Slender willows sway in the breeze

Chapter 155 Altar
At this moment, the will-o'-the-wisps and skeletons in the stone forest surged in even more frantically, and the group's defenses gradually became strained.

While maintaining his defense, Min Rui shouted, "This can't go on! We need to find a way to break this as soon as possible, or we'll all be stuck here!"

Liu Sijun stared intently at the boulder, his mind racing.

Suddenly, she remembered the records about ancient runes she had seen in the ancient books in the medicine storehouse. One of the runes was arranged in a way that was very similar to the runes on the boulder. It was a rune array that required special spiritual power to break.

Liu Sijun said loudly, "My lord, I may have a way to break this rune, but it requires your star power to combine with my Taixu Mirror spiritual power. Let's try combining our two forces!"

Gu Changzhou nodded without hesitation: "Okay, I'll do as you say!"

Liu Sijun took a deep breath, suspended the Taixu Mirror in front of him, quickly formed hand seals, and chanted incantations.

The Tai Xu Mirror shone brightly, and complex runes appeared within it. A gentle yet powerful beam of spiritual energy shot towards the boulder.

At the same time, Gu Changzhou activated the power of the stars, and his body shone with brilliant starlight. With a wave of his hands, he merged the power of the stars into the spiritual energy pillar shot out by Liu Sijun.

The two powerful spiritual energies merged together and rushed towards the runes on the boulder.

The runes flashed wildly, resisting the fused spiritual power.

Suddenly, a fierce wind swept through the stone forest, and the ghost fire and the skeletons temporarily ceased their attack under the impact of this powerful force.

As spiritual energy was continuously injected, cracks gradually appeared on the runes on the boulder.

Gu Changzhou and Liu Sijun gritted their teeth and exerted all their spiritual power.

Finally, with a loud "boom," the runes on the boulder shattered completely, and the boulder itself turned to dust.

As the boulder shattered, the will-o'-the-wisps and bones instantly lost their source of power and vanished into the air.

The eerie atmosphere in the stone forest gradually dissipated, and the fog began to thin.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, but no one dared to let their guard down, as they had not yet found the Blood Spirit Cult's altar, and danger still lingered.

Gu Changzhou looked at Liu Sijun with admiration in his eyes: "It's all thanks to your memory of the runes recorded in the ancient books, otherwise this would have been really troublesome."

Liu Sijun: "Everyone deserves credit, but the road ahead may be even more difficult."

Yes, this is just the beginning.

The group continued their journey deeper into the stone forest.

As they walked, a narrow passage appeared ahead. The stone walls on both sides of the passage were covered with all sorts of strange patterns, including the symbol of the Blood Spirit Cult and scenes of human sacrifice, which made everyone frown.

After they had walked along the passage for a while, a huge stone gate appeared at the end of the passage.

The stone gate was also covered with runes, emitting a faint glow.

Tong Lei stepped forward and tried to push the stone door, but it didn't budge. He then channeled his spiritual energy into it, but there was still no movement.

Gu Changzhou carefully examined the runes on the stone gate and said, "These runes seem to be a kind of seal, which requires a specific method to open."

The group stepped forward and carefully studied the arrangement of the runes, trying to find a way to break the spell.

Liu Sijun noticed that the arrangement of the runes was extremely similar to a mark he had seen on the map before, and a thought struck him: "Could the solution to this stone gate be related to the map?"

Upon hearing this, Gu Changzhou immediately took out the map and compared it with the runes on the stone gate.

Tong Lei was in charge of keeping watch, while the others all crowded around. After studying the situation for a long time, they finally discovered the connection.

It turned out that the stone gate could only be opened by inputting spiritual power of the corresponding attributes in a specific order marked on the map. Gu Changzhou, Min Rui, and the others poured their spiritual power into the runes on the stone gate in the order they were drawn. As the spiritual power was poured in, the stone gate slowly vibrated, emitting a rumbling sound, and slowly opened.

Beyond the stone gate lay a vast circular space, in the center of which stood an altar emitting an eerie red light.

As soon as everyone stepped inside, a strong, nauseating stench of blood assaulted their senses.

The altar was made of black boulders, its surface covered with twisted runes that shimmered with an eerie light, as if telling ancient and evil secrets.

Gu Changzhou frowned and said in a low voice, "It seems that this is undoubtedly the altar of the Blood Spirit Sect. The people of Xuanji Hall will likely swear to come and hold the blood sacrifice ceremony."

Tong Lei looked around warily and said, "Everyone be careful. Such an important place must be hiding traps and mechanisms."

Just then, the ground around the altar suddenly cracked open, and black flames shot into the sky, trapping everyone in the middle.

A hideous ghostly face faintly appeared in the flames, emitting a series of shrill cries.

Tong Lei brandished his longsword, trying to disperse the flames, but found that the sword was instantly scorched hot when it touched the flames, and he almost dropped it.

"This flame is very strange, everyone be careful!"

Tong Lei shouted a reminder.

Min Rui quickly formed hand seals and chanted incantations. A sudden gust of wind arose, attempting to disperse the black flames.

However, the flames raged even more fiercely in the wind, rushing towards the group.

Liu Sijun quickly activated the Taixu Mirror, from which beams of cold light shot out, resisting the black flames.

Wherever the light reached, the flames seemed to be somewhat restrained, weakening slightly. Seeing this, Gu Changzhou activated his Star Power, causing the sword in his hand to shine even brighter.

He spotted a spot where the flames were weaker, and with a flash, he rushed over like a meteor, attempting to break through the encirclement of flames.

However, as he approached the edge of the flames, a gigantic black hand emerged from the fire and lunged at him. Gu Changzhou quickly swung his sword to defend himself, the sword clashing against the black hand with a piercing metallic scraping sound.

At this moment, Liu Sijun noticed that the runes on the altar flickered as the flames danced.

She shouted, "My lord, these flames might be related to the altar runes. We must find a way to destroy the runes in order to extinguish the flames!"

While dealing with the black hand, Gu Changzhou replied, "I'll distract it, you and Min Rui figure out a way to destroy the runes!"

Liu Sijun nodded, exchanged a glance with Min Rui, and the two rushed toward the altar at the same time.

Along the way, black flames kept attacking, and they managed to dodge them with great difficulty, relying on their superb agility and powerful spiritual energy.

Finally, the two arrived at the altar.

Min Rui gathered spiritual power in both hands and blasted it towards the rune. The rune flashed and reflected his spiritual power back.

Min Rui was unable to dodge in time and was struck by the spiritual energy, taking several steps back.

Liu Sijun frowned as she carefully observed the runes and discovered that their arrangement formed a complex array.

She took a deep breath and pushed the power of the Tai Xu Mirror to its limit. A beam of light containing powerful purification energy shot out from the mirror and accurately struck the core of the rune array.

The runic array shone brightly, resisting the light of purification.

In an instant, the light shone brightly, illuminating the entire space as if it were daytime.