The First Uncle taught them how to breathe while jogging and how to maintain their pace.
The children lined up and followed the First Uncle in a run.
Before long, the little children began to feel warm and didn’t feel cold anymore.
From jogging to horse stance, then some aerobics, and even a long-distance run...
On the first day of training, the children were so exhausted they were almost in a daze.
Savi was in the same room with them and even told them about the upcoming training.
“Some of the training is actually pretty fun, like horse riding and archery…”
Savi looked at the children lying lifelessly on the bed and tried to encourage them by mentioning some of the fun activities.
But the little child wasn’t buying it at all: “I don’t want to ride a horse, and I don’t want to do archery. Is there a part in the training plan where we get to sleep?”
Savi: “…”
Savi: “No, there isn’t.”
The little child started to cry: “I want to go home. I miss my dad, and I miss my brother, too.”
Wagner also sat up and asked, “Where’s the spaceship? I want to go home and do my homework.”
Uncle is too scary; after all, they are still just children. They shouldn’t be treated like this.
“You can’t leave for now. The Ritual Festival is about to begin, and around this time, our place is on lockdown.”
“We can only leave five days after the Ritual Festival.”
When the little child heard they couldn’t leave, he became even more desperate.
He said in a pitiful voice, “If Uncle became a P.E. teacher, all the children would surely rebel against him!”
Savi looked at the miserable children and didn’t know how to comfort them.
The next day.
The children were taken into the mountains by Uncle again, and their training even included tree climbing.
The little child had never climbed a tree before. Hugging the trunk, he felt that the fall hurt more than when his dad spanked him.
Savi, however, really enjoyed the mountain training. During a break, he even said, “Normally, when the Ritual Festival is near, Uncle wouldn’t let us go up the mountain.”
“Don’t be fooled by Uncle’s cold face; deep down, he must like you guys.”
Hearing Savi’s words, the children were filled with indignation.
Even Lele, who usually had the best temper, clenched his water bottle and tightened his face: “Uncle doesn’t like us. He said we’re too weak.”
Savi frowned and blurted out: “Well, you are pretty weak right now.”
The children: “?”
The children stopped drinking water, and all pounced on Savi, ready to give him a beating.
After a bit of a commotion, the First Uncle blew his small whistle again. The sound of this whistle meant it was time to continue training.
The children, who were just playing around, instantly put on sullen faces, trudging with heavy steps towards the First Uncle with their short legs.
“Uncle, how much longer do we have to train?”
“Our training doesn’t focus on time, but on quality. If your physical condition is up to standard, we can finish training today.”
The First Uncle really lived up to being an adult; adults loved to say pointless things, and the First Uncle was no exception.
Under the First Uncle’s watchful eyes, the children continued with their additional training.
Even though they were training hard, their meals hadn’t been reduced; they were still being served large portions of meat every day.
During dinner.
The children sat together, gobbling up their meat. The First Uncle watched the chubby child eating and suddenly lifted him up, giving him a little shake.
“Strange, why haven’t you lost any weight?”
For the past few days, the First Uncle had been giving this chubby little child extra training; while others ran 800 meters, the chubby one had to run 1,000 meters.
By right, this soft, chubby flesh should have at least firmed up a bit, like muscle, even if it didn’t reduce.
But the chubby child’s flesh was still soft.
After giving the little child a shake, the First Uncle put him back down and let him continue eating.
The little child, who had just been lifted to check his weight, of course, heard the First Uncle calling him fat. Unhappy, he ate another piece of meat.
He didn’t dare talk back, fearing the First Uncle might make him run even more.
After dinner, the First Uncle let them digest their food for a while before letting Savi lead them back to sleep.
The First Uncle’s grueling training was so intense that the children even dreamed of kicking their legs as if they were running.
After several days of continuous training, the day of the ritual festival finally arrived.
On the day of the ritual festival, the children were allowed to stop training.
Originally, outsiders weren’t permitted to participate in this kind of ritual, but when one of the children clung to the First Uncle’s leg, pleading to go, the First Uncle paused for a moment and then dressed him in the red clothes required for the ritual.
Lele and the others also changed into their ritual clothes.
Not only were the children dressed in red, but a small red dot was also placed on their foreheads.
“Alright, let’s head out.”
At the start of the sacrificial ritual, loud noises were forbidden.
A few children dressed in red followed the adults, walking cautiously. They watched as the adults carried slaughtered pigs, quietly walking along the mountain path. Unable to hold back, they started whispering to each other.
“Ningning, I think this place is a bit scary.”
A thick fog enveloped the mountain, and the adults remained completely silent. The children looked at the pigs being carried by the adults, then at the solemn expressions on their faces, and shivered a little. “I also think it’s a bit scary.”
During their previous training, they weren’t far from this mountain—it was just next to it.
A few times, when they got disoriented while running, some of the children ended up at the foot of this mountain. Back then, they didn’t feel scared at all.
They would sit at the base of the mountain, even slacking off a few times.
But this time, perhaps because of the eerie atmosphere, they started feeling a little scared.
Savi wasn’t afraid of such occasions. He held Lele’s hand tightly and joined the conversation in a low voice: “Don’t be scared. There are lots of delicious things in this mountain. The adults usually don’t let us come here, so we miss out on all the good stuff.”
“Later, I’ll secretly find you some food. There are very sweet little persimmons, red fruits, and even sweet fruits you can dig out from the ground...”
As Savi quietly described the treats, the children, who had felt a bit stifled earlier, all swallowed their saliva.
One of the children looked around and suddenly didn’t feel scared at all.
“Savi, what if I didn’t bring a bag?”
The little child was still thinking about eating and taking some with him. He touched his pockets and said, “I only have these few pockets.”
“No worries. We’ll find a bag when the time comes.”
“Okay!”
The adults didn’t pay much attention to the children’s conversation, nor did they interrupt.
They just pretended not to notice, knowing it wasn’t realistic to expect such young kids to stay silent the entire time.
No one knew how much time had passed.
The group had fully entered the mountain. Savi and his clansmen didn’t fear the mountain at all. Even after entering the deep forest, they behaved as if they were walking into their own backyard.
The ritual ceremony was intricate and lengthy, and the little child found it a bit confusing.
He listened to the adults and obediently bowed his head. After bowing, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone was watching him.
While everyone else was still bowing, only the little child lifted his chubby face. He stared blankly in one direction and rubbed his eyes.
“Ningning, what are you looking at?”
“Nothing at all.”
The little child shook his head and casually replied.
After a while, it was no longer necessary for the young ones to stay for the rest of the ceremony.
Savi tugged at the little child and Lele, then called out to Wagner, “Let’s go, we’re going to get something to eat.”
The children hunched over and sneaked away.
They thought they were being very stealthy, but the adults weren’t blind. Savi’s father, who was presiding over the ceremony, noticed the children in red clothes sneaking away on tiptoe and twitched his lips.
Ever since these children arrived, he felt that his son’s intelligence occasionally seemed a bit off.
The First Uncle also saw the children sneaking away and exchanged a glance with the clan leader, his younger brother. They tacitly continued with the ceremony.
With Savi leading them, letting the children pick some fruit to eat wasn’t a bad idea.
After all, the one in the mountains hadn’t awakened in many years, so the mountain posed no danger to them.
