Boiling Beast Bloodline-Chapter 2226 - 681: Final Battle Countdown [7]

Under the blue sky as clear as a wash, clouds were blasted all over by Tang’s imported premium fireworks.

After years of solitude, Mount Hyjal finally welcomed an earth-shattering event today. The war deity statue, harmonized with the mountain rocks, seemed to show the hint of a relieved smile beneath its mask.

As the leading figure in the Kaiqiu ceremony, the Shaman of Divine Songs was dressed in a retro outfit, respectfully burying the deity prayer document written on Jade’s Decree under the "Star Avenue" paved with black mirrored volcanic rock.

The so-called "retro outfit" referred to a rather primitive, nostalgic style, but in today’s reality, it meant being completely naked except for a skull necklace around the neck and a leopard skin around the waist, creating an undoubtedly savage appearance.

Completing the entire Kaiqiu ceremony was quite a tedious affair. The Bimon Kingdom, now weakened, would have made a huge blunder today were it not for the few remaining generations of the Penguin People in the lineage of ritual research. Their deep-seated family traditions prevented Liu Zhentong and the Bimon Kingdom from becoming a laughing stock — when it comes to intricate traditions, ceremonial systems are even more excessive than the enigmatic Magic, especially rituals like Kaiqiu, which are so sacred that even a minor lapse in execution would render them a permanent target of international ridicule.

However, today’s Kaiqiu Hyjal ceremony not only prevented Bimon from losing face but also left all the guests who came to witness it feeling self-conscious.

Near the colossal Campas statue on Mount Hyjal, two altars of heaven and earth were placed with walls encircling within a ten-mile radius, and at the center was the ritual hall. The eastern and western altars on the clay steps were used for praying to the sun, moon, stars, and constellations. Outside the ritual hall’s gate, eight altars were arranged to pray to mountains, oceans, rivers, wind, clouds, thunder, rain, past emperors, spirits, and all deities of the world. The eastern altar had a dedicated hall for ceremonial attire for worshipping past magical creatures; the southwest served as an abstinence area, the venue for the buffet, while the southern corner hosted divine music and the sacrificial offering site to worship the war deity.

Hectically completing all the sacrificial protocols without a break required a full six-hour time span, the complexities and redundancies involved were unimaginable to most people.

What is the main measure of a civilization’s development level?

Isn’t it the rigid ceremonial attire system!

Neither humans, who pride themselves on being the highest civilization paradigm of Aegean, nor elves, with their penchant for meticulous formalities, have experienced rituals as complex as Bimon’s. With Kaiqiu’s display, anyone who still considers Bimon a primitive, barbaric race would indeed be blind.

Others were nearly envious to madness, while Liu Zhentong was suffering immensely.

Three days prior to Kaiqiu, Old Liu began fasting under the ritual officer’s supervision; had it not been for Guoguo secretly catching two guinea pigs for him to rehearse wilderness survival, who knows if he’d become the first war deity follower to starve to death during the Kaiqiu ceremony.

Fasting might be a way to return to innocence, a form of reverence for the war deity, but for him, continuous incense burning, prayer, circumspect, and celibacy over three days were nothing short of torture — such work was truly punishing.

On the main day of Kaiqiu, at dawn, he followed every ritual activity under the ritual officer’s guidance until it was noon when the primary procedures of the Kaiqiu ceremony were finally concluded, leaving him thoroughly exhausted, even more so than if he had waged a war.

"Bring the war deity offering!" Upon Shaman of Divine Songs pressing his hand imprint on the "Star Avenue," the penguin ritual officers extended their necks, singing in unison, marking this as the final crucial procedure. Once concluded, members of the Summer Palace guards would leave hand imprints on the "Star Avenue," and then proceed to the abstinence area to enjoy the farewell meal.

Two "Batiz Lava Monsters" and "Salt Wing Flying Lizards," marked with magic imprints and stiff in body, were dragged to the sacrificial site beside the "Star Avenue" by Summer Palace Warriors, while six Golden Dwarves carrying two enormous marble plaques simultaneously smashed them to the ground.

Old Liu waved his fingers at the second and third sons.

Father-son soldiers on the battlefield, according to the ancient rules of the Kaiqiu ceremony, unless in special circumstances, Old Liu was not supposed to handle any of the slaughtering work on Mount Hyjal today, but rather his sons had to perform the task.

The peculiar relationship between the twin Blood Infants and the Beamon Shaman of Divine Songs was often a subject of lively discussion; it is certain that the second and third sons are the love children of Mourinho, the primary swan priest, and Tang Beryljenna, the Ice Phoenix; however, the second and third sons were also nurtured by Old Liu using "blood feeding," thus their bodies indeed carried the Shaman of Divine Songs’ bloodline, affirming their father-son title and kinship with Liu Zhentong beyond doubt.

Liu Yiku and Liu Sitian were still in their infancy, Katusha, Guoguo, Mattlazi, Ventéclair, and the imagined air were not offspring by blood, so the responsibility to substitute for their father in executing sacrifices deservedly fell on the young shoulders of the second and third sons.

The second and third sons, adopting a savage ensemble akin to their father, refused the knives handed by the Summer Palace Warriors. The brothers were not strong enough to use knives to slaughter the "Batiz Lava Monsters" and "Salt Wing Flying Lizards," which would be no more than scratching an itch for these high-tier magical beasts.

They employed the massive "Net-like Lightning."

The large thunderclouds suddenly gathered in the sky unleashed a net of electricity, which, without permitting magic defense, dealt a single heavy blow to the "Batiz Lava Monsters" and "Salt Wing Flying Lizards," transforming them into corpses covered with dense black net scars.