Once I enter the pass, great Confucian scholars will surely debate the classics for me.

"Gentlemen, we have now finished watching the execution of the traitor by burning at the stake."

"We should go down and begin tonight's gathering."

Partridge Di turned around and looked at the high-ranking members of the sect with a smile.

These people included incense masters, military officers, wealthy merchants, and envoys from the Sihai City headquarters.

They came from different backgrounds, but all of them were wealthy, powerful, and influential figures.

Upon hearing this, more than ten important figures stood up and walked downstairs, chatting and laughing.

Partridge Di turned to look at Zhou Qingfeng, patted Zhou Qingfeng's arm, and said with a smile, "Come on, Mr. Jiang, experience our Vision Church's gathering, listen to our doctrines, and what if you are deeply moved by the Holy Eye and want to join us?"

Zhou Qingfeng smiled slightly: "I am actually quite interested."

Upon hearing this, Partridge Di nodded with a smile, and walked towards the stairs. As he passed Ning Cha, he smiled very politely and said, "Miss Ning, I have long heard from the believers that you are the most beautiful woman in the resistance army. Seeing you today, I can confirm that it is true."

"Oh." Ning Cha's expression was indifferent. Looking at Partridge Di's effeminate and handsome face, she couldn't feel any goodwill towards him. It was just that this person's fashion sense was too bad. Knowing that believers should wear red robes at gatherings, he insisted on wearing a green garment underneath. The combination of red and green was truly ugly to her.

Seeing Ning Cha's indifferent response, Partridge Di didn't take it seriously and walked away.

Ning Cha watched Zhou Qingfeng walk over from the observation deck. As he passed by, Zhou Qingfeng quickly said, "You and I are too conspicuous to leave. Now that the believers are gathered here, no one is paying attention to the axe and flag-slaying. Have them look for us and see if they can find any useful documents."

Ning Cha nodded slightly: "Understood."

Zhou Qingfeng quickly caught up with Partridge Di, while Ning Cha turned around and said a few words to the Zhanfu and Zhanqi brothers before following them as well.

One was a big shot from Sword Tower, and the other was one of the leaders of the resistance, yet they appeared at a cult gathering. They were being watched closely the whole time and couldn't possibly disappear from under anyone's noses. So, only Zhanfu and Zhanqi could handle it.

There were better candidates, but unfortunately they were already skewered and roasted like a whole roasted lamb in the courtyard. They died a terrible death.

The cult gathering was proceeding according to a set procedure. Zhou Qingfeng and Ning Cha were invited to the stage as temporary guests, standing next to Partridge Di and listening to Partridge Di preach his doctrines. Wei Xiangzhu and others presided over the sacrificial prayer ceremony, praying for the blessing and response of the Holy Eye.

In the darkness, Zhou Qingfeng sensed a powerful will watching over his existence.

In a daze, it seemed as if he was hallucinating. The surrounding scenery disappeared rapidly, and the world turned scarlet. The sky and earth were fiery red. Zhou Qingfeng stood in the middle of it all and looked up to see an eye, a spiral-shaped fiery red eye.

A voice echoed from the depths of my consciousness: "What are you yearning for?"

“Speak your name, and I can grant your wish. All you need is a sincere faith, and I will give you everything!”

Zhou Qingfeng looked up at the spiral eye, its fiery red gleam like the eyes of a demon god watching him. He said coldly, "Everything I have has always been earned by myself. I don't need anyone's gift. No matter what you are, don't even think about bewitching me!"

Spiral One-Eyed: "Alright, I have granted your wish and will not bewitch you. Now it is time for you to offer your faith."

Zhou Qingfeng cursed inwardly, "Damn it, is this supposed to be a wish? This is blatant cheating!"

A red flame containing the power of rules shot directly into Zhou Qingfeng's forehead, and a spiral eye slowly took root and sprouted on his forehead. The dimensional reduction attack from a higher-level life form left Zhou Qingfeng almost powerless to resist.

However, at that moment, Zhou Qingfeng's mind raced, and he pointed at the spiral eye, shouting, "Ancient God, I will sacrifice it!"

Spiral One-Eyed: "???"

"Buzz~~~" An invisible hum reverberated through the world of consciousness, and a phantom giant python, about ten feet long, suddenly emerged from Zhou Qingfeng's waist and abdomen. Its pair of snake eyes stared at the spiral single eye and slowly uttered ancient divine language: "I am very satisfied with what you have offered as a sacrifice."

As soon as he finished speaking, the Mortal Python broke free from Zhou Qingfeng, growing larger in the wind. In an instant, it coiled around the Spiral One-Eyed, opening its blood-red maw to swallow it whole. The Spiral One-Eyed cried out in terror, "Mortal Python? The first innate ancient god at the beginning of heaven and earth? How could this be? Weren't all the ancient gods dead? How could you appear inside your body? Who are you?!"

Zhou Qingfeng sneered repeatedly: "Guess."

"I bet your mother..." Before he could finish speaking, the enormous spiral eye was swallowed whole by the Mortal Python. Then, the Mortal Python flew around in the air a few times before landing in front of Zhou Qingfeng, its dark snake eyes gleaming with a dangerous light.

The next moment, Zhou Qingfeng was kicked out of his consciousness by the giant python of the mortal world.

When his consciousness returned, Zhou Qingfeng felt his magical power surging wildly within him.

The money kept increasing by a hundred coins at a time, like it was cheating.

There was no need for cultivation at all; his magical power was increasing rapidly, surging by ten thousand coins before finally stopping.

This magical power, imbued with pure malevolent energy, was obtained through the sacrifice of the Spiral One-Eyed.

In short, the ancient god was very satisfied with the offerings, so he helped Zhou Qingfeng quickly increase his magical power as an equivalent exchange.

Zhou Qingfeng was very excited. One sacrifice would increase his mana by 10,000 coins, saving him a lot of cultivation time. If he could obtain such a high increase in mana every time he sacrificed to the ancient god, the threshold of 500,000 coins of mana would be nothing. He could just grab anyone and sacrifice like crazy, and directly advance to the next level after dozens of sacrifices. Why bother with hard cultivation? It was practically like having a cheat code to speed up leveling up.

But this is just wishful thinking. Zhou Qingfeng and the ancient god signed an equal exchange contract. Zhou Qingfeng can choose what to sacrifice, but whether the ancient god accepts it is up to him. If the ancient god accepts the sacrifice, what he has to give in exchange is not something Zhou Qingfeng can decide.

Perhaps this time it's an exchange of magical power, next time it's an exchange of vital energy, the time after that it's an exchange of secret techniques, and the time after that it's an exchange of information. Who can say for sure? After all, even Zhou Qingfeng couldn't control the Mortal Giant Python, the first innate ancient god created at the beginning of time.

After calming down, Zhou Qingfeng realized that this was intentional on the part of the ancient god, who wanted him to have a taste of success. Once he tasted success, he would definitely try his best to offer sacrifices to the ancient god in exchange for increased power.

The ancient god also wanted to accumulate power so that it could break free of its shell and revive as soon as possible.

Both sides benefited from the agreement.

It's hard to say who lost out and who benefited.

Zhou Qingfeng had never thought about sacrifice before, but through this accidental experience, he gained some unexpected insights. He then went on to collect historical documents about what sacrificial items the mortal python liked, and studied them in a targeted manner.