As the black cloth fell to the ground like a heavy, dark cloud,
everyone's gaze was transfixed, finally able to see the true face of what the people of Xia Shui Village called their Mountain God.
It was a colossal, ancient tree, its form incredibly majestic,
like a giant standing between heaven and earth, soaring straight into the clouds as if to pierce the sky.
Its lush branches and leaves spread wantonly in all directions, resembling an enormous green umbrella,
while the layers of tangled vines looked like countless slithering snakes, densely interwoven,
forming a massive, overwhelming net that shrouded everything around it,
exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.
This tree was no ordinary thing. Its trunk and vines were all stained a dark, brownish-red.
The color was rich and deep, as if over the long river of time,
it had been repeatedly soaked in thick, viscous blood that had then slowly dried with the merciless passage of years,
