Walker Of The Worlds

Chapter 3915: Significance Of The Ritual

Silence settled over the summit once more as Lin Mu slowly looked toward the endless darkness stretching beyond the cave entrances. His original impression of the Mad Demon Depths had completely vanished.

This underground world extended far beyond a simple prison.

Someone had deliberately divided it into zones and entire ecosystems existed beneath the surface. Communities had emerged over centuries as prisoners established territories and Families endured across generations.

The Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect occasionally entered deeper regions. Yet even the oldest surviving prisoner knew almost nothing beyond the Second Zone.

That realization made one thing abundantly clear.

Everything Lin Mu had explored so far barely scratched the surface of the Mad Demon Depths.

Lin Mu remained silent for several moments as the information regarding the different zones settled within his mind. The Mad Demon Depths possessed far greater complexity than anyone on the surface likely imagined.

Whatever lay beneath the Heavenly Stream Guardian Sect had long since become its own isolated world. Then another thought returned to him: The ritual.

His gaze slowly shifted toward the crystal skull resting upon the grotesque effigy. Earlier, he had been forced to interrupt it. Now that the situation had calmed, there was finally time to understand it properly.

He looked toward the old man. "You."

The old man slowly raised his head and his expression still carried traces of exhaustion.

"What exactly is this ritual?" Lin Mu’s voice remained calm. "This time, I want you to answer."

The old man remained quiet for several breaths and eventually, he let out a long sigh while his shoulders sagged slightly.

"We have been performing it..." He paused. "...for a very long time."

His lone eye drifted toward the effigy. "So long that I don’t even know when it truly began. My predecessor performed it. His predecessor performed it and the elders before them performed it."

"When I first arrived I merely followed the others." The old man’s expression became distant. "Back then there was another elder. He led the ritual and when he died I became the one leading it."

He quietly laughed. "There was never any ceremony. The oldest survivor simply takes over."

Lin Mu listened patiently. "So even you don’t know its origin."

"No." The old man slowly shook his head. "I only know that it predates me. It predates everyone I’ve ever met."

Lin Mu folded his arms. "Then answer another question. Why?"

The old man blinked.

"Why perform it at all?" Lin Mu asked. "What purpose does it actually serve?"

The answer came immediately. "It keeps us alive."

Lin Mu frowned.

"That explanation makes no sense." His eyes shifted toward the exhausted prisoners. "They’ve all become weaker, the ritual drains their vitality and it leaves them barely able to stand. I watched every moment and I even experienced its effects myself."

He looked back toward the old man. "If anything... It shortens your lives."

The old man suddenly laughed, but the sound carried little joy. Instead it sounded weary. Almost pitying.

"My lord... You’ve only seen one side. It certainly weakens us and I’ve never denied that." He slowly pointed toward the crystal skull. "But if we refuse... It takes everything."

The surrounding prisoners quietly lowered their heads and several visibly shuddered. The old man’s voice became much softer.

"The Deity always hungers. The ritual simply teaches it patience."

Lin Mu remained silent as the old man continued.

"If we offer a little... It only takes a little. But if we delay... It grows impatient." His remaining eye darkened. "I’ve seen it happen. There were communities that thought they could keep all their vitality, so they stopped performing the ritual."

"They wanted to recover their strength." His fingers slowly clenched. "But they never received that chance."

"The Deity claimed all of it."

"Every last drop."

"They simply..." He paused. "...collapsed."

"There were no wounds, blood or any struggle, they just... Died." Silence spread throughout the summit as the old man’s voice lowered further. "We eventually understood that it will always feed."

"The only thing we control... is how much." He looked toward Lin Mu. "The ritual weakens us today, but we find food afterward. It allows us to recover a little so that when the next ritual arrives we still possess something left to offer."

"But if we refuse, there is no later. The Deity simply takes everything at once."

Lin Mu quietly studied the old man’s face and knew there was no deception or hesitation. The man genuinely believed every word. His conviction had been forged through nearly two centuries of survival inside the Mad Demon Depths.

Lin Mu could certainly see fragments of truth within the explanation.

The formation clearly attempted to harvest vitality as that much had already been proven. What remained uncertain was whether refusing the ritual actually caused the formation to respond more aggressively.

Perhaps the prisoners had accidentally discovered a method of regulating whatever ancient array existed here. Perhaps regular offerings genuinely reduced larger vitality fluctuations. The exact mechanism remained unknown.

Rather than immediately challenging the old man’s beliefs Lin Mu decided to continue gathering information.

He looked across the gathered prisoners. "Do the other communities perform the same ritual?"

"Every one of them." The old man nodded without hesitation.

"There are different settlements with different leaders and different territories, but they all possess an effigy." He slowly pointed toward the crystal skull once more. "Some look different, some are larger, and some are older. But every settlement has one."

"And every settlement performs the ritual. Whether they are strong or weak, makes no difference. The Deity demands tribute from everyone." The man finished.

Lin Mu’s expression subtly shifted as that information proved far more interesting than the old man realized. A ritual spreading throughout multiple isolated communities, shared traditions, shared beliefs and shared symbols, all started to point to a pattern.

His thoughts naturally drifted toward ancient civilizations.

This represented one of the most common patterns behind the growth of religion. A shared fear, a shared explanation and a ritual believed essential for survival. Eventually the practice became inseparable from daily life.

Children learned it from parents, parents learned it from elders and after enough generations, nobody remembered where it had truly begun. They simply accepted it as truth.