"What is this place used for sacrificing?" I asked.
Mao Guizhi said, "Generally speaking, such large-scale sacrifices can only be divine offerings."
"Divine offerings?" I shone my flashlight at the huge circular structure in the center.
"I'll go look around and find a way out," Fu Honglang said, seemingly unconcerned about what the altar was for. He then took his flashlight and began to explore the surroundings.
Mao Guizhi held her flashlight and walked towards the center of the plaza.
Seeing this, I also started looking around.
I came to a pillar and found many inscriptions carved on it.
Soon, I discovered a stone tablet.
The stone tablet bore several types of script, with Jinwen having the largest portion, followed by Seal script, and then Regular script.
Judging from the structure of the characters, this stone tablet must have been pieced together.
This meant that people from different dynasties had carved on the stone tablet in sequence, forming these characters.
"Heavenly Truth Tablet?" Mao Guizhi walked over, looking at the three characters at the top of the stone tablet.
I didn't expect her to recognize Jinwen as well.
The stone tablet recorded the sacrificial process, but it did not mention whom the sacrifice was for.
The sacrificial procedure was extremely complicated, and many of the things mentioned were beyond my comprehension.
In the center of the altar was a stone cushion, about fifty centimeters high from the ground.
After circling around, I didn't find anything special.
Just then, Fu Honglang called out to us, asking us to come over.
Mao Guizhi and I walked towards him. We saw Fu Honglang climbing onto a giant bronze cauldron and shining his flashlight inside.
"Brother Fu, what's wrong?" I asked.
He frowned. "What is inside here?"
Although the bronze cauldron was large, it was not tall, only a little over a meter high.
I leaned over and peeked inside. I saw many round things...
I didn't know how to describe them, they looked like glutinous rice balls.
As I shone my flashlight on one of them, I noticed it actually moved!
This truly startled me.
"They're eggs!" Mao Guizhi suddenly said.
Before I could ask what kind of eggs they were, the white "glutinous rice ball" I was shining on suddenly cracked open, and a stream of purple liquid flowed out.
Instantly, a strong, pungent odor wafted from the cauldron, making my stomach churn.
From the white "glutinous rice ball," a palm-sized creature emerged. It looked like a scorpion, but it also had wings.
Before I could get a good look, the creature let out a "poof" and flew directly out of the cauldron.
"It's a scorpion fly!" Mao Guizhi said.
Fu Honglang jumped down from the cauldron. The moment he landed, I noticed all the eggs inside the cauldron were cracking open one by one.
Countless scorpion flies flew out!
The tails of these scorpion flies were all emitting a red glow, like infrared light, making them very conspicuous.
Scorpion flies are insects, mostly found in forests or canyons, and are extremely rare.
Their appearance is similar to scorpions, and they also have scorpion tails, but they are flying insects.
And these insects are usually not large; this is the first time I've seen them this big!
By the time we regained our senses, the entire plaza was filled with dense scorpion flies.
It was then that we noticed that the large cauldrons containing scorpion fly eggs were not just the one in front of us; there were at least a dozen more around!
The scorpion flies flew towards the pavilion in the center, and soon the entire plaza was illuminated by the red glow from their tails.
The entire plaza looked as if it had been filtered with a blood-red hue, which was very eerie.
"What are they doing?" I asked, confused.
The scorpion flies did not attack us; instead, they all flew towards the pavilion in the center.
Mao Guizhi frowned. After a moment, she said, "They seem to be waiting for something..."
"Waiting for what?"
I didn't understand her meaning. Then, after a minute or two, the entire plaza suddenly began to shake violently, and a large pit appeared in the open space in front of the pavilion.
For some reason, my heart suddenly became tense.
I glanced at Fu Honglang and Mao Guizhi. Their expressions had also become very grave.
And then, a giant monster crawled out of the pit!!
I had never seen anything like it. It was like a corpse beetle magnified dozens of times!
And on its head, there was only one eye.
Judging by its appearance, it seemed to have just woken up. Thick layers of dust covered its entire body.
"Screeeech—"
A sharp, piercing sound came from the monster, making my eardrums ache!
It suddenly spread its wings, and an instant gust of wind swept towards us!
The thick dust made it hard for me to open my eyes.
"Go!"
Fu Honglang suddenly shouted.
He turned and ran towards a side passageway. I had no time to think and quickly followed him.
Everything that was happening before my eyes was completely beyond my imagination!
When we both reached the entrance of the passageway, we found that Mao Guizhi was still there, standing motionlessly and staring at the monster.
"Guizhi!!"
Fu Honglang shouted anxiously, but Mao Guizhi seemed not to have heard him.
I thought she might have been stunned by fear.
Fu Honglang gritted his teeth and ran back.
But what I didn't expect was that when Fu Honglang ran back, he also stood there motionlessly. Both of them seemed to be looking at the same spot.
"Brother Fu! Sister-in-law!" I called out twice, but they didn't react at all.
I hesitated for a moment, unsure if I should go back.
After a few seconds, I gritted my teeth and decided to go over.
When I reached them, I was about to ask them what was going on, but as I followed their gaze towards the monster, my mind went blank with a "boom"!
It was a scene I would never forget in my life!
When I saw that scene, I was completely unable to think!
The monster's abdomen was transparent, and inside that transparent abdomen, there was a person!!
That's right, it was indeed a person. The person was actually sitting cross-legged inside the monster's abdomen!
This was beyond being just shocking!
If we were to talk about shock, the appearance of this monster was already shocking enough, but the scene before me completely overturned my understanding!
As I slowly regained my senses and some ability to think, I saw the monster moving towards the pavilion.
It seemed to pay us no mind, or rather, it didn't consider us at all.
It walked to the front of the pavilion and stopped, letting out that piercing cry again.
This time, the cry was more intense than before, and it came in waves.
And when the monster's cries stopped, a gash opened in its abdomen, and the "person" fell out!
The "person" fell onto the stone cushion in the middle of the pavilion, and the monster became weak, then collapsed on the ground, motionless.
I swallowed, and found that my palms and back were soaked with sweat...