Chapter 633: Chapter 633
Back when he encountered Yuan Hu, Qin Sang had already noticed strange anomalies in the tattoos on the two priests from Tianyue Village. Now, watching the priestess dance, he finally glimpsed the full picture.
"Could it be a kind of divine pattern?" Thɪs chapter is updatᴇd by novęlfire.net
Qin Sang stared at the priestess, murmuring to himself.
He discovered that once the divine patterns on the priestess’s body emerged, an unfamiliar and peculiar power began drifting over from the nearby members of the witch race.
Some of that power gathered on the priestess herself, while another portion floated into the mountains, where it was absorbed by other priests of Winged Serpent Village.
After absorbing this power, the divine patterns on the priestess clearly grew stronger.
A sudden burst of divine energy erupted. The priestess raised her arms high, as if seized by madness. She let out strange cries and shouted toward the heavens, as though she wished to ascend into the sky.
The moon remained bright above.
Yet around Winged Serpent Village, a gentle drizzle began to fall.
The witch race cheered, treating it as a sacred rain bestowed by the Witch God. One by one, they raised their faces and opened their mouths to receive the droplets.
"What a fascinating divine pattern," Qin Sang murmured in admiration.
He had once thought the sacrificial ritual was merely a method for witch cultivators to dominate mortals. Now it seemed the truth was not so simple.
The rain was clearly summoned by the priestess, but Qin Sang had not seen her cast any spells. It had been the power of the divine pattern alone that stirred the celestial phenomena.
Although the energy contained within the priestess’s divine patterns was quite weak by his standards, Qin Sang could see that the patterns themselves were extraordinary. They appeared to be a unique ability possessed only by the witch race.
Compared to the life-bound insect gu, these divine patterns seemed to hold even greater potential.
A life-bound gu was an external object, while divine patterns were intrinsically tied to the cultivator, a power they could fully control themselves.
Yet strangely, the witch cultivators seemed to place far more importance on the life-bound gu and gave far less attention to divine patterns. Yuan Hu and Cui Xuanzi of the Five-Insect Sect had not carried any divine patterns at all.
Why has the Five-Insect Sect abandoned a path so clearly suited for the witch race?
Do the divine patterns have no future?
Or has the witch race, much like the human race, lost much of their ancient inheritance over the ages?
Qin Sang fell into quiet contemplation.
Just then, the priestess shifted into another form of ritual dance. The rain gradually faded. She reached out and pointed toward the wooden towers by the lakeside. Immediately, moonlight gathered at her gesture, illuminating the area in front of the towers as brightly as day.
There, the saintesses clad in splendid feathered robes stood in formation. Each one was beautiful and pure in appearance, holding rare spiritual flowers and herbs in their hands. Guided by the moonlight, they began walking up the mountain path in an orderly line.
The flowers and herbs they carried were actually spiritual medicines. At the front of the group, several saintesses held scarlet-leaved plants in both hands. These were Redleaf Grass.
They climbed a stone stairway that led toward a cave at the top.
The cave lay in pitch darkness, and strange hissing noises echoed from within. Some of the saintesses turned pale with fright, while others stepped forward with expectation in their eyes.
No one noticed that the saintess leading the group, the one holding the Redleaf Grass, had trembling hands.
Qin Sang stood silently in the shadows, hands clasped behind his back.
At last, the line of saintesses reached the cave.
The one at the front needed only to take a single step to enter, yet she suddenly halted.
The priestess had not anticipated this. Her dance faltered briefly, and her eyes flashed with anger. She pointed toward the saintess. Moonlight gathered behind the girl, about to push her forward.
A flash of bright blue sword light exploded into view.
In that instant, even the moon in the sky seemed to lose its brilliance.
The sharp cry of the sword echoed like a dragon’s roar, drowning out the thunderous drums. Its sound rang through the mountains, as if countless blades were being drawn all at once, shaking the heavens and the earth.
The priestess’s expression changed drastically, her face filled with fear and astonishment.
From deep within the mountains, a booming shout rang out like thunder. "Who dares to disrupt our sacred ritual? Show yourself!"
Trees swayed violently as several figures shot out from the dense forest. Leading them was an elderly man with a face full of rage. His glare locked onto Mute Girl and the Cold Gold Sword in her hands.
With his level of perception, he could tell that Mute Girl was not the one controlling the sword. Someone else was hidden in the shadows.
What unsettled him even more was that he could not sense anyone hiding nearby. Through the Cold Gold Sword, he could not trace the presence of the hidden individual at all.
Someone had infiltrated the village undetected, and he had remained completely unaware. Unease swelled in his chest. He shouted, voice echoing, "Bone array!"
All around Winged Serpent Village, a sudden cracking noise echoed from beneath the ground. Moments later, countless skeletal remains burst forth, some from beasts, others from humans, none of them complete.
Under the moonlight, the pale white bones appeared even more ghostly. The sight was chilling, and many of the young girls began to cry in fear.
As the bone array emerged, flickering blue flames floated out from the gaps between the bones. They resembled a river of blue stars, drifting slowly yet with hidden urgency toward Mute Girl.
Mute Girl seemed to hear nothing and see nothing. Her hands gripped the Cold Gold Sword tightly, and she suddenly slashed it toward the cave.
The sword light was blinding, so intense that no one could bear to look directly at it.
With a thunderous crash, the cave collapsed.
Rocks flew in all directions, mingled with a few severed snake corpses.
The elder and the priestess turned ashen and cried out in despair. Their life-bound insect gu had been severed by that single strike without the slightest resistance.
Horror seized them. They realized the person hidden in the shadows was terrifying beyond comprehension, capable of slaying them with ease. Abandoning even the bone array, they turned and fled.
Mute Girl turned around and unleashed a second slash, breaking apart the blue flames of the bone array.
At the third strike, she hesitated for a moment, but in the end, she steeled herself and released it.
"All of you deserve to die!"
Her eyes were bloodshot. The sword in her hands and the presence of the unseen figure had given her the courage to exact revenge. At last, the hatred in her heart burst forth.
Even when cursing, her voice remained beautiful. Yet aside from Qin Sang, no one had the mind to appreciate it.
The priestess had fled to the middle of the lake. Suddenly, she felt a chill in her chest. Looking down, she saw a sword tip sliding through her heart. Her body was split apart and fell into the water.
Mute Girl, holding the Cold Gold Sword, had killed her first person.
The priestess's blood had splattered onto her. Gasping for breath, she was surrounded by a suffocating stench of blood.
Qin Sang remained cold and impassive, making no move to shield her from the gore.
Those three strikes had nearly drained all of Mute Girl’s strength. Yet she still summoned everything she had, struggling to lift the Cold Gold Sword and point it at the elder and the others fleeing into the deep mountains.
With a sharp whistle, the Cold Gold Sword carried Mute Girl forward and caught up with them in an instant. The first to fall was the slippery young man, his head severed with a single strike and sent flying through the air.
One by one, the priests of Winged Serpent Village were slain by Mute Girl.
Blood stained the forest path red.
Only the elder remained. His face twisted with unwilling rage as he screamed into the air, "Who are you? We have no hatred between us. Why slaughter us all?"
The Cold Gold Sword pierced the elder’s heart.
Mute Girl’s eyes were crimson with rage, her mind consumed by bloodlust. She repeated the word "kill" again and again as she yanked the Cold Gold Sword free and prepared to hack the elder’s corpse into pieces. Even as a hand pressed down to stop her, she continued to struggle.
The moment she heard that gentle voice, the murderous frenzy in her heart ebbed away like the receding tide. She obediently closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.