Chapter 60
"It's done!"
Hahahaha
The last line was filled with incense ash from both sides, and from the sky down, an incredibly complex and strange pattern took shape in the basement.
Sitting in the manor facing the large screen in the room of the Yu Nan Building, Liu Yan showed a happy expression, "Well done, remember to come out after you've finished up the mess."
"Yes." Yuan Lianyu, dressed in a black robe, had a burning desire in his eyes, but when he brought it up, he became somewhat displeased and glanced unfriendly at the lowly believers who were squatting on the ground resting below.
"grown ups!"
Liu Yan thought it was about time to hang up the phone, but Yuan Lianyu stopped her.
"Why are they here?" Yuan Lianyu was somewhat unconvinced, as he was clearly the one valued by the church.
Upon hearing this, Liu Yan couldn't help but laugh and scolded, "Fool."
"You are the darling of the cult, while they are nothing but lowly fodder and sacrifices. How can they compare! Be good, if you finish this smoothly, your status in the cult will rise this time."
Hearing that the fool Yuan Lianyu was somewhat aggrieved, wondering why he was being scolded, he became like a docile donkey, his dissatisfaction vanishing instantly, leaving only a surge of passion to be poured out on the sect.
"Yes, sir! I will certainly do my best to make it perfect for you."
Liu Yan was very satisfied with the young man's attitude and nodded.
The call was disconnected.
Yuan Lianyu, who was left standing there, pulled his hood tighter, not caring about the people below, and not even bothering to look at them. He turned around, opened the small door, and left.
Li Fang worked for several nights in a row, and her face turned pale and weak.
With her mission nearly complete, she dragged her weary body, leaning against the wall, and limped towards the man in black ahead. She wanted to ask again if her daughter was coming back…
She struggled to walk off the stage, and just as she was about to take a step, she heard the voice coming from the phone and froze in place.
What did she hear...?
Sacrifice!
What does this mean?
My mind was a bit foggy.
The makeshift wooden building on the steps trembled a few times, and the falling dust sprinkled on the woman's already messy hair. Li Fang lay on the steps, her eyes following the sound as she stared blankly at the man in black turning around and leaving through the small door.
"Clang!"
The iron gate clicked softly, the dim light flickered slightly, and no one moved in the empty basement. Li Fang silently lowered her head, still pondering the meaning behind the words.
...
In the hall where the gods are enshrined in the manor
The ground was decorated with the same pattern as the one in the Yu Nan Building, but the pattern was much smaller.
Liu Yan and Yun Tinglan stood on either side of the magic circle.
Two jade tablets floated up in front of him.
When the appointed time arrived, the two activated the jade tablets simultaneously.
The two jade tablets flickered continuously, their surfaces radiating an irresistible attraction. The two people in the formation held their breath, watching the two jade tablets slowly approach.
The moment it got close, the jade pendant was replaced by a rotating black hole.
The black hole slowly rotated, and it was pitch black inside. Looking into it felt like your soul would be sucked in.
The moment the black hole appeared, Liu Yan and Yun Tinglan immediately retreated.
They didn't stop until they had retreated five meters away from the hall.
Liu Yan wiped the sweat from her forehead and said happily, "It's finally done."
Yun Tinglan, however, remained uneasy, glancing towards the hall with lingering fear.
She almost lost her mind after just one glance up.
Once this magic array is fully operational, as long as the array remains intact and there are enough offerings, no one inside the building can escape, and any energy generated will be sucked into the black hole.
...
The moment the array lit up, the police officer on duty there suddenly changed his expression, looking at the energy monitoring talisman hanging on his wrist, which emitted bursts of white light.
He made a decisive decision and immediately reported it.
The address has been sent.
Fire!
Meanwhile, the other team members who were observing where the anomaly was located changed their expressions when they saw white smoke billowing from the Yu Nan Building. The building, which had been perfectly fine just moments before, was now engulfed in flames from the first floor to the rooftop in less than half a minute.
It didn't seem like an accident; it looked more like premeditated arson.
The five floors below the building are a shopping mall, and the floors above are office buildings.
Today is another workday.
Thinking of this, the officers turned pale.
"Captain Yang, the Yu Nan Building is on fire. Requesting backup. Suspected cult."
After reporting, the group went off to participate in the firefighting efforts.
...
Li Fang didn't ask about her daughter's progress, and slowly moved into the crowd with her body slumped.
As she passed one woman after another, laughing and crying, tears streaming down her face, Li Fang could still see that their eyes were bright, unlike the listless, lifeless women she had seen on her first visit.
She suddenly felt like laughing, so she laughed.
"Hahahahahaha..."
Her maniacal laughter echoed throughout the basement.
People around her gradually moved away from her.
She laughed for a long time, until the women around her were frightened and even felt a chill run down their spines.
"Hahaha, good... Pfft..."
In the end, Li Fang, who was suffering from oxygen deprivation, did not struggle at all and collapsed face down on the rough cement floor.
"He's bleeding!"
A bold middle-aged woman came over to help her. A bright red stain on her face was particularly noticeable in the dim light. The dispersed crowd gathered again to help the woman stop the bleeding.
"What's wrong with her?!"
"I'm so happy! I know her, she just told me her daughter is coming back soon."
"My son can too..."
"My mom will be back soon!"
"Our hopes have been fulfilled..."
"No...no." The women's excitement triggered Li Fang's nerves. In the struggle, a stream of hot blood flowed from the tip of her nose and into her open lips.
A metallic, bloody smell.
Li Fang gradually stopped struggling, a glimmer of clarity flashing in her eyes.
That familiar fishy smell...
It was blood! She remembered, but... Li Fang glanced around, especially at the only small door that was locked from the outside.
The male voice from the video echoed in her mind.
Garbage! Sacrifices!
They were all lying to her, lying to them.
“You’ve all been deceived, we’ve all been deceived…” Li Fang sat on the ground and said to the women surrounding her, “Your son, your mother, your daughter… they won’t come back! They won’t come back! They deceived us.”
No, it won't.
The women didn't believe her.
"We are so honest..."
"Don't say that. They even saved her life. No way."
"We're going to die too! Hahahaha."
Before Li Fang's laughter had even faded, the eerie pattern in the center of the basement suddenly lit up. Before anyone could react, the woman standing on the periphery screamed in terror, "I can't move!"
The next second, she was enveloped in a white light.
"ah--"
A piercing scream came from inside.
"What's wrong? Can you still speak?"
Someone couldn't help but swallow hard and asked in a trembling voice.
"ah!"
The screams continued.
The crowd immediately huddled together, trembling, avoiding eye contact, and dared not look over.
When the screams stopped, some people mustered up their courage and looked over.
"The light has dissipated!"
As the white light faded, everyone looked over and saw that the woman who had been imprisoned by some unknown white light was now a corpse standing there like a withered tree.
The hollow, sunken eye sockets stared straight at them.
Her screams seemed to still echo in the empty basement.
In just a few moments, the man turned into a dried-up corpse and died...
"ah--"
One after another, white lights appeared, and new people were constantly being selected, causing the women to panic.
Li Fang was also somewhat shocked, and ran around the basement with the crowd.
Soon, Li Fang was the first to be knocked to the ground by a series of blows.
To avoid being trampled, she moved to the corner of the wall.
Suddenly, the smell of incense ash wafted over.
She thought of something.
"Quickly disrupt the formation." Li Fang was the first to arrive at the side, vigorously rubbing the incense ash she had personally sprinkled on the formation.
It was originally just a powder.
She tried to scrub it hard, but to no avail. It seemed to have become one with the cement floor and couldn't be wiped off no matter what she did.
No wonder...
Don't worry, they can stay here.
Li Fang closed her eyes in despair, listening to the constant screams around her, wondering if she was going to die too.
If I die, will I be able to see my daughter again?
As she closed her eyes and fell asleep, a white light suddenly enveloped her body.
...
In the stairwell on the other side of the building.
Liu Yunqing sat down on the floor where the little girl used to frequent.
Using the height of the stairs, he could see through the classroom glass a group of children going to school, especially a little girl sitting by the podium who seemed to be dozing off.
Liu Yunqing gave a slight smirk, "He's still just a little kid."
Fire!
"Fire!"
"Knock knock~"
A series of noises came from downstairs. Liu Ting, who was in the stairwell, saw the stair railing and even the stairs he was sitting on vibrating continuously, and a pungent smell came from the stairwell.
Oh no!
A bad feeling welled up inside him, and he went down the stairs to see where the fire was.
He had only gone down one floor when he saw thick smoke billowing upwards from the stairwell. He instinctively climbed back up, only to hear another layer of panicked noises coming from above.
"ah--"
Suddenly, screams made Liu Yunqing stop in her tracks.
Then there was a "thump, thump" sound in the stairwell, and an old man came up from upstairs. Liu Yunqing recognized him; he was the person who had been helping him move things over the past few days.
"Big brother, what's going on up there?"
The elderly man appeared panicked and somewhat disoriented, repeatedly shouting, "Fire! Fire!"
Before Liu Yunqing could figure it out, he covered his nose and peered upwards. The stairwell was filled with billowing black mist, making the already dim stairwell even darker, and he couldn't see anything at all.
He turned around and saw the old man slumped on the ground. He immediately grabbed the old man and ran downstairs, rushing to the classroom. He shouted to the bewildered teacher, "Fire!"
"There's a fire downstairs."
The teacher was highly experienced and capable, and had more than thirty students in her after-school tutoring class. At this moment, she remained calm and looked down through the window.
At the same time, a series of muffled thuds were heard.
The entire area downstairs was engulfed in flames, with thick plumes of smoke shooting into the sky.
This building is on the third floor.
The thick smoke drifted very quickly, and the air was filled with a pungent smell.
It won't be long before the fire escalates.
The teacher immediately sealed the windows and closed the fire door. The teacher then called the children to get up, wet small towels with water, and distributed them to the children.
"Hehe...wet."
Fortunately, the child is seven or eight years old and very obedient.
Even the usually mischievous girls became well-behaved.
The teacher instructed them to cover their mouths and noses, and prepared to bend down and lead them upstairs to avoid the fire.
Seeing that they were about to go upstairs, Liu Yunqing told the teacher that the hallway was filled with smoke.
"What!" The teacher was now somewhat taken aback.
She went to check the stairwell next door herself. At the same time, people were running from the back door. She asked them and learned that the stairwell was also filled with black smoke. She almost collapsed to the ground.
Now she can only stay in this room with her children, searching for any useful items while waiting for rescue.
Liu Yunqing went to help, but as soon as she left, she remembered the things they had moved upstairs these past few days and suddenly froze in place.
These flammable materials have been piled up in the stairwells on every floor these past few days, taking advantage of the fact that the property management staff are all their own people. The quantity is enormous.
A fire couldn't have started on just the first floor.
He suddenly turned to the old man who was standing there blankly, "Brother, is there a fire up there too?"
"Yes or no"
"Pear blossom~pear blossom..."
The old man was immersed in his own world, repeatedly calling out "Pear Blossom, Pear Blossom".
Liu Yunqing was on the verge of collapse. He shouted, "Pear Blossom, I'm giving you pear blossom, wake up!"
I said I'd give you pear blossoms!
The old man seemed to regain a little clarity: "Pear Blossom!"
"Yes, you need to tell me first if there's a fire upstairs."
"It's on fire! A huge fire! They haven't come down... Pear Blossom~"
The old man was in poor condition; after answering, he returned to his blank expression.
Liu Yunqing was stunned after hearing this.
They didn't come down!
Liu Yunqing realized there were more than twenty of them, and remembered the last person's task: to guard the things in the stairwell to prevent them from being stolen.
They stole it!
They're probably afraid they'll run away!
"hehe……"
He was wrong.
There was no resurrection; it was simply that the entire family of three had gone to the underworld, and now…
He looked down into the child's innocent and curious eyes, unaware that they would all perish in the flames...
But Liu Yunqing was...
accomplice!
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