In Ricas' memory, the earth often begins to wake up when the sand is white, but it became restless early this morning, which seemed to indicate that this was an unusual day.
“You must remember that His teachings are the most beautiful notes, and His steps are the most exciting drums.”
Likas clasped his hands together, bowed his head and stood before the chanter Behind him, there was soft yellow sand under his feet. In front of him, behind him, on the left and right sides, there was an endless sea of sand. The air was scalding hot from the scorching sun, and the scorching heat tried every means to penetrate the defense line of his light yellow robe and invade his pores.
He couldn't concentrate. It was too hot here, and there was gravel under his feet that could burn his skin. Apart from the sound of the wind, the only thing left in his ears was his mentor and his steady chanting voice.
Wearing a white robe and a white turban, the chanter spread a piece of white cloth on the gravel, then knelt down, facing the direction of the rising sun, chanting and bending down. In addition to the "little chanter" Licas, there were more than a hundred people from the entire caravan, but they had no mats. The only thing that could isolate them from the hot gravel was their robes.
No one knows the chanter's real name, not even the servant who cleans his tent, nor his disciples, because once he becomes a servant of the Sun Emperor, people can only call that person "the chanter", and in the end Those who have prestige and live up to 80 years will be called great chanters.
Ricas learned from the chanter when he was 6 years old. Now at 15 years old, he is not too young. He has short gray hair, hands with protruding blood vessels, and is relatively strong compared to his peers. Physique and steady chanting voice.
Although he has read the passage he is reciting countless times, Ricas still does not really understand it because the meaning is really obscure and the language recited is far different from the language of his tribe. As a 15-year-old boy, he could only understand the most superficial meaning - He is the Lord of all people, the master of the stars and the sky, He is the eternally burning two-headed eagle, and only one who is completely loyal to Him will Only in this way can we avoid the demons in the dark night from invading our souls, and only then can we ascend to a paradise full of sweet milk and oases after death.
Of course, Ricas is not without any problems. Sometimes he also wonders, what will be above the stars? Besides heaven? Is the bloody battle between angels and demons described in the Solar Sutra true?
The tutor never cleared up his doubts and even told him not to think about it.
"Just memorize it."
One of the most important criteria for becoming a chanter is to be able to recite an entire thick "Sun Sutra". This is not only the only classic of the sect; It is faith, which also includes laws and lifestyles that people must abide by. It can be said that the "Sun Sutra" is the foundation of Atta's civilized world.
Soon, the morning classes were over, and the caravans were busy again. They had to reach the next hiding place before the sun hung directly above their heads, otherwise the wrath of the Sun Emperor would turn them all into Mummy corpses in the sea of sand.
This is the world that Likas lives in. Everyone must accept the harsh test of the sun from the day they are born.
As the chanter taught, He was never a gracious host.
His people call their world Atta, which translates to a somewhat vulgar word - Ship of Sand. Even before Ricas started to become a little chanter, he didn't know what "rain" was. His mentor explained that it was the greatest mercy of the Sun Emperor, that is, the precious water would rain down from the sky, and the last time it happened Ganlin is said to have happened two thousand years ago.
At least as far as Ricas knows and sees, their world is only deserts, deserts, and mountains with no vegetation. The temperature during the day is enough to kill people, and the cold at night is extremely deadly. There shouldn't be any life in this situation.
However, people are always tenacious. How the earliest ancestors survived is long gone history, but those caves dug in the rolling mountains are the oldest civilization relics in the world. In this place that is burned by the scorching sun. Under the baked world, there is still a small world enough for life to live in. The ancestors kept digging downwards and finally found an underground river that was said to be born in the far north. They called it the Weichuan River because in ancient times According to myth, this underground river was carved out by a giant underground worm.
In fact, from Likas' point of view, the incredibly smooth underground passages did not look like they could be carved by worms. He even noticed the spiral carvings that had been almost erased by time.
But no matter what, this underground river gave birth to the life of this dry world, and also built the rare civilization in this world.
Due to the complexity and darkness of the underground world, as well as the huge gap caused by the terrain of the underground river, this world has not formed a unified country in the general sense. Most civilizations exist in the form of tribes and small city-states. The settlements are often built in the temperate zones of the northern and southern hemispheres far away from the equator and the poles, and most of them are built around the huge underground caves in the desert. Complex semi-underground cities are even built directly along the huge mouth-like caves, so that you can enjoy Sunlight and the cultivation of breadfruit, their most needed food crop, and easy access to water from deep underground.
Although the terrain and climate have caused most settlements to be isolated, the success of people domesticating a large drought-tolerant beast of burden called Shahan more than a thousand years ago enabled long-distance trade. became possible, so caravans of all sizes were born.
With the rise of the caravans, the Sun Cult also emerged. The Shahan Beast was one of the gifts brought by these messengers who were said to come from the stars. They brought not only the Solar Sutra, but also the world. civilization, which also caused the golden double-headed eagle symbol to be quickly erected in most tribes and city-states in the world of Atta.
Well, of course, coming from the stars is just a legend. The earliest batch of missionaries of the religious order have long been turned into withered bones in the mausoleum. Where they came from will always be a mystery.
Anyway, Ricas didn't know, and he didn't intend to get into trouble with his mentor. After all, he was not a chanter at his age. If it weren't for the sake of his dead father, his mentor might have told him that he was not. He is talented in this area. This time he followed the caravan to Saka City. On the one hand, the mentor wanted to attend a religious sect meeting, and on the other hand, he was asked to take one last sutra chanting assessment - the Sun Cult has no upper and lower classes, and chanting sutras Teachers are all equal in principle, and the title of "Grand Reciter" is just an honorary title. Their only power is to "bind the head" and "pass the message" to a reciter, which is to grant the qualification of a formal reciter.
But Ricas himself doesn’t have much confidence. If it doesn’t work this time, then when he is about to turn 16, he will have to take off his chanting robe and go back to his hometown to make a living and marry a wife. But for a fatherless person like him It might be a bit difficult for a motherless idle man.
Or he can also become a city-state guard or a ranch bodyguard. Although he is not good at endorsements, he is still good at dancing with guns.
Soon, the whole temporary camp was boiling. The coolies were trying to lift a man taller than two people, with scales and coarse hair on their bodies, thick limbs, necks raised high, and a hairy head on their head. The flat, hard-beaked Shahan beast was dragged out of the burrow.