Chapter 943: A Second Altar

"Have you discovered something, Fellow Daoist Li?" Shi Chuankong hurriedly asked.

"I did indeed discover something. Come with me," Han Li replied as he quickened his pace, and around fifteen minutes later, the two of them drew to a halt as they cast their eyes forward to discover a massive river at the end of the desert up ahead.

The river was close to ten kilometers wide, and its water was crimson in color. Countless waves were sweeping over its surface as it churned along, and upon arriving on the riverbank, Han Li was surprised to discover that the water was intensely hot, much like flowing lava.

"What a strange river... I think we should follow it downstream. Given how strange this river is, there must be something interesting downstream," Shi Chuankong suggested.

"My thoughts exactly," Han Li replied with a nod.

With that, the two of them changed course, making their way along the crimson river in a downstream direction, and after traveling for or five days, a massive oasis appeared up ahead.

Most of the plants on this oasis were also crimson in color, while the rest were white.

The vegetation in the oasis was very tall and dense, and the combination of crimson and white presented a stunning sight to behold.

Han Li and Shi Chuankong were quite elated to see this oasis, but they didn't make any rash moves, and only after restraining their own auras did they step onto the oasis for a closer look.

After walking for a while, Shi Chuankong suddenly pointed into the dense forestry up ahead as he yelled, "Look over there, Fellow Daoist Li!"

Han Li turned in that direction to discover a footprint, one that appeared to be quite fresh.

"Looks like someone's gotten here before us. We don't know if they're friend or foe, so be careful," Han Li warned through voice transmission, and Shi Chuankong nodded in response.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

The two of them continued onward while keeping an eye on the ground below, and they discovered more and more similar footprints.

Judging from the number of footprints, it appeared that a group of four people had ventured into this place before them.

The two of them quickly passed through the lush forest, and a giant city appeared up ahead.

The city was filled with buildings with sharp, spiky rooves that extended up toward the heavens like giant swords, and all of them were entirely crimson in color.

Han Li and Shi Chuankong exchanged a glance with each other, then made their way in through the half-open city gates.

The buildings inside the city were displaying some signs of decay, but they were in far better condition than the ones in the earlier set of ruins, and they were all mostly intact.

The two of them conducted a brief search of the buildings near the city gates, only to discover that most of them were completely empty. Furthermore, there were signs that those buildings had already been searched, presumably by the group that had arrived earlier.

"Aren't these Great Ruins supposed to be filled with countless treasures? We've already been in here for quite some time, yet we haven't managed to find anything aside from a pair of star artifacts," Shi Chuankong grumbled.

"Two star artifacts is already quite a bountiful haul. It's clear that this place has already been searched, so let's go straight to the center of the city. Hopefully, we'll be able to find some things there, but make sure to be careful," Han Li replied with a smile, and Shi Chuankong nodded in response.

The two of them continued deeper into the city, and it wasn't a very large place, so it didn't take them long to reach the center of the city, at which point they encountered a large plaza with a giant altar standing upon it.

The altar was also entirely crimson in color, and it was quite similar in appearance to the gray altar in the earlier set of ruins.

Han Li and Shi Chuankong were hiding behind a building near the entrance of the altar, which was wide open, and Shi Chuankong said in an eager, "This altar looks very similar to the one from before, so it should have some good things inside. Should we go in and have a look?"

"Sure, let's go in. We didn't encounter the group of people that arrived before us on the way here, so they've most likely entered the altar as well. Hence, we have to constantly be on our guard," Han Li said.

"Rest assured, I'll be careful," Shi Chuankong promised.

"Let's go," Han Li said, and the two of them rushed out from behind the building before making their way into the altar.

Not long after they entered the altar, a glowing, white ovular design appeared on the ground at the entrance.

The design was formed by eight star runes, every single one of which was extremely complex, far more so than the ones that Han Li had learned from Mistress Liu Hua.

The ovular design slowly lit up, releasing rays of white light that converged toward the center to form what appeared to be an eye.

The eye took a glance deep into the altar through the entrance, then quickly faded away.

Han Li and Shi Chuankong were completely oblivious to this, and after making their way through the entrance, they immediately began traveling deeper into the altar.

Beyond the entrance was a passageway that was thousands of feet in length, and just like the passageway in the gray altar, the walls on either side were also riddled with array patterns, forming a restriction that severely hampered spiritual sense.

The restriction here was slightly weaker than the one in the gray altar, so Han Li was still able to release his spiritual sense around twenty to thirty feet out of his body.

After passing through the passageway, a giant hall that was over ten thousand feet in size appeared up ahead.

The hall was quite brightly lit, and it was completely empty, but the walls were dotted with around two hundred to three hundred rectangular openings, each of which was several dozen feet tall, and all of them were also empty.

Their contents were currently spilled out onto the ground in the hall. It was a series of humanoid crimson puppets, all of which had already been dismantled.

On top of that, the ground was riddled with pits and craters, clearly indicating that a battle had recently taken place here.

These crimson puppets had full sets of organs, and large puddles of silver fluid had flowed out of their bodies and onto the ground, just like the black ape puppet that Han Li had encountered in the past.

In contrast, the snake, wolf, tiger-headed puppets from the set of vast ruins had no internal organs and weren't constructed with anywhere near the same degree of intricacy.

Han Li picked up a puppet fragment from the ground before giving it a close examination.

The fragment seemed to have been crafted from some type of red jade material, and even though it was only a fragment, it was still flashing with faint red light, indicating that it was quite a prized material. The material was far superior to what had been used to craft the black ape puppet, so these puppets had most likely been more powerful than the black ape puppet as well.

Thankfully, these puppets had already been destroyed. Otherwise, having to face so many of these puppets at once would've been quite a pain.

Having said that, the fact that the people ahead were able to dismantle these puppets indicated that they were definitely not to be taken lightly.

With that in mind, Han Li exchanged a glance with Shi Chuankong, and judging from the grim look on the latter's face, he had clearly also thought of the same thing.

The two of them didn't linger for long here as they continued deeper into the hall.

At the back of the giant hall was a doorway, beyond which was a dimly lit passageway that led even deeper into the altar.

As Han Li walked along, he discovered more puppet fragments, and a perplexed look flashed through his eyes upon seeing this.

These puppets had been completely smashed to bits. It didn't look like they had fallen in battle. Instead, it appeared more like someone was trying to search for something in these puppets, so they had hacked the puppets to bits after dismantling them.

What in the bodies of these puppets could've been worth searching so meticulously for?

The two of them quickly passed through the hall and into the passageway at the back.

Han Li carefully made his way down the passageway while constantly scouring his surroundings.

Not only was the passageway constantly twisting and turning, it was also sloping downward.

After rounding a corner, they arrived at a crossroads with three identical-looking paths before them.

All three paths were quite dimly lit, so it was impossible to see very far into them.

Shi Chuankong turned to Han Li and asked, "Which one should we take?"

Han Li swept his gaze over the three paths, then quickly settled his gaze onto the middle one.

He had spotted several faint footprints leading into the middle path, while the two had clearly not been frequented.

"Let's take the right one or the left one. The people ahead of us have already gone down the middle path, so even if there are treasures to be found, they would've already been taken. Hence, we have better chances of reaping spoils by taking one of the other paths," Han Li said, and Shi Chuankong raised no objections.

After a brief discussion, the two of them stepped into the passageway on the right.

The passageway was wide enough for four or five people to fit through side by side, and it only continued to widen further down.

Rays of white light were seeping out through the gaps in the walls of the passageway, so it was a little brighter than before.

All of a sudden, a sharp shriek rang out from up ahead, and both Han Li and Shi Chuankong instantly stopped in their tracks upon hearing this.

Before the two of them had a chance to do anything, a white-robed man suddenly sped onto the scene like lightning, wielding a sword of white light that it thrust directly at Han Li's chest.

The speed of the attack was quite alarming, even for Han Li, and he hurriedly took a step to the side to evade the attack.

At the same time, his white scimitar appeared in his grasp, and he slashed it through the air, striking the white-robed man on the chest in the instant that the two of them passed each other by.

However, to Han Li's surprise, his scimitar merely passed straight through the white-robed man's body, and it was as if he had struck nothing but empty air.

The white-robed man remained completely unaffected as it sped directly toward Shi Chuankong, who was standing behind Han Li, and he pierced his sword directly at Shi Chuankong's chest.

Shi Chuankong was rather taken aback, but his reactions weren't slow, and he hurriedly dodged to the side to evade the attack.

The white-robed man was extraordinarily fast, but his reactions seemed to be a little dull, and after failing to strike his targets, he sped directly past Han Li and Shi Chuankong for some distance before stopping in his tracks and turning around to pounce at them once again.