On the grassy streets, a crisp rattle broke the silence.

With the sound of slightly messy footsteps, a line slowly walked forward.

The leader was a handsome young man with a sacrificial spirit in his hand.

This was followed by a woman holding a copper stove and making her face unclear.

This was followed by twelve samurai dressed in uniform attire.

Finally, followed by a middle-aged man holding a wooden box and wearing a pure white sacrificial robe.

After that, there is a mess of pedestrians.

There is no doubt that this is the queue formed by Su Mo and his party.

At this moment, they were walking on the Chen family's way to the shrine.

Until then, many people were a little skeptical about replicating the rituals of the festival.

After all, this approach is only a possibility, and it is difficult to say whether it will work.

But when they teamed up and walked on the road to the shrine, everyone felt an inexplicable atmosphere.

The closer you get to the shrine, the more the atmosphere deepens and dignified.

In a trance, it seems that the surrounding environment has undergone unknown changes.

The barrenness becomes neat, the depression becomes lively, and the dilapidation becomes complete.

Mirage-like images overlap with the surroundings.

It's like a TV with an intermittent signal.

There are constantly images flickering around.

Through that picture, you can even faintly see the pomp and circumstance of the festival when it was held.

The grand scene of the crowd was almost suffocating.

For a while, it was difficult to distinguish between reality and fantasy.

"Smack!"

"Smack!"

Listen to the faint sound of footsteps behind me.

Zhuo Ningning, who was in charge of playing the role of a villager, only felt a flurry in his heart.

She was at the end of the line.

It stands to reason that there shouldn't be a talent behind him.

There was no one behind her in her perception.

The sound of this footstep kept drilling into her ears like a magic sound.

Her scalp couldn't help but tingle.

The muscles on Zhuo Ningning's face twitched slightly, and he didn't dare to look back.

But when her eyes fell to the ground, she saw a few more shadows on the ground.

The shadows were twisted, indiscerning, terrifying, and attached to her shadows.

It was as if it would pounce forward in the next second.

She could even feel the chill behind her.

Just when Zhuo Ningning couldn't help but want to scream.

Xue Lansu, who was walking aside, grabbed her wrist and said softly:

"Calm your mind."

These words seem to be full of special power to soothe people's hearts.

Zhuo Ningning's frantic mind was slightly certain.

She gritted her teeth and walked on, not paying any more attention to the changes behind her.

Xue Lansu's expression was calm, and she seemed to ignore her behind, but she secretly used secret techniques to secretly monitor the situation behind her.

She could clearly see that behind her was a large group of ruined corpses, and even unsane spirits.

These strange expressions are confused, like the injured who have just been injured in a car accident and have lost their memory, they look confused, and they only know to follow some instinct to follow the team.

From time to time, from the houses on the side of the road, or from the dry wells underground, or from the dilapidated ruins, other corpses or monsters will crawl out, and they will continue to join the team, gradually expanding the team.

They did not attack the people walking in front of them, and there was an unprecedented tacit understanding between people and tricks, maintaining an extremely delicate balance.

Xue Lansu was keenly aware that what caused this situation had a lot to do with the ritual they were now replicating.

Therefore, it is necessary to continue to maintain the current situation and let the team continue to move forward steadily.

Once something happens to the marching team, it is likely to destroy the state of the group of monsters behind, make them return to their hunting instincts, and even put everyone on the field into an unprecedented crisis.

That's why Xue Lansu cautiously called a strange thing to stabilize Zhuo Ningning's mind.

As time goes on, there are more and more strange things behind him.

The silent procession spread across the long street, moving forward in silence.

The invisible coercion continues to increase and shock the heart.

At this time, let alone the fledgling Zhuo Ningning.

Even old rivers and lakes like Shi Hao and Sun Hong almost couldn't hold it and almost had a problem.

Fortunately, Xue Lansu was in the rear, and all the problems were dealt with decisively by her.

A little further ahead, there are Chen Shuo, Yao Wenkai and others.

In front of them was Song Ruyuan, who played the role of the high priest.

This position seems to be no problem, but in fact it is also under a lot of pressure.

The Twelve-Man is not a real person, but a puppet manipulated by humans.

They don't have a sense of their own, and as long as the leader doesn't make a mistake, they will keep their posture going.

And Su Mo, as the sharp knife of the team, naturally will not make mistakes easily.

So much so that the twelve talismans all followed him firmly behind him, and they never missed a single step.

But when it came to Song Ruyuan's side, it was a little uneasy.

Whether it is Song Ruyuan or Yao Wenkai and others who are a little behind.

They are all practitioners, and they all have their own thoughts and wills.

Because of this, it is easier to be misled by the outside world.

As we got closer to the shrine, the illusions around me became more frequent and realistic.

At the end of the day, they felt as if they were in the middle of the festival hundreds of years ago.

I almost blurred my identity.

Even if you keep your head clear, it is very easy to be misled by the festival of the year and take the wrong path.

After all, that team didn't exactly follow their route.

And if you break away from the team, you may cause damage to the rituals that are being replicated at the moment.

At this time, Song Ruyuan played the role of fixing the sea god needle.

Whenever someone behind them makes a mistake, they will leave the team.

He will always stop it as soon as possible and put it on the right path.

Even if there was an inexplicable temptation and interference later, he never made any mistakes.

I have to say that as the acting director of the Civil Security Bureau, he really has quite outstanding qualities.

Ability to respond to crises in a timely manner.

Su Mo sensed what was happening behind him, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.

In terms of his strength, he is naturally able to take care of the entire team and prevent any accidents.

But this will be a huge drain on his energy, especially when there are countless monsters closely behind him, and it is better to have a certain amount of spare energy to guard against it.

Now with the help of Song Ruyuan and Xue Lansu, his burden has been greatly reduced.

In this way, we can also focus on the development of the route in front of us.

In fact, he should be under the most pressure while the team is on the move.

As the sharp knife of the team, he must lead the team in the right direction.

In the past, this was not a difficult task.

But now it may be because they have reproduced the ritual of the festival.

The whole road became inexplicably twisted.

In addition, there are illusions of the past that are constantly interfering.

This makes it extremely cumbersome to open up roads.

You have to concentrate on coping.

Otherwise, if you are not careful, you are likely to be misled and take the opposite path.

Naturally, this will lead to the failure of ritual replication.

Su Mo's eyes bloomed with a small red light, breaking through the illusions in front of him, looking for the only right path.

Under his leadership, the team continued to approach the shrine according to the pre-planned path.

Finally, just as we were about to arrive at the shrine, night began to fall abruptly.

Just like when they went to Han's house, they encountered the same accident at this moment.

As night fell, the sound of music, shouts, and footsteps could be faintly heard in the distance, turning into a wave, fiercely impacting their ranks.

At first encountering such a drastic change, Zhong Rui in the team couldn't help but change color one after another.

It was so terrifying that it was as if tens of thousands of people were shouting at the same time.

In comparison, their small team is like a flat boat on the sea.

As the tide rolls up, it can overturn on the spot at any time.

Feeling the huge impact of the continuous surge in all directions, Su Mo's eyes became slightly condensed.

The strong spiritual power suddenly penetrated the worship bell in his hand.

This top-level magic weapon, which had been silent for hundreds of years, bloomed with unprecedented terrifying momentum at this moment.

"Bell!"

"Bell!"

"Bell!"

The crisp sound of the bell turned into a sound wave like substance, expanding wildly in all directions, progressing layer by layer, sweeping away the strange and even illusions on the periphery.

Wherever the sound wave passed, countless strange people were instantly dumbfounded, and thousands of illusions were shattered one after another.

Even though the monsters quickly regained their instincts, the visions soon reappeared.

But the sound waves are always washing and spreading.

This makes the strange and the illusion in a constant cycle of superposition.

And all of this is maintained with Su Mo's terrifying spiritual power beyond the ordinary mage realm.

If someone else comes in, the situation will immediately collapse completely.

At the same time, feeling the majestic terrifying sound waves, Xue Lansu and the others felt indescribably frightened.

Even though the sound wave deliberately avoided them, it did not do the slightest damage.

However, the power contained in the sound waves, just by feeling it, shocked them physically and mentally.

That was definitely not the power that an ordinary Rank 7 could have.

Even if no one on the scene reached the realm of the 7th order.

They could also clearly perceive the terrifying level of that power.

It's like a god!

With such a strong person to support the team, and preside over the operation of the festival ceremony.

At this moment, everyone's hearts were filled with unprecedented confidence in the Holy Weapon.

Even the countless strange and illusions gathered in the outside world are unshakable.

They firmly believed that Su Mo would be able to break through the predicament in this secret realm and lead them to end the catastrophe that had spread to this day!

The pace of the crowd became more and more determined.

After a short time, they finally arrived at the destination of their trip, the shrine.

The difficulty of the whole process is comparable to a 25,000-mile long march.

Fortunately, it persevered after all.

But when he arrived in front of the shrine, looking at the mist, Su Mo's face became unprecedentedly solemn.

He knew that the next step was the main thing.

"Let's go inside."

Su Mo took a deep breath, and the surging spiritual power suddenly overflowed outward, condensing into an invisible shield, enveloping everyone, including the twelve talismans.

In this way, the fog of external erosion is isolated.

And when the team finally marched into the mist, they stepped up the stone steps of the square.

Unknown changes are beginning to happen again.

I saw that the fog that gathered around them began to dissipate as they advanced.

One by one, the mist recondensed into a strange and landed behind their ranks.

Even the corpses that had been hunted in the mists were as if they had received an order, and they were extremely obedient to join the team.

For a while, the entire shrine land gradually faded away from its original mystery, revealing the hidden ruins beneath it.

Seeing the countless broken bones and wreckage on the road, Song Ruyuan and the others were all shocked.

Even though they had already heard about the scene of the shrine from Su Mo and Xue Lansu before.

But I never thought that the real scene would be so terrifying.

The bones that can be seen here alone are densely packed and vary in size, and the total number is afraid to be as many as thousands.

Where is this step of worship?

It's clearly a road paved entirely with bones and blood!

You can imagine how miserable it must have been hundreds of years ago for the people who were in that festival.

Everyone followed Su Mo all the way forward with a heavy heart.

The fog opened and dissipated.

Everything seems to be getting better.

But everyone always felt that an inexplicable atmosphere was slowly forming.

Invisibly, there is a certain sense of oppression that penetrates people, and gradually invades their hearts.

It's like playing in the wild, there are poisonous snakes in the woods that secretly covet them, and they will rush out and bite them at any time.

This feeling made everyone feel terrified, and they all raised their vigilance for a while, looking at everything around them with great vigilance.

Su Moruo led the team forward unconsciously.

Soon, they walked up the staircase of bones paved with countless corpses to the square at the end of the road.

The dark fog condensed in the square completely dissipated with their arrival.

The entire shrine completely reveals its true appearance that has been hidden for many years.

In addition to the huge square, only a large area of building ruins remains.

According to the texts, the ruins of the building are the main building of the shrine.

In the past, both the statue of the god of agriculture and the people who kept the shrine lived in that hall.

The daily offerings are also generally carried out in the main hall.

Only the annual Saturnalia Festival will be hosted in the square outside the temple for all the villagers to pay their respects.

Today, although much of the building has been destroyed, the square is still well preserved enough to be used for the festival.

Su Mo stopped the ringing in his hand.

He turned to look at the crowd behind him, and at the myriad of monsters beyond.

In a trance, it seemed to overlap with the picture in the illusion, and I saw the grand scene of the festival held in the square that day.

Su Mo pulled back his slightly distant thoughts, looked at the people in front of him, and said in a loud voice:

"Let's get started!"

As soon as the words fell, everyone was solemn and stopped in place.

Su Mo casually built a high platform in the center of the square.

The moment the high platform was formed, the puppet-like twelve talismans immediately walked towards the stage.

Song Ruyuan and the others all looked at them.

Even the countless monsters behind him cast their eyes.

If you are watching, if you are looking forward to it.

With Su Mo's rattle, the twelve talismans immediately danced a bewitching sacrificial dance.

The opening ceremony of the festival has begun!

(End of chapter)