Chapter 348 - 339: Before the Main Course, Whet the Appetite

Chapter 348: Chapter 339: Before the Main Course, Whet the Appetite

"What are you doing?!"

Helian restrained her startled mount, glaring at Fu Juemin with a mix of shock and anger.

"That’s a question I should be asking you."

Fu Juemin gently pulled on his reins, slowing his fine steed to a walk as he approached.

"What were you trying to do, lifting that curtain?" Fu Juemin asked, his expression indifferent.

"The Grand Sacrifice is about to begin. By order of the Prince, I am here to inspect the Demon Officials," Helian said through gritted teeth.

Fu Juemin was expressionless. "Inspect what?"

"To inspect whether or not you’ve used the Ghost Dragon Beard."

Helian sneered, staring at Fu Juemin’s face as if trying to find a crack in his composure.

"Then by all means, have a look."

Unexpectedly, Fu Juemin actually nodded and then crisply moved his horse aside, clearing the way.

Helian huffed, dismounted, and walked step by step toward the enormous carriage she had just selected.

Fu Juemin, still on horseback, looked down at his own palm. His posture was casual, his face showing not a hint of panic.

Helian reached the carriage, extended a hand, and slowly lifted a corner of the black cloth...

The instant a gap appeared in the heavy black cloth, which was covered in complex, blood-red talismans, a disheveled head silently poked out from the iron cage within the carriage’s deep, thick darkness.

Beneath hair like tattered rags was the twisted, ghastly white face of a woman.

The woman’s face drew so close it nearly touched the tip of Helian’s nose. It stared at her with an unnerving gaze, then its entire head twisted upward like an owl’s. Its mouth split open, letting out a strange, dainty cackle... TEE-HEE-HEE...

Helian’s hand, still holding the black cloth, froze in mid-air. Her expression was stunned as she stared back at the woman’s face for several seconds.

And then—

WHOOSH!

She abruptly dropped the curtain, her face deathly pale, and spun around, scrambling several meters away in terror.

"See what you needed to see?"

Fu Juemin lowered his hand and lifted his gaze, looking at Helian with a placid expression.

Beneath Helian’s black dress, her high chest heaved violently several times. After a great effort to calm her pounding heart, she bit out her accusation, "That one... it doesn’t have the Ghost Dragon Beard on it!"

"Of course not!"

Fu Juemin let out a cold, unabashed laugh. "You’re the ones who said five would be enough.

You want to see the ones that have been treated..."

He flicked his riding crop toward the other carriages in the distance. "They’re all over there!" he said impatiently. "Once you’re done looking, get the hell out."

Scolded by Fu Juemin, Helian’s pretty face flushed red. She wanted to retort but couldn’t find the words.

She turned and started walking toward the other carriages, but halfway there, perhaps recalling her terrifying experience just now, she timidly turned and came back.

"You’d better guarantee there are really five of them!"

Helian mounted her horse and, with no real menace, issued another solemn warning to Fu Juemin before galloping away without a backward glance.

Watching Helian disappear into the distance, Fu Juemin casually tossed his reins to Mu Feng, who stood nearby, and dismounted.

With a calm expression, he walked to the carriage Helian had just inspected. He lifted a corner of the black cloth, and the Human-faced Gu Carving inside the cage immediately flashed him a fawning, sycophantic smile.

He covered it back up and walked to another carriage.

He yanked the cover open. The carriage was completely empty. Not a shadow of a Demon Fiend was to be seen; there was only an elegantly arranged tea table and a soft couch, and even dozens of neatly arranged boxes of snacks and pastries.

Fu Juemin boarded the carriage and casually asked Mu Feng, "Where are the tokens?"

Mu Feng quickly presented a wooden box. Inside were nine Profound Iron Tokens, corresponding to the Demon Officials supplied by the Nine Families under his command.

Fu Juemin glanced at them, nodded slightly, and then instructed, "You watch over things on that end. If anything happens, wait until I come out to report it."

"Yes."

Mu Feng responded respectfully.

At that moment, from the directions of the Heaven and Earth Altars, the long, majestic blast of a horn sounded almost simultaneously.

"Demon Officials, enter the Array!"

Fu Juemin calmly walked deeper into the carriage, the heavy black curtain falling slowly behind him.

The last sliver of light was blocked out by the curtain.

Fu Juemin sat in the dark carriage, opened a food box beside him, and took out a small plate of pastries.

One by one... he began to eat slowly.

He had a habit—

before the main course, he always had a little something...

to whet his appetite.

.......

The thunderous beat of drums erupted from the center of the Earth Altar. The sound shook the heavens, as if compelling the nearby Heaven-Reaching Stone Buddha to lower its gaze from the clouds and observe the ceremony.

The five great Banner Lords of the Lower Five Banners sat together.

A single banner, whether in numbers or in Momentum, was too weak. So, they decided to gather, creating a force that could stand against the distant "Spirit" banner as an equal.

"Well, well, someone’s back."

Under the banner of the Zhao Yang Five Banners, someone looked at the lone figure of Mu Feng returning in the distance and asked curiously, "But why just him? Where’s that kid who doesn’t wear a queue?.."

"Perhaps he saw our Five Banners united and got scared, so he’s hiding," someone said in a mocking tone, drawing a few soft chuckles.

"It doesn’t matter if he comes or not. The result will be the same."

The Blue Banner Lord stared at Mu Feng, who stood under the "Spirit" banner directly opposite them. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as he said slowly, "It’s better if he doesn’t come.

We need to let them know that their so-called new master can’t protect them at all...

So what if he’s from the Profound Banner? Heh heh."

It was a well-known fact among the Lower Five Banners that the Blue Banner’s Mu Shulu Clan was held in high regard by Young Master Profound Banner Ling.

Yet in recent months, the status of Mu Feng, Patriarch of the Mu Family, had also been rising like the tide among the Lower Five Banners, to the point that it was beginning to overshadow his own authority as the Blue Banner Lord.

’Such a puny Mu Family, thinks it can just latch onto a powerful patron, break away from the Blue Banner, and establish its own house? Is this a rebellion?!’

The reflection of Mu Feng’s figure was captured in the Blue Banner Lord’s pupils. His expression was grim as he sneered without end. ’He should take a good look at who really calls the shots in the Lower Five Banners!’

With that, he set down his teacup with a sharp CLACK, his gaze turning icily toward the center of the arena.

The thoughts of the other Banner Lords were similar to the Blue Banner Lord’s. The only one not tangled in so much personal animosity was probably the Zhe Banner Lord.

This extremely calculating and habitually low-key Zhe Banner Lord was currently lowering his head, feigning a sip of tea.

On his unseen face, the corners of his mouth uncontrollably curled up at the thought of the bountiful harvest he and his Demon Lord would reap from three families in one fell swoop after this Magic Sacrifice ended....

....

「Beneath the Earth Altar, in the vast Earth Palace.」

The Earth Palace was nearly half the size of the Imperial Palace. Dozens of stone pillars, each so thick it would take several people to encircle, supported the vaulted ceiling in a special formation.

Countless ever-burning lamps flickered on all four sides of the Earth Palace. On the ground, immense and complex Magic Channels emanated a faint red glow, bathing the entire palace in a blood-colored light.

RUMBLE—

Accompanied by the continuous sound of massive mechanisms turning, blood-like water rushed through the Magic Channels. In the center of the Earth Palace, it seemed as if terrifying existences were slowly awakening.

At the same time, square sections of the surrounding stone walls opened up, and black carriages, each carrying a Demon Official, entered with a sense of restless agitation.

They followed the passages, driving down into separate sub-altars below.

A heavy red glow slowly rose, enveloping each of the sub-altars surrounding the Earth Palace.

As if fearing this was not secure enough, thick stone walls had been specially built on all four sides and atop each sub-altar, creating individual stone chambers that completely isolated each Demon Official entering the Array.

The Grand Sacrifice had now begun. The various Demon Officials, already familiar with the procedure, emerged one after another from their carriages.

These hideous and terrifying Demon Fiends, holding official ranks in the mortal world and enjoying the tribute of the mortal world, all made their appearance.

In an instant, the vast Earth Palace was fouled by the miasma of all kinds of Demon Fiends.

Unnerving hisses and low roars rose and fell. Some of them snatched the horses that had pulled their carriages, tearing them apart on the spot to feast on their bloody flesh... It was a terrifying scene of demonic pandemonium.

After a long while of this chaos, the Demon Officials finally entered the stone chambers of the altars one by one, and the Earth Palace gradually fell quiet.

An unknown amount of time passed. Suddenly, without any warning, the red light of the Array covering one of the altar chambers dimmed and vanished.

CREEEAAAK—

With the muffled groan of a heavy stone door being slowly pushed open, a demonic python as thick as a water tank slithered silently out of the opened stone chamber.

The great python was dozens of meters long. Its scales were a grayish-green, slimy and slick, as if it had been steeping in stagnant water for years. It left a long, wet trail wherever it passed.

Its body exuded a thick stench of rot. Its serpentine head lifted quietly, and in the dim light of the ever-burning lamps, a bizarre human face was revealed, embedded where its neck met its torso. The face had complete features, but they were grotesquely out of proportion—

The eye sockets were enormous, but the pupils were as narrow as pinpricks. Its skin was ashen white, like a waterlogged corpse, and its lips were a bluish-purple.

It was impossible to tell if it was male or female; it was simply terrifying.

The Human-Faced Demon Python left the stone chamber. It seemed to sniff the air gently, then turned in a specific direction. A hint of a smirk appeared on the strange human face on its neck.

Just as it was about to crawl toward that stone chamber, the sound of other doors creaking open, CLACK CLACK, came from both sides.....