The two rows of human-faced stone statues changed the style of the previous stone statues, standing quietly on both sides of the road without any movement.

We stood in front of the road, and no one took a step, after all, those stone statues had already given us "surprises" one after another, and no one knew what we would encounter here.

Shen Dali stared at one of the stone statues for a while, and asked me in a low voice, "Fifth brother, look, does this stone statue look like the big nut in the game?" ”

I took a closer look and found that it was quite similar in appearance, but the difference was that the surface of these stone statues was more three-dimensional, with a long nose with a long outstretched nose, deep eye sockets, and two rows of square teeth bitten together carved out of the mouth. In addition to this, one of their faces is painted with colorful stripes, very similar to the painted on the face of the huge stone statue, and each one is different.

After all, a group of people can't stand here like this all the time, as long as they don't want to turn back, this first step must be taken after all.

I noticed that Leng Yue was a little tired, and his breathing was obviously heavier than his normal breathing, so I said to him, "I'll explore the way this time." ”

Leng Yue turned her head to look at me, frowned slightly, and after a moment, she unfolded it again, and after saying "yes", she took a step to the side and made way.

Shen Dali hurriedly said: "Fifth brother, leave the matter of exploring the path to me." ”

Zhang Yi also said beside him: "Why don't I go." ”

Leng Yue is athletic, I am sensitive to danger, and from any point of view, it is not suitable for them to take this head.

I raised my hand on Shen Dali's shoulder, shook my head solemnly, and asked, "Dali, do you believe me?" ”

Shen Dali was puzzled: "Of course I believe it, but ......"

"I promise I'll be fine." With that, I turned and stepped into the path between the two rows of stone statues.

I took every step very carefully, not only keeping an eye out for any mechanisms that might be hiding beneath my feet, but also trying to keep the sound of the waterfall and the distant fire-breathing insects and man-eating frogs fighting into the background, and keep an eye on the movements around me.

One-step, two-step, three-step......

I walked forty or fifty meters without any danger.

It seems that these stone statues are either bluffing or have other functions.

I breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to turn around and beckon the rest of the people to come along, when I suddenly heard a strange and slight grinding sound coming from behind the human-faced stone statue. I was horrified, and I turned my head to look to the side, and saw a little imp carefully poking its head out from behind a stone statue, staring at me with dark eyes.

Before, some little ghosts were beaten by Leng Yue and fled in all directions, but they actually hid here waiting to ambush us.

The imp noticed that I had spotted it, grinned at me, and rushed out from behind the statue, stomped his legs on the statue, and leaped high and lunged at me.

I hurriedly raised the iron pipe in my hand to greet the imp, and suddenly heard an arrow coming through the air, and then saw the imp was shot by an arrow and fell to the ground diagonally.

Although I am out of danger for the time being, it is clear to me that there must be more than one imp hiding behind the stone statue, and a greater crisis is likely to follow.

At this time, Shen Dali and the others had already run towards me. Leng Yue was the fastest, dragging the pair of iron chopsticks to the front.

The tips of the iron chopsticks rubbed against the ground, making a somewhat harsh grinding sound.

Almost at the same time, a few more imps peeked out from behind the stone statue, glared at me with angry eyes, and turned their heads to look at Leng Yue who was rushing towards me in some panic, and finally turned around and ran away, and disappeared from my sight after a while.

After everyone arrived one after another, Shen Dali asked me anxiously, "Fifth brother, how are you?" ”

I waved my hand and said, "It's nothing, these stone statues don't look threatening, let's get out of here quickly." ”

Sure enough, as I had guessed, we accelerated our march under the cold gaze of the human-faced stone statue, and it took us nearly ten minutes to finally reach the bottom of the high platform in the center of the platform.

The high platform consists of a stone pillar surrounded by ten people and a circular platform at the top, with a rotating stone staircase extending from the side of the stone pillar, and the surface of the stone pillar is painted with colorful paintings. The main body of the painting is the human figure, and there are no interval symbols between the paintings. These paintings seem to be independent, but they are related to each other. Looking at it from beginning to end, you can actually decipher some special information.

Because there are lantern-like plants falling from the platform, and the light is colorful, the painted colors are a little messy and not particularly easy to identify.

I lit my flashlight and began to take a closer look at the paintings.

The first painting records the scene of a baby just being born, the rickety old lady touches the baby above her head with both hands to welcome the baptism of the sun, and the baby's mother lies next to her, supporting her upper body, and looks at the baby raised by the old lady with the man next to her, who seems to be the baby's father.

There was one detail that caught my attention, except for the baby, the people on the left and right of the painting were wearing masks, and they were different beast masks, perhaps faintly corresponding to something.

Later, the baby grew into a child, but his face was erased, and the blank face was very frightening, and even more frighteningly, the child was tearing a white toad alive.

Later, the child's body shape changed again, and he grew into an adult, and a mask appeared on his face, with only simple lines on the mask. Notably, his hands are painted blood-red with blood dripping from them, as if to allude to the fact that his upbringing has stained his hands with blood.

A person's life is a parabola, and it is naturally the apex of the parabola in the prime of life, and then it will inevitably decline all the way. Therefore, the protagonist of the painting becomes an old man half-buried in the ground, holding his blood-stained hands high, not knowing whether he is praying for forgiveness or making a final struggle.

Finally, he died, lying flat on the ground. In front of him, there was a man with a painted face squatting, reaching out expressionlessly to pick up the props on his face.

Seeing this, we have walked to the vicinity of the stone steps.

I told everyone to be careful, and I went up the stone steps first, and while paying attention to the movements around me, I continued to read the paintings on the stone pillars.

The deceased was carried into the Ghost Realm Stone Forest, sent underground, carried to the huge platform where we were, and passed through countless strange stone statues to reach the top of this high platform.

On the high platform, a man with a painted face holding a golden scepter commanded the crowd to put the deceased into a coffin, and then lit a flame under a nearby coffin.

The liquid in the ding boiled and overflowed, and many human heads were faintly visible in it.

When I saw this, I gasped and couldn't help but stop, look up, and frown.

In this sense, this high platform turned out to be an altar, an altar dedicated to the sacrifice of the dead.

However, it is very unreasonable for people to be carried here for sacrifice instead of being buried after death.

Sacrifice is a large-scale celebration held when the ancients asked for or expressed their faith in the gods and ghosts, and the people here actually sacrificed the dead, who were the gods or where the ghosts were sacrificed?

Suddenly, I remembered something that Yang Qing had mentioned, and my eyes widened suddenly.

I looked back into the distance, and my eyes fell on the tall stone statue near the entrance to the platform, and I vaguely guessed something.