coobybook Chapter 493 The Trial of the Mysterious Altar
Chapter 493 The Trial of the Mysterious Altar
The veins on the back of my hand, which held the Key of Destiny, bulged. The moment the sword cleaved the third ghost cultivator, Elder Qingfeng's laughter, like a poisoned needle, pierced my ears.
The pebbles he had just bent down to pick up shattered in his palm with a "crack," revealing half a piece of black jade embedded inside—it turned out that every step from the stone house to the altar was a trap he had calculated.
"You lured me here just for this broken altar?" I gasped as I backed away, my lower back aching against the sharp edge of the broken monument.
The ghost cultivators were scattered and then gathered again by the sword energy, their faces covered in putrid ghost energy, like mud that had been soaking for a hundred years.
"A broken altar?" His blood-red pupils reflected the sword light, and his grin widened. "This is the core of the Starfall Altar, the soul-locking array eye that suppressed the Blood Fiend back then." He raised his hand, ghostly blue flames flickering from his fingertips. "Why do you think I helped you awaken the Key of Destiny?"
Its spirit is hidden in the Soul-Locking Array. If you can lure it out...
A mountain breeze suddenly rushed into my throat, and I suddenly remembered what Zi Ling had said—the awakening of a divine artifact requires "the purest obsession".
It turns out that what Qingfeng wanted was not for me to succeed, but for me to use my obsession to tear open the gap in the Soul-Locking Array and release the blood evil when I awakened the spirit!
The Key of Destiny suddenly became scalding hot, and the white light on the sword stopped flickering and instead condensed into a beam of light that pierced straight into the pile of rubble in the center of the altar.
I heard a muffled sound coming from underground, as if something was hitting the seal.
"Alliance Leader Xiao, seize the opportunity!" Qingfeng's voice mingled with the shrill voice again, "Your artifact spirit is down there, just one more step forward..."
Before he finished speaking, I suddenly released my grip on the sword hilt.
The moment the sword clattered to the ground, the ghost cultivators' attack abruptly halted.
I bent down, picked up a piece of gravel, and threw it at Qingfeng's face—this wasn't a gamble, but something I'd glimpsed during the fight: although he'd changed his face, the old scar under his left eyebrow was still there, left from when he helped me shield me from a lightning tribulation last month.
"You've possessed Elder Qingfeng!" I roared, pebbles whizzing past his ear. "You were the one who killed the guide three hundred years ago, and now you're the one occupying his body!"
His blood-red pupils contracted instantly.
When he raised his hand, a section of bluish-gray wrist was revealed under his Taoist robe—it wasn't the skin of a living person.
“Clever,” he said, a smirk playing on Qingfeng’s lips, “but too late.”
The sound of chains snapping echoed from the bottom of the cliff.
The instant I turned my head, the blood-red ghost fire was already rushing towards me—it was a monster that was at least two zhang tall, its whole body wrapped in blood-stained chains, and every step it took caused the bluestone slabs to crack.
It opened its mouth, and what surged inside was not a tongue, but the faces of hundreds and thousands of ghost cultivators, emitting the same wails I had heard inside the Demon-Suppressing Stone.
"Xiao Yao!"
A familiar sound pierced through the ghostly wails.
I looked up abruptly, and Wen Chen's shadow appeared in the mist—he was holding that frost-colored longsword, his clothes fluttering in the mountain wind, but he was still ten steps away from me.
"Get back!" I shouted, lunging at the Key of Destiny on the ground.
The moment my fingertips touched the hilt of the sword, the sound of the sword suddenly changed, as if someone was gently calling "Master" in my mind.
Blood Fiend's claws had already slashed down.
I gritted my teeth and thrust my sword into the ground. A white light shot into the rubble like a living thing, shaking the entire altar.
The rubble that had been pressing down on the broken stele rolled away, revealing the altar base covered with runes underneath—it turned out that the words "Starfall" were not the broken stele, but the seal of the array's core!
"No!" the possessor screamed and lunged forward, but Wen Chen's sword was faster.
The frost-colored sword energy tore through the fog, pinning him to a stone pillar on the cliff edge.
I couldn't even look over there; my whole being was focused on feeling the tremors of the Key of Destiny.
The white light from the sword pierced my heart along my arm, and I saw fragments of memories flash before my eyes—myself in school uniform flipping through the Classic of Mountains and Seas in the library, the pain of being smashed in a mud pit during the time travel, the coolness of Wen Chen's fingertips when he first healed me... It turns out that the purest obsession is never about becoming an immortal, but about "living, and living with important people."
"Buzz——"
The Key of Destiny emitted a clear and resonant chime.
Suddenly, all the runes on the altar base lit up, and a golden light pierced through the thick fog, causing the ghost cultivators to let out piercing screams. Blood Fiend's chains snapped with a "crash," and he took three steps back.
I knelt on the ground, looking at the patterns that had never appeared before on the sword—it was a star map, exactly the same as the weathered engravings on the stone pillar.
The spirit's voice became clearer: "Master, I've been waiting for you for a long time."
"Yao Yao!" Wen Chen's hand rested on my shoulder, carrying his usual cool fragrance.
I looked up and saw beads of mist clinging to his temples, his eyes filled with unwavering worry. "Are you hurt?"
I shook my head, about to speak, when the Key of Destiny suddenly trembled violently.
The spirit's voice held a newfound wariness: "There's an unfamiliar presence..."
The mountain breeze suddenly shifted, carrying a faint, lingering scent of herbs. That was...
"Watch out!" Just as I was about to pull Wen Chen away, I heard a familiar soft laugh behind me.
"Alliance Leader Xiao's ceremony was quite lively."
The voice was like jade immersed in a cold pool, carrying three parts nonchalance and seven parts indifference.
I turned my head and saw a figure in a dark cloak emerge from the mist, his eyebrows and eyes hidden by a bamboo hat, only the jade pendant at his waist flashing—it was Mo Yu.
He twirled a black jade pendant between his fingers, his gaze sweeping over the glowing Key of Destiny before settling on Wen Chen and me: "It seems I've arrived just in time." When Mo Yu's voice, tinged with the scent of medicine, struck my eardrums, the hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I smelled this scent outside the Demon-Suppressing Abyss half a month ago—at that time, I was chasing after a scattered ghost cultivator and found half a handkerchief stained with medicine on the edge of a cliff. Zi Ling said it was the Ice Cicada Grass, which only grows in the cold pools of the far north and is specially used to treat injuries to the soul.
It turned out that it wasn't a coincidence; he had been spying on it all along.
Wen Chen tightened his grip on my shoulder, and the frost-colored sword energy spread from his fingertips, weaving a semi-transparent barrier around us.
I could feel the muscles in his arms taut like a bowstring; it was his habit when he was on full alert—three years ago in the Cangwu Secret Realm, he had protected me in the same way, shielding me from the venomous breath of the Hydra.
"Alliance Leader Xiao, how have you been?" Mo Yu's hat tilted slightly, revealing a scarlet mole at the corner of his eye, like a drop of congealed blood.
He rubbed the black butterfly jade pendant with his thumb, and the pendant suddenly emitted a faint light. Hundreds of black butterflies instantly gathered in the air, each wing oozing with ink-like black mist. "I heard that the Key of Destiny is about to awaken."
"I originally intended to wait until you exhausted yourself awakening the spirit before reaping the benefits." He chuckled, and the black butterflies exploded with a "buzz." "But now it seems that acting ahead of time is more interesting."
My fingertips dug deeply into the hilt of the Key of Destiny.
The spirit of the weapon hummed in the sea of consciousness, and the star patterns on the sword began to flow, like the Milky Way being blown by the wind.
Wen Chen's voice was low, mixed with the buzzing of sword energy cutting through the air: "Yao Yao, you protect the divine artifact, I'll hold him off." I looked up at him, and what surged in his eyes was not panic, but the familiar composure—the same look he had when he took three tribulations of lightning to save me back then.
The first wave of black butterflies has already pounced on us.
Wen Chen's frost sword drew a semicircle, and wherever the cold sword energy swept, the black butterflies shattered into black mist, but condensed back into butterfly shapes before landing.
My hand holding the Key of Destiny was burning hot. I suddenly remembered that Zi Ling had said that the Black Butterfly Jade Pendant was forged from Nether Iron from the Cave of Ten Thousand Ghosts, and was specifically designed to counter ordinary magical artifacts.
But the Key to Destiny is an ancient artifact...
"Try this." I shouted in a low voice, and the white light on the sword surged, the star pattern transforming into tangible starlight, which enveloped the black butterfly like a net.
The black butterflies touched by the starlight let out sharp cries and began to melt—not shatter, but like snow falling on hot iron, leaving not even ashes.
Mo Yu paused, and a muffled groan came from under his bamboo hat.
He finally stopped being nonchalant and quickly formed hand seals with his fingertips. Suddenly, the swarm of black butterflies split into three streams. Two streams continued to attack me and Wen Chen, while the third stream rushed straight for the starfall array eye in the center of the altar.
My heart tightened—he was going to destroy the core of the formation and sever the foundation for the awakening of the divine artifact!
“Wen Chen!” I shouted.
He understood perfectly. His frost sword flashed with two intersecting streaks of cold light, precisely severing the black butterfly in half.
At the same time, I flipped my wrist, and the white light of the Key of Destiny shot out like a snake's tongue, wrapping around Mo Yu's ankle.
He staggered in pain, and his bamboo hat finally slipped off, revealing a face so pale it was almost transparent—a face I had seen before in the tattered scrolls of the Soul-Locking Array. It was the remnant of the Blood Fiend Rebellion three hundred years ago, the "Bone-Eating Lord" who was sealed in the far north by the Immortal Alliance!
"Well done, Xiao Yao, you've even found out my identity." He suddenly laughed, flicking a jet-black pill from his fingertip. "Then let me show you what I've been cultivating for the past three hundred years." The moment the pill hit the ground, spiderweb-like cracks appeared in the ground, and putrid ghostly energy gushed out like a fountain, containing countless translucent souls—the remnant souls of cultivators he had refined using forbidden techniques!
Wen Chen's sword energy suddenly became rapid.
I could feel his magic suppressing those remnant souls, but there were too many of them, and fine cracks had already appeared on the frost barrier.
I gritted my teeth and plunged the Key of Destiny into the ground. The star map patterns instantly spread across the entire altar. The moment those remnant souls touched the starlight, they let out a whimper of relief. The last look they gave me before they dissipated... was just like the child I saved in the mortal village who was possessed by a ghost cultivator.
"No!" Mo Yu's pupils contracted sharply. "These souls were nurtured by me using thousand-year-old blood jade, how could they..."
“Because they shouldn’t have been imprisoned in the first place.” I gripped the sword hilt tightly, the light of the star map flowing down my arm into my sea of consciousness. The spirit’s voice was as clear as if it were right next to my ear: “Master, these are the souls he forcibly refined. I can send them to reincarnation.”
Wen Chen suddenly let out a low shout and thrust his Frost Sword toward Mo Yu's chest.
Mo Yu hurriedly turned to the side, and a bloody gash appeared on his left shoulder, but not a single drop of blood flowed out; only black mist surged out.
It turns out he was already a soul, and this body was just a puppet!
"You guys are ruthless!" He gritted his teeth and stepped back, throwing three black needles from his sleeve, aiming straight for my face.
Wen Chen spun around and blocked my way. The black needles grazed his ear and pierced the stone pillar behind him, bursting out in a cloud of black mist with a "crack".
Taking advantage of the moment, I activated the Key of Destiny. Starlight pierced his puppet body like arrows, and his figure instantly became transparent. "This round doesn't count. I'll be back!"
Before he could finish speaking, his figure was swept away by the mountain wind, leaving only the black jade pendant lying on the bluestone slab, still trembling slightly.
"Wen Chen!" I turned around and took his arm, only to find that the back of his clothes was torn by black needles, revealing a dark red wound—just now, in order to protect me, he had actually taken those three poisoned needles with his back.
"It's alright." He took my hand in his, the warmth of his palm seeping through my skin. "Let's look at the artifact first."
Then I remembered the star map in the center of the altar.
The light of the Key of Destiny dimmed at some point, and several dark spots appeared on the originally flowing star map patterns, as if they had been stained with ink.
The spirit's voice weakened: "Master, there's a hidden force interfering with me..."
My heart sank.
Although Mo Yu's attack was repelled, the ghostly energy he left behind may have seeped into the array's core.
I took a deep breath, placed my palm on the hilt of the sword, and tried to use my spiritual power to stabilize the sword's vibrations.
Wen Chen's palm covered the back of my hand. The moment the two spiritual energies merged, the dark spots on the star map slightly contracted, but then spread out again after a moment.
The mountain wind, carrying droplets of mist, stung my face, chilling me to the bone.
As I gazed at the gradually blurring star map, I suddenly recalled Elder Qingfeng's words before he was possessed: "The most dangerous thing for the Soul-Locking Array Eye is for evil energy to enter the body." Could it be that Mo Yu's attack just now was not only a test, but also a way of planting a seed of poison in the array eye?
"Yaoyao?" Wen Chen's voice was filled with worry.
I looked up at him; the wisps of sweat at his temples had condensed into tiny droplets, sliding down his jawline. "What are you thinking about?"
“I’m thinking…” I stared at the darkening star map, my throat tightening, “This ritual might not be so easy to complete.”
The Key of Destiny suddenly trembled violently, and a wisp of extremely faint black energy seeped out from the dark spots on the star map—it was left by Mo Yu, which I hadn't even noticed before!
I hurriedly circulated my spiritual power to try to suppress it, but the black energy was like a living thing, drilling into my arm along the sword.
"Stay calm." Wen Chen placed his other hand on my back, and his powerful spiritual energy flowed into my meridians like a warm current, helping me resist the erosion of the black energy.
I could feel his spiritual power flowing through my body, like a fine net, gradually enveloping and compressing the black energy.
Even so, the light of the Key of Destiny grew weaker and weaker.
I gritted my teeth, trying to regulate my breathing and communicate with the artifact spirit, but all I heard was its weak response: "Master... there's something... deeper inside..."
The mountain breeze suddenly changed direction, carrying a faint, almost imperceptible, sweet, and slightly fishy scent.
My heart skipped a beat—this smell...like the lingering ghostly aura of bloodlust?
Could it be that the Blood Fiend who was just knocked back didn't go far at all?
I took a deep breath and forcibly suppressed my surging emotions.
Regardless, the ceremony must be completed.
I held Wen Chen's hand tightly, feeling the warmth of his palm, and whispered, "Let's try again. I won't lose this time."
His fingers tapped lightly on the back of my hand, a secret code between us—"I trust you."
I closed my eyes and focused all my attention on the Key of Destiny.
This time, I wasn't just thinking about "living." Instead, I remembered the first time I saw him; he stood on a cloud, his robes fluttering, like a celestial being. I remembered him brewing a soul-nourishing soup for me for three days and three nights, his hands covered in burn marks from the medicine pot. I remembered his words, "I'll be with you," when I was at my most desperate...
The sword suddenly emitted a scorching white light, brighter and more stable than before.
The dark spots on the star chart began to fade, and the black mist was enveloped in white light, slowly evaporating.
The spirit's voice became clear again: "Master, I sensed it. This is the purest form of obsession..."
But just then, I suddenly felt the altar beneath my feet tremble.
It wasn't the kind of tremor we felt before; instead, it felt like some enormous creature was crawling underground, cracking the bluestone slabs with every step.
I suddenly opened my eyes and saw a wisp of black mist, even thicker than before, seeping from the star pattern in the center of the altar.
The black mist twisted and condensed into the shape of an eye, glowing with a scarlet light.
My heart sank.
Before I could react, the light of the Key of Destiny suddenly flickered violently, like a candle flame about to go out.
“Wen Chen…” My voice trembled.
He pressed his fingers firmly on the back of my hand, his voice steady as a rock: "I'm here."
I took a deep breath and forced my trembling hands to steady.
No matter what comes, I will not back down.
But at that moment, the light of the Key of Destiny suddenly dimmed, completely dimmed, and even the star map patterns disappeared.
My heart skipped a beat.