Chapter 998

When Xiao Jiu heard the words "a girl in her early teens," she immediately thought of the Tang family's daughter who died young.

She was also about thirteen or fourteen years old.

"The information coming out of this sacrificial pit is overwhelming, but too much time has passed and many things cannot be restored; I think if you come see it yourself, you might discover more useful information."

Xiao Jiu said she would rush over immediately and asked Liu Junyan to wait for her.

The sacrificial pit had been simply tidied up by Liu Junyan; after all, so many years had passed, and under various crustal movements, many parts of the pit had collapsed.

When Xiao Jiu stood at the edge of the sacrificial pit and looked at the vast sacrificial site, even though she was mentally prepared, she was still greatly shocked.

As Liu Junyan had described, at the very center of the sacrificial pit, on the altar, the girl's skeletal remains were still kneeling there; Xiao Jiu saw that directly above the center of the girl's skull, a thick, long steel needle had pierced her skull, cracking the bone in many fine lines.

Such a brutal method, even after so many years, still inspires dread at the sight.

Between the altar and the outer ring of sacrificial bones, there is a large empty area.

Xiao Jiu's first thought was that these areas should have originally been set up with a formation array and a suppressing object, but when her finger touched the ground, her brow furrowed instantly.

Liu Junyan keenly sensed something and asked, "What's wrong?"

"This land has no nutrients or spiritual qi left." Xiao Jiu examined it more carefully and affirmed, "Even if something happened here back then that drained the land's nutrients and spiritual qi, after so many years of self-repair it should have recovered somewhat, but I can't detect any."

Liu Junyan understood: "In other words, the sacrificial ritual back then failed and suffered a strong backlash, and that backlash has not yet fully dissipated, right?"

Xiao Jiu nodded: "Yes."

After looking around, she said again, "Āyàn, have you noticed that the number of bones outside the sacrificial circle seems a bit too high?"

Liu Junyan had also noticed this.

This village isn't large; even if all the villagers had died here back then, the number wouldn't be this high.

"So this sacrificial rite was probably not organized by some villagers or the whole village together," Liu Junyan said. "It's more likely that the village's feng shui layout suited the ritual, attracting the attention of someone with ulterior motives, which led to this sacrifice."

Xiao Jiu let out a long breath and said, "To pull this off, at least it would take someone like Shen Hao on one side."

As Xiao Jiu spoke, she began forming hand seals, and when her sword finger touched her brow, the light of the Five-Colored Earth shone forth.

She turned her fingers, crouched down, and pressed them to the ground.

The mana of the Five-Colored Earth quickly seeped into the ground.

Xiao Jiu did this intending to use the power of the Five-Colored Earth to reinfuse spiritual energy into this land, to see if she could still activate the sacrificial formation and probe deeper.

But she never expected that this action would trigger an incredible scene.

After the light of the Five-Colored Earth sank into the ground, tender sprouts of medicinal herbs quickly sprang up within the sacrificial circle, emitting a faint herbal fragrance mixed with a unique, strange aroma.

Although the scene faded as Xiao Jiu's infused mana of the Five-Colored Earth was exhausted, it still shocked both Xiao Jiu and Liu Junyan.

Xiao Jiu hastily withdrew her hand and turned her head to look at Liu Junyan.

Liu Junyan said, "Fortunately I had you come take a look; aside from you, hardly anyone could notice this."

Xiao Jiu stood up, looking at the girl's skeleton at the altar's center, and said, "Āyàn, they wanted to use this girl to replicate Tang Yaocao's death back then; Tang Yaocao's early demise was no accident, but intentional murder!"

Liu Junyan agreed with Xiao Jiu's view: "Including the fact that Tang Yaocao was buried in Hu Shan back then, she likely underwent a similar sacrifice, possibly on a larger scale; unfortunately, they didn't succeed."

After they finished speaking, they locked eyes again, seeing deeper speculation in each other's gaze.

"Yao Tian! Lingdie Valley!" Xiao Jiu said, "What these people couldn't accomplish, the Seven Halls Yama did; Lingdie Valley is equivalent to the sacrificial altar, and the entire Yao Tian is a sacrificial circle, but maintaining this circle requires vast amounts of spiritual power, mana, or merit— the deal the Seven Halls Yama made with Tang Yaocao back then must have been exactly that."

Liu Junyan, somewhat incredulous, said, "Has the Seven Halls Yama gone mad? What consequences would such a deal bring—doesn't he realize that?"

"He did it for my aunt; what else could he not give up?" Xiao Jiu said. "Moreover, back then he perhaps thought his own ability could fully handle it, only he didn't expect his memory to have been tampered with, his body deteriorating day by day..."

"The timing of these two events overlaps, meaning the Seven Halls Yama bore two huge burdens without realizing it, enduring them for so many years; his ability to persist this long is practically a miracle."

Both fell silent.

On one hand, they were shocked by the Seven Halls Yama's ordeal.

On the other hand, they weren't entirely sure about it, silently reviewing, trying to find any flaw in their speculation.

Until Xiao Jiu said, "From the time we met the Seven Halls Yama until his incident, over a dozen years passed without him erupting—possibly also related to that original deal."

Liu Junyan obviously thought of this as well: "The Seven Halls Yama helped Tang Yaocao create the Lingdie Valley and Yao Tian sacrificial circle, sustaining it with his own merit, spiritual power, etc.; meanwhile Tang Yaocao used the Ghost King Butterfly to patch Tang Xun's incomplete soul, and after helping Tang Xun she overexerted herself, now lying dormant in Lingdie Valley, which is why we haven't detected her presence."

Xiao Jiu added, "If we hadn't sent Tang Xun to Lingdie Valley back then to repair his soul, Tang Yaocao would have appeared at least a dozen years earlier."

"Indeed so," Liu Junyan said. "Correspondingly, Tang Yaocao also overdrafted the Seven Halls Yama, and still far from enough, which drove her to desperate measures."

Xiao Jiu mused, "If we don't forcibly intervene in this matter, once the Seven Halls Yama is reduced to ashes, what do you think will happen to Tang Yaocao?"

"Her fate certainly won't be good," Liu Junyan analyzed. "Since the Ghost King Butterfly is formed from Ghost King resentment, it shows that Tang Yaocao can ultimately only be considered a follower of the Ghost King path; if the Ghost King fails to achieve true fruition, becomes a Ghost Immortal, goes berserk, he will inevitably suffer heavenly punishment, and her end can only be annihilation."

This forms a continuous line.

When the Seven Halls Yama is reduced to ashes, Tang Yaocao's fate will likely be the same, and Tang Xun, now implicated as well, will probably go along with them…