Chapter 646 Conditions of Sacrifice
Fu Dahai smiled grimly.
He waved his finger among the crowd.
"Once you have selected the seven people who need to be sacrificed, the rest of you can go on a pilgrimage..."
Done.
Fu Dahai twitched again, then tilted his head back with his eyes rolled back.
At the same time, a gust of cold wind blew, and the red cloth strips on the rectangular wooden platform fluttered wildly. When the cloth strips stopped, the smoke from the bonfire no longer disturbed the top of the wooden platform.
"You need to make a sacrifice to get through. One life for one place..."
"Since we are going to offer sacrifices, we should at least be able to reach the sacrifice site safely. Plus, with the gust of wind just now..."
Wu Xian asked Han Yu to catch a bat, then broke its wings and threw it onto the square wooden platform. The bat did not die, but struggled to crawl out of the wooden platform.
This means that the wooden platform is now safe.
Wu Xian and others approached carefully and finally saw the full picture of the square wooden platform.
On the side of the wooden platform close to the rock wall, there are five small holes that are concave like closets, and five strange statues are enshrined in the holes.
All five statues are sitting cross-legged. There are no names of gods on the thrones. The materials do not look like metal, wood or stone. Instead, they are more like corpses that have been dried here. Their faces are painted with patterns with special lines, which are red, green, white, black and yellow. Those patterns make the dried human faces highlight some animal features.
There is a small bowl in front of the statue, and the bowl is filled with dried blood. Judging from the traces around it, the so-called sacrifice is to fill this small bowl with human blood.
Then Wu Xian looked down.
On one side of the square wooden platform, there is a wooden staircase more than 30 meters long.
There is no handrail on the outside of the wooden staircase, and the inside is not against the rock wall. It is only supported by a few wooden stakes that are driven into the rock wall.
Wu Xian tried to get closer to the wooden stairs for a closer look. Before he even walked up, he felt the hairs on his body stand up and a chill made him shiver subconsciously.
He took a step back and rolled up his sleeves, only to find a black palm print on his arm. A slight poke made Wu Xian grit his teeth in pain.
But Jiang Huaian and others did not notice the coldness before. It might be because those things made space on the wooden platform, resulting in too many things on the stairs.
Below the stairs is a long plank road with a 45-degree incline. This plank road turns back every hundred meters and goes all the way down. It is unknown how far it extends.
But the Valley of the Dead was pitch black, how could Wu Xian see so far?
This is because there are some erratic will-o'-the-wisp fires floating around the plank road. These will-o'-the-wisp fires are big and small, mostly green, but there are also blue and red varieties.
On the bright side, with so many will-o'-the-wisps, at least we don't have to worry about lighting when we go down...
……
After checking the situation on Fangmutai, everyone withdrew.
Fu Dahai, who had just fallen into a coma, finally woke up. The green light in his eyes disappeared, but his eyes looked even more stupid and saliva was flowing from his mouth.
Recalling the previous case where Red Light Head wanted to learn something from Han Yu, Wu Xian had a preliminary inference about how to deal with Dahai.
The woman in white that Fu Dahai saw was most likely an evil spirit. When the evil spirit said goodbye to Fu Dahai, it took something away from Fu Dahai's body just like Hong Dengtou, leaving Fu Dahai's body empty and more easily possessed by the invisible evil spirit.
What she took away might be a part of Fu Dahai's soul.
Everyone first discussed Fu Dahai's matter.
In the end, it was decided that everyone would continue to take Fu Dahai with them. During the discussion, Fu Dahai could hardly get a word in, but a hint of gratitude gradually emerged in his eyes.
Fu Dahai had indeed become stupid and his reactions were slow.
But he didn't turn bad.
He also wanted to survive, and was trying hard to follow the crowd. When he was on guard last night, he kept his eyes open the whole time, more serious than many people.
A physique that is more easily possessed by dirty things can also bring more information to everyone. Wu Xian does not intend to abandon him before he brings substantial danger.
After paying the price, the next issue is sacrifice.
According to the thing that possessed Fu Dahai, there were a total of fourteen people in the team, seven dependents and seven newcomers. They only needed to sacrifice the seven newcomers to safely pass through the stairs.
But this is almost impossible to accept.
The difficulty of this blessed land cannot be limited to that staircase. If such a thing is done once, it will cause rifts and distrust in the team.
If all the newcomers are sacrificed this time, who will be sacrificed next time?
Internal strife and fighting are almost inevitable, and the cost may be even greater than just rushing through.
So Wu Xian changed his thinking.
“That thing only says that there is one quota for one life, but it doesn’t say that this life must be a human, nor does it say that this life must be chosen from among us.”
"Aren't there many things in this cave that can be used for sacrifice?"
The sacrificial materials that Wu Xian referred to were those porters and diggers.
The excavators have been miserable enough. Using their lives to buy life for their family members and newcomers is not an honorable thing in any way.
But their condition was no different from death, so Wu Xian's suggestion could only be regarded as a last resort.
After a brief discussion, everyone took action.
This time, the path chosen was the one taken by Fu Dahai, because on the path Wu Xian took, the excavators were all in deep darkness, while on this path the excavators were on a relatively outer side.
Soon they captured a digger and some small creatures. It would be even better if they could use the blood of the small creatures for sacrifice.
Everyone returned to the platform and drained some of the digger's blood. As soon as the blood was poured into the stone bowl, it quickly boiled and dried up within a few breaths. At the same time, everyone could feel a deep malice from the statue.
It seems that these five statues are not happy with the blood of the excavators.
Wu Xian twitched the corners of his mouth and squeezed a few drops of blood from his own and Fu Dahai's fingers into the stone bowl.
It was found that Wu Xian's blood was easily absorbed, while Fu Dahai's blood was also absorbed but reluctantly.
This result made everyone look a little ugly.
Jiang Huaian sighed deeply: "It seems that the five statues want a sacrifice from a person with a complete soul. In the entire crack cave, only we are still intact. There is no need to test the lives of evil spirits and small animals."
Wu Xian fumbled with the small golden bell in his hand.
"The only way we can do now is to force our way through. What just happened proves that the smoke from the bonfire disgusts those invisible things. I have a way to release a thick smoke. We can rush through under the cover of the smoke!"
Jiang Huaian objected: "Don't forget, this staircase has no railings. Even if the smoke can affect those things, it can also affect our sight. We may fall down halfway on this 30-meter-long unprotected staircase!"
Wu Xian rubbed his hands: "This requires a little planning..."
(End of this chapter)
