91: Chapter 91 Sacrificing to the Gods and Cleansing the Spirit

The three-meter-tall Great Buddha sat right in front of them, its face like gold lacquer, emitting ripples of halos like a true Buddha descending to the world, making one dare not look directly at it.

But the festering and decaying ushnisha on its head ruined this sense of tranquility. From the tattered cassock, its exposed chest revealed rows of hideous, distorted human faces, silently roaring.

Beneath this Great Buddha were both the severed limbs of normal humans and the strange corpses of Strange Creaturess.

The demon-subduing pestle hanging around its neck emitted waves of dark light, looking extraordinary at a glance; it was currently soaked in the blood dripping from the corners of its mouth.

Such a scene filled the passengers, who had finally calmed down, with terror once more. Even Old Wu and the others couldn't help but pause their steps slightly.

"It's... it's fine. As long as we don't kill the villagers here, we won't violate the Great Buddha's killing rules," Xiao Zei swallowed hard.

"I've been here several times, but every time I see this one, I can't suppress the fear in my heart."

Old Wu sighed and asked the White-haired Elder walking in front, "Village Chief, can't we just bypass it from the side?"

"You must be pious."

The White-haired Elder inserted a stick of high-quality incense into the incense burner in front of the Mahavira Hall and then continued without stopping, being the first to step over the tall threshold and enter the Mahavira Hall.

Helpless, Old Wu exchanged glances with Fox, Xiao Zei, and the others, and had no choice but to urge the weak-kneed passengers to step inside.

"Big brother..." Wang Ruozi's eyes were filled with tears, not knowing what to do.

"Let's go." Chu Xuan nodded gently; he also wanted to see what this Spirit Washing was all about.

The closer they got to the Great Buddha, the more uncontrollable the sense of dread became.

Chu Xuan understood that this was the aura emitted by the Great Buddha as a Strange Creatures. Humans would feel fear upon being tainted, and their sanity would continuously drop, leaving them unable to think. One would need to increase their Mental Energy to enhance resistance against this.

Fortunately, the Great Buddha remained seated on the lotus pedestal and showed no intention of coming down. Otherwise, at such close range, ordinary people wouldn't be able to withstand the taint and would likely suffer a mental breakdown.

Except for the White-haired Old Village Chief, everyone else stayed as close to the walls as possible, keeping their distance from the Great Buddha as they circled to the back of the Mahavira Hall.

The moment he saw the scene here, Chu Xuan's pupils contracted, feeling even more shocked than when he had seen the Great Buddha.

On the back of the Great Buddha, a vertical Void Rift over three meters long flickered in mid-air. It was impossible to see what was inside, with only waves of black mist billowing out from it.

Is this the Dark Rift?

Chu Xuan thought back to the small fragment of memory he had seen from the Night Demon's original body using his Mind Reading ability in Dormitory 1104 at school.

It was a student who loved playing Werewolf, sitting on a toilet watching a livestream. Suddenly, a narrow rift appeared out of nowhere, accompanied by black mist, and that student became the host for the Night Demon.

However, the rift in that memory was less than a meter long and disappeared quickly, whereas the rift before him was three meters long, and there was no telling how long it had existed.

From what Chu Xuan knew now, there were two ways for Strange Creaturess from the Dark World to reach the real world.

One was when a Strange Creatures in the real world promoted to S-rank; there was a chance they could enter the real world through a Forbidden Domain.

The Phantom Demon was such a case. Even though the Night Demon failed its promotion, it still managed to reach the real world.

As for Strange Creaturess that were already S-rank, Chu Xuan wasn't sure if their Domains could serve as long-term mediums for other Strange Creaturess from the Dark World to enter.

However, according to Chu Xuan's understanding, it should be possible.

Another method was this Dark Rift. The Night Demon had originally used such a rift to reach the real world, but Chu Xuan didn't know what the conditions for these rifts to appear were.

"Prepare for Sacrificing to the God and Spirit Washing! Who's first?"

The White-haired Old Village Chief had now arrived at a table beside the rift. He unwrapped a pile of incense and candles from the floor and placed them on the table.

On this table, there was also a white porcelain bowl, a dark bronze alms bowl, a stack of slips of paper, and a pen.

"Same old rules. One person per team, we'll take turns."

Old Wu stepped forward first, pointing at a balding man in the crowd and saying in a raspy voice, "Old Liu, you go first."

Old Liu nodded and took a deep breath. He picked up three sticks of incense, lit them with the help of the White-haired Old Village Chief, knelt on the prayer mat in front of the rift, and bowed three times.

After the three bows, the White-haired Elder used his thumb, index, and middle fingers to pinch some fresh water from the white porcelain bowl on the table and sprinkled it onto Old Liu's head.

"May the God bestow great power!"

Along with the White-haired Elder's loud cry, the three-meter-long vertical rift flickered, like a vertical eye blinking incessantly.

Immediately after, the black mist permeating out suddenly thickened. A bizarre silhouette pushed against the black mist, as if some unknown creature was within it.

Before Old Liu could react, the black mist surged up and bored into the top of his head from above.

"Ah!!"

Old Liu immediately clutched his head and screamed in agony, as if his head were splitting open, looking incredibly pained.

This scene made the eyelids of the other surrounding passengers twitch, and they instinctively backed away.

Old Wu's expression changed slightly, and he quickly spoke up, "Old Liu, relax! Don't resist!"

"My head... it hurts so much!" Old Liu rolled around on the ground, clutching his head.

Old Wu scolded sharply, "If you don't want to die, you must listen to me!"

Perhaps Old Wu's words worked; after rolling on the ground for a while longer, Old Liu finally stopped screaming, and his expression gradually calmed.

A few more seconds passed, and Old Liu slowly opened his eyes. He sat up from the ground with a slightly dazed look, then his face filled with excitement. With an agility that didn't match his physique, he suddenly leaped to his feet.

"I... I actually have superpowers! Eh... wait, that's not right!"

Old Liu's expression was one of disbelief, and the joy on his face suddenly intensified. "I've actually become so nimble. My body feels so much lighter than before, and my chronic lumbar muscle strain is gone!"

Old Wu grabbed Old Liu's shoulder and asked urgently, "Forget about that for now, calm down! Tell me quickly, did any special small text appear in your vision?"

Old Liu nodded repeatedly, unable to suppress the joy on his face. "Two lines of small text appeared. The first line is [spirituality value: 40], and the second line is [Transcendent Skill: Teleportation LV.1]."

As he finished speaking, Old Liu's figure suddenly vanished. When he reappeared, he was two meters away. However, he was now drenched in sweat, looking as if he were about to collapse from exhaustion.

Old Wu sighed softly, looking somewhat disappointed. "What a pity. He only obtained a Transcendent Skill instead of receiving the God's favor to directly enter the God-Ascension Sequence and activate the System. What a shame..."