bookmarkrole Chapter 320 Altar
Chapter 320 Altar
Tang Xiaofu's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot, and she lowered her voice angrily:
"Lin Feng, what time is it? How can you still have this kind of leisure?!"
Before she finished speaking, she twisted her waist, her elbow wrapped with a strange force, and ruthlessly rammed behind her.
"call--"
The elbow strike missed.
The seemingly inevitable strike only hit the thick fog.
At the same time, the sensation of the hand on his waist disappeared silently, as if the tide had receded.
She stood there, her back slightly stiff.
...Not Lin Feng? Is it an illusion?!
Fortunately, she was clear-headed enough to adhere to the ironclad rule of "never looking back" from beginning to end.
If, in that instant, she had turned back to look out of anger or embarrassment, Tang Xiaofu dared not think any further.
"Xiaofu, what's wrong? What's bothering you?" Lin Feng's voice came from behind, tinged with doubt.
He had clearly heard the angry rebuke, but he didn't know what had happened.
Tang Xiaofu's face flushed slightly, but she continued walking forward, her tone deliberately calm: "It's nothing, I was just hallucinating."
"A hallucination?" Lin Feng's voice held a hint of curiosity. "Does it have anything to do with me?"
Tang Xiaofu coughed lightly and brushed a strand of hair behind her ear: "An illusion is an illusion. Why are you asking so many questions? Watch where you're going and keep walking."
Lin Feng gave a soft "oh" and didn't ask any further questions.
Before long, they reached the end of this space.
A stone door stood before us.
There was a carving of an ape on the door—no, not carved, more like a "lock" was placed there.
The ape is frozen in time on the door panel by the technique of relief carving, its limbs twisted, its head tilted back, and its mouth wide open, as if it is emitting a silent scream.
Every line is overflowing with pain, making one's scalp tingle.
From the cracks in the stone gate, a faint, low whimpering sound could be heard, mixed with a faint smell of blood.
Tang Xiaofu's eyes narrowed slightly. She took a step forward, about to push open the stone door.
Just as her fingertips were about to touch the door, a warm hand suddenly gripped her wrist.
"Wait, don't touch it!" Lin Feng's voice rang out behind him, grave. "The atmosphere behind the door is very strange!"
Tang Xiaofu paused, turned to look at Lin Feng, and saw that his brows were furrowed, his eyes were fixed on the stone door, and his whole body was tense.
Before Tang Xiaofu could ask any further questions, Lin Feng slowly closed his eyes.
Infinite deduction...Activate!
In an instant, countless images flooded his mind like a tide, and the scene behind the stone gate appeared clearly in his deductions:
It was a hexagonal stone chamber about eighty square meters in size, with a dome five meters high. There was a coiled dragon stone pillar on each of the six walls, and a dim oil lamp was held at the top of the pillar. The light flickered, making the stone chamber sometimes bright and sometimes dim.
In the very center of the stone chamber stood a hexagonal altar, made entirely of black stone, with six shallow blood grooves carved on its surface, and a dark brown indentation in the center, a mark left by the white ape's painful struggle.
In the simulation, the moment the stone door was pushed open, a mournful ape cry suddenly came from the depths of the stone chamber. The sound waves were like ice needles, piercing people's eardrums painfully.
Immediately afterwards, everyone who stepped into the stone chamber seemed to be bound by invisible chains, unable to move, their bodies uncontrollably beginning to reenact the scene of the white ape being sacrificed years ago—
The hexagonal shape of the altar was not carved randomly; the six sides correspond to the six realms of reincarnation and also to the six villages that participated in the sacrifice that year.
The scene continues to move forward, showing the villagers from back then standing in a circle around the altar, their faces devoid of any pity.
One by one, they stepped forward, each holding a sharp stone knife, and stabbed at the bound white ape.
Each strike precisely avoided vital points, aiming only to inflict maximum pain on the white ape.
The white ape let out a mournful roar, struggling and resisting, but the chains were too strong, and it could not break free. It could only watch helplessly as it endured the torment of being stabbed again and again.
For a full six hours, its roars grew from fierce to faint, and finally fell completely silent. It collapsed on the altar, its breath gone.
Its blood flowed down the six blood grooves along the edge of the altar and into the base of the coiled dragon stone pillar. The carved dragons seemed to come alive, greedily sucking the white ape's blood. A hundred years later, faint bloodstains still remained on the stone pillar.
This time, the one chosen by the resentment was Luo Lei, the most easily angered and murderous member of the Fang Squad.
In the simulation, Luo Lei's eyes were vacant as he walked step by step onto the altar and slowly lay down.
Almost simultaneously, the iron chains on the edge of the altar seemed to come alive, meandering and automatically wrapping around his limbs, locking him firmly in place.
Tang Xiaofu, the other members of the Fang Squad, and Lin Feng himself were all controlled by the white ape's resentment. Their eyes were unfocused, and they expressionlessly picked up the stone knives from the corner of the altar and stabbed at Luo Lei one after another.
Just as Lin Feng was about to stab Luo Lei in the chest with the tip of his knife, he suddenly opened his eyes and broke free from his deduction.
His chest heaved violently, and a fine layer of cold sweat appeared on his forehead.
"What's wrong?" Tang Xiaofu noticed his unusual behavior and quickly asked.
Lin Feng took a deep breath, suppressing the unease surging in his heart, and spoke rapidly:
"I sometimes have a very strong sixth sense, and it's never been wrong—that feeling just came back again."
Tang Xiaofu's expression tightened: "A sixth sense?"
Lin Feng said in a deep voice:
"Behind the door is a hexagonal space, and in the center of the space is an altar, which is where the white ape was sacrificed back then, and the white ape's resentment is sealed inside."
"Once we step inside, we will be bound and forced to repeat the sacrificial scene of that year."
"The first one chosen is Lore. He will walk up to the altar and lie down, and all of us will take our knives and stab him one by one, making him suffer the same pain that the white ape suffered back then, until he dies."
As soon as the words were spoken, the faces of the members of the Fang Squad turned deathly pale.
Luo Lei frowned and gripped his weapon tightly.
If anyone else had said this, he would have scoffed at it as a complete fantasy.
But it was Lin Feng who said this. It was an undeniable fact that he could control the seven beasts, and just now he had saved Lu Ye's life at the last minute.
Such a remarkable person, how could he not believe in him!
"It's just the resentment of a white ape..." Tang Xiaofu frowned, her tone still carrying a hint of S-class assertiveness. "I'll go straight in and suppress it with my strange energy!"
As he spoke, he stepped forward to push the door open again.
Seeing this, Lin Feng quickly reached out to stop her, his tone urgent:
"No! That resentment has been building up for a hundred years; it can no longer be suppressed by mere power."
Tang Xiaofu raised an eyebrow: "Then what do you suggest we do?"
Lin Feng pondered for a moment, then said:
"I have a way that might appease the white ape's resentment and allow us to pass through here safely."
"Go open the door. Four members of the Fang Squad are guarding outside."
"I stood on the threshold, not stepping into the stone chamber, and drove the seven beasts in first—beasts have no human emotions and will not be judged as 'sacrifice executors' by resentment."
Tang Xiaofu nodded and turned to face the stone gate.
She braced her hands against the door, took a deep breath, and exerted all her strength—the stone door made a dull thud and slowly spun inward.
Behind the door, just as Lin Feng had said, was a hexagonal space.
In the center of the space is a stone altar, its surface covered with mottled dark brown marks.
The air around the altar distorted, and visible resentment surged like a tide.
The Fang Squad quickly took positions on either side of the door, raised their weapons, and assumed a defensive stance.
Lin Feng stood at the edge of the threshold, his eyes sharpening.
Call of the Wild, activate...