Chapter 12: Sacrificial Objects

  Xiao Xuan's fingers involuntarily caressed the dark gold ring, feeling the wave of coldness emanating from it. Suddenly, he felt a strange sensation on the ring, as if something was engraved on it. Xiao Xuan subconsciously looked closer and found that there were indeed words etched onto it - a Latin word meaning "soul".

  "Soul... Soul Ring?"

  Xiao Xuan muttered to herself and named the ring, but according to the engraved markings on it, this translation should be its name.

  This soul ring must still be hiding a great secret, but Xiao Xuan knew that he didn't have time to dig deeper now. At least, he had to get through this task world first, and then he could study it in the main god space with an easy environment. Therefore, Xiao Xuan began to swing his arms again and move his legs, planning to leave this blood pool and continue searching for the exit.

  However, when they had swum halfway, Xiao Xuan suddenly stopped moving, which made Su Mo Ran and Sara feel a surge of doubt in their hearts. Previously, Xiao Xuan's sudden tremble had already made them worried, now what was wrong again?

  "I'm... " Xiao Xuan slowly closed his eyes, somewhat uncertain, and then started swimming again. Afterwards, he opened his eyes once more, and indeed, his direction and position hadn't changed at all. The feeling of having his eyes open or closed was actually the same, and even, the visual angle he had discovered with his eyes closed was more delicate, comprehensive, and detailed than when he used his own gaze to observe with his eyes open.

  Xiao Xuan tried again, starting to spin his body in the blood pool with his eyes closed, but he could still sense Su Muran and Sara's positions. When he reopened his eyes, he found that it was indeed so, Su Muran and Sara's positions were the same as when he sensed them with his eyes closed.

  "This is... spiritual probing ability?" Xiao Xuan said, his voice laced with disbelief. His gaze immediately shifted to the soul ring on his finger, and he knew that this sudden new ability of his was likely a result of wearing it. Perhaps, it might not be just that simple. Xiao Xuan recalled that the variant Foodie Demon could even control people's emotions, and its abilities were also derived from this very same soul ring. If such a demon could exert control over people's emotions, Xiao Xuan believed he could too. This soul ring had truly brought him many surprises.

  Xiao Xuan closed his eyes again, trying to see how far he could probe with this so-called spiritual power. At the same time, he continued to swim towards the edge of the blood pool.

  Under the turbid blood, there were dense white bones, a pile of white bones, like a small hill. This was the scene under the Blood Pool. Of course, all this was naturally obtained by Xiao Xuan through the spiritual power of the Soul Ring. When Xiao Xuan continued to explore, he was stunned, because he "saw" a dilapidated altar surrounded by white bones, with several steps on the altar, and at the top was a stone tablet, which seemed to be offering something in the center.

  Is this...the offering of the cannibal demon mentioned in the side quest?

  Xiao Xuan suppressed the urge to dive down directly and instead swam back to the edge of the blood pool with great effort. Sara and Su Mo Ran, seeing Xiao Xuan reach the shore, also gathered together in his direction. The two women joined forces to pull Xiao Xuan out of the bloody surface.

  His body no longer had that thick blood binding, Xiao Xuan only felt a sense of relief on his body, his body lying on the rock wall, a wave of fatigue came over him, but Xiao Xuan shook his head hard to dispel this tiredness, he couldn't rest now, he absolutely couldn't stay in this underground place for too long.

  However, Xiao Xuan still decided to complete the side quests first before finding a way out of the underground, after all, in the task world, completing the main quest is a necessary condition for survival, but completing as many side quests and digging up hidden tasks as possible is the key to quickly accumulating reward points and plot levels, and it is also a necessary way to strengthen oneself and make one's strength stronger. Since the existence of the sacrificial object has already been discovered, how can Xiao Xuan give it up with his personality?

  A flash of the space ring, and some clean drinking water and simple wilderness survival medicine appeared in Xiao Xuan's hand. As for this scene, Su Mo Ran was still quite calm, after all, she knew Xiao Xuan's identity, he was a veteran, naturally he must have gotten some unbelievable things from the main god.

  Xiao Xuan wore a space ring on his left hand and a soul ring on the ring finger of his right hand. It wasn't particularly eye-catching, as there were many people who would wear rings on all ten fingers if they could.

  "Xuan, are you a magician? How did these things appear?"

  Sarah was extremely surprised at the sudden appearance of these things, but Xiao Xuan had no intention of satisfying Sarah's curiosity at this time. He first washed his wound with mineral water, then casually took some anti-inflammatory medicine, and didn't even bother to bandage the wound on his shoulder because he still had to go back into the blood pool later, there was no need to waste that effort. Next, he stood up directly and walked back to the edge of the blood pool.

  "Xuan, what are you doing?"

  "There's something extremely important under the Blood Pool, I need to take it out." Xiao Xuan turned his head and said to Su Muran: "You come with me, we might need your help later."

  Whether it's physical or mental strength, Su Mo Ran is excellent. With his help in the Blood Pool, the chances of getting that man-eating demon's offering will be greater. Of course, the main reason is still because Xiao Xuan is now injured and spiritually exhausted, so some things are inevitably going to be done with a lack of energy.

  Su Mo Ran nodded and stood beside Xiao Xuan, already taking the posture of entering the Blood Pool with him later. She didn't ask many whys like Sara did, because she was clear that this man did things on his own and didn't need to be asked why.

  "Xuan......" Sara walked over and grabbed Xiao Xuan's arm, seemingly intending to persuade him not to go to the Blood Pool again.

  "Listen, stay here quietly and don't move around on your own like you did just now, got it? I'll be right back with the things, take care of yourself first."

  Xiao Xuan pushed away Sarah's hand and walked back into the blood pool, Su Mo Ran followed closely behind. Sarah stood at the edge of the blood pool, watching the two people walking towards the center, biting her lip in distress.

  The depth of the blood pool gradually increased, and Xiao Xuan and Su Mochen began to move. At this time, Xiao Xuan spoke to Su Mochen beside him: "I can see clearly what's under the blood pool, so you don't have to go down with me. Just wait for me on the surface, and when I grab your leg from below, you can dive into the blood pool and pull me up. I'm afraid that by the time I come out, I'll be exhausted."

  "I understand, be careful." Su Mu Ran nodded, indicating that he understood.

  Xiao Xuan closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and dove into the blood pool. The blood pool was filled with thick, viscous blood that was much denser than water, making it difficult to move around in. To swim or dive in it required extra effort, and Xiao Xuan could only grit his teeth and persevere.

  Very soon, Xiao Xuan had dived to the bottom of the blood pool. The deepest part of the blood pool was only about four or five meters deep, which wasn't very deep at all. But because Xiao Xuan could rely on the spiritual probing ability granted by his soul ring, he didn't need to open his eyes to fully understand the situation below the blood pool. His hands kept grasping the skeletons below the blood pool as he moved forward, getting closer and closer to that altar.

  At this moment, a corpse suddenly floated out from a pile of black "water grass", the corpse was not a skeleton, she was very "fresh", because she was Runo, the dead Runo.

  What slightly made Xiao Xuan take notice was that Ruo Nu didn't die from drowning, but rather was shot to death. There were several obvious bullet holes on her body. And here, the ones with guns were only himself and Su Mu Ran. So, who killed Ruo Nu? The answer was already very clear.

  As for why Su Mu Ran shot and killed Ru No, Xiao Xuan could guess a thing or two. One of Ru No's legs was entwined by the black "water grass". It was likely that when she and Su Mu Ran fell into the blood pool together, during their simultaneous ascent to the surface, Ru No, whose leg was entwined, grabbed onto Su Mu Ran, hoping he would help her get rid of the "water grass". However, at this critical moment when both were desperately trying to save themselves by surfacing, why would Su Mu Ran risk his own life to rescue someone who had nothing to do with him?

  Moreover, in this bloody water, nothing can be seen, and it's almost impossible to do anything. Su Mo Ran is also unclear about what happened to Ru No, but Ru No has been holding onto her, making it impossible for her to float up to the surface, and they can only drown together in this blood pool. In this situation, Su Mo Ran can only shoot at Ru No.

  Xiao Xuan swam past Ruo Nu's corpse, carefully swimming over the black "water grass". It was only then that Xiao Xuan was shocked to discover that this wasn't "water grass" at all - these were completely human hairs!

  ;