"Su Muye!"

Su Deng reached out and grabbed his shoulder, pinching his face, but Su Muye still didn't react, only continuing to walk away.

The tiny Su Muye, seemingly possessing unexpected strength, walked to the roadside queue despite Su Deng's best efforts. Two people with red-painted faces lifted him up and placed him on a sedan chair, where he sat with the little girl.

"Lift the sedan—"

With the sound of a gong, the two people at the front held up red signs with the words "Silence" and "Avoidance" written in black, and the whole procession continued to skip and hop forward.

Like a chaotic dance of demons.

The people walking on both sides held up spirit banners whose ends fluttered in the air.

Red paper money was scattered from the queue.

Under the pitch-black night sky, with the cold wind howling, blood-red lanterns lit up scattered throughout the village. In the already eerie atmosphere, such a noisy procession with gongs and drums was extremely unsettling.

Sacrifice.

The modern version of the story in Yao Village is that young boys and girls are sacrificed to quell the ancient evil spirits that are suppressed beneath the village, and to ensure that the villagers can live past the age of 25.

But here, it is a place to worship the mountain spirit and the mountain god.

Su Deng bent down and picked up a piece of paper money from the ground. It was the same shape as the paper money used during funerals, only it was red.

The suona also has a festive tone.

It has a kind of eerie and twisted feel that makes your skin crawl.

【bite--】

As I was pondering this, the system's voice sounded in my mind.

[Congratulations, player, you have triggered the temporary quest "Mountain God Sacrifice". Please find a living person in the village before the sacrifice is completed. Completing this quest will grant you +20 health.]

Su Deng: "...?"

The village is so eerie, where is she supposed to find any living people?

She couldn't very well go knocking on every door or asking each person in the sacrificial procession, "Hello, are you a living person?"

Her current health is 61.

The only enticing thing is those 20 health points.

If so many people can die, what's wrong with her dying?

Why force people to survive?

What a load of bullshit survival game!

Su Deng licked her teeth, suppressing her inner rage, and followed the procession along the path of scattered red paper money on the ground.

Even if Su Muye can only travel through this otherworld game and is only a half-NPC, he will still die if he is killed.

The executive officer delegated from the central system—who is he, what does he look like, and when will he appear?

She needs to save Su Muye first.

She still didn't like children, and apart from going through two life-or-death experiences with Su Muyue, she didn't have any other feelings for him.

But she was curious—curious about how she would fall in love with someone in the future, and how she would end up having a child with him.

If that day ever comes, and Su Muye really is her future son, then she'll let him die here today, and she'll just stand by and do nothing...

At the very least, Su Muye was a living being at this moment, and she couldn't just ignore him.

There are no mountains around the modern Yao Village, but there is a mountain to the west of the village. In winter, the surrounding area is desolate, and the fog rises, making everything gray. Only the red lanterns swaying on the mountaintop can be seen, accompanied by the distant sound of bells carried by the night wind.

There is a temple on the mountaintop, but it is not built with bricks and tiles. Instead, it is located inside the not-so-high mountain and can only accommodate a stone statue.

His gaze was downward, his kind and compassionate eyes conveying a sense of pity as he looked down upon all living beings.

On the mountainside above, three characters are deeply etched—

Mountain temple.

To the right of the stone statue's box office stands an exquisitely carved mahogany shrine, about a meter tall. Inside the shrine is a golden ghost statue, exactly the same as the one that was put away in the ancestral hall and by Su Deng.

On either side of the shrine stood a banner for summoning souls; besides the red banners fluttering in the night, there were also blood-red lanterns and silver bells hanging from them.

Without even thinking, one can guess that this is probably the Mountain Spirit.

Various offerings were placed in front of the shrine.

There was also a whole braised pig.

There was nothing in front of the mountain god statue.

The villagers chanted prayers to worship the mountain god and slay the mountain demon, but in comparison, the mountain god seemed superfluous.

The procession stopped outside the mountain god temple, and the procession stood in two separate lines on both sides.

Six children, around six or seven years old, stood steadily on stilts even larger than themselves, surrounded by adults dressed in theatrical costumes and painted with theatrical makeup.

Accompanied by suona horns and drums, they danced a very strange sacrificial dance.

Every now and then, a series of low, incomprehensible growls would sound in unison.

Su Deng was watching the sacrificial ceremony, carefully observing the people in the procession who looked like living beings, when he caught a glimpse of two dark figures running into the procession, wearing ghost masks and hiding at the very back.

Sneaky and furtive.

The clothes look somewhat familiar.

It's Qin Xian and Zhuo Feng!

She shouldn't be the only one with system tasks...

It's faster and more convenient for two people to search than for her to search alone, especially since those two are experienced players with skills.

Su Deng narrowed her eyes and stepped further into the shadows.

The sacrificial dance lasted for almost half an hour before stopping. The Taoist priest who had been performing the ritual in the ancestral hall suddenly reappeared, chanting incomprehensible incantations.

Finally, he shouted, "Kneel down—"

The chaotic procession, which had been dancing wildly like demons, suddenly knelt down in unison.

But it was addressed to the mountain spirit, not the mountain god.

"Collect the Divine Dew!"

After another loud shout, the Taoist priest summoned a young boy who carried a black porcelain bowl. The boy walked to the kneeling man at the head of the group, held a black iron dagger in his hand, and slashed across the man's outstretched wrist, collecting the blood in the bowl.

Then, the next one.

There were at least a hundred people!

As each person walked past the Taoist priest, they would automatically extend their arm, roll up their sleeve, and let him cut their wrist to draw blood.

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