The Elder
Translator: Cinder Translations
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The woman in the white dress appeared again.
Both Jiang Cheng and Chen Ran had vivid memories of the woman in the white dress. She had never appeared in Blackstone Town nor in the group, as if she had materialized out of nowhere.
She seemed to have a special connection with the white stone slab.
With the woman's appearance, the ritual officially began.
The elder was the first to kneel, followed by the other captured townsfolk. The deep sounds of their weeping gradually became the dominant melody in the area.
A series of images emerged in Jiang Cheng's mind. From different perspectives and directions, it felt as though he had traveled back in time, seeing everything through the eyes of the townsfolk.
A gigantic, fierce figure emerged from the stone slab. Even before it lifted its head, it was already 4 to 5 meters tall. Words like "strong" didn't even begin to describe its power.
The armor-like scales reflected a sharp, dark gleam, and its muscular body had no sign of excess fat. Simply standing there, silent and unmoving, it was as majestic as mountains and rivers.
No one knew what it was, but they couldn't help but be awed by its overwhelming presence.
The outsiders guarding the townsfolk looked at it with fanatic admiration, kneeling instinctively to pay their respects to this "creature," which seemed to have lived for countless years.
The change happened at that moment!
To everyone's shock, the child placed on the stone slab didn't improve. Instead, in the next instant, the strange "creature" devoured the child in one bite.
The terrifying sound of chewing echoed, as muscles, bones, and even skin and hair were crushed by its sharp teeth. Everyone froze.
It wasn't until the "creature" vanished from the slab that screams erupted.
The woman by the stone slab casually wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her white dress.
It was as if she was a noblewoman preparing to leave after dinner.
The Devil
To all the outsiders, the woman looked different. She had... allowed the monster to eat the child. She was the devil—she had to be the embodiment of evil!
A faint blood-red glow appeared, gradually evolving into a blood-red barrier around the stone slab. The barrier extended and trapped the townsfolk and the outsiders inside.
The eyes of the outsiders began to turn blood-red, as strange forces corroded their remaining sanity. The primitive fear of the monster and the mysterious ritual started to fade, replaced by anger and greed.
"Kill her!" someone shouted.
The last bit of their sanity was completely buried, and the outsiders, armed with various weapons, surged forward like they had received some kind of command.
The townsfolk, who had been relatively obedient, tried to stand in front of the outsiders, but it was useless. Soon, crowds of townsfolk were lying dead in pools of blood, large patches of crimson staining the ground beneath their feet.
The earth was so soaked with blood that a handful of dirt would leak blood.
The woman lifted her head, not even glancing at the slaughter happening around her, as if none of it had anything to do with her.
As the leader of Blackstone Town, the elder was the last to be killed. Before him, an outsider had cruelly split his granddaughter in half. One half was impaled with a knife, and the other half was tossed onto the stone slab.
Their twisted faces seemed to ask whether the half-body could still be resurrected.
The elder's eyes turned blood-red, and he clenched his fists, staring fiercely at these shameful bandits. His hatred was so intense that it almost seemed tangible. But after a brief moment, the elder suddenly smiled.
As the outsiders, armed with bloodstained spears, charged at him, the elder turned and ran.
With labored steps, he rushed straight toward the white stone slab. The moment his hands touched the stone slab, a shocking scene unfolded.
His blood began to boil as blood-red pustules formed on his skin, swelling grotesquely. Large chunks of flesh fell off, and his arms were reduced to nothing but bones.
But even so, he refused to let go.
The outsiders, with blood-red eyes, closed in on him. Their eyes were filled with pure fanaticism.
Since the woman had allowed the monster to eat their children, they would eat the woman instead. Disgusting drool dripped from their gaping mouths like lowly, vile creatures of the dark.
Perhaps by devouring the woman, they could gain her power.
The words "immortal, eternal life" repeated in their minds as they surrounded the stone slab, their veins bulging as they gripped their weapons tightly.
The woman stood still by the stone slab, her skirt billowing in the blood-scented night wind. The blood splattered on her skirt painted a faint red circle along the edges.
She stood there, as if nothing around her had anything to do with her.
Whether it was the bloody slaughter or the townsfolk falling in front of her, one by one, and dying for her—she felt neither anger nor any sense of joy or sorrow.
It wasn't calmness. It was indifference.
It was as if in her eyes, history was an endless wheel, and the blood and flesh crushed beneath it, whether from wise elders or foolish children, was nothing but a passing glance.
After all, in the next moment, new blood and flesh would come to replace it.
To her, there was no fundamental difference.
The dying elder suddenly turned his head. His face had already begun to turn to bone, the blood and flesh falling away, exposing the white bone underneath. His voice became distorted and terrifying.
His lips had vanished, leaving only the grim, horrifying sight of his teeth.
He grinned widely, and two streams of blood tears fell from his eyes, like a prisoner suffering in hell.
Jiang Cheng furrowed his brows slightly. The elder's wild laughter echoed in his mind. This wasn't surprising. Some clues in nightmares indeed affect one's mind.
For those with weak wills, recklessly coming into contact with such clues could trigger unpredictable consequences.
What puzzled Jiang Cheng was the feeling he sensed from the elder's laughter.
His entire clan had been slaughtered, his loved ones had died before his eyes, and the secret of the altar that could resurrect the dead had been discovered by the invaders. Such a blood-soaked vendetta made the elder's frantic laughter understandable.
Grief, powerlessness, resentment, and curses—Jiang Cheng could understand all these emotions. But why, in the elder's laughter, were there none of these feelings? Instead, there was only one feeling: release.
Yes! Release!
It was as if a prisoner was about to be freed after serving his sentence.
With a crack, the elder's blood and flesh melted away. His skeleton collapsed onto the stone slab, and his round skull rolled far away, stopping only when it hit the woman's feet.
The empty eye sockets of the skull stared straight at the woman.
(End of the Chapter)
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