Outside the Saintess Valley, Wu Wang and Wu Xiaoyou walked back toward the village.

For the first half of the journey, the two were silent.

Wu Xiaoyou, in particular, was seething.

After witnessing the miserable visions of the past Saintesses, she was filled with an all-consuming malice for the entire village. The mere thought of the old village chief’s face, which wrinkled like a Shar Pei’s whenever he smiled, made her stomach churn.

“So… why does the village chief treat the Saintesses that way? There’s no need to torture them before the sacrifice, is there?”

Halfway back, Wu Xiaoyou couldn’t help but ask. As far as she knew, the Yin Fate Grand Ritual only required the Saintess’s heart to be offered to the Yin Fate Great God.

The torture beforehand was entirely the village chief’s own twisted addition.

“Because the present reality cannot fill the chasm of his desire, he can only soothe his twisted heart with the pain of others,” Wu Wang answered, his face an emotionless mask.

Of course he knew the real reason.

That old codger had no dick.

He had essentially been a eunuch for two hundred years. Each year, when a new Saintess was chosen, he could have toyed with her as he pleased before the ritual. But he lacked the tool for the deed.

He could only resort to physical torment. Watching them scream their lungs out was the only way to satisfy the perverse desires he had suppressed for so long.

“Pervert…”

Hearing Wu Xiaoyou’s muttering, Wu Wang smiled faintly and comforted her.

“Don’t worry. I guarantee he’ll be a ‘dead’ pervert very soon.”

With that, he suddenly bent down. He took something strange from his pocket, casually dug a hole, and buried it.

Wu Xiaoyou was already used to his eccentricities.

On their way down the mountain the previous night, he had buried about ten of these things along the path. When she had asked what they were, she only got a mysterious reply.

“These are the wonderful wondrous tools we’ll be using later.”

So, she paid it no more mind.

Before long, they were back in Yin Fate Village.

The old village chief had been waiting for a long time in the Ancestral Hall. He wanted to hear the madman explain what he meant by sacrificing himself. There was a perfectly good Saintess right here to be used.

But the moment the chief opened his mouth, he was met with a loud, preemptive question.

“What’s the use of sacrificing the Saintess? That’s just a repeat of the last two hundred years of pain! What you need to do is replace the Yin Fate Great God! Can’t you think bigger?” Wu Wang’s tone was exceptionally firm.

“Think… bigger?”

The old village chief was a little dazed.

Having just come down the mountain without even a sip of water, Wu Wang declared with righteous passion, “He is in the heavens! You can never replace Him from down on the ground, unless we find a way to drag Him down! The Saintess can’t do it, but I can!”

“You saw it yesterday. I have ways to escape a situation of certain death.”

“Just imagine, if the sacrifice slips away from the Yin Fate Great God’s own hands, will He not fly into a rage? Won’t He come down to exterminate everything? And won’t you then be able to use the aura of that existence to replace Him?”

The old codger hadn’t left the village in two hundred years and had never encountered such masterful manipulation.

He could feel his heart pounding, a rush of hot blood surging to his head.

That’s right! This makes perfect sense!

If the Yin Fate Great God doesn’t come down, how could he possibly be replaced?

And yesterday, he had indeed witnessed this madman’s abilities. He had been pierced by bone spurs and had his life force drained by a curse, yet he still showed up, alive and kicking, to wreak havoc at the village banquet.

“But, how can you be the sacrifice?” The old village chief hadn’t completely lost his mind.

He remembered trying it himself over a hundred years ago. A woman not born in a Yin year, Yin month, Yin day, and Yin hour simply could not become a sacrifice. The Yin Fate Great God wouldn’t accept it.

The original Zhang Sanfeng was the sole exception. Not only was he the child of a Saintess, but his birth time also met the requirements. Even so, his role was merely to prevent the Yin Fate Great God from getting angry, and the blessings of previous years were completely absent.

“I have this! Look.”

Wu Wang rolled up his sleeve and showed the Red Vertical Pupil to the old village chief. He subtly shifted his body to block Wu Xiaoyou’s line of sight, preventing her from seeing the Abyss God’s Mark.

The Mental Contamination from this thing was not something an ordinary person could withstand. The old codger, like Principal Wang, had been contaminated by the aura for thirty years, so a single glance shouldn’t be a major problem.

Bzzz—

Even so, the old village chief felt as if his head was about to explode. Terrified, he immediately looked away.

But then he discovered that the other’s figure and appearance had already taken on the form of the little madman. Even he couldn’t see any difference. In fact, the other now even possessed the necessary conditions of having been born with “Yin Fate.”

“Brilliant! Truly brilliant!” The old village chief gave a thumbs-up, then said sheepishly, “Then… how do I absorb the aura of that existence?”

Wu Wang revealed a mysterious smile. He fumbled in his pants and took out a strange ring.

“This is a Leg-Stretching, Eye-Staring Pill… oh, wait, wrong script. This is a mysterious ring I came upon by chance. An old grandpa who could practice alchemy and conjure a cold, white fire used to live inside.”

Wu Wang handed it over.

He continued, “Unfortunately, that old grandpa seemed to have been rescued by a fellow with the surname Xiao, leaving only this Storage Ring behind. It can absorb the aura of that existence.”

It was a pure white ring. This was the qualification ring that Principal Wang had given Teacher Yao to investigate with back in 【Fight Back to School】. When Wu Wang left the office that day, he had actually stolen it using the 【Shadow Mutual Combat Art】.

Initially, like the voice recorder, it was just a habitual move to have a card up his sleeve. He never expected to be able to bring it out of the Instance.

This was the very ring Principal Wang had used to store the Abyss God’s aura. It was perfect for swindling the old village chief.

“This… such a divine item…” The old village chief was so excited after taking it that his words became incoherent.

Wu Xiaoyou, with a strange expression, asked curiously, “Why is it called a Storage Ring?”

She was a modern person. She got the reference.

Wu Wang thought for two seconds.

“Maybe because it goes ‘na na na’.”

Old Village Chief: “?”

Wu Xiaoyou: “?”

What kind of cutesy act are you trying to pull?!

Although he hesitated, the old village chief could indeed feel that the ring was extraordinary. Especially after putting it on, the dizziness from looking directly at the Red Vertical Pupil lessened considerably.

This ring really worked!

“By the way, does the ritual have to wait until the night after tomorrow?” Wu Wang asked.

The old village chief shook his head.

“No. Actually, the ritual can be performed at any time within these three days. We could even do it now.”

“Then why wait until the last day every time? And make such a big fuss on the first two days?”

To this, the old village chief replied nonchalantly, “It just adds a sense of ceremony. The villagers believe in this stuff. Otherwise, how could we demonstrate the greatness of the Yin Fate Great God? They need to convince themselves.”

“So it’s all just feudal superstition…” Wu Wang’s voice grew deeper, colder.

He hated this kind of deceptive nonsense. It seemed the road to popularizing the motto “believe in science, break down superstitions” was still a long one.

“Then let’s go to the Ancestral Hall now, to avoid any complications,” Wu Wang suggested.

The old village chief thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.

He really couldn’t wait another second.

Freedom. The freedom he had longed for.

The three of them moved to the Ancestral Hall.

The old village chief carefully took down the human skins, locked them in a box, then took a plate from the offering table and handed it to Wu Wang.

Wu Wang asked doubtfully, “Does the heart have to be placed on this for the sacrifice?”

He suddenly realized he couldn’t do it. If he took out his heart, he would probably resurrect immediately. The heart on the plate would disappear and return to his body.

To his question, the old village chief was now an open book.

He immediately explained, “Oh, no, that’s not necessary. As long as you pierce your heart with this dagger, you will be able to see the Yin Fate Great God. He will draw out your soul. Putting it on a plate is just a ritual I made up.”

With that, he handed over a dagger. It was stained with who knows how much blood and had never been washed, causing it to be entirely dark red.

The moment he took it out, Wu Xiaoyou felt as if the wails of all the Saintesses were echoing from the dagger. Her fists clenched unconsciously.

“Okay, no more questions then.”

“Do you need me to help…”

Puchi—

Before the old village chief could finish his sentence, he saw the man reverse his grip on the dagger and plunge it viciously into his own heart.

The force was so great that only the hilt remained outside his body.

Even the old village chief, who had killed countless people, felt a tremor in his own heart at the sight.

Someone could actually be this ruthless to himself. He didn’t even hesitate.

Thus, he subconsciously asked, “How… how do you feel?”

Wu Wang’s life was now hanging by a thread. The light in his eyes gradually dimmed. In a daze, he saw the sky outside the Ancestral Hall tear open. A pair of slender, porcelain-skinned arms reached out from within.

Mental Contamination instantly flooded his soul, wanting to pull it toward those arms.

He squeezed out a disdainful, mocking smile.

“I feel… He’s not even a fraction of the Abyss God…”