Chapter Nineteenth: Sacrifices and Offerings

  After Fu Chuan entered the mansion, he found that not only was Shi Yin Village getting colder and darker with each passing day, but also the eerie atmosphere was becoming increasingly heavier. To be honest, the feeling he got from this place was getting worse and worse with each passing day. Since birth, Fu Chuan had possessed a special ability to see yin and yang, as well as a more sensitive sense of smell than ordinary people. Although he hadn't seen any ghosts or monsters, the eerie atmosphere in this place made him feel extremely uncomfortable whenever he approached it, just like being forced to eat a large amount of pickled yellow cucumbers.

  Fuhe and Xing Chengtian both thought they should start investigating from that master, who didn't seem like a good man or woman at first glance, and was very strange. From the moment they arrived here, he couldn't wait to give them a warning shot and then let them leave. Then, a series of strange things happened outside the village.

  Fuhe and Xing Chengtian walked carefully on the small stone path in the village, Xing Chengtian glanced at his watch, exactly 8 o'clock, "This place is very strange."

  Fu Chuan also knew what Xing Chengtian meant by this, although it was a primitive forest, but it wasn't that they couldn't even light an oil lamp. The first time Fu Chuan came here, he saw people using the oldest oil lamps, those oil lamps were good stuff, making Fu Chuan's eyes hot, if those things were taken out and sold to auction houses, they could be sold for a lot of money.

  The village was very quiet, except for the occasional sound of crows and the howling of wild beasts. However, these wild beasts did not dare to approach here. Last time, Fu Chuan met a leopard outside the village, which had malicious intentions and wanted to pounce on him. But just as he slowly opened the iron gate of the village, thinking that even if the leopard attacked him, he could use the gate to defend himself, the leopard suddenly let out a loud roar and turned around, jumping into the woods and disappearing into the dense forest.

  It seems like there's something terrifying in the village, even wild beasts don't dare to get close.

  Xing Chengtian asked Fu Chuan: "This place is indeed very strange."

  Fu Xiang nodded and let Xing Chengtian be more careful, Xing Chengtian said he knew, Xing Chengtian took out his 'weapon' from his dark green canvas bag.

  If Fugawa wasn't mistaken, the so-called weapon should be the rattan stick he used to teach students in class, and Fugawa's hand was unknowingly placed on his own waist.

  Just then, a gust of wind blew through the forest, Fu Chuan pushed Xing Chengtian behind him and hid behind a thatched hut with him, making a gesture for silence.

  Fuhe and Xing Chengtian hid in the thicket, he lifted a corner of the large leaves, unexpectedly, what entered his eyes was a 'feast'.

  The grand feast was bloody, and even Fuchuan felt his stomach churning at the smell, let alone Xing Chengtian, a scholar who vomited on the spot. The master walked up to the cup suspended in front of the sacrificial offering hanging from the tree trunk.

  He didn't know what happened, but suddenly the man was splashed with something red and immediately woke up. Then he let out a non-stop, terrified scream, but couldn't form a complete sentence. If Pei Chuan hadn't seen anything wrong with his eyes, he thought the man's tongue had been cut off, because his open mouth was empty and there was blood all around it.

  Xing Chengtian asked Fu Chuan after vomiting: "What are they doing?"

  Fuhe's face was heavy with solemnity as he said in a low voice: "Sacrifice."

  "Human sacrifice?" Xing Chengtian knew that some mountain villages still maintained ancient sacrificial customs, but this was his first time seeing a human sacrifice with his own eyes. He had only read about it in books, including the Mayan culture's human sacrifices, which he thought were too cruel and inhumane. Now, witnessing it firsthand left Xing Chengtian with an indescribable feeling.

  "Are we not stopping them?" Xing Chengtian asked Fu Chuan, "Just watching them right in front of us?"

  Those people are Xingchen's classmates, they should have been caught after sneaking into the village last night. Xingchen looked at Fujiang's profile and said, "Fujiang, say something!" Xingchen knew that if Fujiang wanted to save them, he must have a way, but there were too many people on the other side. Xingchen took a look around and saw that almost everyone in the village was surrounding the altar, their eyes dull. At this moment, Fujiang pulled out two slices of pomelo leaves from his bag and pressed them onto Xingchen's eyebrows. He said, "They are not human at all."

  Xing Chengtian looked over with a puzzled gaze, and he was startled. Those people, apart from their dull eyes, also had a green glow seeping out of their eyes, and that gaze was like the ferocity of wild beasts. They were staring at the sacrificial altar where the corpse had already been dissected, and their eyes were filled with a craving for raw flesh.

  "What are they?!" Xing Chengtian finally understood why even Lian Fuchuan didn't dare to act rashly.

  The executioner took out a sharp little knife handed over by someone beside him. The person being hanged shouted but couldn't make a sound, and was already so scared that he urinated blood all over the floor. In the final scene, even Fei Chuan didn't dare to open his eyes. He lowered his head, only hearing the ear-piercing sound of disembowelment in the night, which seemed like a curse lingering in his ears.

  The executioner skillfully removed a complete set of internal organs, and when the organs were stripped away, the man had not yet completely died. He stared wide-eyed at his own organs being placed on the altar, looked in horror at everything, and then finally glared with wide eyes and spat out his last breath.

  The meat was naturally shared among the starving villagers, while the internal organs were thrown into the sacrificial altar by Fashi. The altar below should have a mechanism. Fu Chuan knew that not going to rescue people was very inhumane, and people would die right before his eyes. However, the guilt in Fu Chuan's heart only lasted for a moment. He knew he had more important things to do. So many times, although he felt guilty in his heart, he still knew that some things couldn't be blamed on him, even if it meant death. It was just that the eerie and terrifying atmosphere here suddenly ignited a thread of fear in Fu Chuan's heart. He had never been afraid of anything, especially those things that seemed mysterious and terrifying to others. From birth, he was entangled by an evil spirit, which entangled him until he was sixteen years old. That was a trial given by his family. If he could defeat the evil spirit, he would be a qualified heir of the Fu family. If he failed, he would be dragged into the eighteenth layer of hell to atone for the sins of the Fu family. People are selfish, especially when faced with life and death. The Fu family owed an apology to the vengeful evil spirit, but Fu Chuan wanted to live, so he could only defeat the evil spirit until it was soulless.

  Fuhe has always been someone who knows what he needs or should do, even when Xing Chengtian asks him, he doesn't care, saying: "I won't easily lend a hand to save strangers, it's their own fault, curiosity kills the cat."

  Xing Chengtian sometimes felt that Fu Chuan was too cold and hard, seemingly not understanding human emotions. He was sometimes nicer to ghosts than humans, but those things would harm people no matter the reason, he would beat them until their souls flew away, showing no mercy.

  Fuhe didn't know how long this ritual would last, so he said to Xing Chengtian: "I'll go take a look at what's under the altar, you go inside and see if there are any discoveries."

  Fu Chuan pointed at the large wooden house across from them, where they had been before, and said something. Xing Cheng Tian got up, telling Fu Chuan to be careful, and Fu Chuan nodded in response, saying "good".

  As Fuhe drilled deeper into the jungle, he grasped the necklace around his neck tightly. The necklace was given to him by Li Baobao and had been a family heirloom of the Li family, but it ended up being worn by him instead. He still remembered that it was many years ago when he was still being haunted by evil spirits, Li Baobao put the necklace on him.

  Fu Chuan, even if he was mixed up, had a pure land in his heart that belonged to Li Bao Bao. However, he also knew what kind of person Li Bao Bao was - she should be like an ordinary woman, finding a man who loved and pampered her, getting married, having children, and living a life free from worries with the assets left by the Li family. Fu Chuan was also a god stick, but the path he wanted to take was completely different from Li Bao Bao's. So over the years, he had rejected Li Bao Bao many times. Now, he couldn't tell whether Li Bao Bao still liked him or only hated him after being hurt by him so badly. Actually, Fu Chuan thought that hate was also a kind of emotion.

  Fu Chuan snuck into the crowd while they were savoring the delicious food, and since the altar was next to a thicket of trees, he easily approached it. The master seemed to be muttering something under his breath as his followers enjoyed their meal, but Fu Chuan couldn't understand what he was saying - probably even Xing Chengtian wouldn't be able to translate it completely. However, judging from the master's entranced expression, Fu Chuan felt that there must be something drawing them in. He looked towards the altar, which was made of hard granite, and reached his hand inside. It was indeed hollow, and Fu Chuan thought that if he wasn't mistaken, the altar should lead to a place where he would find the answers he sought.

  Fu Chuan's sudden leap interrupted the Taoist priest's monologue. The priest saw that it was Fu Chuan who had come to cause trouble and immediately swept his hand, causing the villagers to rush towards Fu Chuan with ferocious expressions. Fu Chuan didn't want to waste time on them, as it would be easy to deal with these mindless zombies. What he needed to do now was to try and gain as much time as possible. Fu Chuan kicked out at the priest in mid-air, "Evil monk, I'll settle with you another day!"

  After finishing, Fu Chuan fell into the altar and disappeared without a trace. The villagers were even more afraid to approach the altar.

  The monk stood under the blood-red moonlight and suddenly revealed a sinister smile at the corner of his mouth, saying: "Then let God punish you!"

  Fu Chuan slid down the passageway of the sacrificial altar, not knowing where he would end up. However, the smell in this tunnel was really bad, with a mix of rot and blood that made Fu Chuan feel nauseous.

  Bang!

  Fuhe finally landed, but his feet trampling on skulls and dry bones made him feel nauseous wave after wave. What kind of place is this?! The four-sided ceiling seemed to have only the passageway he slid down from earlier as a way back.