The Journey of Immortal Cultivation-Chapter 580 - 332: The Sacrifice to the Lake God_2
It’s over, all is fate, isn’t it? It is the will of the Lake God.
In the small cottage, only the two of them were present, the villagers probably thought she was too weak to walk, and couldn’t be bothered to watch them. Mother and daughter suddenly had endless things to say to each other. Then, two hours blinked by.
Amidst her mother’s wailing and pleading, Raji was lifted onto the valve by two men, her hands and feet securely bound, and she was then transported to the lakeside.
The entire village, men and women, young and old, had gathered here.
This village had a nice-sounding name, called Xinghuang Village. The village lay at the foot of Snow Mountain beside a lake, for over three hundred years. Standing on the lakeside, one could not see the end of the lake. The villagers called this expanse of water, abundant with aquatic plants, "Sky Lake," and it was where the Lake God resided.
The ritual began, with musicians playing strangely tuned music, and the Witch, clad in a yellow robe, started to dance a strange, stiff, and eerie dance. She was well-versed in these proceedings, knowing that the village chief would come up next to recite the sacrificial text, and finally push the offering into the lake; only today, the offering was her.
As expected, the village chief started speaking. After perfunctorily reciting the sacrificial text, he intensely listed her sins, such as defying the will of the Lake God and bringing disaster and disease into the village...
She was preoccupied with her own thoughts and gradually could not hear anything else, only seeing the old man’s mouth opening and closing like a big fish pulled ashore from the lake, which made her let out a laugh unintentionally. This laughter turned all the villagers pale. The village chief exclaimed, "Her nightmare demon has acted up, hurry and send her down!"
People immediately laid down the valve, and then several strong men pushed it evenly into the water. Raji knew that this valve was specially made; if not tied tightly, it would disintegrate halfway through, and the offering on top would fall into the lake. She didn’t dare struggle, fearing that the more she struggled, the quicker the valve would disintegrate.
Before entering the water, her eyes lingered on the faces of many who she knew. They all looked at her with the expression of looking at a dead person, and with fear, morbid fascination, and disgust... Perhaps knowing that she was going to die, they no longer had to hide their own emotions.
The sound of the lake water gurgled beside her ears. She suddenly felt that dying might not be so bad, except that she could no longer serve her mother, nor see Kambu again.
The valve drifted for a long time, as if moving to the center of the lake. The village chief frowned and asked the person who tied the valve, "Did you tie it too tight?"
Answers had not yet come forth when people around started pointing and shouting, "It’s sinking, it’s sinking!" Indeed, the small valve at the heart of the lake gradually came apart, and the young girl on it began to sink and float in the water until she could no longer be seen.
The village chief heaved a great sigh of relief.
Just then, a white shadow swept across the forest by the lake, whipping up a furious wind amidst the crowd’s exclamations, and then it descended.
It was Ning Xiaoxian who had arrived. After a night of rain, tracking humans had become significantly more difficult. There is a saying, steal in snow, not in rain, for rainwater erases all scents and footprints completely. It took her great effort to finally find this place.
Just as she jumped down from the bird’s back, the village chief cried out, "Immortal." Villagers around immediately retreated several feet, looking at her with awe.
She surveyed her surroundings and, seeing several faces she had met the night before, knew she had come to the right place: "Village chief, where is the young girl named Raji I saw last night? How is her recovery? Take me to see her."
As soon as she spoke, the village chief’s face instantly turned pale. Had he known that the Immortal would come back looking for Raji, he would not have rushed to sacrifice her to the Lake God. Now the Immortal had arrived, but the person was gone.
"She, she was taken back by her mother, at this moment...she is not in the village." 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚
Not in the village? Ning Xiaoxian’s eyebrows rose slightly. Raji was so critically injured, would her family take her out of the village? Something was very wrong here.
Before she could speak, a woman suddenly rushed out from the crowd, knelt at Ning Xiaoxian’s feet, and cried loudly, "Immortal, please save my Raji, she has been sunk into the lake by the village chief!" It was Raji’s mother.
Sunken into the lake? Ning Xiaoxian was startled, quickly picked her up and urgently asked, "Which direction?"
The woman trembly pointed toward the center of the lake. Ning Xiaoxian turned and shouted, "Qi Zai!"
Before she had finished speaking, Qi Zai had already transformed into a white rainbow, heading towards the center of the lake. A few bamboo sticks were still floating on the surface as markers, making it not hard to find the submerged girl. Arriving at the lake center, it dived into the water.
The village chief was greatly shocked and objected, "That wouldn’t do, Immortal. Bringing up the offering will anger the Lake God!"
Ning Xiaoxian was truly enraged this time and said sternly, "You offer a living person as a sacrifice?!" She knew that on this continent, human sacrifice was not anything unusual, as many places had this custom, but she could not allow this to happen under her watch, especially since the girl being sacrificed was the one she had saved from the hands of the Death God the night before!
At her anger, the village chief immediately felt the surrounding air thicken and become difficult to breathe. He did not know this was the pressure exerted by a cultivator, but the fact that the other party had divine skills and could take his life at any moment was an undeniable truth, so he instantly knelt down, pleading, "We had no choice, the girl angered the Lake God, and several people in the village have fallen ill and died. If we do not use her as a sacrifice, our whole village will have to die for her sins!"
"So you are saying, by sacrificing this young girl’s life, you all expect to survive? How honorable!" She snorted coldly, her gaze sweeping over everyone. Those who were looked at all lowered their heads, not daring to meet her gaze.
At that moment, Qi Zai emerged from the water, flying up with someone in its claws, limp and lifeless, unknown if alive or dead. Ning Xiaoxian and Tu Jin, with their superior eyesight, could see at a glance that this was the girl from last night. (To be continued. If you like this work, welcome to Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation ticket, monthly ticket. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please visit m.qidian.com to read.)
