Chen Chuan stepped into the tent, and upon coming back out, he placed the relic into Xu Chan's hands.
"Old Xu, while I'm away, this relic is in your care. If any unexpected situation arises, you decide what to do. Don't worry about me."
Xu Chan accepted it with a grave expression. "Supervisor, I understand."
After giving his instructions, Chen Chuan went back to make his preparations. After all, he still had no idea what condition that camp was in. The Skinner had mentioned they were preparing some unknown ritual, so he had to take precautions regardless.
He gathered some weapons and supplies into a travel pack, lifted it up, and took the Xuejun Saber in his other hand. Walking to the edge of the mingqiu, he called out to Chaoming. Once the bird spread its wings and took to the sky, he leaped down in a few stages, landing before breaking into a rapid sprint through the insect tide.
On the surface, the insect tide appeared to have thinned out considerably, yet the ground remained densely blanketed. The insects varied in size, from tiny rice-grain specks to massive beasts as large as water vats. The moment he stepped among them, as if triggering a reaction, they began swarming toward him, fluttering their short wings and attempting to leap and pounce onto his body.
The most terrifying aspect of these insects was their sheer numbers. Once a person was engulfed, they would surge forward in relentless waves until the target was completely swallowed.
Just after his feet struck the ground, a thunderous boom erupted. A rushing torrent that shattered the atmospheric wall instantly blasted away all the encroaching insects. He shot forward at a speed barely discernible to the naked eye, plowing a path through the swarm that remained open for quite some time.
Relying on this explosive burst of speed, Chen Chuan raced toward the camp's location according to the directions given by the Skinner.
The location the man had provided was merely an approximate area. Having traveled with the main column, he lacked the ability to navigate the Confluence and knew only the general surface landmarks.
Still, that posed no obstacle to Chen Chuan. As long as he knew the camp faced the broad, long face of the rocky cliff, even if he did not find it right away, circling around would hardly take much time.
Fortunately, things did not prove so troublesome. He soon noticed the charred remnants of unextinguished campfires ahead. Though large swarms of insects clogged the surrounding area, they deliberately avoided that spot, clearly pointing the way.
In less than two minutes, he arrived outside the camp and halted near the fire pits ahead. A rumbling roar trailed behind him as the shockwave blasted away the nearby insects.
He peered inward. Though the insects hovered at the perimeter without entering, this brought him no sense of security; rather, it heightened his vigilance.
If even the insects refused to enter, something was obviously inside.
After a few glances, before the swarm could close in again, he stepped through. Chaoming followed from behind, circling high above to scout the surroundings on his behalf.
Ten paces in, he found the entire camp eerily deserted, as though it had been abandoned long ago. An extraordinary silence hung over the area, and at that moment, a premonition of danger rose in his heart.
He paused, considered for a second, and focused his attention on the spiritual imprint in his palm. As if purely by chance, Xue Shou strolled past him, stepping half a pace ahead. After looking around the camp, he said, "Hmm, this situation..." He looked off in one direction. "Come, let's look over there first."
With that, he took the lead.
Chen Chuan followed his lead. After skirting past a cluster of scattered, empty tents, he saw an area cordoned off with barbed wire. Wooden stakes were driven into the ground inside, arranged according to some distinct pattern. In the center lay a slightly raised, level platform covered with a cloth, though whatever lay beneath seemed already damaged.
Taking it in, Chen Chuan immediately deduced, "This is an esoteric ritual."
Xue Shou said, "I recall you're familiar with esoteric rituals. You're right, though this isn't the style of our Old Era." He walked over, stopped beside the cloth, and said, "Uncover it and have a look."
Chen Chuan stepped forward, flicking the cloth aside with the Xuejun Saber. Beneath it lay a wooden idol, crushed and shredded, though its original likeness remained faintly recognizable.
Xue Shou crouched down to examine it. "Mm, the style of the First People. No mistake. From this layout and the idol itself, this was one of their rituals.
"The First People had countless rituals for communing, sacrificing, and exchanging offerings with entities from the other side. When the Linax Federation occupied the Ying Continent, they obtained many ancient records from the First People. Aside from secret fighting manuals, esoteric rituals were the most numerous.
"Back then, they suffered heavily at the hands of the First People's esoteric rituals, so they later adopted them wholesale."
Chen Chuan said, "Looking at it that way, the First People weren't weak back then. How did they fall to their present state?"
Xue Shou said, "Because the First People were never unified. They were divided into dozens, even hundreds of nations, and thousands of tribes, slaughtering each other for millennia. When settlers from the Western Continent arrived, some even volunteered to help butcher their own kind. Well, in their eyes, they weren't kin, but ancestral enemies.
"Rather than saying they fell to the Linax Federation, it's more accurate to say they fell to the combined efforts of their own people and outside invaders."
He added thoughtfully, "In this world, any nation with sufficient weight is difficult to conquer from without. Only when internal fractures appear can outsiders exploit and crush it.
"Ah, but I've strayed from the subject. Let's look at this..." He glanced around once more. "This ritual was likely meant for transferring and drawing power. The people of the Linax Federation certainly had ambitious ideas—they likely hoped to obtain deposited power from a certain entity.
"They roughly followed the original ritual layout, though they made alterations. They substituted metal plates and iron wire for corn husks and valo tree branches. When proper ritual items truly can't be found, using these isn't an issue, and the ritual can still proceed.
"However, the ritual itself is a process of reaffirming the original pact. Since the entity on the other side will look for every excuse to withhold the power you seek, you must leave them no room to renege, which requires preserving the integrity and exact details of the ritual.
"Meticulous and tedious preparation is the prerequisite for executing the pact. If preparation falls short, not only will it fail, but it will also leave loopholes for the other side to exploit. Every clause and restriction in those rituals was forged from countless lives and flesh; not a single one is superfluous.
"Under these circumstances, the ritual was clearly rushed—likely forced by the threat of the insect quicksand. But carrying it out this way breeds far more problems. I don't know whether the one in charge was ignorant, indifferent, or harboring other plans."
Hearing him speak with such expertise, Chen Chuan said, "I didn't expect Teacher Xue to know so much about esoteric rituals."
"How should I put it..." Xue Shou chuckled. "My ancestors once held high positions within the Old State Religion, and my family studied such matters. Though I was a disappointment and chose a different path, through years of exposure, I picked up a thing or two."
Chen Chuan nodded. Looking around, he asked, "Teacher Xue mentioned this ritual was to commune with an entity on the other side and transfer power?"
Teacher Xue looked at the claw marks gouged into the shattered idol. "The ritual itself likely failed. And judging by this, something slipped through the loophole alongside it."
As he spoke, a faint ripple suddenly passed through Teacher Xue's figure, while a trace of blurring appeared on Chen Chuan's Second Self as well.
Chen Chuan looked up, suddenly discovering that the surrounding scenery had undergone a shift. He was no longer standing inside the camp, but out on an open wilderness.
Ahead stood a massive rawhide tent characteristic of the First People, with a burning campfire nearby. From inside the tent came an eerie sound—a frenzied tearing of flesh and crunching of bone.
Right by the tent's entrance lay a small mound of gnawed bones, seemingly all human, mingled with shredded garments, mangled implants, and battered firearms.
Chen Chuan shifted half a step to get a clearer view inside, but that single movement seemed to alert the creature within. The sounds stopped abruptly.
Moments later, the tent flap was flung open, and a woman standing fully two meters tall stepped out, wearing eye makeup.
Her hair was tied in twin ponytails, her limbs emaciated, her fingers tipped with razor-sharp claws. Her exposed skin was covered in dark greenish-black scales, a bony carapace had grown over her face, and her body bore numerous ruptures that seemed forcibly burst and torn open from within.
Chen Chuan's gaze narrowed. Faint light leaked from those wounds—the power of spiritual perception. He could sense this power was not being used to heal her injuries; rather, an overabundance of spiritual perception energy was bleeding through her body, tearing her flesh apart because it could not contain the strain.
When the woman glared at him, her eyes held an expression of ravenous madness and drooling lust, as if viewing him as prey. Yet she seemed wary of something as well, refraining from an immediate charge. Instead, she lowered her stance, reached down with one hand, and snatched a long, thick club from the ground.
After observing her, Teacher Xue said, "She shows signs of being infused with high-level spiritual power. A portion of that power was used to alter her body; otherwise, she couldn't have withstood the settling of such energy. But that's all she received. The entity behind her was clearly stingy, granting only enough to sustain her presence without giving her too much. However..."
He warned Chen Chuan, "Even so, the power she now wields has surpassed the conventional limits of a fighter. Be careful."
Chapter 752