Zhang Taoying unleashed a power completely contrary to her appearance, and pulled open the window bars.
There was no wind outside the window, only deep darkness, and below the window was a balcony as solid as rock.
"Oh my god... What terrifying power!" Li Aidan was about to come over to help, but when she saw Zhang Taoying open the window bars by herself, she couldn't help but exclaim in admiration.
"Jump!" Li Ai held the torch and waved it downwards.
Using Li Aidan's torch, Chen Jing saw that after jumping down a few steps from these balconies, he arrived at a smooth road. Directly in front of him was a bottomless abyss, but there were roads on both sides, the destinations of which were obscured by darkness.
Dao Nan carried Li Si on his back, and everyone quickly stepped over the window bars and jumped down the stone steps of the balcony. Chen Jing, who was leaving last, closed the window bars behind him.
They all landed safely, and in the edge of the torchlight, a stone sculpture was faintly visible.
...
In a secret place, in a room, the expert, travel-worn, pushed open the door and sheathed his sword.
“You’re late,” someone said at the end of the long table.
"There was a slight delay on the way," the expert replied briefly.
He glanced around and saw only two people, both shrouded in dark shadows, their faces obscured.
Of course, the experts are also aware that they are seen the same way in their own eyes.
He found a seat in the middle of the long table. The table had many chairs, but only people were sitting at the far ends.
The other seats were all empty.
The man at the end of the long table asked, "How's the investigation going?"
The expert said, "We have the general outline, but the details are still unclear, and there are still mysteries."
"Speak quickly," the man at the end of the long table said impatiently.
The expert said, "As far as I know, the mastermind behind the blood sacrifice in Ash City is a feng shui master."
"A Celestial Cultivator at the Extreme Realm?" the person at the end of the long table asked, as if confirming.
The expert nodded, while the person at the end of the long table said, "Don't interrupt, continue."
"It's also possible that he possesses a powerful spiritual artifact at the level of a Celestial Cultivator in the Extreme Realm," the expert said. "If that's the case, then he himself is at least a Facebreaker."
“It’s possible that the Face-Stealer ‘ate’ a Celestial Cultivator at the Extreme Realm. The life force is always strange and terrifying. If prepared, it is possible to kill a Celestial Cultivator who is not good at defense, even if the opponent is of a higher level,” said the person at the end of the long table.
“This is the best-case scenario: a Face-Stealer with the abilities of a Feng Shui master,” the expert said indifferently. “The worst-case scenario is that this is a team operation, and the team, just those that are outwardly visible, includes a Feng Shui master and a Face-Stealer.”
These words seemed to freeze the air in the entire room.
The man at the end of the long table said mockingly, "Even in the best-case scenario, we have to risk our lives to have any chance of winning."
"We don't have a single Ming Realm artifact! Not a single Ming Realm artifact that's still usable!"
The expert glanced at him but said nothing.
The man at the far end of the long table, shrouded in shadow and unable to see his expression, asked the expert, "What's going on with Lu Gang's gang? Where are the assassins?"
"The investigation is still ongoing," the expert said. "What we know now is that the assassins were a mercenary group called Black Flag. They were hired to assassinate Lu Gang, but they were stopped by a feng shui master during the assassination attempt."
"Lu Gang may have been hired by that feng shui master, and he was the one who presided over the blood sacrifice."
The man at the end of the long table said, "Lu Gang was also keeping it from his subordinates, but after the incident with the big ship, he could no longer hide it."
The expert glanced at him and said, "There's another point. We originally thought that the blood sacrifice ritual was for killing people to appease the demons, but after research, we found that it wasn't like that."
"The purpose of that blood sacrifice ritual was to unleash a plague throughout the city!"
"He wasn't offering sacrifices to ghosts, but to a terrible disease."
...
"Phew, where are we...?" Zhang Taoying rubbed her face, relaxing her stiff expression a bit, and twirled her messy hair.
"The zombies haven't caught up..." Dao Nan looked back warily, with Li Si on his back.
“There’s a stone sculpture here…” Chen Jing looked at the stone sculpture at the edge of the torchlight. It was a monument-style stone sculpture with four pointed roofs, with images carved on the upper half and text on the lower half.
The painting depicts a winged person suspended from a stake, their wings nailed in place, weeping as tears fall into a basin below.
This seems to remind Chen Jing of the angels in the Western world before he transmigrated.
His gaze moved downwards, reading the words.
"I can't understand it. It's neither Song script nor Tong script..." Chen Jing thought.
“This was our former faith.” He Lili’s expression was somewhat tense: “This is a heretical cult…”
"Hmm, how so?" Chen Jing asked.
“Before the ancient Song Dynasty was destroyed by that disaster, there were some people who believed in the existence of angels,” He Lili said. “They believed that believers could approach angels through various actions and thus grow wings themselves.”
"Later, this sect was designated as a cult by the Song Dynasty because their belief was essentially a blood faith," He Lili said.
"Blood faith?" Chen Jing asked with considerable curiosity.
“Their followers would share food during gatherings, and the leader would cut off his own flesh and give it to the followers along with his blood,” He Lili explained. “Those followers believed that this would bring power, which is very similar to the Lingguang Sect, the state religion of the Xia Dynasty at that time. They also believed that the blood in the human body had divine power.”
"From a theological perspective, the angel impaled on a stake may symbolize the sublime sacrifice of holy people. The tears shed by the angel may represent mercy, compassion, or some other meaning..."
My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com