Chapter 728 - 277: Bats and Rats_3

But, she could see the face of that strange man.

From a fake smile, to confusion, to probing, finally, it turned to surprise.

"This is truly... an unexpected delight, why didn't I notice it before?"

The man said so, as if announcing some great news, speaking with a fervent voice: "Your daughter, too, has the talent to be a Sacrificial Child!"

To Mint at that time, this sentence was like a book from heaven, but when her parents heard it, they collapsed as if they heard a death sentence, and directly knelt down.

That night, Mint saw her parents packing up the things at home.

"Will you leave with Xiao Yu?" she asked her mother.

Xiao Yu was what she called her little sister then.

And when her mother heard this, she just held her, continuously shedding tears.

—"I should have known from the start not to trust the Black Ash, and now look, they fancy Xiao Qing! It's all your fault!"

"How was I supposed to know it would turn out this way, so many people believed, but I've never heard of any family's child actually becoming a Sacrificial Child as they say!"

"We originally had two children..."

"Stop crying, pack up now, let's go to another city and pretend this never happened."

The argument between her parents made Mint confused, but vaguely, she also slowly realized a fact.

"Aren't we bringing Xiao Yu back?"

That's what she asked.

Their parents stuttered, unable to answer a single word.

"Then I want to go together too."

So Mint announced: "I want to bring Xiao Yu back."

This sentence later became the sentence Mint regretted most.

Frankly, she didn't consider herself a saint with a sacrificial spirit, nor a brave hero. The fact that she could say such a foolish thing at the time was purely due to her complete ignorance of the severity of "becoming a Sacrificial Child." If her current self could travel back in time, the first thing she would do is give her past self a slap, telling herself "You idiot, run away with your parents."

Unfortunately, there's no regret medicine in this world.

Mint, taken as a Sacrificial Child to headquarters, fell from an almost complete greenhouse into hell.

She never knew that the words "Sacrificial Child" equated to something so cruel, until she arrived there, did she understand why her parents collapsed hearing those words.

In short, people died every day.

They died in experiments, died in power awakenings, died fighting with the Remnant Beasts.

The young Mint, within just a few weeks, saw more deaths than a normal person would in a lifetime.

And most importantly, during those weeks, she had not seen her sister at all.

All the Sacrificial Children were isolated in their rooms, not allowed to go out except for experiments and combat. The people there, although polite with words, looked at them no different from how they looked at those Remnant Beasts locked in cages.

And, whether fortunately or unfortunately, Mint survived this harsh selection.

She was more talented than she thought.

Not talent in combat, but survival talent.

Despite screaming like a banshee, she survived the experiments of implanting Residual Beast Magic, implanting the Beast's Viscera. Those battles with the Remnant Beasts, she somehow won by running around, exploiting weaknesses, and fighting in a rather ugly manner.

To be honest, even if Mint turned back into a weak little girl and was thrown back into that environment, she wouldn't be sure she could do better, but back then, she inexplicably managed to hold on.

Realizing later, there were only thirty to forty Sacrificial Children left from the batch taken to headquarters, at this stage, Mint finally saw her sister again.

And Arrowroot, or rather Wu Xiyu's situation, was even worse than hers.

The other was covered in wounds, even limping while walking, if Mint wasn't so familiar with her sister, she might not have recognized who that bandaged girl was at all.

"Xiao Yu!"

"Sister?"

But Mint impulsively rushed up to reunite with her sister.

"Why are you here?"

Wu Xiyu never thought she would actually see her "sister" in such a place. Clearly, that man never told her that Mint came along too.

"Because they said I also have talent..."

Days of torment had worn away Mint's blind optimism, but upon seeing her sister, she found the meaning of her presence here, so she tried hard to cheer up and said:

"So I came, I came to take you back!"

Mint herself didn't know what this sentence really meant.

But from that day, they started moving together again as sisters.

No matter how hard the times were, together they could pull through with each other's support.

No matter how painful the things were, together they could endure through comforting each other.

Perhaps for both Mint and Arrowroot, the time most like sisters, the most unforgettable period, was the days of supporting each other as Sacrificial Children.

This period lasted until half a year later, when they went through the education of the Black Ash Dawn, learned how to use the magic of the Remnant Beasts, learned how to fight as Beast Children, and learned the knowledge needed to survive in the world of magic.

And their final assessment was the "Food Sacrifice."

Those who passed the Food Sacrifice would be promoted to Beast Children, leaving this cage, and become a special existence in Black Ash Dawn.