"That's all from me." Li Kong ended his story and looked at the girl in front of him.
Her eyes widened in shock as she covered her mouth before mumbling something.
"There's a second altar in the forest?" She dived deep inside of her own mind before something flashed through her memories.
"Wait! Could it be?" She recalled the doctor's saying about the smell coming out from the forest.
"Could it be what?" Li Kong stared at her with questioning look.
Yu Mei told Li Kong everything she experienced and about the smell the doctor was talking about and by the time Yu Mei's finished her story, Li Kong's eyelids opened in shock.
"There's a third altar inside of the forest?!" Li Kong exclaimed. "But why?"
Both of them fell into silent and pondered for a few seconds before a click was heard.
Hearing the click sound, Li Kong tried to track the source and found the sound was coming from the bead.
Li Kong then picked up the bead onto his palm and asked, "What's wrong, White? Do you know something?"
"I'm afraid that the situation is worser than I expected." His tone unusually darker.
"Why?" Yu Mei gazed at the bead with a puzzling look.
"I'm wrong about the true purpose of the altar. I thought it was just a simple animal sacrificial but this..." White said.
"Wrong? Then what else could it be?" Li Kong asked.
"The altar indeed was crafted to evoke an ritual." White explained. "But if there was more than one altar in the surrounding than thing might be more complex than we had thought." White observed the youths' face before continuing. "Did you notice something strange about the altar's placement, Li Kong?"
"The altar's placement?" Li Kong repeated before reorganized his thoughts. "The first altar we found was in the east, the second was to the north and the third one might be to the south." His words slowed down toward the end and then, realization shock his entire body.
"The altars! They're circling around the village!" Li Kong exclaimed loudly.
"Correct." White replied.
Shock flooded Yu Mei's complexion and unknowingly pinched her chin in attempt to work her brain but suddenly her focus was interrupted as she felt a force pulling her forward.
After a brief moment of confusion, clarity returned to her eyes and she struggled to maintain her foot balance as Li Kong was pulling her to somewhere.
"Hey! I almost fall just now! What are you doing?" Yu Mei voiced out her annoyance.
In their rush, rather than answering her question, Li Kong mumbled, "This is bad."
"Hah?" Yu Mei opened up her mouth in confusion as she continued to stare Li Kong.
"I said this is bad! We must hurry and search south!" Li Kong said.
"But why- Kyaa!!!" Yu Mei was about to continued her words before suddenly arms were placed behind her knees and back and she felt her body afloat.
"Hang on tight!" Li Kong adjusted her position.
Feeling the weight slowly leaving her body, Yu Mei blinked blankly before saying, "What's going on? Why are you carryi- Ah!!!"
The world around them turned blurry and her hair flowed wildly with the air.
Without herself knowing, she already locked her hands tight around Li Kong's neck as she kept on screaming.
Few seconds had passed and it seemed like Yu Mei had adjusted to the speed and her screaming subsided. She slowly lifted her chin and saw Li Kong's unusual serious face and began to talk to herself.
'It's weird seeing you with that serious look.' Yu Mei carefully observed his face, the burrowed eyebrows, the straight lips, the sharp look in his eyes. It was all a stranger to the cheerful, always smiling, and carefree Li Kong she knew since their childhood.
She felt like Li Kong had changed so much in such a short time to the point it was unbelievable to thought he would turned out to be like this.
'But it's not all bad.' Without her knowledge, a smile crept out on her face.
Just because Li Kong had learned to put a serious face didn't necessarily mean he wasn't the trickster Li Kong who had been by her side since their early days anymore. It simply meant he had grown up and she was happy to be there for him.
But still to able made Li Kong's complexion to be as serious as this, the situation must had been dire.
Yu Mei broke from her long daze and looked at her surrounding now.
Her field of vision was covered with the vibrant color of green of the leaves and tall trees towering up everywhere.
Slowly, she felt Li Kong was slowing down and shortly after, Li Kong stopped and put her back down. His breathing unstable and his chest constantly moving.
After that, he trudged his way forward and said, "Let's go."
But before he could take another step, he felt something grabbed on his hand and he turned back and Yu Mei was pulling his clothes with an expression full of concern.
"What... are you doing?" Li Kong said with a breathy sound.
"Let's take a break." Yu Mei replied.
"No." He shook his head. "We, we can't wait. We have to hur-" Just as Li Kong tried to turn away, Yu Mei prepared her lungs and shouted.
"I said, take a break!" Her voice resounded throughout the forest, driving away the wild animals surrounding them, emptying the whole area in the process.
Li Kong still felt his ears constantly ringing and out of blue, Yu Mei pushed him down to lean on a tree trunk before sitting herself down right beside him.
"Sit down here and rest! Geez. Why can't you listen for once? You barely able to breathe and you wanted to wander inside of the forest? Is your head empty just like your name?" She sent a sharp glare before reaching out for a fan tied on her waist and using it on Li Kong.
Feeling the cool wind brushing against his face, Li Kong visibly relaxed and enjoyed the cool sensation.
"Hah... Yu Mei. I'm sorry." Li Kong apologized sincerely.
"Really. What do I have to do to you?" Yu Mei let out a smile before shifting her position and asked him, "So? What made you hurry like this?"
Still recovering, Li Kong tried to stabilize his breath and replied, "It was because of the position of the altar."
"Hmm?" Yu Mei raised her eyebrow. "What's the deal with it?"
Li Kong took a deep breath, "The altars were circling around the village. Just think about it the altars we know for certain were located in the east and north and from the doctor's words, there might be another altar in the south and if the doctor's words were true, where do you think the next altar would be?"
Yu Mei pondered for a moment before something flickered in her mind, "The west!"
Li Kong nodded and looked into the deeper part of the forest before continuing, "And if there really an altar in here, south, and in the west, then what would happen if you draw a line from each altar to the center point?"
Li Kong detected for any fallen branches and found one. After that, with the branches, he drew many houses and an oval with a stick on top of it in the four cardinal directions and then he dragged the branches through the tough soil, creating a line from each altars to the center.
Yu Mei slowly watched Li Kong dragging the branches before something struck her head like a lightning, causing her eyes broadened up.
"It all pointing to the village." Yu Mei muttered in a low voice. Her voice filled with grim.
"I don't know what exactly will happen to the village but I think it won't be anything good." Li Kong said.
"Sacrifice." A light voice resounded.
"White?" Li Kong took a quick look at his waist pouch which contained the pearly white bead.
"It's a sacrificial ritual. A ritual means to sacrifice the whole village." White further added.
Li Kong and Yu Mei simultaneously stunned beyond words as their mouth opened like a fish.
Li Kong hurriedly reached out to the bead. He opened his waist pouch and took the white bead on top of his palm and shook it.
"White! What do you mean by that?" Fear and anxiety overruled his entire being.
His breath turned heavy and his face became contorted as he asked the white bead for his response.
A bloody scene formed in his head. The smell of iron filled the air and the village was soaked in blood. The familiar faces he knew lied lifelessly on the ground as he watched over them.
'No, no, no, no, no, no!' Li Kong was aghast. He was terrified. His breath shaky, his eyes trembled, his whole body shook. Each seconds passed only served to further deepened his anxiety.
Pa!
A crisp sound resounded in the forest as Li Kong slowly reaching out for his cheek and felt the blood rushing through the surface as it reddened.
"Control yourself!" White cried out. "Didn't you said to me you would be a hero? What kind of hero cowered in fear like this!"
White's words washed upon his face and jolted him awake. After that, he looked at his side to found Yu Mei looked at him with a worry in her gaze.
"Li Kong." Yu Mei spoke while taking his hands and enwrapping it with her warmth. "It's okay. Don't be afraid. We'll put a stop to this and the village will be peaceful once again."
Li Kong met her eyes in the air and from there, he could felt the resoluteness radiated from the girl's pupils but he couldn't help to also notice her hands trembled slightly.
Met with the girl's eyes, Li Kong forcefully calmed his breath and cleaned off his mind from the unnecessary thoughts.
'White is right. I will be a hero. A hero that will save the village. How can a hero be terrified from something like this?' Li Kong resolved in his heart to never wavered again.
Feeling the tremble from his hand had disappeared, Yu Mei released his hand and observed his expression carefully.
Li Kong took a deep breath and standing up before offering Yu Mei a hand which she grasped silently. Then, Li Kong pulled her and released his grip after she had stood properly.
"Let's hurry and search for the altar. Evening is not long." Li Kong said and stepped forward deeper to the forest.
"Mhm." Yu Mei nodded and silently followed him from behind.
After minutes of searching, the familiar pungent smell detected by Li Kong's nose as he covered his nose quickly with his fingers.
Yu Mei noticed the smell too and quickly covered her nose and mouth with her hand.
"Is this the smell you talked about?" Yu Mei spoke with a squeezed voice.
Li Kong nodded and proceeded forward to the source of the smell and after walking through a giant bushes, the smell further thickened and even managed to crept into the small crack of his fingers and invaded his sense of smelling with a suffocating aroma.
Li Kong felt his throat was stuck and his body screamed at him to stayed far away from whatever he was smelling but he gritted through the sensation and trudged forward.
Li Kong remembered about Yu Mei and worryingly looked at her and found her seemingly in a similar state with him with her eyes creased and she further tightened the closure between her hand and nostrils.
After discovering there was nothing wrong with Yu Mei, Li Kong continued his way and lied in the end of his destination was the thing he thought of.
A mountain of fleshes and maggots stood tall before him. With every detail of the mountain was almost identical with what he had witnessed before.
His stomach acid surged up and threatened to burst out but Li Kong forcefully swallowed them and a bitter taste spread among his tongue.
Li Kong had managed to keep a calm composure with the sheer slaughter in front of his eyes but the same couldn't be said about the girl accompanying him as Yu Mei ran to somewhere else.
The bead flown out from Li Kong's waist pouch and levitated around the mountain.
"The altar was from a month ago." White stated calmly.
Now that Li Kong had gone through the hardest part, he took a good look at the mountain of flesh and desperately trying to hold his stomach.
Just like the altar before heads was placed in front of the mountain, but it was neither a bunny nor a deer like Xin Qiangdu had said, it was fox.
Although the maggots had eaten a part of its head but Li Kong still could see the faint resemblance of fox on its head which still had some fur on it.
The wooden sign placed behind the mountain was identical with the one he saw days before with the only difference being the type of animals it used as accessories.
After that, Li Kong waited for the floating bead to say something as it continued to roamed around the altar and inspected it before flying back to Li Kong.
The voices inside of the bead told him there wasn't anything else to look at and went back inside of his waist pouch.
Left with no purpose, Li Kong stood before the altar and silently recited a prayer before flames flowing out from the top of his knuckle and swallowed the mountain whole.
Smokes slowly soared to the sky and following the cremation, Li Kong heard footsteps and checked on it only to found the pale face Yu Mei was heading toward him.
Li Kong relaxed his sense and waited her to stand on his side and judged her from her complexion.
"You look bad." Li Kong plainly stated.
Yu Mei didn't refute it and replied, "I think I throw up everything I ate since last night."
"Ew, gross." Li Kong distanced himself.
Feeling a little bit annoyed, Yu Mei closed their distance with a step and pinched his side side.
"Aw! What's that for?" Li Kong rubbed his waist furiously and glared at her.
Yu Mei turned away her head and whistled. A beautiful melody danced in the air before slowly diminishing and swallowed by the crackling of the flame.
With each other by their side, they watched the flame danced around the air. After that, Yu Mei glanced at Li Kong's expression and the gaze of his eyes locked at the mountain as if he was trying to capture every single second of it to his mind.
Looking at his solemn figure, Yu Mei hesitantly tried to reach for his hand but fell short each time as her hand failed to reach him properly that was until she gathered all of her courage and snatched Li Kong's palm and clasped it within her own palm.
Li Kong felt the warmth sensation from other people and looked at the culprit, who her head already turned to the opposite direction, in bewilderment before smiling.
'Even in this moment you still tried to comfort me.'
Li Kong knew what it felt like seeing the altar for the first time. The impact it gave to him was so big that he was feeling down for the entire day before Yu Mei able to talk him out of it and now the girl had seen the altar for herself but even though, she was horrified to point of pale, she still tried to comfort him.
After that, he further tightened the fingers on his palm and like that, they spent a long time staring wordlessly at the burning altar before making their ways back home.