"What the heck… it's a goblin skin suit!"
Ye Feng exclaimed in surprise upon seeing what He Shang had produced.
"We're already near the altar. There are many goblins here, and they are very strong. Rushing in directly won't work!"
"This goblin skin suit will come in handy!"
He Shang explained with a chuckle.
The group exchanged no words and quickly donned the goblin skin suits.
After checking everyone's suits, He Shang poured several bottles of foul-smelling liquid over them, making Xiao Xiao frown.
"This liquid can mask our scent and help us evade the goblins' inspection!"
He Shang turned to Ye Feng, "Ye Feng, you collected quite a few goblin shaman skull staffs earlier, right? We'll each carry one later; otherwise, it might be difficult to get through!"
"Alright!"
Ye Feng nodded. With a flash of light, several goblin shaman skull staffs appeared on the ground.
Then, He Shang briefed the others, specifically the two newcomers, Ye Feng and Xiao Xiao, on a few more points of caution. He then took the lead, and the others nodded and quickly followed.
...
"Grok grok!~"
As soon as Ye Feng and the others, clad in goblin skin suits, reached a roadblock, two goblins with hoarse cries came up to investigate. One of them was a goblin shaman.
"Grok grok!~"
He Shang, walking at the front, also let out a couple of hoarse calls to the inspecting goblins. If Ye Feng hadn't known it was He Shang, he would have thought it was a real goblin.
"Grok!~"
"Sniff~ sniff sniff!"
The goblin shaman let out a strange cry and sniffed He Shang vigorously, as if confirming his identity.
"Grok!~!"
He Shang roared, and a flicker of wood-elemental arcane energy flashed across his body. The goblin shaman yelped and retreated a step, looking at He Shang warily.
The other goblins, armed with weapons, also surrounded them, but they didn't attack Ye Feng and the others, their expressions showing a considerable degree of apprehension.
"Grok!~"
He Shang let out a hoarse cry, pointed at Ye Feng and the others behind him, who were also holding skull staffs, then let out another "grok~" cry before walking forward on his own.
The goblin shaman that had stopped them hesitated for a moment, then approached Ye Feng and the others. It let out a few hoarse cries and sniffed again, but it soon let them pass...
...
"Whoa, that was close. I thought we were discovered!"
Once they were a good distance away from the goblins, Xiao Xiao let out a relieved sigh and whispered.
"The goblin kingdom has a strict hierarchy. That goblin shaman might have sensed something suspicious, but seeing so many goblin shamans with us, it didn't dare to provoke us directly!"
He Shang chimed in, his voice also kept low.
"Uncle He Shang, you understand goblin language?"
Xiao Xiao quickened her pace and looked at He Shang curiously.
"Ahem~"
He Shang cleared his throat. "I was just mimicking goblin syllables and making random noises... I don't actually know the meaning of goblin calls... I was just trapped in the goblin kingdom for a long time once and learned a few things..."
"Grok grok!~"
Just then, a series of goblin cheers echoed from ahead.
"Such a strong smell of blood!"
Ye Feng frowned deeply.
"It's the altar! The goblin sacrifice has begun!"
At this moment, He Shang's voice came from the front.
"Ugh! Ugh!~"
"Wuuu~ Ugh! Ugh!"
Immediately following were the dry heaves of Xiao Xiao and Xiao Lu. The two women, who had been close behind He Shang, now retreated rapidly, finding a spot to retch.
"What's happening?"
Ye Feng, who had been observing their surroundings, quickly moved forward to investigate.
"Hiss..."
Upon seeing the scene behind a large boulder ahead, Ye Feng couldn't help but gasp. "This... this is such insanely depraved beastliness!"
Ye Feng uttered the words almost through gritted teeth!
About five hundred meters in front of him, there was a massive stone platform resembling a pyramid. On it was a large pool, and around the pool, countless young girls' corpses were hanging upside down, too many to count.
The girls' clothes were all tattered, barely covering them, and their bodies were covered in all sorts of horrific wounds... Their expressions were extremely contorted, clearly having suffered immense torture before their deaths...
The girls were all head-down, their necks slit... The liquid surging with blood in the large pool was the blood flowing from those girls...
And on the ground at the edge of the giant pyramid-like stone platform lay countless human skeletons...
Now, hordes of goblins were dancing and cheering on top of these human skeletons...
A faint breeze blew across the blood pool, carrying an unbearable stench of blood. Even Ye Feng felt a churning in his stomach!
"So... so that's why we haven't seen a single woman captured by goblins on our way here!"
Witnessing this scene, even the tough guy Alak's voice trembled slightly.
"Yuan Ling... you came here last time... was the goblin sacrifice... like this?"
Ye Feng turned to look at Yuan Ling.
"No... no, it wasn't... While there was a sacrifice last time, the scale wasn't this outrageous!"
"And there weren't this many goblins gathered..."
Yuan Ling shook her head, her expression filled with surprise and even more so with worry.
"Dong dong dong!~"
At this moment, goblins began beating drums made from human leg bones around the stone platform on the giant pyramid.
As the drumbeats began, the goblin shamans surrounding the massive blood pool waved their skull staffs and then struck the blood pool.
The eerie black runes on the walls of the blood pool suddenly emitted a black glow. The blood in the pool, as if drawn by some power, began to transform into wisps of blood mist, gradually floating into the air, eventually forming a vast expanse of blood-red fog...
Under the night sky, the clear moonlight seemed to be dyed blood-red by the blood-red mist...
"Ye Feng, the goblins are about to begin that summoning ritual. We need to hurry to the altar at the very top of the pyramid!"
At this moment, Yuan Ling spoke to Ye Feng.
"Alright!"
Immediately, Ye Feng and his party quickly approached the pyramid.
Because of the sheer number of goblins here, almost shoulder to shoulder, and their continuous cheering and strange movements, Ye Feng's group of somewhat odd "goblins," despite their suspicious appearance, didn't attract much attention...
"Dong dong dong!"
"Grok grok!~"
"Whoo whoo~ hoo~"
As Ye Feng and the others reached the base of the pyramid, they frowned, listening to the increasingly intense cacophony of cries around them.
"Tonight's sacrifice is highly unusual. We didn't encounter any goblins during the day because they all gathered here,"
Alak scanned their surroundings and said.
"Miss Yuan Ling, up there... there are so many Goblin Paladins... and Goblin Priest Guards!"
"The one on the altar is likely a Goblin Hierophant, but I didn't dare get too close for fear of revealing ourselves. The pressure from the altar is too immense, far exceeding what we encountered last time, or the Goblin Priest we met yesterday!"
He Shang, using the shadows and his superior camouflage skills, squeezed through layers of goblins to scout the top of the pyramid before rushing back to speak quickly to Yuan Ling...