Chapter 8 Statues, Altars, Sacrifices

He bid farewell to a friend he had only known for a few hours but would likely never see again.

Su Lun felt a bit down.

Suddenly, the surroundings changed from that luxurious manor estate into a... ruin.

"Is this... the remains of the manor from before?"

Although everything inside the house had decayed, the framework structure that hadn't collapsed indicated that this was the manor he had been in before.

The banquet hall, the corridors, the study... the layout was all very familiar.

"It must have taken at least a few hundred years to decay to this state..."

Su Lun found it somewhat unbelievable.

He felt that he had prepared himself mentally, but the sight of the ruin before him still made his mind reel.

Were the grand mansion from before and the people he met, including Baldy and Pestoya, all an illusion?

But when he looked down, he was holding a wooden box, the very one containing the "rune dolls."

On his chest, he also wore a butterfly brooch adorned with a black gemstone.

"The items are real..."

Su Lun, touching the box in his hands, felt as if he had woken from a dream and somehow brought items from that dream back to reality.

"Could it be that the brightly lit manor was some kind of special space similar to a game dungeon?"

Su Lun looked around but couldn't figure it out.

His understanding of this world was too limited—many questions could not be comprehended through mere thought.

However, he now faced another issue: where should he go from here?

First and foremost, he remembered the information on the retina.

"The original host came here to find 'Sir Isaac's Relics'..."

With downtime, Su Lun took the time to carefully examine the obscure information on the retina. He also realized that the "treasure" the original host sought seemed quite extraordinary.

Fortuitously, he was also very interested in that kind of "supernatural ability."

After some thought, Su Lun decided to go take a look. He also guessed there would probably be no more dangers in the mansion. If there were, Pestoya should be the final boss.

...

Relying on his memory, Su Lun found the manor's banquet hall.

Then, counting from the left hand side, he located the seventh room.

The door had completely decayed, and cobwebs were everywhere, making it look quite eerie. But the structure of the room was still fairly stable; except for the wall paint that was flaking off, it was generally recognizable as a storeroom.

Su Lun cautiously entered, and aside from hearing the occasional "squeak" of a mouse, no terrifying monsters from a horror movie appeared.

He took in all the furnishings in the room at a glance and saw the hexagonal sconces on the wall.

Finding the correct sconce and twisting it clockwise, he heard a series of "clicks" and "clacks" of gears, and a secret door appeared.

"It's been hundreds of years, yet this mechanism still operates normally..."

The dim passage that appeared before Su Lun slightly surprised him.

Without much hesitation, he walked in.

The passageway was well-preserved, seemingly isolated from the outer air.

After testing it, he found the air was not stuffy, and he could breathe normally.

The corridor was built from blue bricks with a lantern hanging on the wall at intervals. The very faint yellow light from the gemstones, although weak, was enough to illuminate the entire secret passage.

Su Lun dared not touch anything; since the secret door opened normally, the mechanisms in the corridor likely still functioned as well.

The information on the retina specifically warned not to touch anything outside the safe circuits.

Thus, it wasn't long before Su Lun noticed something odd about the corridor around him—it seemed identical everywhere.

He knew he had entered a maze.

There were mechanisms causing visual interference here.

Making some necessary directional marks on the floor with stones, he continued forward.

"After the first intersection, left, left, right, up, down..."

Fortunately, the correct path through the maze remained etched upon his retina, allowing Su Lun to advance without any issues.

After about a quarter of an hour, he reached his destination—a spacious, enclosed stone chamber.

There, glowing gemstones illuminated the entire room brightly.

"Is this the 'Grand Hermit's Altar' marked on the treasure map?"

Su Lun didn't rush into the stone chamber but observed it carefully instead.

In the center of the circular chamber were five tall stone statues cloaked in robes, covering their whole bodies and most of their faces, giving them a mysterious appearance. Upon closer examination, one could see that three of the statues were cracked, while two remained intact.

Behind the cloak of each statue, a unique symbol was engraved: ⍥, §, ☽, ✹, ꧧ...

It seemed to be some special code.

What astonished Su Lun was that merely by gazing at these statues, a divine and commanding aura washed over him, stirring a feeling inside him as if he wanted to bow in worship.

That sensation, as if watched by a deity, made him feel instantly insignificant as dust.

"Truly remarkable statues..."

Su Lun remarked to himself as he observed the scene, feeling increasingly curious.

...

The chamber contained nothing superfluous.

The five statues were positioned around the perimeter, facing a circular altar about five meters in diameter in the central area.

The altar was carved with an eight-pointed star magic circle, surrounded by incomprehensible special characters and runes, with an engraving of an "Ouroboros" and "Scales" in the middle.

"The secret for gaining Baldy's bullet-resistant bone structure 'talent' is hidden in this altar?"

Su Lun pondered deeply while looking at the engraved patterns on the altar.

A passage still lingered in his retina:

'My dear Phike, I'm sorry you've lost everything; by decrypting the mysterious 'Isaac's Alchemy Manuscript' obtained from my family, I've discovered a shocking secret: Extraordinary talents can be awakened not only naturally or passed down through lineage but also by a third method, which is through targeted awakening. Although it's just an unverified 'treasure map,' this is the best compensation I could think of for you...'

Su Lun didn't dwell upon this message, as the motives behind it no longer mattered.

He caught a few key terms: sacrificial medium, directed awakening, talent.

It stated that after "sacrificing one's own eyeball," he "might" gain a very powerful S-tier talent—one that everyone in the Alchemy world desperately sought, a very rare ability.

If it had been on Earth, Su Lun would have laughed it off as a joke.

Sacrifice his own eyeball to gain superpowers?

To hell with superpowers!

But having just witnessed so many extraordinary powers, Su Lun considered the matter very cautiously.

As for the word "might," it carried the element of a gamble.

Because no one had tried it before.

"I remember Baldy mentioning his bullet-resistant ability called 'C079-Hardened Skeleton'? 'S-tier'... seems even more formidable..."

Su Lun weighed this in his mind for a moment, unsure how talents were ranked in this world.

But if he could gain a "supernatural power" like Baldy's, it seemed worth some sacrifice.

He was already feeling tempted by the thought.

Moreover, what decisively made up Su Lun's mind was another reason.

He also thought of the original owner's not-so-ordinary background, recognized respectfully by the Big Shot who left the message on his retina; perhaps the talents awakened here could be stronger than the "Hardened Skeleton."

Opportunity, in any world, always involved an element of risk.

The worst outcome would be blindness, gaining nothing.

Having just survived a deadly battle, Su Lun felt that this was not an unacceptable price.

To gain something, one must pay a price—it was a fundamental rule followed in any world.

With this in mind, he raised an eyebrow, comforting himself, "I've already come this far... why not try it?"