Chapter 968: New discovery at the sacrificial altar (2/2)

Meanwhile, Xu Donglin emerged from hiding to guard Gu Beiyue’s flank. Han Yunxi bit her finger and carefully smeared some blood on the wordless stele. None of them witnessed what happened last time with her blood and the Xuan gold door, but this time was obvious: the stele absorbed all of Han Yunxi’s blood until it vanished.

Next, they had to wait.

But waiting took a long time. Even Long Feiye had never felt so nervous, to say nothing of Han Yunxi’s flustered heart. She couldn’t help but lean against him. Gu Beiyue’s forehead was creased as well in a rare show of severity. But as they waited and waited, nothing happened, either within or without the stele.

Was it the wrong method?

Or perhaps it was all a coincidence that the stele was made of Xuan gold, and there was no particular meaning to its blank surface at all?

“Inside the stele, could there be another…” Long Feiye was about to try breaking the stele when a light rustling sounded from around them. The circular stone wall on the ground began to rupture and crack. Just like the stone stele before, fragments of rock fell from their surfaces to the ground. Very soon, Han Yunxi and the rest witnessed a beautiful sight. A colored glaze wall surrounded the altar, almost semi-transparent. Inside rested many nameless, yet rare, plants. Han Yunxi instantly started up her detox system, but it couldn’t recognize the plants, either.

The Poison Sect’s forbidden grounds were covered in poisons, to say nothing of ones hidden away like this? The plants within the glaze had to be poisonous too! In fact, they must have been especially rare poisons, or else the poison detox would have given her some sort of warning about them. Han Yunxi circled around the wall and discovered that each plant bore a single fruit. They had clearly been picked during the fruit-bearing season and looked extremely fresh. Had they only been harvested recently?

But why were they being raised here? Who was looking after them, and for how long?

What was the purpose of picking all the fruits? To make some sort of poison?

Han Yunxi was full of questions. She didn’t understand, so Long Feiye and Gu Beiyue were even more clueless.

“Bai Yanqing must have plucked them,” Gu Beiyue determined. Besides Han Yunxi, Bai Yanqing was the only one capable of undoing the mechanism.

“What does he want to do?” Instead of finding a way to break through the Poison Gu formula, they’d discovered another of Bai Yanqing’s secrets instead. This only increased Han Yunxi’s worries.

“Let’s keep looking,” Long Feiye intoned. But then he suddenly looked towards the left and barked, “Who’s there?!”

Xu Donglin reacted the fastest and sped away, while Long Feiye had a shadow guard protect Gu Beiyue in his absence. He brought Han Yunxi along to give chase and quickly overtook Xu Donglin. In the distance, they could see a figure hurrying deeper into the forest. There weren’t many people that could enter here in the first place!

Long Feiye wasn’t planning on giving up. He tightened his grip on Han Yunxi and kept chasing, but she stopped him once they reached complete darkness.

“It’s too dark in here, we can’t see a thing. That’s very dangerous, let’s just go back.”

Long Feiye had experienced multiple battles in his lifetime and knew that it was unreasonable to keep chasing under these conditions. But the fact that the figure had remained hidden all this time despite Xu Donglin and the shadow guards keeping watch meant that he or she had to have exceptional martial arts. Despite his regrets, Long Feiye relented to Han Yunxi’s coaxing and turned back.

Everything was calm at the altar. Upon their return, Gu Beiyue asked, “Who was it?”

“I didn’t catch them,” Long Feiye replied, “But both their lightness techniques and martial arts were superb. It seemed to be a man.”

“Bai Yanqing?” Gu Beiyue guessed. But he quickly rejected the idea. If it was Bai Yanqing, why would he hide and flee?

“Looks like he was very familiar with these surroundings,” Long Feiye added.

Han Yunxi and Gu Beiyue both grew alarmed. This was the sacrificial altar. Those familiar with its location could very well be direct descendants of the Poison Sect!

“Let’s go back first, we’ll discuss things there,” Long Feiye said.

Since they had already caught someone else’s attention, it wasn’t wise to stay in the light while the other hid in the shadows. Han Yunxi smiled helplessly. Although she was the new sect leader of the Poison Sect, she still had to be so cautious on her own grounds.

“Send a few poison guards to stand watch here,” she said, “Don’t let anyone get close.”

She had an instinct that those plants within the color glaze wall hid a huge secret!