Seven Offerings

"Black-Face Cake, Five-Meat Cake, Infant Bone, Man Skin, Human Blood Bowl, Human-Fat Lamp, Offal Dough." The Roving Exorcist Disciple counted them off on his fingers. "Seven offerings in total!"

"That's not too bad!"

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief at that. "More than seven people must have died last night. We've already seen four kinds of offerings, so we're only missing three. We should definitely be able to gather them all!"

"Right, right. Let's check the house where those Martial Artists stayed first."

Someone suggested, "All four of them stayed in one room yesterday, and there were exactly four of them. That should give us enough to complete the remaining offerings!"

"Right, right. Let's go!"

Everyone readily agreed. None of them had a particularly good impression of those men anyway!

They had been far too arrogant, treating everyone else as beneath them. Who among those daring enough to take this trial didn't have a few tricks up their sleeve?

The others had simply been unwilling to let extra branches sprout from the problem!

"Creeeak!"

The Courtyard House gate was pushed open.

A thick reek of blood hit them head-on!

"Urgh!"

The Rich Merchant gagged and hurriedly covered his mouth, keeping himself from actually throwing up.

Only after everyone entered the Courtyard House did Ye Qianfan begin to understand just what kind of shock the Rich Merchant had suffered!

There wasn't a single clean spot in the entire Courtyard House.

Blood had been splattered everywhere, and bloody handprints covered the doors, windows, and even the steps. It was clear just how horrific last night's slaughter had been!

Especially on the Courtyard House gate!

Ye Qianfan discovered that the back of the gate was densely scored with fingernail marks. Several broken nails were even embedded in it, revealing just how desperate they had been!

Yet in the very center of the Courtyard House, there was only one large platter.

The platter was as large as four golden platters put together, something like a four-in-one version, and an enormous red meat cake sat upon it.

Five human heads had also been arranged on top of the meat cake.

Besides the heads of the four Martial Artists, the remaining head belonged to that female cultivator!

"Five-Meat Cake!"

Someone cried out in shock, "But why did this Five-Meat Cake take five people?"

"Hiss... One offering alone cost five lives. With so few of us left, how could there possibly be enough?"

"Do you understand now?"

The Roving Exorcist Disciple sighed helplessly. "We're still missing two kinds of offerings: the Black-Face Cake and the Offal Dough. At least two more people will have to be sacrificed to complete this ritual!"

"..."

Everyone fell silent.

Ye Qianfan counted the people who remained. Seven. In the space of a single night, more than half of them were gone!

Without exception, the remaining seven were all shrewd operators.

There was truly no telling who would live and who would die next!

"Let's head out and look for the Perpetual Calendar first!"

Rather than stay in the room with a crowd studying one another, trying to decide who looked more like a soft bun they could turn into an offering, Ye Qianfan would rather focus on completing the other task first.

As soon as Ye Qianfan spoke, the oppressive atmosphere in the room was swept away!

Although everyone had their own schemes, nobody wanted to make a move here. Whoever became the bird that stuck its head out would inevitably be targeted by everyone else!

And so...

Everyone agreed with Ye Qianfan's suggestion. "Right, right, right. It'll be faster if we split up to search!"

"Exactly. Compared with the offerings, the Perpetual Calendar that tells us which day is suitable for burial is clearly more important!"

"There are seven of us in total, then. How should we divide up?"

Someone raised the question.

The Rich Merchant immediately grabbed Shen Lang with one hand and Ye Qianfan with the other. "The three of us are definitely sticking together! The rest of you can do whatever you like!"

"There are only seven of us. If you three search as one group, won't that waste a lot of time?"

Someone complained.

Ye Qianfan sneered. "It's our own time we're wasting. What does that have to do with you?"

"Besides, if you found it, would you actually share it with us?"