The corpse fragments were "crackling" and wailing, burning in the midday night.
Lu Li was taken to the square by the pagans and tied to a stone pillar carved with complicated runes and patterns.
The flames were burning. Professor Hagrid stepped onto the steps and stood in front of Lu Li holding a dagger wrapped in cloth.
"You want to sacrifice me to the evil god?" Lu Li asked Professor Hagrid who smiled gently.
"You don't seem surprised?" Professor Hagrid saw his own reflection in those calm black eyes.
"Just doubt."
For example, why they were simply imprisoned without any guards, or why the pagans bowed to them in the final dream.
"You trust others too easily."
Professor Hagrid said that opening Lu Li's head was like a butcher exposing the soft neck of a cow or sheep to be slaughtered.
"I will not change my judgment until suspicion accumulates to a certain level."
After all, Professor Hagrid's respect was never false, and this also made his betrayal surprising.
As he finished speaking, there was a tingling sensation on the back of his neck, and moist heat flowed along his neck and fell into the rune stone pillar that was close to his back.
"You did a good job, Your Excellency Lu Li." Professor Hagrid threw away the blood-stained dagger, retaining his humility towards Lu Li: "Even outstanding... We had imagined that it would take a long time to complete the prerequisites of the ceremony. My child Hisoka
Well, it was just the beginning of the plan. He should have pretended to be convinced and led us to escape. When he was about to succeed, he suddenly betrayed and let us be caught again. Then you escaped again and rescued me. It was my turn to betray... It was just yours.
Excellent performance allowed the ceremony to be completed ahead of schedule.”
"Now it seems that we were right not to be greedy and continue the ceremony." Professor Hagrid was about to leave the altar: "Otherwise, you might have discovered the truth earlier and managed to escape."
"Why."
Professor Hagrid stopped: "What are you referring to?"
The wound did not heal, and the blood flowed down the back of the neck and merged into the ravine carved by the stone pillar. "You are a professor at Giant Tree Academy. You have got what everyone wants, why did you join the Secret Cult of the Evil God?"
"It was already before you became a professor at Giant Tree Academy."
Due to blood loss, Lu Li's face began to turn pale. Even so, the calmness did not disappear from his face, as if he could escape from the predicament at any time.
However, the fact is that Lu Li has no way to escape, and rescue will not appear by coincidence at the last moment.
"No... Sir Lu Li, I joined the Church of Balance after becoming a professor at the college."
Professor Hagrid frankly revealed the fact of his betrayal: "Giant Tree Academy is not as glamorous as imagined... Do you know that junior professors are "consumables". In order to protect students, we will not learn anything beyond the basics."
Mysterious power, apart from knowledge itself, we are just ordinary people... unable to leave the tree canopy, unable to leave the midnight city, unable to have faith, I call it... a caged bird."
"From an objective point of view, Jushu Academy has done nothing wrong. We need protection, and students need protection. But life is not perfect. When we are hungry, we need food; when we are full, we need warmth; when we are warm
, we need safety; when we are safe, we need emotion...we get emotion, and want more...wealth, life, power...our desires are never satisfied, just like snakes, so we need
Faith comes to redeem the soul... The Church of Balance appeared at this time, helped me, and redeemed me at the same time."
"Do you want to know why I believe in the Church of Balance?"
Staring at the increasingly weak figure with his head gradually drooping, Professor Hagrid slowly told the last story Lu Li heard before he died. Gu
Professor Hagrid is very smart.
The title of "smart" has been with him since he was a child, and it also made him stand out from the candidates and become a member of the Giant Tree Academy.
But as Professor Haig said more than ten years later, people need warmth when they are full, safety when they are warm, and emotions when they are safe. Human desires can never be satisfied.
At that time, Professor Hagrid got everything that ordinary people could not achieve, and his desire grew, which reached its climax in that weird accident.
When help had not yet arrived and his wife Mim revealed her true face and could save their dying son, Professor Hagrid did not hesitate and paid the price and faith to save their child Sithorn.
"So... have you ever thought that... the incident that hurt Sithorn... might be controlled by the church..."
Lu Li's thinking became weak, and speaking became difficult.
The believers at the edge of the altar did not hear these blasphemous remarks, but the only one who heard them was Professor Hagrid, who was smart and rational.
“The Lamb of the Lord will not doubt the sheepdog,” he said. “The Lord of Balance will delight in the wonderful sacrifices we offer Him.”
Professor Hagrid walked backwards down the steps, raised his hands, placed them parallel to his chest at a distance apart, and kept his posture while raising his head and chanting.
"We use the opposition between light and darkness as our bones, the conflict between life and death as our flesh, the crossing of hope and despair as our blood, the changes in friendship and hostility as our sinews, the contradiction between trust and betrayal as our skin, and the harvest of capture and escape as our hair.
, the perfect ceremony arranged here is dedicated to you.”
The chants of the pagans gradually became clearer and overlapped. Regardless of Professor Hagrid's family, regardless of the pagans in the square, regardless of the corners of the camp and the outlines of patrols, their prayers converged and rang out over the camp.
Somewhere in the dark, some indescribable, indescribable, incomprehensible, incomprehensible hazy consciousness descended and approached the altar.
Lu Li, who was tied to the stone pillar, lowered his head, and his chest seemed to no longer rise and fall. As he reverberated in prayer, a symmetrical golden scale slowly unfolded behind him, like a weird and fantastic light wing.
After receiving the response from the gods, Professor Hagrid became even more enthusiastic and opened his arms to face the miracle: "Supreme truth, Lord of balance, please accept the sacrifices prepared for you by your devout believers!"
"Supreme Truth, Lord of Balance, please accept the sacrifices prepared for you by your devout followers!"
"This is...a false...balance."
At this time, weak whispers sounded faintly between the echoing prayers.
"The claws of the outer gods extend into the world...the surface is shrouded in darkness...weird things run rampant across the land...human beings shrink into corners...native gods are hunted..."
"Strong and weak...are they also balanced?"
"The opposition between light and darkness is the bone...the conflict between life and death is the flesh...the crossing of hope and despair is the blood...the changes in friendship and hostility are the sinews...the contradiction between development and betrayal is the skin...capture and escape
The harvest is for hair... and finally the reverse is formed in which the victim becomes the sacrificer... The perfect ritual thus arranged is dedicated to you...
The weak Lu Li raised his pale face and repeated the prayers of the believers. His dark eyes reflected the outlines of the believers in the camp square and their horrified faces.
"Supreme Truth...Master of Balance...please accept the sacrifices prepared for you by your devout followers..."
"The heretics who have turned their backs on the balanced truth..."