Heavenly Dao Engine
Chapter 1275 - 1275 0733 The Most Unwanted Surprise

Chapter 1275: Chapter 0733: The Most Unwanted Surprise Chapter 1275: Chapter 0733: The Most Unwanted Surprise Chapter 0733: The Last Thing He Wanted To See

Within another Saint’s Tomb, Qi Tian’s gains were extraordinarily generous. Apart from various treasures, he had also collected many books—if these were to be replaced with actual texts, they would be enough to fill several bookshelves.

Although Qi Tian was a cultivator and reading ten lines at a glance was an ordinary skill for him, it was still incredibly difficult to go through all these books in a short time. Therefore, he simply asked Ghostface to help him sift through the texts, hoping to find the symbols on the pillars among them.

Ghostface and Qi Tian worked together, turning page after page of tomes and inspecting one piece of Jade Pupil Simplified after another.

Initially, there were no findings. Just when Qi Tian was about to give up hope for any sort of discovery, in one thin volume, he saw a piece of beast skin tucked between the pages. On this beast skin were several drawings astonishingly resembling the construction blueprint of a lantern pillar. The pillar in the drawing was exactly the same as the one in front of his eyes, even the runes and designs on it were without any discrepancies.

Besides the drawings, there was also text on the beast skin, but it was unlike any language Qi Tian knew. He asked the nine Ghostfaces if any of them recognized the script. Surprisingly, there was indeed one who did.

Qi Tian handed the beast skin to that Ghostface, who immediately began explaining to Qi Tian the meaning of the text written upon it.

As Ghostface translated, Qi Tian initially remained calm. But as more was translated, his expression started to change significantly; the text on the beast skin described in great detail the actual purpose of such a pillar.

Qi Tian’s gaze returned to the pillar. By now, he had understood what had happened. Manager Chen had probably stumbled upon the pillar’s mechanism by accident, treating this place as a refuge, seeking solitude within; however, this was just Manager Chen’s wishful thinking. These two pillars were not meant as a hiding place for people—they were actually for sacrifices.

Sacrifice required someone to stuff the intended Spirit Beast or cultivator into the pillar’s internal space. Then, the master of the Saint’s Tomb or a contingency left by the tomb’s owner would use the Array set up within the pillar to trap the live sacrifice. Subsequently, through the Teleportation Array within the pillar, the sacrifice would be sent to the Inner Underground Palace of the Saint’s Tomb, to be consumed by either the owner of the tomb or some other entity.

To put it vividly, these two pillars were essentially two lunch boxes. The tomb owner intended to use these boxes for their meals; whoever entered the boxes could not escape the fate of becoming food.

After learning the secrets of the pillar, Qi Tian looked at it with pity. Manager Chen was astute his entire life, yet he had unwittingly become the offering for the tomb owner of the Saint’s Tomb. It was unclear whether Manager Chen was alive or dead at this point.

Contemplating, Qi Tian decided to open the pillar to verify if Manager Chen had indeed perished. Accordingly, he located the rune that Manager Chen had touched and lightly pressed against it. True to his suspicions, the back of the pillar cracked open. Qi Tian immediately sent the sensing function of the Heavenly Dao Engine inside, hoping to find Manager Chen. However, Manager Chen, who had hidden inside the pillar first, was now gone without a trace.

Qi Tian still found it hard to accept, worrying that there might be unknown places within the interior of the pillar that could block the detection of the Heavenly Dao Engine. For caution’s sake, he summoned several Locust Thief Bees and instructed them to scout inside the pillar. The result was still fruitless; Manager Chen had indeed vanished. If the records on the beast skin were accurate, then Manager Chen must have already been consumed by the tomb owner of the Saint’s Tomb.

Qi Tian sighed. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would never have imagined the ambitious Manager Chen would meet such an end—an outcome so unthinkable, it was beyond his wildest fears.

With Manager Chen dead and nowhere to be found, the only option would be to open the gates of the Inner Underground Palace. Even so, by the time Chen could be located, it was likely not even his bones would be left, having been thoroughly consumed.

Opening the gates of the Inner Underground Palace alone held an allure for Qi Tian, but after consideration, he chose to abandon the idea. Qi Tian was well aware of his limitations; Chen had already been sacrificed, which implied that within the Underground Palace there might be living entities, possibly the owner of the Saint’s Tomb themselves.

The need for offerings by the tomb owner meant one of two situations: either the tomb owner was not truly dead and still lived, or the tomb owner, although dead, had a death quite unlike that of ordinary cultivators. When a regular cultivator died, they would completely dissipate, leaving nothing behind at most, perhaps reincarnating. However, death that required offerings suggested many possibilities, and it was much more brutal in nature.

Regardless of the scenario, it signified one thing—the entity hiding inside the Inner Underground Palace was now undoubtedly a formidable being. Should Qi Tian confront them, he had no chance of success, even with several Nascent Soul Stage cultivators at his disposal.