"Okay." A cheerful voice cut through Fang Minglan's tangled thoughts.

Wan Qian stood up with an eager expression, looking at the altar.

She hadn't expected this God Worship Festival to have such a segment, so she was determined to fully experience it.

Wan Qian didn't even wait for anyone to say anything else — she just walked straight up to the altar.

"Your companion has already gone up. Aren't you going too?"

The man in the suit said to Hao Shijun and the others.

The man in the suit addressed Hao Shijun and the others. Yet as he spoke, the villagers around him—whose eyes had been jet-black—began to take on a reddish hue.

It was obvious that if Hao Shijun and the others refused, the villagers would forcefully send them up anyway.

Glancing at Wan Qian, Hao Shijun decided to gamble and stepped onto the altar with Xie Jia and Wang Hui.

Fang Minglan gritted her teeth and had no choice but to follow them up.

"Welcome, dear guests, to our village's God Worship Festival."

Third Uncle saw Wan Qian and his expression stiffened for a moment, but quickly returned to calm.

"Unfortunately, for this festival, the village chief has gone out on business and can't preside."

Suddenly, murmurs rose from the villagers below the altar, as if they were arguing about the chief's absence.

However, the commotion quickly died down.

Among the crowd, Doctor Jiang also frowned slightly. The village chief isn't present for the festival this time?

At the same time, an indescribable sense of foreboding rose in his chest, as if something unexpected was about to happen.

But when his eyes fell on the cages covered with black cloth and Wan Qian standing on the altar, Doctor Jiang calmed down again.

No matter what trick Wan Qian had used to deceive Third Uncle, in the end, she was just a human — she could never deceive the Dog God.

Very soon, he would see this hateful woman's terrified expression. Even if he couldn't kill her himself, he still savored the thrill of revenge.

Only Third Uncle, standing on the altar, felt deeply uneasy inside. He wanted badly to pull out a handkerchief and wipe the sweat from his forehead.

If the villagers found out that not only was the chief gone, but the Dog God was missing too — what would he do then?

Even so, the festival had to follow its process. This was—the rule imposed on "Mushroom Village" by this world.

Third Uncle recited a long ceremonial speech, explaining how the village had suffered a drought in the past, and the Dog God had sacrificed itself so the village could survive.

It was almost exactly the same as what Xie Jia had read in the village chronicles.

At the end, Third Uncle signaled for someone to pull away the black cloths covering the cages.

In an instant, what was inside was fully revealed.

They were dogs. Dogs covered in fur, crouched inside the cages.

Since entering this village, they hadn't seen a single dog — and now they finally did!

Third Uncle had the cages opened, and the dogs obediently crawled out.

But Hao Shijun wasn't sure if it was his imagination — the look in these dogs' eyes held a disturbingly human-like numbness.

Then, Third Uncle looked at Hao Shijun and the others and spoke: "For the next part of the ritual, please, our honored guests, complete it for us."

A tray was presented to Hao Shijun, with a knife laid plainly on it.

"Please, use the knife to slaughter the offering," Third Uncle said.

How strange. The village worshipped a Dog God. Yet the sacrifice was also dogs?

Hao Shijun hesitated as he picked up the knife. Beside him, though, Fang Minglan was far more decisive.

Killing a dog as an offering — wasn't that much better than becoming the sacrifice herself?

Before anyone else could react, Fang Minglan gripped the knife in both hands and stabbed it hard into the belly of the dog in front of her.

Warm blood instantly gushed out. It was as if the rush of hot blood had scalded her—Fang Minglan panicked and flung the knife from her hand.

The dog rolled on the ground in agony, letting out sharp, miserable howls.

The torn flesh on its belly split wider and wider like a ripped seam, with blood pouring out endlessly.

Hao Shijun stared wide-eyed in shock, his gaze fixed on the wound on the dog's body.

Then, as if a terrible thought struck him, he suddenly reached out, grabbed the dog in front of him by the throat, and pried open its mouth with his other hand.

Two fingers pushed into the dog's mouth, feeling around — and a cold sweat broke out all over Hao Shijun's back.

The tongue! Only half a tongue!

Hao Shijun grabbed the short knife, placed it along the dog's spine, and carefully sliced downward, peeling back the dog's skin.

Village Rule No. 6: [The village keeps dogs. Dogs are safe. However, please make sure that what you see is truly a dog. A dog is a smooth-skinned, sparsely-haired, tailless, bipedal creature that walks upright.]

Beneath the dog hide was, shockingly, human skin.

A segment of a human spine arched its way out from the torn opening in the dogs pelt. It struggled, crawling halfway out.

Inside the dog skin — was a human!

No—more precisely, that thing could no longer be called a person.

Hao Shijun stared at the creature.

He could clearly see its sparse body hair and the unnaturally smooth, deathly pale skin hidden beneath the dog hide, as if it hadnt seen sunlight in ages.

The exposed arm was particularly thin and frail, with joints bent in the opposite direction of a normal human's.

...Only animals were like this.

Seeing that Fang Minglan and Hao Shijun had both acted, the villagers kneeling below the altar, who had been holding their breath, suddenly erupted in cheers.

The ceremonial music, which had fallen silent in the solemn atmosphere, resumed once again. Sounas, gongs, ocarinas, and erhus began to play.

But the music was jarringly dissonant—each instrument seemed to play its own tune, completely out of sync. It was so grating that anyone listening would feel the urge to cover their ears.

Yet the villagers appeared utterly enraptured by the chaotic melody, their eyes growing even more fervent as they turned toward Xie Jia and Wang Hui—who had yet to make a move.

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