Our family is in decline

It's not surprising that these monsters native to the beast's den have become the pigs' rations, but these human corpses...

These corpses have been stripped of their coats, and most of the muscles have been dissolved due to mixing with the body fluids of the Flesh Devourers. It is difficult to see anything except for the slightly intact bones.

But I am afraid that a large part of the humans who appear here are refugees kidnapped by their ancestors, ordinary people who have disappeared in areas controlled by the Ascension Sect, or novice cultists who came in to practice but were killed by the pigs.

These corpses, plus the staff shape in the hands of the pig priests just now, show that the Ascension Sect has been influencing the pigs.

But everyone is dead, no matter how much more is said, it doesn't matter.

If the first two ingredients were not surprising, then Lance soon discovered the body tissues of pigs among these corpses. Due to the mix, he could no longer distinguish the details, but he could still tell from the ferocious pig heads that they were all The fangs were broken off.

Whether these pigs were dragged back for recycling because they fell into the hands of the enemy just now, or they were fighting among themselves, anyway, it can be seen from here that the same kind is also in their diet.

It also shows that the tusks among pigs have a special meaning, otherwise they would not be broken off and collected. Lance even felt that the tusks not only represented strength, but were worn like pig thugs to show their bravery.

I'm afraid the concept of "trade" has arisen between them, using their fangs as currency.

(Pig Sociology +1)

These are interesting research topics that shed light on the social structure of the Pigs.

But Lance and the others are not academics engaged in research. These things are not important to them, and there are no pigs who are important to them.

"It's strange~" Lance couldn't help but frown and muttered: "It seems that they will bring their prey here to dismember it, and then feed the flesh and blood everywhere through the dining car.

But the question is what's the point of doing this? "

Lance's words also made everyone think. This is indeed a very abnormal behavior.

Especially for a pig society that is in... not even the initial stage of development, but a barbaric period, isn't this just like taking off your pants and farting?

"Is it a level? It's like those pig thugs can eat on the table, but other pigs can't. Control the supply of food to the powerful pigs first?"

Amanda thought about it and gave an explanation.

But after hearing this, Lance shook his head, "No, we just discovered that the food on the table and in the dining car are the same, and there is no special supply."

Boudica tried to think about it, but soon shook her head and blurted it out. "Isn't this strange? Our tribe will also process the prey we hunt together and then distribute it. Only in this way can more people in the tribe survive when the mountains are closed by heavy snow in winter."

I have to say that Boudica's words gave Lance some inspiration.

Implementing unified supply of resource allocation in harsh environments is an important way to improve overall survivability.

But...well...the pigs seem to kill each other...

This seems to be inconsistent with the most basic logic.

"It's true, this is a corrupted sacrificial ceremony..."

While they were still discussing the sociology of those pigmen, Alhazred on the other side had gone deeper, and his voice also attracted everyone's attention.

When the other three torches gathered together and illuminated the area, what appeared in front of Lance was a very special stone monument that didn't look like a stone monument built by a pig man.

There is a disc base at the bottom, and on top of it is a square boulder standing upright, and it seems to gradually narrow slightly to form the shape of a stone monument.

There are a lot of damages and strange dirt on it, but these marks make the stone tablet reveal a strong historical atmosphere.

What's interesting is that there are holes on both sides of the top of the thing, wooden stakes are inserted through it, and there are metal chain shackles on it.

The function of the stone tablet can be understood at a glance. It would be just right if a person is hung on it.

Why do they think so?

Because there is really a person hanging up there.

A strong man was stripped of his clothes, his hands were spread out and tied with shackles, his body was lowered into a "Y" shape and hung on the stone monument, his head drooped and disheveled.

The person hanging above could see that a large area of ​​skin was peeled off, revealing the bloody subcutaneous tissue, and the rough knife technique left marks on the flesh and blood like a living chop.

There was also a large amount of blood streaking across the body and dripping onto the base underneath. Now I finally understood what the dark red dirt that was almost soaked into the stone was.

Ordinary people would have nightmares for two days just by looking at this scene. Even those like Lance and others who had seen the blood could hardly conceal their disgust.

But that's not the most outrageous thing. What makes people feel even more uncomfortable is that this thing is actually alive.

"Cultist..." Lance couldn't help but frown. With such a toned figure and tenacious vitality, although there was no obvious equipment, he still recognized this thing as an elite cultist.

Others seemed to realize something when they heard this.

"How can they capture a living cultist? Why are they here?"

It was obvious that these questions could not be answered by the barely breathing cultist.

"A stone used in ancient, barbaric rituals, the result of evil worship." Lance also commented, but his eyes seemed a little cold.

Although Lance hated these hair pickers, he was still very humane and gave him a good time.

He was about to take action, but was suddenly stopped at this moment.

"Wait! Don't ruin the ceremony."

Alhazred on the other side was indeed a scholar who focused on mysticism. He had no such questions and instead raised a torch and approached.

Normal extraordinary people don't have the courage to touch it casually like Lance. He didn't touch it rashly, but carefully looked at it and studied it for a while before explaining.

"This is part of the sacrificial ceremony. Killing him will complete the last step. We can destroy the ceremony first."

Alhazred didn't talk nonsense, and his attention turned from the human body to the stone tablet, "This is a sacrificial stone full of evil power. In the pig people's day-to-day rituals, it has magical power. I'm afraid it will Affects those it touches.”

Lance didn't waste any time and raised his hand directly to press the stone tablet to initiate the sacrifice.

Influence? Who do you want to influence?

Alhazred wanted to say something else, but suddenly in his perception, the so-called ritual or any evil power all dissipated instantly, and even the chaotic atmosphere lingering around him calmed down a lot.

It was like a bomb that exploded directly in his hand without even a sound from the outside world.

Alhazred knew that he had to be in awe, as the lord's strength was a bit beyond his understanding.

But Lance didn't care about this. He had already killed the cultists and made sacrifices with his backhand, not letting go of any spirituality at all. The greed of the exploiter was vividly displayed.

He continued to explore the surroundings and soon discovered the skin that had been peeled off.

These bloody human skins look soft and elastic, and even have the feeling of human body temperature, tempting people to touch them.

On the other side, there was someone who was supported on a wooden frame and spread out into a large piece. Even looking at it, you could feel a strange feeling like your skin was being pulled.

The blood stains on it were not cleaned, but the dried blood seeped into the cortex, leaving dark red blood scabs.

But these cannot hide the various incomprehensible and twisted runes written on the stretched human skin.

"The scrawled text written on what looks like stretched and tanned human skin..." Lance muttered, "Those are the raw materials for making human skin drums, and the person who made them was probably the Pig Priest. We underestimated them. their capabilities."

Lance had previously thought that those human skin drums were supported by the Ascension Sect, but now it seems that they were made by themselves.

Now the pigs have mastered the core technology!

Soon after the human skins they discovered something more.

"This should be the pig priest record."

Lance found a pile of leather scrolls near the sacrificial stone where human skins were made. These were obviously peeled off damaged or incomplete human skins.

It cannot be used to make human skin drums, but it is used as recording paper.

Looking at the twisted and scrawled writing on it, it was carved one by one by the pig priest with a knife.

"Evil knowledge was written down." Alhazred looked a little surprised. Written records are very useful for occult research, but...

Then he added: "There seems to be a vicious curse lingering on it. This is a malicious spirit sealed by ritual spells."

"Then now they are freed." Lance directly reached out to collect the scrolls and threw them into the display room, waiting to take a look at them when he had time.

Even the slightly dry human skin was torn off by him from the wooden frame. He didn't care about these messy curses.

Both Alhazred and Amanda were stunned by this scene. The lord was really domineering, and it seemed impossible for the word fear to appear on him.

And the effect was the same. The so-called curse was casually destroyed in front of Lance, but instead it replenished spirituality.

Lance is like the protagonist in an RPG game who enters the villagers' houses and raids them. He sacrifices everything he sees and plunders all the spiritual beings.

After walking around for a while, everyone returned to the pile of corpses, and Lance made his own judgment.

“This place is more of a religious place than a slaughterhouse. For these pig people, the so-called slaughter now seems to have a special religious meaning, rather than simple food.

It is like a tribute required for worshiping the "god", but it will still enter the human stomach after the final ceremony is completed.

The performance here is probably that they need to sacrifice their prey to the "god" before they can eat it.

No wonder the crippled pigman didn't appear here. I'm afraid that kind of defective product is not even qualified to enter here. "

Lance's statement made up for the problems with the previous conjectures. Otherwise, why would the pig priest and the sacrificial stone tablet appear in this place?

For a race that was transformed by the ancestor, the pigs have been played by the ancestor since they were born, and there may be traces of the ancestor behind their sacrificial activities.

The significance of the pig priest's existence is also worthy of consideration. It is not just a pig spell caster.

The ancestor gave it more human characteristics, which made it smarter, with near-human wisdom to understand and master, such as the words carved on human skin, and the production of various props.

What is a priest? It serves as a link between humans and gods. Simply put, it serves as an intermediary for the ancestors to control the pigs.

Lance has always been curious about how his ancestor, who never does anything serious, could be so interested in pigs.

Now it seems that the ancestor has the means to influence the pig people through the pig priests.

He raised his hand to offer sacrifices to the piled corpses, and the void swallowed them up, like an eternally hungry giant beast that no amount of sacrifices could satisfy.

But the taste is quite picky, and he didn't react to those white bones at all. It was obvious that he had been abused by his ancestors and looked down upon them.

On one side was fresh meat that still had some value, while on the other side were piles of garbage and bones that had been eaten.

Looking at those bones covered with teeth marks, Lance couldn't help but feel disgusted.

"Eh!" But at this moment, he seemed to have discovered something. He kicked away the bones. When the pile of bones collapsed, an imperceptible golden light was revealed.

When I picked it up, it turned out to be a gold coin!

"It is true that gold always shines."

Looking at the gold coins in his hand, Lance realized that he had overlooked something. Many things were meaningless to those pigs, but they were very valuable to humans.

There are piles of pig people's harvest for who knows how many years, and there will be some good stuff here.

Thinking of this, Lance's hamster syndrome returned. Not letting him pick up garbage was even worse than killing him.

Originally, he was still talking loudly just a second ago, talking about various situations of pig people, analyzing their social structure and behavioral logic.

But in the next second, Lance turned into a garbage man and started to take action against the garbage that had been thrown aside by the pigs.

Bones, tattered clothes, all kinds of mess...

As a noble lord, if you are addicted to money, it is acceptable, and you are also addicted to food. Even if you indulge in all kinds of extravagant balls, dinners, and socialize with ladies and ladies, you can enjoy a debauched life.

But here you are turning over those bones from who knows when, and then you still look excited, which is somewhat problematic...

Anyway, it was difficult for Alhazred and Amanda to understand, but Boudica was very happy to pick up trash with Lance.

Lance could only say that they did not know the goods and enjoyed the fun of exploration and harvest rather than the items themselves.

"Fuck!" Lance suddenly exclaimed and took out a small leather bag from among the messy things. The dirt on it had even dried.

But when it was opened, it turned out to be a bag of coins mixed with gems. It was roughly estimated that the crystal clear gem was worth thousands of gold coins.

This scene also made the two people stupid.

ah! Are you serious?

I wish everyone a happy Mid-Autumn Festival! ! !