A thousand enlightenments in one night, starting from being a menial apprentice.

Chapter 592 Central Altar
Because the previous water source was the Yellow Springs' evil water, none of them had replenished their water supply, and after two more days, they were already quite thirsty.

Upon seeing the beautiful lake, they immediately rushed over.

Although the lakeside was covered with red arrow flowers and there seemed to be no other flowers or weeds, and the flower was not poisonous, none of them dared to take water from the lake before Xu Hui tested it for poison.

Xu Hui took out a box containing silver needles from behind his back and slowly walked over, making everyone anxious.

After waiting for a while, Xu Hui finally shook the water off the silver needles and said, "The water source is fine. You can fetch water now!"

As soon as Xu Hui finished speaking, everyone rushed over, took their silver cups, and squatted by the lake. Lu Chu even drank two cups in one go, then took a third cup and sat down not far away, taking out dried meat and slowly eating and drinking.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, they sat down to rest. They had been traveling for the past few days and had hardly had a proper rest.

Duan Rong sat there, took out a black jade box from his backpack, picked three blooming red arrow flowers from beside him, and put them into the black jade box.

The moment the flower entered the black jade box, it was eroded by the cold air, covered with a layer of ice, and became an ice sculpture.

Duan Rong closed the black jade box and put it into his backpack. With these three Crimson Arrow Flowers, his most important task in entering the Divine and Demonic Ruins was now complete.

As he looked at the lake and sea of ​​flowers before him, for some reason, the deep affection in Lü Qingzhu's eyes that she had given him that day in the Dragon Fish Hall resurfaced in his mind.

Duan Rong's expression changed.

Lu Qingzhu was seriously injured. Even if he brought back the Red Arrow Flower and the Jade Flame Grass, could Lu Yinlin really cure her?

He had no answers to these questions. But he knew that if he didn't bring back the Crimson Arrow Flower and the Azure Flame Grass, Lü Qingzhu would surely die.

Guo Tian and the others saw Duan Rong pick the red arrow flowers and put them into the black jade box.

Because of the different laws governing their effects, many divine herbs within the ruins of gods and demons will lose their potency soon after being taken out of the ruins; the Crimson Arrow Flower is one of them. Therefore, although the lakeside is full of Crimson Arrow Flowers, this divine herb is of no value to them.

Guo Tian and the others were already used to Duan Rong's strange behavior of picking this worthless divine medicine. Previously, Duan Rong had even returned to the secluded space to face the ghost infant evil spirit alone in order to obtain the Jade Flame Grass, which would also lose its medicinal properties.

Clearly, these miraculous medicines, which are worthless to them, must have a special use for Duan Rong. Otherwise, why would Duan Rong take the risk?
After a while, Guo Tian stood up and said, "After passing this lake and sea of ​​flowers, we'll reach the central altar. We've rested enough, let's go."

Upon hearing this, everyone's expression turned serious. Their purpose in coming here was to go to the central altar to receive the blessings whispered by the gods and demons to nourish their souls.

The journey has been quite arduous. Now, with the central altar not far away, everyone's feelings were rather complicated.

The group stood up, intending to cross the lake and sea of ​​flowers.

The fragrance of the red arrow flowers was intoxicating, but instead of intoxicating them, it made them more alert. Du Wan casually picked a few blossoms and pinned them to her lapel.

After leaving the sea of ​​flowers, their expressions froze for a moment.

Before them lay a rather open space, seemingly a vast plaza. Duan Rong and his companions, standing there, appeared as small as a few ants.

This place is the altar plaza of gods and demons. Given the mountain-like size of gods and demons, one can imagine how vast this plaza is.

In the far distance, there is a raised area, which is clearly the central altar.

However, that place still looked very far away; as they stood there, it was like looking at distant mountains.

Guo Tian and his group opened the map. In the middle of the map was a large red circle, which they had always thought was the central altar.

Now that they've arrived here, it's finally clear that the central altar is at the center of that large red circle, and they've only reached the edge of it.

Du Wan said, "I thought we'd arrived! Turns out it's still so far!"

Lu Chu laughed and said, "Let's go. Look at that distance, it's like trying to run a mountain and dying!"

Although they were far away, the central altar was now in sight, so they lined up and headed towards it.

Once they started walking, they didn't stop for the rest of the way.

This area is a large square, and there are no collapsed boulders, but there are cracks on the ground.

The cracks varied in width; some parts were easy for them to traverse, while others were like precipices, requiring a long detour.

Despite their winding journey, as dusk fell, they finally stood beneath the central altar.

From a distance, the central altar didn't seem particularly imposing, but as one approached, bathed in the twilight, it appeared as majestic as a deity.

The stone steps before us were for gods and demons to tread, each step being more than four times their height!
The towering stone steps seem to lead you to the heavens!

Climbing these stone steps was a huge challenge for them. Fortunately, in the middle of the middle steps, there was a platform that went up to the top, covered with dense bas-reliefs, which was perfect for them to climb.

By this time, dusk had fallen and the sky was beginning to darken. Climbing the red steps and reliefs at night was difficult even with torches, and a fall would be no different from a fall off a cliff.

After discussing it, the group decided to rest for the night under the central altar and climb up to the altar early the next morning.

Since entering the ruins of gods and demons, they have hardly had a full night's sleep. Once they climb onto the altar, they will have to start the ritual and receive the blessings and nourishment of the whispers of gods and demons. They have never experienced this process before, so they are inevitably filled with fear.

Resting here for the night will allow me to truly recharge and be better prepared to handle any unexpected situations that may arise during tomorrow's ceremony.

After discussing it, everyone sat cross-legged on the spot and took turns on duty, with one person on duty and six people resting.

Du Wan was the first person on duty. He had a red arrow flower pinned to his chest. After nightfall, he held up a torch and yawned, while the others had already sat cross-legged and fallen asleep.

The central altar has another advantage: all evil spirits avoid it. There seems to be some kind of enchantment around the altar that they cannot fathom, preventing the evil spirits from getting close. This is another reason why they can sleep peacefully here.

Nothing happened that night. When the morning light illuminated the altar, Guo Tiannong extinguished the torch in his hand. He was the last person on duty.

Duan Rong and the others had also woken up and stretched. This nap was a good refreshment for them.

As dawn broke, they arrived before the steps of the imperial court. At the very bottom of the steps was a row of carved flowers, the petals of which were almost as big as their figures.

They leaped up, grabbed the edge of the petal, and climbed over it. They crawled over two petals and entered the flower's center. After leaving the embossed flower, they began to climb upwards along a ribbon… From this perspective, they truly looked like seven ants.

Duan Rong and his companions were all skilled in martial arts and quite agile. Even so, it took them five or six hours to climb up the central altar along the relief carvings on the steps.

As they climbed to the top of the central altar, they all let out a long sigh and wiped the sweat from their brows. Standing there, they were all stunned; the central altar was completely empty.

That's not what Lin Youjian and Liu Su told them!

Guo Tian said with a gloomy face, "Let's go! Let's go to the center of the altar first."

The group then walked toward the center of the altar. The altar was quite large, and it took them quite a while to walk from the edge to the center.

Upon reaching the center of the altar, everyone was utterly astonished. There was a huge, deep pit there, with sixteen stone steps leading down the stone wall around it.

They stood at the edge of the deep pit and looked down, only to see a huge coffin made of gold inside.

The deep pit and the golden coffin were as large as mountains. Duan Rong and his companions stood there like ants, as insignificant as dust!
The golden coffin, as large as a mountain, was wrapped with black chains. The chains, made of some unknown material, gleamed with a dark, eerie light, clearly not ordinary objects.

Both the golden coffin and the black chain were engraved with dense, ancient runes, giving one a dizzying and eerie feeling at first glance.

Du Wan stumbled, and Duan Rong, who was standing beside him, reached out and grabbed him.

Duan Rong said in a deep voice, "You can't stare at the runes on those things, it will affect your soul."

Upon hearing this, everyone lowered their eyes and stopped looking at the coffin and chains.

Guo Tiandao said, "It seems this is the place. This is where the ceremony will be held!"

Everyone's eyes lit up. The golden coffin and the black chains—these were exactly what Lin Youjian and Liu Su had mentioned. This was indeed the place where the ceremony would be held.

They then separated one by one and sat cross-legged at the edge of the pit.

Then everyone took out three incense burners from their backpacks.

The chimney was made of brass, about the size of a fist, and its lid was made of a densely meshed openwork.

After placing the chimney in place, they took a tinderbox, blew out a flame, opened the perforated copper lid on the chimney, and lit the contents inside.

Immediately, smoke billowed from the bronze furnace!
The seven of them stood in a line, each surrounded by three plumes of smoke rising into the sky.

Twenty-one plumes of smoke instantly rose into the pale yellow sky!

Duan Rong sat between the three columns of smoke, watching the thick plumes of smoke rise into the sky, his eyes flickering slightly.

These plumes of smoke reminded him of the smoke offerings he made when practicing the Bloodstained Divine Art!

Furthermore, during the test of the Taiyi Sect's soul strength in the secluded valley, there were four statues of the Four Great Kings sculpted against the mountainside.

When the soul test is initiated, there is also a smoke offering ritual, using the exact same smoke incense burner as the one in front of them now.

The ceremony they were performing at this moment was clearly a smoke offering!

After the column of smoke shot into the sky, everyone sat cross-legged and began to form hand seals.

The hand seals they were forming were quite similar to those in the Garbhadhatu Mantra. Duan Rong was also sitting cross-legged forming hand seals, but as he did so, doubts began to creep into his mind.

At the central altar within these ruins of gods and demons, the ritual of receiving the whispered blessings of gods and demons employs both the smoke offering ritual used in cultivating the Bloodstained Divine Art and the hand seals used in cultivating the Womb Treasury Sutra.

It seems that these two techniques do indeed have a great connection with gods and demons. At the very least, there are obvious traces of inheritance.

In fact, both cultivating the Bloodstained Divine Art and the Womb Treasury Sutra involve a ritual similar to divine descent, such as the appearance of the Four Great Kings' phantoms entering the sea of ​​consciousness. The Bloodstained Divine Art, however, involves a demon god called the Five Powers God.

Duan Rong couldn't help but suspect that these two highly secretive and mysterious cultivation techniques in the Nine Provinces world might have originated from the ruins of gods and demons. And the cultivators of the Nine Provinces, through long-term exploration, had discovered a cultivation method that allowed them to communicate with the gods through rituals.

And at this moment, they seem to be using the same method. In other words, they are actually cultivating some kind of mysterious and unpredictable technique on the altar of gods and demons in the ruins of gods and demons, and the name of this technique is called Whispers of Gods and Demons.

As the incense smoke rose and Duan Rong and the others formed their hand seals faster and faster, the ground where they sat began to tremble slightly! Countless small stones fluttered down from the edge of the stone wall!

At that moment, the rattling sound of iron chains came from the deep pit in front of them!
With this sound, the golden coffin, as large as a mountain, slowly rose from the deep pit!
The golden coffin emerged from the deep pit and continued to rise slowly until it straightened the black chains binding it. Only then did it finally stop, trembling slightly, as if without the black chains, the golden coffin would have soared straight into the sky.

After Duan Rong and the others finished forming the hand seals, they stared blankly at the golden coffin that was rising before them.

Because the golden coffin was so large, it rose up right in front of them, as if blotting out the sky, creating an extremely powerful sense of oppression.

Those black chains were wrapped around the golden coffin.

At this moment, the golden coffin emerged from the deep pit, revealing that the black chains were deeply embedded in the bottom of the pit, to an unknown depth, and these intertwined black chains were stretched taut.

At this moment, Guo Tian suddenly bit his tongue, spitting out a mouthful of blood!

This was the final step of their ceremony. Seeing that Guo Tian had done it, everyone bit their tongues and spat out their blood.

Seven clumps of essence blood, suspended in the air, flew towards the golden coffin that rose from the deep pit, like iron filings attracted by a magnet!
The moment the seven clumps of essence blood touched the surface of the golden coffin, they slowly seeped in, like water seeping into mud, and disappeared.

Upon seeing the essence blood enter the golden coffin, Guo Tian and Duan Rong quickly formed hand seals once again!
After completing the hand seals, the seven of them sat cross-legged, somewhat uneasy. Those hand seals marked the end of the ritual. In other words, they had performed the entire ceremony. But what exactly was this blessing and nourishment whispered by gods and demons?

They sat there cross-legged with their eyes closed, waiting for the whispers of gods and demons to descend! But after a while, there was still no movement!
Just as they were wondering what was going on, the golden coffin suddenly trembled, causing the black chains that were holding it together to creak and rub together!

Just then, a tremendous roar suddenly pierced through the golden coffin! In an instant, it resounded throughout the entire ruins of gods and demons.

It pierced through Duan Rong and his companions' bodies and minds in an instant!
Like a lion's roar that subdues a pack of beasts, in that instant, all their distracting thoughts and delusions vanished with that roar!

A strange sense of holiness instantly permeated their bodies.

Just as their minds and bodies were clear, they suddenly heard a soft, gentle murmur in their ears...

The murmur seemed like some kind of incantation, but the tone was like a loving mother's gentle admonition.

At that very instant, within Duan Rong's sea of ​​consciousness, the surface of the clear, glassy body seated cross-legged in the center of the sky suddenly shimmered and flowed with countless ancient runes...

(End of this chapter)