He thought for a long time.
Bit by bit, Jiang Qiao recalled most of what had happened.
After putting it all in order,
he roughly concluded that this sacrificial ceremony might really have taken place. And it had happened in the distant past, before Island Heart Lake had even appeared on this island.
He could also tell
that the ritual offerings and the remains of the human sacrifices in the lake had not been thrown into it back then.
Instead, they had been here first.
The lake had come afterward.
"Yellow Springs is hard to cross... does that mean Yellow Springs Road is difficult to travel?"
"A safe journey home?"
"They held their ceremony on this island, and this island leads to Yellow Springs Road. So they intended to use Yellow Springs Road to get home? Their home, their homeland, should mean the source of the Black Tide—in other words, my old home."
"Ascend to the Other Shore and escape the sea of suffering."
"Does that mean the Other Shore of the River of History? The Green Lotus Sect claims that reaching the Other Shore lets you escape the supernatural."
"So the sea of suffering is a world consumed by supernatural erosion?"
"The Abyss... the final destination..."
"Does that mean the Abyss is where everything ultimately belongs, and only by reaching the Other Shore can you sever that fate?"
Jiang Qiao tried hard to piece together those words.
He pondered their meaning.
The people performing the ceremony had clearly come from his homeland. They were his fellow countrymen.
"These are two somewhat contradictory messages. Yellow Springs Road can take you home. But the Abyss is the final destination of all things, and only by reaching the Other Shore can you escape the fate of being swallowed by the Abyss and