for Advance Chapter
The next morning, Neil returned to the outskirts of the camp to continue his observations, only to discover to his surprise that at this moment, everyone in the camp was surrounding a crucifix made of logs.
What shocked Neil was that a person was nailed to the crucifix!
With his half-elven eyesight, Neil could clearly see a dying girl with red curly hair up there.
Her two arms were fixed to the horizontal log on the left and right with thick iron nails, and dark red blood meandered down her pale body along her wrists.
Her two slender feet, which had lost too much blood, were covered in bloodstains, and were incomparably pale, were stacked together and pierced through with an iron nail, pinning them to the vertical log.
Blood dripped onto the ground drop by drop like a leaky faucet.
The red-haired young girl’s pair of breasts were quite pert and upright; however, by now, even the tips of her erect nipples had lost all color.
If not for the slight rising and falling of her chest, Neil would have even thought the girl had already lost her life.
A surge of righteous, furious anger burned up from Neil’s heart.
Even though he knew this world was not a modern society with highly developed humanism, such a cruel, ruthless disregard for life—a scene nearly identical to an evil god’s sacrificial ritual—still provoked Neil’s wrath, completely exceeding the limits of what he could accept.
Clenching his teeth, Neil ultimately did not leap out in an attempt to rescue the girl.
Setting aside that large crowd of human guards clad in helmets and armor, just the seven or eight mysterious figures dressed in black hooded robes made Neil very wary.
He hadn’t been able to perceive it yesterday, but today, while they were holding this activity akin to a sacrificial ritual, the Force could sense a very powerful, evil energy.
Going up with Neil’s current strength would only mean throwing his life away.
The mysterious figures in black hoods who formed a circle around the girl all lowered their heads, crossing their hands as they prayed to something unknown.
Not long after, one of the mysterious figures stepped forward holding a dagger, and subsequently plunged it directly into the girl’s fair, flat lower abdomen!
As if experiencing a final rally before death, the girl let out a shrill, piercing scream, but immediately following it, her red hair scattered as her head drooped down, showing no further signs of life.
That mysterious person was not moved by the piercing scream in the slightest.
Holding the dagger, he sliced open a bloody wound across the girl’s abdomen.
The blood-drenched fat rolled back to both sides, and it could be seen that even the young girl’s most important organ, the uterus, was slashed open along with her intestines.
Yet the mysterious person did not hesitate to plunge his other hand inside.
A baby?
Neil, who was just about to curse them as beasts in his heart, finally saw clearly that the curled-up lump of flesh was not a baby!
It was a bizarre creature covered in blood, resembling a black maggot.
The creature was elongated in shape, roughly the size of a baby’s forearm.
On its back was a pair of crumpled wings that could not unfold, it had four limbs that looked like bizarre fleshy buds, and its mouth at the head was filled with dense, sharp teeth that were even stained with shreds of flesh and blood.
It seemed as though it had already begun to bite and devour the muscular wall of the uterus while inside the red-haired girl’s body, just like devouring an eggshell.
It appeared that even if the mysterious person hadn’t taken it out, it would have “hatched” and emerged on its own sooner or later.
However, it should still have been too early; it was clearly still an immature, premature infant.
Through the Force, Neil could sense a pure evil and a massive, abnormal vitality radiating from that monster cub.
Neil’s five fingers gripped the ground tightly, dark mud overflowing from underneath his fair fingernails.
A wave of loathing surging into his heart made Neil nearly unable to restrain himself; that was a sense of justice belonging to a Jedi Padawan.
However, reality did not allow Neil to leap out rashly, forcing him to endure it with all his might.
The mysterious person cradling the bloody monster cub arrived before the young noble who led the humans.
That young noble seemed to flinch slightly, but he still knelt on one knee before the mysterious person.
The mysterious person reached out his hand and pinched the young noble’s cheeks, forcing his mouth open, and then forcefully stuffed the monster cub from his other hand into the young noble’s mouth.
The monster cub did not struggle, resembling a dead object as it was completely stuffed into the young noble’s mouth.
The young noble knelt on both knees, clutching his neck with both hands as he began to struggle.
The surrounding guards seemed to want to step forward but were stopped by the young noble.
Swallowing a living thing the size of a palm and as thick as the brim of a cup without chewing was indeed very difficult, but it wasn’t to the point of losing one’s life.
Clutching his neck and swallowing desperately, the young noble finally swallowed the monster cub into his stomach.
Dropping onto all fours, he panted heavily, and subsequently, the two maidservants helped him up.
Right now, let alone making contact with them, Neil only wanted to flee quickly.
Exerting effort to regulate his breathing and calm his angry emotions, Neil kept his body as low to the ground as possible to hide himself.
Fortunately, this place was still relatively far from the camp, so he shouldn’t have to worry about being discovered.
After waiting a bit longer, those people finally dispersed, but Neil saw that they were packing up their tents and provisions.
Could they be returning to the ship?
Why did they have to deliberately come to such a desolate and remote place to hold an evil ritual?
Neil’s mind took a hundred turns, his thoughts thousands of fathoms deep.
The robust guards among those people moved very nimbly.
In just over an hour, basically everything had been packed up, and they were not only carrying shields on their backs but also possessed strong bows and powerful crossbows.
Once all preparations were in order, their group began to advance toward the interior of the forest.
Neil was somewhat shocked: What do they want to do by entering the forest?
This forest was devoid of human presence and could basically be called a primeval forest.
If they absolutely had to look for something of value here, there was only the elven city-state!
Despite the fear and alarm in his heart, Neil still tracked behind that group of people from a distance for three days.
By the third day, their route still hadn’t wavered in the slightest, and Neil could finally confirm that their destination was indeed the location of the elven city-state.
Although that group of people was unaccustomed to the environment within the savage forest, not a single one of them lost their way, advancing almost in a straight line toward the position of the Ancient Tree of Life.
It could be seen that those guards who never took off their armor were each seasoned veterans.
Their daily encampments were very tightly guarded, leaving Neil with no opportunity to capture a scout for interrogation.
Out of options, Neil could still only watch helplessly as they drew closer and closer to the position of the Ancient Tree.
Neil felt somewhat anxious in his heart.
It wasn’t that he was worried about the elven city-state; although Sister Ya’er lived there, Neil still didn’t have much of a favorable impression of the elves.
What he worried about was that when the city gates catch fire, the fish in the moat suffer as well—it might spread and affect the half-elf settlement.