on the shoulder and laughed heartily.

Seeing that Yi Dou's hand was actually touching the child, Hu Tao's gaze sharpened, and she placed a hand on the child's head.

The touch felt very normal, and you could even feel the body temperature.

But clearly, it's just a soul, it shouldn't still be a flesh and blood body.

Hu Tao did not intend to reveal the fact that he was dead; if she did, something bad might happen.

"Little Aryu, are you all alone here?"

Aryu tilted her head. "No, many of us live here."

"How many people are there?" Hu Tao asked him curiously, seemingly oblivious to what he had discovered.

Aryu counted on her fingers, "One, two, three, four... eight, nine, ten... I don't have enough fingers, I can't count anymore..."

He was somewhat frustrated; he didn't know how to count the numbers after ten.

Walnut looked at its age, then at its simple clothes, and at the rough stone carvings around it, and got a sense of its surroundings.

Located in a remote part of the sea, Heguan is cut off from the outside world. The island is also shrouded in fog, and no sunlight can penetrate it, making it almost like living in darkness.

In such an environment, civilization is probably still in the early stages of enlightenment.

"I'll take you to the festival. Everyone will come, including Kapachiri, so we can count how many people there are!"

"Kappachiri?"

"She's my good friend!" Aru exclaimed happily. "Kappachiri will be happy to have a new guest! Everyone says I'm the main character at this festival, I'm really looking forward to it..."

"However, there are a few things to be aware of before the festival begins. Big brothers and sisters, come with me!"

As she spoke, Aryu ran into the mist.

Hu Tao and Jiang Bai exchanged a glance and quickly followed.

This is clearly abnormal. Perhaps by following this Aryu, we can find the truth of everything.

"Wait for me! You're running too fast, I can't find you!" Yidou shouted loudly, completely unsure of which way to go.

A sharp flute melody rang out, accompanied by Aru's voice, "Over here, over here!"

Following the direction from which the sound came, the group quickly found Aru.

Jiang Bai's gaze fell on Aru's hand. "What is this?"

"This is a wooden reed flute! Everyone relies on it to transmit messages on the island."

Aru put the wooden reed flute to her lips and blew it. The sound of the flute was clear and bright, and it carried far.

A moment later, the sound of a flute came from another direction.

"Over there, over there!"

Aryu led a few people and ran over.

There were two people at the location of the flute music, a man and a woman. Their clothes were much better than Aruru's. Although simple, they were embroidered with simple patterns, unlike Aruru, who was dressed so casually.

Judging from their clothing, Hu Tao had a sense of the productivity here.

"These are Sister Muli and Brother Ibe," Aru introduced them to the group.

But Muli and Ibe seemed not to see them at all, and continued talking to themselves.

"The perch is in good condition, and this year's festival will definitely go smoothly."

"Stop talking and properly offer sacrifices to the perch. The perch is the key to the festival; it's the tree where Lord Thunderbird once rested."

"Yes. Grandpa also said that the fact that only the perch is still being worshipped and cared for shows that we still have reverence for Lord Thunderbird. If the perch is destroyed!"

"But this year's festival is really not a happy one..." Ibe's expression turned somewhat downcast as he mentioned this. "But what makes me most unhappy is why I have to do all the work?"

Ibe clasped his hands together and stuck out his tongue. "Because Ibe-nii-san is very reliable, and this is also my first time offering a perch."

After listening for a while, Ichidou couldn't hold back any longer, "Hey, can't you see us, who are all grown men?"

The two of them didn't react to Yi Dou's words at all, nor did they look in their direction, as if Jiang Bai and the others didn't exist in their minds.

“That’s just how Sister Maki and Brother Ibe are; when they’re busy, they ignore the people around them,” Aru explained.

Although Aru explained, Ichito still felt something was off and didn't quite make sense. He decided to stand between the two of them so they couldn't ignore him.

Jiang Bai stopped him and shook his head seriously.

Yi Dou was stunned, and his gaze towards the two men changed.

The conversation between the two continued.

Ibe: "Sigh... Never mind, let's touch the perch and then look for feathers nearby. Offering sacrifices to the perch is a way to remove foreign objects from it."

Mu Li nodded: "Yes, Grandpa told me that the power of the Thunder Bird Lord accumulated in the perch will carry away any foreign objects that invade [Crane View], transforming them into feathers and flying away."

Ibe: "Then, the mist will purify the feathers."

Mu Li continued nodding: "After all, the fog is a sacred barrier protecting Crane Temple, preventing anything from intruding into it from the ground."

Ibe patiently guided the novice, explaining, "So we need to find the scattered feathers and return them to the perch..."

After they finished speaking, the two went about their business, leaving Jiang Bai and the others standing there.

Jiang Bai frowned as he watched them leave. Clearly, the two were in a peculiar state, oblivious to their surroundings.

Moreover, this is probably just a snapshot of a ley line, and there's no point in following it.

He asked Hu Tao in a low voice, "Master, have you figured something out?"

Hu Tao nodded. "Yes. Although these two are also physical entities, they are actually reflections of past memories left by the earth's veins. Their souls are in a very confused state and cannot communicate, unlike Aru who is so clear-headed."

Jiang Bai nodded, confirming his suspicions. "I sense that the earth's veins here are extremely disordered..."

"This is the reason for their existence. Only by slowing down the disorder of the earth's veins can I send them to their next life."

Aryu didn't hear their whisper. He looked up at the group and said, "Big brother and sister, let's go find Feather!"

Jiang Bai looked at Aru and said with a smile, "No problem! With so many of us, we'll definitely find the feather quickly!"

Chapter 552 The outside world is shrouded in darkness

Aru is able to converse with them, has independent thought, and is the protagonist in the Thunderbird's memory fragments; she is clearly the key to everything.

Unfortunately, the memories were too fragmented; it only knew that the child eventually died.

As for how I died, I have no memory of it.

But now it seems that it may be closely related to the location of the festival.

Now we'll just follow Aru through this festival area and see what happens.

The group followed Aru to the perch where the Thunderbird had once lived.

On the way, Jiang Bai asked some questions.

"Why do you say that the fog protects Heguan?"

Aryu scratched her head. "I don't know either. That's what Grandpa said, and that's what Grandpa's great-grandfather said too..."

Jiang Bai raised an eyebrow slightly.

The people of Heguan seem to have little knowledge of fog and little curiosity about it. Otherwise, no one would have tried to explore the origin of fog, and they would have wishfully believed generation after generation that fog was protecting them.

However, the fog on this island is indeed very abnormal and doesn't seem like a natural phenomenon.

I wonder if there are any demon gods whose authority is "fog". If they are, they should be able to keep the island shrouded in dense fog for years to come.

"Grandpa said that with the fog there, nothing can get into Heguan, so we are all safe thanks to the fog."

"The reason we hold this ceremony is to thank the Thunderbird for creating the fog, which protected Crane View and everyone else."

Jiang Bai: "..."

He was somewhat at a loss for words.

The people here have never been in contact with the outside world, and they might think that the outside world is just like this, shrouded in fog.

In their eyes, the Thunderbird is a god who creates the fog to protect them.