Chapter Twenty-Four: Sacrifice

"Miss Yu?"

Shen Chang'an spoke softly, doing his best not to startle Yu Qingxian. Both he and Yu Qingxian wielded divine swords; if they were to truly clash, the people around them would surely perish. Shen Chang'an had broken into this place to save lives; if he ended up killing everyone here, his efforts would have been in vain.

Yu Qingxian seemed to have regained her composure. She dropped her blade, buried her head in her hands, and began to wail.

Shen Chang'an, however, dared not let his guard down. Yu Qingxian’s state was unstable, and he did not dare sheath his Withered Wood Sword. Her Brilliance Armor was far too formidable; without the sword, he felt certain he would die.

"Miss Yu, are you alright?"

Shen Chang'an’s voice reached her, but Yu Qingxian paid him no heed, continuing to sob uncontrollably.

The people around them remained frantic, their expressions twisted in madness. Shen Chang'an estimated that if he didn't intervene, these people would suffer from muscle spasms or even sudden death. He quickly approached a few of them and pulled out some spirit-calming talismans, affixing one to a person.

In an instant, the talisman ignited. The man let out a piercing, harrowing scream, his body shook violently, and he dropped dead right before Shen Chang'an’s eyes.

No, not dead—his body still possessed vital force, but his eyes were hollow and vacant, devoid of any spark of life.

"Soulless?"

Shen Chang'an was stunned. He immediately prepared to draw two soul-summoning talismans to call the man’s spirit back.

Just then, a voice came from behind him: "Do not bother. Their souls have long since been lost."

Shen Chang'an turned around. It was Yu Qingxian who had spoken. She had stood up at some point, though tears still streamed down her cheeks.

"What is it?" Shen Chang'an asked directly.

If a soul were merely lost, it could be summoned back. But since Yu Qingxian said it was unnecessary, the situation was likely far more dire. It was probable that something had seized their souls—or perhaps even consumed them.

"I don't know," Yu Qingxian replied, her tears continuing to flow. "I don't know... oh, how can I not know?"

Shen Chang'an felt a splitting headache. Yu Qingxian had regained her senses, yet she wasn't making any sense, leaving him unable to gauge the true nature of the problem.

"Miss Yu, please calm down. What exactly happened here?"

As a member of the Demon Cleansing Bureau, Yu Qingxian managed to suppress her grief and spoke in a low voice, explaining the situation.

Roughly a few days ago, while pursuing her target, she had tracked it all the way here. This place had originally been a village, and the estate they currently stood in was merely a part of it. The reason Shen Chang'an and Li Qingqing had seen no one on their way here was simple: every single villager had vanished.

Their disappearance was due to their worship of an evil god.

The practice of illicit sacrificial rites had existed since ancient times. In a world riddled with supernatural forces, such practices were impossible to eradicate, let alone in a world teeming with demons and heretical cults. This once-prosperous village had invited these calamities upon itself by welcoming an evil god.

"Inviting a god" was a tradition with deep roots. If a village was too impoverished or faced misfortune, the people would blame it on a lack of divine protection. Conversely, wealthy villages would invite deities to safeguard their fortunes. This usually involved paying a hefty price to famous temples to invite a consecrated statue of a deity to reside in the village.

In Shen Chang'an’s eyes, this was utterly absurd. Deities and Buddhas thrived on the incense of worship; without it, they could not manifest in the world. To remove a powerful deity from a temple bustling with incense offerings only deprived the deity of their source of power. If the deity didn't curse you for it, that was a blessing in itself—expecting protection was sheer folly. Relying on the residual power of the incense, the statue might hold out for two or three years at most. The practice was entirely unreliable.

Of course, this was only Shen Chang'an’s perspective. Raised under the influence of a modern, rational education, he held no reverence for heaven, earth, ghosts, or gods. But for the people of this world, deities were entities one dared not offend. Especially since true gods and Buddhas actually existed here, no one dared to cross them.

Shen Chang'an might not believe, but the villagers here did. Unfortunately, the entity they paid to invite was an evil god.

Under the influence of this evil god, the villagers soon lost their sense of self. The once-thriving village rapidly decayed. By the time they reached their wits' end, the villagers, instead of turning back, became even more fanatical in their devotion. They offered up everything they had, ultimately becoming trapped in a grotesque, illusory nightmare.

The barren, desolate landscape around them was a result of everything—the land itself—being sacrificed to the evil god.

Hearing this, Shen Chang'an’s scalp tingled. He had originally thought he and Li Qingqing had simply walked through a wasteland, never imagining that the vast expanse of land had been sacrificed to an evil deity. This god was neither picky nor merciful; it had spared nothing, from the houses to the very blades of grass.

The people who had performed the sacrifice were reduced to their current state: consumed by extreme madness, tearing and biting at each other, forever lost in the hallucinations. Their souls had already been devoured by the evil god. To attempt a rescue with external force would only result in saving a vegetable.

Yu Qingxian had arrived shortly before, when a few houses still stood. As the days passed, only this final estate remained. She herself had been affected, losing her reason and embarking on a killing spree, constantly slaughtering the maddened villagers.

Shen Chang'an frowned, about to speak, when he heard footsteps approaching. Then, with a clatter, a water flask hit the ground.

Shen Chang'an looked up to see Li Qingqing standing before them, staring at the two of them in stunned silence.

"Wow, Daoist, I know you don't abstain from meat, but I never expected you to be this bold!"

Shen Chang'an was slightly taken aback. Only then did he realize that when Yu Qingxian was sobbing earlier, she had involuntarily clung to him. No wonder Li Qingqing had misunderstood.