Atlas of Heaven and Man.

Chapter 362 Stealing Fire
Chen Chuan glanced at Xue Jun Dao and took two steps closer. Although the outward invasion of the red stone below had weakened, there seemed to be no change on the surface.

He ignored all that, bent down, reached out, and picked up the stone. At the same time, he glanced at the ground, walked to the key ritual node, and rubbed it with his feet a few times to destroy the pattern on it.

Just after finishing this, there were several deep breathing sounds around, and several coughs were heard nearby. The three people who were originally wrapped in the occult ritual cloths slowly woke up at this moment.

But when they saw Chen Chuan standing in the middle and taking the Sun Stone, they were surprised at first, then became extremely shocked and angry, and a series of words burst out of their mouths.

Chen Chuan could not understand it. It should be some foreign language. At this time, two people tore off the cloth draped over themselves and stood up from where they were.

Both of them were over two meters tall, and judging from their body movements, they were obviously fighters. After standing up, they each took out two axes from their waists and said something to him. Although he still couldn't understand a word, he could clearly feel the anger contained in their words.

Chen Chuan stood there calmly. He looked at the two axes and felt a little regretful. Since they were not weapons carried by a fighter of the third level, they had almost no collection value.

Just as the two men roared and tried to rush towards him, he took out the gravel he had prepared in advance from his pocket, flicked his fingers and flicked it out. When the two men were halfway there, they tilted their heads back as if they had been shot, and fell to the ground one after another.

The whole process happened very quickly.

At this time, there was only one person left. He finally came to his senses and seemed to realize that the situation was not good. He immediately said in a clumsy Dashun dialect: "Sir, please don't do it. I have no hostility."

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

Hearing him mention the name of the ceremony, the man was startled and gave up his hope. He hesitated and said, "Yes, we arranged it...Excuse me, sir..." He raised his head and asked carefully, "What year is it now?"

Chen Chuan said: "The Dashun Republic of China was established for 94 years."

The man was stunned for a moment, calculated the time, and fell silent. He obviously realized that he had just entered the ritual dormancy period not long ago, and this person came in and destroyed the ritual. Moreover, he could find this place so accurately, so he must be an extraordinary person. He asked with some difficulty:
"Sir, are you from the Dashun government?"

Chen Chuan said: "You can think so."

The man was relieved in his heart. What he was afraid of were competitors within the sect and other enemies of the secret sect. On the contrary, people from the Dashun government were easier to communicate with. At worst, he could just pay a fine.

He said cautiously: "Sir, the sacrifices I used were all brought from abroad. I did not use your country's people. Even the Sun Stone will not be leaked during the ceremony..."

Chen Chuan looked at the crystal in his hand and said, "What will happen if it is leaked?"

"Your Excellency doesn't know?"

Although the man was a little surprised, he hesitated and explained, "If it is not handled properly, within a certain range, it will cause the death of humans and animals and the withering of plants and trees..."

At this point, he hurriedly explained, "For our sect, the Sun Crystal is the key to opening the ceremony and is also necessary to maintain the ceremony. We don't want that kind of situation to happen and be discovered by your government, so please believe me, that kind of result will not happen."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "Not to mention that this is Dashun's land, it is not a place for you to arrange ceremonies casually, and you don't seem to have considered the consequences of the failure of the ceremony?"

"Failure, impossible!"

The person immediately denied it.

Chen Chuan looked at him calmly.

This person discovered something was wrong, because since Chen Chuan came here to deal with it, if he didn't come with them, then he might have discovered something unusual?

Is there something wrong with the people who returned?
Just as he thought of this, suddenly, his breathing became rapid, and then he grabbed his throat with both hands, as if he couldn't breathe.

Chen Chuan raised his eyebrows. He could clearly sense that this person's physical condition was deteriorating rapidly and his vitality was weakening at an unstoppable momentum.

The man suddenly pointed at the Sun Crystal and said, "Quick, quick, save..."

Chen Chuan understood what he meant. He wanted to return the Sun Crystal to its original place and prolong his life, but the ritual had already been destroyed by him. It would be useless even if he put it back, so he just stood there quietly.

When the man saw that he didn't move, a look of despair appeared on his face. As his breath gradually disappeared, the flesh on his body quickly shrank down, and then he turned into a mummy in just a dozen seconds.

Chen Chuan walked up to check and found a package on the man, which contained some necessary medicines and a notebook. As for the two security guards, he only found some necessities for survival in the wild.

Seeing that there was nothing valuable here, he prepared to return to the ground, but when he looked up, the light hit the top of the cave, where there were bulges.

At first I thought it was just a natural formation on the top of the cave, but after taking another look, I found that there seemed to be something inside. Looking again, I was shocked to find that there seemed to be curled up human figures inside.

He withdrew his gaze, ignored it, and turned to walk out. Behind him, everything on the uneven cave walls was normal. Where was the human figure?
Chen Chuan walked out along the original path. Since the external field was completely converged, he rarely saw such strange phenomena recently. He guessed that the situation just now might be caused by the sun crystal in his hand, but as long as he believed in his own judgment and ignored it, there would be no hindrance.

In fact, he recently discovered that as long as he used his second self to reduce the expression of his body, he seemed to be able to effectively avoid such visions, but this was not a good method, because avoiding a problem does not mean that the problem does not exist.

Cao Guiqi once told him that visions and the like were also nourishment that helped him make progress. Every time he saw and overcame one, it was beneficial for training his spirit, so he didn't need to do this and could just face it normally.

Because he wrote down the situations along the way, he left faster than he came in. He returned to the ground in less than ten minutes. Apart from some moisture from the cave, he was not even sweating.

When he walked out of the cave and came under the daylight, he just closed his eyes slightly, and when he opened them again, he was completely adapted to the light outside.

Director Lei had been waiting outside. When he saw him come out, he walked closer and looked at him, "Student Chen, are you okay?"

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

"Let's talk in the car."

Director Lei brought him to his armored vehicle and handed him a bottle of water. Chen Chuan thanked him and took out the things in his package and handed them to Director Lei, then told him about what he had just encountered.

Director Lei first took the Sun Stone and took a look at it. His expression became serious, and then he placed it solemnly in a heavy metal box. After sealing it, he took out the materials and the notebook that Chen Chuan brought up and looked through them carefully.

Chen Chuan found that he read very quickly and could turn a page with just a glance.

Only ten minutes later, Director Lei closed the notebook in his hand and said, "I have basically figured out the clues. The leader of this expedition is the wealthy businessman mentioned in the information. It should be Oriko."

Chen Chuan asked: "Is this person famous?"

Director Lei said: "Orico is from Nordland and has a criminal record of holding cult rituals in various countries around the world. The Dashun Esoteric Cult Examination Bureau has his file."

Chen Chuanshuo said: "This man claims that the man in the expedition team twelve years ago was his father. Is this true?"

"They are indeed father and son, but it's not that simple."

Director Lei raised the notebook in his hand and said, "I thought they were holding a simple Sun Source Ceremony, but in fact they went further and also held a 'Fire Stealing' on top of that."

"Stealing fire?"

Director Lei said: "This is the term used in the Riyuan ritual. Simply put, during the Riyuan ritual, the vitality of one party can be transferred to another party.

However, in order for the Riyuan Ritual to achieve the greatest effect, the sacrificer must be willing and aware of every detail and truth. If an ignorant sacrifice is used instead, the vitality gained will be very little. After all, no one is willing to sacrifice for others for no reason.

So here, Orico and his son played a trick.

Orico first asked his son to transfer twelve years of his life to himself.

Then, for the next twelve years, because of the effect of the ritual he could ensure that he would not age, and his son used the vitality obtained from the other sacrifices to enter the ritual's eternal sleep.

In the teachings of the Yang Baijiao, twelve years is a cycle, and everything starts from the beginning. There will be a gap in the middle, and the believers steal power from it.

So when the next ritual was performed, before it was completed, Oriko woke up his son and asked him to take twelve years of his life from him, but in fact he himself suffered no loss. He then used the vitality of the remaining sacrifices to enter the ritual sleep.

In this way, his son can enjoy this round of twelve years outside, and then repeat the operation when the next ceremony is held. This is called "stealing fire."

It can be said that they "borrowed" twelve years of life from the ritual that can be used repeatedly. Their intention was good, but it seems that there was a mistake this time, resulting in the ritual not being completely successful. "

Chen Chuan asked: "Can they keep exchanging like this?"

Director Lei said: "The followers of the Yang Worship Cult attach great importance to the number twelve, so according to their understanding, 'stealing fire' can be done twelve times in a row. But even if it is only twelve times, the life span that can be increased is considerable."

After listening to Director Lei's words, Chen Chuan thought about it and asked, "I wonder how many times they have held this ceremony?"

……

……

(End of this chapter)