Sacrifice

"That little brother speaks well!" The vice cult leader swept his gaze across the hall.

"We followers naturally place the Blessed Life Mother above all else. Since that is so, let this little brother wash and groom our twenty-four Yin-Hour Maidens!"

Lin Nan's heart skipped a beat.

Wash and groom them? Me? I'm doing it?

"Damn it, if I'd known, I would've shouted along with him. That brat got all the fun again."

"Damn it, I want to wash and groom those young girls too!"

Amid the buzzing discussions of the cultists, Lin Nan entered the small, artificially excavated room behind the main hall with a blank expression.

More than a dozen cultists finished preparing the hot water, shot him jealous looks, then left indignantly.

Leaving only Lin Nan and the twenty-four girls trapped in cages.

"Damn Blessed Life Cult, you've really made things difficult for me!"

Lin Nan sighed softly. He could faintly feel the needle-like gazes behind him, so he could only step forward without betraying anything, expertly undoing the clothes of the girls before him and beginning to wipe down their bodies.

As he wiped them down, he muttered quietly.

"Everything is for the Blessed Life Mother!"

Behind him, the vice cult leader, peering through a small hole, could not help pointing at Lin Nan and praising him loudly.

"See that? That's what professionalism looks like. Who recruited this cultist? He must be nurtured as a core disciple from now on!"

"Vice Cult Leader, this man is named Zhong Jing. This disciple recruited him!" Lai Quan could not suppress the curl of his lips. "During the initiation trial, I saw that he was exceptionally devout. He is absolutely promising material!"

Lin Nan used a silk cloth to finish wiping down the first twenty-three girls, and soon it was Fu Lin's turn.

Lin Nan stepped forward lightly and lifted Fu Lin's narrow-sleeved green martial outfit, revealing a stretch of snow-white skin. Where the iron chains had bitten into her flesh, several bloody marks remained.

"No... don't..."

Fu Lin seemed to sense that something was wrong. Her eyes opened slightly, filled with fury.

Lin Nan's heart tightened, but his expression remained blank as he began wiping down Fu Lin's body.

Fu Lin struggled constantly, but the drug's effects and the iron chains prevented her from moving. Gradually, the anger in her eyes turned into humiliation and despair.

"I'm sorry, Commandant Fu. Everything is for the people of the outer city!"

Lin Nan lowered his head, doing his best not to meet Fu Lin's gaze.

If looks could kill, he would already have been cut into a thousand pieces.

Without pausing in the slightest, he swiftly wiped away the grime and bloodstains on Fu Lin's body.

Once all twenty-four Yin-Hour Maidens had been washed and groomed.

More than a dozen cultists entered again and pushed the iron cages out one by one.

"The auspicious hour has arrived! Begin the sacrifice!"

Inside the main hall.

The many cultists instantly erupted, raising their arms and shouting as their prayers rang out without end.

"Boundless Blessed Life, banish calamity and grant longevity!"

"Boundless Blessed Life, banish calamity and grant longevity!"

Lin Nan returned to his seat in the hall, mingling among the cultists as he raised his hands and shouted along with them. Anxiety gradually rose within him.

Why hasn't Li Nianru arrived yet? Didn't she say she would be here in half an hour? It's almost been an hour already.

The vice cult leader stood beneath the statue's platform and began chanting in a hoarse voice.

"By the Blessed Life Mother's decree, dispel the calamities of this world..."

"All worldly fortune and prosperity are bestowed by the Mother. Mortal flesh is impure, while women are vessels of fortune and prosperity. Bodies of pure Yin may connect to the Mother."

"Today, we offer twenty-four women born in Yin hours as sacrifices, humbly begging the Mother to bestow a Night Fetus!"

Night Fetus?...

Just as the thought flashed through Lin Nan's mind.

Buzz!

A faint mist spread through the surroundings, while eerie chants seemed to drift in from the void.

"All worldly fortune and prosperity are illusions. Only boundless Blessed Life is true emptiness..."

Amid the chanting, a shrill, piercing cry came from the statue the cultists worshipped.

Like the wail of a newborn infant, it instantly echoed throughout the entire hall.

Goosebumps rose across Lin Nan's body. In that instant, it felt as if his whole body had fallen into an ice cellar.

Yin evil energy—such dense Yin evil energy!

Lin Nan sensed a terrifying presence gradually awakening within the stone statue, and his expression changed beneath his mask.

Such a terrifying evil entity had been openly hidden by this group of cultists in the outer city, yet no one had discovered it!

The sense of safety he had only just gained was gone again.

At that moment, the vice cult leader drew a rune-covered dagger from his sleeve and walked over to Fu Lin.

"Commandant Fu, after fighting you for so many days, it was always you chasing while I fled. Now the situation has reversed. Today, we'll start with you..."

"If you want to kill me, then kill me. The Fu Family will not let you off, and neither will my father."

The drug's effects seemed to have weakened considerably. Fu Lin clenched her teeth tightly, showing not the slightest trace of fear as she stared coldly at the black-robed man before her.

"The Fu Family? Heh... That old man Fu Guiwan will soon be too busy to worry about himself."

"What do you mean?!" Fu Lin was suddenly startled. She abruptly realized something was wrong—this man seemed to know her father.

"Take your questions to your slumber beneath the earth."

The vice cult leader gripped the dagger and viciously stabbed it toward Fu Lin's chest.

"Damn it!"

Lin Nan's heart lurched. He had never intended to get Commandant Fu killed.

Boom!

The main doors shattered apart.

A figure in plain white was even faster than him.

A woman wearing a white mask flashed in through the doorway like a startled swan. Her steps were light, and in the blink of an eye, she crossed the distance.

In just a single breath, even Sinews-and-Bones Realm elders like Lai Quan had yet to react before she was already at the vice cult leader's side.

"So fast! Is this the speed of the Wave-Treading Step at mastery?!"

As a fellow practitioner of the Origin-Revering One-Qi Art, Lin Nan recognized at a glance the hallmark of the Wave-Treading Step.

Clang!

The woman in white pressed two fingers together like a sword and struck the dagger. The weapon abruptly flew from the vice cult leader's hand.

The vice cult leader cried out, disbelief filling his heart. "Your qi and blood have merged into one whole—you're a martial master at the peak of the Viscera Realm!"

"Heterodox filth, and you dare call yourselves Blessed Life." Li Nianru's voice was cold.

"What are you standing around for? Get her!" The vice cult leader shouted in terror.

Only then did Lai Quan, the other two elders, and the many cultists snap out of their daze and charge wildly toward the figure in white.

Li Nianru's expression remained calm. "Morning glow melts gold and tempers a talismanic heart; one qi first divides, and ten thousand trees are born. Azure Wood Finger!"

Her two fingers were joined like a sword as her figure swept through the crowd like a ghost. In an instant, sprays of blood burst into the air.

Whether ordinary Qi-Blood Realm cultists or Sinews-and-Bones Realm elders like Lai Quan, all were felled after being swept by a single strike of her finger.

"So strong!"

While Li Nianru displayed her might and the scene descended into chaos.

Lin Nan also shouted along for show, yet quietly slipped over to Fu Lin and the other imprisoned women.

Clang!

He drew his steel saber. His qi and blood surged as he severed the iron cages and the chains binding the women one after another.

"You..."

Fu Lin was startled. She recognized him as the man who had wiped down her body earlier.

"Commandant Fu, I'm here to save you."

Lin Nan deliberately made his voice hoarse and low as he stuffed a Blood-Qi Pill into her hand.

Fu Lin immediately understood. Without the slightest hesitation, she swallowed the Blood-Qi Pill, and in an instant, her qi and blood recovered by a tenth.

"Military Body Eight Forms, Stone-Splitting Fist!"

The muscles in Fu Lin's arms bulged slightly as she threw a fierce punch forward. The entire iron cage exploded apart beneath her blow.

"Come with me!"

Fu Lin gave the man in the black lotus mask a deep look, then looked at the woman in plain white behind him, who fought the cultists as leisurely as if strolling through a courtyard.

Then she turned, directing the other women as they ran toward the main hall's entrance.