Comparing the information against the large map, Chen Chuan discovered that the placement of these sacrificial sites was far from arbitrary.
From Great Monte Continent along the northern coast of the West Coast to Sanoe Continent along the southern coast, sacrificial pits existed almost everywhere. Some places had more, others fewer.
Sometimes, sacrifices had been performed repeatedly at roughly the same location, as though there were something special about the place.
According to the records, this had continued for a long time. The earliest instances dated back more than a century, before the Great Alliance had even been founded.
The records stated that the New Light Sect had still been a branch of the "Secret Gate Sect" at the time. Only later had it broken away completely.
So it had been a branch of the Secret Gate Sect...
Many thoughts passed through Chen Chuan's mind. Although the records said little else about this sect, he did know a little about it.
When he had previously read and studied the compilation of Esoteric Rituals, it had mentioned the Secret Gate Sect, an ancient evil sect originating in the Western Continent.
This sect believed that the world contained a "Gate of Truth." By opening it, people could seek power and knowledge within, but neither came without a price. Enough "precious offerings" had to be sacrificed.
Human sacrifice was the usual method, since people were the easiest sacrificial materials to obtain. The higher ranks of the Secret Gate Sect, however, needed to sacrifice kings, nobles, and the like—the higher their status, the better. Consequently, numerous sects and countries had suppressed them. Yet they had somehow survived the entire Old Era, vanishing completely only after the New Era arrived.
If the New Light Sect was a branch of theirs, it must have inherited quite