An invasion from the Abyss? I, a demonic cultivator, laughed.

Chapter 70 Ceremony
The moment Chu Xiu finished speaking, all the awakened ones froze.

They sized each other up, silently counting in their minds.

One, two, thirty-four, fifteen, sixteen.

sixteen!

Everyone's faces showed expressions of horror. There were sixteen people besides themselves, which meant there were seventeen people present!
Instantly, the atmosphere on the field became tense, and everyone instinctively distanced themselves from each other, their faces showing wariness.

"What, what's going on?" someone asked in a trembling voice.

"Isn't that simple?" Chu Xiu curled his lip. "We just have a strange guy infiltrated our ranks."

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone looked at him.

Dude! You're the weirdest person here, okay?!

"Alright! Stop suspecting each other! There's no point in making wild guesses now!" Chai San said in a deep voice, "If we fight amongst ourselves because of this, our success rate will definitely drop significantly."

"Even if there really is some evil thing mixed in with us, we'll find it out slowly later."

Chai San's words calmed everyone down considerably.

In the end, the group decided to proceed according to the original plan.

However, the atmosphere on the road was much more tense.

Chu Xiu mingled in the crowd, and along the way, he followed the girl's advice and kept an eye out for any unusual clues around him.

Unfortunately, they found nothing but the dark, gloomy forest.

Along the way, everyone took the opportunity to introduce themselves to each other.

Chu Xiu used Chen Ce as an alias.

With his exceptional mental capacity, he easily memorized everyone's names and corresponding professions.

Among them, only 5 are B-level or above, the rest are C-level and D-level, and four others are unwilling to reveal their identities. Chu Xiu is naturally among them, and the girl who is suspected to have a high status also did not say anything.

The other party also has methods to conceal their information, which the Ghostly Eye cannot detect.

Chu Xiu only knew that her name was Jiang Xue.

The only A-rank is the middle-aged man who spoke at the beginning. His name is Chai San, and his profession is Royal Shield Guard. This is a profession with excellent defensive capabilities, but relatively poor offensive capabilities.

His equipment was also among the best of the group, and given his age, he seemed to be the leader.

There are two other suspicious people. One is a thug with dyed yellow hair who looks like a scoundrel. This person is a B-level professional [Longsword Slayer] named Zhou Juncai.

The other, also a B-rank class, is the Heavy Archer, named Wu Xiujie. He's a cold-faced young man with eyes that look like he hasn't woken up yet.

The reason he paid special attention to the two was that he sensed a faint murderous aura emanating from them. Although Chu Xiu's current level of perception was not clear, he intuitively felt that the two had killed a lot of people!

Several minutes later, a village appeared before them.

This is a village nestled in a valley, surrounded by mountains. The village entrance is marked with a sign that reads "Starfall Village". From the entrance, there is a straight road with many houses arranged in a staggered pattern on both sides. However, these are not modern concrete houses, but ancient brick and stone houses, and the architectural style is more in line with the Western medieval style.

The place didn't look prosperous overall, but there seemed to be a large population. There were at least a hundred houses, and today there was also a magnificent castle, which Chu Xiu guessed was probably the residence of the local ruler.

As they entered the village, they found a large crowd gathered in the square at the end of the main road, with a flickering fire in the center, which seemed to be the same fire they had seen on the path earlier.

"What should we do next?" Chai San asked Jiang Xue.

After a moment's thought, Jiang Xue said, "Let's go take a look. This might be a hint from the abyss, but let's not cause too much of a commotion."

The group followed instructions and walked forward. When they got closer, they discovered that everyone here was wrapped up tightly in black robes. In the middle of the crowd, there was a high platform with a wooden cross on it. On the cross was a ragged boy covered in wounds who looked like he was on the verge of death.

At the boy's feet was a pile of hay, and beside him stood a burly man in black armor holding a torch.

With blond hair, blue eyes, and a high nose bridge, they were clearly of Western race. Behind them was a huge stone statue, with a man's head in the center of the statue, his face contorted in pain. Behind him was a void of chaos, from which countless spider-like limbs extended.

The crowd below was excited, waving their fists and shouting, "Light the fire! Light the fire! Light the fire!"

Hearing the shouts from below, the burly man raised his torch high, made a strange gesture with his other hand, and muttered incantations, as if he were offering a sacrifice to the statue behind him.

The next moment, as the sacrificial incantation was finished, the burly man raised the torch, ready to set the haystack ablaze!

"stop!"

At this critical moment, Chai San shouted and strode forward. "Hey!"

Seeing Chai San suddenly move, Zhou Juncai anxiously tugged at him.

But Chai San seemed oblivious, and shouted angrily, "What are you doing!"

His voice immediately drew everyone's attention.

"Outsider"

Upon seeing them, the villagers surrounding the square glared at them with hostility and their faces were filled with wariness.

The burly man in black armor standing on the high platform had icy eyes: "Outsiders, what do you want?"

He was speaking a foreign language, but Chu Xiu could understand it, which must be due to the Abyss's ability to allow everyone to communicate without barriers.

As soon as he finished speaking, two teams of guards dressed in full plate armor and wearing visored helmets emerged from both sides and surrounded Chu Xiu and his party, instantly making the atmosphere tense.

"Chai San, don't act on your own!"

The blond-haired thug, Zhou Juncai, grabbed him angrily and shouted.

"Are you just going to stand by and watch them burn people to death?" Chai San glared and said, "The world fragments we entered during the trial are real, and these are living, breathing people!"

"Are you fucking insane?" Zhou Juncai looked at him incredulously. "Playing the saint in the abyss? Have you had enough of living? If you want to die, don't drag others down with you!"

She then looked at him suspiciously: "You wouldn't happen to be the one who's mixed up with us and deliberately causing trouble, would you?"

Chai San sneered, "Even in the abyss, we should still have basic humanity!"

Zhou Juncai sneered: "Heh, if it would let me pass the trial, I'd kill everyone in this village."

Chai San shook his head, ignoring him, and turned to Jiang Xue instead: "Besides, I think there might be clues we need on this young man. Don't you think they're performing some kind of ritual right now? Maybe it will match our mission."

As soon as she finished speaking, everyone looked at Jiang Xue, wanting to hear her opinion.

Seeing that the decision-making power had suddenly fallen into her hands, and on such an important matter, Jiang Xue was clearly at a loss, stammering, "This, how would I know? Every trial is unique, but, but usually the trial participants are not given a major choice at the beginning."

"So, whether we save this boy or not is irrelevant, right?" Zhou Juncai's eyes lit up. "In that case, why should we bother? Putting aside the fighting ability of these guards, and whether we can even defeat them, even if we could, if we offend these villagers, where will we get information about the ceremony?"

His words made a lot of sense and immediately won the agreement of many people. Chai San insisted on saving him, and three or four people agreed with him.

Chu Xiu sighed slightly as he watched this scene.

In reality, it didn't matter to him whether he saved her or not. Without sufficient information, discussing the rationality of any choice was meaningless.

Rescuing the boy might yield important information, or it might leave you with nothing but anger the villagers, making subsequent levels more difficult.

To his disappointment, the team broke down so quickly.

Although he had long known that the possibility of uniting sixteen complete strangers with vastly different personalities and values ​​in a short period of time was almost zero, Jiang Xue's appearance had given him a glimmer of hope.

For a group of newbies undergoing trials for the first time, an "experienced person" undoubtedly has a huge appeal and influence.

Unfortunately, Jiang Xue herself does not possess sufficient leadership skills.

In this situation, a simple "yes" or "no" is better than an ambiguous answer.

"If we can't cooperate effectively, I'll have to change my strategy and use the others as cannon fodder to gather intelligence," Chu Xiu thought to himself.

If a group is disorganized, having a large number of people is meaningless.

Seemingly seeing that they had fallen into infighting, the black-armored man on the high platform sneered, tossed his wrist, and the torch fell into the haystack.

In an instant, a huge flame shot into the sky, and the boy engulfed in flames let out a shrill scream!

Chai San wanted to go forward, but was stopped by the other trial participants.

Even those who had previously supported Chai San did not step forward to help him. Soon, the boy's screams gradually subsided, and he remained motionless in the flames, like a black sculpture.

Then, a notification popped up.

[Current Ceremony Progress: 5%]

(End of this chapter)