The three items began to spin wildly, and then everything around them rippled.
It was as if a great earthquake had occurred.
Then, a gust of wind instantly blew the three of us away. Beneath the large tree, countless wisps of mist appeared out of nowhere, completely shrouding the area below.
When we could see clearly again, we discovered that a sacrificial altar had appeared beneath the tree.
It was a very ancient altar, adorned with various patterns. Upon closer inspection, some things could be discerned.
There were shapes of beasts, as well as strangely shaped flowers, and also figures of humans drawn with very rough lines.
Seeing this scene, the faces of the three of us turned extremely grim.
But now it was basically confirmed that we had indeed found a way.
As long as one person was sacrificed, the other two could leave from here.
Thinking of this, we all gathered around the altar.
"What do we do now?" I broke the silence first.
"It looks like we still have to sacrifice someone," Richard said slowly.
"How can we do this?" Vixi also stood in place, and for a moment, the three of us had different expressions.
Being sacrificed would almost certainly mean immediate death, and none of us wanted to die.
Just then, the ground shook again, and then everything around us began to collapse.
It was as if something was gradually disintegrating.
The collapsing ground revealed a bottomless pit; if we fell in, we would undoubtedly lose our lives.
The collapsing ground began to converge inwards. At this rate, it would only take a few minutes for all of us to be swallowed by the black hole.
"We must make a decision quickly!" Richard said, "I know it's unrealistic for any one of us to die, so... we'll draw lots!"
As he spoke, he took out three bamboo slips, showing he had been prepared.
There were two long slips and one short one among the three.
"We'll draw together, the shortest one..." Richard gritted his teeth, but didn't finish his sentence. However, we all knew what the shortest one would have to do.
"Do you agree?" Richard asked.
"Okay!" I nodded.
Vixi hesitated for a moment, then nodded as well.
"Here we go!" Richard said, holding the three slips together, concealing the lower halves with his hand, so the exposed parts were all the same length.
The surrounding collapse intensified, and various objects began to fall from above.
"There's no more time, we only have this one chance!" Richard said. "Since I'm the host, the last slip is mine!"
"Then I'll go first!" Vixi glanced at us, then at the three bamboo slips.
Two-thirds chance of survival, one-third chance of death. The first person to draw would surely have a significant advantage.
But at this moment, I didn't want to say anything more, just stood there in silence.
Vixi first grasped the rightmost bamboo slip, hesitated, then moved his finger to the middle one.
"We're out of time!" Richard urged.
Vixi gritted his teeth and grabbed the rightmost bamboo slip: "This one!"
When he drew it out, it was a relatively long slip.
Seeing this, Vixi's face broke into a smile.
By the time it was my turn, there was only a fifty-fifty chance, half life, half death.
But I also knew I had to make a choice at this point.
Without a word, I directly drew out the leftmost bamboo slip, and then carefully examined it.
To my surprise, I also got a long bamboo slip.
Could it be that the one to be sacrificed was Richard?
As I was thinking this, Richard released his hand, and the last bamboo slip was revealed.
We placed the three bamboo slips together for comparison, and Vixi's expression turned extremely grim.
The slip in his hand was indeed long, but it was shorter than the one I and Richard held.
"No, this is impossible!" Vixi's eyes widened, his gaze fixed on Richard. "You must have cheated, right?"
"I didn't, this was your own choice," Richard replied, his gaze becoming extremely cold.
No matter how good the relationship was before, facing such a life-or-death situation, it was probably impossible to remain completely calm.
"No, no... there must be something wrong!" Vixi gritted his teeth, his face contorting with rage. "You must have conspired against me, right!"
Vixi roared.
At this moment, the collapse was accelerating, and time was running out for us.
"Stop struggling!" Richard said. "You have to take responsibility for your own choice!"
Upon hearing this, Vixi suddenly burst into laughter, looking completely deranged.
"This is hilarious, absolutely hilarious!" Vixi exclaimed loudly. "Drawing lots, right? Fate, you say? Sorry, I've always believed that people make their own destiny!"
Hearing this, I instinctively sensed that something was wrong!