Atlas of Heaven and Man

When Chen Chuan drove to the scene, Ren Shu and the others had already arrived. They also encountered a staff member sent by the Political Affairs Office to take charge of the matter.

This staff member was very polite upon hearing that Chen Chuan had come from Central City and was an executor from the General Bureau. He stated that the scene was well-controlled and had been sealed off by the local security team since the incident was reported, and no one had entered since.

After Chen Chuan spoke with him, he had Ren Shu and the others wait outside, and he entered the hostel where the exploration team was temporarily staying alone.

The exploration team of twelve people was divided into five rooms. The team members occupied four of them, the wealthy businessman who funded the expedition had a room to himself, and the two security guards shared a room. For ease of protection, the two rooms were next to each other.

Whether it was a coincidence or not, twelve years ago, it was also a wealthy businessman who brought two private security guards and nine explorers here. Therefore, when these three people initially came out, no one felt anything was amiss.

After all, they were wearing goggles, and many people felt that foreigners all looked the same.

If there hadn't been strange and bizarre events later, no one would have cared about what was going on with them. Even after knowing the truth, it would at most be regarded as a strange anecdote.

Chen Chuan first walked around the rooms of all the missing members of the exploration team, but did not find any signs of the Second Self manifesting.

Next, he focused on examining the three people who had returned as skeletons. He didn't find anything on the two team members either, but when examining the wealthy businessman's belongings, he suddenly felt something was off. At this time, the Second Self showed a slight sign of manifesting, but this was so faint that it hardly caused any harm to the body.

He rummaged through the items and found that the source of this sign was an amulet, which was engraved with a statue of a person squatting with their arms around their knees and wearing bird feathers on their head, with a sun behind them.

He wasn't sure about the origin of this item, so he put it aside for now. He examined the other items, but one thing he found very strange was that the entire exploration team had left behind almost no written records.

This was a bit abnormal. For this kind of exploration activity, in addition to recording the location, characteristics, types, and sizes of the caves, they should at least record the route, environmental conditions, and anything noteworthy, and at the very least have a map and related reference materials.

But now there was nothing. Could it have been left behind in the cave?

He carefully examined it again, and finally found something unusual on the waterproof bag they carried. He turned it over and found swirling patterns inside. He couldn't help but have some thoughts in his mind. He sorted out the items and walked out from inside, saying to the staff member:

"I need the information of these people, including the information of the exploration team from twelve years ago, preferably as well."

"No problem."

The staff member readily agreed, and soon sent the already prepared information to him.

Chen Chuan looked through it and found that the investor who was supposed to follow the exploration team this time was actually the son of the wealthy businessman from twelve years ago.

The father-son relationship between these two people meant that this matter was definitely not a coincidence, but had some kind of inexplicable connection.

Therefore, this abnormal situation was very likely not a strange tale, but rather a certain secret religious ritual.

He couldn't completely draw a conclusion, but fortunately there were professionals, so he immediately used the hotel's telephone to call Director Lei and explained the situation here.

After listening to his analysis, Director Lei said, "Your guess is very reasonable. I will bring people over immediately."

After waiting for more than an hour, people from the Secret Sect Investigation Bureau arrived and took full charge of the matter.

Director Lei said in a deep voice, "These people are likely trying to use this place to hold a Sun Origin Ritual."

He explained, "The so-called Sun Origin Ritual is that the Sun Worship Cult believes that the sun revolves once every twelve years, and at the time of the cycle, one can steal the power of life and true nature from the dark places that sunlight cannot reach."

"The followers of this cult highly revere the number twelve. The team assembled this time has exactly twelve people, but the ritual requires a life sacrifice, so many of them should be used as sacrifices for the ritual."

Chen Chuan thought for a moment and said, "Of the people who came up this time, there are only the wealthy businessman himself and two security guards. If that's the case, then the other explorers are the sacrifices?"

Director Lei said, "Judging from the number of people and the composition of the ritual, that should be the case. This time, they probably made a mistake in the process of the ritual, or were affected by some additional influence, so a problem occurred, and not only did they fail to obtain the power they wanted, but they also caused their own deaths."

Speaking of this, his expression became solemn, "But if that's all, that's fine. There is another problem that needs special attention. Anyone who holds the Sun Origin Ritual must carry a special ritual material. This thing is very important and is the core of the ritual, called the Sun Wheel Stone."

"This thing is very valuable, and all countries prohibit its outflow. The specific purpose is unknown, but it has a certain degree of danger and will cause relatively serious impact on the surrounding people and animals. So, if possible, we have to try to bring this thing out. If we can't find it, we have to find a way to seal off this area and report it to the higher-ups for disposal."

Chen Chuan thought for a moment, looked up and said, "Director Lei, this cave is very dangerous. It is famous in Yangzhi. It is difficult for ordinary people to enter and exit normally. Let me do this."

Walking in underground caves will encounter many dangerous situations. Ordinary people will easily get injured or lose their lives if they are not careful, but these do not pose a difficulty for him.

Director Lei thought for a moment and said seriously, "Okay, Xiao Chen, I won't be polite with you. I'll leave this matter to you."

He knew that this was the right thing to do. His team was very professional in secret sect rituals, but if they entered the cave to find things, they would be no different from ordinary people. It would be better to ask Chen Chuan for help. The survival ability of a Third-Limit Combatant is definitely not comparable to ordinary people.

If Chen Chuan couldn't do it, then almost no one in Yangzhi City could do it.

He quickly took out some papers, noting the possible composition of the ritual, as well as some places that needed special attention, and handed these to Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan took it and carefully noted it down, then prepared some water and nutritional paste, as well as a flashlight and necessary tools, and then walked into the cave in the eyes of everyone.

He had been on the first section of the road a few days ago. It was relatively wide, and the gravel on the ground had been cleaned up. The light was still relatively bright, but after this section, the further he went in, the narrower it became, and the light gradually dimmed, making it difficult to walk. So he turned on his headlamp.

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Because so many people had gone down before, and the traces of people walking were very obvious in his eyes, he only needed to follow the path.

Originally, he had made all kinds of preparations to overcome difficulties, but when he actually did it, he found it surprisingly simple. Some places that needed to be climbed, he easily jumped up. When encountering high places, he jumped down. Places like corners, he easily turned around and passed, which was not an obstacle at all.

In fact, the biggest difficulty was the lighting problem.

But not to mention bringing a searchlight, he also had keen senses. Even if he didn't use his eyes to see at all, he could feel the road ahead by relying on temperature, airflow, and sound feedback, not to mention the traces left by humans, so his speed was extremely fast. In less than five minutes, he went more than two miles deep.

On the way, he found several resting spots opened up by humans, and also found a package discarded at the bottom of a pit. He found information in it. He didn't have time to look carefully, so he took it with him and continued to explore inside.

After going about two kilometers deeper, he finally came to a relatively spacious cave. The ground here was relatively flat, and the top was about seven or eight meters high, with a space of about three or four hundred square meters.

Just after sweeping his headlamp around, when he looked towards the middle, his eyes narrowed slightly. There were people kneeling there, forming a circle, with a number of about twenty, and there were many scattered skeletons on the ground.

He walked towards there and found that most of the kneeling people were mummified corpses. Only three of them had faint and difficult-to-detect breathing, like animals that had entered hibernation, and their bodies were wrapped in a layer of cloth, which was painted with dense ritual symbols in bright red paint.

He ignored these three people and looked directly at the ground surrounded by the circle. There were also ritual symbols on it. By comparing it with the temporary drawing given to him by Director Lei, he could confirm that this was the 'Sun Origin Ritual'.

In the very center position, there was a pit in the ground, and a strange stone was placed in it. This stone was red, but it looked more like a crystal. When the light shone on it, it seemed that the inside was also glowing slightly, which should be the Sun Wheel Stone that Director Lei said.

Chen Chuan glanced around and confirmed the surrounding situation, and then walked towards there.

As he approached this ritual circle, especially when approaching the Sun Wheel Stone, signs of the Second Self manifesting appeared on his body. The closer he got, the higher the degree of manifestation. When he reached the center position, the degree of influence he received was no less than that of a normal strange tale.

Just as he was about to pick up this thing, the Snow Monarch Saber he was carrying vibrated slightly, and at the same time, wisps of white mist emerged, and instantly surrounded the red stone, but this situation only lasted for a moment, and these mists quickly retracted.

At the same time, Chen Chuan noticed that the originally strong signs of manifestation had suddenly weakened and almost dropped to a harmless level.

……

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