Can diligence compensate for lack of talent? But I'm a martial arts genius!

Before long, Liu Yong and Butler Liu returned to the room, followed by several servants of the Liu family.

Butler Liu looked slightly worried: "What if this kid wakes up halfway through? What if he makes a commotion..."

Liu Yong chuckled coldly: "Don't worry, that's an anesthetic that can knock out wild animals. It can take down not only him, but even a tiger."

Looking at the unconscious Su Changqing on the ground, Butler Liu's lips curled into a cold smile: "Changqing... don't blame us. This God-Worshipping Cult needs our Liu family to provide suitable young men. You have no parents, and no one will care if you disappear. Just make one last contribution to the Liu family!"

Recently, the Liu family has been looking for some young men, but they want to avoid attracting attention. However, it is not easy to find a suitable target. Su Changqing is of a suitable age and has no relatives or friends. Even if he goes missing, no one will care. The Liu family has long decided to offer Su Changqing to the "God Worship Cult".

Although the Liu family did not know what the God Worshipping Cult wanted these young boys and girls for, that was not their concern. Their only concern was to successfully complete the God Worshipping Cult's mission!

"Take this kid away quickly, and be fast, don't alert anyone!"

Liu Yong gave the order expressionlessly.

"How come this kid is so heavy? He's as heavy as an ox! We need two more people to help!"

Several servants of the Liu family rushed over.

……

While unconscious, I felt a series of jolting sensations, as if I were on a horse-drawn carriage traveling along a rugged mountain road.

"It's so cold..."

Su Changqing felt waves of numbness and coldness throughout his body, as if he had lost control of his body. He was instinctively trying to maintain the "breathing technique," and his blood and qi surged and flowed through his limbs and bones, dispelling the cold and numbness.

"Cough cough cough!"

Time passed second by second, and Su Changqing didn't know how much time had passed. He felt a series of sharp pains in his lungs, as if he had inhaled a lot of smoke, which made his internal organs feel like they were being pricked by needles. He suddenly coughed violently, coughing up mouthfuls of foul blood. At this moment, he suddenly opened his heavy eyelids!

"Where... am I?"

Su Changqing opened his eyes, and his mind gradually returned to normal. He then saw an extremely horrifying scene.

In this dilapidated temple, on each of the four stone pillars opposite Su Changqing, there was a boy of about fifteen or sixteen years old, bound to the pillars with ropes. However, they were not as lucky as Su Changqing. Each of them had wide-open eyes, a livid face, and dried bloodstains on their lips and collars. They had long since become stiff corpses without any life.

"Could this be... a ritual?"

As his mind gradually cleared, this scene suddenly startled Su Changqing, reminding him of some legends he had heard.

In this year of disaster, with calamities occurring in various places, some people say that this has angered the gods and that sacrifices must be made to the gods in order to obtain favorable weather and abundant harvests. As a result, "human sacrifice" is popular in some places, which means using living people as sacrifices in exchange for so-called divine protection.

"The Liu family... treated me like a living sacrifice."

Su Changqing's face was terribly gloomy, and a surge of anger was burning wildly in his heart. The other teenagers tied up in this temple were obviously like him, sent here by the Liu family as living sacrifices.

The Liu family pretended to agree to terminate the contract, but in reality they tricked him into drinking tea that had been spiked. They had no good intentions from beginning to end!

"Liu family, I will make you pay the most terrible price!"

Su Changqing gritted his teeth, his anger and murderous intent burning within him, which could only be quelled by making the Liu family pay the heaviest price!

Su Changqing discovered that a visible grayish-white mist was floating in the air of the temple. Inhaling even a little bit caused a sharp pain in his lungs. This should be a poisonous mist similar to miasma. If he had not practiced breathing techniques and reached the perfection of his body refinement, and had not been physically strong, he would have died in this poisonous mist like the other teenagers.

Su Changqing lowered his head slightly and saw that he also had a rope binding him to a stone pillar.

These ropes are thick and tough. To prevent the sacrificial animals from waking up and escaping, they are made of incredibly strong 'ox tendon ropes' that can be used to bind wild beasts. Even if an ordinary person grinds their flesh to pieces, they will find it difficult to break free!

"Crack!"

But Su Changqing silently channeled his energy, his muscles contracting and writhing, then suddenly tensing up. With a powerful struggle, he unleashed a burst of energy within a small space, accompanied by a crackling sound, and the ropes binding him were torn apart.

Freed from his restraints, Su Changqing glanced back and saw the corpses of the other boys who had become living sacrifices. He also saw a sculpture faintly emerging from the depths of the mountain god temple. It was a huge, coiled snake statue that seemed to be alive in the smog, extremely terrifying!

Su Changqing glanced at it a few times and found that the statue was just a stone carving with nothing special about it. However, he was also a little shocked and roughly understood that these living sacrifices were for the purpose of worshipping the statue in the temple.

"Squeak!"

Upon arriving at the temple entrance, Su Changqing pushed hard with both arms, and the tightly closed temple doors swung open, letting in moonlight and fresh air.

Su Changqing strode towards the outside of the temple, leaving only the black giant serpent stone sculpture deep inside the temple behind him, its eyes flashing with a scarlet light, seemingly extremely unwilling!

Upon exiting the temple, Su Changqing realized that he was on a mountain, and the characters on the plaque at the temple entrance behind him were incomplete and illegible.

"This place... seems to be the 'Black Swamp Mountain' located thirty miles north of Woniu Town. It is said that poisonous miasma surges in this mountain at night."

Su Changqing had roughly determined his location.

But soon, Su Changqing collected his thoughts. He heard a series of footsteps rushing toward him at high speed.

"What's going on? Has something happened at the mountain god temple?"

In the wilderness, seven or eight people were rushing toward the mountain god temple. One of them, a man with a rugged face, looked astonished, while the others all had their brows furrowed.

Soon, the group saw Su Changqing walking out of the temple gate.

"Huh? He's one of the five sacrifices, and he's still alive? How did he get out?"

This group of people were all armed and dressed like martial arts practitioners. Their surprised eyes were fixed on Su Changqing, recognizing him as one of the sacrificial offerings sent by the Liu family. However, they did not expect that he was still alive and had escaped from the poisonous mountain temple.

"Could the sacrifice have failed? If we have angered the Black King... how exactly is the Liu family handling things?" This made everyone's expressions somewhat gloomy, as they felt that something had gone wrong on the Liu family's side.

Su Changqing also sized up the group of people in front of him. Each of them had an extraordinary physique and should be a martial artist.

Su Changqing immediately feigned panic and asked, "Who...who are you? How did I get here?"

They exchanged a glance, and the gray-clad man at the head of the group smiled faintly: "My surname is Zhao, and I am an envoy of the God Worshiping Cult. As for why you are here, it is natural that the Liu family sent you here."

"As expected, it's the Liu family..."

Su Changqing's killing intent toward the Liu family intensified. If it weren't for his profound martial arts cultivation and his mastery of breathing techniques to temper his internal organs to the extreme, he would most likely have died in the poisonous miasma-filled mountain temple!