Chapter 609: Twisted Ritual

At that moment, a hand reached out from the gloom and firmly clamped around his throat in mid-air.

The Crimson Sky Cultist's body trembled. He struggled to look up and saw a red-robed actor, completely soaked in blood, standing silently beside him. His eyes narrowed into an eerie arc, observing the cultist's exposed lung.

The trajectories of history converged at this moment. Not long ago, a similar hand had clutched a Crimson Sky Cultist about to complete a suicide ritual. Now, destiny was repeating itself; Chen Ling and Liu Qingyan's figures overlapped, transcending time and space.

But Chen Ling was not Liu Qingyan after all. Even if their actions were identical at this moment, behind the large red opera robe, the trajectory of fate was forcibly altered by a pair of crimson, mocking eyes, extending in a completely unfamiliar direction.

"Is this your suicide ritual to summon the 'Wailing Wasteland'?" Chen Ling's voice seemed to come from the netherworld, calm and deep. He seemed to be contemplating seriously.

"Sacrificing your own lung... Why specifically the lung?"

The Crimson Sky Cultist's pupils slightly contracted. His right hand was firmly clutched in mid-air, completely unable to move. He decisively shot out his left hand like lightning, grasping at the exposed lung!

The next moment, the glint of a boning knife flashed. His entire left arm was cleanly severed, leaving only a smooth, crimson stump.

The Crimson Sky Cultist's face instantly turned ashen.

Before he could react, the boning knife's glint swept across his right arm again. With a splatter of blood, the arm section held by Chen Ling was completely severed from his body, leaving only his torso kneeling alone in a pool of blood.

The Crimson Sky Cultist, now without both arms, could no longer complete the ritual himself. A flicker of despair crossed his eyes as he looked at Chen Ling.

Chen Ling was not in a hurry to kill the Crimson Sky Cultist. He grabbed his throat with one hand, forcing him to look up and meet his gaze. Immediately after, a pair of apricot-red eye makeup appeared on his face, and 'Drawing Vermilion' activated instantly!

Fragmented memories flooded Chen Ling's mind!

The first thing that appeared before Chen Ling's eyes was a vast and magnificent altar.

Under a grey sky, blood-red thunder and lightning coursed through the leaden clouds, like a churning vortex. In the center of the altar, directly beneath the vortex, a two-story-tall scarlet fragment stood majestically.

The moment Chen Ling saw this fragment, he froze, and then a look of shock appeared on his face.

"A Scarlet Star fragment?!"

Chen Ling had personally seen similar fragments before. In the Era Archives, the one explored by the Nine Sovereigns was almost identical to it, though slightly larger, and the contours around its edges were different.

Chen Ling was certain this fragment originated from the Scarlet Star.

Besides the one explored by the Nine Sovereigns before the Great Cataclysm, could there actually be another Scarlet Star fragment preserved in this era?

Chen Ling looked down towards the edge of the altar. He saw a vast expanse of figures in red robes surrounding the Scarlet Star fragment, bowing and prostrating themselves on the ground. From a distance, they looked like hives growing out of the earth, strikingly conspicuous under the grey sky.

The Crimson Sky Cultist, whose arms Chen Ling had severed, was also prostrating himself on the ground at this moment, bowing repeatedly with the surrounding cultists. His position was at the outermost edge of these cultists. The closer the prostrating Crimson Sky Cultists were to the Scarlet Star fragment, the more primitive they appeared.

The cultists in the front row had even completely lost their sapient characteristics. They did not wear red robes; instead, they had a skirt of red leaves tied around their hairy waists. From time to time, they would open their mouths and let out loud, ape-like cries.

Behind him, numerous Crimson Sky Cultists faced the Scarlet Star fragment, bowing and repeatedly chanting: "Supreme Crimson Sky Savior... Supreme Crimson Sky Savior... Supreme Crimson Sky Savior..."

A crimson wave of prostrations rose and fell around the altar. Under the grey sky, only Chen Ling, in his large red opera robe, still stood tall among them.

He gazed at the Scarlet Star fragment on the altar and muttered to himself: "The 'Supreme Crimson Sky Savior' they speak of... refers to the Scarlet Star fragment?"

Chen Ling had always believed that the Crimson Sky Cult's "Supreme Crimson Sky Savior" was a real god or demigod, similar to the Usurpers' "Silver King." He hadn't expected it to be just a fragment.

If that was the case, who had given it the name "Supreme Crimson Sky Savior"?

Before Chen Ling could approach the Scarlet Star fragment further, the scene before his eyes shattered into pieces. His pupils gradually returned to normal, and he found himself back in the dim pharmacy.

Chen Ling grabbed his collar with one hand and asked in a deep voice: "Where are the other Crimson Sky Cultists?"

"Ugh... I... don't... know... ugh..."

The Crimson Sky Cultist's exposed lung fluttered like a broken bellows. Gushing blood poured from his throat and severed arms, spreading out into crimson rings. His breathing grew weaker, and his eyes, as he looked at Chen Ling, became hollow and dim. His life was nearing its end.

Seeing this, Chen Ling knew he couldn't extract any more information from this cultist. He regretted not keeping the other cultist alive as well, but the power of 'Sleeves Flicking Heaven' was simply too immense; he hadn't expected it to leave even a complete corpse behind.

Chen Ling wasted no more time with him. The boning knife in his hand danced lightly between his fingers, and then violently plunged into his heart!

A muffled groan escaped the Crimson Sky Cultist's throat. As Chen Ling pulled the hilt from his chest with a backhand motion, a large quantity of blood flowed from his lips again, and his body swayed before collapsing to the ground.

Chen Ling, holding the blood-stained boning knife, walked towards the pharmacy exit without looking back. Li Qingshan's figure was slowly staggering up from amidst the chaotic shelves.

"Are you alright? Not hurt, are you?" Chen Ling asked.

Li Qingshan nodded slightly, about to say something, when his peripheral vision caught sight of Chen Ling's palm, and his expression suddenly froze!

"Brother Lin... you..."

"What?" A hint of confusion flashed in Chen Ling's eyes as he saw Li Qingshan's sudden change in expression.

"You... you tore his heart out??"

"Heart?"

Chen Ling looked down at his right hand, which was holding the boning knife...

At some unknown point, the boning knife in his hand had vanished. In its place was a crimson heart, still slowly beating!

Chen Ling stood frozen.

After a few seconds, something occurred to him. He sharply turned his head to look at the body lying in the pool of blood. His boning knife was still embedded in the Crimson Sky Cultist's chest, but beneath the blade was a gaping, gruesome hole, as if torn open by bare hands, a shocking sight!

Inside the blood-soaked chest cavity, severed blood vessels still writhed. The heart, which should have been there, was gone.

"How could this be? I clearly only pulled out the knife just now..."

A long-unfelt sense of bewilderment surged into Chen Ling's mind. Behind him, pairs of crimson eyes opened from nothingness, gazing at the dripping heart in Chen Ling's hand, curved like sinister crescent moons in a smile.