Chapter 252: Chapter 207: Sacrifice
Songzhou, a prefecture city that is somewhat far from Jiankang City and not very conspicuous.
The vast distance from Jiankang, the Capital City, destined this prefecture city to not be very prosperous. Due to being far from the border, there wasn’t much warfare here—however, the military commander of Songzhou wasn’t one to idle away his time, he had his own matters to attend to.
The matter in question was dealing with the issue of cults under his jurisdiction.
Such folk cults are never completely eradicated, after all, there are always things in this world that human strength cannot achieve. Thus, people turn to various deities, hoping that some of these beings might solve their problems—this matter doesn’t depend on one’s rank, even Xu Yan, the military commander of Songzhou, has problems he cannot solve.
Just like the persistent folk cults, these were matters Xu Yan couldn’t resolve no matter what. He had issued order after order, forbidding those folk cults from worshiping deities, yet various secret rituals continued to take place right under his nose.
Faced with this situation, with no other means left, Xu Yan chose a method that was...
Praying to gods and worshiping Buddha.
Indeed, if you can’t beat them, join them. This was the method Xu Yan devised, and using his position as a military commander, Xu Yan quickly became the most powerful cult leader in Songzhou—which was exactly his aim, as he had some information channels over at Jiankang Imperial City. With the Emperor’s death and the new monarch ascending the throne, the Great Chen Court was visibly struggling.
As a military commander, naturally, he must make plans early.
The saying "The heavens are high and the Emperor is far away" described Songzhou precisely. As the court’s control weakened, this was practically a heavenly opportunity delivered to him—the old saying goes, if you don’t seize what heaven grants, you’ll end up regretting it. Now that he had the chance to strengthen himself, why would he let it slip away?
"As long as the power is strong enough, even the so-called Emperor is just so-so."
Every time Xu Yan thought of those letters from the Jiankang Imperial City, he couldn’t help but tremble all over, his heart surging with excitement.
"So, omnipotent deities, bestow me your strength."
Reciting this, Xu Yan bowed down before the altar.
This form of worship seemed effective, at least some fervent cult members in Songzhou had gained inhuman strength through worshiping—regrettably though, Xu Yan himself had not achieved any results from his prayers, let alone emitting Evil Qi, he hadn’t even managed to let it enter his body.
"Could it be I’m not devout enough?"
Thinking this, Xu Yan waved his hand, signaling his men to bring up several death row prisoners.
These were set to be executed after autumn anyway; since they were to be killed, dying sooner or later made little difference. Similarly, since they were to be killed, it didn’t matter much whether they were beheaded—as evidenced now, when he stabbed a prisoner and then extracted the heart, the prisoner was just as dead as if they were beheaded, the difference was negligible.
Afterward, Xu Yan carefully placed the still trembling heart into a stone bowl, respectfully setting it on the altar.
"Omnipotent deities, please grant me strength, please grant me strength..."
"What are you doing?"
"Wha..."
Upon hearing a voice from the altar before him, Xu Yan instinctively lifted his head.
It was a deity, a god had truly been summoned by him!
Except this deity looked too much like a human, had it not been flying in mid-air with a rust-stained Yue Saber lodged in its chest, he might even suspect someone was pranking him—but he quickly confirmed, this was indeed a deity.
After all, he already felt that inhuman, overwhelming pressure.
"Please listen to my request! Great deity!"
Xu Yan quickly bowed low, worshiping.
"Please grant me strength! Let me become invincible!"
"Hmm... a ritual requesting strength?"
The figure with the Yue Saber in its chest furrowed its brows.
"Then you’ve got the procedure wrong."
"...Huh?"
Xu Yan was momentarily dumbfounded.
What does it mean... procedure was wrong?
Is there even a procedure for such things?
"Of course there’s procedure, didn’t you know?"
The figure with the Yue Saber in its chest had an expression that became subtle.
"I wondered why a man would use this type of ritual, this is a ceremony for women to pray for offspring; when used by men it would only... never mind, move aside, let me do it."
Saying this, the figure descended from mid-air, casually taking the dagger from Xu Yan’s hand.
Then it plunged the dagger into Xu Yan’s chest and abdomen.
The stone bowl on the table was tossed aside and replaced with a new one, Xu Yan’s heart blood dripped into the bowl under precise stabs from the dagger. Then, Xu Yan’s bone marrow was extracted, mixed with the blood in the bowl, and the figure smeared this paste on its face and body, drawing fierce patterns.
"Under the witness of various deities, we are one."
Saying this, the figure drank the remnants within the stone bowl in one gulp.
Soon enough, an inexplicable force began to surge along those fierce patterns.
But the figure still shook its head.
"Still not quite enough."
Picking up the dagger, it turned its gaze to the nearby guards.
In mere moments, those guards were all stabbed to death on the spot.
Repeating the same ritual six times in succession, the figure with the Yue Saber in its chest finally looked better, with mysterious power flowing over intricate patterns on its body, making its movement even more fluid.
"What a pity, it would have been great if there were one more."
Thinking this, the figure glared fiercely at Xu Yan’s corpse. Had the other not wasted a human vessel, he should have been able to perform eight ceremonies—now it was too late to compensate with an additional ritual, since the key of this ritual lies in using the first person encountered after prayer, switching to the second or third one wouldn’t achieve such effect.
"But the rituals of old are still passed down after all this time..."
Thinking this, the figure once again flew up into the sky, soaring higher and higher.
Though it had already lamented the changes of time during its arrival, the drastic transformations in landscapes and people, it wanted to take another look, since it was rarely visiting.
To glance once more, at this former homeland.
"This ought to be the right place."
Though the towns and villages below felt somewhat unfamiliar, the mountains and rivers offered a familiar sense.
And this meant it could now use these familiar terrains to seek the remnants of the past.
"There is no shortage of spirit-bound flesh; there are many human vessels here."
The figure flying in mid-air, squinting its eyes.
"Which means, only the wine is left."
