Three soldiers looked around and walked up to the stone shrine hidden in the grass.
They used their sabers to part the weeds, revealing an ancient little shrine. Its base was piled from stones and covered with natural slabs, upon which stood a two-foot-tall shrine carved from stone. It was a common design, complete with eaves, a roof ridge, and a door. A broken incense burner sat before it.
Seeing nothing unusual nearby, the three leaned against the shrine and chatted.
On the smooth Dragon Scale Rock hill, the old cultivator sat cross-legged while his two disciples ran about collecting ordinary objects.
Clear rainwater gathered in a stone hollow, a section of tree root, charcoal left after lightning had set wood ablaze.
Using some sort of lodestone, they found a piece of Metal Ore on the mountain, as well as stones pried loose from Rocky Ridge.
The so-called altar was a snow-white cloth covered in strange patterns.
Three iron nails lay flat in the middle, surrounded by the five miscellaneous objects.
"Same as before. The ritual must not be interrupted."
After saying this, the old cultivator sat cross-legged and began the ritual, chanting a long and complicated incantation. His two disciples did not remain idle either. They continuously burned paper beside him, bowing their heads once for every few sheets they burned. Before long, smoke curled over the hill and paper ash drifted through the air.
In the woods, Feng Ying watched secretly beneath a straw hat.
The three nails were conspicuous.
The observant Feng Ying noticed changes on their surfaces. strange black-red patterns had emerged, their color growing ever darker.
If she had guessed correctly, the three nails before the old man were the evil artifacts the Mountain God had mentioned. They had to be thrown into a latrine