Chapter 1290: The Stolen Sacrifice (5)

The mysterious fourth current was almost impossible to notice; even Jacob had missed it earlier because it wasn’t vitality, death, faith, or law, as it didn’t even possess a recognizable energy spectrum; it simply existed between everything else. It was like a faint, colorless current.

Jacob’s calm demeanor subtly changed. ’What is that?’

Without hesitation, he immediately slowed the Life Bane Wheel, and the endless processing nearly stopped while Jacob’s Eyes of Judge locked onto that mysterious current.

But still, there was nothing, and the same blankness that had appeared on the sealed door returned.

Jacob’s gaze became cold. ’What kind of power is this?’

He had already encountered something his Eyes of Judge couldn’t perceive, and that was the sealed door, but this time the thing he couldn’t perceive wasn’t somewhere beyond the door; instead, it was mixed directly into the sacrificial energy.

Jacob immediately became cautious, and neither touched it nor attempted to absorb it. Instead, he allowed the Life Bane Wheel to isolate it.

Thereafter, very slowly, a tiny strand of the colorless substance separated from the sacrificial river, and the moment it emerged, Jacob felt something. It wasn’t pressure or danger, but a sensation as if someone had noticed him.

Instantly, his entire body froze, and the treasury fell completely silent; even the enormous streams of sacrificial energy seemed distant for a moment.

Jacob’s hollow sockets burned as he slowly turned his head toward the passage, but nothing was there except for utter darkness. But the vortex continued rotating silently, and no figure appeared, nor did any voice sound, nor did killing intent emerge.

Yet Jacob couldn’t shake the feeling that something had looked through the passage at him.

Jacob stared at the darkness for several breaths, and then his gaze slowly returned to the colorless strand.

His expression became extremely serious. ’This isn’t part of the sacrifice...’

He had a strange certainty about it, as the vitality belonged to the living, the death belonged to the dead, the faith belonged to the believers, and the Laws belonged to the world, but this was something else. Something that had been carried along with all of them, and had no obvious origin.

Jacob’s mind rapidly turned, ’Could this be...’

He stopped as he didn’t allow himself to speculate further since he had learned long ago that the most dangerous mistakes came from giving a name to something before understanding it.

Instead, he commanded the Life Bane Wheel to isolate the substance. But the moment he did, unexpectedly, the fourth empty portion of the Wheel suddenly trembled, and Jacob’s eyes contorted.

Thereby, the colorless strand slowly drifted toward it, but nothing happened; yet the next instant, a tiny ripple appeared.

’Hum...’

Jacob’s eyes flickered with astonishment as the fourth portion of the Life Bane Wheel was no longer completely empty, and a faint outline had appeared. It wasn’t a symbol or section, but just a thin, incomplete arc.

Jacob stared at it as his thoughts went blank for a moment.

’The Wheel is evolving again?’ He couldn’t help but think in shock.

Moreover, this time Jacob hadn’t created the new aspect, nor had he comprehended a Law, nor had he deliberately designed an ability, but the Wheel itself had responded to something it had encountered.

Jacob’s fingers slowly tightened, and his gaze became profound. ’The Life Bane Wheel can evolve itself?!’

This realization was shocking, as the Life Bane Wheel had always been a framework that could incorporate principles Jacob understood.

But now that he had witnessed this, perhaps understanding wasn’t the only way it could evolve, and perhaps encountering something sufficiently profound could also serve as the foundation for a new aspect.

After a moment of shock, Jacob’s excitement returned, but this time it was tempered by caution, as he didn’t know what the fourth aspect would become, nor whether he could control it. Most importantly, he didn’t know what the colorless substance was. Therefore, he refused to force the process.

’Not yet...’

Jacob slowly withdrew his will, and the incomplete arc faded while the mysterious substance remained isolated within the Wheel. He turned his attention back toward the sacrificial energy, for there was still an ocean of it, and Jacob had only stolen a tiny portion.

His eyes gleamed. ’I’ll figure this out eventually.’

Thereafter, he resumed the process.

’Life Devour!’

’WHOOM!’

’Spectral Despair!’

’HUM!’

’Life Injection!’

’BOOM!’

The three aspects erupted simultaneously, and the sacrificial river began collapsing inward. Vitality was devoured, negative energies were separated, soul remnants were purified, law fragments were compressed, Undead Authority was isolated, faith was preserved, and the mysterious colorless substance was quietly sealed away.

Thereafter, the purified soul vitality poured into Jacob’s soul, and his lifespan continued climbing, and soon reached the one million-year mark, then two million...five million...

Soon, the number became meaningless as Jacob no longer paid attention, and he was focused on the Life Bane Wheel. Because something even stranger was happening. The more energy it processed, the more stable the Wheel became.

Its three existing aspects were becoming clearer. The black section deepened, the white section became purer, and the purple section grew more profound. Lastly, the incomplete fourth arc was slowly becoming visible.

Jacob stared at it, and for the first time, he felt that the Life Bane Wheel wasn’t merely something he had created. Perhaps he had only created its beginning, while its rest would be determined by what he encountered.

A terrifying possibility slowly surfaced within his mind as Jacob looked toward the endless sacrificial river, and then toward the dark passage.

’What kind of monster will this Wheel become if I could feed it the power of a sealed God?’

---

Deep beneath the Undead Skyfall Canyons, the God of Hollow Undead suddenly opened his ghastly eyes.

Although his body was still in the process of being unsealed beneath billions of suppression runes, his consciousness was becoming clearer, and he immediately sensed something unusual.

The sacrificial energy was decreasing, only slightly at first, which, under normal circumstances, he would have ignored.

But he had waited for countless ages, and he had calculated every portion of this ritual, every sacrifice, every strand of vitality, every connection, and every drop of accumulated faith. Nothing should have gone missing, yet something was interfering.

The God of Hollow Undead’s expression slowly darkened as he couldn’t identify the source nor determine what had been taken, but he could sense one thing with absolute certainty. Something was most likely obstructing his ritual!