In the darkness of night, a long procession carried two flimsy coffins through the thick darkness. There was no moon tonight, and the sky was covered with dark clouds. Under the gloomy weather, yellow paper fluttered and hung on the reeds by the roadside. When the wind blew, the coffins fell to the ground with a dull thud.

After the procession buried the coffin in the ground, the crowd covered it with soil and knelt down, murmuring incoherently.

He was muttering something, and upon closer listening, it was the same nursery rhyme that Little Tiger had sung earlier. Only now, the nursery rhyme had a complete version.

“The moon is clear, the stars are bright, the children go up the mountain forest to return home late. They go up the mountain forest, down to the river, to worship the mountain god and to marry a bride. Beautiful girls are hard to find, but handsome young men are just passable.”

It sounds like a nonsensical ballad.

The two people huddled in the coffin felt a chill run down their spines as they listened to the song; the villagers were clearly planning to bury them alive!

After singing the folk song, the crowd knelt down again and bowed in the direction of the mountain.

"My lord, we have offered sacrifices many times this year. I hope this one will satisfy you! Please let it rain soon!"

The crowd continued to kowtow towards the mountaintop, but a snow-white figure rose up on the mountaintop.

The whistling wind swept over everyone's heads.

The villagers kowtowed, shouting in unison, "The sage has appeared! The sage has appeared!"

A black hurricane swept in, knocking the old, young, sick, and disabled to the side. Newly buried graves were uprooted, carrying the coffin-bearer into the darkness.

Behind the hurricane, the snow-white Sekiro led a host of wild beasts in pursuit.

The hurricane swept past the tall reeds, and the once silent yellow paper flew everywhere. A thunderclap split the heavy twilight clouds, and the sound of rain pattering echoed in the black night sky.

"A celestial being has appeared! It's raining!"

"It's finally raining!"

"The immortals are watching!"

The wolf pack chased after the hurricane, and in the still-bright light of the thunder, a figure stood tall, coldly mocking: "Ignorance!"

Inside the coffin, he was swept up and pounded by the hurricane, his head spinning and his consciousness vanishing without a trace in an instant.

When they woke up, Zhang Xu and Rong Yue were tied up side by side in a black hole.

She heard the sound of dripping water and felt wetness under her feet. Upon closer inspection, she saw bones of various sizes intertwined. As Zhang Xu looked closely, a pair of dark holes came into view.

Suppressing the nausea in her heart, Zhang Xu slowly shook Rong Yue, who was on her back, awake.

"Where is this place?"

Rong Yue kicked the rope on her foot, only to find it useless. After looking around at her surroundings, she was clearly startled.

"This place seems to be some kind of cave. Are these bones human bones?" Zhang Xu asked.

"We were detained by those villagers for a day before being sent here. This place is very likely the lair of the thing they worship."

"What could this be?" Zhang Xu muttered to himself. Things had been getting increasingly surreal lately, and the thing he was facing was clearly a man-eating creature.

"Shh! Something's coming." Rong Yue's cultivation level was higher than hers, so even though they were far apart, she could still detect the slightest movement.

The two quickly lowered their heads, pretending to still be unconscious.

The sound of footsteps came from outside. Zhang Xu lowered her head, her loose bangs obscuring her eyes, which were pretending to be asleep.

Through her hair, with her head bowed, she could only see the silver strands of hair entwined around the swaying snake tail.

Heaving breaths filled her ears, and a wet tongue licked Zhang Xu's head, its foul-smelling liquid sliding down her hair. The pungent smell almost made her choke.

"It smells so good! What's on you?"

The monster spoke in her ear, a clear female voice carrying a damp chill.

Zhang Xu felt a shiver run through her heart, suppressing her nausea and not daring to utter a sound.

"You're clearly awake but you're pretending?"

A huge hoof reached out and lifted Zhang Xu's chin, forcing Zhang Xu to raise his head and look directly at the monster in front of him.

A white-haired monster with a snake-like tail and a single eye on its enormous head.