Sacrifice

By the time Cheng Sheng got home, it was nearly four o'clock.

No one was home, and the house was quiet.

He took out his phone and found the message his mother had sent him at noon, which he still hadn't read. Only then did he learn that his mother, Wu Li, had gone back to the travel agency after noon. She had told him she probably wouldn't be home that evening, so he should take care of his own dinner and look after Cheng Yue...

Cheng Sheng's family ran a small travel agency called Roaming. Counting Cheng Shuisheng and Wu Li, it had only six people in total. During the busy season, both of them went out as tour guides, and it was common for them to be away from home for four or five days at a stretch.

Both Cheng Sheng and Cheng Yue had grown used to it over the years.

Cheng Sheng sat down on the living room sofa, took out his phone, and called the farms he had found online one by one, asking whether they sold fresh black goat meat.

He soon found one, but when the person on the other end learned how little Cheng Sheng wanted, he immediately said there was no way they would pick out a goat and slaughter it just for the two jin of meat he needed.

Cheng Sheng hurriedly said he could wait and come over whenever they were going to slaughter one.

But he had high standards for how fresh the meat had to be, so they absolutely had to notify him in advance when they slaughtered it. He wanted to hurry over and watch the goat being killed on-site.

This was probably the first time the person had encountered a customer as odd as Cheng Sheng. He gave perfunctory answers, vaguely agreed, and hung up.

Cheng Sheng ended the call, let out a long breath, and got up to take a bottle of soda from the fridge.

Although the man had agreed, there was no guarantee he would actually take it to heart. Cheng Sheng would have to keep checking on it.

With that, the black goat blood was more or less taken care of.

"Then there's the place to perform the ritual and the sacrifice..."

Cheng Sheng slowly took a sip of soda, feeling the icy, fizzy liquid burst in his mouth and send waves of tart refreshment through him as his mind raced.

If the ritual succeeded, it would establish contact with a so-called... "demon."

Some supernatural phenomena were probably unavoidable, so the place where he performed the ritual had to be well hidden.

Otherwise, if someone happened to see him and promptly reported him, it would be bad if he got arrested as a cultist.

Cheng Sheng already had a suitable place in mind: behind his old high school stood a group of abandoned classroom buildings. The main gate was usually chained shut, but he knew a way in. Throughout his three years of high school, it had been the "secret base" of his predecessor, Song Cai, and A Bang.

With the problem of the ritual site solved, all that remained was the sacrifice.

"What should I choose for the sacrifice?"

Cheng Sheng sat on the sofa, lost in thought.

The first page of the black book gave a simple classification of sacrifices.

The lowest grade was an object sacrifice, which used lifeless objects: a comb, a teacup, a pair of shoes... anything would do.

The next grade up was a soul sacrifice.

The "soul" in "soul sacrifice" didn't refer solely to a soul. It could mean an emotion, a particular memory, or even... lifespan.

A soul would work too, of course, but the price was too high. According to the black book, the purpose of a warlock's initiation ritual was to establish a contract with the Abyss resembling a "lending relationship," not to become a slave to an Abyss demon.

For true warlocks, they were the demons' masters.

As for sacrificing someone else's soul?

Cheng Sheng didn't have that ability yet.

After soul sacrifices came life sacrifices, also known as "living sacrifices."

Any living thing would do. The more numerous and stronger the living things, the better. If they could be made to suffer pain, fear... during the sacrifice, that was an added bonus.

As for the final type, the blood sacrifice, it represented death and slaughter and was entirely out of Cheng Sheng's consideration.

To put it plainly, the purpose of a sacrifice was to find a way to "please" a demon as much as possible.

Cheng Sheng understood the process as being like setting up a street stall. The sacrificer laid out all sorts of things they considered valuable on their "stall" to attract passing demons. If one of them was interested, it would "come over," take the things from the "stall," and pay a certain "fee"...

Cheng Sheng intended to perform a "living sacrifice," but he hadn't decided what living things to use as offerings.

"As many as possible, each one strong enough, and I also need to find a way to make them afraid and in pain..."

Cheng Sheng thought about it until dark, but still had no idea what to do.

For dinner, he went to a roadside stall by the entrance to the residential complex and bought two portions of rice noodles to take home, but Cheng Yue still didn't come back.

Cheng Yue was in her first year of high school. Classes ended at five, and her grades were good, so she didn't need to attend extra lessons. By rights, she should have been home by five thirty.

But Cheng Sheng waited until after eight, nearly nine, before Cheng Yue finally returned.

"Where did you go? You didn't answer your phone either. I was getting ready to call the police."

Cheng Sheng walked over to Cheng Yue, who was changing her shoes in the entryway. He had intended to have a calm talk with her as her older brother, but as soon as he got a little closer, his brow immediately furrowed.

"Have you been drinking?"

Cheng Sheng caught a faint smell of alcohol, with a hint of artificial flavoring.

"None of your business!"

Cheng Yue rolled her eyes at him and walked straight past him, her face cold.

"Cheng Yue, wait a moment, we..."

Bang!

Before Cheng Sheng could finish, Cheng Yue had already slipped into her room and slammed the door shut.

Cheng Sheng stood where he was and shook his head. In the end, he decided... to let it go.

In any case, he had shown the concern and given the reminders he should have... he had fulfilled his responsibilities as her older brother. If Cheng Yue wouldn't listen, there was nothing he could do.

"Although she smelled of alcohol, judging by how she looked, she probably didn't drink... I'll mention it to our parents when I get the chance."

Cheng Sheng quickly cleared the leftovers from the dinner table, then returned to his own room.

He turned on his computer and searched online for news about the wanted criminal from Sucha Street, only to find an unusually small amount of information.

He couldn't muster any interest in the entertainment his antique computer could provide, and his otherwise ordinary evening began to feel aimless.

So he simply turned off the lights, focused his mind, and slowly opened the black book...

On the peaceful night, in a brightly lit residential complex, the muffled sound of a boy retching in pain suddenly came faintly from a residential building in an unremarkable corner.

A moment later, the sound stopped.

Through a small window on the third floor, a boy could be seen sprawled on the floor of his room, drenched in sweat and pale-faced.

Having just finished his daily "black book reading training," Cheng Sheng lay on the floor, gazing at the small window, most of it covered by thick Virginia creeper and letting in a few scattered points of starlight. He thought silently, Would it be possible to use plants for a living sacrifice?

"Didn't we agree to go to the martial arts school together at eight?"

Cheng Sheng stood at the entrance to the residential complex, watching Song Cai amble toward him with a sandwich in his mouth. He couldn't help frowning. "It's almost nine now..."

"Come on, when have I ever been on time..."

Song Cai answered lazily, looking listless.

"Last night, did you..."

Cheng Sheng looked Song Cai up and down suspiciously. Song Cai knew what he meant and nodded in candid admission, then held up three fingers with considerable pride.

"Impressive!"

Cheng Sheng was somewhat speechless. The guy had known perfectly well they were going to train at the martial arts school today, yet he had still gone at it so recklessly. He really wasn't afraid of passing out from exhaustion while training.

Song Cai, however, didn't mind in the slightest. Instead, he grabbed Cheng Sheng by the shoulder, inexplicably excited, leaned close to his ear, and quickly said something.

As Cheng Sheng listened, his expression gradually grew strange.

He turned around and looked Song Cai carefully up and down. Without saying a word, he walked straight toward a minibus that had just pulled up and climbed aboard as soon as the door opened.

"Hey, what are you mad about? It's not like I deliberately left you out..."

Biting into his sandwich, Song Cai hurried after him and shouted, "You're the one who ran off and left me alone yesterday!"