The Mysterious Altar

After refining the two Blood Qi Pills, Song Wen could clearly feel a noticeable surge in his Everlasting Longevity Art cultivation. He was now within arm's reach of the fifth layer of Qi Condensation.

Song Wen felt his spirits lift. He had finally found a reliable method to rapidly advance his cultivation.

However, the medicinal potency of these standard pills was still a bit lacking. Refining each batch required three full days, yet a single furnace yielded only two pills, making the return on his time rather poor.

He recalled the second Blood Qi Pill he had consumed back then. In that instance, Ji Yin had drastically increased the quantity of raw materials, which not only yielded four pills at once but also more than doubled their individual potency.

"Perhaps I should also attempt to increase the raw ingredients in my own batches."

Spurred by the thought, Song Wen felt a surge of anticipation. He immediately left his quarters to purchase spirit grass from the market, intent on experimenting with a new formula.

Another half-month passed in a flash, and Song Wen finally succeeded in refining an enhanced version of the Blood Qi Pill.

As the pill settled into his stomach, a torrent of spiritual power dissolved, causing his cultivation to grow at a visible pace.

That night, while Song Wen was deeply immersed in absorbing the medicinal energy, his awareness suddenly twitched. He perceived an unfamiliar aura stealthily approaching the courtyard.

However, the presence did not enter his own residence. Instead, it slipped into the neighboring home of Sun Daxiong.

Moreover, the owner of this aura was someone Song Wen recognized-the prominent genius of the Lei Family, Lei Tianyu!

Lei Tianyu had concealed his aura exceptionally well. If Song Wen's outer perimeter had not been patrolled by a Black-armored Gu that happened to cross paths with the intruder, even with a Divine Sense comparable to a late Foundation Establishment cultivator, he might have missed the man's tracks entirely.

'He is the legitimate son of the Lei Family head. What business does he have sneaking into the Sun residence in the dead of night? Could Sun Daxiong possess some hidden treasure that caught his eye?'

Intrigued and suspicious, Song Wen carefully extended a thread of Divine Sense, silently monitoring the intruder's every move.

Lei Tianyu touched down soundlessly in Sun Daxiong's courtyard. After probing the three structures and confirming that only the leftmost room held a single breathing presence, a look of delight crossed his face.

The intelligence was entirely accurate.

Sun Daxiong had departed yesterday to hunt Demon Beasts in the wilderness and had not yet returned.

Only his daughter, Sun Ru, was home.

Stepping lightly across the courtyard, Lei Tianyu glided toward the main entrance of the living area.

He channeled a thin strand of spiritual energy into the gap of the door, and the heavy bolt holding it shut from the inside slid open without a sound.

Once inside the living room, he moved directly toward the left chamber.

Just as he prepared to repeat the trick on the bedroom door, he felt a faint ripple of invisible force enveloping the room.

A defensive formation.

Despite this sudden deviation from his expectations, Lei Tianyu did not show the slightest hint of panic.

It was merely a low-grade protective array known as the Six Jia Array, which served the dual purpose of defense and warning.

If an intruder forced their way through, the barrier would instantly flare with a brilliant crimson light and unleash a piercing drone. This would serve to startle the trespasser while alerting everyone in the vicinity.

The Beast Taming Sect collected hefty rents and was obligated to maintain order for the rogue cultivators in the market town. The moment a warning formation tripped, the enforcement patrol would rapidly deploy to the scene. Furthermore, any righteous neighbors living nearby might also rush over to assist.

To someone of Lei Tianyu's background, such a low-tier array was beneath notice. But for a rogue cultivator like Sun Daxiong, it was a major investment, bought at a premium to protect his daughter whenever he was away on dangerous hunts.

Lei Tianyu flipped his wrist, producing an ink-black iron token. Infusing it with spiritual energy, he carefully pressed the token against the translucent barrier.

The moment the array's barrier touched the token, it began to dissolve rapidly, like winter snow meeting a blazing furnace.

A soft, crisp pop echoed through the quiet room.

Once a small portion of the barrier melted away, the structural integrity of the entire array failed, shattering completely into flecks of light.

With the formation broken, Sun Ru, who had been sitting cross-legged in meditative cultivation, was instantly jolted awake.

"Who is-"

Before she could finish her sentence, a dark shadow lunged across the room.

A sudden, sharp pain struck the back of her neck, and Sun Ru's vision turned black as she collapsed into unconsciousness.

Lei Tianyu pulled out a heavy black cloth sack, shoved the unconscious girl inside, and hoisted her onto his shoulder. Without a moment's delay, he turned and vanished into the night.

Watching the entire abduction unfold through his Divine Sense, pieces of disjointed information regarding the Lei Family rapidly clicked together in Song Wen's mind.

The low-priced Palm Lightning manuals sold by the Lei Family's Treasure Law Pavilion, the hidden spiritual sense imprints left upon those jade slips, the distinct scent of blood-path cultivation lingering on Lei Tianyu...

And most importantly, the fact that Sun Ru had successfully mastered that very Palm Lightning technique not long ago.

As these clues converged, a chilling, audacious conjecture took root in Song Wen's mind.

Before Lei Tianyu could clear the courtyard walls, Song Wen subtly detached a thread of his Divine Sense and branded a tracking imprint onto Sun Ru's garments.

He purposely avoided placing the imprint directly on Lei Tianyu, fearing the keen senses of the young master might detect the sudden descent of foreign spiritual energy.

At the same time, he commanded a Black-armored Gu to tail the cultivator from a safe, stealthy distance.

Lei Tianyu navigated the twisting alleys of the market town with practiced ease, utilizing the cover of darkness to slip past the outer boundaries.

Once clear of the settlement, he eschewed taking to the sky on a flying artifact. Instead, he chose to move on foot through the dense forest canopy, a method far less likely to draw unwanted eyes.

Song Wen did not dare evoke his demonic True Essence, relying purely on the physical strength of his mortal flesh to leap through the brush. Though his movement speed was naturally limited, Lei Tianyu was burdened by a living captive and preoccupied with erasing his own tracks, which slowed him down considerably.

Guided by the dual tracking of his Black-armored Gu and the Divine Sense imprint, Song Wen maintained a cautious distance of ten li, trailing behind like an invisible ghost.

After trekking over two hundred li, Lei Tianyu emerged at the edge of a massive, shoreless lake that stretched toward the horizon.

Scanning the perimeter to ensure no other cultivators were about, Lei Tianyu gripped the sack containing Sun Ru tightly and plunged directly into the deep waters.

The Black-armored Gu slipped into the lake right behind him. Spotting this from several li away, Song Wen immediately quickened his pace, closing the distance.

The section of the lake where Lei Tianyu had dove was incredibly deep; even after descending nearly fifty meters, the lakebed remained out of sight.

Rather than diving further, Lei Tianyu veered toward the rocky underwater cliff face, slipping into one of the numerous submerged caverns pitting the stone.

Inside lay a claustrophobic, narrow tunnel that sloped sharply downward, entirely flooded by the cold lake water.

Lei Tianyu pressed forward through the flooded passage for several hundred meters until he halted before a seemingly unremarkable rock wall that looked no different from the surrounding stone.

He produced a dark, bowl-sized stone disc and struck a series of incantation gestures against it, causing the artifact to glow with a soft, white light.

Holding the disc firmly, he pressed it into a small depression on the wall-one that appeared to be nothing more than natural water erosion.

Instantly, waves of profound, dark light pulsed from the rock.

The stone wall, which had looked solid and thick a breath prior, magically vanished in a single section, revealing a cave mouth roughly three meters wide.

Beyond the threshold lay a massive, natural underground cavern filled with jagged, towering stalagmites. Remarkably, not a single drop of water penetrated the interior; an invisible barrier at the entrance held the immense pressure of the lake at bay.

In a far corner of the cavern, a section of flat ground about half an acre in size had been artificially leveled.

The stone floor was densely carved with intricate formation lines, at the center of which sat a square, half-man-tall sacrificial altar.

Thick, blackened coats of dried blood stained the altar's surface.

Profound lightning runes were carved across the four faces and upper platform of the structure. These runes, deeply permeated by the ancient bloodstains, seemed to thrum with a sinister, spectral power, radiating an eerie and oppressive spiritual pressure into the dark cavern.

Directly adjacent to this ritual ground lay a massive, natural pit of jagged rocks. Inside, piled high in a chaotic mess, were layers upon layers of rotting bones.

The deeper skeletons had already decayed into crumbling white fragments, indicating they had lain there for an untold number of years.

The upper layers, however, were dreadfully fresh. The flesh and muscle had not entirely decomposed, venting a foul, putrid stench into the cavern air.

Most unsettling of all, the remains within the pit were not strictly human. They were interspersed with the skeletons of various Demon Beasts-some long and serpentine, some bearing cloven hooves, and others possessing the ruined framework of massive wings.

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