Nightmare Light

Chapter 277 The Black and Red Ritual
They are portraying a scene where a city is still alive.

Under the curious gazes of Lin Wang and the paper girl, a city that had long since died but was still trying to pretend to be alive gradually revealed its full appearance.

The city was pitch black, as if it had been cast from some kind of liquid.

The black and red inhabitants, like writhing blood, tried their best to appear in human form.

The dark-skinned merchant, who looked like a dehydrated corpse, tried his best to play the role of a seller.

Money is the lifeblood, and commodities are the blood cake.

And the bridge to all of this...

Lin looked towards the street corner ahead.

At the street corner, there is a huge statue, about five or six meters tall, with a long beak, sharp teeth, bat wings, and a dark red body with a rock-like surface.

Residents would bring the blood cakes they had sold to the statue, kneel and pray before eating them, and then their bodies would return to normal.

This quirky little social model... the statues undoubtedly play some important role.

Why do they pray to the sculpture?
Is it because of some kind of "pre-set" behavioral pattern?

Or is this sculpture... still in operation?
If it's the latter, then this dead city...

There is still "something" monitoring and even driving the operation of this city from behind the scenes...

Who is the other party?

A chill suddenly ran through Lin Wang's heart.

He walked toward the nearest street corner.

The paper girl remained on his shoulder, raising her hands high, displaying her bullet comments to the surrounding residents and merchants.

Lin Wang let the little one do whatever she wanted—she was only a year or two old at most, why should she compete with a one or two-year-old?

The surrounding residents and merchants followed a strict and methodical pattern of behavior. Throughout the process, no one spoke or responded to the Paper Girl's erratic behavior.

Lin Wang suddenly had a brilliant idea.

He deliberately blocked a resident's path. The resident paused for a moment, then walked around Lin Wang's position and returned to his "pre-set route".

It has vision... and can correct its own route... but it lacks the ability to interact...

He walked up to another merchant, who simply waved repeatedly. Lin Wang nudged him, and the merchant staggered a few steps before returning to his original position and continuing to wave.

He deliberately pushed the merchants aside.

Lin Wang took a closer look. The merchant's face was withered and dry, resembling a corpse. If you looked closely, you could still see the outlines of organs such as eyes, mouth, and nose on his withered face, as if he had once been a human.

Are they... originally residents of this city?

Filled with curiosity and contemplation, Lin Wang walked to the street corner.

In the center of the street, he saw a dozen or so residents bowing and praying toward the bat-wing-shaped statue.

When they pray, they first kneel down and make a set of kneeling prayer postures. Then, they hold up the blood cake with both hands, face the direction of the sculpture, bow their heads and wait. After more than ten seconds, they will eat the blood cake again and restore their "plump" shape.

At this moment, Lin Wang noticed a detail:
After the blood transfusion is completed, the residents who have turned into mummies will have a brighter red color on their bodies.

But when they eat blood cakes and become plump, their color actually turns a bit darker!
What could be the reason for this? Was it caused by prayer?
If it's just a meaningless cycle of eating blood cakes to restore body shape, then theoretically, the color of these residents' bodies should not change.

So... what exactly caused the change in their body color?
Lin Wang thought for a moment, then stepped forward and looked up to examine the statue closely.

At first glance, the statue resembles a dark red "humanoid bat," with a dark red body, rat-like mouth, bat wings, and a smooth, glossy surface.

But upon closer inspection, one can see that the smooth, rock-like surface has clear biological skin folds! Lin Wang even felt that the dark red rock eyes still carried emotions, looking down at the world! Lin Wang felt the hairs on the back of his head stand on end.

This thing...was it once a living being? And might even still be alive?

He instinctively wanted to adopt a defensive posture. But the next second, he shook his head.

Lin Wang raised his hand and placed it on one of the sculpture's arms.

He first tentatively channeled a small amount of his spiritual energy into the sculpture.

The spiritual energy reverberated within the sculpture, initially finding nothing. However, after a dozen seconds, a dreamlike voice suddenly echoed back!
This thing... it really does have consciousness inside!

At the same time, Lin Wang also sensed that the spiritual space of this sculpture was indeed connected with some kind of mysterious thing—similar to the sculpture he had seen in Paper Village before.

However, this conscious sculpture could only emit some dreamlike responses and was unable to communicate effectively with Lin Wang.

Could it be due to some kind of pollution?
Just now, the spiritual energy that Lin Wang transmitted into its body was very weak, but it still sensed the presence of pollution within the latter.

That said, since almost everyone in this other world is corrupted, it's not surprising that this statue is also corrupted.
Lin Wang tried to channel a ball of white fire with purifying power into the statue's body.

The white flames within the statue followed the trajectory of spiritual energy, searching for and burning away some of the pollution.

A few seconds later, the faint white flame disappeared.

Lin Wang felt the sculpture tremble slightly.

Although it was a very slight tremor, the tremor was definitely there!

Meanwhile, next to Lin Wang, a "resident" finished his prayer, raised the blood cake, and took a bite.

Its body gradually transformed from a mummified form back into a plump human shape. The resident stood up and swayed as he ran toward the nearest merchant.

Lin Wang's pupils suddenly contracted: This resident hadn't turned black!
Is this phenomenon related to the "purification" we just discussed?

After pondering for a moment, Lin Wang threw another ball of white fire into the statue.

The white flames burned away some of the contamination, and the statue trembled once more.

Immediately afterwards, a resident ate the blood cake and regained his plump figure—it hadn't turned black after all! Instead, it remained a bright red humanoid and ran towards the merchant.

Residents put their contaminated blood into a machine next to the merchant. The machine would perform limited purification, and the purified blood would be compressed into blood cakes, which the residents would then take to the statue.

After residents pray to the statue, the contamination inside the statue will adhere to the blood cakes, which the residents will then eat—and so on in a continuous cycle.

So... is this some kind of strange purification ritual?
The original inhabitants of this world are unable to purify themselves after being polluted, so a mysterious being designed a purification ritual using this method.
Although it was inefficient, it was somewhat effective?
Lin Wang felt a sense of respect for the "person" who designed the ceremony.

With a mixture of curiosity and respect, he placed his hand on the sculpture again.

Then, a huge, pale flame burst forth, instantly entering the sculpture and engulfing the entire sculpture.

As the white flames roared and burned, a pungent stench and black smoke billowed up, while at the same time, the pollution inside the sculpture was being rapidly purified.

Lin Wang controlled the white flame and advanced into the depths of the sculpture's spiritual space.

Suddenly, deep within the sculpture's spiritual space, in the channel connecting the sculpture with a certain being, a mixture of shock and anger emanated from within.

"Who has disrupted my ceremony!"

The next second, that entity swiftly severed its spiritual connection with the sculpture.

Lin Wang: "?"

(End of this chapter)