Taiping River God, the Grand Sacrifice Begins

Wang Ping's mind was in utter turmoil, his face full of bitterness. Even wine and meat tasted like chewing wax, devoid of any of their former pleasure.

Had he known this trip to Qingshan County would be so dangerous, why had he come here to suffer?

Wang Ping had clearly forgotten how much he had enjoyed eating, drinking, and making merry in Qingshan County. Now that he was being asked to risk his life, of course he was unwilling.

But Zhang Qing had allowed these Rogue Cultivators to feast and revel freely in Qingshan County, and had even shielded them when trouble arose, all for this very moment—to make them risk their lives. How could she possibly allow even one of them to escape?

In the end, every Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivator was forced to drink a bowl of fine wine.

That wine had been provided by Young Master Kongxu and Qiao Xuan. After drinking it, without the antidote from Young Master Kongxu and Qiao Xuan, they would certainly die within two days!

Their only hope now lay in whether they could kill the demon in the Taiping River tomorrow. If they succeeded, they would naturally receive the antidote. If they failed, then they would have no need for any antidote.

They were being forced to fight for their lives, but did Wang Ping and the others have a choice?

At last, Zhang Qing discussed matters with the eight Foundation Establishment cultivators again. It was decided that Young Master Kongxu would lead Wang Tianfang and Li Hao, the two early Foundation Establishment cultivators, along with all the Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators, to act together with Zhang Qing and Xu Xiao.

Meanwhile, Qiao Xuan, Wenren Jie, Qian Ming, and Han Li would rush overnight to East River Town to make arrangements. At dawn tomorrow, they would begin the operation!

Wang Ping and the other Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators waited uneasily. At the first quarter of the hour of the Rabbit, Zhang Qing glanced at Xu Xiao. Xu Xiao nodded, rose to her feet, and said, "Everyone, set off!"

All the Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators rose instinctively and watched Xu Xiao take out a brocade handkerchief. With a flick into the wind, the handkerchief expanded to thirty meters across. Only then did the Rogue Cultivators realize that they would be traveling to East River Town atop this handkerchief artifact.

Xu Xiao and Zhang Qing boarded first. Then Young Master Kongxu watched the Rogue Cultivators climb onto the handkerchief one by one, while he, Wang Tianfang, and Li Hao remained at the rear to hold the line, clearly leaving these Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators no chance to flee.

Once everyone had boarded, Xu Xiao controlled the brocade handkerchief and sent it soaring toward East River Town.

Meanwhile, within the Taiping River outside East River Town, a residence stood beneath the murky riverbed, enveloped by a spell formation. Four gilded words were inscribed upon it: Taiping River Palace.

Everything in the residence had been constructed in imitation of a prefectural palace. Yet it stood completely empty, save for a thirty-meter-tall statue of a river god with a blue face, fanged teeth, fish fins growing from its back, and a sharp fork in its hand.

A spell formation covered the entire residence, and the river god statue was enshrined atop an incense table.

The incense table stood at the center of the formation. Around it, red candles half the height of a man burned slowly, feeding wisps of nearly invisible incense power into the river god statue.

If anyone examined them closely, they would discover that every single red candle was actually a child under six years old!

The children's flesh and bones had been turned into red candles, their blood condensed into wicks. Twelve red candles were placed at key points throughout the formation, maintaining its operation and supplying spiritual energy.

Though this spell formation had been forged from human lives, amid its sinister strangeness there lingered a trace of sanctity.

It was like the river god statue itself. Though blue-faced and fanged, vicious and terrifying, it possessed a golden body and looked immensely solemn.

All these bizarre sights were hidden at the bottom of the Taiping River, hundreds of meters beneath the surface. No one had discovered them—or rather, anyone who had sensed something amiss had long since died.

Tracing the river upstream would reveal that the central stretch of the Taiping River lay outside Dongjun Prefectural City, thousands of li away.

The eight-thousand-li Taiping River was divided into east and west from this point, and flowed outward in all directions from here, linking the counties of Dongjun.

At the same time, this was the widest and deepest section of the eight-thousand-li Taiping River, its depths reaching over three thousand meters.

The Taiping River Palace here was even more solemn and grand, looking as sacred as a true dragon palace.

This river palace was likewise covered by a spell formation. The true river god of the Taiping River resided within it. The formation divided yin and yang, linking north and south.

The river god's true body sat at the center of the yang formation, while the river god statue stood at the center of the yin formation. Six candles burned around each, likewise using children as offerings to draw in incense power.

Moreover, wisps of pure incense power flowed in from thirteen directions. The incense offerings from Dongjun's various counties, together with those from Dongjun Prefectural City, were refined once more by the statue at the center of the yin formation before being injected into the river god's true body within the yang formation.

Sensing the time, the river god's true body slowly opened its eyes. "The time has come. Those ants from Qingshan County are about to come and throw away their lives."

No one knew that the river god had once been a False Core cultivator who had shaken an entire region!

At this moment, the river god's hair was gray-white, his body dried and withered, his posture stooped. He looked like a gaunt old man on the verge of death. Only a faint bulge at his lower abdomen gave off a glimmer of light.

Who could have imagined that he had once been the imposing master of a sect?

Thinking of the rumor he had stumbled upon by chance, then how he had ventured deep into the ruins in pursuit of a Buddhist scripture and nearly lost his life, only to drag his heavily wounded body back to his sect and suffer betrayal and attempted murder at the hands of his subordinates—the river god was filled with rage.

It had all been the calculation of the traitors in his sect. They had deliberately leaked news about transforming a False Core into a Golden Core, intending for him to perish in those ruins. Yet they had never expected him to return alive—and to truly obtain the secret art!

Though he had escaped into the Taiping River and been carried here by its currents, barely surviving, his sect must surely have fallen into the traitors' hands by now. That was his sect—how could he accept such a fate!

Fortunately, that Buddhist scripture truly contained a Buddhist formation capable of seizing the creation of heaven and earth and shedding one's mortal body. That was what gave the river god a chance to make a comeback.

At the thought of his current plight, and of those double-dealing, half-hearted great clans in Dongjun, the river god's face twisted even further. "A pack of ants! A herd of beasts! It would be one thing if you refused to serve this god willingly, but you even dared play tricks before this god! Once this god recovers his cultivation, I will make sure every last one of you dies without a burial ground!"

"Once this god gathers fifty years' worth of incense power from Dongjun's thirteen counties, I can recast my body and transform the False Core within me into an incense Golden Core! Then this god will no longer be some False Core doomed never to advance again, with only six hundred years of lifespan, but a genuine Golden Core True Person!"

"And a high-grade Golden Core at that! Even the Nascent Soul and Spirit Transformation realms may not be beyond this god's reach!"

"You ants who plotted against this god—just wait for me!"

From a high-spirited sect master to someone forced to sink beneath the riverbed of Dongjun for forty-eight full years, the river god's heart had long since become twisted. He desperately yearned to see daylight again and avenge his bitter grievances.

Only two more years remained before he could completely shed mortality and use incense power to forge a high-grade Golden Core!

Whenever he thought of this, the river god could scarcely suppress the excitement in his heart.

Had he not willingly endured the ups and downs here for so many years precisely to attain the Golden Core Dao and return openly to take revenge?

Just two more years. He only needed to endure for two more years!

He was a man blessed with immense fortune. Not only had he obtained a secret art capable of remaking heaven and earth, but he had also survived calamity after calamity. This time, too, he would surely shed mortality completely and transform from a False Core into a high-grade Golden Core!

Calming the excitement in his heart, the river god split off a wisp of divine sense. Using the river god statue in the prefectural palace as a pivot, that wisp of divine sense arrived in the blink of an eye at the river god residence outside East River Town in Qingshan County.

The divine sense descended upon the thirty-meter-tall river god statue. In only a moment, the stone statue came alive.

The incense power within the river god statue brought surging strength to the river god. Sensing the incense power in his body, the river god smiled. "Once I deal with these ants from Qingshan County who dare rebel, and safely weather these next two years, everything will be different."

As he spoke, the thirty-meter-tall river god statue with its blue face and fangs stepped down from the incense table in great strides. Ignoring the red candles formed from children upon the spell formation, it held its sharp fork high and strode toward the outside of the residence.

When the first quarter of the hour of the Dragon arrived on the twenty-seventh day of the twelfth month, Zhang Qing had already led all the cultivators to take control of East River Town.

Looking at the aged river god chief priest, draped in a black robe, Zhang Qing reassured him gently, "Rest assured. During this river god grand sacrifice, that demon will certainly perish."

"Now, please begin the rite and summon that demon up."

Every year during the river god grand sacrifice, the chief priest presided over the ritual. He offered the three sacrificial animals and six domestic beasts, led the county gentry and the townsfolk in worshiping the river god statue of East River Town, then offered incense at the riverbank and presented six pairs of young boys and girls.

Though it was not yet time for the river god grand sacrifice, the demon in the river had always been muddleheaded and inactive except during the annual sacrifice. Beginning the ritual now would surely draw it out.

The river god chief priest did not refuse. He nodded and said hoarsely, "Then let us begin."

Soon, the three sacrificial animals and six domestic beasts were brought forth. The river god chief priest led the townsfolk and gentry of East River Town in kneeling before the river god statue in the river god temple, offering up the animals.

Zhang Qing and Xu Xiao stood with the Rogue Cultivators, watching the immense sacrificial ceremony of over ten thousand people. Every one of them wore an extremely grave expression.

Wang Ping and the other Qi Refinement Rogue Cultivators especially had faces so dark they seemed ready to drip water. If their lives had not already been firmly held in another's grasp, how would they have come to this cursed place?

The sacrifice had only just begun, yet these Rogue Cultivators, who had spent years roaming the edge of life and death, already sensed that something was wrong.

This groundless sense of wrongness was an instinct forged through years of struggling between life and death. Their bodies were telling them that the situation was not right!

But they had no choice now. They could only force down the unease in their hearts and watch the river god grand sacrifice proceed step by step.

After the river god chief priest led the gentry and townsfolk of East River Town in worshiping at the river god temple and offering the three sacrificial animals and six domestic beasts, flower-red offerings and fruit gifts were brought out. At the same time, six pairs of monkeys bound with ropes were presented, clearly meant to replace the six pairs of young boys and girls.

The monkeys looked even more terrified, but their mouths had been sealed shut. They could only stare wide-eyed as the dense black mass of people adorned them with flower-red decorations, then pushed them onto bamboo rafts and sent them into the river.

As the bamboo rafts neared the center of the river, the chief priest led the people in kneeling again. His dry, hoarse voice rang out by the riverbank: "Send forth the flower-red offerings, welcome the river god!"

The monkeys on the rafts suddenly began struggling frantically, as though they had sensed something.

A whirlpool abruptly appeared upon the river's once-calm surface. As it grew larger and larger, an aura of danger gradually spread outward.

The gentry and townsfolk of East River Town remained kneeling on the ground, their foreheads pressed tightly against the earth, not daring to raise their heads. The Rogue Cultivators brought by Zhang Qing had also turned pale, fear written across their faces.

The aura spilling from the whirlpool grew increasingly powerful, climbing higher and higher until it was unmistakably at the Purple Mansion Realm!

The river god was about to reveal itself!

Here is today's second update. I said six thousand words, and I delivered six thousand words. Lords, shouldn't you show some fierce support?

Lords, Lin Yuan heard that today's follow-up reading is crucial. It concerns whether this book can receive further recommendations. If there are no more recommendations afterward, then Lin Yuan's book may have no future. Please, lords, be sure to read through to the final page today and give Lin Yuan a little more follow-up reading. I'm begging you. (bows ninety degrees)

PS: Let me explain. Lin Yuan originally wanted to add another chapter today, but later learned why new books usually release two chapters, and why four thousand words a day is more suitable. Now you all know that Lin Yuan's chapters start at twenty-seven or twenty-eight hundred words, so I can't add another update today. But consider this chapter a debt Lin Yuan owes you all. Once the new-book period is over, I'll make it up directly.

(End of chapter)