Chapter 956: Entering the Blood Pond

"Alright, now that everyone's had a chance to examine everything, should we discuss how we're going to activate the array and retrieve the remains? It hasn't been easy coming this far, and I hope you're not all just here for sightseeing purposes," E Kuai said, and even though his expression remained placid, there was clearly a hint of impatience in his voice.

The other city lords hadn't detected anything amiss, so they had no excuses to delay any longer. Hence, after exchanging a few glances with one another, all of them gathered around E Kuai.

At this point, Han Li and Shi Chuankong had already made their way around to the other side of the altar, where they spotted three more white stone arch bridges in the distance, leading deeper into this space from the altar.

There were no flames to illuminate the darkness beyond those bridges, so it was impossible to see what was there.

After hearing E Kuai's call, the two of them immediately stopped in their tracks, then hesitated momentarily before returning to the main group.

"Up to this point, I've been able to verify much of the content inscribed on the stone plaque that I mentioned, so its contents appear to be reliable. Hence, why don't we use the method on the plaque to try and activate the altar?" E Kuai suggested once everyone had gathered around.

"In that case, please tell us how to proceed, City Lord E," Qin Yuan said.

"This blood sacrificial array has a total of five cores that need to be activated by five people in unison. I would like the other city lords to enter the array with me as your cultivation bases and physical constitutions will hold you in good stead against the tremendous pressure that'll be exerted on us from the operation of the array.

“Everyone else will be responsible for lookout duty. That way, all cities will have contributed to the cause, thereby making everyone worthy of their share of the spoils," E Kuai said.

Everyone fell silent upon hearing this, and there was an atmosphere of skepticism in the air.

E Kuai didn't try to hurry anyone into making a decision, merely observing the four city lords in silence.

"City Lord E, can you tell us what dangers we could face while the array is in operation? That way, we'll be able to at least somewhat prepare ourselves for any unforeseen mishaps," Sun Tu said.

"On the path of cultivation, risk and reward always come hand in hand. The more risk you incur, the greater the reward you could potentially receive, so how much you make out of this opportunity is up to each of you," E Kuai replied with a faint smile.

"What does that mean, City Lord E?" Fu Jian asked with slightly furrowed brows, and everyone else was also rather perplexed by this answer.

"My guess is that while the array is in operation, a vast amount of bloodline power will escape from the blood pond in the form of blood mist to enter the bodies of the five people situated at the cores of the array. The influx of bloodline power could either significantly enhance our bodies, or overwhelm us and result in self-detonation, hence the risk and the reward," E Kuai explained.

"So that means that all five of us will be able to absorb the bloodline power in this pond to bolster our own physical constitutions?" Fu Jian hurriedly asked with an excited look on his face.

Everyone else was also ecstatic to hear this, with the exceptions of Chen Yang, Han Li, and Sun Tu, who were still looking very concerned and skeptical of E Kuai's claims.

Han Li's intuition told him that there was more to this array than met the eye, and that E Kuai was downplaying the risk involved in operating the array, so he had no choice in getting involved in this at all. In any case, the thing that he was truly interested in wasn't here. Instead, there was a very good chance that it was somewhere in the darkness on the other side of those three stone arch bridges.

"That's right, Fellow Daoist Fu. However, the process is going to be excruciatingly painful, and we must all persevere until the holy remains are drawn out of the pond by the power of the array," E Kuai said.

"While this is indeed an alluring prospect, the fact of the matter is that our bodies can only hold so much bloodline power. There's clearly far too much bloodline power in this pond for us to withstand. What if all of us are overwhelmed before the holy remains are revealed? Won't we all suffer the terrible fate of self-detonation then?" Sun Tu asked.

Qin Yuan and the others immediately turned their attention back to E Kuai upon hearing this question.

"Rest assured, everyone, the five cores of the array are all interconnected. As soon as one of us is on the verge of being overwhelmed by the influx of bloodline power, the excessive bloodline power will be evenly distributed to everyone else, thereby ensuring that the array remains in balance, so if one of us self-detonates, then all of us will self-detonate, and no one is incurring more risk than anyone else," E Kuai explained.

"Even so, all of us are still taking on a significant amount of risk," Sun Tu mused with a hesitant expression.

"Of course you can't just expect good things to fall onto your lap without taking any risks, City Lord Sun. If you really don't want to go through with this, then I'll gladly take your place," Shao Ying said with a smile.

Aside from the city lords, he was the only one present worthy of entering the array.

"There's no need for that, Elder Shao," Sun Tu replied with a smile. "I do have some qualms, but I'm still willing to do my part and enter the array with the other city lords."

"Rest assured, everyone, if the bloodline power becomes too much for us to bear, then I'll lead everyone out of the array in unison. Just follow my instructions, and everyone will be safe. Does anyone else have any other questions?" E Kuai asked with a smile.

No one else raised any further questions, so E Kuai declared, "In that case, please familiarize yourselves with the activation method for the array, and we'll enter the array once you're all ready."

He then openly articulated the array activation method to everyone without making any effort to hide it.

Shortly thereafter, he swept a sleeve through the air as he ordered, "Enter the array!"

All of the city lords instantly sprang up into the air in unison before landing atop the head of the five statues.

As for Han Li and the others, they were instructed by E Kuai to open some distance between themselves and the blood pond to observe from afar.

The five city lords sat down with their knees crossed, then began to chant an incantation while making a series of hand seals.

Initially, the blood sacrificial array displayed no reaction, but over time, crimson mist swirling inside began to gather in the five corners of the array, revealing large sections of the blood pond underneath, which had begun bubbling incessantly.

At the same time, the five statues also began to display some changes.

Han Li had always been rather apprehensive of the statues, so he was the first one out of everyone to notice these changes.

His brows furrowed slightly as he noticed that a layer of fine patterns had appeared over the surface of the statue beneath Chen Yang, and one could easily mistake those patterns as a layer of scales if they didn't look closely.

However, as those patterns began to glow red, everyone discovered that it was actually a layer of tiny runes that were similar to star runes.

Once all of the runes on the five statues had lit up, the eyes of the statues abruptly sprang open, revealing a bright red gleam.

Immediately thereafter, a burst of rumbling erupted from underground, causing the entire altar to shudder violently.

The blood within the pond was instantly stirred up into a frenzy, bubbling and churning incessantly, while the crimson mist that had gathered at the five corners of the pond began to swirl upward in the form of corkscrew-shaped pillars.

The five statues opened their mouths up wide to accept the swirling pillars of crimson mist, and at the same time, a pentagram array appeared on the top of each of their heads in unison.

A pillar of crimson light then erupted out of each of the arrays, encompassing the five city lords within them.

Crimson mist began to surge out of the pillar of crimson light before entering their bodies through all of their orifices, instantly causing their skin to turn bright red.

Meanwhile, the runes on the five statues were only glowing brighter and brighter, and bursts of crimson light erupted out of their wings before spreading outward and connecting together to form a light barrier that encompassed the entire blood pond.

An alarmed look appeared on Duan Tong's face upon seeing this, but Shao Ying reassured, "Not to worry, this is just a barrier conjured up by the array. Once the array ceases operation, the barrier will vanish on its own."

Meanwhile, Fang Chan was standing behind the statue that Sun Tu was situated on, peering into the light barrier with a rare look of focus on his face.

As more and more crimson mist surged out of the statues, the eyes of the five city lords had already turned bright red. On top of that, clumps of crimson crystals had appeared around their eyes, making it appear as if they had grown clusters of scales.

As the bloodline power surged relentlessly into their bodies, mixed emotions of anxiety, excitement, tension, and anticipation had appeared on all of their faces.

After some careful examination, Chen Yang was able to determine that there was no restrictive power in the light barrier that encompassed the entire blood pond, and that made him feel slightly more reassured.

He exchanged a glance and a nod with Sun Tu from afar, and the latter had clearly detected this as well. If anything were to go wrong, the two of them should be able to leave the array at any moment.

Fu Jian and Qin Yuan quickly made the same discovery as well, and in the wake of this reassuring discovery, they were able to focus wholeheartedly on operating the array.