After Han Shuo's impassioned speech, the Temple remained noisy for a while. Only when everyone's emotions gradually settled did the fat Pontiff announce the start of the rites preceding the sacrifices to the Evil Gods.
Living Magical Beasts were held down and slaughtered on the Altar. Scarlet blood flowed into the Blood Pool at its center, and all the Elders of the Calamity Church prostrated themselves reverently, silently chanting in an ancient language.
Seeing even the Pontiff prostrate himself, Han Shuo glanced around and bent his knees slightly, crouching down without kneeling.
At such a solemn moment, everyone was silently reciting according to the rites, and no one noticed Han Shuo's disrespect toward the Deities. Han Shuo watched the central Sacrificial Platform with an impassive gaze, studying the patterns on its Magic Array. As a Lower God, he saw little difference between this Altar for summoning Evil Gods and the ones he set up himself.
Using offerings and their devout faith, together with the mysterious markings on the Sacrificial Platform, they could indeed make the Evil Gods worshipped by the Calamity Church hear their call from the Qio Continent, in an Other Plane an unknown distance away. Whether those Evil Gods would appear after hearing the call, or be willing to communicate with them, was another matter entirely.
The rites proceeded in an orderly manner amid the solemn atmosphere, without any incidents.
Only halfway through the rites did a vortex suddenly form in the Blood Pool on the Altar, and an eerie atmosphere gradually spread through the Temple.
Han Shuo, who had been watching the Altar impassively all along, abruptly frowned. His eyes fixed on the changing Blood Pool as he sensed a Deity an unknown distance away slowly pouring his power into it through some peculiar means.
The blood