Third day.
Before dawn had even broken, the entire encampment had already begun to stir.
Everyone was driven out of the stone houses and lined up, walking toward the depths of the valley.
Lin Heng mingled in the middle of the crowd and followed them for about half an hour before arriving at the entrance to a secret realm sealed off by restrictions.
The entrance was a gray door of light suspended in midair, its edges rippling with cold, eerie waves.
The crowd filed in like fish.
The space inside the door of light abruptly expanded.
When they looked up, they saw a gray, dim firmament shrouding everything.
There was no sun or moon to speak of, yet the horizon glimmered with a dark-red faint light.
And beneath their feet was a massive altar.
Across a flat expanse more than ten li in radius, people stood packed shoulder to shoulder.
At a rough glance, there were probably more than a thousand of them, all believers of the Medical Path and the Buddhist Path, with the people of the Buddhist Path being fewer in number.
Lifting his gaze, at the center of the altar stood a circular stone platform, a hundred zhang in diameter, its surface carved all over with intricate formation patterns.
Around the stone platform stood twelve black stone pillars. Iron chains coiled around each pillar, and empty shackles hung from the ends of the chains.
This was rather similar to the scene he had seen back then inside the bunker. At the time, it seemed to have been used to sacrifice some people!
The atmosphere seemed slightly sinister and oppressive.
But those believers were all excited, their hands pressed together, muttering incessantly.
"Longevity undying..."
"The Great Dao eternal..."
A thousand people chanted in unison, their voices rolling back