As Xiao Cheng looked at the restored statue, a faint sense of foreboding welled up inside her.

"Worship—God descend!" The village chief slammed his cane down heavily and shouted in a loud voice.

Led by the shrine maiden, all the villagers knelt down in unison, bowing deeply to the statue, not daring to even look up at it.

As they knelt in worship time and time again, the light emanating from the statue gradually dimmed, eventually disappearing completely. It began to tremble, from slight to violent, until finally it cracked open with countless fissures and shattered into dust with a snap.

The filling inside was then exposed; soil and straw were piled on the offering table, interspersed with fragments of broken bones, like a grave standing on a shrine.

Everyone ignored this and continued to prostrate themselves devoutly, one prayer after another.

The village chief shouted again, "Welcome—the offerings!"

Two rows of young villagers wearing Nuo masks bypassed the crowd and brought out two life-sized wooden figurines.

The village chief muttered incantations as he circled the altar, while the young villagers piled stacks of firewood at the feet of the wooden figurines and then poured two large jars of wine over them.

The priestess herself stepped forward with a torch and lit all the dry wood. Flames burst forth, billowing thick smoke, and the two wooden figurines suddenly began to shake violently, emitting loud banging sounds from within.

Is someone inside?

Xiao Cheng frowned, and seeing that Xu Chu and the other two still hadn't appeared, her ominous premonition grew stronger.

Just as she was about to step forward to investigate, two large, iron-like hands suddenly reached out from behind and pressed down hard on her arms and shoulders.

Xiao Cheng struggled for a moment, but couldn't break free. Turning her head, she saw two Nuo masks thrust at her from the left and right.

“Dear passengers, please do not interrupt the ceremony,” one of them warned in a deep voice. “The true God is watching us.”

On the altar, the lower halves of the two wooden figurines were blackened by smoke, and the firewood crackled and popped as it burned. The priestess poured in another jar of wine, and the flames instantly intensified, sending up choking ash.

She noticed the commotion on Xiao Cheng's side, glanced up at him faintly, and gave him an apologetic but helpless smile.

"Alright, alright, let go. I swear to the true god that I will never come within three meters of the altar. Is that alright?" Xiao Cheng relaxed and completely gave up resisting.

The two villagers wearing Nuo masks exchanged a glance, then hesitated before nodding and slowly releasing her hand.

Even so, they remained constantly by Xiao Cheng's sides, ensuring that they could immediately regain control of her if anything went wrong.

Xiao Cheng moved his hand, which was almost dislocated, and knew that now was not the time to act rashly. So he patiently and calmly continued to observe the witch's actions.

Beside the altar, the shrine maiden smashed an empty wine jar, turned around, climbed onto the altar, and sat cross-legged inside the shrine, beneath her the shattered remains of the statue.

Her skin began to crack, and bright red blood seeped from the cracks, slowly flowing down and forming a thin, pale golden shell on her skin.

"I will offer my flesh and blood as an offering." Her tone was unusually calm, her expression neither sad nor happy, as if she had long accepted her destiny. "True God, please guide me to your side."

A faint, three-headed, eight-armed phantom appeared behind her, and a distant, mysterious voice rang in everyone's ears: "Yun, my loyal believer."

"It's a miracle! The true god has appeared!" The villagers went into a frenzy, each one eager to rush over, yet none of them dared to lift their heads, their bodies trembling on the ground.

The phantom gradually merged with the witch's body, but Xiao Cheng felt that it was more like a devouring. A new idol was slowly taking shape, and she could hardly recognize the witch's original appearance anymore.

The two wooden figures were still vibrating, and the flames were about to burn through their outer shells. A rapid, thumping sound came from inside one of them.

But nobody cares about these things anymore.

The villagers grew increasingly noisy, so the village chief shouted again to calm things down: "Please—the shaman!"

A shrine maiden? Aren't shrine maidens in the shrine?

Before Xiao Cheng could figure it out, the ancestral hall doors suddenly opened automatically, and the two headless, burly men who had been burned yesterday came out again, one after the other, carrying a sedan chair.

A woman with her face covered was strapped to the sedan chair. She didn't seem to be conscious. She was dressed in strange clothes, and her exposed skin was dyed blue.

Two blank locust wood plaques hung around her neck, swaying back and forth as the sedan chair moved forward.

"It's a priestess! A new priestess acknowledged by the true god!" the villagers exclaimed in delight. "It's done! That's wonderful, it really is done!"

What's done?

Xiao Cheng turned his head left and right to observe the villagers' expressions, and immediately received a warning look from the masked man.

"What are you going to do? Don't forget the oath you swore to the true God!"

Xiao Cheng: "..." Why are you so easily startled? Am I some kind of high-risk individual?

The palanquin was carried all the way to the altar. The moment it hit the ground, the two headless, burly men turned into charred human figures, shrunken into small balls, and collapsed to the ground.

The village chief seemed unfazed by this, and stepped forward, personally using the tip of his cane to lift the cloth covering the new witch's face.

Xiao Cheng thought to himself, "Holy crap!"

It's player number 4.

She had indeed fainted, her head drooping as she leaned against the sedan chair, her face completely pale, a pale blue tinge slowly spreading upwards along her neck.

Since she is the so-called new priestess, there is reason to speculate that those two wooden figurines...

Xiao Cheng frowned deeply as he looked at the wooden figurine, which was now completely charred and no longer moving, inside the flames.

Without making a sound, she reached into her pocket and gripped the dagger inside.

There are too many NPCs; saving three is definitely not enough time. Number 4 is completely unconscious, and Xu Chu and Number 7 might not even be alive. What can we do...?

The scorched wooden figurine split open in the middle, allowing flames to seep in and billow out thick smoke, gradually blurring the vision of others.

"Cough cough." The village chief choked, stopped untying Number 4, frowned, and fanned the ash in front of him. "What's going on? Why is it so difficult to burn these offerings?"

As he spoke, he moved closer to examine the object.

In a flash, a cold glint pierced through the smoke, and the village chief retreated in panic, barely dodging the blade aimed straight at his vitals.

Immediately afterward, the two rows of masked men reacted instantly, firmly protecting him in the center, and looking over at him warily.

Amidst the swirling smoke, one of the wooden figurines split in two, and from the blazing flames, a figure holding a kitchen knife slowly emerged.

"Excuse me, where is the plot now? I just took a nap, how did I turn into a human barbecue?" Number 7 looked around in confusion, seemingly still out of it.

Xiao Cheng: "..." Goodness, you really are something else.

But the moment had come, and in the instant the two masked men beside her reacted, she pulled out a dagger and swiftly severed their hands at the wrists.