Sacrifice Ritual

"Get lost!"

Xu Yanwu seized the hand that had touched his cheek and flung it away fiercely.

As he threw that thing aside, Xu Yanwu finally saw what it actually was.

It was an eerie-looking woman.

She had no whites in her eyes; they were completely black. Her long black hair hung loose over her shoulders, and she wore a white kimono mottled with red stains like blood.

Moreover, a strand of black mist connected the woman to the hollow in Xu Yanwu's chest.

As the woman drifted farther and farther away from Xu Yanwu, he immediately felt himself growing much weaker, as though she were the source of his power.

The Eerie Woman lightly tapped the air with her wooden sandal and came to a graceful halt in midair. Then she strolled through the air toward Xu Yanwu.

"Divine Lord, you're so cruel, treating me like this..."

As she slowly drew closer to Xu Yanwu, he felt the power in his body gradually returning.

Xu Yanwu narrowed his eyes, flashed forward, and grabbed the Eerie Woman by her slender neck. "Tell me. What are you?"

Even with her neck held in Xu Yanwu's grip, the Eerie Woman showed no sign of distress. Instead, she gazed at him with a coquettish smile. "Oh my, hasn't the Divine Lord figured it out yet? Or is my face simply too beautiful, so the Divine Lord failed to recognize 'us'?"

The Eerie Woman's body dissipated in Xu Yanwu's hand, turning into black mist that passed through his body. Once it reached his back, it re-formed into the Eerie Woman, who embraced him from behind and traced circles around the hollow in his chest with one finger.

"Divine Lord, 'our' hearts are still beating thump, thump inside your chest..."

"You... are the Sacrifice Maidens from before?"

Xu Yanwu had harbored some suspicions, but after hearing the Eerie Woman's words, his expression still turned grave. He broke free from her embrace and watched her warily.

"That's right. So? Aren't we beautiful now...?"

The Eerie Woman spun around before Xu Yanwu. Her manner was nothing like her current eerie appearance; she looked more like a young girl.

"...What do you want?"

"Hmm?" The Eerie Woman smiled. "How could I possibly do anything to you? I'm a part of you now, Divine Lord..."

"After all, 'we' are the ones who offered up our hearts and lives to you. Tell me, Divine Lord, could you possibly hate me?"

"..."

Xu Yanwu remained silent, not knowing what to say.

"...I'll ask you one more time. You... you girls filled with hatred, what exactly do you want?"

Only after a long silence did Xu Yanwu ask that question.

At the same time, a long blade appeared in his hand, its point aimed directly at the Eerie Woman.

All across Yae Village, Xu Yanwu's various clones also began converging toward him.

"It's useless, Divine Lord. You can't hurt me."

The razor-sharp blade sliced through the Eerie Woman's body, but only turned her into wisps of black mist. Then that black mist re-formed into her body.

"I am part of your power..."

"But... Divine Lord, you should get some rest now..."

The next instant, black mist completely enveloped Xu Yanwu's body.

---The night of the Blood Sacrifice---

Watching a familiar older girl from the village have her throat cut by her own father atop the altar,

and her heart dug out, Yae Sakura tightly covered Yae Rin's eyes.

"Rin, don't look."

Yae Sakura's voice trembled. This was the first time she had seen what Yae Village's Sacrifice Ritual was truly like. Before this, the Yae God Master had never brought her to attend it.

"Big Sister?"

Yae Rin had not seen what happened, but...

As someone whom the Yae God Master had never expected to become a Miko, this was not the first Sacrifice Ritual she had witnessed.

That night, she had spent the entire night in Xu Yanwu's arms before feeling a little better. She had never told her sister about any of it.

The Yae God Master sheathed his knife and muttered,

"Great Divine Lord... please bless us with favorable weather and bountiful harvests. Here, we offer you the soul of this sacrifice..."

With solemn reverence, the Yae God Master placed the heart of the girl who had only recently married onto a tray and walked step by step toward the center of the altar.

There stood a Jade Statue: Xu Yanwu's body.

"Great Divine Lord... thank you for safeguarding our village's peace and slaying demons for us. Here, we offer you the sacrifice's heart."

The Yae God Master stepped before the Jade Statue and slowly placed the pink heart from the tray—still faintly twitching—into the hollow in the statue's chest.

The Sacrifice Ritual, unchanged for hundreds of years, underwent an unbelievable transformation at this very moment.

The instant that heart entered Xu Yanwu's chest, Xu Yanwu's body slowly opened its eyes.

Those eyes were a deep, pitch-black color, yet the Yae God Master could clearly sense that he was looking past him, at the corpse of the girl who had been offered as the sacrifice.

Then that gaze swept across the crowd surrounding the altar, as though searching for someone.

"The Divine Lord has manifested!"

"Divine Lord! Please save us!"

When they saw Xu Yanwu open his eyes, the villagers below the altar could no longer contain their excitement. They immediately dropped to their knees in waves and prayed to him.

But after merely sweeping his gaze over them once, Xu Yanwu closed his eyes again, as if nothing had happened.

"Divine Lord!"

"Divine Lord!"

Among the villagers of Yae Village,

Yae Rin looked at Xu Yanwu's body on the platform in confusion.

That gaze just now...

Yae Rin had met that gaze for several seconds, but it did not feel anything like the way Xu Yanwu usually looked at her.

It gave Yae Rin a terrifying, frightening feeling.

That was not the Divine Lord. It definitely was not.

As Yae Rin thought this, Yae Sakura beside her stared blankly at the girl's corpse on the platform, which was gradually growing cold.

So... this is the kind of Divine Lord we worship...