Zheng Qing carried his Talisman Gun as he cautiously walked through the depths of the deserted forest.
The night was deep. Moonlight mingled with starlight as it fell, forming patches of dappled light and shadow among the trees. All around him was silence. No beasts roared in the distance, no birds called from the trees, no insects chirped in the bushes. Even the leaves seemed frozen in the wind, unable to rustle.
The oppressive atmosphere made Zheng Qing hold his breath, as though inhaling or exhaling a little too quickly might disturb some unknowable presence deep in the woods.
The silence also made his senses unusually sharp.
Soon, his ears caught a low, unfamiliar voice in the distance. Its accent was strange, seemingly inhuman, yet it carried a lilting rhythm like the chanting of a hymn.
Simply hearing the voice filled Zheng Qing with a vague, tense unease, stirring the contradictory feeling of standing before a colossal beast, wanting to flee yet desperate to steal a glance.
The Talisman of Evil Warding on him showed no reaction. The Haha Beads on his wrist transformed into thumb-sized little figures and darted through the surrounding bushes and around his feet, scouting for him.
Soon, one of the Haha Beads brought back news.
Zheng Qing followed it to the edge of the woods. More than a dozen falcon perches stood in a clearing ahead, but instead of hawks or falcons, withered, dead crows hung from them. They formed a large, evenly spaced circle around a blazing blue bonfire. An enormous Black Goat's head rested in the flames—it was practically as large as a young elephant's head. His fur remained intact amid the fire, the wound across his neck was cleanly cut, and his two eyes gleamed with the blazing red heat of live