Book 3, Chapter 131: Sun Origin Ritual

When Chen Chuan arrived at the hotel where the three people died, Ren Shu and his business partners were already there. They were also with a government official the Department of Administrative Affairs had sent over to be in charge of the case.

The government official had heard that Chen Chuan was from Central City and a law enforcer of the Resolution Department’s headquarters, so he was polite and told him that they had secured the cave ever since they learned about the incident. No one had gone into the cave since then.

After exchanging a few words with the government official, Chen Chuan asked Ren Shu and his business partners to wait outside while he went to the hotel where the three people had stayed.

The twelve members of the exploration team had been allocated six rooms. The team members stayed in four of them, the investor had a room to himself, and his two security guards had one room too. The security guards’ room was right next to the investor’s to ensure his safety.

Perhaps it was a coincidence, but twelve years ago, a rich merchant had also brought two security guards and nine explorers to this hotel. Hence, when the three people from the original group came out, no one suspected a thing.

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

If they hadn’t died in such a bizarre manner later, no one would have cared about how they came out. They would have just treated it as an interesting story.

Chen Chuan first checked the missing members’ rooms, but they didn’t have any effect on his second self.

Then, he focused on the three dead people. He found nothing from the two security guards, but when he examined the investor, he noticed something strange; his second self started blurring out faintly, though the effects were so weak that they practically did no harm.

Chen Chuan searched around the investor’s remains and found that the cause was a talisman. Drawn on it was an image of a person with their arms crossed. They were squatting with a headdress of feathers, while the sun shone behind them.

He wasn’t sure about the origins of the talisman, so he set it aside for the time being and examined the other objects. There was something curious about their things.

The exploration team had left no written record of their activities.

This was abnormal. Aside from recording the location of the cave, its special characteristics, the size of the cave, and other information, they had to record the path they took and the environment in the cave, along with anything else worth paying attention to. At the very least, they should have made a map and recorded some information as a reference.

But they had nothing. Did they leave it all in the cave?

Chen Chuan went through the rooms again and finally found something out of place in a waterproof bag. When he emptied its contents, he noticed a pattern resembling a whirlpool on the walls of the bag. A theory formed in his mind. He put aside the bag and came out to speak with the government official. “I need these people’s information. If you could get information on the group who went missing twelve years ago too, that’d be great.”

“No problem.”

The government official agreed to it readily. Soon, he presented Chen Chuan with a stack of documents he had compiled before coming.

Chen Chuan read through the pages and found that the investor this time was the son of the investor from twelve years ago.

If the two were family, then what had happened was no coincidence. There was some form of mysterious connection between them.

Hence, it was highly likely that this abnormal occurrence wasn’t due to a supernatural being but some ritual.

Chen Chuan wasn’t too sure, though. Fortunately, he had a professional who could help. So, he called Lei Guangcheng with the hotel’s phone and told him about what had happened.

After hearing his analysis, Lei Guangcheng said, “Your theory makes sense. I’ll bring a team over right now.”

It took around an hour or so for the members of the Cult Investigation Bureau to arrive. Then, they took over the investigation.

Lei Guangcheng took a look at the talisman Chen Chuan handed over to him, then at the waterproof bag. “You’re right. They’re cultists.

“They’re part of the Flobelia Cult. Translated it means the Sun Worshiping Cult. Even though this is a legalized religion in other countries, it’s banned in the Great Shun Republic.”

“The Sun Worshiping Cult?”

Chen Chuan pondered over this. “The cave is called Sun Setting Cave. Is there a connection between the two?”

“These people might have tried to perform the Sun Origin Ritual in the cave. The Sun Worshiping Cult believes that the sun performs a complete cycle once every twelve years. During the cycle, they can steal the power of life and innate essence in a dark place where the sun can’t reach through the Sun Origin Ritual.

“These cultists practically worship the number twelve. That’s why the teams were made up of twelve people. They also need to sacrifice people for the ritual, so the explorers were brought for that purpose.”

Chen Chuan mulled over what he had heard. “Only the investor and his two security guards returned. Does that mean that the explorers were all sacrificed?”

Lei Guangcheng’s expression turned grim. “Based on the number of people in the team and the structure of the ritual, that should be the case. This time, they might have made a mistake during the ritual or something affected it, which was why it went wrong. Not only did they not obtain the power they wanted, but they also died.

“If that’s all that happened, that would be the best for us, but we need to pay attention to one problem: the Sun Cycle Stone. It’s special material required for the Sun Origin Ritual. It’s really important and is the core of the ritual.

“The stone is really valuable and is forbidden to be sold in markets in various countries. We don’t know what effects it has, but it’s quite dangerous. It impacts the people and animals around it. That’s why, if possible, we need to reclaim the stone from the cave. If we can’t find it, we’ll have to lock down the cave and report it to the central government so that they can take care of it.”

Chen Chuan pondered over it for a bit. “The cave is dangerous, Mr. Lei. It’s infamous in Yangzhi City, and non-martial artists have a hard time leaving it. Let me retrieve the stone.”

All those exploring an underground cave would inevitably run into all sorts of dangerous situations. Most people would get hurt or die if they were the slightest bit careless, but the possible dangers weren’t a problem for Chen Chuan.

Lei Guangcheng considered it before saying seriously, “Alright. Xiao Chuan, I’ll leave this to you.”

This was the right choice. While his team were professionals when it came to cults and rituals, they were no different from any other average non-martial artists when it came to looking for something in a cave. It would be better for Chen Chuan to do it. Third Limit martial artists’ chances of surviving perilous situations were much higher than those of the average person.

If even Chen Chuan couldn’t retrieve it, then practically no one else in Yangzhi City could.

Lei Guangcheng quickly took out some pen and paper to draw the possible structure of the ritual. He also noted down some things Chen Chuan needed to pay attention to before handing the pages to him.

Chen Chuan read the papers and put them to memory before getting ready. He grabbed some water, a few tubes of nutritional paste, a headlamp, and some necessary tools. Then, with everyone’s eyes on him, he headed into the cave.

He had explored the area around the entrance before. It was quite spacious, and the crushed stones had already been removed. It was also quite bright. But once he ventured further down, the cave became narrower and darker, making it harder for him to venture forward. So, Chen Chuan turned on the headlamp.

Many people had gone through the cave before, and Chen Chuan could see their passing clearly. All he needed to do was follow their tracks.

He had been ready to overcome all sorts of troubles, but when he actually ventured into the cave, he found that it held no challenges for him. He could jump up to places that other people would need to climb up to, and when he encountered a cliff, all he needed to do was jump down. At corners with swift currents, he could just turn the corner with no problems. The terrain posed no obstacles to him.

His greatest problem was the lack of light.

Still, he had his headlamp and keen senses. Even without sight, he could sense the path ahead through the temperature, airflow, and echoes. The tracks left behind by other exploration teams also helped. Hence, Chen Chuan moved quickly. In less than five minutes, he was already one kilometer into the cave.

Along the way, he found a number of resting spots and even an abandoned bag in a pit. There were some papers in it, but Chen Chuan didn’t have the time to read through them. He just took them with him and continued exploring.

Around two kilometers into the cave, he saw a rather spacious area that was around eight meters tall and four hundred square meters in size. The ground was relatively flat, too.

He scanned the area with his headlamp before focusing on the center. He narrowed his eyes. At the center was a circle of around twenty kneeling people. There were also scattered bones on the ground.

When he walked over, he found that most of the kneeling people were mummies. Three of them were still breathing, but only faintly, like animals in hibernation. Their bodies were wrapped in cloth with ritual runes drawn all over them in red paint.

Chen Chuan ignored the three people and looked at the surrounding area. There were ritual runes everywhere. Once he compared them to the array Lei Guangcheng had drawn for him, he became certain that this was the Sun Origin Ritual.

At the very center of the array was a pit with a strange-looking, crystalline, red stone. When the headlamp shone on it, a faint light seemed to glow from within the stone, and Chen Chuan was pretty certain that this was the Sun Cycle Stone Lei Guangcheng had mentioned.

Chen Chuan looked around. After confirming the situation, he walked to the center of the array.

His second self started blurring out, and the intensity grew as he got closer. When he was at the center, his second self was blurring out as badly as when he sustained damage from supernatural beings.

When Chen Chuan was about to pick up the Sun Cycle Stone, Frost King Saber started trembling. Wisps of white mist came out to surround the red stone. This lasted only for a moment, though. The mist soon returned to the saber.

At the same time, Chen Chuan noticed that the damage his second self was enduring had weakened to a point that it was practically doing nothing.