Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Stay steady, don’t panic!
“Use scientific and dialectical thinking to explore the unknown.”
Giving herself a layer of materialistic protection for courage, Qin Ying took a deep breath.
She stepped two paces to the side to distance herself from that strange skeleton and began examining the carvings on the box inch by inch.
She confirmed that there was no power source or switch on the box.
Qin Ying took another deep breath, her eyes gradually lighting up behind her thick lenses.
Unlike her bright and striking appearance, she was mostly lazy and quiet. Only those closest to her knew that when she encountered something that interested her, the rebellious streak behind her ears would flare up instantly. There was nothing she didn’t dare to think or do.
Pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, Qin Ying observed the inside of the box with a more serious attitude this time.
Inside the box, a twelve-man cavalry squad was traveling along a dried-up riverbed.
Qin Ying keenly discovered a problem: her perspective of the box was fixed. No matter how she changed her angle, whether she stood on her tiptoes or lay down to look, her viewpoint was locked to a single point.
It was as if she were watching a video on a tablet, and this Squad Leader Han was the protagonist of the video, remaining at the center at all times.
“The protagonist?”
Qin Ying stared at the top of the little person’s head in the box, unable to help but rest her chin on her hand.
At that moment, something even more surprising happened.
The galloping Squad Leader Han gripped the reins with one hand and suddenly jerked his head up to look at the sky.
He was tiny inside the box; without the help of her phone, Qin Ying couldn’t see his face clearly. But the moment he looked up, Qin Ying felt an intuition-her presence had been detected.
He wasn’t some projection; he was a real, living person.
In a fleeting moment just now, Qin Ying had locked eyes with him across time and space.
It felt as if Qin Ying had lightly touched fingers with an alien. Before she could process the subtle yet excited emotions in her heart, Squad Leader Han had already turned his head back.
Dialogue also drifted out from the box.
“Squad Leader Han, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing, it’s just…”
Squad Leader Han’s back was stiff, his tone hesitant as he spoke. “It’s nothing. Let’s go!”
With that, he shook the reins and continued to gallop forward.
This tiny cavalry unit inside the box moved along the dry riverbed. After rounding a bend, a pitch-black valley came into Qin Ying’s full view.
The ground was covered in charred, lightning-shaped patterns, as if it had been scoured by thunder. These patterns were identical to the scorch marks on the bone fragments Qin Ying had stepped on.
Hundreds of people in rags were kneeling on the cracked earth. These people were extremely devout, bowing and praying around a high platform.
On the platform stood a Yellow-robed figure, holding something that looked like a bundle in the crook of his arm.
Qin Ying aimed her phone at him.
The moment she pinched her fingers to zoom in and adjust the lens, the Yellow-robed figure looked up abruptly.
A pair of blood-red eyes on a face bulging with veins met Qin Ying’s gaze directly through the phone screen.
“God, are you watching us?”
Perhaps it was the difference in appearance, but even though it was another case of supposedly making eye contact with a tiny person in the box, this time Qin Ying only felt a chill run down her spine.
She also saw clearly what the Yellow-robed Taoist was holding-it was a swaddled infant.
An infant with a wisp of birth hair on its forehead slept peacefully in the swaddle.
The Yellow-robed figure’s lips split into a wide grin as he looked toward Qin Ying’s direction with fanaticism.
“Please accept this Golden Child!”
Without any warning, without any extra words or ceremony, the Yellow-robed figure slammed the swaddle in his hands down toward the base of the platform.
Based on the scale of the little people in the box, this platform was about four stories high. If the swaddle hit the ground, the infant would likely be smashed into a pulp.
Qin Ying, who hadn’t panicked when stepping on the weird bone or discovering the box’s anomalies, felt her heart skip a beat.
What is this old bastard doing?
“Holy shit!”
She let out a curse and reached into the box.
This action was entirely born out of an instinct to save the weak, without considering whether it was possible. Naturally, she also hadn’t considered whether her size would accidentally crush the infant when she caught the swaddle.
As she was about to reach into the box, her fingertips felt as if they were struck by an invisible electric arc.
A subtle yet intense pulling sensation washed over her.
This box was trying to drag her in.
Realizing this, Qin Ying hissed and hurriedly retracted her hand, letting it hover just above the box.
The heart-wrenching wails of an infant rang out.
Qin Ying’s heart sank, and her entire body froze.
But after a few seconds, she realized something was wrong; the crying hadn’t stopped. If the swaddled bundle had hit the ground, how could the baby still be alive to cry?
She breathed a sigh of relief and slowly moved her hand away.
Looking into the box through her phone again, she saw that the bundle had been pierced by a sharp arrow, pinning it to a wooden pillar on the high platform. The shot was masterfully executed, catching only a corner of the fabric without harming the child inside.
Having escaped death by a hair’s breadth, the child hung in mid-air, wailing loudly. The cries echoed through the mountain rocks.
Before Qin Ying could truly relax, she was stunned to find that all the little people were looking up at her. Her shadow was clearly cast into the box, blotting out the sun and covering the sky!
***
In the seventh month of the Ninth Year of Tianbao, history records that the Shadow of the God appeared in the mortal world.
*Snap.*
Han Lie, who had just saved the infant in the swaddle with his bow and arrow, accidentally snapped his longbow in half.
The entire sky had turned as dark as night. A humanoid black shadow that seemed to bridge heaven and earth stood silently at the end of the horizon.
A Deity was looking down upon the world.
This thought manifested with such vividness in everyone’s minds.
“Ho-ly-crap-”
The Deity spoke, her voice like thunder resonating through heaven and earth, distorted and incomprehensible.
It seemed as if a long time had passed, yet it also felt like a mere instant.
From atop the high platform came the frenzied laughter of the Yellow-robed Taoist.
The Deity had said: “Wo cao!”
“Wo cao, wo cao.”
After deeply pondering the meaning of that Divine Voice, the Yellow-robed Taoist had an epiphany!
*Wo* meant fertile soil, representing the Qian trigram; *cao* meant vegetation, representing the Kun trigram. Combined, the Qian and Kun trigrams signified vitality and prosperity!
Furthermore, when the Divine Shadow appeared, its reaching motion looked exactly like it was trying to seize the Golden Child sacrifice!
The Yellow-robed Taoist’s bloodshot eyes darted around before he pointed solemnly at the sky.
“As long as we offer the human sacrifices, the God will grant us fertile land and abundance!”
“Hurry, perform the sacrifice!”
After a moment of silence, the valley suddenly erupted into a frenzy.
A row of wooden cages was flung open, and the young boys and girls trapped inside were violently dragged out.
Ignoring the children’s screams, the Yellow-robed Taoist’s disciples herded them toward the dried-up riverbed like piglets. Their tattered clothes were stripped away; they were about to have their throats slit for bloodletting and their hearts and organs carved out for the ritual.
These children, gathered from various villages, ranged from eight or nine years old to as young as four or five. Seeing the world change so drastically and facing these murderous fiends, how could they not be terrified?
A chorus of wailing shook the riverbed.
Han Lie suddenly snapped out of his daze. “Stop!”
His logic was simple and clear. What kind of god demanded blood sacrifices? Why worship such a thing? Why fear it?
With that thought, he drew the Ring-Pommel Saber from his waist and charged toward the riverbed.
Seeing this from the high platform, the Yellow-robed Taoist waved his sleeves and shouted, “Stop him!”
The villagers in the valley threw themselves forward desperately to block the path, surrounding Han Lie and his soldiers.
Anxious, Han Lie shoved aside a middle-aged man, only to have his leg grabbed by a skeletal old man. Entangled like this, even with his superhuman strength, he found it difficult to break free for a moment.
Just as the tragedy was about to unfold…
Suddenly, the black wooden bead that had hung around Han Lie’s neck since childhood grew searing hot. It burned a bright red mark onto the skin between his pectoral muscles like a branding iron.
Immediately after, a clear and pleasant female voice echoed in his ear.
“Bullshit! I never asked for a sacrifice!”
Following that very un-godlike complaint, a wooden pillar that seemed to span heaven and earth suddenly descended from the clouds.
The Yellow-robed Taoist was happy at first. But soon, the smile froze on his face.
Under the gaze of everyone present, the wooden pillar descending from the sky acted like a siege ram, slamming into the Yellow-robed Taoist and sending him flying. Under the massive force, his body turned into an indescribable mush, scattering across the ground like a firework.
He rained down upon the followers who had been following his orders to perform the sacrifice.
A deathly silence fell over the valley.
The voice rang in Han Lie’s ear again.
“You little person… yes, you.”
“Squad Leader Han, don’t just stand there. Go save the children.”
In the seventh month of the Ninth Year of Tianbao, the Supreme Deity, sitting high at the edge of heaven, issued her first divine decree to her mortal Vicar.