There was an open door at the end of the tunnel. It was completely dark inside. Nothing could be seen except for the presence of death aura, which felt like a gust of wind howling in their ears.
Freud closed his eyes and focused his soul power on his forehead. Invisible ripples spread out from his forehead.
A moment later, Freud opened his eyes again. "I don't know what's going on inside, but I don't sense any souls or living creatures."
After making sure there were no living creatures or undead creatures around, the two of them stepped through the door.
The death aura inside was even more intense than before. Even though there was no energy source, they could already hear the cries of ghosts around them, as if they were whispering to each other.
However, Freud's eyebrows were twitching as if he was trying his best to endure the pain.
Angor took a step forward and released an invisible spirit barrier around him and Freud.
Under the protection of the spiritual force field, Freud finally let out a sigh of relief. "This must be the place where Ms. Shila hibernated. The remaining resentment here is extremely strong. Just by standing here, I'm already absorbing the accumulated death aura in my soul. "
Without Angor's protection, Freud wouldn't have survived for long. Once he absorbed too much resentment, he would only end up as a degenerate.
"So this place is more suitable for practicing soul tricks than Starlake Castle," Angor muttered. While muttering, he reached out a hand, and a bright ball of light slowly rose from his palm.
When the ball reached the top of his head, it released a blinding light that drove away the darkness and illuminated their surroundings.
This was the level-1 cantrip, Flare, which was an advanced version of Light.
With the help of Flare, they were able to see everything within a ten-meter radius. There was nothing special within the range of the light. The ground was perfectly flat, and there were obvious signs of polishing.
They also saw a flight of stairs in front of them.
"Looks like this place is bigger than I thought," Angor muttered. Ten light balls created by Flare appeared in his hand. With a simple flick of his hand, he sent them flying in all directions.
The pitch-black underground cave was like a skylight that had been opened to direct sunlight, instantly brightening up. Even the darkest corners of the tunnel were replaced by light.
When the light completely replaced the darkness, they finally saw the scene in the huge underground cave.
The area of the underground cavern was extremely vast, and it wouldn't be a problem to store two or three Star Lake Castles. The whole cave was very flat. Right in front of them was a high platform that looked like an altar. Near the altar were a large number of regular rectangular stone platforms. At the edge of the cave, there was a small black cave every few meters. Other than that, there were no other man-made traces.
Freud furrowed his brows and looked around. In the end, he fixed his eyes on the platform.
"This platform …" Freud pointed at the altar. "The aura of death on it is so thick that it almost feels real."
He didn't need Freud to tell him.
Although the high platform appeared to be empty to the naked eye, the aura of death, withering and silence was extremely conspicuous. It could even be said that all the aura of death in the entire cavern came from the platform. That was … the source.
"This place feels a little strange. Let's split up and see if we can find anything. Finally, we will go to the high platform. " Angor didn't go to the platform right away. Instead, he decided to split up with Freud and check the other parts of the cavern.
Freud nodded. He was also curious about the cave. Why would there be a cave like this? Who built it? What should they do?
Angor released a spirit barrier on Freud and went to the left side of the platform while Freud went to the right.
First, Angor used his spirit feelers to scan the area. The only things worth checking were the rectangular stone platforms and the small caves at the edge of the cavern.
He walked to the side of the rectangular stone platform.
These rectangular stone platforms protruded directly from the ground. Regardless of their height or shape, they looked like workbenches in a laboratory.
On the rectangular stone platform, there were also objects placed on top of it, just like the workbench.
A skeleton.
To be more precise, it was a broken human skeleton.
It was a skeleton of a left arm, which was completely dried up. Under the influence of the death aura, there were many brittle cracks on the skeleton.
Angor used both his spirit vision and his eyes to check the skeleton. He noticed that there were traces of energy seeping into the skeleton when it was still alive. However, he wasn't sure. He didn't know everything about bones yet. He decided to ask Freud later.
Since he did not find anything else, he went to another rectangular stone platform.
Just like the previous one, there was another broken skeleton here. This one was smaller. It was a right hand.
Angor could see that the bones were still intact. There were also traces of energy seeping into the bones.
Angor tried to recall the left hand he saw earlier. It was bigger than the right hand, which meant they didn't belong to the same person.
Next, Angor moved on to the other rectangular stone platforms. There were also broken skeletons on each of them. Some of them didn't belong to humans.
After checking the platform, he went to the small cave he just dug out from the wall.
He already checked the cave with his spirit feelers before, so he was only here to confirm it.
The cave wasn't too big. It was only about two meters deep, and there was a complete human skeleton sitting in each of the small caves.
Angor looked around the cave. There were smaller caves every few meters, and there were 360 of them in total.
In each cave, there was a human skeleton in the same cross-legged posture.
This was definitely not normal.
Angor's eyes darkened as he thought of something. He slowly walked back to the platform in the center.
Not long after, Freud joined them.
"There are broken skeletons here," Freud said. "Some belonged to humans, some Humanoids, and some non-native races. I have a feeling that some supernatural being might have done some secret research here. All of them showed traces of energy when they were alive. They shouldn't belong to mortals. "
Freud's conclusion was similar to Angor's. Angor considered for a moment. "If it's really a supernatural's secret research, it's normal for humans and Humanoids to be here. But … the bones of otherworldly creatures remind me of a certain race. "
"Karabits," Freud agreed.
Karabits loved to study living creatures, especially otherworldly creatures.
Angor nodded. "Maybe it's a Karabit wizard who's doing experiments here."
"That's possible. But it seems like this place has been abandoned for a long time, and there are no traces left behind by the experimenter. We can't prove it yet."
Angor nodded. There was no more information about the skeletons on the platform, so he had to put them aside for now.
"I'm more interested in the skeletons in the small caves."
Freud shivered a bit and said, "All the skeletons were in perfect condition, but they were all sitting in the same posture. It's really creepy."
"Why do you care about those skeletons, sir?" Freud asked.
Angor considered for a moment. "The distance between each cave is the same. The size of the cave is the same. The skeletons are all human, and they're sitting in the same posture. Everything was in accordance with a uniform standard. It reminds me of … "
He hesitated for a moment and said, "A ritual."
A ritual. Freud murmured the word softly. Unlike inscriptions, ritualism was not pursued by the Supreme Cult in the Southern Region. Freud had heard of it before, but he did not have much contact with it.
However, he knew that almost all sacrifices had something to do with the study of rituals. There were even schools of thought that ritual studies and inscriptions were both born from the demon gods. However, ritual studies were born from the sacrificial rituals between the demon gods and their believers.
"I learned about the prayer ritual from Ananda, and then I learned the basics of rituals from Greya." Angor recalled what Greya taught him. "Before becoming the master of rituals, there is little freedom in the study of rituals. Everything must be done according to the rules.
"The rituals of ritualism, on the other hand, are very strict and rigid. For example, in a sacrificial ritual, the offerings must be placed at least ten times the distance between the offerings. All offerings must be at least three meters apart from each other, and the offerings must be placed at a 90-degree angle.
"Because of these rules, the ritual can go on as it should. As for the existence of this small cave, in my opinion, it's an absolutely strict rule. "
Freud finally understood why Angor was so interested in the small cave.
If it was just a ritual, it would not be a big deal. However, the ritual used human bones.
Regardless of whether the ritual used a living sacrifice or a dead sacrifice, it meant that it was a sacrificial ritual.
The sacrificial offerings naturally had to have a target, and the targets of using humans as offerings were generally Demon Gods, Evil Gods, Demons that possessed divinity and ate humans as food, or Otherworld Giants that were hostile to humans.
Otherwise, there was no need to use humans as offerings.
Demons, evil gods, and otherworldly entities were not to be trifled with. They were all important targets in the wizarding world.
Now that there was such a ritual here, they needed to pay attention to it.
"Since the ritual is made of human bones …" "That's an altar, no doubt about it." Angor looked at the platform in front of them.
As for who the ritual is for, let's go up there and see. There must be some clues. "
With that, Angor took the lead and stepped onto the stairs leading to the altar.
With each step, Angor could feel the death aura attacking his spirit field more fiercely.
The death aura here was strong, but it was not controlled. It was just an unconscious attack that would not cause any damage to his spirit field.
There were 36 steps in total, which corresponded to the number of small caves. Once again, Angor confirmed the ritual's purpose.
When they reached the top of the altar, they saw a white bone altar built with the bones of the dead.
There was nothing on the altar, but the death aura here was the strongest.
Angor assumed that Lady Shila had been staying on the altar all this time, which was why the death aura was so strong.
Freud walked around the altar and did not see anything else. If they wanted to find clues, they would have to start from the altar.
However, at first glance, it was difficult to find any clues on this white bone altar. Not only was there nothing, but the altar was also pure white and flawless. There were no veined patterns on it.
Angor reached out a hand and touched the altar.
When he sensed something cold from his fingertip, he narrowed his eyes.
"There's no energy left on the altar," Angor said slowly.
Bone altars were made from the bones of the dead. The bones of the dead were considered semi-finished magic materials in the wizarding world, which meant they contained supernatural properties.
But now, the bones of the dead had become ordinary objects without any supernatural properties. This meant …
"The ritual has already been performed," Angor said.
Since the ritual had already been carried out, what exactly was the ritual? Was it a success or failure? And why was Lady Shila here?
While Freud was still trying to figure out what was going on, Angor clenched his fist and crushed the bone altar.
After a series of clattering noises, the bone altar broke into pieces and fell to the ground.
As the white bone altar shattered, the ground at the top of the altar was revealed.
"Hey, there's a symbol here!" Freud looked down and saw a strange symbol at the center of the ground. It was obviously drawn by a human.
After making sure there was no energy left on the altar, Angor scanned it with his spirit feelers and found the symbol. That was why he had shattered the white bone altar to reveal the symbols.
Angor had never seen it before.
The symbol was very neat and could be divided into three parts. The outermost part was a concentric circle. Inside the circle was a standard hexagon. Inside the hexagon was a symmetrical meandering symbol.
The symbol looked like two curved earthworms. When Angor took a closer look, he could see the symbol moving around as if it was alive.
"It doesn't look supernatural, but it has something to do with the death aura around it." Angor sighed. "Too bad I've never seen it before."
The symbol inside the hexagon was a key clue. Perhaps it pointed to the target of the ritual.
Angor looked at Freud to see if the man knew about it.
Freud shook his head. "I've never seen it either. But it's fine. We can always ask for help. "
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