Atlas of Heaven and Man

Chen Chuan glanced at the Snow Monarch Blade, then took two more steps forward. Although the encroachment of the red stone underneath had weakened, its surface seemed unchanged.

Ignoring these details, he bent down, reached out, and picked up the stone. Simultaneously, he glanced at the ground, walked to a crucial point in the ritual array, and scrubbed at the patterns with his foot, destroying them.

Just as he finished, several long, deep breaths echoed around him, followed by a few coughs. The three individuals originally wrapped in the esoteric ritual cloths were slowly awakening.

However, when they saw Chen Chuan standing in the middle, holding the Sun Wheel Stone, they were first taken aback, then became exceptionally enraged, bursting into a string of words.

Chen Chuan couldn't understand them; it must have been some foreign language. At that moment, two of the individuals threw off the cloths covering them and stood up.

Both of these men were over two meters tall, and their movements clearly indicated they were martial artists. After standing up, they each pulled out two axes from their waists and spoke to him again. Although he still couldn't understand a word, he could clearly sense the anger contained within their words.

Chen Chuan calmly stood his ground. He looked at the two axes with some regret, noting that they weren't the weapons carried by Third Threshold martial artists, and therefore had little collectible value.

Just as the two men roared and tried to charge towards him, he took out the gravel he had prepared beforehand from his pocket and flicked his fingers, sending it flying. Before the two men had even reached the halfway point, they seemed to have been shot, their heads snapping back before collapsing to the ground one after the other.

The entire process happened extremely quickly.

At this moment, the last remaining person finally regained consciousness, seemingly realizing that the situation was unfavorable. He immediately said in clumsy Da Shun language, "Esteemed sir, please don't act rashly; I have no hostility."

Chen Chuan looked at him and asked, "Did you set up this Sun Source Ritual?"

Hearing him reveal the name of the ritual in one breath, the man was startled, abandoning any wishful thinking. After hesitating for a moment, he said, "Yes, we arranged it… May I ask, sir…" He raised his head and cautiously asked, "What year is it now?"

The man secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He feared competitors from within the cult or other hostile esotericists. People from the Da Shun government were easier to deal with; at worst, he could pay a fine.

He cautiously said, "The sacrifices I used were all brought from abroad, and I didn't use any citizens of your country. Even the Sun Wheel Stone won't leak out during the ritual…"

Chen Chuan looked at the crystal in his hand and said, "If it leaks out, what consequences will it have?"

"Sir doesn't know?"

Although the man was somewhat surprised, he hesitated for a moment and explained, "If not handled properly, within a certain range, it will cause the death of people and animals and the withering of plants…"

Speaking to this point, he hurriedly explained, "For our cult, the Sun Crystal is the key to initiating the ritual and a necessity for maintaining it. We also don't want such a situation to arise and be discovered by your government, so please believe me, such a result will not occur."

Chen Chuan said, "Let's not even mention that this is Da Shun territory, not a place where you can casually set up rituals. Moreover, you don't seem to have considered the consequences of the ritual failing?"

"Failure is impossible!"

The man immediately denied it.

Chen Chuan calmly looked at him.

The man realized something was wrong, since Chen Chuan had come here to deal with it. If he hadn't been following someone, then he must have discovered something unusual.

Did something happen to the people who went back?

Just as he thought of this, suddenly, his breathing became rapid, and he grabbed his throat with both hands, seemingly unable to breathe.

Chen Chuan raised an eyebrow. He could clearly sense that the man's physical condition was rapidly deteriorating, and his life force was weakening at an unstoppable pace.

The man suddenly pointed at the Sun Crystal, "Quick, quick, save…"

Chen Chuan understood what he meant; he wanted to return the Sun Crystal to its original position to prolong his life. However, the ritual had already been disrupted by him, so even if he put it back, it would be useless, so he just stood there quietly.

Seeing that he didn't move, a look of despair appeared on the man's face. As his breath gradually faded, the flesh on his body quickly withered, and within a short ten seconds, he turned into a dried corpse.

Chen Chuan stepped forward to examine him, finding a package on the man's body containing some necessary medicines and a notebook. As for the two security guards, he only found some necessities for wilderness survival.

Seeing that there was nothing of value here, he prepared to return to the surface, but when he looked up, the light shone on the top of the cave, where there were bulging shapes.

He originally thought they were just natural formations of the cave ceiling, but after another glance, he realized that there seemed to be something inside. Looking again, he was shocked to discover that there seemed to be figures of people curled up inside.

He retracted his gaze and ignored them, directly turning around and walking out. Behind him, everything on the uneven cave walls was as usual; where were any figures?

Chen Chuan walked back the way he came. Since the complete convergence of his outward-projecting field, he had rarely seen such apparitions recently.

He guessed that this situation might be related to the Sun Crystal in his hand, but as long as he firmly believed in his own judgment and ignored it, there would be no hindrance.

Actually, he had recently discovered that as long as he used his Second Self to lower the expression of his body, he could seem to effectively avoid such apparitions, but this wasn't a good method, because avoiding the problem didn't mean the problem didn't exist.

And Cao Guichi had once told him that apparitions were also resources to help him improve, and that each time he saw and overcame them was good for training his spirit, so he didn't need to do this and could just face them normally.

Because he had memorized the conditions along the way, he went out faster than he came in, returning to the surface in less than ten minutes, with no sweat on his body except for some moisture from the cave.

Walking out of the cave and into the daylight, he simply closed his eyes slightly, then opened them again, completely adapting to the outside light.

Bureau Chief Lei had been waiting outside all along. Seeing him come out, he walked up to him and looked him over, "Trainee Chen, are you alright?"

Chen Chuan said, "Bureau Chief Lei, I'm fine." He patted the package. "I brought some things up."

"Let's talk in the car."

Bureau Chief Lei led him to his armored vehicle, handed him a bottle of water. Chen Chuan thanked him, then took out the items from his package and handed them to Bureau Chief Lei, explaining the situation he had encountered.

Bureau Chief Lei first took the Sun Wheel Stone and looked at it. His expression became solemn, and then he carefully placed it in a heavy metal box. After sealing it, he took out the information Chen Chuan had brought up, as well as the notebook, and carefully flipped through them.

Chen Chuan noticed that he read very quickly, flipping through a page with a single glance.

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Only ten minutes later, Bureau Chief Lei closed the notebook in his hand and said, "I've basically sorted things out. The leader of this expedition is the wealthy businessman in the information, Oliko."

Chen Chuan asked, "Is this person famous?"

Bureau Chief Lei said, "Oliko is a Norlander with a criminal record of holding cult rituals in various countries around the world. The Da Shun Esoteric Review Bureau has a file on him."

Chen Chuan said, "This person claims that the explorer from twelve years ago was his father. Is that true?"

"They are indeed father and son, but things aren't that simple."

Bureau Chief Lei raised the notebook in his hand and said, "I thought they were holding a simple Sun Source Ritual, but in reality, they went further, also holding a 'Fire Theft'."

"Fire Theft?"

Bureau Chief Lei said, "This is a term used in the Sun Source Ritual. Simply put, the Sun Source Ritual can transfer the life force of one party to another.

But if the Sun Source Ritual wants to achieve maximum effect, the sacrificial victim needs to volunteer and be clear about every detail and truth. If ignorant sacrifices are used instead, then the life force obtained will be very small, after all, no one is willing to sacrifice for others for no reason.

So, in this, the Oliko father and son played a trick.

Oliko first had his son transfer twelve years of life to himself.

Then, in the next twelve years, because of the effects of the ritual, he could ensure that he wouldn't age, and his son would use the life force obtained from the remaining sacrifices to enter ritual slumber.

In the teachings of the Sun Worship Cult, twelve years is a cycle, everything starts from the beginning, during which there will be a gap, and the followers steal power from it.

So when the next ritual is held, before the moment it's completed, Oliko awakens his son and has him steal twelve years of life from himself, but in reality, he doesn't lose anything himself. Then, he uses the life force of the remaining sacrifices to enter ritual slumber.

This way, his son can enjoy this twelve-year cycle outside, and then repeat this operation when the next ritual is held. This is 'Fire Theft'.

You could say that they 'borrowed' twelve years of life from the ritual that they could use repeatedly. Their plan was good, but it seems like there was a flaw this time, causing the ritual to not be completely successful."

Chen Chuan asked, "Can they keep exchanging like this forever?"

Bureau Chief Lei said, "The Sun Worship Cult values the number twelve, so according to their understanding, 'Fire Theft' can be done twelve times in a row, but even if it's only twelve times, the lifespan that can be increased is very considerable."

After listening to Bureau Chief Lei's words, Chen Chuan thought for a moment and couldn't help but ask, "I wonder which time this is that they've held this ritual?"

…