Nightmare Shuttle

Ling Zheng embraced his chest with both hands and leaned on the thick tree behind him, not caring about the red marks created by the rough bark on his back, his brows were deeply furrowed and his thin lips were pursed into a heavy frown.

He lowered his head, the black hair that fell on his forehead covered his erratic eyes, revealing only half of his face below the tip of his nose. The sun at noon was extremely bright, and the mottled light and shadows fell onto the top of his head through the dense canopy of trees. With the shaking of the branches and leaves, the light spot would also sway on the handsome face of the young elf.

Ling Zheng, who was resting quietly against the tree, looked calm and solemn, but the force of his fingers that clutched against his arms completely revealed his anxious mood at the moment.

After waiting for a while, his head sharply snapped to the sky, and he suddenly frowned heavily, his hands forming tight fists. On the horizon, black storm clouds rapidly traveled through the sky with unstoppable momentum. A cold chill quickly swept the land and in seconds, the sun was completely obscured by the darkness. In the flashing clouds, the clap of thunder and lightning boomed through the skies. 

Not good. These clouds were an omen.

His senses were telling him, something would go terribly wrong today. He looked over to the silent humans being slowly gathered from their houses like sheep being herded to be slaughtered. Eyes filled with sympathy and helplessness was crueler than the blank light in the human's eyes.

***

The wind was strong, and the night seemed to howl strangely. Tang Shun was woken up by the pain. He only felt that there were several boulders pressed against his chest and back. He tried to sit up, but immediately felt a surge of pain in his chest, he could only give up.

He turned his head and looked around. It was a narrow stone house, dark and wet. Under the faint fire of the oil lamp hanging on the wall, he could see the countless mottled cracks on the black stone wall, and the red moss that covered most of the wall.

A rusty iron door erected not far away was arched and outside was a narrow corridor. On the opposite side is a tall rusty iron door. The fire was too weak to see the inside. He could only barely make out the figures of a few women who shrunk at the door.

The force of the elf's blow had eventually rendered him unconscious, it seems that during that time they had moved to another cage to be stored at will.

The blood in his mouth was heavy, and when the uninjured fingers of his left hand pressed against his chest, sharp spikes of pain shoot up his spine. It was estimated that he had cracked a few ribs and his internal organs should have been injured from the force of the blow.

The pain was still bearable, what Tang Shun was afraid of were internal bleeding and a high fever. He could not access his system space here and could only rely on his body's capability to withstand this injury. 

A hand suddenly stretched out beside him and rubbed on his face. The blood on both hands was clotted with blood and Tang Shun's couldn't help but shift away.

"Are you awake?"

It was Ning Ning's voice, spoken in a low whisper. She was afraid of alerting others. Tang Shun couldn't move, and only exhaled two breaths of warm air at the hand with his mouth, indicating that he heard it.

He heard a faint rustle beside him before the young elf's presence leaned into Tang Shun's ear, evidently anxious, but had to whisper, "You are seriously injured, don't move."

"How did I get here?"

She paused before speaking again, "You were unconscious, so I could only hold you down. We have transported here not too long ago, it is said that the ceremony is tonight!"

He slowly lifted his eyes and didn't speak, she only thought he was still dizzy and stopped talking.

"Why did you save her?" The voice that appeared again was unusually cold and dark, not like a young girl but more like a poisonous snake waiting to strike in the shadows.

A dark sneer slowly appeared at the corner of his lips, frantic and sly, crazy as a gambler that had played his last card, "Because just like you isn't she also an unqualified?" He chuckled slightly, "An elf with only one ear, can that even be called an elf?"

In the cold night, the pointed ear that was revealed through her hair shifted slightly, her eyes narrowed into sharp slits and she looked at the injured man beside her, the other ear could not move, because in the end, her real ear had long since been sliced off, the blood that spilled was the last affection she had for the elf tribe.

A symbol of betrayal.

She wanted to say something more, but suddenly there were a few clatters, and the iron railing was hit hard a few times.

"Time to eat."

An impatient voice sounded, and the person who struck the iron railing with an iron bar put several small pots with large slabs in them and then walked to the next cell.

The women who had been huddled in the shadows ran quickly at the moment. One of them took a small bowl and started to gobble down with her head down.

Ning Ning suddenly wanted to laugh, "A final supper before death. How generous."

Tang Shun looked at her thin back and smiled coldly, "How generous indeed."

***

A slow congregation made its way past the dense forest and walked deep into a dark underground hole. Surrounded by strange giant rocks, one couldn't tell whether they were naturally formed or man-made.

Above them, there are dense and small holes, illuminated by the moonlight that peeked through the dark storm clouds, the light and shadow staggered against the rugged rocks, and the wind shuttled through the strange grooves on the cave walls like a dark howl.

Their footsteps were still echoing against the cave walls when Chu Yi heard a voice. An extremely weird voice, like singing but also like crying.

The voice was not unpleasant, with a deep and ancient tone, the voice seemed to be able to penetrate people's hearts.

But without knowing why, he only felt a very uncomfortable feeling when he listened to that voice as if something was moving around in his body, scratching against the confines of flesh and screaming to get out.

Cold hands suddenly came up and covered his ears, blocking away the voice and finally bringing peace to his mind. He glanced to the side where the tall man walked slowly beside him, wearing the same dark robe. The night was ominous and dark, inauspicious, filled with storm clouds and flashing thunder.

It was time for the ceremony.

The farther they walked, the more familiar the surroundings became. When he arrived in the same large tomb vault he had been in the night prior he couldn't help but lift an eyelid. The woman buried in the tree had disappeared but in its place, the red flame of the fire illuminated his face.

He saw the front, the large suspended platforms were no longer empty, several upright dark stones now carried several huge bonfires burning.

The platforms finally revealed their full prowess in the burning fire, the platforms were giant black and cyan stone slabs with mysterious lines carved on them, like patterns of an ancient pattern. In his eyes, the platform seemed to pulse slightly and long black chains had been connected to the sides of the platform, extending out into the unknown.

Elves in black and blue robes stood on the platforms and the strange sound came from them, in their hands, they held strange red jars filled with cloudy liquid that they sometimes threw into the fire.

Below the platform, there were many elves kneeling on the floor, the fire reflecting their extremely pious faces. The elves' white necks and arms were painted with dense red and mysterious patterns in bright red paint. 

The purpose of the Beinan Lake appeared here, no matter how strange the scene before them was, the people walking beside him did not make a sound or question it. Cold, soulless eyes staring straight ahead, the more filth in their hearts the more influence the lake would have had on them. 

First indulge them with a mating ceremony, where they could release the dark lust and desires in their hearts to the greatest extent before stripping them of their emotions and desires to make soulless puppets to help in their ceremony.

The elves had planned great.

Red eyes stared into the distance, imitating the blankness of the others. He didn't shift his eyes to stare at the weird happenings beside him and just continued to follow behind the congregation to deeper depths.

***

"Tang Shun, do you know how the elves survived for years without mana, without power, and just a deteriorating guardian tree?"

He looked up at the young elf and curled his lips into a cold smile, "How?"

"By making sacrifices. Every year, all the elf tribe would send out a group of young virgin elves to the ceremony. Every year, the human empires would send out a bunch of their people to be sacrificed."

"Every year, the forest is bathed in blood. That blood is used to prolong the life of the guardian tree and it also has another purpose."

"To awaken the God sleeping in the dead river."

"They call us brides," she laughed as if she had heard the funniest thing in the world, "What we really are, are just human containers—"

"They killed the guardian tree themselves but still don't repent. There's only one fate for the elves."

"To be destroyed."

***

"Gong!––"

They slowly stopped and knelt before the bulky River. At this moment, the river was like a greedy monster from the dark abyss, with its mouth wide open, and it will never satisfy the blood and soul it desires.

"Gong!––"

The side halls opened, rows of women in bright crimson red dresses slowly walked out of the cave, standing on all sides of the river.

"Gong!––"

The third Gong sounded. Slowly each woman as if hypnotized raised their hands above the river. Then, with a wave of their hand, their wrists were cut by themselves with a golden dagger.

The blood poured out, flowing over the blood-red sleeves of their dress and ran down their slender arm, pooling drop by drop into the black river.

The elves on the platform poured the cloudy red liquid into the fire! The dripping red liquid didn't mix with the fire instead it instantly merged into the lines carved on the stone slab and slowly flowed forward along the winding lines, little by little filling those dry, hungry patterns.

The fire was blazing, and the moment when the dim glyphs touched the bleeding blood, it seemed to rise abruptly, like a grisly monster waking up from the fiery depths!

At the same time, the harsh, breathtaking singing of the black robed elves rang in the cave.

The frantic singing becoming louder and louder! The low voice was not loud, but at this moment it seemed as if there was an invisible force spreading the trembling voice from the bottom of their heart, on this land.

The river started to shake, the black chains stretched taut as if at any moment, they would completely break!

At this moment, a familiar man slowly appeared beside the river, the colorless pupils looked down at the river before abruptly dripping a drop of blood from his fingertips into the river. 

The drop of blood silently sunk into the watery depths, the river suddenly rose to the sky as if the entire earth was overturning! Chu Yi felt the river boiling when he looked down, a faint red glow appeared from the bottom of the river. His eyes shrunk sharply, the orange glow was fire!

Flames were rising from the depths of the river!