Chapter 79: The Ancestral Altar and the Three Divine Skills

Sun Fei felt surprised that the so-called altar for the Ancestral Covenant was not located in some obvious corner of the Rogue Encampment. Led by the old nun Auntie Acarra, Sun Fei and the others from the camp arrived outside her small tent in the southwest corner of the encampment.

He had been here many times before.

Everywhere were placed broken, worn-out jars and pots covered in vines and moss. The air was filled with a pungent smell of potions. The tent looked very small, even a bit shabby. Sun Fei had wondered more than once whether such a small tent could even hold one person lying down, even if that person was as thin as Nun Acarra.

But this time, he was shocked.

Watching Auntie Acarra, Auntie Kashya, and Elder Kane bend down and enter the tent one by one, Sun Fei could not help but open his mouth wide. He felt extremely amazed—was there a hidden underground cave inside the tent? Otherwise, how could such a small space accommodate so many people? In the end, almost everyone from the Rogue Encampment had squeezed inside. Sun Fei’s mouth opened wider and wider, almost splitting.

Ileena gently touched Sun Fei with her cool little hand: “My lord, we should go in now.”

Sun Fei had no choice but to brace himself and squeeze inside.

He was even prepared to look for a hidden cave inside the tent… But as soon as he bent down and entered the tent, Sun Fei looked up and was stunned. This was no small tent—it was a grand and magnificent great hall. Before him stretched a vast, seemingly endless long corridor connected to a huge hall with neatly arranged tables and chairs. The walls along the corridor were filled with densely packed doors, too many to count.

“Is this… spatial magic?”

After a brief moment of daze, Sun Fei quickly grasped the situation. It was simply unbelievable—Auntie Acarra’s shabby little tent was actually the entrance to an incomparably huge space. Through this small tent, he had entered a realm he had never imagined.

But on second thought, it seemed fitting that the Rogue Encampment would have such a mysterious place. After all, the entire encampment had existed for millennia, dating back to the legendary war between Heaven and Hell countless years ago. With such a long history, if it had remained as dilapidated as it appeared outside, with only meager means and strength, the encampment would have long been razed to the ground by the wandering demons and monsters outside. Even the Blood Raven, the fallen Griswold, the corrupted Paladin Griswold, and the super boss Andariel had failed to destroy it.

In any chaotic era, the only reason to survive is Might.

Clearly, hidden within the Rogue Encampment was a power Sun Fei had never known.

As the group moved forward, they passed through a large hall that resembled a meeting place. The corridor ahead seemed endless. Acarra, Kashya, and the others walked slowly in front. Sun Fei wanted to keep up closely, but then something strange happened again. He found, to his disbelief, that the faster he ran, the farther he fell behind those ahead. In an instant, Sun Fei could only see the blurred backs of Acarra and the others.

What was going on?

Sun Fei was baffled.

“Lord Sun Fei, time and space here are reversed… The slower you walk, the more actual distance you cover. Don’t walk too fast,” Ileena, who had stayed by his side, whispered a reminder.

Sun Fei paused for a moment and finally understood the trick.

He gave Ileena a grateful smile and began to move slowly.

Sun Fei was amazed to find that this indeed made him move forward much faster. Though he took only small steps, the doors along the corridor whizzed past him. It felt like he was on a fast-moving conveyor belt, speeding ahead. Seeing this, Sun Fei had an idea and slowed his steps even further, almost to the pace of a snail’s crawl. But under the rules of this mystical space, his overall speed actually increased. In the blink of an eye, Sun Fei miraculously caught up to Nun Auntie Acarra, who was trudging slowly at the front.

“Wow, this space is amazing… Heh heh, where are we going?” Sun Fei asked, making conversation.

“The Ancestral Altar,” the nun’s reply was unusually brief.

“Uh… how much farther?”

“We’re here.”

With that, Nun Acarra finally stopped.

Sun Fei looked ahead, and his fragile heart was shaken once more.

At the end of the corridor, an incredibly vast and enormous mysterious space appeared. A black stone altar, thirty to forty meters high, stood silently in the center of this space like a skyscraper.

The altar was over fifty meters in diameter, entirely built layer by layer from some unknown black stone. It had nine levels, each smaller than the one below. Four narrow staircases, one on each side, led to the very top. The ninth level could only accommodate four or five people. From afar, each layer of the altar was carved with intricate, deep magical patterns, resembling winding vines or some unknown script. Besides the magical patterns, countless ancient carvings like murals covered it, depicting various scenes—ferocious demons, howling monsters, battling warriors, and spell-casting mages.

The entire altar was pitch black and stood silently in the space, exuding an ancient, weathered aura. It seemed to silently recount the mysterious history lost in antiquity or demonstrate the merciless passage of time. One could clearly sense a faint divine and demonic pressure emanating from the altar, permeating the space.

“This is the Ancestral Covenant Altar,” Nun Acarra said with an unprecedented solemn expression, tinged with a sacred glow, as if gazing upon a holy land. “Ascend the steps on the eastern side all the way to the top of the ninth level. Pray devoutly, and the Deity will grant you three incredible abilities. Go ahead, Lord Sun Fei.”

After saying this, Acarra and the others from the Rogue Encampment knelt together on the ground. They chanted softly in a mystical and ancient language. A sacred, natural aura emanated from their bodies. Visible light energy, like shimmering starlight with milky-white trails, slowly infused into the black altar.

Sun Fei walked up the altar step by step along the narrow stone staircase on the eastern side.

When he finally stood atop the ninth level, the black altar beneath his feet seemed to have absorbed enough light energy from the people of the Rogue Encampment and began to change. Starting from the lowest layer, each level rotated in a mysterious, patterned motion, like a precise instrument calibrating some mysterious frequency or coordinate.

An ancient, weathered presence emerged.

Sun Fei fought back the shock in his heart and calmly observed everything before him.

This was completely beyond his imagination. Such events had never occurred in the familiar computer game from his previous life. At this moment, things were unfolding in directions beyond his memory.

Just then—

Boom!

A deafening roar echoed, and the black altar beneath his feet finally stopped rotating.

Everything in his vision changed dramatically, as if shifted through time and space. He could no longer see Acarra and the others below. The entire altar seemed to have been teleported by immense power into an infinite starry sky. All around, brilliant starlight glittered. This space had no up or down, left or right, front or back—it was like the vacuum of space.

Before Sun Fei could even react—

Suddenly, a milky-white beam of light appeared from nowhere and enveloped his entire body in a flash. The sensation was somewhat similar to the phenomenon of leveling up by killing monsters in the wild, but the force far surpassed that of the usual white light pillars during level-ups. For a moment, Sun Fei’s senses seemed completely stripped away. In his mind, only a stern, cold voice echoed infinitely:

“Supreme Deity, endless time, infinite space, eternal moments… According to the blood oath of the countless ancestors of the Rogue Continent, feeble mortal Sun Fei, you have slain Andariel, one of Hell’s Four Lesser Leaders. You shall receive three Divine Skills bestowed by the gods: Learning, Bestowal, and Summoning! … Mortal, prepare to receive the Deity’s gift!”

As the stern, cold voice faded, the milky-white beam of light began to surge and wash over Sun Fei’s body repeatedly. The process was like being heavily anesthetized during surgery—neither painful nor itchy. Yet, Sun Fei could clearly feel every cell in his body undergoing incredible changes…

…

Below the altar.

“Lady Acarra… Will Lord Sun Fei be alright? It’s been over three hours…” Looking at the massive altar now completely engulfed in a milky-white glow, Ileena’s face showed anxiety and worry. She couldn’t help asking the camp’s spiritual leader, Nun Acarra.

“Ileena, my child, do not worry… This is the will of the ancestors and the Deity.”

Acarra glanced at the uneasy Flower of the Rogues beside her and smiled knowingly. With a kindness Sun Fei had never seen before, she comforted Ileena: “In the ancient legends of the Rogue Continent, every Flower of the Rogues would meet a man who would change her life. Andariel met Diablo, and you have met Sun Fei. This is the path prepared for you by the wheel of fate, Ileena, my child. I can foresee your future, your everything…”

Boom!!

Just as Acarra spoke, a thunderous roar echoed in their ears. She stopped talking, and everyone looked up. The white flames that had enveloped the black Ancestral Covenant Altar were slowly fading. They could finally see everything on the altar again. On the narrow stone staircase, Sun Fei had finished the entire ritual and was slowly making his way down.

Ileena’s face lit up with joy, and she hurried forward to meet him. She carefully looked Sun Fei over from head to toe and, seeing him unharmed, finally relaxed. Her pounding heart, like a startled deer, calmed down. A faint smile appeared on her flawless, jade-like face.

“I’m fine, don’t worry.”

Sun Fei felt the girl’s concern and smiled, giving her cool little hand a gentle squeeze.

Ileena blushed deeply, freed her hand from Sun Fei’s grip, and hurried back into the crowd with her head lowered.

…

Returning along the original path out of Acarra’s magical space tent, only less than half an hour of game time remained for the day. Sun Fei did not hurry off to kill monsters in the wilderness but stayed behind. He had a long, secret discussion with the two leaders of the Rogue Encampment, Kashya and the lecherous white-bearded Elder Kane, in front of the tent.

No one knew what they discussed, nor did anyone know what three Divine Skills Sun Fei had obtained on the Ancestral Altar. But after Sun Fei left the Diablo World once more, the people in the camp saw that Lady Acarra’s face finally showed a sense of relief she had never had before.