At this moment, the eyes of the statue on the stage suddenly moved. The clay-sculpted eyeballs tilted downward, looking slightly like a wrathful diamond. Amid the chaos, no one noticed the strangeness of this evil statue.
"Ahh!"
A woman's scream interrupted the chaotic scene.
Just as if a pause button had been pressed, everyone stopped their actions, including the black-clothed men who had just been confronting Nian Nian.
The group of banquet attendees who had gathered at the door to escape formed a circle.
Nian Nian looked up at the evil statue and thought to herself that it was bad.
The evil statue was now emitting a thick evil aura. The black mist that had initially floated in a disorderly mass had now been compressed into a line. This line wound and extended in the sky, and the end of the line was right in the middle of the crowd.
Nian Nian quickly stepped forward, pushed through the crowd, and squeezed to the front. She saw a man lying on the ground twitching all over, as if having an epileptic seizure. The man twitched for a while before kicking his legs and stopping.
"Should we call the police?"
A person whispered behind Nian Nian.
Nian Nian turned around and looked at the evil statue again. The curve of the evil statue's mouth was wider. The man lying on the ground suddenly opened his eyes and grabbed his neck with his hands in a panic, as if he had been strangled by something.
He made a choking sound in his throat, his veins bulged, his eyes were bulging and full of bloodshot eyes. After struggling for a while without any results, he stretched out a hand and said two words with difficulty: "Help me!"
Nian Nian was helpless. The evil statue was extracting the man's life force, and all of this had a causal relationship. The man had reached a certain contract with the evil statue. From the body to the soul, as long as the evil statue wanted, it could take it away anytime, anywhere. Once this contract was reached, no one could solve it.
The man saw that the others were indifferent and gave up resisting. He looked around for a week. His eyes were full of despair and hatred, as if he wanted to remember this group of onlookers before he died.
Maybe he was still naively defined as becoming a ghost and coming back for revenge.
Finally, the man died with his eyes open. His body began to change, gradually shriveling like being extracted by a huge straw until he became a mummy.
Nian Nian saw the man's soul floating out of his body, slowly floating along the black line to the front of the evil statue, and gradually being integrated into the statue, where his soul was destroyed.
Then another person fell down, still in the same state and the same way of dying. After the second person became a mummy, this group of onlookers finally realized something. Some of them began to bang on the door more frantically, while others sat on the ground in despair and wailed.
All of this was in vain. From the moment they worshipped the evil statue because of their own desires, their current ending had already been doomed. This group of people had already become the nutrients of the evil god, and the humans being raised had nowhere to escape.
One person after another fell down. Nian Nian could only watch all of this happen helplessly. The evil statue became even more powerful after absorbing the flesh, blood, and souls of so many people at once. It emitted more evil auras, entangled more people, and killed them.
There was no solution.
In the current situation, other than watching them die, there was simply no way at all.
These souls had to be exorcised. Even if they were to unconsciously go to the underworld, they couldn't continue like this.
"At that time, the Heavenly Lord Who Saves from Suffering fills the boundless world. He constantly uses his divine power to rescue and save all sentient beings, enabling them to leave the path of confusion. Sentient beings are unaware, like the blind who see the sun and moon. I originally came from the primordial void, and I am able to rescue and lead all sentient beings. The auspicious clouds open the door of life, and the auspicious smoke blocks the door of death..."
Nian Nian closed her eyes and began to recite the scriptures to exorcise the souls.
The evil statue sensed that someone was competing with it, so it released more evil auras. This aura condensed into a physical form and flew towards Nian Nian with a stench of blood.
Shen Weixun was fully concentrated on this tug-of-war. As soon as the evil aura moved, he was already by Nian Nian's side one step earlier.
"The beginning gives rise to the Primal Beginning, the Origin, and the Beginning, so as to communicate with the profound and mysterious senses. Save all sins and save all hardships. Soar above the source of immortality, and be naturally clear and pure. All of them receive the power of the Great Dao, so as to subdue all demons..."
Just as this group of evil auras was about to approach the two of them, it suddenly braked and turned, flying towards the mermaid.
Nian Nian suddenly looked up and quickly rushed forward to cover her entire body with spiritual power, wanting to withstand this evil aura head-on.
But she was still one step too late. The evil aura flew directly into the mermaid's body with a strong sense of purpose. The evil statue's strategy of luring the tiger away from the mountain could be said to have been very successful.
The mermaid was eroded by the evil aura. Her body, which had originally looked very weak, became even more uncomfortable. Her consciousness gradually blurred, and she fell to the ground with a thud.
The evil statue gave up absorbing flesh and blood and directly extracted the mermaid's soul.
Nian Nian quickly stepped forward and circulated all of the power in her body. After covering it on her hands, she wanted to completely cut off the evil aura.
But at this time, the evil statue had already separated the mermaid's soul from her body. The soul slowly floated up, and then another soul followed.
One body with two souls?!
It was actually one body with two souls.
They weren't even from the same race!
Who could tell her why there were two souls in a mermaid's body?!
Nian Nian's head was full of question marks, but now was obviously not the time to be entangled in such a question.
She couldn't delay any longer.
Nian Nian directly bit her tongue.
The talisman drawn with essence blood at this time was qualitatively different from the talisman drawn on paper.
She quickly drew a thunder talisman and threw it at the evil statue.
Purple lightning was quickly summoned. Dark clouds began to slowly gather directly above the hotel, and the light of the lightning could be seen faintly in the clouds.
The people passing by on the street couldn't help but stop in their tracks and exclaim when they saw the strange changes in the sky.
"Fall!"
Nian Nian guided the thunder talisman and let out a loud shout.
The lightning fell in response. The lightning, which was as thick as a baby's arm, quickly fell and smashed onto the head of the evil statue with a thud.
The purple lightning flashed so brightly that it was impossible to open one's eyes. The statue fell to the ground in response and shattered into pieces.
Because of the lightning, the entire electrical system of the hotel building was paralyzed, and everyone was immediately plunged into darkness. The evil aura that made people feel uncomfortable all over disappeared.
Before the power went out, Nian Nian saw the mermaid's soul fly back into her body.
At the same time, another group of black-clothed men rushed out and directly grabbed the mermaid and walked towards the back door.
Seeing this situation, Nian Nian didn't say a word and chased after them.
Daoist Qingyun followed, but he couldn't continue to act with Nian Nian.
They had to search the entire hotel from top to bottom, so they had to split into groups of two and search separately.
Nian Nian and Shen Weixun climbed up three floors together.
Just as they reached the fourth floor, she suddenly heard the sound of noisy footsteps and a woman's scream.
She could still faintly hear the woman shouting for help.
Nian Nian quickly turned the corner and saw a few strong men wearing sunglasses forcibly dragging a young girl towards the lobby. The young girl's eyes were full of tears. When she saw Nian Nian, she struggled even more fiercely.
"Help me! Save me!"
Nian Nian took a look at these men. Their appearances were the same as the black-clothed men from before.
These people still looked calm when they saw the evil statue massacre people.
They must be in the same group as the people who created the evil statue.
Whether they were good or bad was obvious.
While the blood on her tongue hadn't been used up yet, Nian Nian directly drew a thunder talisman on her hand.
Doing this could achieve the effect of palm thunder, and she could control the lightning herself.
The purple lightning flashed and wound around her arm. Facing this group of strong men, Nian Nian opened her palm and controlled the lightning to rush forward.
One hit was a must.
The strong man who was hit flew into the air. The power of the heavenly thunder was immeasurable. It was impossible for an ordinary person to be unscathed after being hit by this, but this strong man still stumbled to his feet.
The man looked wooden, as if he couldn't feel any pain, and continued to rush towards Nian Nian.
Nian Nian frowned and rushed forward. Her small body jumped up, and she jumped up to two meters high.
She kicked the black-clothed man who was approaching her with a roundhouse kick. With a flash of her figure, she rolled in the air for a circle and arrived in front of the young girl.
The young girl was so scared that she was shivering. She didn't even care about being surprised by the young girl's gorgeous figure.
She even shamelessly hid behind Nian Nian.
These black-clothed men weren't human.
Nian Nian didn't feel any signs of life on them.
They weren't afraid of pain or lightning, and they didn't seem to be evil ghosts either.
It was a bit troublesome. The most important thing was that wasting time with them would only be a waste of time.
Nian Nian turned around and saw a storage room with a hidden location at the corner. Taking advantage of the time when Third Senior Brother was entangled with the black-clothed men, she took out the invisibility talisman that she had prepared outside, stuck one on herself and the young girl, grabbed her hand, and rushed over.
She then slipped out of the door and stuck one on Third Senior Brother as well.
Grabbing Shen Weixun's hand, she rushed back into the storage room in a hurry.
The black-clothed men lost their target and walked around in circles like headless flies.
Nian Nian looked through the crack in the door and finally felt relieved.
Shen Weixun secretly removed his and Nian Nian's invisibility talismans and sized up the young girl. He squinted his eyes and asked in a low voice, "Who are you? Why do they want to capture you?"
"I... My name is Lu Yiyi. I'm the second daughter of the chairman of the Lu Corporation. My father... My father wants to sacrifice me..."
"Sacrifice? What do you mean?"
Nian Nian remembered the scenes that she had seen in the hotel on the first floor.
She always felt that what this girl said should be closely related to that evil statue.
"My mother got sick and died when I was young. My father was depressed for a long time, but he still took good care of my brother and me. Later, my father finally slowly walked out of the shadows and married a woman who looked very similar to my mother. That woman told my father that she could make my biological mother come back to life..."
Lu Yiyi's voice trembled, and there was still a hint of sobbing.
After she tried to calm down for a while, she continued, "That woman's name is Liao Qing. She's very good at disguising herself and has deceived my father and me. At first, I thought that she was a good woman, and I was very close to her. I really regarded her as my mother. It wasn't until that day when I saw what she did in the storage room..."
At midnight, the antique clock on the wall was ringing. Lu Yiyi groggily got out of bed and half-closed her eyes as she prepared to drink some water. As soon as she reached the downstairs, she saw that the light in the storage room on the first floor was on, and the door was ajar.
She curiously walked forward and saw her stepmother kneeling on the ground with her eyes closed and her hands clasped together as she continuously kowtowed and bowed. In front of her was a statue. Most of the statues were carved with half-closed eyes, looking kind and gentle.
However, this statue, although it was also sitting on a lotus flower and holding a pearl, had a very evil expression. Its eyes were wide open, and the curve of its mouth was very small. No matter how one looked at it, it made people feel uncomfortable.
"May the gods bless me. I must give birth to a son."
Liao Qing mumbled to herself. After saying that, she also kowtowed three times devoutly. Lu Yiyi was stunned. The scene in front of her exuded a strange feeling.
Lu Yiyi turned her gaze back to the statue. Just one glance almost scared her soul out. The statue was actually alive!
The statue's eyes moved slightly and stared at Lu Yiyi for a full three seconds. The originally smiling mouth suddenly opened wide, as if it had locked onto some prey. Lu Yiyi's mind went blank, and her legs went soft as she fell to the ground. She let out a scream that woke up her father and brother.