5: Chapter 5 The Altar Beneath the Ash Pit

Lu Jin leapt down from the wind shaft tower and landed before the damaged altar.

Up close, the thing looked even stranger than it did from afar.

The base of the altar was not a standard square, but a circle that tapered inward, with three layers of cracks on the outer ring, resembling a shattered stone flower. Of the four black stone pillars, only two remained standing. The surfaces were covered in patterns scorched by fire; a touch of the fingertip would rub off a layer of fine black ash.

The ash was not mineral dust.

It carried a faint fragrance.

It was not a pleasant scent; it was like something that had been burning for many years, leaving behind only a trace of bitter aftertaste.

Lu Jin crouched down and wiped his fingertips across the edge of the altar.

His fingertips were immediately coated in a layer of fine ash powder.

He lowered his eyes and took a sniff.

Incense ash.

It had been sitting for who knows how long, and the scent had long since faded, yet it still retained a faint trace of sacrificial nature.

The wanji ember furnace in the distance vibrated slightly. The dark red line of fire in the cracks of the furnace door seemed to be pulled by something, extending thinly and winding around this altar.

Resonance.

The coldness in Lu Jin's eyes eased slightly.

This place was indeed not just a completely abandoned mine.

Buried beneath the Dead Ash Mine was a civilization capable of Sacrificial Fire.

He raised his hand and pressed down.

"Clear."

The swarm of rats immediately lunged forward.

Having gained "Underground Tunneling," the Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats were far more efficient than before. The front row used their blackened, sharpened claws to dig through the accumulated ash along the outer edge of the altar, the middle row dragged away the rubble, and the back row sorted the excavated black ore, bone fragments, and rotten wood into separate piles.

One Gray-tailed Burrowing Rat pulled half of a blackened bone from the corner of the altar and opened its mouth, intending to gnaw on it.

Lu Jin's divine sense pressed down directly.

"Put it down."

The rat shuddered, its incisors hovering half an inch above the bone, stopping abruptly. It then lowered its head and dragged the bone to the material pile.

On the other side, a female rat dug out several clumps of incense ash from the cracks at the base of the altar and instinctively tried to stuff them into its mouth.

Lu Jin's brow twitched slightly.

"Keep the incense ash separate."

It also stopped.

The entire altar area was quickly cleared.

Lu Jin walked around the altar and mentally went over everything.

Seven clumps of incense ash.

Thirty-six bone fragments.

A large pile of slag and ore, though only five pieces of black ore core were worth noting.

There were also two dead rats unearthed from the bottom of the altar; they clearly had been crushed there during an earlier collapse.

The harvest wasn't huge.

But it was enough to work with.

Lu Jin looked up at the surrounding Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats.

These creatures dug fast, but the faster they dug, the faster they consumed energy. In the short time it took to clear the altar, many rats had already started gnawing on the ash fungi and old wood chips on the ground. A nest of young rats at the very edge curled up in a crevice, their bellies shriveled, their squeaks as thin as a broken thread.

Being able to fight is one thing.

Being able to survive is another.

He now possessed "Underground Tunneling"; he could dig tunnels and utilize the terrain, but the Dead Ash Mine produced no food, grew no grass, and had no ready-made food chain. Even if the Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats dug through the entire mine, they would at most turn up a few bone scraps and black ore.

With these assets, they wouldn't last until the battle for the resource nodes.

Let alone the Unified Exam.

Lu Jin looked at the emaciated rats with a calm gaze.

"The blade is ready."

"But I still need a place to hone the blade."

He turned around, his gaze falling back onto the fragmentary fire-shaped character in the center of the altar.

Last time, the wanji ember furnace used a dead rat to give him two directions.

He chose survival and pathfinding.

This time, he needed to secure his logistics.

Lu Jin raised his hand, and with a press of his divine sense, the entire swarm of Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats fell silent.

"Bring the black ore, bone fragments, and incense ash over."

The swarm squeaked and began to move, like a tide of gray surging around the altar.

The black ore was dragged to the center.

The bone fragments were stacked one by one.

The clumps of incense ash were carefully gathered at the edge of the stone trough by the most nimble female rats, as if they instinctively knew not to touch this stuff recklessly.

Lu Jin walked step by step to the wanji ember furnace.

He didn't immediately throw everything in; instead, he first pressed his hand against the furnace wall.

Ice cold.

Even colder than when he first touched it.

The furnace wall flashed dark red, and a line of fine text appeared.

[Damaged altar detected]

[Can be used as a low-tier transformation medium]

[Note: Altar integrity is too low; only supports one basic translation]

The corners of Lu Jin's lips twitched imperceptibly.

That was enough.

Once was enough for him to salvage the mess before him.

He first tossed the black ore cores into the furnace mouth.

Clang.

The black ore entered the furnace, and this time, there was no lack of reaction like before. The dark fire inside the furnace coiled, heating the five black ore cores until they glowed faintly red. A judgment appeared on the furnace wall.

[Low-tier ore core, weak sacrificial nature, can serve as a carrier]

Lu Jin then pushed the thirty-plus bone fragments in one by one.

The bones crackled in the furnace fire, like dry branches splitting in the cold night.

[Low-tier bone fragments, mixed origins, can serve as derivatives]

Finally, the incense ash.

When he scooped up the first clump of incense ash, the bitter, aged fragrance became much stronger. The ash wasn't pure white but a dark, dull black-red, as if a spark of unextinguished fire was still pressed within the burnt-out incense.

Lu Jin loosened his fingers.

The incense ash entered the furnace.

Boom!

The fire of the entire wanji ember furnace flared up instantly.

It was no longer just that sliver of dark red in the cracks of the furnace door; tongues of fire truly reached out from the depths of the furnace. The damaged altar in the distance also trembled; the two standing black stone pillars suddenly lit up with a line of red markings, and the "Fire" character in the center of the altar glowed faintly.

A wave of scorching information surged along the line of fire directly into Lu Jin's mind.

It wasn't a complete picture.

Just a few broken fragments.

Someone knelt before the altar, stacking beast bones and ore into a small mountain.

Someone held a newborn beast cub toward the fire, then cradled it back in their arms after the flames receded.

And a vast underground nest, spreading out in circles around the altar, with firelight illuminating countless crimson eyes.

Lu Jin opened his eyes abruptly, his gaze darkening for a moment.

On the furnace wall, new text slowly appeared.

[Translation target: Divine Domain basic survival]

[Can generate Divine Domain entry: Ember Breeding]

[Effect estimate: Reproduction efficiency improved, juvenile survival rate improved, ash environment can nurture low-tier ash fungi and bone powder ecosystem]

[Confirm sacrificial refining?]

Lu Jin did not hesitate.

"Refine."

He raised his hand and pressed his palm directly into the edge of the furnace wall.

The sharp metal edge instantly sliced his skin, and blood dripped through his fingers into the cracks of the furnace.

Hiss!

The moment the blood entered the furnace, the fragmentary character in the center of the altar lit up completely.

The two black stone pillars vibrated in unison, and the circular patterns around the damaged altar base lit up in rings, as if red eyes were suddenly opening in the gray ground. The Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats, which had been carrying materials, seemed to be brushed by the flames; they all prostrated themselves, bowing continuously toward the altar and the black furnace.

The door of the wanji ember furnace opened wider.

The fire no longer spat outward but seeped into the ground.

The entire Dead Ash Mine began to shake.

Ash fell from the wind shaft tower in rustles, and deep within the collapsed mine tunnels came a fine cracking sound, as if frozen earth that had been buried underground for many years was finally being melted by something.

Lu Jin stood before the furnace, letting the blood drip down, his gaze remarkably steady.

He could clearly feel every corner of the Divine Domain being swept by that fire power.

The first to change was the ash ground near the altar.

The previously dead and hardened ash layer suddenly loosened, and wisps of fine white mycelium arched out from the ash, attaching themselves to bone fragments and slag like a layer of breathing frost. Moments later, small gray-white dots swelled on the mycelium, rapidly growing into thumb-sized ash fungus caps.

They weren't big, and they didn't look appetizing.

But they were living things.

Several Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats closest to the altar smelled them and almost lunged, but were suppressed by Lu Jin's voice.

"Don't eat yet."

They immediately lay down, their crimson eyes fixed intently on the ash fungus patch, their tails held straight and rigid.

The second change was the nest.

Previously, the female rats had just hidden themselves in crevices, relying on piles of rotten ash and wood scraps to survive. Now, the ground around the altar was noticeably warming up, and wisps of warm ash vapor even began to rise from the mine cracks. Several pregnant female rats instinctively dragged wood scraps and soft ash into the warm pits, moving much faster and with more focus than before.

A young rat that had been on the verge of death was pushed into an ash pit, and after a short while, its squeaks were actually two degrees louder.

The third change occurred at the very bottom of the entire mine.

The scattered bone fragments and rat corpses did not continue to rot; instead, they were slowly enveloped by ash fungi and mineral ash, with fine white mycelium growing on their surfaces, as if the mine itself had swallowed them into its belly. Lu Jin could even feel a tiny trace of faith feeding back from those warm pits, ash fungus patches, and bone piles.

It was very weak.

But it was the beginning of a cycle.

It wasn't just about eating one meal at a time.

It was this broken mine beginning to learn how to nurture things.

The text on the furnace wall finally settled.

[Divine Domain entry equipped: Ember Breeding]

[Current Divine Domain slot: Occupied]

[Note: Dead Ash Mine has gained basic nurturing ability]

[Note: Damaged altar can be used as a low-tier nest core]

Lu Jin looked at the last line, then raised his eyes to the broken altar.

Nest core.

Not an ordinary altar.

It was the center that allowed the kin to survive by gathering around it.

He walked over and pressed his hand against the edge of the altar.

Beneath the cold stone surface, there was a faint pulse of heat flowing.

Lu Jin's gaze darkened, and he issued an order directly.

"With the altar as the center."

"Dig three circles of nest tunnels outward."

"Fence off the ash fungus area separately, bury the bone piles in the lower layer, and use the rotten wood to build shelters; they must not collapse."

The swarm of rats moved instantly.

With "Underground Tunneling," they naturally knew how to dig; with "Ember Breeding," they seemed to suddenly understand where it was suitable for a nest, where to pile materials, and where to leave space for the young.

The front row dug tunnels.

The middle row transported ash.

Several slightly larger male rats dragged rotten wood to brace the tunnel entrances; their movements were crude, but they actually managed to erect the first section of support. Several female rats kept gathering ash at the edge of the ash fungus area, digging small, warm pits and tucking the young rats inside.

In less than an hour, there was a crude but proper circular nest tunnel around the broken altar.

The ash fungus patch was in the center.

The warm pits were in the inner circle.

The outer circle was piled with slag and bone fragments.

Further out were the newly dug sentry holes.

This could not yet be called a civilization.

But it was no longer just a wild rat den.

Lu Jin stood on high ground, watching all this, and the coldness that had been pressing down in his eyes finally eased a little.

This Dead Ash Mine, for the first time, felt like a proper place.

Not a pit for burying people.

A nest where lives could be hidden.

Several Gray-tailed Burrowing Rats held the newly grown ash fungi, carefully delivered them to the edge of the altar, and then prostrated themselves, bowing to him. The faint, weak faith converging from all directions was also more concentrated than before.

They feared him.

Respected him.

And began to rely on him.

Lu Jin said nothing; he just raised his hand and pressed down gently.

"Eat."

Only then did those rats pounce on the ash fungi, finishing them in a few bites, their crimson eyes brightening slightly.

From the nests of the female rats in the distance, soft, fragmented squeaks were heard.

Not fighting.

The squeaks of young rats.

Lu Jin listened for a while, then turned and exited the Divine Domain.

The moment his consciousness returned to reality, the candle in the old house had almost burned to the bottom.

The sky was turning white.

The stone slab before the altar table fell silent again, as if nothing had ever happened. Only the newly opened wound on Lu Jin's palm still throbbed with pain, reminding him that this night was not a dream.

He raised his hand and casually wrapped it with a strip of cloth.

The student communication ring at the corner of the table suddenly vibrated, lighting up with a cold blue screen.

[Notice from Qinglan No. 3 Middle School]

[The battle for public resource nodes will begin in six days]

[Winners can obtain: Basic resource pack, Unified Exam pre-selection qualification, school public recommendation quota]

[Eligible students, please complete registration before noon today]

Below the light screen, simple maps of the three resource nodes slowly unfolded.

At the very bottom, a line of new names kept refreshing.

Lu Jingyao.

Ji Mingxiao.

And a string of popular campus figures whom he normally never even saw.

Lu Jin looked at that list, his gaze falling on his own blank registration column, and he slowly reached out.