At the same time, the Kitahara family.

Xiao Kui numbly took off her gorgeous clothes. The servant beside her lowered his head and gently advised: "Master Xiao Kui, you have already chosen your own [Prince]."

"If you run away before the summer festival, you should know what will happen to your Prince, right?"

Xiao Kui looked at the sunny doll hanging under the eaves outside the window, lowered her eyes and hummed.

The servant folded his hands in front of him, bowed and stepped back. Xiaokui stood in the middle of the room for a long time as if frozen, then turned around and leaned against the window, staring at the shrine in a trance, motionless.

It is already night, but Hakuroku has not returned yet. It is said that he was detained in the houseboat by the Yuchuan family. The head of the Kitahara family is furious, and the entire Kitahara family is preparing to go to the Yuchuan family to negotiate the issue of the detention of the sacrifice.

So her evening entertainment - watching Hakuroku go to the shrine - was gone.

After staring at the shrine for a long time, Xiao Kui yawned lazily. Feeling bored, she was about to look away and go to sleep when she saw the door of the shrine suddenly opened a little.

Xiao Kui looked at the door that was slightly opened with a look of doubt and uncertainty, then looked around. After making sure that Bai Liu was not there, her heart began to beat wildly.

If she hadn't observed it every day, she would hardly have noticed the slight gap in the door.

This evil god living in the shrine, in the absence of painful sacrifices, has awakened? !

Xiao Kui opened the window and looked around. When she was sure that there was only a sleeping servant in the attic on the left, she turned over and climbed down from the side of the attic skillfully.

It would take the Kitahara family no more than an hour to negotiate with the Yusen family. During this period, the Kitahara family would be relatively short-staffed. Xiao Kui thought calmly that as long as she came back before then, she would not be discovered.

Even though she was caught, she was a sacrifice who had successfully escaped from the Kitahara family once. She thought she was very familiar with going to the shrine to take a look without leaving the house.

Xiaokui dangled under the attic for a few seconds, then jumped steadily to the ground and ran towards the shrine.

In the attic behind her, the servant who she thought was sleeping was silently opening the window and watching her run towards the shrine.

The servant was holding a landline phone and was leaning into the receiver, reporting in a low voice: "Kitahara Kokui is approaching the shrine, following the same path as Kitahara Hakuroku in the past few months."

"Master, the summer festival is just two days away. In the past four months, we have confirmed that the sacrifice Kitahara Hakuroku has the qualifications to awaken the evil god. After testing Kitahara Xiaokui tonight to see if she can awaken the evil god, will we release the escape route that we have arranged to these two sacrifices?"

"Demote him." A hoarse voice of a middle-aged man came from the receiver. It was the head of the Beiyuan family. "We can't give up the first place to the Yuchuan family."

"We have been playing a role with these two sacrifices for half a year. It is time for them to pay the price called "pain" for the gift from the Kitahara family."

"Yes." The servant answered quickly. He squinted at the "Sacrificial Animal Raising Plan" form hanging on the back of his door and asked respectfully, "Let me confirm it with you again."

"The upbringing plan we prepared for Kitahara Xiaokui is [Educational Cognitive Bias] and [Escape Twice]."

"Last year, during the [Escape Plan] led by the Yu family, we had no choice but to let Kitahara Kokui escape. She spent two months drifting outside. During this period, the Yu family sent their own people to contact her, but because we didn't want Kitahara Kokui to be under the control of the Yu family, we forcibly recalled Kitahara Kokui after we won the first place in tax payment this year."

"After recalling her, we trained her with [Educational Cognitive Bias]. While torturing her, we taught her all the best things in the world, making her think that the outside world is beautiful, thus stimulating her desire to escape again."

"Tonight, we will arrange an escape route for Kitahara Xiaokui and place a [good person] from the Kitahara family on this route to help her escape and completely capture her heart."

"At the winter festival in half a year, we will let this [good guy] betray Kitahara Xiaokui, tie her up and send her back to the Kitahara family. In that moment, she will be the most perfect painful sacrifice."

The head of the Kitahara family laughed hoarsely: "The wish made with her must be perfect."

The servant hesitated for a moment, then continued reading the [Sacrificial Raising Plan]:

"The sacrifice, Kitahara Hakuroku, successfully stole the shrine key on the first day he arrived at the Kitahara family, went to the shrine and awakened the evil god. He was a mature sacrifice from the beginning."

"In the next four months, Kitahara Hakuroku went to the shrine to worship every day. We initially thought he was a devout cultist, so the training plan we made for him was [blasphemy], which meant to make his faith in the evil god collapse in his heart."

"For example, they tortured him in a shrine and forced him to pray to the evil god for help, but the evil god did not come out to save him. In this way, they made him abandon his faith and deepened his suffering."

"But we soon discovered that Kitahara Hakuroku was not a devout cultist." The servant was confused. "...After six months of teaching and observation, we found that the reason why Kitahara Hakuroku went to the shrine every day was not because he believed in evil gods, but rather because he was, because..."

The head of the Kitahara family continued the second half of the sentence in a hoarse voice: "——He is training the evil god, making the evil god suffer for him and believe in him in return."

The servant nodded. "Yes, so we don't have a special training plan for Bai Liu. We are just preparing to put him into the [Escape Plan] step by step and see what the results are in half a year."

"Tsk." The head of the Kitahara family narrowed his eyes. "It's a pity that we don't have the tools to measure pain like the Yuchuan family, otherwise we wouldn't have to wait half a year to see the results."

"The two key items for cultivating sacrifices, the balance and the boat house, are in the hands of the boat owner. We can't open the shrine openly at a non-sacrificial node, so we can only observe the performance of the sacrifices outside the shrine from a distance to see if the sacrifices have the qualifications to awaken the evil god."

The servant sighed, "Even so, we lost a lot of people during the observation process because of the evil god's abnormal influence on those who saw him."

"However, judging from the performance of the Yuchuan family in snatching Bai Liu tonight." The head of the Kitahara family laughed a dull and hoarse laugh, "Bai Liu must have been a very painful sacrifice."

The servant hesitated, "Master, since Bai Liu is already in so much pain, do you still want to give Bai Liu the escape route?"

"Let him go." The head of the Kitahara family said in a gloomy tone, "At present, the Kitahara family cannot compete with the Yuchuan family. If we don't let him go, the Yuchuan family will just take him away by force. Let Bai Liu go first, and wait until the second half of the year when the Kitahara family completely controls Luming County, then we can tie him back."

"Yes." The servant nodded respectfully, "Then I will immediately arrange for those who escaped to come."

Mountain top, shrine.

Xiao Kui ran up the mountain holding a gas lamp. She looked at the huge shrine standing on the top of the mountain in a trance, and the hot night wind blew across her face.

...Is this how Bai Liu feels when he walks here every night?

When they stood in front of the huge shrine gate, Xiaokui regretted her impulsiveness in a rare way.

Frames have been erected on both sides of the shrine, knotted ropes have been hung, and lanterns have been hung on them one by one. The area around the shrine has also been carefully cleaned.

The summer festival is just two days away, and the shrine will soon be open to the public. It has begun to be decorated and cleaned, which means that there are people guarding and arranging the area around the shrine. It would be a bit risky for her to come here now.

But now that she was here and it was late at night, she didn't see anyone guarding her...

Xiao Kui took a deep breath and stepped onto the last staircase.

A very quiet voice came from the door: "Who?"

Is this the voice of the evil god?

Xiao Kui was shocked when she heard this. She started to get nervous and her heart started beating wildly. But at the same time, an inexplicable hatred was rising in her heart.

——The one living here is the evil god who killed her brother.

"You are waiting for Bai Liu, right?" Xiao Kui asked calmly.

The noise inside quieted down. Xiao Kui heard the sound of the chain moving towards the door. A strong smell of blood wafted out from the crack of the door. The other party's voice became lighter and more ethereal. He asked Xiao Kui with sincerity: "Yes, I waited for him for a whole day."

"He usually comes by this time, but today, for some reason, he hasn't come yet."

"Excuse me, do you know what happened to Bai Liu?"

Kitahara Xiaokui tightly grasped the handle of the gas lamp in her hand. She slowly inhaled and exhaled, then suddenly laughed inexplicably: "You don't have to wait."

"Bai Liu will not come to see you again."

The voice in the shrine paused for a moment, and when it spoke again, it became calmer: "Why?"

"Do you know what our sacrifice's latest course is?" Xiao Kui laughed wickedly, "It's 'Love'."

"We talked about the love story 'Rapunzel' yesterday. Today, let the sacrifice choose his or her favorite 'Prince' from the handsome young men around and experience the beauty of love."

"Hakuroku also chose his own Prince."

The noise in the shrine fell completely silent.

Xiao Kui waited outside for a while. She felt a sense of pleasure of revenge in her chest, but at the same time, she also felt an inexplicable sense of suffocation.

It was as if she was in this twisted and dark Kitahara family, in this Luming County that feeds on pain, and in the dark forest, the only light she saw was the gas lamp in Bai Liu's hand, which was about to be extinguished before her eyes, and she felt suffocated.

Sou Tai's sparkling eyes flashed before Xiao Kui's eyes. He looked at Xiao Kui seriously and said:

[Master Bai Liu and Master Xieshen must be true love, a beautiful relationship just like in fairy tales. 】

Xiao Kui gritted her teeth and said, "Why, are you giving up?"

The moment she finished speaking, the door of the shrine in front of her was pushed open by a pale and slender hand. Under the faint moonlight, the evil god with bloodstains on his face and body tried hard to push half of the door open, walked to the door of the shrine, stretched out his fingers with all his strength to push the door open a little, and appeared in front of the dazed Kitahara Xiaokui.

“He” closed his eyes, his delicate face was covered in blood, he held onto the door frame, and was dragged into the shrine by countless silk threads. His chest rose and fell slightly, and he spoke with a breathy voice: “Has the selection of Bai Liu [Prince-sama] ended?”

"Can Bai Liu return the original prince and add me to the list and choose again?"

Xie Ta's tightly closed eyelashes trembled slightly, and her face was lightly red. "Although I am not young anymore, I should still be handsome."

Kitahara Xiaokui was so shocked by Xie Ta's appearance that she couldn't say a word. Just when she was about to say something, she suddenly turned her head and looked at the bushes that were shaking: "Who?"

A figure slowly walked out from the bushes.

Kitahara Xiaokui was stunned again.

She was a tall woman who looked about the same as Kitahara Xiaokui. Her body was covered with scars, and one could tell she had suffered a lot of injuries to get here. She looked at Kitahara Xiaokui, covered her mouth and cried, "I finally see you, Xiaokui!"'

Kitahara Xiaokui whispered in a trance: "...Sister."

The person who came was the eldest sister among Xiaokui's four siblings.

After Xiaokui and her younger brother Jiro were sold, the elder sister broke up with her family in anger, was driven out of Luming County, and married to a small coastal county town far away from here. She hadn't seen Kitahara Xiaokui for a long time.

"I didn't agree with my parents selling you and Jiro at the beginning, but I couldn't say anything, and I was driven out of Luming County and not allowed to come back." Kitahara Kokui's sister grabbed Kitahara Kokui's hand without saying a word, and said anxiously, "I came here during the summer festival. The guards in Luming County are very lax at this time."

She half squatted down, holding Xiaokui's shoulders, and looked at her eagerly: "Run with sister, let's leave this hell together!"

Kitahara Xiaokui looked at the hand extended by her elder sister with a blank expression, and there was obvious hesitation in her eyes.

She slowly raised her hand and placed it in her eldest sister's palm.