Chapter 76: The Devil’s Sacrifice (26p2)
The followers in their white robes were lined up in neat queues, holding a flickering candle, and they were walking forward with their heads bowed, muttering, like a group of diligent worker ants.
The light and shadow were dazzling. When they turned a corner, a figure at the end of the line nimbly slipped into a blind spot, like a lurking beast. When another team passed by, it silently mixed in.
It was Yu Jiao.
The followers in this team were of different ranks, from first to fourth, and they were wearing cult robes with different dark patterns. They looked like a motley crew, but in fact, they were all the lucky ones who were preparing to receive a “blessing.”
At the ritual ground, the followers were standing in a dense crowd.
/:.
In the darkness, only Helan Duo, who was wearing a sacrificial mask, was standing high on the round platform. His special clothes were emitting a solitary, fluorescent light, making his whole being look as bright as a jade Buddha.
The red-robed deacon below shouted, “The first ritual, the blessing—”
The crowded followers tacitly made way, and the lucky ones lined up and walked up to the high platform.
No one noticed that there was an extra person.
After all, the candidates for the blessing at each assembly ceremony were chosen by eleven based on a complex algorithm, and it seemed there was no pattern. No one would be so bored as to question this.
Yu Jiao was standing at the end of the line and felt the suspicious gaze of the third-rank exorcist beside her frequently fall on her.
But she looked straight ahead, not a shred of guilt.
The blessing ceremony officially began. The third-rank exorcist finally withdrew his suspicious gaze and lowered his head, chanting in a low voice along with the followers below.
Amidst this neat, buzzing sound, Helan Duo lowered his eyes, cut his fingertip with a sharp blade, and then, with his bleeding fingertip, he touched the brow of the first follower to be blessed and lightly drew a line, stopping at the bridge of his nose.
It was to “open the third eye” and “remove evil obstacles.”
During the blessing, the follower had his head slightly bowed, reciting the scriptures. After the blessing was completed, he immediately gave a grand bow and prostrated himself on the ground, not getting up.
And so, the blessed ones fell one by one. Soon, only the last, small follower was left.
“…”
Helan Duo rubbed his brow.
He was not in a good state today.
During the blessing, looking at the crimson of his fingertip, he had repeatedly thought of her bloody wounds, and a strange emotion had risen within him. It was as if a wicked little insect had burrowed into the depths of his spine along his bone tail, a dull, sour, numb, and itchy feeling.
It made him want to smash everything in sight with his bone tail.
…After the assembly is over, I need to go to the lab and have my tail checked.
Helan Duo thought.
He stood before the last person to be blessed.
He raised his hand and, absentmindedly, touched her brow. But to his surprise, something unexpected happened—
The follower, who should have been bowing her head, suddenly looked up.
At that time, his cool fingertip was sliding down her nose. With her sudden look up, Helan Duo was caught off guard, and the two of them met.
As if a prey had fallen into a net, his blood-stained fingertip landed on Yu Jiao’s bright, smiling lips, adding a vibrant, bloody color to her.
Just like the memorial service on that Wood Sun Day—he had playfully smeared blood on her pale lips—but this time, their roles were reversed. Helan Duo had gone from being the active one to the passive one.
“…”
By the time his brain had registered the soft touch of his fingertip, he had already looked up in shock and met Yu Jiao’s teasing grey eyes.
This one look was as if a shutter had been pressed.
Helan Duo had become a phantom, sealed in a photo.
Yu Jiao was smiling as she stared at him, her lips stained with blood, like a beautiful, man-eating flower—she slightly opened her lips, bit his fingertip, and with a fierce force, she did not allow him to escape.
Under the pressure, a stream of blood oozed from the wound. Yu Jiao narrowed her eyes and licked it all up.
Her soft tongue swept back and forth over the tender wound.
Helan Duo’s moist, green eyes were like a congealed pond. He widened his eyes slightly and just stood there, on the round platform. He was drowned in the surging waves that were stirred up by the vortex at the bottom of the pond.
“…”
The buzzing of the chanting was incessant.
From beginning to end, the devout followers had their heads bowed, and they were completely unaware of what was happening on the high platform.
Amidst the vast expanse of kneeling figures, Yu Jiao stood, tall and graceful, a bright smile on her face, and pulled the high and mighty, noble Lord Helan into the mud.
She had blatantly desecrated a god.
…
Yu Jiao suddenly let go.
Helan Duo lowered his hand and, with his wide sleeve, covered his bitten, decadent fingertip.
He suddenly turned his back and left Yu Jiao a swaying, uneasy, high ponytail for her.
“Let the Grand Deacon continue to preside over the ceremony.”
With that, Helan Duo maintained his graceful, elegant posture and left without looking back.
Yu Jiao narrowed her eyes.
She had discovered it earlier, and now, with a test, it was as expected.
—Helan Duo was avoiding her.
The usually composed Lord Helan was actually like a mouse that had seen a cat.
Yu Jiao raised her eyebrow with interest.
…But.
Yu Jiao frowned and caressed the choker that was hidden by her robes.
It was unclear if it was her imagination, but when she had bitten his finger just now, the choker seemed to have tightened. She was a little out of breath, and that was why she had had to let go and let Helan Duo off the hook.
—It was most likely Yu Fenghe’s doing.
Yu Jiao had some guesses, but she still needed to test it again.
And this experiment required the cooperation of Dr. Helan.
The Helan Duo of the Golden Sun Night was like a mouse that had seen a cat.
It was just a pity that the Helan Duo of the Wood Dark Day had not anticipated his “fleeing in panic” state. At that time, he was confident of victory and had, of his own accord, entered Yu Jiao’s biological information into the access control system.
Yu Jiao stood leisurely outside the lab door and, after the pale green light had swept over, she heard a beep. The locked door opened, and she walked into the lab without any obstruction.
Yu Jiao looked around like a victor.
It looked no different from the last time she had been here.
She walked straight to the huge, transparent wall and, looking at the deep, dark sea, she remembered experiment [Z0].
Just then, a sigh came from behind her.
“Madam.”
She turned her head and saw that the speaker on the central control panel was lit up. The next moment, Helan Duo’s helpless voice came through. “Why is the Madam chasing after me so relentlessly?”
Yu Jiao raised an eyebrow.
What a coward, she thought. He doesn’t even dare to show his face.
She gracefully sat on the examination table. “What do you mean, Dr. Helan? I’m just here to have you do a purification.”
She kicked off her shoes, and her pale white, delicate calves were swaying. “After all, after the memorial service on Wood Sun Day last time, it was you who said that the coffin was filthy and that I needed to purify my body after coming out.”
“…”
The other end was silent.
A soft laugh.
Her jade-like, orchid-like feet were on the cold examination table, and they curled slightly, as if from the cold.
“So how can I miss it this time? Don’t you think so? Dr. Helan.”
Her voice was soft and slow, and she enunciated her words as if she were holding a piece of sugar, the end of her words lightly hooked, as if she were raising the temperature, and the sugar was about to melt in her mouth.
The speaker was flickering, and there was a sudden burst of static.
After a long moment, Helan Duo’s slightly heavy voice came through:
“Alright.”
“…”
Yu Jiao curled her lips in satisfaction.
It was unclear if it was because of the speaker, but Helan Duo’s voice was a little distorted, and it sounded difficult.
“…Madam, please wait a moment.”
—
A large hand, with a shining gold ring, pressed the switch on the speaker.
His mountain-like, rugged knuckles were bent, and he was playing with a holographic projection, as if he were nonchalantly holding the slender, beautiful woman who was sitting on the examination table in his hand.
As the light and shadow changed.
A pair of dark purple hawk eyes were raised*, half-smiling. “Nie Hongshen said, “Lord Helan, the deal we just talked about also includes this, right?”
Though it was a question, his words were filled with a certainty of victory.
In the silent secret room, the two of them were separated by a not-so-close, not-so-far distance, one standing, one sitting, a clear distinction.
“…”
Helan Duo took off the name tag with the word ‘Priest’ on it and lowered his pale eyelashes. In his field of vision, the slender figure became illusory and blurry.
He was holding the name tag with a blank face, noncommittal.
“Relax,” Nie Hongshen flicked the ash from his cigarette, and his rich, deep voice was hoarse from the smoke. “I won’t break her. It’s just a… small punishment for a little bug that has betrayed me.”
He said slowly.
Helan Duo looked at the holographic projection for a long time, the emotion in his eyes like a tangled mess of seaweed. He himself could not sort it out.
The cigarette butt was stubbed out on the control panel, burning a white mark.
“It’s just a pretense to do a ‘purification’ for her. Mr. Helan, you were not so hesitant before—”
Helan Duo said, as if possessed:
“…Alright.”
The moment he said it, he regretted it.