CH 47

Chapter 47: Witchcraft Sacrifice (XVI)

There was a dead silence in the underground palace. Qi Leren didn’t know who had the remaining half of the map, and he didn’t think that these people would take it out and share it. They simply proposed to search the part that they had the map for first and see if they could find the location of the first witch.

It remained a dead silence all around, the old corridor had towering white statues all over. Half-human, half-beast strange creatures, ferocious monsters in the dim candlelight, as if they will come back to life at any time.

Qi Leren recalled the map of the underground palace and said to Ning Zhou: “I remember there is a courtyard on the southeast side of the underground palace. There may be plants there, which may match the vegetation of hell. Why don’t we go there and have a look?”

Ning Zhou nodded quietly. Even the big bird on her shoulder didn’t beg for food. She cocked her head and looked at Qi Leren.

On the way to the courtyard the two people ran into several ghosts, but before Qi Leren made himself bleed to fight, Ning Zhou rushed up, and the drawn double knives gave off faint fluorescence, which easily tore up the formless undead, and the torn ghost screamed silently, vibrating in the air and dissipating.

Qi Leren looked numbly at Ning Zhou’s seemingly enchanted weapon, and felt that the game was too unfriendly to newcomers. But then again, will he be that powerful in the future? He will, and he will be the saint warrior of the goddess!

In the complicated underground palace, some places are old enough to collapse, so they can only walk around. It took two people half an hour to find the courtyard on the map by detouring. Standing at the entrance, the ceiling was no longer closed, but open. They can even see the sun hanging overhead.

“Want to go in?” Even in the sun, the courtyard in front of them seemed strange. Qi Leren hesitated for a moment and asked Ning Zhou.

Ning Zhou nodded, and her bird was humming a strange tune actively. Listening carefully seemed to be saying nothing ventured ,nothing gained.

True. If you cringe backwards if you are afraid of danger, you will die sooner or later. In this Nightmare World, you are really seeking riches and honour through risks.

Seeing that Ning Zhou had entered the courtyard, Qi Leren quickly followed.

Under the warm sunlight, the courtyard covered with grass was deep and quiet. It was built underground like the underground palace, and the whole courtyard was sunken like a basin. The beautiful courtyard decorated with flowers and fences was full of iron statues, all of which were human-shaped, sitting or standing, and some even lying on the ground, but their expressions were cold but serene.

Qi Leren felt very uncomfortable. These iron sculptures gave him a strange feeling. He even suspected that the first witch was hiding in these statues.

“I kept feeling as though something is wrong.” Qi Leren murmured.

Ning Zhou frowned and patted the blackbird on the head. The blackbird pecked her finger gently and flew away to explore the road.

“What’s the matter?” Qi Leren asked softly.

Ning Zhou closed her eyes and seemed to be listening to something. She shook her head for a long time and mouthed, Let’s go.

Qi Leren also got suspicious and always felt as if he heard some strange sounds, but when he listened carefully, he found that the surroundings were quiet, with only the footsteps of the two of them.

“Why hasn’t your bird come back yet?” The two people circled around the courtyard and found nothing abnormal, although everything around looks very strange, but there was no sudden danger, even the dead all see none.

Ning Zhou whistled and waited in place for a while, but the big blackbird still didn’t come back.

This time, Qi Leren was also in a hurry. This courtyard was full of strange dangers. In the event that the goddess’s bird never returns…

“Let me go up the tree and have a look. I can always see clearly when I stand high.” Qi Leren pointed to a tall tree next to him and said.

Ning Zhou shook her head, climbed the branch and went up. The trees were verdant. When she went up, she was blocked by leaves. After waiting for a while, Qi Leren suddenly felt something was wrong and shouted under the tree: “Ning Zhou? Ning Zhou! ”

He didn’t know where the wind was blowing. Although he was clearly under the sun, there was a stinging coldness.

Qi Leren climbed up the tree without saying anything, and the leafy canopy blocked the sunlight, making his vision dark. The branches stuck in him painfully. Qi Leren climbed to the top of the tree regardless, and it was dark in front of him!

No, it’s not pure darkness. After passing through the top of the tree, above there was no longer a day with warm sunshine, but an endless cold moonlit night-under the vast starry sky, with a crescent moon hanging overhead, sending out bright moonlight. Looking at it, a thick fog enveloped the earth and wrapped the whole courtyard in the fog of the sea of clouds.

This….. This is too weird.

Qi Leren’s hands and feet had become cold, and he scrambled to climb down the tree. Clear moonlight illuminated the courtyard, surrounded by a faint fog, which made the courtyard seem ominous in the sunlight, and became more and more deep and strange in the moonlight.

Qi Leren held a dagger, confirmed that the S/L skill card and primary fighting skill were equipped in the belt, and took a deep breath.

It seemed that the main scene was coming.

He took a few steps forward, and the courtyard illuminated by moonlight was still full of plants and statues. These iron statues reflected the cold light of metal in the moonlight. Qi Leren suddenly felt something was wrong and looked at the nearest statue. The humanoid statue that had been sitting still- he didn’t know when it changed!

It was a statue with the abdominal cavity cut open, the ribs lifted like the wings of a butterfly, revealing a belly full of viscera. She looked miserable and ferocious, and struggled with her neck lifted high, as if she were screaming bitterly.

The pain of torture, just to imagine it makes people feel sick.

Qi Leren unconsciously touched his stomach and looked at other statues. Sure enough, the humanoid sculpture that looked normal in the sun showed a different appearance in the moonlight. Countless prisoners were fixed on the pedestals in various distorted postures under the torture of strange instruments of torture, exposing the pain and cruelty of torture clearly to the visitors.

It was getting colder all around. Qi Leren wrapped his coat tightly and moved some stiff limbs. At this time, he has realized that he was no longer in the “courtyard”, but instead that this was the real courtyard, a world under the control of demons and witches.

Just now, Ning Zhou went up the tree first, then disappeared. She should have come to the present courtyard, but he doesn’t know if they are still in the same space. If he wanted to leave here and return to the normal courtyard …

Qi Leren pondered over the tree. After a long time, he decided to give it a try and climbed to the top again. There was still endless night in front of him. He returned to the ground with a sense of loss. It seemed that the same way couldn’t get him out of here, and he had to solve the puzzle of this courtyard.

The breeze blew, the chill fog changed its shape in the moonlight, and Qi Leren walked in the courtyard. On several occasions, he clearly heard the sound of rustling, which seemed to be the movement caused by the wind blowing branches, but when he stopped to listen to the sounds  his ears only found silence, and even the sound of insects did not exist here.

Was it auditory hallucinations? Qi Leren pondered and denied his own judgment. In this unusual place, any subtle clues may be dangerous hints. The sound should be…

Some kind of “vegetation from hell”? Qi Leren watched the sculptures around them carefully, looking for the one that was “burned by flames”.

Qi Leren walked deeper and deeper in the courtyard, and the sculptures around him were all strange and twisted, but the ones that were not burned by flames died of an interrogation chair full of nails, and died of being sawed from between her legs after being hung upside down. She died of being scraped off by a washboard and being squeezed by a punishment cap …

No, the order is wrong!

Qi Leren suddenly realized something was wrong. He had been wandering in this courtyard for half an hour, but the order of statues around him changed! At present, the neck was tightened by the chain, and the statue of a heavy iron ball was still hanging at the foot, which was not in this position!

This sudden discovery of abnormality made Qi Leren’s hair stand on end. In the cold air, he was the only one whose breathing and pounding heartbeat became more and more urgent.

Calm down, calm down. The position has changed. It should not be dangerous, but a hint.

He had been circling here for half an hour, but in the courtyard with an originally simple path shrouded in moonlight and fog, he could no longer find a way out, and he could only wander here repeatedly. The position of the statues changing, was this the key to crack the puzzle?

Qi Leren took a deep breath, ready to save at any time, and then walked slowly to the sculpture.

The cold wind blew away the floating clouds, and the moonlight fell quietly. Qi Leren finally saw the statue blocked by the fog, and the painful twisted face was his own!