Amidst the swaying lamplight, Luo Tangtang suddenly opened her eyes.
“What’s wrong?” Yun Shayi was a light sleeper and woke up as well. She saw Luo Tangtang’s chest rising and falling violently, breathing heavily, her face covered in cold sweat.
“Did you have a nightmare?” Yun Shayi frowned slightly, her voice carrying a hint of gentleness.
“N-nothing… I’m fine.” Luo Tangtang shook her head. It was as if she suddenly remembered something else; her gaze instantly shifted to the stone statue inside the room.
Its features were still blurry and indistinct, but in a daze, Luo Tangtang felt as though she saw her own face again. Her heart suddenly leaped, as if it were being torn apart.
Just as she was lost in thought, a sound akin to a wolf’s howl echoed through the silent deep night, bewitching people’s hearts.
Luo Tangtang quickly turned her head and exchanged a glance with Yun Shayi. Gravity marked both their faces.
The sound carried a bewitching effect. As cultivators, it didn’t have much impact on them, but ordinary people would be utterly unable to resist.
Sure enough, when they quietly pushed open the door and stepped out, they saw the dark street already packed with figures. Their facial expressions were stiff, their eyes vacant and listless, and they seemed devoid of consciousness, walking silently down the street.
The sound of doors opening kept ringing out, and more people were emerging from their homes to join the procession. Before long, Luo Tangtang looked out and estimated that everyone in the small town had come.
What exactly were they planning to do? Luo Tangtang’s expression became incredibly solemn.
It was also at night that Luo Tangtang could more keenly feel the eerie nature of Soul Ruin Town. The evening breeze whispered past, unexpectedly cold, and the moon’s hazy glow turned blood-red.
“Let’s follow them.” Yun Shayi’s expression also turned grim, a hint of killing intent flashing in her eyes.
The two quickly stepped forward, blending into the crowd. They followed them through the long street and arrived within a mountain ravine outside the town.
“Ding-a-ling!” A crisp, pleasant bell sound came from all directions, ringing out every few seconds.
Luo Tangtang noticed with keen perception that the people who had been listless and vacant-eyed now had a faint red glow appear in their pupils upon hearing the bell, making them look exceptionally eerie.
“Ding-a-ling.” The sound was incessant.
Several figures suddenly drifted down from mid-air. They looked like scarecrows draped in black robes; when the wind blew, their clothes hung empty.
Luo Tangtang stared intently at the figures that had suddenly appeared. Their faces were obscured, making their features indistinguishable.
Suddenly, the figure leading them extended a slender hand from within their wide sleeve. Luo Tangtang’s pupils contracted sharply.
Rather than a hand, it was more like a withered tree root. The veins on it bulged, appearing black, like gnarled roots spreading across the skin, devoid of any vitality.
Luo Tangtang felt her throat turn dry, so parched it felt like fire, and could only swallow desperately.
“Hiss.” A hoarse sound came from the black-robed figure.
Following this, several of them began uttering strange incantations from their mouths, like an ancient vow. At the same time, each held a pale silver bell in their hand and began shaking it.
The halted crowd began to move again. They too started muttering incantations. The voices of hundreds of people rose up in the deep night, startling the cold birds on the old trees, which spread their wings and flew into the distance.
Sacrifice… Luo Tangtang finally recognized what these people were chanting. She had seen it before in an ancient text within the library. This was a sacrifice formation, and a very eerie kind at that.
Sacrifice was not uncommon in the cultivation world, but anyone who sacrificed living beings would lose their soul’s chance at reincarnation, trapped forever by the one they sacrificed to. Therefore, few were willing to offer their own lives for another, leading some to resort to wicked and deviant methods. This formation could make such people ‘willingly’ sacrifice themselves.
What Luo Tangtang could see, Yun Shayi could naturally see as well. Her fingers were clenched so tightly they were white, and fresh blood seeped from her palms.
Luo Tangtang quickly reached out and gently patted her hand, wanting her to calm down. This matter held many mysteries; if they wanted to investigate it thoroughly, they couldn’t act rashly now.
Yun Shayi’s eyes darkened, but she didn’t act. Luo Tangtang finally breathed a sigh of relief.
The black-robed figures were spread out around the area. Hiding within the crowd, they weren’t conspicuous, and these black-robed figures’ cultivation wasn’t high. With Luo Tangtang and Yun Shayi deliberately avoiding detection, they were even less likely to notice others mixing in.
Finally, when the moon was high overhead, the procession came to a halt.
A massive formation suddenly appeared. The air around the formation carried a thick scent of blood, and a half-person-tall crystal coffin slowly floated up from the ground at the formation’s center.
Upon seeing the coffin surface, the black-robed figures immediately knelt halfway in reverence, lowering their heads.
“Go,” the black-robed figure spoke.
The people closest to the formation, their eyes vacant, simply walked inside. A crimson aura suddenly enveloped him, a scream rang out, and that person instantly dissolved into a pool of blood, absorbed by the formation.
Immediately after, everyone else was about to step into the formation one after another, pushing forward.
“This is bad.” A trace of shock flashed in Luo Tangtang’s eyes.
Before she could even react, a blast of towering cold energy suddenly erupted.
“Senior Sister, no! You’ll hurt the townspeople!” Luo Tangtang roared, her entire heart tightening.
The scene she had anticipated didn’t happen. The cold energy seemed to possess consciousness, bypassing every town resident and instantly attacking the black-robed figures.
Iron chains forged from the cold energy tightly bound the black-robed figures, rendering them unable to move.
At this moment, a massive ice wall appeared, blocking the front of the formation and halting the townspeople’s advance.
“Who are you?” The black-robed figures struggled, their faces contorted with overwhelming killing intent. Surging spiritual energy erupted around them, but it was useless; they still couldn’t break free from the ice chains.
“Those who will kill you,” Yun Shayi said coldly. Her figure hovered in mid-air, appearing hazy under the moonlight. She gazed down at the figures with eyes that were utterly frigid.
The appearance of the ice wall didn’t solve the issue with the townspeople, because they were still pressing forward. Hundreds and thousands of people continued surging towards the ice wall, one after another.
They were slamming into the ice barrier, blood spilling from their hands. Their fingers were dripping with gore, and the previously smooth ice barrier became stained with splotches of blood.
Some were even throwing their bodies against it directly, acting as if they didn’t care about their lives, their expressions manic.
The killing intent in Yun Shayi’s eyes intensified.
Luo Tangtang’s expression was also filled with disbelief. If this continued, even without the sacrifice, they would kill themselves.
Luo Tangtang narrowed her eyes slightly. She suddenly remembered the bewitching powder she had bought.
Right in front of the ice barrier, a section of people simply collapsed.
Thankfully, even when hypnotized, the bewitching powder was still effective.
Having dealt with a large group, Luo Tangtang quickly looked towards Yun Shayi.
“You wanted him to live?”
Her eyes, like flowing glass, shifted, looking towards the crystal coffin within the formation.
“Then he has no need to live.”
As Yun Shayi’s words fell, her eyes flickered with a strange light, a faint golden glow circulating within them.
“Senior Sister.” A stunned look crossed Luo Tangtang’s face. Was this the protagonist’s halo? Did the female lead of this little trashy novel even have a halo? Luo Tangtang knew it wasn’t the right moment, but she couldn’t help but inwardly sigh with emotion.
But Luo Tangtang looked at the ice chains on her own hands and feet. Why did she tie me up too…?
“It’s you.” The leading black-robed figure saw Yun Shayi’s face clearly and suddenly cried out in disbelief.
“Are you the one our master seeks? Why do you have a face like that?” The black-robed figure’s eyes were filled with terror.
Because at that moment, killing intent soared from Yun Shayi’s eyes, like a god of death. An ice blade slowly condensed and pierced the black-robed figure’s body.
Cold energy invaded from the wound, and the figures were instantly frozen solid. With a great crack, they shattered apart.
The moment the black-robed figures died, the thick red blood aura began to dissipate, and faint runes also emerged beneath the massive crystal coffin. Just as it seemed about to vanish, the bottom of the coffin was instantly frozen by the cold energy.
Yun Shayi’s figure appeared beside Luo Tangtang in an instant.
“Senior Sister, why did you tie me up too?” Luo Tangtang looked at the spot where the black-robed figures had been initially. There was nothing left, only a puddle of water now.
Her small frame couldn’t help but tremble.
Yun Shayi’s eyes darkened further. She reached out and gently stroked Luo Tangtang’s cheek. “I was afraid you’d run.”
“Run?” Luo Tangtang shook her head vehemently. “No, I won’t leave Senior Sister.”
“Truly, I won’t.” Afraid Yun Shayi wouldn’t believe her, Luo Tangtang added seriously.
“Mn.” After a long pause, Yun Shayi finally lowered her hand. Simultaneously, the ice chains on Luo Tangtang dissolved instantly, and she found herself enveloped in Yun Shayi’s embrace.
Senior Sister is good in every way, except sometimes she’s even more clingy than I am.
Naturally, Luo Tangtang didn’t mind Senior Sister holding her. She wished they could just stay like this forever and ever, until the world ended and the seas dried up.
However, looking at the pile of people lying on the ground and the crystal coffin directly in front of her, all of Luo Tangtang’s romantic thoughts vanished instantly.
“Senior Sister,” Luo Tangtang patted Yun Shayi’s shoulder. “Let’s go look at that coffin first before talking about anything else.”
“Mn.” But she didn’t let go.
Luo Tangtang: “…” Don’t just ‘Mn,’ let go!
Luo Tangtang’s face was full of black lines, and she sighed slightly in helplessness.
She tentatively extended a foot and shifted sideways. Yun Shayi just held onto her like that, shifting with her steps.
Luo Tangtang: I miscalculated. This works too.
And so, Luo Tangtang ended up dragging a large object, forcibly shuffling her way to the front of the coffin.
Upon seeing the person inside the coffin, Luo Tangtang’s arms around Yun Shayi twitched. Almost reflexively, she pushed Yun Shayi away and scrambled onto the coffin.
“S-Senior Sister…” Luo Tangtang’s lips trembled uncontrollably. The person inside the coffin unmistakably had a face identical to Yun Shayi’s.
“How… how could this be?” Luo Tangtang felt chilled to the bone.
“Are you afraid of me?”
Yun Shayi’s gaze was also complex. The moment she froze the coffin, she had seen the face inside as well. She didn’t know why either.
But she instinctively felt a profound connection to this. She was afraid Luo Tangtang would be scared of her and distance herself.
“But… what exactly is going on?” Luo Tangtang had already given up on the thought of asking the System. She knew the System absolutely wouldn’t tell her. She felt that something had been wrong from the very beginning, that certain things had been amiss since she first arrived in this world.
“I don’t know,” Yun Shayi paused, her voice husky.
“Maybe I’m just a monster. You saw it just now, I killed them without mercy.”
“It’s okay, it’s okay.” Luo Tangtang clutched Yun Shayi’s arm with some force.
“It has nothing to do with Senior Sister.”
“Senior Sister didn’t do anything wrong.” Luo Tangtang’s eyes suddenly stung with tears. She comforted her softly.
Just then, the person in the coffin, no longer nourished by blood aura, suddenly withered and became a dried corpse.