txolops Chapter 46 Severing Veins Camp
Chapter 46 Severing Veins Camp
Another night passed.
Before dawn, sounds came from the rift valley on the side of Buzhou Mountain.
It's not the wind.
It is water.
The underground river arches through the depths of the mountain, crashing against the rock walls of the rift valley, echoing dully like someone beating a drum through thick earth, each beat making one's chest feel heavy.
Huang Chen lay prone on the edge of a crack, half his body pressed against the cold rock surface, his ear slightly turned to the side, his fingertips pressed against the ground, using the slight senses brought by the introductory talisman of the [Tracing the Veins Spiritual Hearing Technique] to discern the direction of the water veins in the valley.
Moisture seeped out from the cracks in the rocks.
It has a fishy smell, a cold smell, and a burnt, bitter smell of long-cooked bone residue.
The Broken Vein Camp is located below.
Looking down from above, this camp didn't resemble a typical stronghold set up by demon armies; rather, it looked like an iron wedge driven into the mountainside. Seven layers of black wooden barricades stood on the outer perimeter, with thick chains wrapped around the stakes. The chains were half-buried in the ground, and a layer of grayish-white frost crystals pressed between the links.
In the center is a low stone platform with bone pillars at the four corners and leather drums hanging from the top of the pillars. Further behind is a wide canal that leads straight into the depths of the rift valley. The canal walls are inlaid with dark blue stone slabs, which faintly emit a cold light, like a blood vessel of a mountain that has been cut open.
The mountain was split open to worship the canal.
Huang Chen narrowed his eyes, his gaze lingering on the sacrificial canal for a couple of moments.
There is no water in the canal.
It flows with a murky, dark liquid, occasionally bubbling up and bursting open with a gurgling sound, releasing white steam.
Each surge sent a slight tremor through the canal floor, sending shivers down the spines of the surrounding mountains. If one stood close enough, one could probably hear the tremor even between their bones.
"Hold on tight! If a link falls off, I'll throw you down into the ditch!"
'
Suddenly, a curse erupted from the valley floor.
Huang Chen shifted his gaze to the east side of the camp gate.
A chain transport team was slowly entering the camp.
At the head of the procession were four jackal demons with black fur on their backs and long fangs in their mouths, each with a bone whip with barbs hanging from their waist.
Behind them, a dozen or so laborers bent over, carrying a heavy, black pole on their shoulders. Two thick chains hung from the pole, each section as wide as a palm, gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen. Among the laborers were humans and emaciated little demons, each with thin chains around their ankles, swaying with every step, barely daring to breathe loudly.
Huang Chen did not move.
He had been lying in wait here for most of the night.
The first half of the night was spent watching patrols.
The changing of the guard was shown in the latter half of the night.
By now, he has almost remembered all three rounds of visible sentries, two rounds of hidden sentries, one escort mission, and one opening and closing of the altar within the camp.
The guards at the east and west gates rotate every two hours.
The stone drum on the altar sounds once each at the three quarters of Chen, Wei, and Xu. After the drum sounds, a water curtain will briefly rise below the altar, lasting for about thirty breaths. The chain-carrying team enters the camp a quarter of an hour after the drum stops, when the guards are least focused and their inspections are the most cursory.
This place may seem chaotic, but it's actually quite strict.
The more this is the case, the less we should rush things.
Huang Chen slowly exhaled, suppressing his breath even further, his heartbeat gradually slowing down. He activated the Concealing Breath Technique, his blood energy seemingly enveloped by an invisible membrane, making him appear from the outside like a black stone embedded in a rock crevice.
Then there was the sound of drums below.
thump.
thump.
thump.
A muffled thud echoed along the mountainside, causing the braziers throughout the camp to tremble, their flames turning bluish. A dozen or so guards around the stone platform simultaneously lowered their heads, as if awaiting an order.
A moment later, the central stone platform vibrated, and a semi-circular water curtain rose from the bottom of the platform. The water was transparent with light blue patterns, completely covering the inner warehouse area behind it.
Huang Chen stared at the water curtain and gently tapped the rock surface with his finger.
Right now.
He did not leap down directly.
Instead, it glided around the rift valley wall for over a hundred feet, using the black wind to conceal its form, and stopped behind a patch of hanging broken vines. Below them was a chain-carrying team that had just been driven onto the side path. At the end of the team, a little demon stumbled, almost falling off the icy crystal box he was carrying. He was immediately whipped by the jackal demon, and before he could even scream properly, he only let out a muffled groan and knelt on the ground.
"You piece of trash! You've wasted our time, I'll skin you alive!"
The leader of the jackal demons exhaled hot air and kicked out.
The little demon rolled to the side of the road and couldn't get up for a long time.
Huang Chen's gaze swept over the area, his body sank, and he silently disappeared into the shadows.
The next instant, the wind swept past the shadows of the vines.
No one could see what happened.
A dark shadow flashed by the roadside, and the little demon who had been curled up on the ground was dragged behind a crevice in the rocks, where it remained motionless. Huang Chen had already changed into the other man's dirty black short jacket, his face smeared with mud, his back slightly hunched, and he picked up the wooden box that had fallen to the ground, bowing his head and joining the back of the line.
The movements are slow.
Not in a hurry, not slowly.
They were just like those hard laborers whose bodies had been numbed by the whip.
The jackal demon ahead cursed and swore, not even looking back to take a closer look, only concerned with urging the group forward.
More than a dozen bone lamps were stuck on either side of the camp gate, their wicks soaked in greenish grease, the smoke from which smelled of amber. The ground inside the gate was blackened and shiny from countless cart tracks and footprints, with congealed blood clots still visible at the corners.
Huang Chen carried the wooden box past the door, his ears filled with the sounds of chains dragging on the ground, the shouts of demon soldiers, and the suppressed coughs of laborers.
Nearly.
closer.
Once inside the camp, the view suddenly became narrower.
The towering wooden walls around the camp cut the sunlight in the rift valley into thin lines. Dozens of low sheds were set up in the camp, and people and demons were working in groups under the sheds.
Some were smashing icy crystals, some were carving demon bones, and some were dipping sections of the black chain into a grayish-white medicinal liquid. As soon as the liquid bubbled, a pungent blast of cold air rose up, freezing the lips of the laborers nearby until they turned purple.
"Hurry! Hurry!"
'
"Today, the main altar is being stocked with ingredients; missing even one cartload will cost you your head!"
"Why are you looking up, you human over there?"
Want to get nailed?
Shouts and curses rose and fell.
Out of the corner of his eye, Huang Chen glanced into the depths of the camp and saw several iron cages.
There were more than twenty humans, both men and women, locked in the cage, all wearing wooden shackles.
Some people leaned numbly against the railing, while others huddled in a corner, their faces as white as paper. Nearby, several young monsters were also imprisoned, their ribs bulging and their tails drooping limply to the ground.
They were kept in the same area, not out of pity, but simply because they were all considered consumables.
Huang Chen's Adam's apple bobbed slightly.
The veins on the back of his hand were slightly bulging.
The Rift Mountain Sacrifice Canal cannot be sustained solely by feeding it with minerals and spiritual objects.
The forced labor here is itself a form of sacrifice.
He didn't look back, and carrying the wooden box, he followed the group into a side path near the inner warehouse.
The ground began to become slippery, with thin lines of water seeping from the cracks in the stone bricks. The water curtain barrier was just a dozen feet away, like a still waterfall, with flowing light patterns that obscured the warehouses, stone cabinets, and tables inside.
Huang Chen's steps remained sluggish.
As the group passed a dead end filled with boxes of frost crystals, he flicked his finger, and a barely perceptible gust of wind struck the wooden frame beside them.
Click.
The wooden frame tilted, and the two top boxes crashed down.
"Oh shit!"
Which way are you looking?
"Hold on!"
The two jackal demons pounced at the same time.
The side passage instantly descended into chaos. Several laborers instinctively retreated, the box lids slammed open, and a dozen or so pieces of icy crystals rolled across the ground, hissing cold air billowing out. Taking advantage of this brief moment of confusion, Huang Chen had already moved to the edge of the water curtain, the Wind-Stabilizing Pearl slipping from his sleeve into his palm.
The round beads were icy cold.
The moment the spiritual energy was activated, the surrounding moisture seemed to be forcibly gripped.
The ever-flowing water curtain paused for a fleeting moment in the lower left corner.
Just this one moment.
Huang Chen shrank back, squeezing through the fist-width gap, his clothes brushing against the water, creating only a shallow ripple. Outside, the shouting and cursing continued, but inside, it was eerily quiet.
It was much colder inside than outside.
A row of cold jade nails was embedded in the wall, making the stone chamber appear eerily white.
Neatly stacked wooden crates lay on the ground, each labeled with bone fragments: 30 catties of cold crystals, nine baskets of demon bones, twelve sets of pulse-suppressing chains, and four crates of sacrificial canal materials. At the very back were two long black wooden tables; one held account books and bone slips, the other contained seals, clay seals, bone knives, and several black tokens.
Huang Chen first looked around.
Once.
Twice.
After confirming that there were no hidden sentries and no alarms had been triggered, he quickly walked to the long table.
Account books are not paper.
It consists of long, smooth bones strung together to form a bone tablet, each one deeply engraved.
Huang Chen picked up the top roll, his fingertips brushing against the bone surface. The touch was cold and astringent, like touching frozen human bones. He quickly flipped through it, his eyes scanning line by line.
"Cold Crystal, Seven Carts."
"Forty-three baskets of demon bones."
'
"The black chain of the pulse-suppressing medicine, three doses to replenish, two doses to remelt the broken joints."
"Humans are forced into hard labor; thirty-seven new recruits have joined, while eleven have been lost."
'
"Young demons are forced into hard labor; of the twenty-nine newly recruited, nine have perished."
When he turned to the back, his fingers suddenly stopped.
Below the bone tablet, there was a new row of markings that had never been seen before.
It is not the watermark of the Ministry of Works.
It is a grayish-white, tiny round mark, like incense ash pressed out, with an almost imperceptible crescent-shaped crack in the center of the mark.
Huang Chen's eyelids twitched slightly.
Soul Ash Mark.
This wasn't the first time he'd seen the chain used by the Xuantian Sect to bind souls and sell people.
He had fought his way through flying boats, blood valleys, mines, and ancestral mountains, seeing countless traces of soul-binding. But this was the first time he had ever seen the soul ash markings of the Xuan Tian Sect's remnants placed side-by-side with the Gonggong tribe's border camp ledgers.
Not a coincidence.
It is not a piecemeal transaction.
It's the same line; we've finally connected.
Huang Chen turned the bone slip to the page corresponding to the mark.
"A box of soul ash."
"Two bags of remnant soul talisman ash".
'
"The remaining goods from the Xuanmai, in three batches, have been sent to the altar for safekeeping."
The words are very short.
It sends chills down your spine.
Huang Chen slowed his breathing even more and immediately took out the account book and bone slips from his storage bag, quickly making a copy of the contents in front of him.
The bone fragments gently collided with each other, producing a very faint clicking sound that was exceptionally clear in the stone chamber. After each stroke, he would pause for a moment to make sure there was no movement outside.
After finishing tracing the account books, he went to the stone cabinet on the other side.
The cabinet door was wrapped with a thin chain, and the lock was soaked in black lacquer.
Instead of using brute force to pry it open, Huang Chen took out half of a broken bronze sword and slowly used the blade to slide along the lock seam. The old lock tongue made a soft click and popped open.
On the top shelf of the cabinet were clay seals and several tokens.
The second layer contains three bone boxes.
The third layer contained a tattered animal hide array diagram, its edges charred, resting on a fist-sized black metal core.
Huang Chen's gaze fell on the rolled-up animal skin, his pupils shrinking slightly.
He spread out half of the animal hide.
The patterns inside were twisted and intertwined, like countless water veins coiled around the base of the mountain. Several extremely thick lock lines were interspersed in the middle, with nine cone-shaped talisman nails drawn at the nodes of the lock lines. There were also several annotations next to them, with ancient and clumsy handwriting. They were at least 70% similar to the fragment of the Gonggong Zhenmai Lock Diagram in his hand.
It would be strange if they weren't from the same origin.
Huang Chen's mind instantly flashed through several anomalies, including the ancestral mountain veins, the Blood Valley Spirit Cave, and the Broken Ridge Grottoes.
These places are not isolated.
Like a nail.
One by one, they were driven into the mountain.
This fragment of the diagram shows the nailing method.
Without delay, he immediately took out the [Suppressing Meridian Array Diagram Rubbing] and a blank animal hide, carefully comparing and copying it. The diagram was too complex, and several parts were still incomplete, so he could only memorize the general structure first, and then copy the details.
By the time he copied the third meridian-locking talisman nail, his palms were already slightly sweaty.
He also picked up the black metal core next to it.
It was surprisingly heavy, its surface covered with dark, water-ripple-like patterns, with half a broken chain embedded in its center. Huang Chen probed it with his divine sense and immediately detected a familiar fluctuation.
Black Chain Core.
It shares the same origin as the fragment of the [Suppressing Meridian Black Chain] in his hand, and is even more complete.
He reached out and put it into his storage bag.
Just as they were taken inside, an even louder drumbeat suddenly sounded outside the camp.
thump—
This is not a sacrificial drum.
The sound was deep and resonant, like someone smashing a whole piece of iron onto the giant tortoise's shell.
The drumbeats shook the dust off the top of the stone chamber, and even the white light from the cold jade nails flickered.
Immediately afterwards, chaos erupted outside.
"The witch doctor has returned to camp!"
"open circuit!
Get out of my way!
"Clear the main path!"
quick!"
The shouts came one after another, accompanied by the cracking of whips and screams, making a commotion several times louder than before.
Huang Chen's expression darkened. He quickly put the incomplete map, the rubbing of the account book, and the bone box back in their original positions, keeping only the real rubbing and the core of the black chain. Then, with a swift movement, he leaped onto the roof beam and pressed himself into the shadow cast by the beam.
The next moment, the water curtain outside the stone chamber suddenly parted.
A tall figure stepped into the inner warehouse.
Huang Chen peered down through the gaps in the beams.
The newcomer was clad in heavy tortoise-shell armor, not the usual patchwork, but a single massive piece of dark blue armor pressed against his body, its edges inlaid with dark copper studs, producing a dull creaking sound as he moved. His helmet covered his nose, revealing only a pair of slender eyes.
Those eyes were extremely pale, almost grayish-white, with pupils that looked like they were filled with cold water.
He held a short-handled bone hammer in his right hand; the hammerhead was black and wrapped with old blood-stained strips of cloth.
Half a chain was still hanging from his left shoulder.
The chain dragged along a blood-soaked jackal, the very same one who had been yelling at the laborers outside.
The jackal demon had a wooden wedge stuffed in its mouth, its limbs twitching, and it couldn't even utter a clear plea for mercy.
The escort time was brought forward by half a quarter of an hour.
'
The man in the tortoise-shell armor spoke, his voice rough and hoarse, like sand and gravel grinding against an iron plate.
"Who told you to break the formation?"
'
The two accompanying demon soldiers knelt down with a thud, not daring to raise their heads.
"Reporting to the Witchcraft Bureau, it's the Frost Crystal Shelf that collapsed—"
"It collapsed?"
'
The Xuanjia witch supervisor raised his eyes, his gray-white pupils sweeping over.
"Will the frame collapse on its own?"
'
He spoke softly.
The words had barely left his mouth when he raised the bone hammer in his hand.
boom!
The jackal's head exploded on the spot, splattering blood and bone fragments all over half the ground.
The chain that was dragging it trembled, like a snake that had just swallowed something.
On the beam, Huang Chen slowly gripped the [Soul-Destroying Chisel - Remnant] hidden in his sleeve.
The murderous intent in his chest rose almost instinctively.
This guy has an overwhelming aura.
This was no ordinary sorcerer supervising the camp; he carried the mixed and chilling aura of the Gonggong tribe's witchcraft, along with the malevolent energy of a blood sacrifice. As he stood there, the energy beneath his feet subtly connected to the stone chamber, the earth's veins, and the sacrificial canal outside, as if half his body was embedded in the camp.
Approaching the threshold of becoming a celestial being.
If a real fight breaks out, it's impossible to settle things in one blow.
If things are stalled, the entire Broken Pulse Camp will be in chaos.
Huang Chen clenched his teeth slightly, forcing back the rising breath, but his fingertips didn't loosen.
Below, the Xuanjia Witch Supervisor slowly walked to the long table, picked up an account book made of bone slips, and flipped through it.
"Recent losses have led to a price increase."
'
A kneeling demon soldier said in a trembling voice, "The sacrificial canal is swallowing even more fiercely than in previous days. Last night, a crack appeared on the main altar, as if something was pushing up from the base of the mountain..."
"Shut up."
The Xuanjia witch supervisor coldly interrupted.
"Are you qualified to advise on the matter?"
The demon soldier turned pale and immediately kowtowed, his forehead hitting the ground with a thud.
The Xuanjia sorcerer tossed the account book onto the table and turned to walk towards the stone cabinet. Huang Chen's eyes narrowed, and his palms clenched.
If the other party notices that the cabinet lock has been tampered with at this point, the stone chamber must be sealed immediately.
step.
Two steps.
The Xuanjia witch supervisor stopped in front of the cabinet, but did not open it immediately. Instead, he raised his hand and placed it on the cabinet door, his gray-white eyes slightly narrowed, as if sensing something.
Huang Chen pressed his back against the beam, even slowing his breathing little by little.
The stone chamber was terribly cold.
A drop of sweat slowly slid down his temple.
There was a brief silence below.
Suddenly, someone rushed in from outside and reported through the water curtain: "Lord Shaman! The sacrificial canal on the west side is spewing dregs again. The main altar requests your presence to calm the energy!"
'
The Xuanjia witch supervisor's hand was still pressed on the cabinet door. He paused for a moment before slowly withdrawing it.
"Sealing the warehouse."
'
"No one else is allowed to enter except me."
"yes!
'
He turned and walked out, the bone hammer dragging on the ground with a screeching sound. Two demon soldiers hurriedly followed, and before the water curtain closed again, Huang Chen could still hear his cold voice coming from outside.
"Bring ten more of the newly arrived humans to the past."
"If there aren't enough young demons, we'll replace them with chained slaves."
'
"If the sacrificial canal is blocked again, fill it in alive."
"yes!
'
He turned and walked out, the bone hammer dragging on the ground with a screeching sound. Two demon soldiers hurriedly followed, and before the water curtain closed again, Huang Chen could still hear his cold voice coming from outside.
"Bring ten more of the newly arrived humans to the past."
"If there aren't enough young demons, we'll replace them with chained slaves."
'
"If the sacrificial canal is blocked again, fill it in alive."
The footsteps faded into the distance.
The stone chamber fell silent once more.
Huang Chen remained lying on the beam for more than ten breaths before slowly loosening his grip on the Soul-Destroying Chisel.
The edge of the chisel handle left a deep mark on my palm, and it felt slightly numb.
Crying and screaming started again outside.
People were being dragged past, there were dull thuds of whips striking flesh, and the screech of iron cages being opened. The sounds weren't loud, but they were more jarring than the drumbeats from before.
A chill ran through Huang Chen's eyes as he glanced down at the storage bag.
The account books were printed inside.
The battle formation diagram is printed inside.
The core of the black chain is also inside.
We've obtained the most crucial item from this trip.
Just then, the system panel in my mind trembled slightly, and pale gold characters slowly appeared.
[Main Quest Progression: Investigate the Source of the Gonggong Department's Anomalies]
Current progress: 2/3
[Note: You have obtained key evidence from the Broken Vein Camp, confirming a substantial connection between the remnants of the Xuantian Sect and the Gonggong Tribe's sacrificial lineage.]
[Warning: The current area is highly hostile; rewards cannot be claimed until you leave.]
】
The gold lettering appeared briefly before disappearing.
There is no reward.
There was no lottery.
Even the accumulation of merit and karmic effects remained unaffected.
Only the increasingly dense footsteps outside the stone chamber and the faint sound of a second round of deep drumbeats coming from the direction of the main altar remained.
Huang Chen slid silently off the crossbeam, his knees slightly bent when he landed, without even startling a speck of dust.
He walked to the water curtain, but instead of rushing out, he looked out through the light blue patterns.
The access road outside the warehouse has been tripled in number of guards.
The braziers on both sides had been replaced with blue flames, indicating that martial law had been imposed.
Above the main altar in the distance, a thick beam of blood-red light could be vaguely seen flowing down the bone pillar and into the mountain-splitting sacrificial channel.
The canal seemed to come alive, its walls gently bulging and emitting muffled gurgling sounds. Further away, a string of human laborers were being led towards the stone platform, stumbling and falling, leaving a long trail of blood behind them.
Huang Chen raised his hand and slowly pulled the black wind cap down to cover half of his face.
He then retreated back into the shadow of the pillar.
Press down on the storage bag with your left hand.
His right hand silently gripped the Soul-Destroying Chisel - Remnant.
Outside the stone chamber, the sound of bone boots pounding the ground grew closer.