The sacrificial ritual

"If that thing falls... we're going to be in serious trouble, aren't we?" Xu Xuanling knew nothing about such things, but her instincts told her it was nothing good.

"Look, the pillar of flesh is changing shape too!" Fu Jiaolu said as he smeared blood orange over himself.

More muscle tissue grew from its middle, the strands overlapping like densely packed cables. They gradually spread apart, finally forming something like a mushroom cap. Unlike a mushroom, however, its flat side faced upward and its bulging side faced downward.

The spire still stood at the center of the cap, pointing like a thin needle toward the membrane sac above.

This transformation... somehow looked familiar.

"Who exactly is the enemy?" A Jiu asked, bewildered. "How are we supposed to destroy this thing?"

By now, Chang'an City lay ravaged. Hundreds of intestines hung from the sky over every street. Like nooses, they continually drained the residents of their flesh and blood, growing slick and glossy themselves. All those "nutrients" ultimately gathered inside the membrane sac, nurturing a monster that was about to be born.

He wanted to stop it, but had no idea where to begin.

The cultivators in Chang'an City probably felt the same way... the thing in the sky was too far away for them to reach, while everything on the ground was just heaps of flesh. No matter how finely they chopped them up, it accomplished nothing. The only things they could really call enemies were probably the intestines constantly dropping from the sky.

The membrane sac overhead continued to descend.

Now everyone could make out the dark shape inside...

It seemed to be an enormous heart, beating incessantly.

An umbrella-shaped tray, a heart, forbidden fusion, Gilles de Rais's book of Black Magic... a string of thoughts flooded Chen Xuan's