Yun Qingyue walked to his side and said softly, "Look over there."
She pointed toward the depths of the cavern.
There stood an enormous stone platform, over ten feet high and several dozen feet across.
The platform was likewise piled with bones, but their arrangement was clearly different—they formed a ring, all facing the center of the platform as if worshipping something.
At the center of the platform lay a sunken pit, filled with thick layers of ash.
Lu Chen leaped onto the platform and walked over to the pit.
The pit was deep, more than a person's height, and the ash at its bottom had already hardened into solid clumps.
He jumped down and used the Azure Dragon Halberd to sweep aside the ash.
Beneath it lay scorched black rock.
The rock's surface was carved with dense, intricate runes. They resembled the symbols of the Ten Thousand Gu Sect, yet were older and far more sinister.
He studied them carefully and recognized several symbols that appeared again and again.
"Snake... sacrifice... life..."
He murmured to himself as a terrifying image gradually took shape in his mind.
Thousands of years ago, the predecessor of the Ten Thousand Gu Sect—or perhaps some even more ancient force—had conducted blood sacrifice after blood sacrifice in the depths beneath the earth.
They captured cultivators, barbarians, Demon Beasts, perhaps even disciples of their own sect, and offered them as sacrifices to the young serpents of those ancient mutant species.
Those young serpents grew through the blood sacrifices, becoming stronger and stronger, until finally...
Until what?
He did not know.
But he had a faint feeling that this was inextricably linked to the Undead Monarch.
Just as he was about to continue examining the site, his right shoulder suddenly twitched.
That remnant soul mark.
It had