Ritual

On the hillside.

"So it really was Count Felix's head that he cut off himself!?"

Zhong Shenxiu watched coldly from the sidelines, gazing at the scene as he recalled a fragment of this body's memories.

It was the scene of the Headless Count using his sword to cut off his own head!

"This is also an evil ritual for extending one's life. This is the final step."

Zhong Shenxiu said indifferently, "But I can't let you complete it!"

He now knew why he had sensed something attractive about Dilia. It turned out she was carrying the Headless Count's head!

And the Headless Count's Vengeful Spirit inside him had begun to stir the instant the head appeared, wanting to break through the restraints of the Daoist arts.

Zhong Shenxiu had no doubt about how desperately the Vengeful Spirit wanted to obtain its head.

Given a little more time, the Headless Count might well fly over and reunite with his head.

And regardless of whether intelligence or madness took over the entire Vengeful Spirit, his fate would not be a pleasant one.

"It's time to settle everything. I have all your memories, and I can use your supernatural abilities too."

Although Zhong Shenxiu's body was undergoing an increasingly terrifying corpse transformation, his abilities were also rising rapidly.

At this moment, he could even sense another dimension, where Feng Xi'er was struggling to hold on.

If I act, I can probably get her out. But this Colonel is useless at the moment anyway...

Atop the altar.

Dilia placed the head at the other end of the infinity symbol, in the position representing the sacrificer. She bowed and stepped down from the altar, unable to stop herself from letting out a long breath.

The aura transmitted from the other side of the flesh-and-blood doorway already made her feel suffocated.

She knew deeply how terrifying and fearsome the Ancient God was. Thus, she kept her head lowered and did not dare look directly at it, understanding that she was not even qualified to withstand the Ancient God's gift.

If she insisted on putting on a brave front, those writhing lumps of flesh and monsters would probably be her best possible fate.

Just as she lowered her head, she saw a dense darkness erupt in the distance and surge toward her.

"What?"

Before Dilia could react, she felt something vanish from her hand. The black dagger had already disappeared.

Black mist billowed forth, swallowing her and several Westerners near the altar in an instant.

Zhong Shenxiu took one step forward, seemingly shrinking space itself, and arrived atop the altar.

This strange ability came from the Headless Count.

Since the other party could use his methods to throw Feng Xi'er into some empty void, Zhong Shenxiu could naturally do the same.

"My body?"

At this moment, Count Felix, lying on the platform, turned his head with difficulty and stared at the scene. "No!"

"According to our Eastern way of putting it, my supernatural ability shares the same origin as yours. Your method of separating space can't stop me!"

Zhong Shenxiu took one step onto the altar. Ignoring the malice in the head's eyes, he thrust the dagger back into the head.

Crack!

It fit perfectly, like a key entering a lock.

After the dagger fell into place, Count Felix's head seemed to die, but its blood vessels began to writhe, as if one black worm after another were crawling inside it.

Zhong Shenxiu lowered his head and looked at his chest.

The blood there seemed to have congealed—or rather, transformed into a lead-and-mercury-like substance. It no longer flowed out, as if the corpse transformation had become irreversible.

Sealing this head again will only keep it from controlling the body...

As for the thing inside me, its instincts alone are enough to kill me!

So... not yet!

Zhong Shenxiu looked at the blood-colored doorway before him. Then he suddenly pushed Count Felix's head forward, placing it beside the blood-red stone and moving it into the position of the sacrifice.

The first rule of mysterious rituals: equivalent exchange.

At this moment, he was treating Felix's head as a sacrifice as well!

This was the fastest way to deal with the head that seemed about to run wild!

As for my own problem, I can only gamble on it.

Zhong Shenxiu split his lips and revealed a somewhat crazed smile.

The second law of the occult: never look directly at a deity!

He knew that although he understood rituals, he could not face the existence behind the doorway.

Otherwise, he would inevitably be influenced by it. At best, he would fall into the state of a mentally fractured fanatic.

But he still had one choice.

Zhong Shenxiu activated the ritual and, in the next instant, chose to release the thing inside his body.

With his crude Daoist arts at this point, he was fundamentally incapable of controlling the Headless Count's Vengeful Spirit.

Whenever he released the Headless Count, his thoughts would descend into chaos.

Zhong Shenxiu had known this for a long time. Thus, apart from accidentally releasing the thing in that small mountain village, he had only borrowed a little of the Vengeful Spirit's power.

This time, however, he was using it in reverse.

Almost in the blink of an eye, his body completely decayed, and even his head vanished.

What appeared in his place was a corpse dressed in an ornate formal suit, yet lacking a head!

The Headless Count!

It stood there silently, its thoughts utterly chaotic.

After all, the mysterious ritual chosen by the Headless Count had sealed his consciousness inside his head. This body was left with nothing but instinct and madness.

Even if some memories remained, there was no thought or consciousness. Otherwise, Zhong Shenxiu would have been completely finished long ago.

At this moment, it could not find its "target" for a while and paused for an instant.

The next moment, it was drawn toward the aura behind the flesh-and-blood door.

Boom!

The flesh-and-blood doorway slowly opened a narrow crack, and an indescribable aura leaked out.

Behind the doorway was darkness so deep it could not be seen. It also seemed to contain door after door, each radiating different colors of light, together forming a shape beyond description.

An ordinary person would fall into the deepest madness from merely glancing at it, mutating into a monster or a fanatic.

A dim light leaked from within the door, enveloping the sacrifice.

Dark light leaked from within the doorway and wrapped around the sacrifices.

Several tentacles reached out from within. Their surfaces seemed smooth yet also covered in granules; they were dazzlingly multicolored, yet seemed to have no color at all. They seized the head and the blood-red stone and vanished behind the doorway.

That great existence had not even descended with its consciousness.

It was merely instinct—or rather, the reaction of a natural phenomenon—that caused certain things to be exchanged and sent burrowing into the Headless Count's body.

Some terrifying transformation took place.

Zhong Shenxiu's consciousness was a muddled expanse.

His thoughts continued to scatter, gradually developing ideas of their own.

The final desperate gamble from before resurfaced in his memories.

Using complete loss of control to oppose looking directly at a deity is equivalent to driving myself insane first, so I won't be afraid of you driving me insane again?

Then now, did I succeed or fail? Am I insane or not?

But it doesn't matter.

Even if my calculations failed, I still have one last layer of protection—the Heavenly Show System, that idiot! Heh... The cheat ability every transmigrator is supposed to have? My life is mine to control! Even if something goes wrong, I'll accept it. I've lived three lifetimes already, so I've made a huge profit!

In a daze, he seemed to see that idiot system again:

Achievement unlocked: [Even the System Has to Show Off]!

Reward obtained...

The system's radiance suddenly became chaotic.

Zhong Shenxiu's consciousness sank into complete silence, falling into darkness.