Translator: Cinder Translations
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The altar in this cave has a mysterious origin, and it is impossible to determine who built it. However, judging by its array patterns and the altar's design, it is clear that the altar has existed for an extraordinarily long time.
Approximately two thousand years ago.
At that time, there was only a Qi Refining loose cultivator from the Lei family who accidentally entered the cave by reaching a stone wall and found a stone disc that could open the wall. By chance, he entered the cave and discovered the altar.
On the altar, he obtained a jade slip of a cultivation method, which contained a thunder technique known as the Thunder Sutra. The jade slip not only included various thunder-based spells in the cultivation world but also nine legendary Thunder Secrets.
These nine Thunder Secrets correspond to the nine great realms of cultivation. Each time a realm is advanced, one could cultivate a specific thunder technique.
The Lei family ancestor, who obtained the Thunder Sutra, began to cultivate the first Thunder Secret, known as the Polar God Thunder.
The Lei family's ancestor had considerable talent for thunder techniques, and it wasn't long before he perfected the Polar God Thunder.
With the power of the Polar God Thunder, the Lei family ancestor rapidly rose to prominence. Within a few years, he reached foundation establishment, but he was not satisfied and began to study the altar's purpose.
After extensive research, he found nothing.
It wasn't until he brought a dying enemy into the cave and accidentally activated the altar, consuming the enemy's thunder essence, that he discovered the altar's function.
Afterward, the Lei family ancestor began to kidnap cultivators with thunder talent and bring them to the cave to devour their thunder essence.
As more and more cultivators were consumed, the Lei family's thunder techniques grew stronger, and the family began to emerge prominently in the cultivation world, establishing a cultivating family.
Due to the lack of spiritual energy near the altar cave, it was not suitable as a family residence. Thus, the Lei family ancestor established their residence on a high mountain with abundant spiritual energy, a hundred miles away.
The altar was mysterious; even when activated and devouring others' thunder essence, it did not emit any spiritual fluctuations. Even Nascent Soul cultivators could not detect it, so the Lei family was not afraid of the altar being discovered by outsiders.
As the Lei family grew stronger, the initial family residence gradually could not meet the spiritual needs of many cultivators, and the family moved their residence to a more spiritually rich location.
After several hundred years, the first ancestor of the Lei family passed away due to old age. A descendant had the sudden idea of using thunder-beast demons instead of cultivators with thunder talent.
The Lei family discovered that the thunder essence in demon beasts could also be devoured. Like humans, only living demon beasts could have their thunder essence consumed.
However, thunder-beast demons were rare, and those with outstanding thunder talent were even rarer. Most thunder-talented demon beasts were powerful and hard to capture.
With the aid of the altar, each generation of the Lei family produced at least one person with extraordinary thunder talent, further strengthening the family.
There were once righteous sects that attempted to obtain the Nine Great Thunder Secrets from the Lei family. These sects found that the power of the first two Thunder Secrets, which they had difficulty acquiring, was not as great as imagined, and significantly weaker compared to the Lei family members.
Over time, rumors spread in the cultivation world that the Nine Great Thunder Secrets could only unleash their true power when cultivated by the Lei family bloodline. As the Lei family grew stronger and produced Nascent Soul experts, no one dared to seek the Nine Great Thunder Secrets anymore.
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Lei Yue carefully examined the area around the altar, discovering the ashes left by Lei Hong and the remnants in the debris pit.
From the residual aura in the air, he deduced that recently, there were four people and one beast in this place, including Lei Hong and Lei Tianyu.
The air still carried a strong aura of demonic corpse cultivators. It was highly likely that Lei Hong and Lei Tianyu were killed by these corpse cultivators.
The other two among the four people were probably righteous cultivators, and since they were female cultivators, they were likely also dead.
The reason for this judgment was that he could sense residual soul fragments that had not yet dissipated, belonging to the two female cultivators.
As for Lei Hong and Lei Tianyu, no soul fragments remained.
Lei Yue raised his right hand and slowly traced a path in the air. A gentle spiritual force began to circulate through the cave.
Moments later, several weak light spots converged from all directions into his hand.
Lei Yue muttered incantations, repeatedly forming hand seals towards the light spots.
After several breaths, Lei Yue's complexion grew somewhat pale, and his aura weakened considerably.
"This cursed 'Soul-Chain Technique' is truly too consuming of mana. Just a few fragments of souls have drained nearly half of my energy."
From the fragments of the souls, Lei Yue learned some simple information about what the two people saw before their deaths.
He discovered that the two individuals were killed by Lei Hong and that Lei Hong had attacked Lei Tianyu. However, the information he most wanted to know, which was about the corpse cultivator, was not present.
"Could it be that these two female cultivators did not see the corpse cultivator before their deaths?"
Lei Yue continued to search carefully around the altar but found no additional clues. He then flew deeper into the cave to search slowly within.
After a quarter of an hour, he discovered a vertical tunnel dug by Song Wen. Passing through the tunnel, he arrived at a cave within the mountain.
In the cave, he searched around but found nothing.
He used stones from the cave to block the vertical tunnel and then left the cave.
Lei Yue hovered in the air and used his powerful spiritual sense to sweep the surrounding area. To his disappointment, he still did not find any traces left by the corpse cultivator.
After standing in mid-air for a long time, Lei Yue shook his head in disappointment.
He flew to a large mountain, slashed with a sword, and cut a hundred-meter-long stone block.
Lei Yue dragged the stone block to block the vertical tunnel he had opened, then used his hand to disturb the nearby soil, making it impossible for anyone to detect any anomalies.
After covering up everything, Lei Yue flew back to the Lei family's residence.
Tracking down the corpse cultivator would be left to the Lei family's younger generation.
The location was too close to Donghua City, where loose cultivators were gathered. Finding a corpse cultivator who intended to hide among them, even if they were a Nascent Soul cultivator, would not be easy.
Currently, the most likely places the corpse cultivator would go are either Donghua City or the Ghost Canyon.
TL: Donghua City is where East Huafang Market is located. Ghost Canyon is where the Ghost Market(ch154) is located.
Donghua City is the largest city nearby, a distribution center for spiritual stones, elixirs, and other treasures. The corpse cultivator might have gone there to sell the loot from his killings. Investigating Donghua City might yield some clues.
Ghost Canyon is a mixed place with demons and occasional demonic cultivators. It is also possible to find traces of the corpse cultivator there.
Of course, Lei Yue did not need to do these things personally. The Lei family had properties in both Donghua City and Ghost Canyon, and he instructed his subordinates. Many younger members of the Lei family would go investigate.
Song Wen had been hiding at the bottom of the lake for two full days. When he saw that the aura of Hao Ran had not appeared again, he released a Black Armored Worm.
The Black Armored Worm slowly surfaced and, after confirming that there was no one around, crawled up the lake shore. It crawled around a few miles, but found no further clues.
It then flew into the sky, using its vision to scan the surrounding area for several dozen miles, but saw no one.
Song Wen breathed a slight sigh of relief.
After crawling out of the riverbed, Song Wen did not use spiritual energy but relied on his strong physique to slowly advance from the bottom of the lake.
The underwater resistance was great, and Song Wen could only cover a few miles in an hour.
After walking at the bottom of the lake for two days and covering nearly two hundred miles, he finally crawled up the lake shore.
After drying the water off his body, Song Wen oriented himself and, avoiding the direction of the altar cave, proceeded calmly towards Donghua City.
(End of the Chapter)
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