I was carried to that cave by the combined efforts of these two people and several villagers.

In the cave, I saw Hei Wa.

Hei Wa was already different from what I saw a few hours ago.

His upper body had been cut several times, his skin and flesh turned out, and there was no intact flesh on his body.

His originally dark face was now covered with blood and dirt.

When he saw me, a hint of regret flashed through his lifeless eyes.

I felt deeply saddened for a moment. It was my fault he ended up like this. If he regretted saving me, it was understandable.

If he hadn't chosen to save me, perhaps he wouldn't have ended up being butchered.

By the time daylight broke completely.

Many villagers had once again gathered in the cave.

The expressions on those villagers were the same as a few days ago, their eyes were dull, their limbs stiff, and they looked in my direction.

They all knelt down to worship, but I knew they were not worshipping me.

They were actually kneeling to the thing inside the black box. There seemed to be something squirming inside it.

I was still lying in the redwood coffin when I heard the somewhat elderly voice of the village chief in my ear.

"For that great experiment, we have been planning and testing for decades, spending a lot of manpower, material resources, and financial resources. We chose such a godforsaken place, sacrificing these foolish villagers who had secretly helped us... Fortunately, everything is going in the direction we expected. This woman, after many tests, her physical data matches our experiment. She is the chosen maternal host for the revered snake god, but this offering seems to be quite disobedient."

"Uncle Teng, this Qiao Han is likely to be the last test subject for this stage. I recently received the latest intelligence report.

The secret special department of the Great Xia Kingdom has started sending people to investigate those around us. We absolutely cannot fail this time. Teng Yu has been feeding her snake liquid for several years now.

After our observations over the past few years, we found that aside from neurasthenia and frequent memory disturbances, her limbs did not show signs of stiffness.

I believe she has completely become a good specimen for our experiment: a new hybrid of mutated beast-human. She might be able to propagate offspring for our ancestral god 'Snake God,' and maybe it will be easier to implement our future plans."

I listened to their conversation the entire time, unable to believe it.

So I was the test subject they were talking about? So the sweet water personally prepared for me by Teng Yu over these years, and the strange-tasting liquid I drank these past few days, turned out to be their so-called snake liquid?

Were my frequent memory disorders and dizziness also caused by that so-called snake liquid?

I'm starting to suspect that these people might not even be from the Great Xia Kingdom.

The young woman walked up, putting on a pair of white medical gloves. "Let's begin."

"Teng Yu" stepped forward and opened the black box.

The moment the black box was opened, a peculiar stench mixed with a strong fragrance hit my nose.

Almost simultaneously, I heard a sudden, shrill scream.

Hei Wa was completely dead, just like his father.

He was eaten up by those villagers who hadn't lost their sanity, treated as food.

Listening to the horrifying chewing sounds, I retched and nearly had a mental breakdown. Tears blurred my eyes, and I couldn't hold back my sobs.

That hateful young woman walked up and slapped me across the face, staring at me with disgust.

"What are you crying about? If you keep crying, do you believe I won't rip out your tongue!"

"That's enough, say less." "Teng Yu" suddenly said coldly.

He took out a handkerchief, bent down to wipe the vomit off my face, and helped me sit up.

I couldn't bear to look at Hei Wa's mutilated body and looked up at the opened black box.

This time, I finally saw what was inside the black box.

It was a mutated monster statue, as thick as an adult's thigh, very lifelike.

Its rotting mouth spat out a scarlet snake tongue.

Its body was dark green and black, with eight heads and eight tails, blood-red vertical pupils, covered with moss and cedar, and its abdomen blood-red.

This was the totem I had seen twice before, and I never expected they were actually worshipping the legendary Yamata no Orochi?

Rather than calling it Yamata no Orochi, it was better to say that it was a mutant species they had created through continuous human and snake experiments.

The things on the monster's eight-headed snake body were also artificially created and improved based on the legendary beliefs.

There is a small island nation off the southeastern coast of the Great Xia Kingdom.

The people there worship the legendary Yamata no Orochi as their "sacred beast."