Primordial Era: Starting with slaughtering all the gods and Buddhas in the sky

The cold wind from the outer layer of Zhou Mountain's main ridge seeped down from the cracks in the rocks, like the back of a knife scraping against bones, carrying a damp, rusty, and old well mud smell. Huang Chen lay behind a cracked rock, his fingertip pressing against an old, yellowed map of the mountain's ridge. Several faded ink lines on the map meandered along the mountain's belly, finally plunging into a black dot—the Abyss Eye Sacrifice Site.

Li Chenshuo squatted down beside him, his right hand pressing on the broken spear, his voice kept very low.

"Go down from here, first cross the abandoned canal, then cross three sunken bridges."

Previously, this area was under the jurisdiction of the Gonggong Department, but later the priest was replaced, and the patrol route was also changed somewhat.

He raised his hand and tapped the picture three times.

"These three places resemble the guiding wells in the old diagrams. If the sacrificial site still operates according to the old methods, the mother talisman node is likely to be nearby."

'

Huang Chen nodded without saying a word.

He put away the old pulse map, flipped his palm, and the Wind-Stabilizing Pearl silently rose up, its faint blue light enveloping the two of them and flattening the swirling yin wind nearby.

The next instant, he activated the Concealing Breath Technique, causing his blood, breath, and spiritual pressure to sink downwards, like a piece of cold iron buried in the night.

Li Chenshuo glanced at him.

"I'll stay on the outer layer to provide support."

"What if the war drums sound inside?"

'

Huang Chen pushed the black wind cloak back and whispered, "Then don't wait for my signal. Take the people outside who can meet us and get out first."

Li Chenshuo's lips twitched, a gesture that sounded like both a smile and a curse.

"Every time you go into a place like this, you say something unlucky."

Huang Chen didn't respond to that, but instead slid down, disappearing into the darkness through the crack in the abandoned drainage ditch.

It's colder down inside the mountain than outside.

It wasn't ordinary cold, but a damp chill infused with the yin energy of water veins, seeping into the skin and flesh, making even the bone marrow tighten.

The walls of the abandoned ditch were covered with black moss, which made the soles of my boots sticky when I stepped on it. Occasionally, there were small pieces of bone mixed in with the mud, which made a soft crunching sound under my feet.

Huang Chen paused for two breaths and listened intently.

The faint sound of dripping water could be heard from ahead, along with heavy, rhythmic drumbeats from further away, as if someone were striking the bottom of a deep well with a bone mallet covered in animal hide.

thump.

Thump. Thump.

The sound came through the stone layers; it wasn't loud, but it still caused a muffled tremor in the chest.

Huang Chen followed the abandoned ditch along the wall, and the further he went in, the stronger the fishy smell became.

When he peeked out from behind a half-collapsed archway, the entire Abyss Eye sacrificial site finally came into view.

Below is a huge sunken cave.

Dozens of black water stone bridges extend into the center from all directions. The bridge surfaces are slippery, and the railings are inlaid with twisted ancient patterns, resembling some kind of skinned spine. In the center of the cave, there is a circular abyss, where black water slowly swirls and makes a low swallowing sound. Around it stand nine thick, broken pillars of the ancestral witch, dark red blood light seeping from the cracks in the pillars, illuminating the entire sacrificial site in an intermittent light.

On both sides of the stone bridge, there are rows of soul-binding stone wells.

Each well was nailed with iron rings, bone ropes, and sacrificial troughs.

There were humans and mixed-blood witch slaves, chained to the well, their clothes tattered, their faces pale. Some had already fainted, while others still had their eyes open, their pupils filled with agonizing fear.

A grayish-white, resentful mist kept rising above the wellhead.

The fog didn't drift; instead, it crawled out like a living thing, twisting along the stone railing and occasionally sneaking into the noses and mouths of the offerings, causing them to convulse.

Huang Chen frowned and raised his hand to activate the Wind-Stabilizing Pearl.

The pearly light spread silently, like an invisible net, gently pressing down on the nearest few wells.

The swirling, resentful mist abruptly stopped, forcefully pressed back to the edge of the well, and stopped spreading outwards.

He didn't move immediately.

The place was too large, and there were many guards. Every twenty feet or so at the bridgehead stood a Gonggong warrior in black armor, with a short blade hanging at his waist and a bone hook on his back.

On the altar further away, several fire-bearing sacrificial soldiers were pouring dark red liquid into stone troughs, as if feeding the entire sacrificial site with blood.

Huang Chen lowered his body and slowly moved his gaze upwards.

The central altar was three zhang higher than the surrounding altars, and a thick, water-colored sacrificial curtain hung from it. Behind the curtain sat a person.

The man was wearing a Gonggong sacrificial robe, its color a deep blue, with fine, dense mirage patterns embroidered along the edges, making it almost unrecognizable without close inspection. He was tall and thin, with a pale, bluish face, long, slanted eyes, and nearly black lips. All ten of his fingers were adorned with thin, fishbone-like silver rings, and he was slowly and methodically flipping through a wet scroll of bones.

A priest kneeling beside him replied, his voice trembling.

"Priest, seven more people have died in the stone well on the north side, and we don't have enough blood."

'

The man didn't even raise his head; he simply tapped the bone book once with his fingertip.

"If it dies, replace it with a new one."

The Abyss Eye will awaken tonight. If there isn't enough blood, then the soul will be extracted. If there isn't enough soul, then the bones will be dismantled and ground into powder.

"You kneel here and wail with me, do you think those bastards in the well will bleed on their own?"

The voice was soft and feminine, with the last syllable sound like a snake's tongue scraping against porcelain.

Huang Chen narrowed his eyes.

Youxi, the Sacrificial Official.

Without needing an introduction, he could already guess who this person was. He was wearing the robes of the Gonggong tribe, but he wasn't performing the old Gonggong rituals.

The bone book, the mirage patterns, and the faint, ethereal aura of water all matched the clues about the mirage palace in his hands.

This is not a priest of the Gonggong lineage.

This is a secret agent from the Mirage Palace.

At that very moment, the familiar system voice exploded in Huang Chen's mind.

[Ding! Side quest "Severing the Abyss Eye Sacrifice" triggered!]

】

[Mission 1: Slay the Priestess of Youxi]

[Mission Two: Rescue the Human Race at the Sacrifice Site]

[Mission 3: Seize the Mother Symbol of the Sacrifice Site]

[Task Rewards: 22000 Karma, 9000 Merit]

Huang Chen's breathing remained steady, but his eyes turned cold.

The task has already been assigned; there's no use rushing it.

Save lives first.

First, find the mother symbol.

Then chop up that bastard on the altar.

He slid down the shadow of the archway, like a dark shadow close to the ground, and silently made his way to the nearest stone bridge.

The black water beneath the bridge lapped against its underside, making a soft, hollow sound, while the ancient patterns on the bridge surface occasionally glowed red, as if sensing life.

Huang Chen didn't step on the center of the pattern, but instead deliberately chose to step on the broken edges.

After walking a dozen steps, a well-guard ahead was carrying a bone lamp and turning back. The guard was nearly ten feet tall, with a short, thick neck and half a fish scale on his face. Just as he reached the corner of the bridge, he suddenly frowned and looked into the shadows.

"who--"

He hadn't finished speaking.

Huang Chen pounced from the side, pressing down on the opponent's chin with his left hand, while his right fist, imbued with witch power, slammed into the chest in a short, ruthless blow.

boom!

The sound of bones cracking was muffled inside the flesh and didn't carry far.

The guard's back slammed heavily against the bridge railing, his eyes bulging out. Before he could even scream, a large chunk of his chest caved in. Huang Chen snapped his neck, dragged the corpse into a hole under the bridge, and used his Black Wind Sweeper to sweep away the splattered blood.

The whole set of movements was as fast as wiping a knife.

In the sacrificial ground, only the distant drumbeats and the sound of water could be heard; no one noticed.

Huang Chen continued to press forward and soon reached the first group of wells.

There are more than 30 people locked up here, both men and women, but most of them are emaciated teenagers and elderly people.

Several mixed-blood witch slaves had their collarbones nailed shut, and they knelt in the mud with their heads down, too weak to even lift their eyes.

Huang Chen squatted down behind a stone well and gently cut with his bone knife, first severing the outermost layer of bone cords.

An elderly man was so frightened that he trembled and opened his mouth to shout.

Huang Chen pressed his hand to his mouth, speaking in a very low voice.

"Don't make a sound. I'm here to rescue people."

'

The old man's pupils contracted, his throat bobbed twice, and he nodded firmly.

Huang Chen released his grip, quickly pried open the two locks, and then removed the iron rings from the people behind him one by one.

He moved slowly, carefully counting the sound of each movement, afraid of triggering the alarm bell by the well.

A boy next to him, his face covered in blood and mud, spoke in a hoarse voice.

"Are you...really letting us go?"

"Those who can walk, follow this old man in front, stay close to the wall, and head towards the abandoned ditch on the north side."

'

Huang Chen pointed to the way they came.

"If you see someone carrying a broken spear on the road, listen to his instructions."

'

The old man's lips trembled, as if he were about to kneel.

Huang Chen raised his hand and pressed down.

"Don't kneel, go."

A group of people stumbled and crawled into the shadows, their steps frantic, but they all gritted their teeth, afraid to cry or shout.

Huang Chen continued to feel his way down to the next row of stone wells.

The second well complex was more heavily guarded. Two warriors from the main branch of the Gonggong tribe were talking by the sacrificial trough. One of them was holding a bone whip and using the tip of the whip to lift a woman's chin, his face full of mockery.

"If you're still alive after the blood is drawn, I'll give you a sip of well water."

The other one laughed in a hoarse voice.

"Well water? That's for Yuanyan to drink, are you willing to give it up?"

'

The woman huddled by the stone trough, her face deathly pale, holding a seven or eight-year-old child in her arms, not daring to even cry out loud.

Huang Chen paused, a murderous glint flashing in his eyes.

The next instant, he flicked his wrist, and the Soul-Binding Lock silently shot out, coiling around the neck of the warrior on the left like a black snake, tightening sharply. At the same time, he had already stepped onto the bridge and risen up, his Asura Blood Blade slashing diagonally across.

puff.

The man on the right still had a smile on his face, but half of his neck had already flown off.

The one being strangled struggled desperately, the bone whip cracking wildly. Huang Chen stepped forward, kneeing him in the lower back, then slashing his neck with his palm, forcing him to his knees before snapping it in two.

The child finally couldn't hold back and let out a short cry.

The woman immediately covered his mouth, trembling like a leaf.

Huang Chen retracted the Soul-Binding Lock and whispered, "If you can move, leave. Don't look back."

The woman's eyes instantly turned red. She held the child and nodded repeatedly. When she got up, her legs were so weak that she almost collapsed.

Huang Chen reached out and helped the two corpses into the shadows behind the sacrificial trough, then continued to dismantle the lock.

The sacrificial site was too large, and there were too many wells.

He stealthily made his way through, killing and releasing people as he went. In less than half an incense stick's time, he had already figured out three strange locations. None of the three locations were on the main altar, but were buried under the belly of the three intersecting stone bridges. On the outside, they looked like old patterns had been thickened, but inside, they faintly emitted the same source of energy.

Mother symbol node.

Huang Chen noted the location but did not make any rash moves.

To seize the Mother Talisman, we must act together. Otherwise, if we disturb the sacrificial site, none of the remaining people will escape.

Just as he was reaching for the third well group, a very faint sound suddenly came from ahead.

"Brother Huang... Brother Huang?"

'

Huang Chen suddenly stopped and turned around to look.

Beside a soul-binding stone well, a young man, so thin he was just a skeleton, had his wrists locked with iron nails. His cheeks were sunken, and his hair was disheveled. If it weren't for the remnants of his past in his eyes, he would hardly be recognized.

Huang Chen stared at him for a couple of breaths and recognized him.

The flying boat survived, but the prisoners were captured.

The flying boat survived, but the prisoners were captured.

He was one of the people he rescued from the lower deck of the Sky Hunter Flying Ship in Chapter 43. Later, during the chaotic evacuation, there were too many people, and Huang Chen assumed that most of them had been sent to the Firewood or other safe routes. He didn't expect that one person had been missed here.

The young man's eyes instantly reddened, but his voice became hoarse.

"It really is you... I thought that when I got off the airship that day, I was swept away by something in the black water, and that was all a dream..."

Huang Chen took two steps forward and first looked at his neck and wrist.

There are old wounds and new nail marks.

How did you end up here?

'

The young man swallowed a mouthful of bloody saliva and gasped, "That day I was running with people when we bumped into a transport team. A few demons who could use water escape techniques were chasing us, and we were scattered."

I was knocked unconscious, and when I woke up I was in the cabin of the Hanpo Ferry, and then I was taken here...

As he spoke, his teeth started chattering.

"They treat people like commodities, passing them around."

He survived on the airship, but nearly died by the well.

Huang Chen didn't say anything more. He directly pried open the lock ring and took out the thin nails that were nailed to his wrist bone one by one.

The young man's face turned blue with pain, but he bit his lip tightly and dared not cry out.

"Can we still walk?"

'

"able."

He stood up, holding onto the edge of the well, but his feet gave way as soon as they touched the ground.

Huang Chen grabbed him and pulled him back.

Don't be a show-off.

'

The young man looked at Huang Chen, his Adam's apple bobbing, and suddenly whispered, "Brother Huang, there are still a dozen or so alive at the bottom of that row of wells on the west side. They were just dragged out of the water dungeon today. There was a child who kept calling for his older sister, but then he stopped calling."

'

Huang Chen's eyes darkened.

"lead the way.

'

The two walked around the back of the stone well. The young man seemed to know the way well, clearly having familiarized himself with the area during his days of confinement. The western group of wells was closer to the Blackwater Abyss, where the resentful mist was even thicker. Two fishbone banners stood beside the wells, their surfaces dripping sticky liquid.

As Huang Chen approached, he heard a faint, labored breathing.

A dozen or so people were lying haphazardly by the well, like a pile of dried-out firewood.

Several children huddled together, their lips bluish-purple, their hands and feet cold. Two guards were dozing nearby, and the bone lamps hanging from the stone pillars had their flames reduced to tiny dots by the dampness.

Huang Chenchong, the young man, made a shushing gesture.

The next instant, he exerted force with his feet, and his whole body was like a crossbow bolt. He first smashed the throat bone of the guard on the left with a palm, then snatched the short blade from the other man and thrust it into the temple of another man.

Not much blood was sprayed.

They were all caught in the black wind.

The young man's eyelids twitched as he watched, and he even breathed more carefully.

Huang Chen bent down to check the children's breathing; they were still alive, but they were severely depleted of blood.

He took out a bottle of Rejuvenation Pills from his pocket, poured out two pills, crushed them, mixed them into a water pouch, and gave them to the weakest people to soothe their throats.

We dare not use too strong a dose of medicine.

These people have very thin bodies; if they are given strong drugs, their pulse will break first.

Feed slowly.

Huang Chen handed the water pouch to the young man, "Take it one sip at a time."

"good.

'

The young man, his hands trembling violently as he fed water to the youngest child, burst into tears first.

Suddenly, footsteps sounded in the distance.

It's a bridge patrol shift change.

Huang Chen immediately moved the person behind the well, while he himself climbed onto the shadow of the stone bridge and hung from the outside of the railing.

Three Gonggong soldiers walked by carrying bone spears, cursing as they went.

"What's wrong with Lady Youxi tonight? The third round of blood hasn't even been collected yet, and she's already urging us to work overtime to patrol the wells."

'

"I heard that the Abyss Eye is about to open, and people from the palace have come."

"In the palace?"

The main lineage of Gonggong?

"Pah, you dare to ask?"

'

After the three walked away, Huang Chen landed again, his eyes even colder.

People from the palace have arrived.

This indicates that what the High Priestess Youxi is going to do tonight is not just drawing blood for a blood sacrifice. There is a deeper scheme behind it.

When he released the last few people from the western well complex, most of the offerings were gone from the sacrificial site. The mournful cries that had filled the area around the wells were gradually emptied, leaving behind a strange silence.

The silence was like a taut string; the quieter it was, the more it indicated that something was about to break.

Huang Chen retreated to the underside of a bridge and looked up at the main altar.

Priestess Youxi has stopped looking at the bone book.

The man stood before the sacrificial curtain, his slender fingers slowly stroking a hanging black leather war drum. His eyes were like those of a dead fish pulled from the tide—cold and slippery.

Huang Chen's heart skipped a beat.

wrong.

The population is decreasing too quickly.

No matter how well he concealed it along the way, the main altar couldn't possibly be unaware that so many wells in the sacrificial ground had been emptied.

Just then, someone on the other side of the bridge suddenly grabbed his sleeve.

Huang Chen was about to smash the ball with his backhand when he heard a familiar low shout.

"My lord, it's me."

Ah Shi, his face covered in blood and mud, crawled out from a pile of untied laborers, panting heavily, but his eyes shone with a frightening light.

"I led my men to clear half of that abandoned canal to the north, and we've already smuggled over forty people out. There are still some who can't walk, hiding behind collapsed wells."

'

Huang Chen glanced at him.

"How did you get in?"

'

Ah Shi grinned, revealing a mouthful of blood-stained teeth.

"Those who were arrested earlier."

I'm lucky, I survived.

After he finished speaking, he lowered his voice and was sweating profusely with anxiety.

"My lord, the flags behind the main altar are being changed. The priest seems to have noticed something is wrong."

'

Huang Chen's gaze darkened, and he was about to speak—

Boom! !

!

A loud bang shook the entire Abyss Eye sacrificial site.

The priestess Youxi's hand finally landed on the black leather war drum.

The moment the first drumbeat sounded, the black water in the central abyss surged violently, as if a colossal creature were turning over at the bottom of the well.

With the second drumbeat, the nine remaining pillars of the ancestral witch simultaneously lit up with blood-red lines, the red light crawling wildly out along the cracks in the pillars. With the third drumbeat, all the ancient patterns on the stone bridge ignited at the same time, like blood vessels being cut open, spreading wildly along the bridge railings, the bridge body, and the well opening.

The entire sacrificial site instantly turned a ghastly red.

Those humans and witch slaves who had not yet managed to retreat looked up in terror, and cries of agony erupted.

As if given a command, the resentful mist from the wellhead shot up into the sky, twisting into grotesque, ghostly faces in mid-air.

On the main altar, Priestess Youxi slowly raised her eyes, a smile spreading across her face.

"The mouse has finally come out."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried far and wide through the blood-stained patterns.

Ashi's face turned pale instantly, and his hands, which were gripping the bridge railing, were trembling.

Huang Chen had already raised his hand, his palm pressing on the mother talisman node on the inside of the bridge, and his five fingers suddenly exerted force.

Click.

A crack appeared in the rock layer.

A burst of red light shot up from the back of his hand, illuminating half of his face with a chilling, iron-like glow.

Above, another war drum sounded.

The blood-red veins shone brightly.

There's always a story waiting for you to uncover.