Upon seeing the sealed location, Chen Jing immediately recalled the scene he witnessed when he used the Source of Darkness to acquire knowledge and ask about the "truth of the blood sacrifice."

A pure white-clad boy stands atop a tall building, overlooking the mist. Purple clouds and rain fall, people cough incessantly, and collapse to the ground. The final scene is a scroll bound by pale gold iron chains, soaked in congealed red-black blood in the soil. Purple light spreads across its surface, while the rust-colored blood also corrodes the iron chains.

"If we ignore the blood, purple light, and other elements, that scroll just looks like it's bound by iron chains and in a sealed state, doesn't it?" Chen Jing thought.

Is the sealed place here sealing that scroll? And is the truth behind the blood sacrifice to break the seal on that scroll and take it away?

So it seems... the mastermind behind the blood sacrifice has succeeded. Chen Jing thought of the corpses lying in the hall. But his brows gradually furrowed again.

Chen Jing quickly found a blank sheet of paper on his desk, then a pen, and wrote on it:

The sealed scroll.

Blood sacrifice.

The charred corpse in the hall.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Jing added another one:

Slave souls wandering.

"The purpose of the blood sacrifice is for that sealed scroll." Chen Jing first connected the blood sacrifice and the sealed scroll.

"Since the charred corpses in the hall were guards of the sealed land, then those who killed them must have been people who attempted a blood sacrifice..."

Chen Jing wrote "Mastermind" in the blank space on the paper and connected the Mastermind with the charred corpse in the hall.

"Judging from the dates on the diary, sixty or seventy years have passed since then. So, if the charred corpse was the mastermind behind the attack, then that attack must have happened several decades ago."

So… Chen Jing turned his gaze to the slave soul written on the paper, and for a moment he couldn’t figure out where the other party could be in this incident.

“Two possibilities,” Chen Jing thought. “One is that the slave souls were left behind by the mastermind to guard the arena and prevent people from entering and discovering the truth about the blood sacrifice arena.”

"The second possibility is that the slave spirits are some kind of defensive measure of the sealed land, which has recently failed...etc."

Chen Jing seemed to have grasped some inspiration; a voice in his mind seemed to be telling him:

"It's not necessarily a failure."

Yes, that's right, it's not necessarily invalid...

Chen Jing then wrote "Black Hand Gang" on the paper, drew a line between "Black Hand Gang" and "Blood Sacrifice", and then connected "Black Hand Gang" with "Mastermind" and "Slave Souls".

“A simple logic,” Chen Jing thought: “If the Black Hand gang is performing blood sacrifices on the big ship, then if Lu Gang is the mastermind, he must have both orchestrated the blood sacrifices and the hunting of slave souls.”

"On the surface, the Black Hand helps hunt down the souls of slaves in order to cleanse the important scavenging ground 'Meijing City.' But even if we think about it a little deeper, we can only assume that the Black Hand gang is after the spiritual energy deposits that might fall from the souls of slaves..."

What if we think about it one more layer?

The slave spirit hinders the actions of the mastermind behind the scenes; it is also a guardian of the sealed land.

After a certain event, the slave spirit left the arena and wandered the city of Meijing.

So what is it?

Chen Jing had never felt his brain so excited and active as he calmly scanned the words written on the paper.

The sealed scroll. Hmm, it must be related to the sealed scroll, because the slave spirits might be the guardians of the sealed land.

Blood sacrifice. Blood sacrifice...

Chen Jing suddenly felt as if he had been doused with hot water. He quickly connected the blood sacrifice with the wandering souls of slaves.

"The time when the slave's wandering soul leaves is the time when the Black Hand begins the blood sacrifice; there is a causal relationship between these two."

"The slave spirits left because of the blood sacrifice... but instead of going to Ash City, they continued to wander in Meijing City. Is this because their role as guardians failed?"

"No, if it's ineffective, then why would the Black Hand gang be in such a hurry to hunt it down?"

“Only when the slave spirits hinder the blood sacrifice will the mastermind have a reason to eliminate them, but the blood sacrifice is held in Ash City, while the slave spirits only roam in Meijing City.”

Chen Jing felt like he had fallen into a dead end again, his smooth train of thought suddenly interrupted and brought to an abrupt halt.

Chen Jing sighed, glanced at the Mingguang Incense that had burned down another bit, and decided to go back first. This place seemed safe, and he could take them along to explore.

Chen Jing put the diary back in its place, took out a match, and burned the paper in his hand that was organizing his thoughts to ashes.

Then, he blew out the Bright Light Incense and disappeared completely.

Halfway there, when they were far from the gate of the sealed land, Chen Jing suddenly realized something.

Why did I put the diary back where it was?

"Shouldn't I have brought it out?"

"Never mind... it'll be the same next time."

As Chen Jing walked into the darkness, he headed towards the stone tablet.

...

Arriving near the obelisk, Chen Jing deactivated his noise-sensing invisibility and walked over.

"Who!" Dao Nan's voice rang out from the obelisk.

“I am Chen Jing,” Chen Jing said.

As he approached from the darkness, before he even got close, He Lili, who was sitting under the obelisk, suddenly said, "Wait a minute."

Chen Jing and Dao Nan both looked at her, and she said softly, "I need to make a confirmation."

She closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and whispered, "No harm done. You can come over now."

"Why do we need to do this kind of confirmation?" Chen Jing walked over and asked curiously.

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