My Player 2

Chapter 268 Ritual and Sacrifice

Although the humus lake is located underground, it is only more than 200 meters from the ground. Moreover, the entire underground world is extremely large and there should be more than one exit. Animals from the ground often visit it.

The protozoa that can survive in this world all have certain unique skills.

Either they have extremely strong reproductive abilities, or they are born masters of hiding.

It is naturally difficult to see living animals around those densely populated monster spawning points.

However, in the area radiating from the monster spawning point, you can always find various animals, but in front of the corrupted monsters, no matter what kind of animal it is, it cannot form a scale.

Humans do the same.

The living space is limited and the food source is fixed, but their lifespan and reproductive capacity are not bad.

They can't use the resurrected monsters as resources like the players do, so they can only be trapped in a small safe zone and live off their resources.

For a village to survive for a thousand years in such a harsh environment, it would be unacceptable if it didn't have some hard work.

Continue forward through the humus lake, you will see a small hole with a diameter of 2 meters. Go in and head diagonally downward for about 500 meters, you will see a green mushroom forest and a small village behind it.

This is a small village without a name. It is not small in size and is estimated to have hundreds of people.

The "Thief God" swaggered towards the village. The scholar Xiu Jie hesitated for a moment, then followed him in through the main gate.

He had followed here to gain some experience, but he wasn't sure he could use magic to hide in front of a legendary wizard. But if he hid too far away, he might as well just turn around and go home with his two children.

The life-saving talisman given to him by his mentor is a rare large teleportation scroll, which he always keeps in his hand.

"It seems that the staple food of this village is the green mushrooms grown here."

The "Thief God" looked at the bare mushroom forest around him and scanned the mushroom data.

[Youdi Mushroom], a blank ingredient, provides standard mushroom satiety, and long-term consumption has unknown side effects.

This thing can be used to make blue medicine.

As for the side effects of long-term consumption, players naturally don’t know.

"The Thief God" looked at Xiu Jie. This guy had a wide range of knowledge, so maybe he knew something.

"The mushroom caps and stems have all been picked, but they should be ghost mushrooms, a relatively common magical material. If they use this as their staple food... then the villagers' souls must be very cold."

Xiu Jie is worthy of being called the King of Old Scrolls, he is simply a walking encyclopedia. Along the way, he can explain something that "Thief God" doesn't understand.

The two walked towards the village entrance, chatting as they walked, as if they were scholars who came to the countryside for an outing.

As for the two unlucky children, Xiujie held them under his armpits one by one.

The humus lake was very toxic. The two children had been there for more than an hour. Their bodies had reached their limit and they both fainted.

The working villagers in the village finally discovered the two outsiders walking around in such a swagger. The woman who saw them first shouted, and then several villagers gathered at the entrance of the village, looking at them curiously.

However, after seeing Xiujie holding two orphans who left the village under his arms, the curiosity on the villagers' faces immediately turned into horror.

It was as if the two men were carrying a plague, and the people gathered at the entrance of the village dispersed.

"Thief God" took a quick look at these guys. They were all level 1 civilian NPCs. The system did not identify them as monsters, and he immediately felt better.

This is just small change.

Xiu Jie beside him elbowed him, raised his head, and motioned him to look to the other side. There was a burning stake there.

Before the 'Thief God' could ask any questions, Xiu Jie came over, full of doubts.

Where did these people get the wood?

The Humus Lake protected the village, isolating them from the monsters in the outside world, but also closed the village, preventing them from collecting resources from the outside world.

In this underground world without sunlight, wood should be more valuable than gold.

These people's houses were all made of stone, and they were wearing rags made of unknown fabric. At first glance, except for the mushroom forest at the entrance of the village, no building was made of even a single piece of wood.

So why burn the wood?
[Xiu Jie] pinched some of the burnt powder, put it to his nose and sniffed it, frowning and saying:
“It’s the smell of ceremony.”

The 'Thief God' also followed, looked at the burnt ashes, and asked:
"Is this the sacrifice those two kids were talking about? There doesn't seem to be a body on the stake?"

"Because this is not a sacrifice, it's a ritual." Xiujie put the two children down, took out a feather pen and a spell book, and wrote something on them.

The 'Thief God' leaned over and found that this NPC was really writing something. While he was impressed by the details of the game, he asked:
"I don't understand. Can you explain it to me? Are we late?"

"It's been a while since it ended." Xiu Jie wondered as he calculated, "It's still not right."

"What's wrong?" asked the 'Thief God'.

Xiu Jie stopped writing, rubbed his brows, closed the magic book and sighed:
"It's troublesome to explain this to a layman, so I'll make an exception for you this time."

"To put it in terms that laymen can understand, [sacrifice] is a performance for a specific being. If you can please the other party, you will receive a reward from the other party."

"Spend 10 yuan to buy a clown nose, and as long as you can get affirmation, you can get a reward of 100 yuan, although these rewards are not easy to get."

"And [Ritual] does not involve a third party. It may be able to turn stone into gold, but it also strictly adheres to the principle of equal exchange."

“Perhaps because matter is converted into energy, or energy reconstitutes matter, people feel that [the ritual] can conjure things out of thin air, but in fact the total amount of matter and energy remains unchanged.”

“If you exchange $100 worth of gold for a $100 worth of clown nose, there is no essential difference. It just looks like there are more of them.”

Seeing his companion nodded, as if he understood the most basic concept, Xiu Jie continued:

"The villagers used a ritual to burn a little girl, which provided the mushroom forest outside the village with the fertility of about a hundred corpses. The difference is too great, and it does not conform to the principle of equal exchange."

"It is [virginity], [pure heart], [admirer], these spiritual powers are transformed into fertility by the ritual."

A powerful voice sounded.

Xiu Jie immediately felt as if he was facing a formidable enemy, and saw a burly, middle-aged man, nearly two meters tall, walking towards them.

"Outsiders, I am the village chief here, are you from the outside world?"

The middle-aged man seemed to have no ill intentions. After taking a look at the two men's clothes, he said happily:
"Thank God, I didn't expect there were still people alive in this world besides us."

"Judging from your attire, there is at least a fairly large city outside?
"Industry, magic, these treasures of civilized society, have all been passed down?"

"Oh, sorry, I was so excited. Meeting you two is the most exciting moment for me in a thousand years. I almost forgot to introduce myself."

"Megan Douglas, a fool who thought she had preserved the last spark of humanity, has guarded it for a thousand years in harsh conditions underground."

"Really, it's nice to meet you two."

(End of this chapter)