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Chapter 118 The Blood Moon Reflected in the Mirror, the Whole City Falls Silent

A deep, resonant sound filled the air, as if an unseen giant hand was plucking the strings of the earth's veins throughout Linjiang County.

Above the altar, a fierce wind howled, causing the hems of the four people's clothes to flutter loudly.

They chanted obscure and ancient incantations, their banners and clubs waving wildly to the rhythm, creating visible black ripples that spread outwards.

Chen Qian was tightly bound to the stone pillar at the top of the altar by several chains engraved with runes, unable to move.

He was at the very center of the altar, like a lamb on an offering table, facing the scholar-robed man standing with his hands behind his back.

The man stood quietly, his hands forming a hand seal, but with each breath, the raging Yin energy around him flowed around him like gentle water.

"rise."

The man parted his lips slightly and uttered a single word.

boom!

In an instant, three thick, blood-red beams of light shot into the sky almost simultaneously between the center of Linjiang County, the distant Niushou Village in the east, and the direction of Heishan in the west!

The three beams of light pierced through the thick dark clouds, converging and intertwining high in the sky to form a line.

The once dark sky was instantly dyed a nauseating dark red.

"what!"

In the city, the people who had already been controlled by the red light let out even more shrill screams.

The red cloth on the shrine fell off, revealing a faceless black wooden statue that seemed to come alive. The blood in its mouth instantly thickened, indicating that it had increased its sucking power!

The bodies of countless people are slowly withering away, their vital energy turning into billowing red mist that merges into the blood-red light that fills the sky.

However, just as this grand formation was operating at its limit and was about to completely extract the earth's veins, at the critical moment...

"Thump!"

Then, it was like toppling dominoes.

"Bang! Crash! Squeak squeak squeak!"

The red light network that was originally delivering blood energy steadily suddenly started to show large areas of interruption and flickering.

Some shrines inexplicably fell off the altar and cracked.

The patterns on the bottom of some shrines have been broken by sharp teeth.

Some shrines were even smashed down by things that appeared out of nowhere.

The light was gradually dimming, and the operation of the shrine became noticeably sluggish.

That terrifying suction force that devoured heaven and earth actually weakened by 30% in that instant!

On the altar, the black-robed people who were casting spells changed their expressions drastically, and almost dropped the magical artifacts in their hands.

Only the man in the scholar's robe remained expressionless.

He slowly turned around, his eyes, which seemed to hold the weight of mountains of corpses and seas of blood, calmly landing on Chen Qian: "This is—your doing?"

Although it is a question, the tone is affirmative.

Although Chen Qian's body was bound, his spine remained straight.

He looked at the dimly lit areas, a mocking smile playing on his lips. "We have to do something, don't you think?"

"I may be cheap, but I'm tough. Surrendering and waiting to be devoured by you isn't my style."

"It seems that sometimes the snakes, insects, and rats that fill this city are more effective than people."

The scholar-robed man gave him a deep look, but instead of getting angry, he shook his head, seemingly with some regret: "Just a little cleverness. If you had ten years, you might have really amounted to something. Too bad—"

He turned away, no longer looking at Chen Qian, as if the conversation just now was merely an insignificant interlude.

At that moment, several dark figures darted onto the altar like ghosts, kneeling behind the man and shouting urgently, "Report! Master!"

"Something's happened in the city! Zhao Yuanshan, leading a group of defeated soldiers, is wreaking havoc on key strategic points. We don't know how they found out, but they're destroying everything in sight!"

"And another thing! A huge number of rats have appeared out of nowhere, frantically gnawing at the array patterns and knocking down the shrine! Their numbers are too numerous to defend against!"

"Even some of our backup array stakes, which we've placed in the shadows, have been destroyed by nearly 30%! The flow of blood energy is obstructed, and the grand array is becoming unstable!"

Chen Qian remained expressionless.

This was, of course, his backup plan.

Zhao Yuanshan was a pawn he planted to draw fire.

But the mouse named Rice and its brothers and sisters were his true hidden pawns!

He had already given the rats a death order.

Two mice would guard a shrine, and if anything unusual happened, they would destroy it, whether by banging their heads against it, biting it with their teeth, or knocking over the shelves!

A large number of ants can kill an elephant, and a large number of rats can always play a role!

"Master!"

The hoarse old man holding the banner could no longer contain himself. Looking at the crimson light teetering in the sky, he cried out anxiously, "We can't delay any longer!"

"The Great Qian's Sky Patrol Guards must have already noticed the commotion here and are on their way! They'll arrive in no more than the time it takes to brew a cup of tea!"

"If this fails, all our decades of planning will be for nothing! There will be no hope left!"

The atmosphere was extremely tense.

All eyes were on the scholar-official, awaiting his decision.

However, faced with this crisis, the man in the scholar's robe suddenly smiled.

His smile was light and faint, yet it revealed an indifference that regarded all living beings as worthless.

"A bunch of rats and a few stray dogs, trying to ruin my grand plan?"

He slowly raised his right hand, and the wide sleeve of his robe slipped down, revealing a fair and jade-like hand.

In his palm, he held an ancient bronze mirror.

The mirror was in a state of chaos, reflecting nothing, and at first glance appeared no different.

"Since gentle methods aren't working, then—"

"Let's be a little rougher."

He tossed it gently.

The bronze mirror slipped from his hand and floated lightly into the air.

It appeared to have flown only a few meters high, but in Chen Qian's vision, space seemed to have become distorted for a moment.

The mirror seemed to instantly traverse countless distances, hanging directly in the sky, precisely covering the scarlet blood moon!

"Buzz"

There was no sound, but a buzzing sound rang in everyone's mind.

Chen Qian stared wide-eyed in disbelief.

He was right there, and despite using all his skills—night vision, reading people, and auditory recognition—he couldn't see anything the moment the man made his move!

There was no fluctuation of qi and blood, and no trace of magic.

All his sensory abilities were completely rendered useless in front of this man!

next moment.

The blood moon, now obscured by the mirror, suddenly underwent a qualitative change in its radiance.

What was originally just a scarlet light, after being refracted by the mirror, turned into a death ray that was pale white with bloodshot streaks!

The light was no longer gentle, but became sharp as if it were tangible, instantly covering the entire city, penetrating the roof tiles, and shining into every corner.

"Squeak, squeak"

The sound of countless doors opening rang out at the same time.

From his vantage point, Chen Qian witnessed a scene he would never forget.

The entire population of the city, regardless of age or gender.

They were like puppets with pre-programmed routines, expressionless, blank-eyed, as they pushed open their doors and walked out onto the street.

The streets and alleys were instantly packed with people.

They didn't speak, they didn't communicate, they just stood there quietly, looking up at the blood moon reflected in the mirror.

"Sacrifice".

The man in the scholar's robe uttered two words softly.

"Pfft!"

No one physically forced them.

Those people, whether strong men or weak women and children, all raised the sharp weapons they could grab at random.

Kitchen knives, scissors, chopsticks, and even sharpened wooden sticks.

Then, in perfect unison, they slashed their own throats!

"Zi"

Thousands of fountains of blood shot into the sky at the same time!

There were no screams, no struggles.

The only sounds were the dull thud of a sharp blade cutting through flesh and the hissing of blood gushing out.

Blood pooled and flowed along the street, instantly submerging ankles, making the entire Linjiang County look as if it had been painted with a layer of blood-red paint!

Even the domesticated pigs, dogs, cattle, and sheep, under this eerie light, frantically rammed against the walls until their skulls shattered and their brains splattered out.

The so-called "humanity and vitality" collapsed instantly and vanished in the face of this mass suicide.

Instead, there was an overwhelming sense of death and resentment!

Only some martial artists with vigorous blood and energy, such as Zhao Yuanshan and others, could barely resist this demonic power, but they were so frightened by the terrifying scene that they knelt in the pool of blood and vomited incessantly.

"Thump! Thump!"

After their blood was drained, thousands of people in the city collapsed to the ground in droves, like felled wheat.

Their bodies were still twitching slightly, a final reflex of their nerves, but life had already slipped away.

A city, in the blink of an eye, was wiped out.

"Whoosh—whoosh—"

Chen Qian stared at this scene, which was a hundred times more terrifying than hell. His heart pounded so hard it felt like it was going to explode, and he even had trouble breathing.

Even though he prides himself on being cold-blooded, and even though he would stop at nothing to survive.

But faced with the instantaneous loss of tens of thousands of vibrant lives, and this utterly inhumane massacre, his stomach began to churn.

At this moment, the man in the scholar's robe asked, "What do you think?"

"Killing one is a crime, slaughtering ten thousand is heroic. But I cannot condone such behavior!"

Chen Qian raised his head and stared intently at the scholar in his robes who remained calm and composed, his voice revealing no emotion.

The man in the scholar's robe seemed slightly surprised by the whole answer.

He then closed his eyes, took a deep breath of the thick, bloody smell in the air, and a look of ecstasy appeared on his face.

After a long while, he slowly opened his eyes, his gaze piercing through the void as he looked at the collapsing order.

He looked at Chen Qian as if he were an ant trying to understand the mind of an elephant, and slowly spoke, his voice cold and grand: "What's there to mention?"

"What are humans compared to this furnace of heaven and earth?"

"To welcome the rising sun of a new dynasty, some rotten wood must be burned to ashes."

"Chen Qian, don't value human life too much."

"It's just some firewood."

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