Chapter 123 Demonic Sacrifice 4

With Alairde as their guide, the group's movements became much smoother from then on.

First, they headed to the slums to change clothes. Alairde enthusiastically recommended his ramshackle hut with drafts coming in from all sides.

"I'm not changing," Sister Hong slipped the clothes on over her black prison uniform and wrapped a dirty rag around her head and face, "I'm done. That's it."

Xia Qi and his sister followed Sister Hong's example, putting the slum clothes on over their prison uniforms and wrapping dirty rags around their heads to make themselves appear less conspicuously Eastern.

After everyone had changed, they looked over at the old man wearing a pink cake gown. The old man chuckled and said, "I see, you specially followed me over so that I'd change clothes, right?"

Admittedly, the old man's formal attire was too conspicuous, as if he was attending a banquet.

Xia Qi picked up some scraps of linen from the ground and quickly made a bundle, handing it to the old man. "Old man, change out of your clothes and take them away in the bundle."

"Haha, Xia Qi, you really understand me." The old man winked at him with a smile and went to change clothes happily.

Xia Qi realized that his pink cake gown was a system prop.

The old man had deliberately chosen to wear this outfit to enter the game, in an attempt to change his gender and thus lower the game's difficulty. However, after entering, his system prop inventory, like everyone else's, was closed, and he couldn't take off the dress.

After changing into normal civilian clothes, the old man also wrapped his head and face like the rest of them.

After changing clothes, the four of them at least didn't look so much like Easterners.

Three long chimes echoed again in the royal city. Alairde urged them outside the shack, "The execution ceremony is about to begin. Let's go watch the excitement!"

As soon as Alairde finished speaking, nearby, other civilians began discussing eagerly, "I wonder if today's witches and warlocks will be good-looking?"

"No matter how good-looking they are, they can't compare to the noble and elegant gentleman, the Great Adjudicator Lin! He's the most elegant gentleman in the kingdom!"

"You're right. No wonder Queen Mary is infatuated with him. Even I, as a man, can't help but be smitten when I see the Great Adjudicator Lin!"

The civilians chattered away, each leaving the slum area in succession.

Xia Qi, wanting to hear more gossip from the civilians, urged everyone to follow the massive crowd of civilians. Along the way, Xia Qi thoroughly learned the backstory of the witches, warlocks, and the Great Adjudicator Lin in this dungeon. In this kingdom, there had always been legends of dark magic. A year ago, a massive emergence of witches and warlocks who excelled in dark magic appeared. The witches and warlocks were evil by nature, not only were they bloodthirsty, but they also enjoyed toying with the nobility for fun.

Since the mass appearance of witches and warlocks, the kingdom had gradually become unsettled. Wars broke out across various continents, and creatures emerging from the abyssal depths appeared.

The frequent wars took a toll on the emperor's health. After he collapsed from exhaustion and fell ill, Queen Mary took over the actual ruling power of the kingdom. She also hired the Great Adjudicator Lin as the kingdom's chief minister, essentially the kingdom's second-in-command.

The background story known to the common people was roughly this much information. Most of the other stories were salacious gossip, such as Queen Mary being infatuated with the Great Adjudicator Lin and making him a minister. Another piece of gossip was that Queen Mary wanted to kill the warlocks and witches due to jealousy of their beauty, fearing that the Great Adjudicator Lin would be attracted to them. Thus, Queen Mary had the Great Adjudicator Lin conduct execution ceremonies once every seven days.

Hearing the bizarre reason why Queen Mary was carrying out the systematic execution of warlocks and witches, Xia Qi found it absurd. Regardless of whether the players were warlocks or witches, just based on the Easterners' faces hanging on the city walls, these players without system inventories could never be warlocks or witches.

The "Great Adjudicator Lin" mentioned by the civilians was clearly abusing his power, using the dungeon's non-player characters to create conflicts and rules to massacre players on a large scale.

"The 'beautiful witch' they're talking about might as well be me." The old man covered his mouth and laughed softly.

Sister Hong gave him a disdainful look.

A witch of the old man's level of "beauty" should fall into the category of elderly witches. If he were really put on the execution ground, no one would bother to watch future executions.

Xia Qi and the others passed through the city gate and arrived at a cobblestone plaza. This plaza, located in front of the white castle, had a capacity of about a thousand people and was now crowded with civilians.

Only now did Xia Qi understand why Alairde was so enthusiastic about watching executions. Listening to the discussions of the crowd, he realized this was the slum civilians' only source of entertainment once every seven days.

Worried about being discovered and unable to escape, Xia Qi and Sister Hong searched the plaza and found a hard-to-climb stone sculpture. They climbed up first, then helped Xia Qi's sister and the old man ascend.

Once the four of them were on top of the stone sculpture, they found that the view was much clearer. To get closer to Sister Hong, the guide Alairde also climbed up. Sister Hong gave him a displeased look and moved closer to Xia Qi's sister.

At this moment, in the center of the cobblestone plaza, a tall guillotine had been set up. Thirty male and female witches were pushed to the back of the guillotine, each with a cloth hood covering their heads, standing in a neat row.

Near the guillotine, there was also a crude gallows and a bonfire. It looked like, as the guards had said, if the Great Adjudicator Lin was feeling merciful, this group of male and female witches might receive the "special treatment" of being hanged or burned.

On the high platform behind the guillotine, an intricately carved wooden long table had been placed. Behind the table were three silver-edged, gem-encrusted chairs, which seemed to be the main seat of the adjudicator and the positions of the adjudicator's deputies. Below the platform stood a row of neatly arranged heavy bow soldiers. These soldiers were different from the other ordinary soldiers; they wore thick black armor, carried a black dragon-headed heavy bow on their backs, and in their quivers were several red-tailed arrows, made from some special material.

These arrows were certainly not intended for ordinary people.

After observing the scene below the execution grounds, Xia Qi looked up again at the central white castle. As his gaze swept across the windows of the castle, he suddenly noticed some metallic flashes on the windows of what appeared to be a third-floor bedroom in the castle.

He squinted and looked closely.

Behind the fan-shaped window stood a middle-aged woman dressed in a red gown and elaborate attire. Due to the distance, he could only discern her attire and the golden crown on her head.

Was this woman Queen Mary?

Why was she standing on the top floor, watching the execution?

Was she watching the Great Adjudicator Lin or the execution scene itself?

"Everyone, look! The executioner is lifting the hoods of the witches!"

Suddenly, the crowd became excited, and Xia Qi lowered his head to look at the cobblestone plaza where everyone was focusing.

To facilitate the executions, the soldiers began to lift the cloth hoods covering the heads of the male and female witches.

"Haha, they're really good-looking! I like the female witch on the left!" a man whistled and said in a vulgar tone.

"This time there are three male witches… but the male witches are even better-looking than the female witches! Just look at their faces—so pretty!"

Once the players' hoods were lifted, the crowd began to discuss enthusiastically again.

As the players had mentioned, there were indeed many more "female witches" present. Judging by their Eastern faces and expressions, these "female witches" were without a doubt players.

Unexpectedly, it seemed that many newbie players were mixed among the "female witches." Judging by their smudged, tearful faces, they likely hadn’t even figured out the game before being sent to the execution ground.

"Why are the female players so unlucky in this dungeon?" Sister Hong said with her arms crossed and a displeased expression on her face. "That damned Great Adjudicator Lin, is he sexist? Or does he have some misogyny?"

"Damn, I wish I hadn't dressed as a female player!" the old man shivered and hugged himself, frightened. Fortunately, he escaped with Xia Qi and the others; otherwise, he might have lost his dignity.

After a brief discussion about the witches, the younger sister suddenly exclaimed in surprise and pointed out to everyone, "Don't you think… those three male witches look somewhat like Brother Xia?"

As the younger sister spoke, the soldiers were herding the three "male witches" to the front of the guillotine, forcing them to the front.

With the younger sister's reminder, Xia Qi looked closely ahead. It had to be said, these three male witches were indeed outstanding in appearance. They were about 1.8 meters tall, with fair skin, black hair, and dark eyes—all delicate and handsome. The three of them, walking onto the guillotine, looked like a boy band getting ready for a stage performance.

"Uh, look, the one on the far left is about to pee his pants—how could he compare to Xia?" Sister Hong muttered. "If it were Xia on stage, he would definitely have more presence."

Xia Qi: "..."

Why should he have to compare presence on the guillotine with others?

What was the purpose?

Xia Qi helplessly shook his head.

However, the fact that three male players who resembled him appeared simultaneously led him to suspect that the overpowered players were doing it intentionally.

As Xia Qi pondered, more cheers erupted from below. Hearing the crowd shout, "Great Adjudicator Lin, I want to follow you!" and "Great Adjudicator Lin, let me be your maidservant!" Xia Qi gradually shifted his gaze to the right and saw a man in an elaborate purple tailcoat, adorned with gemstone rings, ascending the steps to the platform.

The man wore a stern expression, his deep black eyes sharp and intense. His lips, curved like the hull of a capsized ship, turned downward when he didn’t smile, imparting a melancholic air.

This richly attired enforcer was, in fact, Concubine Lin, who had clashed with Xia Qi in the dungeons beneath Fengdu City.

No sooner had Great Adjudicator Lin seated himself on the high platform than he instructed the soldiers to turn the warlocks' faces around.

He gazed intently at the warlocks, and a look of disappointment soon manifested on his face.

"Why do the warlocks' faces still have ash on them? Someone, go wipe their faces clean. I wish to examine their faces more closely," Great Adjudicator Lin commanded with a frown.