Returning from the abyss

Chapter 1330: The Three Sacrifices

Whenever water drops fell from the eaves, Lu Ning always felt as if footsteps were approaching.

She sat in her room, her mind almost completely occupied by the contents of the jade plate. The only thing she could sense about the outside world was the sound of dripping water by her ears.

This gave her the illusion that she was "soaking".

She has been in this environment for some time. All the "points" of information stored in the jade plate made Lu Ning finally feel how much useless things a city can accumulate in a day. Even with her targeted screening, she was unable to organize the vast amount of information.

The experience of having been the God of Creation and having fought against the God of Creation was of no use here. Lu Ning knew that this was not her problem. She withdrew from the network of messy information and put some of her energy back into perceiving the outside world.

"This way, Duan Long will not stop me... Strange judgment criteria. I am just too tired." Lu Ning turned her head slightly and looked out the window. The moon did not shift much, which meant that she did not take long to process the information.

Better than the first time, when it took her about a moment to stop thinking of herself as a tree.

"There are traces left everywhere, instead of no trace at all. Where did the people go? What devoured them? If so many people are missing, why is there no response? Are these missing people all without relatives or friends?"

Lu Ning circulated his internal energy and slowly recovered the energy he had consumed.

The information of "dots" can only be stored for three days at most, so what Lu Ning can read is actually three days of information, which is the days after Xingyin City was opened.

During this period of time, Lu Ning counted more than a dozen people who disappeared into the city soon after entering it, and the real number must be much higher. She had never thought of becoming an official in the palace, so she had never thought of actually completing Jiang Yao's mission.

She just couldn't see how many human factors were hidden in this. The water in Xingyin City was too turbid. Even if she wanted to overturn the table, she didn't have the ability to do so.

At this time, there was another sound of dripping water.

On a winter night, with the outdoor temperature, would water really fall? Even if the snow on the eaves melted, it should be during the day. When Lu Ning left and came back today, she did not see any icicles hanging.

Although she noticed this anomaly, Lu Ning did not actually go to the window to take a look.

"How many abnormal situations are there around me right now? When was I being targeted?"

=
At the same time, the main show at Changqing Building was over and it was time to disperse.

Shen Yunzhu returned to the backstage, opened the door of her room, and saw Wen Rong sitting inside.

"You're here." He was not surprised and bowed. "I thought you..."

"I didn't find the beggar or the peddler." Wen Rong said.

"I haven't seen them for several days. They must have died in the chaos in the city." Shen Yunzhu didn't have any feelings of sadness or joy. "My benefactor, I will listen to you, but as for those two, I can just ask them a question occasionally, but there's no reason for me to care about their life or death."

"How they died is very important." Wen Rong said, "Since you were lying in wait, you must have noticed the situation in the city. Even though the emperor has arrived in Xingyin City, there are still doubts."

"If it is your order..."

"No, it's not my order. Shen Yunzhu, don't you feel something strange?" Wen Rong frowned and looked at the Qingyi. "I remember that you were the first Qingyi in Changqinglou. Why are you joining another troupe now?"

"My benefactor may not know the rules of opera performance." Shen Yunzhu smiled. "It has always been a combination of strong forces, and good birds choose trees to roost in. The new troupe boss is a capable man with an amazing voice. If I am paired with the original heads of Changqinglou, it will definitely become the top troupe in Xingyin City."

Wen Rong frowned.

"My benefactor, I am not a big shot. I just want to perform well in my life, so I will not let go of this opportunity. You may look down on me, but..."

"No, it's not this." Wen Rong pointed at the wall, "What is that?"

"Ah... Tomorrow, Changqinglou will perform for the emperor." Shen Yunzhu stood up and took off the mask on the wall. "It is also to make a good start for the water and land ceremony. Therefore, everyone wears a mask..."

He put the white sheep head mask on his head.

"In the past, this kind of sacrifice required three animals, but now, pigs, cows, and sheep have each taken their place. Benefactor, this is my great fortune. One day I will be a famous actor who has sung for the emperor! Hahahaha!"

=
As the stench spread, Ning Ke suddenly opened his eyes and found himself in the southeast corner of Xingyin City, where few ordinary people were willing to go.

In the past, this was a gathering place for refugees, beggars, thieves and swindlers. Even earlier, it was a residential area for civilians. After the current governor of Xingyin came, it became worse and worse and has fallen into its current state.

However, as far as Ning Ke knows, this place should have been tidied up in order to welcome the Holy Emperor. Could it be that the so-called tidiness was just to clear out the people and not clean up the place at all?
Just as she was about to move, she heard bursts of baby crying.

Ning Ke paused for a moment.

Although she was 99% sure that the crying sound came from the demon named "Zaochi", she could not let go of the possibility that the demon really had tied a baby here.

"Demon-suppressing officer, you'd better be careful. Don't you know why you are here?" he said in a low voice with angry eyes.

"Trace... where the missing people went."

"The fellow you called Zaochi might have some blood of ancient fierce beasts. Even if he is not a demon king now, he is probably at the level of a demon general. The demons did everything they could to bring him here. They must have a purpose."

"Those people were fed?"

"I'm not sure." Numu chuckled, "But I suggest you be careful."

"I know it very well." Ning Ke walked towards the direction where the baby's crying came from, and took out the compass at the same time.

The further she walked inside, the more she could smell the stench. It was not just one type of stench, but a mixture of excrement, corpses, garbage, and other odors. Ning Ke even felt that it was a bit irritating to the eyes.

Behind a row of houses, she vaguely saw a huge figure lying on the ground.

When she saw Zaochi, an intuition told her that Zaochi had also seen her.

"Hey!" An angry man suddenly stretched out an arm, and his huge palm grabbed in the air, colliding with a puff of black smoke. Then, Ning Ke felt the world spinning, and in an instant, a row of yellow teeth like millstones pressed down from the sky. With a bang, the teeth collided, but did not bite Ning Ke.

"No matter what, unless you are a demon king, you won't have the ability to bite someone to death."

Ning Ke had already appeared on the back of the crouching monster, but she did not stay there for too long because the feeling under her feet was like mud. If she stood there for too long, she would inevitably sink into it.

Zaochi's appearance is a wild boar as big as a hill, but unlike the monster that was killed in the mountains of southern Xinjiang before, this appearance is not Zaochi's body at all.

The dissolved human bodies, garbage and filth together formed the body of "Zaochi". It didn't even have an obvious head. Every part of it could be used to generate senses, and every piece of its body could emit that kind of black smoke. The smoke also had a physical body. I'm afraid that many of the victims before were scooped up by this black smoke and sucked into the body of Zaochi.

Ning Ke rubbed the fire talisman in mid-air, and the copper coin sword fell with flames, instantly cutting through the muddy mass of mud. The flames were injected into the chisel teeth, immediately triggering a series of violent explosions, blowing away all the dirt.

Zaochi roared, and a large number of yellow teeth appeared out of thin air, pressing towards Ning Ke. Ning Ke felt the touch of the attack just now, and immediately disappeared from the spot, leaving his teeth biting into nothing again.

"I'm not going to catch those things! Even I will be absorbed if I'm not careful!" The angry roar was still echoing in the air, and Ning Ke descended from the sky with flames again, and stabbed a sword into the place where Zaochi's head seemed to be. As the flames poured in, the whole head was burned flat.

Then, the fire remained, but the person had disappeared.

"I feel a little dizzy—"

The third time she appeared, Ning Ke appeared behind Zaochi. She had shaped a giant flaming sword that was nearly three meters long. She swung it down as soon as she appeared. It was not even a slash, but a forceful pressure like that of a door panel. The stench was instantly covered by the smell of burning, and the layer of sludge was shaved off.

"Haven't found it yet? I can't adapt to your speed!"

"Shut up."

The four-directional talismans exploded at the same time, wrapping up the chisel teeth. The entire abandoned building was burned into rubble by the flames, but there was no sense of demonic aura in the remaining ashes.

The angry and cursing voice suddenly stopped: "Not here? That's not right, how could it only have one fake clone here?"

"Ran."

"It can run away in front of you? What kind of monster is this?"

"It's not a clone, it's a substitute." Ning Ke took out a red pill and threw it into the mask's mouth, "But I have already grasped its location. This kind of monster won't have many substitutes."

"Wait, are you going to—————— again?"

The angry voice was stretched out by time and disappeared in the wind.

In a ditch, in the mud, a demon the size of a puppy was digging in the mud.

It looked like a newborn baby. If it wasn't covered in mud, its body would be white like a baby. But on its head was a pig-like head, with only its mouth visible. This was the true form of "Zaochi". Perhaps no one would have thought that a man-eating monster would be this small.

It sensed the danger and realized that the so-called random hunting ground was simply a scam. It prepared to go along the gutter back to the wild area it was familiar with. Even if it did not eat as much as it did now, there would not be a very powerful guy suddenly looking for it.

In the past, there were some capable people who came to find it, but no one could avoid its teeth... Today's person, even it couldn't track its movements.

No, wait a minute.

Zaochi's sense of smell is actually very sharp. It smelled a hint of fragrance amidst the rotten stench. Only food has such a characteristic.

It’s the “food” just now.

It is being hunted by "food".

Zaochi raised his head and arched his mouth out of the mud. The teeth that had crushed countless people suddenly appeared, but only a cold light with fire swept across. The pain from the teeth was no longer important. The flame rolled its small body out of the mud, and then the golden light cut off its head.

Mud splashed out from the broken surface, and the decapitated body had turned into mud when it fell to the ground.

"That's how I ran just now." Ning Ke slowly retracted the sword.

"Ha, but it can't escape this time. After all, no matter whether it's real or fake, you really cut off its head." Numou echoed.

=
In Changqing Building, Wen Rong had already reached out and held down the masked Shen Yunzhu.

His head had been opened by Wen Rong, and the memories inside were already cloudy and looked severely polluted. Wen Rong would definitely not eat such memories. She also knew that there were serious problems in the troupe, and they might even be caused by the new troupe leader.

But Wen Rong was not completely ignorant of demons now. With the knowledge that the seven demon kings had forced upon her along the way, she knew that such a complex method was probably something that only demon generals or even demon kings could do. And no matter which one, she could not defeat them in a head-on battle. Now that the Soul Reflection Mirror was not at hand, she was worried that she would not be able to trick the class leader with just the "Execution After Autumn", and would end up losing more than she gained.

"I finally found a few men, but they are all gone... Alas." Wen Rong slowly closed the blue-clothed man's skull. She knew that many of his words were sincere. If not, he would not be so easily deceived. However, it seems that even a civilian with some ambitions cannot escape the disaster of Xingyin.

She took off her mask and said to the corpse, "I'll help you investigate. As for revenge...it depends on the situation. I may not have the ability to do that."

Then she opened the door and left, and no one knew she had ever been to Changqing Building.

=
Lu Ning finally stood up and walked to the window.

She had been waiting for a long time, but apart from some miserable cries, nothing else happened, which made her wonder if something else was happening.

Finally, when she felt it was a bit silly to keep waiting, she decided to see what was going on.

There was a demon's head hanging on the eaves, with blood flowing from its eye sockets. With the help of the faint moonlight, Lu Ning could see that the head looked like a bull's head. And where the blood fell, ghosts appeared, making waves of cries.

"It's not doing its job well." A voice came from above Lu Ning's head, "I haven't encountered you for so long, so I'll have to deal with it myself."

With a whoosh, a bunch of black hair fell, and a pair of purple eyes suddenly appeared in front of Lu Ning, only a few inches away.

"I am visiting you at night, please forgive me for disturbing you. My name is Night Traveler, and I have come to see the person I met during Day Travel."