The ritual

Sweat beaded on Ji Tan's forehead. Would just going "heh heh heh" work?

The old warehouse fell silent for a few seconds. The men and women, young and old, withdrew their gazes and stared at the humanoid object in the center again. The black-robed figure leading them waved the leg bone in his hand and welcomed the three of them enthusiastically in a hoarse voice. "Welcome. Please come over to the altar."

The people beside the altar moved like marionettes, neatly and evenly making just enough room for three.

Xie Zhi said quietly, "Don't let Ji Sinan get close."

Ji Tan nodded. With something this strange, if his brother saw anything he shouldn't up close, his already precarious sanity would be done for. He put on the polite, fake smile of a working adult and tried to negotiate. "The two of us would be delighted to join, but my brother has mental health issues, so let's leave him out, lest he disrupt the sacred ritual."

But the neighbors weren't buying the politeness. Ms. Xu even broke out of that vacant state and waved at them animatedly. "Have your brother come over. It can cure him!"

Ji Tan only found it more terrifying. Their faces were pale and bluish, yet they moved so nimbly, like the ghosts in traditional horror stories that lured people into being eaten by monsters.

Behind his back, he gestured rapidly, signaling for his brother to leave.

But Ji Sinan ignored his little brother's hand, which was flapping almost like a chicken wing, and remained planted in the doorway, neither entering nor leaving. He stared at a hand-drawn picture hanging on the wall, his brows drawn into three deep creases, and declared loudly, "I'm not joining. Your Eye of Argus is drawn wrong."

The leader turned his hooded head and looked at the totem drawn in red, purple, and green: twisted lines, mottled blocks of color, and, in the middle, a lashless eye with one pointed end and one rounded end.

"Nonsense!" the leader roared, suddenly raising his voice.

Startled, Ji Tan clenched the sleeve of the man beside him, figuring he would unleash Xie Zhi if these people attacked.

"Tan, this place isn't legitimate. Come home with your big brother!" Ji Sinan started inside to pull Ji Tan away.

"Heretic! Get out! You're not welcome here!" Before Ji Sinan could step inside with his spatula raised, two dark figures suddenly sprang out beside the doorway and shoved him straight outside, slamming the rusty sheet-metal door shut with a clang.

Ji Tan, who had already prepared to risk his life protecting his brother's escape: "..."

It was that simple?

He had thought these people were about to go berserk. Instead, they had just had their feelings hurt.

Ji Tan exchanged a glance with Xie Zhi, then pulled him quickly over to join the others beside the altar and urged the leader, "Let's continue." Hopefully, they would hurry up and forget his brother existed.

The leader nodded once. Everyone focused on the humanoid object on the platform again, raised both hands, and chanted in unison, "Fur-Zas-Ous, heh heh heh!"

After chanting it once, the crowd began moving slowly around the altar.

Ji Tan and Xie Zhi followed along at the same slow pace. Ji Tan carefully studied the thing covered in black cloth, while Xie Zhi surveyed the people with utter boredom.

Meanwhile, Ji Sinan, completely unaware of the danger, was still banging on the door outside and shouting, "Let my brother out, let my brother out, let my brother out."

For every three repetitions, he banged on the door in seven sets. His spatula struck the sheet metal. "Clang clang clang, clang clang clang..."

Without realizing it, the slowly circling crowd fell under the influence of the banging. By the time Ji Tan noticed that everyone was pausing every three steps, it was too late. This eerie sacrificial ritual had turned into a bonfire dance.

Heh heh heh! Clang clang clang!

The candlelight flickered. The rhythm was just right.

Always happy to stir things up for entertainment, Xie Zhi grabbed Ji Tan's raised hand, pulled it down, and began swinging it to the beat.

His hand was warm and dry, his fingers long and strong, and they slipped between Ji Tan's fingers so naturally. Ji Tan turned to look at Xie Zhi in disbelief. There wasn't a trace of "I have a plan" caution on his face, only the excitement of attending a bonfire party at a tourist attraction.

Warmth passed through their joined palms, warming and drying Ji Tan's hand, which had grown cold and clammy with nerves.

Humans were probably just very prone to following the crowd. By the time Ji Tan recovered from the strange, ticklish feeling in his palm, everyone around them had lowered their hands and begun swinging their arms back and forth.

Candlelight flickered across every face. In this old sheet-metal warehouse, people sang and danced, expressing their joy at a bountiful harvest!

Was this right?

"Stop!" The leader finally remembered that he was here to expand a cult, not throw a party.

"Clang clang clang, clang clang clang..." The accompaniment hadn't stopped, and the atmosphere hadn't cooled.

The old man leading them in his black robe could only ignore the atmosphere and force himself to speak. "Next, we will hold the second round of the initiation ritual. Our two new friends, please taste the food blessed by the god."

He extended a withered, spotted hand and slowly lifted the black cloth, revealing a bluish-black but undecayed... corpse.

"Urgh-" Ji Tan vomited uncontrollably. The green number on his wrist instantly jumped to "95."

"Don't look." Xie Zhi tugged him sideways so he was no longer looking straight at the corpse.

The black-robed old man didn't mind Ji Tan's vomiting. He pulled apart the section of leg bone in his hand, revealing that its side had actually been ground into a very sharp bone blade. He cut off two pieces of black flesh and held them out to the two of them. "Children, eat this, and you will have a chance to obtain Grace and become an Orderly."

Ji Tan shifted his eyes slightly and glanced at the black thing dripping with viscous fluid. "Urgh-"

The black-robed man felt great pity at his failure to appreciate something so valuable and gouged out a small piece with his fingers, stuffing it into his own mouth. Although his hood hid him from view, the chewing was clearly audible.

He said in his aged, low, hoarse voice, "By eating flesh and blood containing Grace, a person can obtain Grace. Grace is the power bestowed through the favor of the god Argus. All Orderlies are the same."

Ji Tan's urge to vomit grew even stronger. He forcefully pulled his hand free of Xie Zhi's grip and rubbed it in horror. "Y-you've eaten this stuff?"

Deeply wounded at being flung away like dog shit, Xie Zhi forcibly grabbed Ji Tan's hand back and said through gritted teeth beside his ear, "I'll sue you for slander! I've never eaten it! This is a Ghoul corpse containing Grace. Eating it will only turn someone into a Ghoul, or a Ghoul with a tiny bit of Grace."

"Eugh-" Ji Tan couldn't help taking two steps back, dodging the thing the old man held straight out toward him, and quickly scanned the people around the platform. "He just said the second round. Then have all these neighbors eaten it?"

Everyone stared at Ji Tan, deeply displeased by his failure to take the hint. The black-robed man pushed it forward again, bringing the black thing almost against Ji Tan's body.

Stay away from me! Ji Tan really wanted to roar like Bu Jingyun.

Just then, the proposal tucked inside the large pocket of his outdoor jacket suddenly heated up and gave off a burst of golden light. The moment the black lump touched the light, it suddenly seemed to come alive, frantically writhing, changing shape, and stretching into liquid black slime that rushed back onto the corpse.

As the black slime squirmed, the corpse began trembling too. Then its tightly shut eyes abruptly opened.

"Heh heh heh!" The corpse let out a terrifying, shrill laugh that seemed to come from the abyss, suddenly springing up and lunging at Ji Tan with its claws out.

Xie Zhi yanked him behind him, conjured a huge red hammer in one hand, and smashed the lunging Ghoul corpse hard into the ground.

"Don't..." Before Ji Tan could stop him, the corpse had already been flattened, its fluids splattering everywhere.

Aaaah, the expensive outdoor jacket his brother had bought him was dirty!

The surrounding neighbors showed not a shred of sympathy for little Ji Tan and his dirty clothes. They raised their hands in unison and rushed at him, shrieking, swarming toward the golden light at his chest like moths to a flame.

"Hurry up and prohibit them!" Terrified, Ji Tan scrambled onto Xie Zhi's back.

"I can't use prohibition in the west district!" Xie Zhi shouted back amid the chaos.

"Then what were you singing and dancing for just now?! You should've called the police sooner, you bastard!"