"We found something, Mu Chen!"
"This is… strange."
A walkie-talkie lying on a wooden table flickered to life with a crackle. A woman's voice came through the radio network, calling out to a man in the research tent.
"Mu Chen! Are you there?"
Mu Chen, a twenty-six-year-old with short black hair wearing a long-sleeved tactical shirt with several pockets, walked over and picked it up. He leaned against the edge of the table as he spoke.
"I'm here. What's up?" Mu Chen asked.
"We found a massive stone door. It's sealed shut with an ancient locking mechanism."
An ancient locking mechanism?
"None of the archaeologists down here can figure out how it works."
He let out a quiet sigh and turned around, looking at the stacks of files on his desk summarizing their artifact reconstructions.
Some pieces had been successfully put back together, while others sat unfinished due to missing components.
Mu Chen never imagined that a cave on a remote island, revealed only because the lake waters had receded, would hold historical records of a lost civilization.
Perhaps all these mysterious, unmapped artifacts from an unknown era were leading him toward whatever was inside that room deep beneath the cave.
"Alright. I'm heading down. Tell half the team to head up and store everything they've found so far," Mu Chen requested.
"Copy that."
Mu Chen and a team of twelve researchers had been sent by an independent archaeological institute in Shenzhen to investigate this mysterious cavern.
The news of the island's appearance in the middle of the lake had been a headline on every TV station, with plenty of people guessing what it was without any real facts.
Before heading down, he paused as his eyes fell on a photo of himself with Mu Fei. Mu Fei was his younger sister.
No one knew where she was. Six years ago, Mu Fei and her friends went mountain climbing, but something happened.
Her friends made it back down the mountain safely, but Mu Fei did not. The search lasted for days, but the police and search and rescue teams couldn't find her.
Mu Fei's disappearance remained a mystery. While everyone else eventually gave up, Mu Chen continued the search. He was certain she was still alive somewhere. He just had to keep looking.
I don't know where you vanished, Fei'er. But I won't get tired of looking for you.
He grabbed his gear for the descent, including an oxygen tank and a specialized suit. Once he was ready, Mu Chen stepped out of the tent and walked toward the cave entrance.
"Chief Researcher Mu Chen," he greeted. Mu Chen gave a brief nod in return.
Inside the cave, a group of four people approached carrying large cases filled with ancient items found at the bottom of the cavern.
They moved with extreme caution, hoping the priceless artifacts wouldn't break or crumble.
"Take those to Nan Yue and tell her to arrange them carefully on my workbench," Mu Chen ordered, and they obeyed.
Once the four had climbed out, it was Mu Chen's turn to head down. He switched on his flashlight, illuminating the path toward Yunxi's location.
The cave floor was slick and damp, and the walls were cold and black. Being buried under water for thousands of years had significantly changed the sedimentation and the structure of the cave.
Following his navigation map, Mu Chen looked up and saw Yunxi ahead. Three people were still standing in front of a massive stone door, nearly twenty feet tall and twenty feet wide.
"Mu Chen."
The man stopped walking. The sound of his breathing echoed clearly inside his specialized helmet. His eyes remained fixed on the sight ahead.
"The door's mechanism is right here," Yunxi said, pointing to the side.
Mu Chen turned and followed her. What she said was true; right in front of him was a door mechanism that was remarkably modern for its time.
"Do you know what these carvings say?"
"I'm not sure yet, but the script looks familiar," Mu Chen replied.
He pressed a button on the side of his helmet to activate the camera, asking Nan Yue to identify the script using the computer system's specialized image mapping.
"Identification successful… it's the script of the Xie Huang civilization."
Xie Huang?
It was one of the oldest civilizations, and its place in history was still a subject of debate. However, after years of exploration and excavation, some of the writing had finally been identified.
Mu Chen tried to solve the puzzle. After several attempts, he finally triggered the mechanism.
The massive stone door groaned open with a grand, heavy sound. A few people stepped back cautiously, shining their flashlights into the dark space ahead.
The room inside was much larger, circular in shape, with three giant statues of mysterious gods. None of them had ever seen statues like these before.
"What kind of gods are these?"
Mu Chen focused his attention on the center of the stone altar. There sat an ancient black cauldron bound by three chains, each connected to one of the three statues.
The man knelt down and shone his light on the side of the cauldron, looking at the ancient engravings of places, people, and cosmic constellations.
In the middle of the silence, a red light suddenly glowed from beneath the altar. Mu Chen jumped in surprise, turning to see that Yunxi had touched one of the statues.
A violent tremor shook the ground, throwing them off balance. Mu Chen looked up to see a mysterious red aura appearing around the chained cauldron.
The cauldron began to vibrate and float as if it were trying to break free of its bonds, possessing a consciousness of its own.
The strange events sent Yunxi and the other archaeologists into a panic, and they scrambled to save themselves. Mu Chen also tried to run for the exit.
"Mu Chen! The door is closing on its own!"
It was too late. The giant stone door slammed shut, trapping Mu Chen, Yunxi, and the rest of the team inside. Panic washed over their faces as the fear of death set in.
Mu Chen felt it too. After years of leading expeditions, this was the first time he found himself in a true life-or-death situation.
Yunxi tried to radio the tent above, but the communication lines were dead. Mu Chen kept his eyes forward, watching the cauldron grow more aggressive in its struggle.
CLANG!
The chains snapped, and the mysterious cauldron flew through the air aggressively. Mu Chen's panic spiked, unsure of what to do.
The cauldron spun, creating a vacuum that sucked in everything in the room. Yunxi and the others lost their footing and were pulled into the air.
"MU CHEN!" Yunxi screamed as she was pulled toward the cauldron.
"YUNXI!" Mu Chen shouted back.
Mu Chen clung to the floor of the stone altar, trying to keep himself from being sucked in. All of his teammates were trapped inside the cauldron now, leaving him alone.
"What is going on?!" Mu Chen barked.
Suddenly, the cauldron stopped and began to float peacefully in the air. The room was a mess; the three statues had crumbled into ruins.
Something in Mu Chen's chest felt hot and restless. He looked down and saw the necklace his family had given him glowing with a brilliant gold light.
The necklace flew up and attached itself to the side of the mysterious cauldron. As it glowed, the rust and dust on the cauldron began to fade away.
The fragment in the necklace… was a part of this cauldron.
Without warning, the cauldron turned to solid gold, with ancient script appearing on its surface. With a sudden movement, it flew forward and forced itself into Mu Chen's body.
"AAKKH!"
Mu Chen groaned in pain. His insides felt like they were on fire, as if a flame were burning through him. He collapsed to the ground, right on top of the glowing gold runes of the altar.
"What… is happening to me?"
[Checking host condition…]
[Host condition perfect for inheritance of power.]
[Activating Heavenly Refinement System!]
[Synchronizing host with the Ancient God Cauldron!]
Mu Chen lifted his head, seeing a mysterious holographic panel appear in front of his face. It felt surreal.
"A hologram? A system? What does this mean?"
[Congratulations! The Host's body has successfully synchronized with the Ancient God Cauldron!]
[Refine, perfect, and destroy everything to return to the source.]
[The host now has the ability to control all power.]
"Power? What power?"
The pain in his body intensified as the golden light on the stone altar grew even brighter. Mu Chen couldn't hold on any longer.
He fell face-first onto the ground, clutching his chest… and then everything went dark.
Without realizing it, the power he had just received was about to change his life forever.