"My name is Lian Yao, my brother and I are both demon hunters," Lian Yao began to recount the events.
Demon hunters were once a general term for people who could spontaneously ignite special powers and who undertook guild missions, traveling to Holy Island for their endeavors.
Later, the nation unified the term to Transcendent, but many still preferred to call themselves demon hunters.
"My brother and I always picked fruits in the beast-free areas of Holy Island and sold them on Chicheng Island to make a living. Since the seal of Holy Island was lifted, the divine tower that suddenly appeared within it attracted a large number of people to the island. The ships on Chicheng Island were almost full every day. To earn more money, my brother and I used our own boat to ferry those people to the island..."
Lian Yao choked back a sob, wiped away her tears, and continued, "This morning, someone gave me thirty thousand yuan and asked me to take them to the island. My brother initially told me that group of people looked strange and suggested we refuse the job. It was me, I insisted my brother take the boat. Upon reaching the island, they asked my brother to take them to the divine tower, promising more money."
"I waited on the boat for a long time and didn't see my brother return. Worried, I went to look for him and saw that many people were dead outside the divine tower, including my brother, who was also killed by those scums!" Lian Yao said with deep hatred, "I want to kill them, I must kill them, I want revenge for my brother!"
Lu Zhi mused, "Seniors, what do you think?"
Jiang Yue said indignantly, "A bunch of trash and beasts who take pleasure in hunting humans!"
Xia Zhi calmly stated, "This is one-sided. Let's go to the divine tower to see first."
"What about her?" Wang Cao Tian, having heard Lian Yao's plight and remembering how he had just forcefully pinned the young girl to the ground with his knee, felt inexplicably guilty.
"I agree with Senior Xia," Luo Shiyu glanced at Lian Yao, saying, "Going to see for ourselves will confirm the truth."
"Then shall we go now?" Lu Zhi was more concerned about another point. According to Lian Yao, those people wanted to silence witnesses, so why would they need her brother to take them to the divine tower? And why leave Lian Yao alone on the boat?
The beast-free area where the divine tower was located was an area without Nightmare Beasts or other creatures, only abundant plants and fruits.
Lian Yao led the way. The tendrils wrapped around her had not loosened, so Lu Zhi walked behind her, followed by Jiang Yue and the others.
Although Lian Yao was young, being a demon hunter with special abilities meant her stamina and pace were not lacking.
Along the way, Lu Zhi asked her if she was injured, as there was so much blood on her. Lian Yao replied, "The blood on me is someone else's. I was trying to evade those people chasing me."
Lu Zhi thought the little girl was quite astute and asked, "Is your ability to compress air?"
Lian Yao shook her head, "No, my ability is shooting."
"Oh? Shooting?" Jiang Yue chewed her bubblegum and asked, "Want some?"
Lian Yao looked at her strangely and shook her head, "No need. Brother said these are junk food."
Jiang Yue: ...
"Pfft—" Lu Zhi teased, "Senior, eating too much bubblegum isn't good either. Even this child knows it's junk food."
Jiang Yue rolled her eyes, "I don't have many hobbies in my life, and one of them is loving bubblegum." As she spoke, she deliberately blew a bubble.
"Ew~ You're so childish," Lian Yao turned away, refusing to look at her.
Jiang Yue glared and lightly slapped the back of her head, saying fiercely, "You talk too much. Lead the way."
Lu Zhi and the others found her childish behavior both amusing and exasperating.
Lian Yao rolled her eyes, finally showing a glimpse of the liveliness befitting a girl her age.
The divine tower was not located in the center of the island but stood tall in the beast-free area on the eastern outskirts. As long as one wasn't particularly unlucky and knew the route, they could generally reach it safely.
After walking for about half an hour, Lan Yu Shan suddenly twitched his nose and said, "Wait, I smell blood."
Lian Yao's expression grew grim, her vigilance mixed with fear and hatred.
Lu Zhi noticed that the surrounding trees were becoming sparser, guessing they were approaching the divine tower.
The island's geographical structure was low on the outside and high on the inside. Lian Yao led them upward, the slope becoming increasingly steep. The surrounding trees thinned out, and finally, as they climbed a steep slope, even before reaching level ground, they could already see the top of a majestic divine tower.
"I'll go up first." Jiang Yue, the strongest among them, leaped over the steep slope and then directly cursed, "Damn it!"
Lu Zhi and the others also scrambled over the slope and were immediately shocked by the hellish scene before them.
A magnificent divine tower, built upon a base of stacked stones, emanated a sacred and gentle aura.
But outside the divine tower lay shattered corpses, their blood staining the earth beneath their feet. A thick scent of blood permeated the air, exuding an atmosphere of despair and cruelty, creating a powerful, fractured impact with the sacred, gentle light of the divine tower.
"Brother—" Lian Yao suddenly rushed forward.
Lu Zhi instinctively released the tendrils, allowing Lian Yao to leap out, embrace a male corpse, and weep inconsolably.
Wang Cao Tian's face was extremely grim as he cursed, "Fuck, are those people devils?"
Luo Shiyu and Xia Zhi were examining the corpses, trying to find any survivors.
Lu Zhi approached one of the male corpses. It was a withered husk, its blood seemingly drained, and its features frozen in twisted horror and despair at the moment of death.
Lu Zhi glanced at the other corpses and roughly estimated that there were at least a hundred. Suddenly, he frowned, "Strange, why are they all men?"
Jiang Yue had also noticed the anomaly, "Not only that, all their blood has been drained."
"Come here quickly," Lan Yu Shan's face turned pale as he pinched his nose and looked at a pool of water in front of the divine tower's entrance.
Lu Zhi and the others ran over quickly, their faces turning very grim. Lu Zhi pursed his lips and said, "Could this be the blood of those people?"
Everyone fell into a stunned silence. The blood pool was about three meters wide and one and a half meters high, and the blood within was nearly half full...
"It's probably not all human blood," Luo Shiyu squatted down, his expression solemn. "Other liquids are mixed in. Look."
Luo Shiyu probed the blood pool with a branch and found the blood to be exceptionally viscous.
"Wait," Lu Zhi, with sharp eyes, squatted down. "There seems to be something at the bottom of the pool."
"Let me see." Lan Yu Shan, enduring the nausea, enhanced his vision and stared intently into the blood pool. After a moment, he said, "It looks like... a horse?"
Lu Zhi's heart skipped a beat.
The deity of this divine tower was the Horse from the Chinese Zodiac. Why would they pour human blood into the pool?
"I, I know," Lian Yao calmed down from her grief, her eyes red. "I, I heard those people say they needed human blood to pollute the sacred object."