Chapter 3374

Because the sacrifice ritual must be confirmed before sunset, the elders were soon ready.

The group took off directly from the courtyard of the snow mountain hall. The flight of the two elders relied on the power of the wind, and they flew faster than Xia De. Of course, the unicorn Ellie flew the fastest.

Seeing that Xia De was a bit slow, and the unicorn seemed to intend to let him sit up, Claire grabbed Xia De's hand in time:

"I'll take you to fly, Xia De. Where did you learn your flight technique? Although it is stable, the speed is too slow, right?"

Xia De's flight technique was learned through 【Dragon Feast】.

Flying up directly from the foot of the mountain, the group approached the position of the "Shadow of Helm," the second peak of the snow mountain, in half an hour.

However, the elders didn't take everyone to land directly on the peak, but landed on a small path not far from the peak:

"It's not far from the peak here, let's walk up."

Xia De understood the elders' respect for the "Holy Mountain" very well. After he landed carefully carrying the coffin, he heard Ellie calling uneasily - Xia De could also gradually understand the unicorn's emotions.

The azure eyes looked uneasily at the layer of cold fog above the ancient steps. The white cold fog was denser than Xia De imagined. It was still afternoon, and the light snow that started in the morning was still falling. Although the sunlight could penetrate the clouds, it could not completely penetrate them.

"This kind of cold fog is dangerous for ordinary people, but it's just a little cold for us. Let's go, I'll lead the way."

Elder Vilda walked in the front, and Elder Harald beckoned to the young people, signaling them to follow.

The steps wound and circled on the side wall of the cliff. After entering the cold fog, it was indeed just a little colder. And after walking less than a few hundred steps, the steps went straight up, extending straight to the high place at the steep mountain ridge.

The cold fog became denser here. This was definitely not a natural phenomenon, and Xia De was guessing whether the cause of this supernatural landscape was related to Chloe, and then guessing whether the key to the castle could be here.

The highest point of "Shadow of Helm" was not a platform, but a standard sharp peak, so the highest point could not be reached in a normal way. And the place where the Fatum people performed sacrifices was actually under the cliff wall on the side of the peak. The cliff wall was concave here, which looked like someone had cut off a small piece from the side of the complete sharp peak.

The end of the stone step path hidden in the cold fog was here. It looked like the "Night Temple" on the side wall of the cliff in Randall Valley.

But the Night Temple was long and narrow, with the sky above; while this Fatum sacrificial ground was about a semicircle, with thick gray rock layers above.

The end of the stone steps was at the intersection of the "arc" and the "straight line" of the semicircle, and outside the "arc" was a ten-thousand-foot cliff, and the "straight line" was a rock wall.

Many wooden piles less than thirty centimeters high were nailed to the edge of the cliff of the sacrificial ground, and red silk ribbons were tied to the wooden piles; faded long snake murals were painted on the wall of the sacrificial ground, which was the remnant of the ancient snake worship belief of the Fatum people.

"But there is also a saying that before we moved here, this mural already existed."

Elder Harald said as if he knew what Xia De was thinking.

There was no wind here, and the cold fog was thinner here than on the stone steps. After entering the sacrificial ground, one could barely see the snow mountain scenery outside the cliff, but when looking down at the edge of the cliff, what one saw was thick fog that no supernatural ability could see through.

That is to say, even if you look down when throwing sacrifices, you can't see the process of the sacrifices disappearing.

There was a rough stone table in the direction of the cliff in the sacrificial ground. The elders asked Xia De to put the coffin there first. That was also the place where sacrifices were piled up during each sacrifice.

After the coffin was put down, Elder Harald and Elder Vilda had to do some preparatory work, including but not limited to lighting fires, praying, and some ritualized processes.

They asked the young people to stand aside first and not disturb. When Xia De and Miss Larson wanted to look at the murals nearby, they called the witch:

"Claire, you stay and watch how we do it. Since you came this time, you will do it next time."

"Got it, grandfather~"

She had to stay, and Xia De and the white-haired girl had already found Ellie under the rock wall. It seemed to be a little afraid of the cliff over there. But this was definitely not because of fear of heights. The unicorn was very happy when it flew.

The light of its horn in the cold fog was more conspicuous than in the dark. If Emilia were here, she would tell everyone that this was its instinct to protect itself, but the little elf was not in the snow mountain today except for going to class and being caught to try on the dress for the coronation ceremony.

As for the mural on the rock wall behind Ellie, time made the colors and pigments mottled, but it could still be identified that there was a big snake on the mural. The snake's back was black and the snake's belly was white. The whole snake was coiled in a circle, but it was not in a "ouroboros" state, because the snake head was biting towards a glowing "treasure bead" in the center.

Because the color loss was serious, Xia De could only understand it as a "treasure bead," but it might also be something else.

He approached a little and reached out to touch the mural directly, but didn't find any abnormality. When he retracted his hand, the unicorn immediately leaned over and rubbed against Xia De's hand. Xia De didn't know why he thought of the cat sunbathing on the windowsill at home at this time.

"Miss Larson, can you see anything?"

He asked, and the white-haired girl shook her head, turned to look at the three Fatum people who were busy preparing for the sacrifice in the direction of the cliff edge, and then lowered her voice and asked Xia De:

"Now the Fatum people use silk and wood carvings for sacrifices, but a long time ago, I'm afraid what was thrown down from here was not these, right?"

Xia De made a gesture of silence, and touched Ellie's furry face again, comparing the difference in touch between the unicorn and the cat in his heart:

"I have an idea. Before the ancient Fatum people appeared on Fatumunster Island, they didn't believe in snakes themselves. It was after they came to the island that they had the belief of snake worship subtly after experiencing certain things or seeing the ruins here.

The early Fatum people should have even obtained some benefits from this belief, otherwise they wouldn't have let this belief almost integrate into the culture of the entire tribe, nor would they have developed rituals such as this sacrifice and the sinking of corpses in the dark lake in the cave.

So, the Fatum people's fading of snake worship really makes me curious. Since they have never moved away, even if they can no longer obtain any benefits through these ancient rituals, they shouldn't have completely forgotten this belief. The belief in the snow mountain is still there, but snake worship has disappeared. This is like someone casting an oblivion spell on everyone in the tribe during a certain period."

Miss Larson put forward a quite possible idea:

"Is it because of the change of eras? Anything strange can happen during the change of eras."

"It's possible, but it's just a coincidence that the tradition of snake worship was lost, isn't it? Or is this also some kind of arrangement of fate?"

Around the stone table where the sacrifices were placed, six blazing bonfires were lit. Then the two elders performed prayers before the sacrifice and explained the reason for this temporary sacrifice to the snow mountain.

After the process was finished, they called Xia De and Miss Larson over, and Ellie, who was quite reluctant, also followed.

"Temporary sacrifices don't need so many rules, it's almost done now. Who of you will do it? Just throw the sacrifices down, there are no other precautions."

"Since you can't see the process of the sacrifices falling down when you look down, what will happen if I jump down with them? Can I see the process of the sacrifices disappearing?"

Xia De asked because he was worried that the coffin would have problems during the falling process, but in fact, the sturdiness of the sealed coffin didn't need to be worried about.

"This is a very disrespectful way of sacrificing, but someone really tried it before. No, not on purpose, just threw himself down when throwing sacrifices. But later when we found him, he said he didn't remember anything, his memory just stopped at the few seconds when he just fell."

So Xia De gave up the idea of jumping down himself:

"Then I'll wait ten seconds above, and then go find that coffin. It would be bad if the Infinite Snake was released. Miss Larson, you do it, you throw the coffin down. Claire, let's throw other sacrifices together."

The elders then stepped back and watched the three young people standing side by side at the edge of the cliff. Although Miss Larson looked small, she was a sixth-ring level after all, and could move the coffin completely, but Xia De still helped her move the coffin to the edge of the cliff.

Short wooden piles were nailed to the ground and connected by chains, so Xia De let one end of the coffin tilt on those wooden piles.

Claire held the silk, and Xia De had a small bamboo basket filled with wood carvings beside him. This was separated from the All Souls' Day sacrifices that had been prepared. Although the quantity was not very large, both the silk and the wood carvings were quite exquisite.

Claire nodded to Xia De, and with a solemn expression, threw the silk down the cliff one by one, while Xia De picked up each wood carving in turn and threw it forward.

From the terrain, the bottom of the cliff of "Shadow of Helm" was a vertical cliff wall a thousand meters high. Even if the thrown sacrifices didn't disappear, it was difficult to find them below. After all, it was hard to say where these light things would go when blown by the wind.

Finally, Miss Larson pushed the coffin held by the black skeleton forward with force. When the coffin disappeared from the sight of the three, they all had the strange feeling that the coffin had fallen into the abyss.

Xia De resisted his curiosity and didn't lean out to look down—although he couldn't see anything, after counting down ten seconds in his heart, he jumped down directly.

?? PS: Graduation is approaching, the author still hasn't found a job (looking up at the sky), so there may be additional updates from time to time recently.

? (End of chapter)