96: Chapter 96 Sacrificing the Entire City?

They can be understood as viruses capable of camouflage; evil spirits enter this world through this method.

And the stronger the vessel, the stronger the evil spirit's power when it descends.

But this doesn't mean the bodies of ordinary people are weak.

This type of evil spirit grows very rapidly; the slightest oversight could lead to consequences even more severe than those caused by Corruptors.

Because an evil spirit might be a common malevolent spirit from some other world, or it could even be a god!

If it were a god, the consequences are unimaginable.

So the main priority now is to find those sacrificial bodies and destroy them, preventing them from growing and causing greater destruction.

"Then I'll go to the City Lord's Manor to mobilize personnel."

After hearing Nie Ning's explanation, Horun also realized the gravity of the problem.

Although there are strict requirements for such evil spirits to descend, once successful, they will inevitably cause immense destruction and might even destroy the entire city.

But just as Horun was about to return to the first floor, he suddenly stopped.

"Mr. Bronk, should we notify Ms. Aotili?"

Nie Ning nodded. "Notify her. I might not be able to handle this alone; it'll be safer with her around."

Although he hadn't seen Audrey in action, her strength as a Wizard capable of guarding this place was undoubtedly beyond question.

Moreover, she had been a Wizard for a long time and far surpassed him in terms of experience.

He didn't even know if his guess about the sacrificial situation was correct; the situation might be different from what he imagined.

...

As Horun left, Nie Ning also returned to the first floor.

Since the sacrificial formation would affect one's state of mind, Nie Ning didn't let Quis and Duru go to the basement.

"How is it? Did you find any clues?"

Seeing Nie Ning come out, Quis hurried forward to ask.

Nie Ning shook his head with a complex expression.

"You two should head back for now. What remains is no longer something you can handle."

In reality, Nie Ning felt quite helpless.

He didn't know why he kept running into such mess.

He clearly just came out to build up his presence; how did he inexplicably encounter such a bizarre mission again?

If he hadn't happened to browse books on this subject in Audrey's study last time, Nie Ning might have gathered his people and packed up to leave immediately.

Because no one knew if a god might descend.

Even if there was only a one-in-ten-thousand chance, ordinary people would be scared out of their wits just hearing the word 'god'.

Fortunately, Nie Ning possessed the power of knowledge and knew the rules of this kind of sacrifice.

The sacrifice had only just occurred; even if the opponent's growth rate was fast, it was impossible for them to become too strong in such a short time.

Furthermore, since ordinary people were used as vessels, the strength of that unknown being probably wasn't much to speak of.

Just as Nie Ning was pushing Quis to take Duru away, he noticed Duru was drawing and scribbling on a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?"

Nie Ning asked, looking at Duru with some curiosity.

Although this guy's reasoning skills were strong, he was just an ordinary person after all; it would be difficult to predict the intentions of those sacrificers.

"I think they should be at this location."

Duru picked up the paper and handed it to Nie Ning.

Nie Ning took the paper and looked at it; it was a simplified map drawn on it.

It marked the path they had walked today and the crime scenes, ultimately forming the pattern of a Pentagram.

The location Duru mentioned was precisely the center point.

Nie Ning couldn't help but give Duru a few more looks.

"Haha, I just like reading books about ghosts and monsters. I saw that authors like to use Pentagrams or Hexagrams to write formations, so I just drew it like this on a whim."

Duru scratched his head, feeling embarrassed by the gaze.

"That's already very impressive."

Nie Ning nodded in appreciation.

But as he looked at the Pentagram pattern on the map again, his expression became increasingly solemn.

Because Duru was right; Pentagrams and Hexagrams are standard basic formation models. One only needs to add some runes as guides to produce various effects.

Of course, random scribbling certainly wouldn't work.

Runes are the manifestation of the power of heaven and earth. This aspect requires extreme precision; not a single mistake can occur during the engraving.

Furthermore, runes must complement each other; a common single rune doesn't have much power.

If it really was as marked on the map, things would probably not be so simple.

It was very likely that the opponent wanted to sacrifice the entire city to enhance the strength of the evil spirit when it descended.

...

After letting the two depart, Nie Ning obtained a map from the Guards.

Nie Ning scribbled on the map, drawing a circle using each point of the Pentagram as a fulcrum, and then marked red dots on the map based on the positions of the five sacrificial formation runes.

When the map was finished, Nie Ning called the Guards over again.

He instructed them to mobilize all official personnel in the city to search the locations of the red dots, find any suspicious objects that might appear, and destroy them.

Based on Nie Ning's deduction of the sacrificers, they weren't strong, but their ambition was enormous.

Therefore, if they truly wanted to perform a city-wide sacrifice without having great strength, they would need to use external objects to expand the power of the sacrificial ritual.

As long as those sacrificial items were destroyed, the power of the sacrificial formation would also decrease.

Of course, if he guessed wrong, everyone would be finished.

Even powerful Wizards like Audrey would probably be no different from ants when facing an evil spirit from a city-wide sacrifice.

After giving the instructions, Nie Ning headed straight for the city center.

If luck was on his side, those people had only just finished the limb sacrifice and shouldn't be ready so quickly; he should still have time to stop them.

...

Relying on his amazing leg strength, Nie Ning sped across the rooftops, arriving at the city center in just half an hour.

Standing on a roof, Nie Ning looked at the pedestrians passing below and couldn't help but frown.

Although he had determined the approximate location, the city center was filled with high-rise buildings and many people; the difficulty of finding the sacrificers or the sacrificial formation here could well be imagined.

Nie Ning used his Spiritual Power to sense the surroundings, but he didn't find anything abnormal.

He then activated the supernatural sense of smell of his Strange Beast Body, hoping to find some clues from it.

A nauseating and weird scent invaded his nostrils, and Nie Ning almost vomited.

But thinking that someone might be sacrificing the entire city, Nie Ning could only concentrate and carefully distinguish the differences within it.

Before long, Nie Ning smelled a familiar scent.

It was the scent of the sacrificial formations from the previous victims' homes!

Nie Ning breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, then followed the scent to three neatly arranged buildings.

The buildings were seven stories high and about twenty meters apart; they were one of the landmark buildings of Ska City, the Samsung Towers.

Although the scent of the sacrificial formation came from all three buildings, Nie Ning felt an inexplicable malice from the tower on the left.

...