Otherworld Advance Team
Chapter 1472 - 1465: Shaman’s Far-reaching Thoughts

Chapter 1472: Chapter 1465: Shaman’s Far-reaching Thoughts

Witch ceremonies almost permeate every aspect of the daily life of the Ghost Race; guests are welcomed with witch ceremonies, funerals require witch ceremonies, and even weddings necessitate the performance of witch ceremonies. For this reason, the position of the Great Witch is naturally the highest within the village, as only she is qualified to carry out these witch ceremonies.

However, it’s clear that this funeral witch ceremony is only ceremonial in nature, as when the three approached, there was no fluctuation of magic power in the air. In other words, the routine life does not necessitate that kind of Summoning the Immortal Ceremony to expel foreign enemies.

Since the Ghost Race faces the ocean and backs onto the jungle, they have a rich resource of timber, which provides them with fuel for their livelihood.

Just so, the burial customs of the Ghost Race primarily involve cremation, including the deceased Faceless who are also thrown into a fire pit for mass cremation and burial.

What the Great Witch is doing now is the pre-cremation witch ceremony, intended to guide the departed to the afterlife and ensure they no longer cling to the mortal world.

Those non-deceased persons are not entitled to become immortals, thus their souls must be promptly ushered to leave, lest they remain in the world and bring calamity upon the living.

In the traditions of the Ghost Race, only those venerable elders who have lived a full life and are held in high moral regard are entitled to immortality. Furthermore, the ceremony for becoming an immortal is not something that occurs after the elder’s death, but rather, preparations begin in advance of the elder’s impending demise once it is determined that they may become immortal.

Following the traditions of the Ghost Race, after achieving immortality, the elder’s soul will linger in the hereafter. Should their descendants encounter danger, the Great Witch can then summon them from the hereafter to confront the enemy.

Of course, these statements are based on materials gathered by Baiyue, and can only represent the subjective understanding of the Ghost Race people.

However, as Xia Yue previously informed them, in the Otherworld, there is no existence of the soul after death, or rather, the very concept of a soul does not exist.

So-called soul entities, like Fulajie’er and Liseya, are created by replicating their consciousness through various means before their death and then generating their own soul entity clones.

Xia Yue explained very clearly that the current Fulajie’er is no longer the same Fulajie’er but merely a replica of her. Similarly, Liseya is not the same passionate Snow Elf but also a replica. The true spirits of them have long dissipated with the demise of their bodies.

So, if Xia Yue’s theory is applied to the Ghost Race people’s immortality ceremony, Baiyue analyzes that it must involve the Great Witch replicating the elder’s consciousness and preserving it before death, thus completing the immortality ceremony.

After the elder’s passing, his ritual replica will be kept by the Great Witch. When the village encounters danger, she can summon them to attack the invaders.

Yet this analysis presents an important question: how does the Great Witch manage to replicate and preserve consciousness?

It is known that Fulajie’er and Liseya could replicate consciousness because they had the aid of the Ancestors’ Divine Machines. Could it be that on the distant East Continent’s Aximiya Island, there also exist such miraculous Divine Machines for god-making?

If one analyzed this speculation alone, there would surely be no leads. But if this speculation is combined with a previous guess, then everything seems to be explainable.

Just a moment ago in the room, Baiyue and Cheng Ziang had analyzed the origin of the Faceless and surmised that this species, like the Elves, might also stem from the Ancestors’ genetic engineering.

If this assertion is confirmed, it would mean that during the Ancestor Era, Aximiya Island, just like Xia Yue Island, must have been a base for the Ancestors’ genetic biological engineering. And if that’s the case, the presence of god-making Divine Machines on Aximiya Island would naturally be explainable.

However, bygone are those days; the era of the Ancestors has passed, yet their legacy profoundly influences this world.

Cheng Ziang and Baiyue have no intention of judging whether the customs of the Ghost Race are archaic or backward. As outsiders, all they can offer is respect for these ethnic groups and their customs, rather than always trying to change them with their own beliefs.

If the Ancestors beneath the springs had knowledge of today, seeing their once-desperate land revived with life, they would probably close their eyes in peace beneath the nine springs.

The more one understands the Ancestor Era, the more one dreams of it, and the more one laments its decline.

The destruction of the Ancestors was due to both internal and external factors. After creating a glorious civilization, the Ancestors realized they were trapped in a cage: this world was a great walled city, impervious to outsiders and inescapable for those within.

Moreover, magical power is not eternal; it would accelerate its depletion with the continuous advancement of productivity. Reaching a certain threshold, magic would vanish from this world completely—a fatal blow to the people of this world, akin to fish losing the ocean.

Due to this discovery, the Ancestors frantically set out to save themselves. However, their efforts only took them further down the wrong path, exacerbating the degradation of the environment.

In the end, during the Twilight of the Gods, the gods that the Ancestors created exhausted the world’s magic, leading to the fall of the Gods and the complete annihilation of the same Ancestors who had once built a splendid civilization, leaving only future generations to sigh for them.

If Baiyue guessed correctly, those copied spirits should all belong to Demigods, each having their vessel. For without vessels, they would all become True Gods.

And the current world is indeed wary of the descent of True Gods, as that was how the Ancestors were destroyed. They do not wish for posterity to tread the same path of doom.

It’s for this reason that only Demigods can exist in this world. The real gods, Tana and Xiapei Kam, manage this world together, constraining the people from walking further down the wrong path.

Of course, most of the time, it’s Tana who mainly governs the world. As for Xiapei Kam, or Xia Yue, her focus is mostly on seeking a way out for the people of Otherworld—namely, through genetic fusion, to escape this cage to another world, Earth.

Unwittingly, the group had been standing in the rain for nearly half an hour, the ritual still ongoing. The Grand Witch, although appearing to be an old crone, unexpectedly had such stamina, dancing the great ritual dance for half an hour without taking a breath.

Cheng Ziang’s bored gaze swept across the scene, but he noticed a lively figure. Though the other was also cloaked in a straw cape, he recognized them at a glance--wasn’t that Balan?

With this realization, he understood that the Ghost Race relied on aura to identify each other. Even hidden behind masks and straw capes, some auras could not be concealed.

The reason Cheng Ziang recognized Balan so quickly was that he had copied Balan’s memories, leaving a deep impression of her.

So he shook off the mud splatters on his feet and walked towards Balan, then gently tapped her on the shoulder.

Balan was startled by his pat, almost leaping up, but relaxed after turning to see Cheng Ziang.

"What are you doing out here?" Balan lifted her face to ask.

"Wow, we’re all in disguise, and you can still recognize us?" Cheng Ziang pointed at himself, asking in a somewhat surprised tone.

"Of course," Balan said matter-of-factly, "your aura is completely different from the villagers’, I recognized you instantly."

"That’s right, you recognize people by their aura," Cheng Ziang nodded and said.

After a pause, Cheng Ziang cautiously asked, "What are you doing here, has someone in your family passed away?"

"No," Balan shook her head, seemingly not feeling offended, "I’m here waiting for Axiang. Once the ceremony is over, she will have a short break, and then I can see her and give her the tasty treats I brought."

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