Wu Jin quietly made his way over to where the Jingyi team was standing near the altar.
There were colorful murals on the limestone walls. Wu Jin bent low at the waist, his head practically falling into the weeds, and was finally able to pick up a few clues after staring at them for a long time.
“The sacrifice is for the Mayan sun god… according to their 5000 year old traditions, they believe that the sun is driven by blood. If the citizens don’t offer up their blood to the sun, the sun will stop and the world will fall into eternal night––”
Wu Jin was stunned when he saw this, “No wonder they have to bleed.”
Most of the murals that followed described Mayan wars where captives were taken to the pyramids, and their hearts offered up in sacrifice. Their blood flowed down the trough at the edge of the pyramid and was sacrificed to the gods, and then the Mayans would select warriors from the tribe to walk up the pyramid altar with the corpses of the prisoners of war. The door to the kingdom of the gods would open at the top of the pyramid…
The murals at the back wrapped around to the other end of the pyramid.
If they continued on, they would definitely run into Jingyi.
Wu Jin finally understood.
The youth stretched and warmed up behind the walls of the pyramid in order to prepare for the next round of battle.
“Blood drives the sun.” Wu Jin pondered, then said, “Only sacrifice will make the sun rotate. So, the scream we heard when we just entered belonged to a sacrificial player. The blood sacrifice allowed the time to jump from 4AM to 9AM.”
According to the span of this jump, the instance time will jump to the afternoon after this sacrifice.”
“After that comes dusk––which is also the 5:22PM written in the itinerary.”
Wei Shi nodded, “How do we get out.”
“According to the murals, the door leading to the gods will open after the sacrifice. In reality, it’s 80% likely that it’s an illusion that the civilians have after gathering together and smoking drugs.”
The Mayan civilization had difficulty with metalworking, but their drug manufacturing technology was first-class.
“In any case, the exit is above the pyramid.”
Wu Jin criticized Jingyi, “Bribing us with blue dye is useless! When the time comes, we’d still have to fight over the exit!”
If they hadn’t gone their separate ways and split up from Jingyi, Zuo Botang was likely to have ‘guided them kindly’, so that the two of them were standing far away from the exit to the instance. They’d make their move after the sacrifice ended and rush to exit and pass the instance ahead of Wu Jin.
The question was just, why did Jingyi put in so much effort––
An old and clumsily played song drifted over.
On the trapezoidal Mayan pyramid, the sacrifice ceremony had finally begun!
Wu Jin’s eyes shifted, “Let’s go!”
The two of them rushed out from behind the pyramid at top speed.
The sun shone down on the solemn altar, and the accurate-to-a-fraction-of-a-millimeter recreation of Maya’s magnificent architecture was straight and precise. The prisoner of war was sent to the top of the altar, and the priest stretched out his slender right hand and pulled out the heart with precision.
The air was filled with the scent of blood.
Wu Jin seriously suspected that the program group would have to apply mosaic across all the different levels. However, the cheering men and women, old and young, inside the instance seemed to regard it as a carnival.
The more difficult survival was, the more dependent the people were on their gods.
On the barren plateaus, Mayans had relied on harsh divine teachings to bring together the small and large tribes that roamed the land. The winners would hug their families and cheer beneath the stage, while the losers were cut apart and skinned on the altar.
As the prisoner of war died, the sun descended into the afternoon––
Wu Jin suddenly jumped out.
If another person was sacrificed, the exit at the top of the pyramid would open!
Beneath the pyramid, as the sacrificial blood seeped down the blood troughs, the Mayans took out their blades and mixed their own blood into the scarlet torrent.
On the other side, Ming Yao rolled up his sleeve and seemed to be gesturing with the elderly priest. His eyes were fixed on the corner of the wall that held the little alpaca and the two people who were guarding the little alpaca.
He was taken by surprise by a whoosh sound.
A Wu Jin ran over and started climbing up the altar.
Ming Yao paused, “Damn, we were cheated. The two of them weren’t watching the alpaca. They gave their combat uniforms to the NPC and dropped out of sight––”
Wei Shi’s bow quickly shot out an arrow.
Zuo Botang protected Ming Yao behind him out of conditioned reflex, and Wu Jin’s steps paused at the same time.
The big boss had been slow by half a beat.
They’d been running around and around, and he’d changed cores again…
It really was happening at a rate of once every half a minute!
Wu Jin was very shocked and was about to go down the altar to pick up his cub, but Wei Shi reprimanded him coldly, “Go up.”
“I don’t need you to save me.”
Beneath the pyramid, the sudden appearance of the bows and arrows had unsurprisingly caused chaos amongst the NPCs. The priests were adamant about catching Jingyi and Wei Shi, and the Mayan crowd had turned their backs on the three people who had disturbed the ceremony. Only Ming Yao, who was still stained with blue dye, was treated a little better.
On the pyramid, Wu Jin was magically unobstructed the whole way up.
Not only that, the priest at the top of the pyramid was looking kindly at Wu Jin, his expression feverish and enthusiastic––
Wu Jin paused.
He turned back abruptly.
The exit to the instance still required one more sacrifice before it appeared.
Beneath his feet, Jingyi’s Double C retracted their bows and asked Wei Shi for a brief period of peace. On the inside of the wrist that Ming Yao raised up, traces of blue dye could be seen. Other than Ming Yao, there were also countless other spots of indigo.
In this sacrifice, almost every Mayan was painted with indigo.
It was either on their arms or their cheeks, and the place that was marked with dye usually carried traces of scarring.
The Mayans had cut the wounds themselves.
In this sacrifice, the indigo color was actually a sign of voluntary sacrifice of flesh and blood to the gods.
“!!!” Wu Jin abruptly figured it out.
The sacrifice to the sun god on the pyramid required the Mayan people to pray to the gods with their blood. The flesh and blood that would be offered up to the sun god was marked with indigo, and when the sacrifice began, the place that was covered with blue dye would be cut!
Ming Yao had marked his wrist, so what needed to be cut was only a two centimeter wound that covered the Jingyi logo.
For Wu Jin…
Wu Jin looked at himself, covered in blue.
Was he going to have to chop himself up as an offering to the gods?!
No wonder so many people around here admired him.
Wasn’t this a public suicide announcement!
On the pyramid, Wu Jin, who’d run halfway up the altar, suddenly turned around!
Beneath the pyramid, the Mayan people who had originally been eulogizing the devout Wu Jin started to yell angrily. Countless javelins were thrown at Wu Jin, and in contrast to how respected he’d been before, he was now faced with ridicule, spitting, jeers, blasphemy, and talk about making the gods angry…
Wu Jin howled as he dodged the javelins. The 16 year old Wei Shi’s expression suddenly changed, and he decisively charged forward to protect Wu Jin. At this moment, Wu Jin raised up his gun and aimed it at Jingyi.
Big liars!
All the clues had finally come together.
––There was no illegal team formation warning because Jingyi had poured the sacrificial dye on Wu Jin’s head at the very start.
––Zuo Botang’s suggestion was meant to induce Wu Jin to go out of his way to climb the pyramid, throwing himself into the net.
––At this pace, the first scream they’d heard when they entered the instance was likely to be another player that Jingyi had tricked––
In the plan that Jingyi had set up, the last sacrifice to make the sun move was Wu Jin.
Beneath the stage, Zuo Botang made an apologetic gesture to Wu Jin, his expression gentle.
Ming Yao laughed loudly, “Who told you to cheat us in the pyramid! Hahahaha, those who cheat will get cheated too! The Mayan instance won’t eliminate people and would only toss you out of the instance at most––however, your alpaca is mine now!”
On the pyramid, Wu Jin was pressed down on the altar by six priests, and a sharp knife was about to be stabbed in!
Zuo Botang had already packed up their things quickly.
Ming Yao picked up Wu Jin’s alpaca with hands as fast as lightning and followed after his captain to run outside. While running, he also made it a point to stroke the alpaca’s fleece in an exaggerated manner, “So soft and fluffy! Your alpaca is gone!”
“Little Witch failed ! The alpaca has changed owners!”
“!!” At this time, Wu Jin really wanted to hold Ming Yao down and pluck out all his hair.
However, the six Mayan priests were very strong, and their sharp knives were now less than an inch away from Wu Jin’s chest. They chanted the incantations dedicated to the gods….
Wu Jin was going crazy, “26, 27––”
The sharp knives continued their advance. The altar’s mechanism rang out and was ready to pop Wu Jin out of the instance.
Wu Jin despaired, “28, 29––”
Ming Yao wondered, “What is he counting? Has Little Witch turned stupid?”
Zuo Botang frowned, but they could soon hear Wu Jin burst out with a delighted cry, “30!”
Beside the sacrificial platform.
The dozen or so priests who were holding down Wei Shi suddenly fell to the ground in a hurry.
The man walked up the blood stained steps of the altar and headed to Wu Jin.
It was like the approach of a god.
Juurensha: Sneaky, sneaky Jingyi Double C! Still a pretty good idea. (Although Ming Yao, you really love fluffy things, huh)