All the residents of Pilion Village gathered at the edge of the swamp, and when the sun was about to set, the sacrificial ceremony officially began.
Three young men carried the totem pole through the crowd to the edge of the swamp, and inserted the totem pole into the wet soil.
Immediately afterwards, a group of men and women, whose hands were tied with straw ropes, came to the sidelines under the escort of spear-wielding warriors.
These prisoners looked depressed, most of them had signs of being beaten, and their eyes were full of fear and despair.
Gao Fei inquired about Pep and learned that they were all prisoners captured during the last attack on Xiulu Village, and were selected as sacrifices for Bixi's celebration ceremony.
These lambs waiting to be slaughtered obviously already knew their upcoming fate.
In the past, in their own village, they had witnessed with their own eyes what would happen to the captured enemies.
There is no difference between the two.
The last officiant who appeared was the current ruler of Pilion Village, Andre "The Crocodile".
Exactly like the one in the legend, this man was three meters tall, with an animal skin apron wrapped around his waist, exposing his muscular upper body and thick legs. His skin was covered with a thick layer of scales, which shone in the sunset.
Jade-like luster.
What's even more shocking is that his head looks exactly like a crocodile, with a broad and powerful long snout tightly closed, and sharp fangs exposed at the corners of his mouth.
As soon as Andre appeared on the stage, he firmly attracted everyone's attention. The villagers raised their arms and cheered wildly at him.
Gao Fei stood in the crowd and looked at Andre "The Crocodile" calmly, the fifth-ranked apostle of the Knights of the Holy Blood.
His eyes quickly shifted to the giant crocodile next to Andre.
This giant crocodile is 15 meters long from head to tail. It must be Andre's partner "Crocodile Angel".
In addition to its extremely large size, what impressed Goofy the most was the crocodile angel's tail.
The base of this monster's tail is swollen like an onion, resembling the inflatable bladder of an old-fashioned blower, and looks very weird.
Gao Fei knows that the twelve angels of the Holy Blood Knights are all secondary mutated monsters.
The prototype of Crocodile Angel is a not-so-unusual mutated giant crocodile, and the onion-shaped raised organ on its tail must be the product of another mutation after taking the hero drug.
Out of curiosity, Gao Fei asked Brother Pep about it.
"The crocodile angel's tail is hollow and can absorb water, store it, and spray it out during battle, with great destructive power."
Pep had fought against the Crocodile Angel before, and recalling the experience of being hit by a high-pressure water cannon on its tail, he couldn't help showing a lingering fear.
"I see."
Gao Fei suddenly nodded, secretly thinking about how to crack Crocodile Angel's tail hydraulic cannon when there was a conflict in the future.
The prisoners who were escorted to the swamp totaled 40, including men, women, old and young.
Andrei personally selected 12 healthy ones from among these prisoners as sacrifices.
The remaining prisoners were either old, weak, sick, or seriously injured in the battle.
Andrea declared that these unsound people were unworthy of being sacrificed in sacred ceremonies and were still imprisoned.
The oldest shaman in Pilion Village, with his face covered in colorful tattoos and his body covered in lime, held a sacrificial dagger made from the leg bones of a crane and camel in both hands, and raised it solemnly above his head.
Andrei took the dagger from the shaman's hand and turned towards the prisoners standing side by side by the water.
At the last moment of their lives, these sacrifices screamed and cried in despair, trying to escape.
However, their struggles were in vain. They took no more than two steps before being forced back with spears by the vigilant warriors around them.
Andre, who was as tall as an iron tower, picked out women and children from the twelve sacrifices like dolls in each hand, stabbed them one by one with a dagger, pushed them down the swamp, and left them rolling and wailing in the mire.
The crocodiles entrenched in the swamp were quickly attracted by the smell of blood and greedily chased their prey.
A swarm of crocodiles hunted six injured women and children, and there was no suspense about the outcome.
Screams came one after another, and the water surface was dyed scarlet.
Gao Fei watched the sacrifice scene and felt extremely complicated.
The cruelty and bloody nature of this sacrifice did not surprise him.
What really surprised him was that he could stand by and silently endure this tragedy happening in front of his eyes.
This feeling is like watching a disaster movie in the theater. I can't say that I haven't been touched in my heart. I feel sympathy for the victim and disgust with the perpetrator, but the emotion is not strong enough to make him get angry and must take action.
Stop this barbaric blood sacrifice.
Why is this?
Gao Fei fell into deep thought.
Before arriving, Tang Ning said that the reason why Pip was unwilling to bring Jiang Feng and others to visit Bixi's celebration ceremony was because he was worried that they were either young and impulsive, or had too strong a sense of compassion and justice, and could not help but meddle in other people's affairs.
However, Pep seems to think that it is not a problem to bring Goofy to visit this blood sacrifice.
Goofy is not the youngest SWAT officer on the team.
Could it be that after getting along with each other for this period of time, Brother Pep has seen through that although Gao Fei is young, he is no longer energetic? Or has he seen through that he is a refined egoist at heart?
In his past duties, Gao Fei risked his life more than once to rescue people in disasters. It would be unfair to say that he lacked compassion and sense of justice.
However, he really doesn’t seem to have that strong sympathy for the Asmat people in front of him who are different from him in terms of skin color, language and cultural background...
If it were his compatriots in China who were treated as living sacrifices, Gao Fei felt that he would have been unable to resist taking action long ago.
From this point of view, although I work for a public welfare organization that transcends national boundaries and even dimensions, my thinking cannot truly treat everyone equally and is selfless, and I still cannot escape the narrow concept of nationalism.
There was no way, everyone had to face their true self. Gao Fei gave a self-deprecating smile, turned around and asked Pep and Tangning:
"Living people are being tortured and killed in the name of religious sacrifice. We have the ability to prevent this tragedy, but we are watching with cold eyes. Is this really okay?"
Tang Ning remained silent, hesitant on her face, and obviously conflicted in her heart.
Pep shook his head and stared at Gao Fei solemnly, still saying the same warning: "Mind your own business!"
"Brother Pep is right, we'd better mind our own business." Tangning finally chose to take the overall situation into consideration. "Unless the source of the revival of the blood sacrifice custom is completely eliminated, the two apostles of the Holy Blood Knights, Andre the Crocodile and
'Blade' Ximen, otherwise we can control it for a while, but not for the rest of our lives."
"Our Pilion Village is already relatively civilized, but the people in Xiulu Village are even more barbaric. Anyone who catches our people will be eaten by the whole village!" Pep said with a gloomy face.
