143: Chapter 143 The Divine Sacrifice Begins!

Looking at those three faces that instantly turned as ugly as if they'd eaten flies, Chen Shanzhi continued, "It's perfect that you're all here; it makes it convenient for us to wipe you all out at once!"

"Attack!"

With Chen Shanzhi's furious shout, "Boom!"

The six Xuanguan Peak guards behind him instantly erupted with terrifying waves of True Origin Qi!

These six were all elite death guards carefully selected from their respective Families.

Not only was their cultivation extremely solid, but their practical combat experience was rich to the extreme!

There were no fancy Moves.

The six Xuanguan Peak experts were like six heavy-duty bulldozers running at full power.

They crashed violently and directly into the crowd of God-Invoking Cult Disciples holding torches!

"Ah!"

Cries of pain and the sound of breaking bones instantly rang out in a chorus!

Under the absolute power suppression of the Xuanguan Peak experts, those God-Invoking Cult Disciples, who were only around the Xuanguan Nine Apertures Realm, didn't even have a chance to fight back; they fell in swathes like harvested wheat!

Meanwhile, Jiang Feiyu, Shen Lingfu, and Ouyang Wanqing, those three top Geniuses at the Xuanguan Eleven Apertures Realm, were not idle either.

Jiang Feiyu swung her long saber, her movements broad and open, with Saber Qi cutting across the field.

Ouyang Wanqing held a long sword, the sword light flowing like water, extremely tricky and ruthless.

Although Shen Lingfu usually looked like a delicate white lotus, every Move she made now was a lethal strike!

The three women, coordinating with the six top-tier guards, turned it into a one-sided massacre!

Watching their elite Disciples being slaughtered like grass, the faces of those three turned so gloomy they were practically dripping water.

"We've kicked an iron plate!"

The tall, thin hall master gritted his teeth, a flash of intense wariness in his eyes.

Although they were three Xuanguan Peak experts, the other side had a full six masters of the same Realm, plus those few constables with freakishly high combat power!

If they kept fighting head-on, the three of them would definitely lose their lives here today!

"Second Brother, Fourth Brother, we can't hold them off!"

The third one gritted his teeth hard, a flash of crazy ruthlessness in his eyes: "We can't wait any longer! Start the sacrificial plan immediately!"

Hearing this, the other two were shocked, hesitation appearing on their faces.

"Third Brother, are you crazy?"

The short, fat man lowered his voice: "The blood and Qi of the refugees collected in the altar aren't enough to start the God-Invoking Ritual! If you force the Formation to start without enough blood and Qi..."

"Then it will definitely force a linkage, causing the sub-altars in the other villages to start the Saintly Ritual together!"

"If the sacrificial offerings at those sub-altars aren't gathered either, and the ritual fails, the higher-ups will blame us..."

"You don't know a damn thing!"

The third one looked at the God-Invoking Cult Disciples falling into pools of blood one by one, a cold sneer curling his lips.

He pointed to the corpses all over the ground and laughed hideously: "Who said there aren't enough offerings? Aren't these the offerings?"

"The blood and Qi of a Martial Artist are a hundred times stronger than those sickly refugees!"

At this, the third one's eyes turned crazy: "As long as we source materials locally and use the blood of these pieces of trash to fill the deficit in our altar, we can guarantee our Formation starts perfectly!"

"As for the other villages..."

A flash of viciousness crossed the third one's eyes: "As long as our sacrifice succeeds, even if the higher-ups blame us, the leaders of those other villages will be the ones taking the fall! What does that have to do with us?"

It made sense; better a Fellow Daoist dies than me!

As long as nothing went wrong on their end, the blame would naturally be carried by others!

"Let's do it!"

The three reached a consensus instantly and retreated tacitly.

"Little ones! For the great cause of the God-Invoking Cult, hold them off! Kill these imperial eagle dogs!"

The tall, thin hall master yelled at the top of his lungs, hypocritically ordering the remaining God-Invoking Cult Disciples, who were already terrified from the slaughter.

He had them launch a suicide charge against Chen Shanzhi and the others, like a suicide squad.

Meanwhile, the three of them took advantage of the time bought by the Disciples' lives and decisively retreated to the very back of the crowd!

Chen Shanzhi, standing in the crowd, keenly captured the abnormal behavior of the three.

"Something's wrong!"

Chen Shanzhi's brow furrowed sharply.

Under normal circumstances, at a time like this, these three top combat powers at the Xuanguan Peak should either be leading a breakout or fighting to the death.

Yet they were ordering their subordinates to die while retreating to the center of the village?

A faint sense of unease grew in Chen Shanzhi's heart.

"Ignore these scumbags! Catch up to the three leaders!"

Chen Shanzhi roared, pushing his Spirit Sparrow Steps to the limit, preparing to leap over the human wall to pursue them.

But it was too late; those brainwashed God-Invoking Cult Disciples, though lacking strength, were fearless of death.

With bloodshot eyes, they didn't even hesitate to use their bodies to block blades and swords.

They forcibly used human lives to pile up a thick human wall, firmly dragging down the footsteps of Chen Shanzhi and the others!

In those few extremely brief seconds of delay, the three of them took the opportunity to weave around and quickly disappear into the darkness deep in the village.

...

In the center of Shi Village stood a black stone altar that exuded a nauseating aura!

At the very top of the altar, thick iron chains locked up a huge skeleton!

The body part of the skeleton was extremely similar to a human's, but on its neck sat a huge snake skull with its mouth wide open, revealing ghastly fangs!

It was unmistakably a half-human, half-snake skeleton.

From inside to out, it exuded an ancient and evil sense of oppression!

"Quick! Start the Formation!"

The three hall masters didn't hesitate at all, standing tacitly at the three positions of the altar.

They bit their fingertips simultaneously and smeared their blood onto the black patterns on the altar.

Subsequently, the three frantically urged the True Origin Qi in their bodies, and their mouths began to chant an obscure and eerie set of syllables.

"Hum —"

As they chanted, rich black Qi that radiated bone-chilling cold began to surge frantically from their seven orifices!

These black Qi seemed to have life, like living things, crawling rapidly upward along the blood-colored patterns on the altar.

In just a few breaths of time, the black stone altar had already been surrounded by this evil black Qi!

When the black Qi completely covered the eerie half-human, half-snake skeleton, "Hiss —"

A snake hiss that seemed capable of piercing human eardrums exploded abruptly in the minds of the three!

That originally lifeless snake-headed skeleton seemed to come alive at this moment!

Its already ferocious lower jaw opened to an unbelievable angle.

"Boom!"

A pillar of black Qi, substantial as reality, erupted directly from the snake's mouth, shooting straight into the pitch-black night sky above Shi Village!

This black Qi exploded rapidly in mid-air, and then, like a huge inverted black bowl, instantly shrouded the entire Shi Village tightly!

The barrier was formed!

However, the eerie part was that after this black barrier formed, looking out from inside Shi Village, the sky was covered by black Qi, so oppressive that it made it hard to breathe.

But if someone were to look in from outside the village at this moment, they would find that Shi Village was still a peaceful, ordinary village under the moon and stars.

"Hoo... hoo..."

With the Formation of the barrier, the three finally stopped chanting.

Their faces were pale as paper, their bodies soaked in cold sweat, and they were panting heavily.

In this extremely short spell-casting time, the deep True Origin Qi within their bodies had been completely drained by this altar, and they had even lost some of their vitality.

"It... it's done!"

The tall, thin man weakly wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. Although exhausted to the extreme, his eyes were filled with ecstasy.

"As long as the Saintly Ritual starts... the plan is half successful! We've made a great contribution... eh?"

Before he could finish his sentence, his voice suddenly stuck in his throat in an eerie way.

Not just him, the other two also stiffened, their eyes instantly widening larger than copper bells, their pupils filled with terror.

Because right behind the three of them, in that thick black fog, that half-human, half-snake skeleton had somehow teleported behind them!

A thick snake tongue, formed entirely of pure black mist, was greedily licking their necks back and forth!

"No... don't! How did it break the chains and get out?"

The three were terrified out of their wits, and just as they wanted to struggle and run, they found that their bodies were restrained on the spot by a terrifying invisible force, unable to Move even a little finger!

"Hiss —"

The eerie snake-headed skeleton let out a satisfied hiss.

Its ferocious snake mouth opened slowly behind the three, and then...

It took a violent breath!

"Ah!"

Three shrill screams echoed instantly around the altar.

Their bodies, like punctured balloons, rapidly shriveled up!

Their entire blood and Qi, at this moment, turned into threads of scarlet blood and were sucked into that bottomless snake mouth!

In the blink of an eye, three shriveled skeletons, nothing but skin and bone, fell powerlessly onto the altar.

And the snake-headed skeleton, having absorbed the entire blood and Qi of three Xuanguan Peak Martial Artists, saw its originally bone-white surface begin to creep eerily.

Strands of disgusting scarlet flesh and blood were growing frantically on the skeleton at a speed visible to the naked eye!

On that huge snake skull, a scarlet slit-pupil eye slowly emerged!

...

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Without the three Xuanguan Peak Martial Artists covering them, the remaining God-Invoking Cult lackeys, though still fearless of death, were soon slaughtered under the overwhelming combat power of Chen Shanzhi and the others.

Jiang Feiyu said with some confusion: "This is damn weird. Do these guys not know pain? They're like lunatics."

Chen Shanzhi didn't speak, but his brow furrowed tighter and tighter.

He keenly noticed an unusual detail.

After the God-Invoking Cult Disciples they killed fell to the ground, the blood flowing from their wounds didn't spread on the ground as usual.

As if being drawn by some invisible force, it instantly seeped deep into the hard, dry soil!

There was something underground, sucking blood!

"Forget about this!"

The sense of unease in Chen Shanzhi's heart grew stronger.

Although he didn't know what had happened at the altar, he, who was well-versed in game tropes, knew clearly that once the villain started stalling for time, something big was definitely going to happen!

"Stick to the original plan! Go to the dungeon and save the people first!"

Chen Shanzhi ordered decisively.

The group immediately ran quickly toward the nearby dungeon.

"Boom!"

Arriving in front of the dungeon, Uncle Biao's violent kick sent the thick iron door flying away.

Chen Shanzhi and Ouyang Wanqing didn't hesitate at all and rushed into the dim, damp dungeon.

As soon as they entered the dungeon, a pungent stench of feces and rotting flesh hit them.

By the dim light of the torches on the dungeon passage walls, the two saw that the dungeon wasn't very large, with rows of cells separated by thick iron bars on both sides.

At this moment, every cell was densely packed with ragged, emaciated refugees.

A rough glance showed at least a hundred people!

Their eyes were hollow, their faces deathly grey, and even the intrusion of Chen Shanzhi and the others didn't elicit much reaction from them, as if they had become completely numb.

"Unlock them!"

Chen Shanzhi didn't waste any words, and the group used their weapons to unlock the cells.

"Clang! Clang!"

The extremely thick iron locks were chopped to the ground as easily as tofu.

"Villagers! Don't be afraid! We are constables from the Jiantian Division in the capital!"

Ouyang Wanqing cleverly held up the bronze Waist Token at her waist and shouted with a voice filled with reassuring power: "We are here to save you! The bandits outside have been killed by us! Come out quickly!"

Hearing the words "Jiantian Division" and "save you," the refugees in the iron cages were stunned at first, then burst into deafening cheers and cries.

"We're saved! We're saved! Oh, righteous officials!"

"Wuwuwu... I thought I'd never get out of here in this lifetime..."

Chen Shanzhi scanned the crowd extremely quickly.

Soon, in a cage in the furthest corner, he saw a dirty little girl.

It was Yaya!

Chen Shanzhi walked over quickly and picked Yaya up in his arms.

The little girl was clearly terrified, her whole body trembling.

But her big, dark eyes stubbornly held back tears.

She looked at Chen Shanzhi sensibly and asked in a small voice: "Big Brother, did my mother ask you to come and save Yaya? Is my mother crying from worry? Did Yaya cause Big Brother trouble?"

Chen Shanzhi looked at the little girl, whose sensible appearance made his heart ache, and his heart couldn't help but soften.

He gently ruffled Yaya's messy hair: "Yaya didn't cause Big Brother any trouble. Yaya's mother is waiting for you outside the village. Big Brother will take you home."

...

Soon, under the organization of Chen Shanzhi and Ouyang Wanqing, over a hundred refugees followed them out of the dim dungeon in an orderly fashion.

Outside the dungeon, the ground was covered with severed limbs, and the air was filled with an extremely pungent smell of blood.

Seeing Chen Shanzhi and the others come out safely with so many refugees, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

The refugees, seeing the light of day again, were very afraid when they saw the corpses all over the ground.

But after seeing the Jiantian Division Waist Tokens taken out by Jiang Feiyu and the others, their fear was instantly replaced by the intense joy of being rescued.

They once again bowed repeatedly to the group in gratitude.

"Miss Shen, Feiyu."

Chen Shanzhi handed Yaya to Jiang Feiyu and said: "Take the three guards and immediately escort these refugees out of Shi Village along the way we came! Don't stop for even a moment!"

"Ouyang and I will take the remaining three guards to ferret out those three who ran away!"

Jiang Feiyu also knew the urgency of the situation and nodded solemnly.

"Okay! Take care of yourselves!"

Just as everyone was about to split up, "Ah—!"

A shrill scream filled with terror suddenly erupted from the outskirts of the crowd!

Everyone was shocked and turned their heads in horror to look.

They saw the burly "female barbarian" guard brought by Ouyang Wanqing.

She was currently clutching her throat in pain, falling heavily to the ground.

And the abundant blood and Qi in her body, at this instant, eerily gushed out through her pores and instantly sank into the hard, dry ground!

And all around them, the sound of poisonous snakes flicking their tongues rang out.