Sha Liu, slightly out of breath, swallowed hard upon hearing this and said, "I've heard of the Black Corpse Heaven. My mother's friend, who was cured of cancer after taking the Huilu Pill, has been a follower of the Sataka religion ever since. She bought many related books, and I once found a description of the Eight-Armed Black Corpse Heaven in one of her books.
"The book says it wears human skin, has a chain of human heads around its neck, and holds a bowl made of skulls filled with human brains. Besides that, there are also descriptions of offerings to the Black Corpse Heaven, such as...
"For example, human hearts, intestines, legs, and arms; skinned skulls; lamps with human oil wicks made of human hair; flowers made of human facial features; liquid made of human brains, blood, and bile; and large doughs made of human gallbladders, brains, blood, and internal organs..."
Li Ziling vomited again, and Zhao Dan also dry-heaved in Zhou Bin's arms.
Zhou Bin's eyes lit up: "Could these be the 'Dom' or 'Gala' that person mentioned? And the skull bowl you mentioned, is that the offering bowl? The libation wine isn't ordinary wine either; it must be made from human brains, blood, and bile. And the lamps—the ordinary lamps we found yesterday must be incorrect; we need human oil lamps!"
Sha Liu thought carefully for a while and nodded: "I think so. I only remember a long string of transliterated terms in the book, but I just glanced at them casually and didn't really memorize them… Oh right, I remember Dom! It means offering cake—could it be…that big dough…"
"That's it!" Zhou Bin clenched his fist and waved it forcefully. "We just need to find these things!"
Qin Ci, however, was cautious and asked Mu Yiran, who hadn't spoken for a long time, in a deep voice: "Xiao Mu, what do you think?"
Mu Yiran glanced at the excited Zhou Bin: "I have my doubts. I'm not entirely sure if the offerings that person mentioned are the same things Sha Liu mentioned, and I don't think these things will have any good effect."
Qin Ci looked at him: "Why do you say that?"
"Ke Xun said the giant shadow last night looked taller than the one the night before," Mu Yiran said. "I suspect it's related to the offerings we found. All gods exist through faith; the stronger the faith, the greater the god's power. Sacrifice is the most direct way to express a believer's faith, and the offerings are equivalent to faith power, the source of the god's power."
"You mean, because we collected the offerings, Black Corpse Heaven absorbed the faith power contained in the offerings, so it looked taller and stronger than the night before?" Qin Ci understood.
"That's why I said that going to find these offerings might not be a good thing for us," Mu Yiran said. Zhou
Bin frowned: "But if we don't prepare the offerings as required, we will still be killed by that thing. Besides, as you said, if the offerings are equivalent to faith, which god would kill its own believers? Maybe it killed us only because the offerings weren't all collected yet. Once they are all collected and the formal sacrificial ceremony is held, it will treat us like believers."
"And there's another theory," Sha Liu said, "that before Black Corpse Heaven converted to the Sataka religion, it was an extremely cruel and vicious demon of a heretical sect. Even after it gained divinity, it remained a demon god with a murderous nature. If a practitioner wants it to serve their sect, they must pay a price, such as offering its favorite sacrifices and ritual implements. The more ferocious and vicious the demon, the more useful it is to the practitioner."
Zhou Bin, as if struck by inspiration, slammed his fist into his palm: "It needs sacrifices and ritual implements. You just said it wears human skin and has a chain of human heads around its neck. " Holding the skull bowl—think about how Tan Zheng and Ma Zhenhua died! One was dismembered and decapitated, the other was skinned alive. Does this mean that thing is using us as its tools? It's because we haven't gathered what it wants that it has to take matters into its own hands. Does this mean that once we gather the items, it won't kill us anymore, and might even be controlled by us? For example, leading us to the seal and away from this painting?
The others seemed to agree with what he said and nodded in agreement.
"Then what are we waiting for? Let's hurry and find these things!" Zhou Bin looked at everyone impatiently.
Qin Ci cautiously asked Mu Yiran, "Little Mu, are you going north to find these sacrificial artifacts too?"
"Finding the items is secondary; I just want to go over there and take a look first," Mu Yiran said.
"What's over there?" Sha Liu asked.
"A flock of vultures," Mu Yiran said coldly.
Zhou Bin, confused, asked the vultures what was wrong, only to see Sha Liu's face turn pale as she exclaimed, "Sky burial platform!"
Sky burial wasn't unique to any particular religion; traces of this custom could be found in many churches across Southeast Asia, and even among the Maasai people of Africa.
The Satya religion also practiced sky burial, something everyone had heard of. Hearing Mu Yiran's explanation, no one questioned it further. Besides, having traveled so far, turning back now would be a waste, so they decided to go to the sky burial platform to see for themselves.
Rounding a massive peak, dozens of circling vultures suddenly appeared before them.
On the sky burial platform ahead, a sky burial ceremony was clearly underway.
Groups of three or five people were gathered there; some were lighting incense, some were sitting cross-legged on sheepskin chanting scriptures, and some were selecting tools from the ground—knives, hammers, and shovels.
In the very center of the platform lay a corpse. Around the corpse, a dozen or so vultures perched on the rocks, waiting greedily.
The group didn't approach too closely, hiding behind a large rock and cautiously watching the platform.
After a while, the person chanting the sutra stood up, said a few words, and the person with the knife walked to the corpse, turned it over, and with a flick of the
wrist, plunged the knife directly into the buttocks. Then, he slashed downwards, cutting a long strip of flesh, alternating between red and white, from the buttocks to the ankles. Li Ziling let out a sharp scream. The people on the sky burial platform looked over at the sound, their faces immediately turning fierce. They brandished knives, hammers, and iron scythes and charged towards them!
"Run!" Qin Ci shouted, turning and running. The others were so frightened that they hurriedly followed. The ground was uneven with rocks underfoot. They hadn't run far when Li Ziling and Zhao Dan both twisted their ankles and stumbled and fell to the ground.
Zhou Bin pulled Zhao Dan up and carried her on his back, continuing their desperate escape, stumbling along the way. Li Ziling fell to the ground, ignored by everyone, and cried out in panic, "Don't leave me—please—save me—I don't want to die! I don't want to die—Shaliu! Shaliu! Don't go, save me—"
Shaliu hadn't run far when she tripped over a stone in front of Li Ziling and fell to the ground. She struggled for a while but couldn't get up. Li Ziling, with her long arms, reached out and grabbed her trouser leg, and no matter how much Shaliu struggled, she couldn't shake her off.
"Ziling, let me go—" Shaliu's face turned pale.
"No—take me with you—we're good friends, you can't abandon me, we live together, we die together—" Li Ziling's cries became shrill and fierce towards the end.
The two were entangled when suddenly two long legs stepped into their line of sight. Before they could even look up to see who it was, they were already being lifted off the ground by the back of their necks.
"Plastic besties, huh?" Ke Xun raised an eyebrow and ran forward again.
Sha Liu and Li Ziling dared not delay any longer; clearly, Ke Xun wouldn't turn back a second time.
In a life-or-death situation, a person's potential is enormous. Li Ziling endured the pain of her sprained ankle and limped along to keep up. Fortunately, the sky burial platform was still some distance from where everyone was hiding, and those people didn't catch up for the time being.
After running frantically for about ten minutes, Zhou Bin, carrying Zhao Dan on his back, was exhausted. Looking back, he saw that they seemed to have shaken off the group, so he stopped and put Zhao Dan down.
"Let's go quickly," Zhao Dan cried, "It was too scary. It was just a sky burial, there's nothing to see. Let's go, okay?"
Zhou Bin patted her shoulder: "It's alright, those people aren't chasing us anymore. Rest, does your leg still hurt? Let Dr. Qin take a look."
After a while, the group gradually caught up, with Li Ziling and Sha Liu being the last to arrive. Ke Xun, Wei Dong, and Mu Yiran were nowhere to be seen.
"Where did they go?" Zhou Bin asked Sha Liu.
Sha Liu, panting, pointed behind him: "I saw them go around to the other side of the peak, not far from the sky burial platform. I don't know if they wanted to avoid those people or lure them away."
Zhou Bin stared in the direction of the sky burial platform for a while, then turned to Qin Ci and asked, "Dr. Qin, do you think there might be any clues at this sky burial platform?"
Qin Ci shook his head: "I can't think of anything for now."
Zhou Bin looked at him meaningfully: "I think there's a good chance. That Mu Yiran is not simple; he wouldn't do anything without a reason. Since he came here, he must have his purpose, and the key point is..." "Xu is right there on the sky burial platform. Didn't you see he wouldn't even stray far from there when he was running away? Maybe he'll circle around and lure those people away, then he can take advantage of the situation and climb onto the sky burial platform."
Qin Ci looked at him: "So what do you mean?"
Zhou Bin's eyes flashed with a strange light: "Think about the sacrificial artifacts we just talked about, things like human oil, human brains, human gall, human blood, heads, hearts, arms, hair, legs, and even skull bowls. Where do you think we can get these things?"
Sha Liu was startled: "You mean... the corpses on the sky burial platform can provide these things?"
"That's obviously it, otherwise why would Mu Yiran come here?" Zhou Bin said confidently. "That Wei Dong also said that they asked the people in the village, and someone pointed them to the north—this is clearly a mission hint, indicating that what we need is here. What do we need? Sacrifices, of course! And what's here? Only that corpse. The corpse can provide us with all the sacrifices we want, and we have to find a way to get it!"
"But those people are so fierce, how are we going to do it?" Zhao Dan was worried. "They have knives and tools; we're no match for them empty-handed."
"But we have the numbers," Zhou Bin gritted his teeth. "I have an idea."
Ke Xun and Wei Dong followed Mu Yiran around the peak and carefully descended along a steep mountain wall.
After wandering among the jagged rocks for a while, they finally saw a valley.
"Boss, let's rest, I'm really exhausted…" Wei Dong panted heavily, clutching his back.
"Your body has been drained since you were eight years old and hasn't been repaired," Ke Xun said.
"Can I compare to you? Back in school, you guys were carrying those big guys who did triathlons around the track every other day, and I'd get tired just carrying a head on my shoulders," Wei Dong said.
Mu Yiran ignored these two idiots who never stopped being silly and just said, "Wait here," before continuing on her way.