Free Web NovelChapter 151: Chapter 151: Twelve Altars
"Break camp and return to the tribe!"
Damian coldly uttered one sentence, then turned and walked away.
Upon returning to the camp, the beastman assigned to stay and keep watch hurriedly ran over, offering a bundle with both hands, and said:
"Captain, their tents are all empty, but in one of the tents, this bundle was placed on a wooden table, as if intentionally left behind. We didn’t dare to open it, waiting for you to return to decide."
Damian took the animal skin bundle and untied the ribbon on top. The animal skin was removed, revealing a bizarre white object carved with a very strange bird pattern, which was long and had many teeth. Judging from the material, it was the horn of some animal.
The only beastman with a mate in the squad immediately exclaimed:
"Captain, I know this thing. Yesterday I wanted to buy it from that Crimson Sub-Beast, but he didn’t sell it. They call this multi-toothed thing a comb; this thing is used to comb hair. Moreover, it seems this thing called a comb carries some very significant meaning; that Sub-Beast wouldn’t even let me touch it. However, that Sub-Beast’s comb is black, not white like this. He even showed me his name carved on the back of the comb..."
The beastman’s voice gradually quieted down and stopped entirely in the face of Damian’s heavy expression, which looked like he wanted to swallow someone alive. Everyone in the squad also consciously stepped back a few paces.
Damian gritted his teeth audibly, tightly gripping the comb in his hand, his thumb pressing hard against where the name was carved on the comb.
What on earth was that bastard Sub-Beast thinking? Tricking my body and my feelings was you. Brushing his butt off and running away after tricking me was also you. Now he leaves behind such an important item for a Sub-Beast for me.
What exactly does you want from me!
Damian felt so wronged that he was about to cry, wishing he could immediately dig up Colton’s ancestors’ graves to demand an explanation!
"Captain... are you okay?" A squad member asked timidly.
Damian took a deep breath, suppressing the grievance in his heart, and roared: "Break camp!"
The Oakstone beastmen scrambled to break camp, afraid that a moment’s delay would result in their captain smashing their heads in. In an instant, the oak forest area immediately returned to its initially deserted appearance.
On the other side, after traveling for a night and a morning, the Crimson group stopped in the opposite direction of the road leading to the Beast City.
Everyone didn’t dare to light a fire, afraid that the Oakstone group was still tracking them, so they could only eat some dry rations to fill their stomachs. They would wait until dusk to loop back along their original route. Of course, this time they wouldn’t stop at that oak forest again, but would head straight for the small valley where they discovered the wheat.
The Leopard clan Sub-Beast was gnawing on dry rations when he saw Colton using his hand to comb his tangled hair, and blurted out:
"Huh, Captain, where is your ivory comb?"
The Sub-Beast next to him immediately kicked his leg, and the Leopard clan Sub-Beast immediately shut his mouth. Colton’s hand, which was detangling his hair, paused slightly, then said nonchalantly:
"I probably dropped it somewhere last night. I’ll just make a new horn comb when we return to the tribe."
Ian said: "I know how to make one, but it won’t be very pretty. Tonight I’ll make you a wooden one to use temporarily, and we’ll make a new one when we get back to the tribe."
Colton nodded: "Then thank you."
For the entire duration after that, everyone tacitly didn’t mention the name Damian and the Oakstone tribe a single time more.
---
Back at Crimson, Kaelen had completed force-ripening the first batch of spiritual herbs. The spiritual herb plant that Asher’s group brought back only produced three seeds, and moreover, without divine soil for cultivation, Kaelen could only exhaust all his spiritual energy to nourish them.
The grade of spiritual herbs cultivated in ordinary soil and force-ripened with spiritual energy naturally couldn’t compare to naturally grown ones. However, to Finnick, this was already an incredibly luxurious delicacy.
His beast cub body couldn’t handle the energy of three spiritual herbs all at once. Finnick could only split it into three separate absorptions, his body size growing from a roughly three-month-old jaguar cub to an eight-month-old one, already able to walk steadily and speak a few simple syllables.
As for Oliver, he couldn’t absorb the energy in Wood-attribute spiritual herbs, so he couldn’t use the spiritual herbs. However, after Finnick finished absorbing those three spiritual herbs, he was able to extract energy from magic cores.
The extracted energy body had completely eliminated the inherent demonic nature of the demonic beast, becoming completely pure. Therefore, the two brothers had now grown to a size that Edward’s bamboo nest could no longer accommodate.
Kaelen turned the nest over and over, wanting to figure out its operating mechanism, but unfortunately, he gained nothing. Therefore, currently, only one of the two children could enter the resonance space to meet Edward alongside Ryder.
These past few days, Edward had constantly stayed in his room learning how to compress spiritual energy into the resonance space, so he didn’t know that the Temple Lord had returned to the Temple two days prior.
Tonight, after he entered the resonance space, the Temple Lord came to his room. He waved his hand to dismiss all the servants and guards outside, lifted the bed curtain to observe the little snake sleeping soundly on the bed, his eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"You’ve eaten so many nutritious things, why haven’t you advanced yet? That tiger has leveled up twice in two months."
After the Temple Lord finished muttering, he extended his index finger and placed it on the tip of the little snake’s nose. Then, he placed his hand on the head of a stone lion relief at the head of Edward’s bed, gently turning it one rotation.
Edward’s bed moved aside on its own without anyone pushing, revealing a hidden basement with a deep, dark staircase below.
Normally, with such a loud noise, Edward would have woken up long ago. But it was unclear what the Temple Lord had just done; Edward continued to sleep like a log, completely unaware of the changes outside.
The Temple Lord reached out, picked Edward up, placed him into an exquisitely crafted woven vine basket, then carried the vine basket down the stairs into the hidden basement.
The torches planted on both sides ignited automatically one by one, clearly illuminating the path for the Temple Lord.
At the end of the staircase was a spacious area, and after navigating three turns, they finally reached the end. It was a door of an incredibly ancient design, with vines densely clinging to both sides.
The Temple Lord extended his index finger, and a bright red streak of light appeared at his fingertip. The Temple Lord used that finger to tap the forehead of the Snake motif on the door. The door shook slightly and then rumbled open.
The moment the door opened, a blast of hot air instantly hit his face. The little snake lying in the vine basket couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable, softly hissing twice and coiling itself tighter. The Temple Lord completely ignored whether Edward was uncomfortable or not, striding inside himself.
Unlike the calm space outside, this underground place was a boiling lava river. The Temple Lord crossed the suspended stone bridge spanning the lava river, ascending to a towering altar. Looking to both sides from this altar, one could see twelve other altars similarly suspended in mid-air.
On each altar stood a cross-shaped stone pillar, the surface of which was covered in dense blood-curse patterns, exuding a heavy aura of murderous intent and pressure. The ten stone platforms on the outside were all empty, while the two stone platforms closest to the largest central altar each had a person bound by green light chains identical to the ones binding Wofu.
The stone platform on the left held an elderly Sub-Beast, his face aged, his body emaciated. The breath on him was incredibly weak; if one didn’t listen closely, they wouldn’t notice any signs of life at all.
The stone platform on the right held a young beastman, chained through both shoulder blades, kneeling prostrate on the freezing ground. His hair was disheveled, matted with dried blood and dirt, obscuring his facial features, but his outstandingly tall stature and firm muscles, despite being emaciated, still exuded the oppressive aura of a peak warrior beastman.
The Temple Lord raised an eyebrow, smirking frivolously, and said: "Oh my, the former Holy Son. Do you still have the strength to use that gaze to look at me?"
The Snow Wolf clan beastman let out a labored growl from his throat, his eyes filled with unconcealable hatred. The Temple Lord completely ignored the beastman, slightly lifting his hand to raise the vine basket, pointing at the soundly sleeping little snake:
"Your successor. Give a friendly greeting to our little friend."
The Snow Wolf beastman bared his fangs, struggling with all his might. The light chains weren’t made of metal, but a clanking metallic sound rang out in the air. Blood poured like a fountain from both sides of the beastman’s shoulder blades, only to be completely absorbed by the chains.
From its initial pale green color, it gradually shifted to a crimson hue like blood.
Seeing the beastman’s reaction, the Temple Lord gave a soft chuckle, followed by a loud laugh.
"Oh, I really love the way you struggle to survive like this. The scent of blood on you all is truly intoxicating... Just like the scent on that ungrateful beastman. I’ve gone to these lengths, yet you still refuse to come see me?! Alistair!!!"
The Temple Lord laughed and then cried, then madly smashed the objects on the grand Altar. The vine basket containing Edward was thrown by him, and the little snake was flung out of the basket, rolling a few times to the edge of the altar.
Just as the boy was about to fall into the lava river and turn into a roasted snake, a slender vine suddenly reached out to catch him, slowly bringing him up to the stone platform. After placing the little snake down, the vine shattered like glass, vanishing into the air. The breath of the Sub-Beast on the left stone platform also weakened a bit more.
The Snow Wolf beastman was also extremely furious, sparks of electricity appearing on his skin, emitting crackling sounds in the air.
If Edward were conscious, he would surely recognize that the Magical Energy fluctuations on these two people were exactly the same as his Papa and Daddy’s.
Unfortunately, Edward was unconscious, so he missed an incredibly important piece of news.
