Our Family Has Fallen

The appearance of this passageway entrance confirmed Lance’s suspicions, and he understood the reason for the collapse in the area.

The passage was partly located beneath the new road. Due to construction work, the original structure was damaged, and when Lance sacrificed the Formless Flesh, it caused a major collapse and a tremendous impact underground, thus exposing this place.

By the time he roughly completed his speculation, he had already dug out most of the entrance. He immediately grabbed a torch, bent over, and walked up.

The similar brick passage had some torch holders in certain positions, and within the enclosed space, there was surprisingly no significant rust.

Unfortunately, after searching for a while, Lance only found some spare torches and nothing else.

The passage was shallower than Lance had imagined, and soon he found himself in a corridor. On both sides were small, prison-like spaces, constructed of thick stone blocks and reinforced with sturdy steel, the doors riveted with iron plates, reminding Lance of something.

"An asylum setup, this is where the ancestor imprisoned his test subjects..."

Most were still locked, but in front of one open metal door, the riveted metal plates had fallen off, causing structural damage to the entire door.

Lance held up the torch to investigate, and there were obvious corrosion marks. How could it not be you, Devourer!

Lance’s curiosity only grew stronger, and he quickly stepped over the now useless door.

After passing through the corridor, Lance entered a relatively larger space, like a hollow within the Beast Lair, supported by brick pillars. But the real surprise lay in the various items scattered about the room.

Books piled carelessly, drafts scattered like waste paper, bizarre and grotesque steel tools, and unknown ritual patterns outlined on the exposed ground...

Though everything was covered in dust, it only added an indescribable eeriness, giving Lance a feeling of being shrouded in mist.

Did he just find the ancestor’s laboratory?

Lance could not be bothered with all that, placing the torch on the side holder, and began examining the dust-laden books.

From the book titles and quality of the bindings, most of these ancient texts had little to do with the ancestor, but they recorded a lot of mysticism knowledge, the strange content of which might drive ordinary people mad.

With a frown, Lance had no choice but to set these things aside, intending to study them later, hoping to find something useful.

As for the scattered manuscripts, they revealed to Lance the type of research the ancestor was conducting here.

Human experimentation.

If Lance’s approval of Paracelsus’s practices was limited to studying human anatomy and diseases, perhaps testing drugs without deliberate torture, and using only the wicked "dead,"

the ancestor, however, had no such scruples. He experimented on anyone he captured, conducting studies that made Lance uneasy just by looking at the recorded data.

For the ancestor, the human body held no secrets by then, so he moved his research focus to "flesh."

At that time, too many people had gone missing, so the ancestor resorted to using pork as a substitute.

Within these studies on flesh, he interwove many bizarre transcendent rituals involving a great deal of mysticism knowledge.

But to Lance, these rituals should be categorized as forbidden rituals, things that should never see the light of day.

Because the ancestor recklessly and even crazily sought from the Void.

He even eagerly created hosts for those unspeakable entities to manifest in reality—known as the [God of Pigmen].

Fortunately, the "container," the God of Pigmen, failed, otherwise, Lance had no idea what kind of monster he would have to deal with.

Still, Lance discovered the ancestor’s failed experiment with the God of Pigmen, which led to the hypothesis of the [Heart of Flesh] as a way to perfect the ritual further.

Lance knew the ancestor did this to prepare for seizing the power of the Primordial God, but why provoke those bizarre entities?

It’s like charging into a church shrouded in darkness with a torch, shouting loudly.

The statue in the hall doesn’t matter, what matters is the eeriness it represents.

When you are observed by one existence, it means countless others have discovered you as well; we call this the Dark Cathedral Principle.

This planet already has countless issues, and because of the old man, I can’t even sleep well, and now you’re telling me I’ve drawn the attention of those alien existences, and not just one or two, eagerly wishing for my demise?

"Damn the ancestor!"

With no one around, Lance couldn’t even be bothered to pretend and let out a hysterical howl.

"I’m going to kill you!"

Lance’s curses echoed throughout the room, but he soon calmed down, knowing it was futile—a bit of a cop-out.

Having vented, Lance returned to perusing the manuscripts left by the old man.

The ancestor, despite Lance’s abstract insults and messy antics, was undeniably a genius.

But everything ended in an accident.

Lance’s expression suddenly turned peculiar, his previously scattered attention focused sharply as he began to scrutinize the remaining items in detail.