Book 3, Chapter 132: Rite Of The Stolen Fire

Chen Chuan cast a glance at the Frost King Saber before taking another two steps closer. While the unseen damage from the red stone had weakened, the stone itself didn’t seem to have changed.

That wasn’t Chen Chuan’s concern, though. He bent down and picked up the stone while casting a glance at the ground. Then, he went to a crucial segment of the array and wiped it off with his foot, effectively destroying the array.

The moment he did this, he heard long, deep breaths around him, immediately followed by coughs. The three people wrapped in the ritual’s cloth started waking up.

When they saw Chen Chuan standing at the center of the array while holding the Sun Cycle Stone, they were surprised, then rage colored their faces. A string of words escaped their mouths.

Chen Chuan didn’t understand them, but he guessed that they were speaking in another language. Just then, two of them tore off the cloth bindings around them and stood up.

Both of them were more than two meters tall. Based on their movements, they were martial artists. They grabbed axes from their belts and said something more. While Chen Chuan still didn’t understand them, he could hear the anger in their voices.

He stood calmly. As he stared at the axes, he found the situation regrettable. They weren’t weapons of Third Limit martial artists, so they had no collection value.

The two men roared and charged at him. Chen Chuan took out the stones he had prepared in case trouble arose and flicked them. The two men’s heads were thrown back, as if they had been shot, and they fell on the ground one after another.

The entire process was over in a flash.

Only one person remained, and his mind had finally cleared up. As if sensing that the situation was bad for him, he quickly said in broken Great Shun Republic’s national language, “Sir, no attack, please. Not enemy.”

“Did you set up the Sun Origin Ritual?” Chen Chuan asked.

When the man heard Chen Chuan correctly identifying the ritual, all hope that he could get out of this situation unscathed disappeared. After some hesitation, he said, “Yes. We set.”

Then, he asked tentatively, “Sir, what year?”

“It’s the 94th year of the Development and Order Era, and you’re in the Great Shun Republic.”

The man was taken aback. After he calculated the amount of time that had passed, he fell silent. Clearly, he realized that Chen Chuan had destroyed the ritual soon after he entered the hibernation state. If Chen Chuan had been able to locate them so accurately, he was bound to not be some ordinary person. The man asked tentatively, “Sir, you work for Great Shun Republic government?”

“You can think so, yes,” Chen Chuan said.

The man sighed in relief. He had been worried that Chen Chuan was a competitor within the cult itself or an enemy from other cults. If he was part of the Great Shun Republic’s government, then it would be easier to communicate with him. At worst, he would just have to pay a penalty.

“Sir, I use materials from other country. I not your people. During ritual, Sun Cycle Stone not go to normal people,” he offered.

Chen Chuan took a look at the crystalline stone in his hands and asked, “What happens if it’s exposed to the public?”

“You not know?” The man was quite surprised, but he still offered an explanation after a brief pause. “If not handled well, people, animals, and plants die around stone.”

With great urgency, he added, “To us, Sun Cycle Stone is key to ritual. Is necessary to keep it going. We not want such situation to happen and for your government to see. Please trust me. I not let the stone hurt things.”

“This cave belongs to the Great Shun Republic, and you’re not allowed to perform rituals here just because you want to. Also, have you ever considered the consequences of the ritual failing?”

“Fail? Never!”

The man immediately denied the possibility.

Chen Chuan stared at him calmly.

It was then that the man noticed that something was off. Why had Chen Chuan come to destroy the ritual? If he hadn’t followed them inside, did that mean that something unusual had happened?

Did something happen to those who returned?

The moment the thought crossed his mind, his breathing became ragged, and he seized his throat with his hands, as if he couldn’t breathe.

Chen Chuan raised an eyebrow at that. He could sense that the person’s condition was rapidly declining. His life force was draining at an unstoppable pace.

The man suddenly pointed at the Sun Cycle Stone. “Quick, save...”

Chen Chuan understood what he meant. He wanted Chen Chuan to return the stone to its original position so he could live, but Chen Chuan had already destroyed the ritual. Even if he returned the stone to its place, it would be useless. So, he only stood in place silently.

Despair appeared on the man’s face. As his breathing grew weaker, his skin and flesh withered rapidly. In a little more than ten seconds, he was reduced to a mummy.

Chen Chuan walked over to check on him and found a package. It had some medicine and a notebook. As for the two security guards, they were carrying necessities to survive in the wild.

Since there was nothing else of value in the area, Chen Chuan intended to return to the surface, but when he looked up, the headlamp shone on the ceiling, and he saw bulges.

He thought that they were naturally formed, but when he took another look, he found that there was something inside them. Upon closer inspection, they held curled up people.

Chen Chuan looked away and ignored them. Then, he went out. Behind him, the bulging, uneven ceiling appeared like normal stones once more.

No people could be seen inside them.

Chen Chuan went back the same way he came. Ever since he was able to restrain his biofield, he had seldom seen abnormal sights.

He believed that he had only seen it because of the Sun Cycle Stone. But as long as he believed in his own judgment and ignored them, he would be fine.

Recently, he had also discovered that if he used his second self to return to his pre-fusion state, he could avoid seeing the abnormal sights. Not that it was anything good. Avoiding problems didn’t make them disappear.

Cao Guiqi had also told him that the abnormal sights could help him improve. Every time he saw one and overcame it, his mind grew stronger, so he didn’t fuse with his second self and just faced them as his usual self.

Since he had memorized the trail, he returned to the surface even faster than when he went in. In less than ten minutes, he got back. Aside from the water in the cave making him slightly wet, he didn’t even break a sweat.

When he walked out of the cave and was exposed to the sun again, he shut his eyes for a bit. The moment he opened them again, he had already gotten used to the light again.

Lei Guangcheng had been waiting outside. The moment he saw Chen Chuan, he went over and observed him. “Are you okay?”

“I’m perfectly fine,” Chen Chuan said and patted the package. “I brought some things back.”

“Let’s talk in the car.”

Lei Guangcheng brought Chen Chuan to his car and handed him a bottle of water. Chen Chuan thanked him for that and handed the package to Lei Guangcheng before telling him what he saw.

Lei Guangcheng first took the Sun Cycle Stone. One look at it, and his expression turned grim. Then, with a serious face, he put it into a heavy, metal box. Once he shut it, he read through the papers and notebook Chen Chuan had brought back.

Chen Chuan noticed that he was reading really quickly. After a brief scan, he turned to another page.

After around ten minutes, Lei Guangcheng shut the notebook and said, “I’ve worked out the gist of what had happened. I believe that the investor and leader of the first exploration team was Elric.”

“Was he famous?” Chen Chuan asked.

“Elric was from Norland. He had a criminal record in various countries for performing rituals in their lands. He had one with us, too,” Lei Guangcheng stated.

“The man I met mentioned that the investor from the exploration team twelve years ago was his father. Is that true?” Chen Chuan asked.

“They are indeed family, but things aren’t that simple.” Lei Guangcheng gestured to the notebook. “I thought that they were just performing the Sun Origin Ritual, which is rather simple, but they went further and performed the Rite of the Stolen Fire.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s one of the steps of the Sun Origin Ritual. In simple terms, when you perform the Sun Origin Ritual, you can transfer your life force to another person.

“If a cultist wants to maximize the effects of the Sun Origin Ritual, they need the person offering their life to do so voluntarily and knowing the goal of it. They must also know the truth of what is going to happen to them. If an ignorant person is sacrificed, the ritual will transfer very little life force. As you may expect, no one wishes to be sacrificed for another person for no reason.

“And so, Elric and his son played a trick.

“Elric transferred twelve years of his life to his son.

“Over the course of the next twelve years, his son wouldn’t die because of the ritual. Meanwhile, Elric would be sustained through the life force of the sacrifices while staying in a deep, long sleep.

“The Sun Worshiping Cult believes that twelve years is a cycle, and everything is reset after them. During the reset, there is a gap in time, so the cultists can steal life force and power.

“Elric’s son woke him up before the completion of the next ritual and gave his father twelve years of his life force before entering a deep sleep. He didn’t lose any of his lifespan from this transfer, because he took the life force from the sacrifices he brought.

“This way, his son got to enjoy twelve years in the outside world, while now Elric was going to do the same. This is the Rite of the Stolen Fire.

“You could say that the twelve years they ‘offered’ could be used repeatedly. It’s a good plan, but it seems like there was an error that led to the failure of the ritual.”

“If they succeeded, they could have just kept switching?” Chen Chuan asked.

“The Sun Worshiping cultists place great importance on the number twelve. Based on their understanding, the Rite of the Stolen Fire can be performed twelve times, but even then, the increase in their lifespan will be substantial,” Lei Guangcheng explained.

Chen Chuan pondered over this before asking, “How many times have they performed the ritual?”