**Chapter 166: Feast to Celebrate the Grant of the Fallen Deity**
The air was filled with the stench of decaying bl**d as Luxianbei sat quietly in the pitch-black ruined temple for a moment before standing up. She faced the body of Meng Raoze, which was indistinguishable from a human form, and cast her spell formula.
By the time Meng Raoze drew his last breath, he had almost completely become an urban legend. The flickering fire tongues of red flames rolled over his body, instantly causing a violent reaction, erupting into a blazing light.
Luxianbei stared at the flickering flames in front of her, squinting slightly as she pondered.
The mountain sacrifice mentioned by Uncle Meng should refer to the ritual held near the sinkhole, but what about the river sacrifice?
He also said that He did not wish to be released. Is He referring to the Great Serpent God here?
But if the Great Serpent God did not want to be released, why did He call for help when I first entered the Bamboo Slips Illusion?
Thinking of this, Luxianbei furrowed her brow. In her view, the credibility of Meng Raoze’s words seemed a bit higher.
Before his d*ath, he had already regarded Luxianbei as a deity. Generally speaking, a person would not lie to a deity.
Not everyone is Luxianbei.
A few minutes later, the fire gradually burned out, and darkness rolled back from the shadowy corners, shrouding the dilapidated temple. Luxianbei bent down to gather the black ashes on the ground, wrapped them in a coarse cloth she had prepared earlier, left the main hall, grabbed her guitar bag, and headed towards the center of the village.
She figured he did not want to be buried beneath this decaying and fallen land filled with despair.
……
The sky drizzled lightly, and a cool breeze swept through the ruined and dilapidated village, causing the lanterns hanging in front of the low stone houses to sway precariously. The night, accompanied by the fine rain, felt as suffocating as mercury pouring down.
Unlike Luxianbei’s first visit here, as the sacrificial celebration approached, sounds of musical instruments filled the depths of the village.
To the mournful sounds of the music, the originally lifeless village seemed to awaken. Doors were pushed open, and footsteps echoed on the streets.
Villagers with varying degrees of deformity, wearing snake-shaped masks made of dark wood, emerged from the dim houses.
They carried bl**d-red lanterns, their mouths shut tight, maintaining a bizarre posture reminiscent of those about to be hanged, moving forward in the twisted alleys dyed crimson by the bright red light, as if flowing along a river of bl**d.
Arriving at the village’s outskirts and witnessing such a scene, Luxianbei paused, not in a hurry to enter the village. She swiftly slipped behind the wall of a stone house.
Pressing her body against the cold wall, she poked out half her head to observe the villagers and whispered, “Coat, can you transform into one of those masks?”
The coat wriggled slightly but did not change. After pausing for a few seconds, it seemed to want to explain something eagerly, wriggling faster.
Luxianbei vaguely sensed a feeling of grievance as if on the verge of tears entering her mind. She stared for a moment, then quickly patted the coat and reassured, “It’s okay, it’s okay; if you can’t turn into that, just turn into one of those outfits. I’ll figure something out for the mask.”
The coat replied, “……”
Hey! The witch lady is the best!
✧*｡٩(ˊΩˋ*)و✧*｡
The coat wriggled gently, inevitably brushing against sensitive areas, causing a ticklish sensation that Luxianbei couldn’t suppress, letting out a sound.
“Mm~!”
At that moment, the door of the stone house she was hiding in was abruptly pushed open by someone, and a deformed one-armed man walked out from the dark room. Hearing the unusual sound from behind the wall, he called out curiously, “Who’s there?!”
Luxianbei cursed silently, feeling a surge of panic. Then suddenly recalling a mischievous idea, her eyes darted about, landing on the coat that had transformed into a coarse cloth dress. Without changing her expression, she lifted the hem of the skirt.
The deformed villager, puzzled about what was hidden behind the wall, held a bl**d-red lantern and leaned his head closer. Suddenly, he saw a well-proportioned and smooth, white jade-like leg protruding from behind the wall, and he froze in place, becoming dry-mouthed.
Is there a girl in our village with such beautiful legs? How come I didn’t know? The deformed villager thought.
Before he could recover, a small pale hand reached out from behind the wall, beckoning him with a finger, followed by a soft and alluring call, “Little brother, come here~!”
“Gulp——!” The deformed villager swallowed hard, his head spinning. He finally disregarded everything else, adjusted his pants, and ran towards the back of his house.
However…
As he rounded the corner of the house, a low whistling sound echoed in his ear, and in the moment before he lost consciousness, he saw a golden, furious face enter his line of sight.
“DUANG——!”
After a dull sound, Luxianbei looked at the collapsed deformed villager and shrugged, “It turns out that using lewd pictures to fish works, no matter where you are.”
As for morals…
What kind of time is this, who needs morals?
Doing this hasn’t cost me a piece of flesh!
Thinking this, Luxianbei silently crouched down, removed his mask, snatched his lantern, stripped him of his clothes, tore off a section to twist into a rope, bound him up, and tossed him into the dark house.
“Sorry, fellow villager! Society is that harsh!” Luxianbei said.
Before leaving, she carefully searched the stone house, smashing all the jars and boxes, but found nothing useful.
……
As Luxianbei blended into the crowd of deformed villagers and urban legend beings, she reached the center of the village. From a distance, she saw a long table that had been set up in the clearing and around ten Hui Mothers gathered behind it.
A group of black-robed priests stood behind them, four standing together, carrying dark wooden boxes.
The deformed villagers, as if soulless puppets, bowed their heads, holding lanterns, with not a single person speaking, looking like lambs to the slaughter, the scene filled with a deathly silence.
Among the many Hui Mothers, one stood out; it hunched over like a coiled large serpent. Although it wore a wedding dress like the others, unlike them, its face was exposed, revealing a terrifying visage.
It had a twisted human face with gross scales, and on that face were pairs of sickly yellow slitted eyes filled with malice. The dark scales shimmered with colorful gleams, and despite its ugliness, it held an irresistible allure that drew the eye.
Is this the legendary, colorful black? Luxianbei thought quietly as she inched closer to the clearing.
With so many Hui Mothers, she decided to observe patiently and wait for an opportunity.
As she passed by what looked like a face pancake stall, a mouthwatering meat aroma wafted into her nose. She instinctively glanced in the direction of the fragrance, and her stomach convulsed.
Under that stall, a tall priest, holding a long kn*fe, was bowing his head and chopping something. After carefully looking, Luxianbei realized it was a large piece of meat.
From the shape resembling a backbone, it was clearly a part of a human body, not knowing if it came from some unfortunate villager or a humanoid urban legend.
On the other side, a priest so thin he had lost human form heated a pot before putting the chopped meat into it.
The meat sizzling in the hot pot made a crackling sound as it rolled around, releasing rich oils from the fatty layers, followed by the tantalizing smell of cooked meat.
From further away, a large pot steamed with hot vapor, in the murky yellow broth there were round objects bobbing up and down…
Though Luxianbei was already aware of what the villagers subsisted on, it’s one thing to imagine it and another to witness it; every second viewing such scenes brought a strong shock to her nerves.
Luxianbei averted her gaze, fighting down the urge to vomit while mentally reminding herself to hold it together. If she threw up here, she’d have to pretend it was morning sickness!
While people’s moral limits can be low, it shouldn’t go that low, right?
Just as Luxianbei was contemplating where her moral limits should be set, a mournful sound of a suona suddenly rang out, its tone drawn out, sounding like a woman in agony.
What is this? What’s happening? Are we moving on to the next part?
Luxianbei looked around in confusion, then noticed the priests beneath the face pancake stalls filling stone basins with the cooked “delicacies” and carrying them towards the tables of the Hui Mothers.
The Hui Mothers seemed completely unconcerned about what the origin of their dinner’s ingredients was, each taking a stone basin, bringing it to their mouths, and gorging themselves, the sound of crunching echoing, and the enticing aroma grew even denser.
Vaguely, Luxianbei heard them exchanging thoughts in snake language.
“Perfect, the powerful hallucinogenic toxin is concentrated in the broth, offering a dizzying sense of decadence; a perfect creation!”
“This feeling… such raw anger and killing intent…”
“It’s an entirely new taste! Why… wait! It’s corpse poison, this dish has corpse poison in it!”
……
Wow, these dark culinary horrors are actually being enjoyed so well? Luxianbei’s face beneath the mask turned pale.
The Hui Mothers were whispering to each other; if it weren’t for their bizarre appearances and the negative terms that occasionally popped up in their conversation, Luxianbei might have thought she was attending a high-society banquet among affluent ladies.
Quickly, the lead Hui Mother finished the dish in front of her, stood up, opened her terrifying mouth wide, and let out a roar. Following that, from unseen places, sounds of music began to play.
Under her signal, the feast to celebrate the grant of the fallen deity began, amidst the presence of an odd situation.
The long-silent scene finally erupted into a cacophony of voices.
“Hey, brother, this year’s dishes look a bit dark. They should… be delicious, right?”
“This big sister, your clothes look great! Is it a family heirloom?”
“You haven’t seen me? Impossible! I’ve been living in the ruined temple outside the village! Meng Raoze is my great-uncle…”
“Eh? He’s not well-liked? That’s fantastic, um, I mean, I don’t like him either!”
Luxianbei stood among the deformed villagers, being scrutinized by a group of Hui Mothers. At first, she felt quite anxious, but as the scene grew lively, she became completely unruffled.
In fact, before finding a chance to do something, she wanted to get familiar faces and infiltrate the enemy’s ranks!
At that moment, a figure stealthily mingled into the crowd from the periphery of the clearing.
“System, when shall we strike?”
“Um… no rush, let’s observe! Wait for my signal!”
“Understood!”
Why do I feel a sense of unease? What’s going on? The system thought, silently observing the surroundings.
