Episode 19: The Stone Pillar Cipher

Su Qing's fingertips danced swiftly across the virtual keyboard, moving so fast they left afterimages.

On the holographic screen, the rubbing of the stone pillar totem fragmented into countless tiny symbols, flickering like restless fireflies. The temporary tent of Camp X was filled with the smell of scorching—just moments ago, sparks carried by the sandstorm had ignited half the tent’s canopy. The warriors were still outside trying to put out the fire, but thick smoke seeped through the cracks of the tent flap, stinging their eyes.

“Found it!” Su Qing suddenly screamed, slamming her hand onto the control panel.

The symbols on the screen instantly rearranged, forming three lines of ancient Qiang script, followed by an automatic translation:

“Bone core spawns calamity fire, sand scorpion devours human hearts, anti-entropy requires three sacrifices—blood sacrifice, soul sacrifice, affection sacrifice.”

Lu Chen’s brow furrowed deeply. He leaned against a smoke-blackened tent pole, the sand scar on his right index finger shimmering faintly golden. The temperature of the jade pendant at his chest was almost as hot as the campfire. “Blood sacrifice means slaughter, soul sacrifice is offering the spirit,” he murmured, unconsciously tracing the hilt of his knife. “Affection sacrifice…”

“The affection sacrifice is the harshest,” Old Dao squatted nearby, poking the fire with a bone knife. Sparks landed on his worn boots. “My grandfather’s notes mentioned that the affection sacrifice demands the most precious feelings—familial love, romantic love, brotherhood—it all works. The more sincere, the stronger the power of the ritual. But after the sacrifice, the person is little more than a living corpse.”

Chen Yu, just back from dousing the flames, his face smeared with soot, shuddered at the words. “So these three sacrifices combined… are we basically torturing ourselves to death?” He pointed at the words “anti-entropy” on the screen. “What exactly is this thing? Is it really worth risking our lives over?”

Su Qing pulled up real-time data of the energy field. The waveform twisted like a wildly growing serpent, nearly breaking the safety threshold. “Anti-entropy is a physics concept—it means opposing disorder. Here, it should mean… preventing the bone core’s energy from spiraling out of control.” She hesitated, her voice trembling. “In other words, only by completing these three sacrifices can we counterbalance the power of the Desolate Bone Calamity Fire.”

Suddenly, Lu Chen thought of Alicia, the shaman of the S tribe. Every time she mentioned her father, tears welled in her eyes. Could her obsession with familial love count as “sincere affection”? Would Williams force her to become the affection sacrifice?

Before the thought could fully form, a piercing wail shattered the tent’s stillness.

“The mechanical vultures!” a night watch warrior shouted hoarsely. “S tribe air raid!”

Lu Chen flung open the tent flap sharply, his heart tightening instantly—dozens of metallic birds emerged from the sandstorm, their wings sharp alloy blades, claws equipped with explosives, glinting an eerie blue under the moonlight. Their speed was astonishing, like a flock of diving falcons, heading straight for the core area of Camp X.

“Get down!” Lu Chen grabbed Su Qing, pulling her to the ground.

“Boom—!”

The first explosive landed, but instead of orange-red flames, an eerie blue burst forth, the same color as the bone core energy. The fire spread wildly upon touching the tent’s canvas, which twisted and melted under the blue glow, emitting a pungent plastic stench. Worse yet, the sand burned by the flames did not blacken; it seemed activated, writhing on the ground, slowly forming miniature sand scorpions that raised their stingers toward the living.

“Sand crystal explosives!” Old Dao roared as he swung his bone knife, cleaving one attacking scorpion in two. “They’re mixed with bone core secretions—if burned, the sand controls you!”

Lu Chen’s totem knife gleamed gold in the firelight. He cut through a burning tent rope and shouted, “Everyone retreat to the air-raid shelter! Chen Yu, take Su Qing and go first. Old Dao and I will hold the rear!”

But Su Qing clung desperately to the control panel. “The data hasn’t finished transmitting! The Eye of the Oasis is analyzing the specifics of the affection sacrifice ritual—if we find it, we might still have a chance…”

Before she could finish, a mechanical vulture dove suddenly, its alloy wings slashing across the tent roof, tearing the canvas like paper. An explosive screeched as it hurtled toward the control panel. Lu Chen reacted swiftly, pushing Su Qing aside and throwing himself over the console.

At the instant the blue flame exploded, a searing pain like a branding iron scorched Lu Chen’s back. Strangely, the blue flames did not burn his skin; instead, they seeped through his pores like countless cold snakes, slithering along his veins toward his heart.

“Lu Chen!” Su Qing’s crying voice rang in his ears.

He snapped his head up and, through a gap in the flames, saw a familiar totem stamped on the mechanical vulture’s underside—the exact pattern formed by the sample fluid clinging to Alicia’s skirt. Suddenly, he understood: these vultures weren’t remotely controlled; they were “infested” by the bone core energy, living weapons.

“Affection sacrifice…” Lu Chen’s vision blurred, the pain in his back shifting to a numb tickling. “Could it be connected to Alicia?”

Old Dao’s bone knife suddenly emitted a deafening hum, the “Evil Suppression” and “Bone Hearing” totems glowing red on the blade. He grabbed Lu Chen fiercely and roared as they dashed toward the air-raid shelter: “Don’t push yourself! You’re a live target right now!”

Behind them, the blue flames spread wildly. The mechanical vultures’ wailing grew louder. Lu Chen was dragged along, his body growing heavier as the “snakes” crawling into his pores converged, slowly surging toward his heart, where the jade pendant burned as if about to explode.

The moment the air-raid shelter door was smashed open, Lu Chen glanced back.

The blue flames had engulfed half the camp, forming a massive scorpion shape on the sand. Deep within the blaze, countless human faces struggled faintly—warriors of the X tribe, herders of the S tribe, even his daughter's smiling face, silently weeping toward him.

“Affection sacrifice… is the offering of all emotional memories affected by the bone core…” Su Qing’s voice cracked with tears, clutching a USB drive tightly. “The Eye of the Oasis decoded it—the sacrifice is… all our memories…”

Lu Chen’s heart sank heavily.

If memories were sacrificed, how were they different from living corpses?

The shelter door shut behind them, cutting off the firelight and the howling, but the tingling sensation around his heart persisted. Lu Chen touched the scorching jade pendant, suddenly recalling the braided grass rope his daughter had made—he had always carried it with him, but in the chaos just now, it seemed lost.

Had it been burned away by the flames? Or… had it become the first offering of the affection sacrifice?

In the darkness, his fingers groped in his pocket, touching only a cold piece of metal—a miniature communicator Alicia had secretly given him before. It vibrated faintly, the screen flashing a broken line of text:

“The key to the affection sacrifice… is the bone flute…”

The transmission abruptly cut off, leaving only the crackling of electricity, like someone scraping their nails gently across a heartbeat in the dark.