In the ruins of dawn, even bathed in light, the cold and damp thickness could not be altered.
The dark, viscous matter flowed along the ground, and beneath the inky cloak, the woman's eyes were emotionless, staring intently at the empty spot in the corner.
"What's wrong?"
After a moment beside the dried-up pool, the person waiting for the yet-to-arrive sacrificial offering cocked his head slightly, his gray-green face stiff and icy.
The woman lowered her head and said softly, "It's nothing."
The spreading black viscous substance enveloped the girls, binding them like tentacles, and then dragged the thirteen girls onto the platform near the ruins, arranging them neatly.
The girls' wrists extended on their own, the blackness tore open their fragile veins, and the fresh red blood trickled down.
Even though they had been dead for some time, their blood remained fresh and thick.
The red liquid slowly converged along the channels at the top of the platform, like the gutters after a rainstorm, surging towards the dried-up pool in the center of the ruins.
The rich scent of blood spread in the darkness, the nine robed figures trembling violently around the pool, uttering hoarse, suppressed sounds—sounds of excitement, as if enduring something tremendous.
All of a sudden, they raised their hands high and shouted incomprehensible words towards the gradually brightening sky.
In the woods not far from the ruins.
Xu Shuo smelled the blood and an odd impulse surged up from inside him.
Looking at the robed figures, he suddenly felt the urge to join their cheers, but even more so, he wanted to taste the fresh blood in that pool.
The chaotic whispers in his mind kept amplifying, like the buzzing of an old television set right by his ear, annoying and irritating.
At that moment, his gaze towards the ruins suddenly met with a pair of eyes!
Pitch-black and icy, filled with hatred and brutality!
Xu Shuo started, then admirably recovered and leaped away. And the instant he left the tree, numerous dark, thick substances raced to climb up it!
The dark matter writhed and formed a figure, the woman standing above the tree, staring at him expressionlessly.
"Qiuzi, you're not being good."
Xu Shuo looked at her, his lips slightly curved, his delicate and pretty face exceedingly meek and harmless.
...
Xu Shuo hadn't run far and was leaning against a tree playing with his phone.
He wanted to see if he could contact Officer Zhang, but there was no signal here.
After Changying had taken him away last night, he indeed had entered that small dark room, but later, it seemed he had passed through something very soft and squishy, gurgling like the intestines of an animal.
If nothing unexpected happened, that must have been some kind of transfer method, and then he listened to the sound of rain all night long.
The preparations of these cultists for their ritual were simply too slow; since last night, their prayers had started, a nonsensical murmuring that had resonated in his head all night long.
Xu Shuo yawned, although his body was not tired, the thought of another all-nighter made him feel sleepiness creeping in.
And the night before, he had already been up all night.
As he was idly thinking about this, suddenly, a shadow fell overhead.
Drip, drop... viscous black liquid fell onto his pale hand.
Xu Shuo looked up to see, the dim light from his phone screen illuminating the woman's face, which was so close to his. It was stiff and cold, her skin grayish-blue, her dark pupils staring down at him like a fierce ghost.
Her body twisted and clung to the tree, her lower half intertwined in the darkness, viscous matter dripping from her body, emitting a putrid stench.
The rising sun could not bring a single ray of light or warmth to this dark, dilapidated ruin.
"Found you..."
An unsettling laugh emerged from her throat.
Stripped of her daytime appearance as an elegant and strict mature woman, she looked like a twisted monster, oozing a foul stench, wriggling down from the tree, her fingers dripping with black viscous matter as she touched the girl's face.
Changying gave a strange smile, "Qiuzi, you are indeed my favorite student. You are the chosen child of the deity, you should return to our embrace."
Her voice was as if it held some bewitching power, making one unconsciously concentrate and listen.
However, her distorted form was truly horrifying; no matter how she smiled, it was a sinister sight, exuding an air of death and decay from her very flesh and bones.
Xu Shuo looked at her expressionlessly, his gaze ambiguous.
Suddenly, he laughed softly, a low and dark voice more alluring than hers, "Changying, is it really good to dedicate everything to the deity? Don't you think it's a better choice to possess this power yourself?"
He leaned in close to the woman's ear and whispered, "I don't wish to return to the deity's embrace, but if it's with you, Changying..."