Chapter 628: No Reaction

"Open—"

Following a roar from the Grand Ritual Officer Fuhu Zhu, the altar began to vibrate amidst the hazy smoke.

Just as Xiaobai, such as Weise, who were attending the sacrifice for the first time, thought the altar was about to split open, water began to bubble up from a depression in the center of the altar.

Gurgle, gurgle—it was spring water.

Black spring water.

Only then did Weise realize that the depression in the center of the altar was actually a pool, just one without edges. It was less of a pool and more of a puddle.

No wonder the procedure introduction mentioned a step for casting offerings into the You Water; he had wondered if they were going back to the riverbank to cast them in, never expecting a pool of water to emerge right here.

Before long, the black spring water had filled the pool. The water was still, without a single ripple, looking like a black Mirror.

This water, this must be the You Water, right?

No, this should be called Yingze.

You Water specifically refers to the river flowing on Wangliang Mountain, the "Golden Waterway" of Wangliang Mountain, whereas Yingze refers to individual pools. Every manor on the mountain has a separate pool behind it, and each of these pools is called Yingze.

Those pools are calm and still, devoid of life, neither beneficial nor harmful.

Their only purpose is burial.

It is clearly a very shallow pool—it is said that one can reach the bottom with a bamboo pole—but no matter what is thrown inside, it sinks forever, never to surface again, and cannot be fished out. It is as if the Yingze were concentrated acid that dissolves bones and melts souls. But in truth, it is not; the water in the Yingze is just black-colored water. One can even scoop it up; as long as one does not fall in, even a Sword Slave can take water from the Yingze with a ladle.

As for that Yingze water, it is merely more viscous than ordinary water. It is neither clear nor dirty, but even under the scorching sun, it will never reflect light, as if it contains shadows that cannot be dissolved.

Legend has it that the reason Yingze can contain all things is because it leads to the Yingyuan. That is the Shadow Kingdom beneath all things, where everything is transformed into shadow; it is the final destination for the people of Wangliang Mountain, their heaven, and their hell.

Every Sword Slave and Sword Guest, after death, is placed in a coffin and sunk into the Yingze, returning to the Yingyuan.

It is said that in the old days, the Manor Masters of Wangliang Mountain were also buried at sea in this way; the only difference between them and the Sword Slaves or Sword Guests was the quality of the coffin and the ritual performed before the burial. They believed this was returning to the embrace of the Wangliang Zhuren, an supreme honor. However, as Wangliang Mountain had more contact with the Waijie, the concept of "returning to the earth for peace" gradually arose among the Manor Masters. It became popular to build luxurious tombs outside the mountain, and they were no longer willing to easily cast their own bodies into that unseen place.

Regarding this, Wangliang expressed no dissatisfaction and punished no one. Thus, the Manor Masters became increasingly unscrupulous. By now, they have implicitly come to equate the Yingze with a "mass grave" used only by the lowly, completely unconcerned that their ancestors also rest there.

If every manor's Yingze leads to the Yingyuan, then this Yingze appearing in the center of the altar must lead there directly. In the old days, holding a water burial at the grand sacrifice would have been an honor.

Seeing that the water had filled the pool, Fuhu Zhu shouted, "Quickly, cast the offerings in!"

This was a procedure that had already been rehearsed.

Weise waved his hand, and the Manor Masters carried the mountain of offerings toward it.

However, at the same time, the opposing group also moved. The Guikou also carried their offerings and advanced toward the Yingze. It looked like they also intended to cast their offerings and be the first wave.

Weise's eyes jumped, and he urged, "Everyone, hurry up, don't let them get ahead."

Seeing this scene, the Manor Masters were furious: We are the ones holding the sacrifice, we opened the altar, and it has always been us first—what is the meaning of this? Are you trying to steal the fruit of our labor?

In truth, the order of casting offerings did not really matter. In the past, First Tier and Second Tier manors would cast their offerings in order, sacrificing separately, and Wangliang never treated them differently; letting the other side go first would not have hindered anything. But the Manor Masters were all accustomed to being overbearing. Seeing someone walking alongside them on the road already made them feel unpleasant, and having suffered a string of bad luck recently, they viewed the Anxing Manor as an enemy. How could they endure this? Each of them quickened their pace, wanting to reach the pool first.

Actually, Weise was not trying to win this petty argument. He had seen that the offerings on the other side were piled with living people, including his own men. Once these offerings and people entered the Yingze, not a single one would survive. Although he had no way to specifically save them, sacrificing first might allow them to live a little longer; what if a turning point appeared in that short time? This was the only small thing he could do now.

Everyone had a desire to win, and they finally rushed to the edge of the Yingze first. The Guikou's team lagged a step behind. The group blocked the area around the Yingze, forming a human wall, immediately isolating the Guikou completely. Among the Manor Masters, one with a more flamboyant personality gave a cold, mocking smile toward the Anxing Manor Master, who was An Wang, behind them—the smile was full of derision, lacking only a gesture to accompany it. An Wang was furious, but ultimately suppressed his royal temper and waved his hand, bringing the team to a complete halt.

Only then did Weise step forward. According to the procedure, he first had to cast in a silk scroll—in fact, a sacrificial memorial—to prove that these offerings were cast by their Huanri Manor. Especially since they had just been promoted to the Second Tier this year, according to the rules, the memorial also contained the text "Requesting to know if this is appropriate," asking if Wangliang agreed to them becoming new Second-tier Manor Lords.

It is said that in the early years, there were indeed cases where Wangliang did not agree. At that time, a Manor Master who had just successfully upgraded and was full of pride was sacrificing at the edge of the Yingze when he was suddenly dragged into the pool by a giant shadow hand and never came out. After that, the trend of lower-tier manors challenging upper-tier manors was curbed for quite a while. The situation on the entire Wangliang Mountain could be said to have been as silent as a pool of stagnant water.

But no one knows when it started, Wangliang stopped vetoing such things, and even stopped expressing opinions. Whether it was upgrading or downgrading, the replacement of Manor Masters, or even slaves rebelling to become Manor Heads, Wangliang acquiesced to everything. Gradually, the order of the manors of various tiers became somewhat turbulent.

This time, the Huanri Manor's sacrificial memorial was written by a Manor Master they hired who had a good writing style and knew the rules well. The main content was to scold the Sunset Manor, saying how they were disrespectful to Wangliang, how they shirked Wangliang's tasks, and did not respect the Abyss Envoy. Therefore, the former Changfa Manor, now Huanri Manor, could not stand by, rose up to act on behalf of heaven, and finally righteously drove out that old thing Wu Shayu. Who knew that the old bastard Wu Shayu was ungrateful and even attempted to flee Wangliang Mountain, clearly harboring disloyalty toward the Wangliang Master. Fortunately, the new Manor Master took him down, otherwise the consequences would have been unimaginable.

Therefore, they petitioned the Master:

First, to certify the name of Huanri Manor, let them take over the responsibility of the sacrifice and truly become a Second-tier Manor.

Second, to formally convict Wu Shayu and treat him as a rebel. Even if he died, he should be made to stink for ten thousand years.

In fact, Tang Zhao and the others had no deep hatred for Wu Shayu; if he was dead, he was dead. It was not as if they absolutely had to spit on his coffin, but they could not stop the other Manor Masters from truly hating him. This point could almost be said to be the private agenda of the Manor Master who wrote the memorial.

Besides the main memorial, there was another one behind it, which was a petition from all the Manor Masters. It wrote about how miserable they were, with the Long Life Society harming lives above and slaves rebelling below, now resulting in withered manpower and homelessness. They requested the Wangliang Master to make the decision for them, to recapture their manors, and to revitalize the prestige of Wangliang Mountain.

The person behind originally wanted to write a memorial for the Abyss Envoys as well, to tell them how miserably the Abyss Envoys died, and to ask the Wangliang Master not to forget to pity them. This was sternly refused by Xin Ying and Huiying. They refused to go with these Manor Masters, saying, "What is our relationship with the Wangliang Master? Where would we need to fake writing any memorial? In a while, when the altar opens, we will naturally speak when we see the Wangliang Master."

This involved a question: "After the sacrifice, can one see the Wangliang Master?"

According to past experience, after all the offerings are cast in, the arena will open, and everyone can see a bottomless shadow. It can be said that it is Wangliang, and everyone will even "pray" to Wangliang individually, just like praying to gods and Buddhas, but to say that one can "talk" to such an existence is very unbelievable.

However, these things had nothing to do with the visitors from Yunzhou. Their task was only to use the offerings to open the altar and let Wangliang appear; after that, others would do the rest.

If Wangliang did not appear at all this time, that might even be a good thing, because perhaps some path had achieved a great merit, causing Wangliang to perish halfway?

"Clatter—"

A litter of offerings was thrown into the Yingze.

This single litter of offerings was worth no less than a thousand gold.

Ripples appeared on the water surface, but immediately returned to calm.

No reaction?

The Ritual Officer Fuhu Zhu said, "Cast more!"

Then, litter after litter of offerings were thrown into the Yingze. If it were in the past, the altar would have given some reaction, such as cracking a seam, with the gap expanding bit by bit. But today, there was no sign at all; the altar was just like an ordinary Shenmiao in the mountains, all mud statues and wooden puppets.

The Manor Masters went from looking forward with anticipation to becoming anxious, and finally, their faces looked as ugly as the bottom of a pot.

Fuhu Zhu on the stage was also sweating profusely. Seeing that more than ten litters of carefully prepared offerings were thrown in without any reaction, it was as if he were truly throwing money into the water. A thought suddenly flashed through his mind:

In legend, the Wangliang under the altar had long since stopped being conscious. These years of sacrifices were actually controlled by the Abyss Envoys. The Abyss Envoys made the altar open when they wanted it to open, and close when they wanted it to close. Only when the Abyss Envoys were dissatisfied with a Manor Master would they pull people into the Yingze; if the Abyss Envoys were satisfied, even if one were rebellious, one could still be safe and sound.

This situation was as if the eunuchs had hollowed out the emperor.

Now, what if the eunuchs were all wiped out?

He couldn't help but look at the two remaining Abyss Envoys to see if there were any clues in their reactions.

Huiying was a piece of kelp; it was impossible to see any expression.

Xin Ying...

Xin Ying's expression was very innocent.

Forget it, how could one count on Xin Ying?

Master Fuhu turned his head back, the more he thought, the more panicked he became: in the past, everyone relied on Wangliang Mountain for their livelihood, and playing the game of burying one's head in the sand with the Abyss Envoys was one thing, but now that they were truly counting on Wangliang to step forward, how could Wangliang be nothing but a hollow shell?

As he thought this, he hurriedly descended from the Altar and arrived at the edge of Yingze, looking at the anxious manor masters all around; steeling his heart, he said, "Huanri Master, I told you it wouldn't work without a Human Sacrifice, didn't I? Hurry, it's not too late to make up for it now."

Wei Se glanced at him and said, "Where are we supposed to get a Human Sacrifice now? Could it be that Master Fuhu wishes to volunteer himself?"

Master Fuhu was furious and said, "What kind of joke are you making? Look—" He went to the edge of Yingze and pointed at the water surface, saying, "Lord Wangliang is dissatisfied with our Sacrifice and refuses to even open the Altar; this is an ominous sign! A heaven-collapsing disaster is imminent! You still dare to jest; could it be that you also harbor disrespect? Everyone, tell me, isn't that so..."

As he spoke, he was about to incite the other manor masters to turn their spears against Huanri Manor, when suddenly, he felt a force come from nowhere and strike him head-on; unable to dodge in time, he fell backward and plunged headfirst toward the surface of Yingze!