I'm a villain, not a devil

Chapter 730 The ritual of sacrifice

A quarrel was taking place in the city's meeting room.

The man named Shan slammed the table and roared, "No one is willing to take over Lin's mantle, because they all know that taking over the mantle means taking over the life and death of the Shadow Clan! I took it, and I chose to risk my life - now, you tell me that you are going to do nothing and continue to survive like this?"

An elderly woman tapped her cane, and the muffled "dong dong dong" sound on the damp and old floor was annoying to hear.

She was not angry at the other person's roar, but said in a calm tone: "Shan, you have taken over the mantle, and we are proud of you - but have you ever thought that everyone sitting here has taken over the mantle of someone who has passed away?"

Another old man also looked calm: "It's not that we haven't tried, but no matter how many times we tried, there was no change. Instead of tormenting the tribesmen, it is better to release resources as much as possible to make everyone's life easier. Anyway, the tribesmen have adapted to the high temperature of the scorching sun and the slumber of the shadow sun. Maybe we are a race that exists like this."

The other elders did not speak, but judging from their attitudes, they seemed to have almost the same meaning.

Shan shook his head in disappointment. He gritted his teeth and said, "I have lived through five Shadow Days and five Burning Days. They call me the backbone of the tribe. Ha, which tribe's backbone has an actual lifespan of nearly a hundred years? The next Shadow Day will come in six years and six months, and it will be another Burning Day in another six years and six months. By then, I will be over a hundred years old. How about you? You will be close to two hundred years old and you will die at any time."

"By then, no one in the Shadow Tribe will be able to master the sacrificial ritual, and no one will be able to try to break free from fate. Will our people have to live in this cycle from now on?"

The woman just now shook her head: "Perhaps this is not our destiny, but the form of our existence - at least, in the alternation of the Burning Sun and the Shadow Sun, our clan can still survive..."

Shan rudely interrupted the old man and asked, "Live? I was born in Burning Sun. During the six years of Burning Sun, the entire Qiuying tribe had nearly 20,000 newborns. Can you tell me how much new blood was born in the tribe during the last Burning Sun?"

No one answered. Shan angrily slammed the wooden table and said, "Let me tell you, there are less than four thousand! In just five scorching days, the number of newborns in our tribe has decreased by four-fifths! What about this scorching day? What about the next scorching day? What about the next one? How many reincarnations can our Shadow Clan hold out for?!"

Still no one answered, but the fatigue on the old men's faces revealed their thoughts.

Fighting against fate is so tiring that they don't want to go on any more.

This recollection ended unpleasantly. The newly appointed member of the "recording team" Shan left a lot of disappointed and irritable words, and finally left angrily.

After everyone had dispersed, the two old men and women who had spoken at the beginning looked at each other, and the former sighed slightly: "The mountain... is exactly the same as when we first took office."

The latter just pursed his lips and said in a deep voice: "But in the end, he will understand, and he will become like us... lingering on... Oh, if there is a glimmer of hope, who would be willing to live like this..."

The elderly woman slowly raised her head and looked at the dazzling sun through the broken hole in the ceiling.

She didn't narrow her eyes, but just murmured: "It is said that as long as the fire is bright enough, the gods in the sky will see it and save us, the Qiuying Clan, from this situation... So many years have passed, and we have lit countless fires, and the number of our people who have died is incalculable... But are there really gods in the sky?"

The two fell into a long silence.

No one knows whether there are gods in heaven, but Sean, who heard the entire conversation from the roof, was sitting cross-legged under the eaves, thinking silently.

After deciphering the other party's language, he naturally began to collect information.

This group of leaders, called the 'Record Group', was older than he had imagined.

However, finding the Shadow Clan is more difficult than he had imagined. They disappear for half of every thirteen years, and judging from the situation, all kinds of accidents will happen during the time of disappearance.

For a race, this is not only a problem of slowing down the pace of racial development, but also makes the survival of the entire race difficult.

However, from what they said, the Shadow Clan seemed to have a special sacrificial ceremony. Combined with the traces I had seen before, the ceremony scene that was exactly the same as the Golden Dawn's sacrificial ceremony should be what they left behind.

Are the Shadow Clan using such rituals to try to awaken the gods?

This ceremony of the Golden Dawn does have the meaning of offering tribute to the gods, but the church of the Golden Dawn ultimately points to the evil god Wanmu, or in other words, to the skinning messenger who was originally born from the World Tree.

Now both of them are dead, and both died at Sean's hands.

A strange idea suddenly occurred to Sean. Could it be that Wanmu or the Skinning Messenger had traveled to this world before and left behind a miracle here, which was believed by the Shadow-Seeking Clan to be a miracle that could save them?
However, He then returned to the starry sky... The sacrifice ritual for the Shadow Clan required breaking through the barriers of the world and then the barriers of the starry sky to contact the other party. How could this signal connect? It was impossible to dial the Lord's phone at all.

However, if Wanmu had successfully descended into the world, then the sacrifice ceremony of the Shadow Clan would only need to break through the barriers of the world. Perhaps, as the first god to descend, Wanmu might really have received the signal.

However, all the trees are dead, so no one will receive the signal even if it is sent out.

So, is it my fault?

Sean raised his eyebrows and didn't care. The origin of the Shadow Seekers was unclear, and it had nothing to do with him whether to destroy the tribe or not. Even if he was really kind, this was just a projection, and who knew what the real Shadow Seekers looked like now.

However, Sean still had to face a problem - how was he going to get out?
Sean had entered projection fragments in the past, but those fragments were too small, so small that the person entering could easily escape if his mental power was strong enough.

This complete projection point is different. Sean has tried it many times, but every time his mental power expands outward and tries to contact the etheric layer, he will be blocked by a barrier. Sean suspects that it is because the complete projection point has also projected the operating rules of the original world, so he cannot penetrate it.

If you want to get out, you must first find a way to open a hole in this invisible barrier.

“Could it be that we really have to resort to a sacrificial ritual? Let the gods outside the world see the sacrifices. When they cast their gazes upon them, the barrier should undergo some changes…”

Sean has always been a man of action. He no longer paid attention to the movements of the Shadow Seekers and went straight out of the city.

After searching around, Sean captured the most powerful creatures nearby.

"We have the sacrifice. The key is, to whom should we sacrifice it?"

The rituals that Sean currently masters can point to several target gods. Of course, they are all old acquaintances, Gao Zi, the Self, Blood Battle, the Holy Spirit Lord... Oh, yes, and his old friend the God of Oath.

"Old friends are more reliable..."

Among the numerous gods in the starry sky, most of them have grudges against him. People like Gao Zi and Ben I hate him to the core. To be on the safe side, he should go and find the God of Oaths.

After placing the offerings, Sean began the ritual he had learned from his puppet Roth. After a while, he raised his head to the sky in confusion.

"It shouldn't be..."

Back then, the gaze of the God of Oaths could enter the consciousness space created by the Corrupt Swamp, and there was no need for sacrifices at that time. This time, I offered several crimson-level holy objects, so why is there no movement at all?
Sean tried to spread his mental power out, and soon he touched the invisible barrier.

There was no movement at the barrier, probably because no one was knocking on the door.

"Hiss, it doesn't work within the projection point?"

Sean waited for a while, but when there was no response, he had no choice but to give up.

If old friends don’t work, then try old enemies.

This time, Sean's target of sacrifice was changed to his ego. Relatively speaking, his ego was not as crazy as Gao Zhi. Moreover, his ego was in the starry sky while Gao Zhi was in the abyss. The response ceremony for the former should be simpler.

In the end, there was still no movement.

With a bad premonition in his heart, Sean called out to all the gods he could, and finally called Gao Zhi.

The first few people remained silent, but Gao Zhi did give some response.

The invisible barrier that Sean's mental power touched suddenly vibrated, as if a madman was knocking on the door outside.

However, the 'big iron gate' here was extremely solid. Even though the barrier was banged loudly, no cracks appeared.

In the end, the person who was "knocking on the door" outside left helplessly, leaving only the culprit who "called" Him to come over inside the house.

The corners of Sean's mouth couldn't help but twitch. Gao Zhi really hated himself for investing in the company, but no matter how hard he knocked on the door, even a crack wouldn't appear.

"Useless things..." Sean cursed angrily and turned his gaze to the innocent sacrifices who died tragically on the ground.

He stared at the corpse in a daze, feeling a little helpless.

"Tsk, the method should be correct, but why can't these gods cast their eyes? Is it because of the peculiarity of this world, or because they are not strong enough? This shouldn't be the case. Gao Zhi can knock on the door like this, and the God of Oath is a certified righteous god... Is it really a problem of the world?"

Just as Sean was feeling distressed, his mental power, which had been spreading out and had not been retracted, suddenly keenly sensed a slight change.

The barrier just loosened a little?
Sean narrowed his eyes slightly and did not make any noise. Instead, he flew quickly and quietly towards the direction where the barrier had changed.

As he got closer, as expected, his mental power clearly sensed that a barrier had just loosened, and it was not the looseness that was caused by being broken. According to his perception, it was the barrier that opened by itself?
He observed his surroundings calmly and vigilantly, and after making sure that it was not a trap targeting him, he quickly spread his mental power away.

Unexpectedly, as soon as Sean's mental power touched the edge of the loose pass, the surrounding barriers immediately shook and instantly closed in.

too fast!
Mental power is invisible, but it is not completely illusory. The narrow gap is not enough to allow Sean's mental power to come out all at once, and the speed at which it shrinks back is too fast, almost cutting Sean's mental power into two!

Fortunately, Sean was fully focused, so he was able to retract his mental power at the last moment and avoid damage to his consciousness.

Looking at the barrier that was rushing towards becoming one, Sean frowned.

If they can escape with a partially damaged consciousness, then so be it. At worst, they can use a deceitful heart to temporarily eliminate the damage, and then deal with the damage and the price together after returning to the base camp.

However, the narrow passage was too small, and the mental power that came out was too weak to drag out Sean's entire consciousness.

"No, the hole is not big enough. This hole needs to be expanded at least four or five times to allow all my mental power to escape at once... If I risk damaging my consciousness, the hole needs to be expanded at least twice as much."

But how did this hole suddenly appear?
Sean slowly descended and found himself back above the Shadow Seekers' city.

He lowered his head and searched, and found that on a plain on the outskirts of the city, the 'Mountain' was kneeling on the ground and praying alone.

Sean was shocked. Could one person's prayer open the barrier here?

He hid his body and looked over, and found that the way Shan was praying was an abbreviated version of the Golden Dawn's sacrifice ceremony. The other party was sacrificing his own vitality to beg for guidance from the gods.

Of course, he got no response.

The weak Shan raised his head helplessly. He looked up at the sky blankly and angrily, muttering to himself:

"Why, why can't we get any response from you despite our piety? If you really exist, why don't you even look at us?"

Finally, he stood up weakly and staggered into the city.

Sean's eyes lit up slightly. "Could it be that only the natives of this world can open this barrier and beg for the attention of the gods? This is indeed possible to be imprinted in the rules of the world..."

However, the mountain’s prayer ceremony is the simplest one, and there is no sacrifice. How can the barrier be opened?
Sean looked around and soon discovered that the ground where they knelt during the prayer ceremony was right above the bodies that were being exposed to the sun for funerals.

Not only had he seen the dead old man before, but during the time when Sean had just performed those rituals, a number of Shadow-Seeking Clan members whose lifespans had reached the end had also passed away. They were all sent to the same place to be exposed in the sun, providing nutrients to the scorching sun.

"The body that just died can indeed be used as a sacrifice... Shan's unintentional prayer just happens to meet the minimum requirements of the ceremony?"

Sean's eyes became brighter.

This proves that the rituals performed by the Shadow Clan have always been useful!
But his previous speculation was correct. The ritual was useful, but there was no god who could respond.

(End of this chapter)