Chapter 025: The Blood Moon
Looking up, he saw that the temple in the distance was brightly lit, as if some important event was taking place. Chen Ran had the team cautiously approach the Fire Tribe’s territory, trying to avoid being discovered.
Unexpectedly, through Chen Ran’s omnipotent map scan, he found no Fire Tribe guards at the city gates…
He boldly went to take a look himself, and sure enough, no one was guarding the main gate…
The scent of a conspiracy!
Chen Ran wasn’t so confident as to think that his kingly aura had scared the Fire Tribe people back to their hometown, or that they had found a place to hold a grand surrender ceremony.
Even the hunting party leader, Moro, looked completely bewildered. “Strange. When I snuck in here before, no matter how lazy the Fire Tribe was, there were always a few guards at the gate. Why is there not a single one today…”
“If there are none, then there are none. Just be careful when we act,” Chen Ran said, not too nervous. He led the way toward the gate and swaggered through the ajar entrance of the Fire Tribe’s city. Lia followed closely behind him.
Although the native team felt that entering like this was a bit abrupt, based on the fact that the great Divine Emissary had not made a single mistake yet, they assumed Chen Ran was confident and blindly followed.
The night was exceptionally quiet, with only the chirping of insects and beasts. Because of the blood moon hanging in the sky, the moonlight tonight was not very bright.
After entering the city streets, the Great Elder seemed a little excited.
“Divine Emissary, did you know that our ancestors lived here a hundred years ago? This was once a beautiful small city-state…”
“Alright, alright, we can talk about stories later. Although there’s no one around, this is not the time to be distracted,” Chen Ran interrupted the long-winded old man’s nonsense, keeping a close eye on the movements on the map.
Within a safe distance, there was not a single native figure. The streets were empty, and not a single household had an oil lamp or torch lit. It was exceptionally quiet. The only light came from the distance, in the direction of the temple.
The lack of resistance did not ease Chen Ran’s nerves. In fact, his brow furrowed even tighter. It seemed there was no other objective for this trip but to head straight for the only lit place, the temple.
For some reason, the closer he got to the temple, the more his heart pounded. He looked at the others’ reactions; they all looked normal. In fact, the others were a little confused by Chen Ran’s as-if-facing-a-great-enemy expression.
“What’s wrong? Are you not feeling well?”
Lia, standing next to Chen Ran, sensed his strangeness. She looked into his eyes and asked with concern.
“Am I? I just feel it’s a bit strange, that’s all,” Chen Ran said with a smile, indicating that he was fine.
The night was lonely and desolate, with a faint, bleak air. The road was empty, with only the rustling of the night wind blowing the scattered dead leaves.
After walking for half an hour on the empty streets, Chen Ran finally arrived at a house not far from the temple, a good observation point. He peeked out from behind a house and looked toward the temple.
A dense crowd of figures…
Chen Ran was startled. No wonder he hadn’t encountered anyone on the road; it turned out everyone was here.
At least six hundred or more Fire Tribe members were kneeling outside the temple, worshipping a huge, erected altar. It was an exceptionally strange sight.
On the altar, a witch doctor dressed in a purple-black robe and a deer-bone helmet was dancing and preaching some seemingly subversive doctrines.
The entire altar exuded an aura that Chen Ran disliked from a distance. It was somewhat heavy and nauseating. And this feeling was unique to him; the others had no reaction at all.
“Why is this happening? Is it because of the attributes within my body?” Chen Ran frowned and muttered to himself, “If it can provoke a natural conflict with the aura of a Holy Spirit Priest, then that aura can only be from the demon race or powerful undead…”
Looking straight ahead, he remembered the lifelike demon heads on the backs of the Fire Tribe members. He felt that he was probably not far from the answer…
“People of the Fire Tribe, the exciting moment is about to arrive! Now, the blood moon, which appears once every hundred years, has descended upon the world again. Today is the day when the seal between the mortal world and the demon world is at its weakest. We have waited bitterly for a hundred years, and our great master will descend upon the world today!”
With a loud shout, the Fire Tribe members almost blindly echoed the witch doctor’s proclamation from the stage.
The great witch doctor made a gesture for silence and continued, “Back then, the moon was just like today’s, just as enchanting. At that time, the master of the demon world contacted me with his voice and granted me the way to obtain eternal life. I believe you have all felt the benefits that power has brought us, right? We, who should have died of old age, are still alive and will not die easily. Back then, if those witch doctors who were with me had listened to my advice and shared that wonderful power from the demon world with us, instead of strongly opposing us, they would not have suffered such consequences. And their stubborn descendants would not be living in old earthen houses, leading a primitive life…”
“Long live the Demon Lord! Long live the Demon Lord!” The cheers rose and fell, leading to another climax.
At this moment, the great witch doctor on the altar gently waved his beast-bone staff. Following the trajectory of the arranged fire basins, a circle of eerie green flames lit up around the entire altar. Then, three more witch doctors walked up, each standing at a corner of the altar. The four witch doctors took their positions and began to cast a spell simultaneously.
Four streams of eerie green shamanistic power flowed into the magic array beneath their feet, filling in the pre-drawn magic patterns.
It was an eerie green hexagram, emitting powerful spatial fluctuations. When the shamanistic power filled the hexagram, it flashed, and in its center, a huge, rotating nebula of purple, eerie green, blood red, and black suddenly appeared…
“My loyal followers, I am the Demon Lord you have been waiting for.”
From the other side of the nebula, an ancient voice gradually came, carrying a bewitching power.
“I need your help. Just contribute a little of your power, and I can break free from the shackles of the two worlds and come to your world. Then, I will truly grant you the power of eternal life!”
“Long live the Demon Lord!” the people of the Fire Tribe shouted again.
“Very good. Now, do not resist the power I use to guide you. The ceremony officially begins!”
Just then, the figures of the Fire Tribe members with demon heads on their backs suddenly froze. The eyes of the demon heads glowed with an eerie, blood-red light, as if they had truly come alive. They struggled fiercely until they broke their restraints, transforming into souls led by demon heads. They let out a deep, abyssal sound and flew joyfully into the air, heading for the spatial gate…
In an instant, hundreds of demon souls gradually broke free from the bodies of the native tribespeople. After losing their souls, the Fire Tribe members’ bodies hung there, motionless, as if they were dead…
