Who Brought Him into the Cultivation World?-Chapter 297 - 243: One Altar

A few people didn’t understand why Han Yu reacted so strongly.

At this point, only the Artifact Spirit in the Sea of Consciousness cursed loudly with Han Yu.

The Earth Palace was a vast and gigantic space, filled with stone pillars of various sizes, all carved with runes, almost filling up most of the Earth Palace at a glance.

And at the very center was a wide altar, something Han Yu was very familiar with, except the only difference was that the chains hanging on the Dragon Capturing Pillars surrounding the altar were not in a drooping state, but instead tightly bound the entire Great Cauldron.

The group moved between the stone pillars, constantly peeking at the runes.

"Why do these things look a bit like Tao Patterns?"

Yi Xian muttered aloud, immediately drawing everyone’s attention. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

"Tao Patterns?"

A group of people curiously asked.

"I grew up in the temple, my master who adopted me was from the Divination Path, though nine out of ten times it’s not accurate! But there were many books on the Divination Path, and I’ve read them all."

Yi Xian explained.

Cousin carefully observed for a moment, holding his chin hesitantly, "I didn’t think so until you said it, but it really does seem a bit like it."

But what is the purpose of these Divination Path runes being engraved here?

"It could be an array, arrays are derived from the Divination Path."

Cousin explained that the contribution of the Divination Path leaned not only in researching the rules of Heavenly Dao but also in exploring things like Tao Patterns, these symbols similar to words, which can harness a small portion of heaven and earth’s power.

If you can infuse your own power into it, the effect formed would be even greater.

So usually, if you encounter arrays, you can see various runes at their base.

The Mo Family was also inspired by this in the past, so many mechanisms are actually engraved with such runes.

Not to mention, the runes on the Token of the Self-Improvement Sect were engraved by them.

Yet, he couldn’t understand these present runes, because they belonged to things from a thousand years ago. With the passage of time over the millennia, Tao Patterns might have been altered or evolved more or less.

Unless it’s a proper Divination Path disciple...

Thus the whole group turned their gaze towards Yi Xian, he was the only one here with any connection to the Divination Path.

"I’ll try."

Yi Xian frowned, looking at the stone pillars, deep in thought, occasionally scribbling in his palm.

The remaining people moved around, inspecting various areas, Cousin heading towards places possibly concealing mechanisms, wanting to witness some millennial mechanisms since they came to such a place.

The common folk, however, were sneaky, glancing around, intending to count valuable items to take; after all, such a thousand-year-old Earth Palace shouldn’t be without any leftover items.

"I always feel this place is eerie."

Han Yu focused his gaze on the Great Cauldron being bound by chains in the center, feeling more and more that there was something inside it, so he slowly walked over.

Now, only Coconut remained by Yi Xian’s side.

As time passed, the entire Earth Palace suddenly sunk into a strange silence, at first, nothing felt off, but gradually, the Artifact Spirit noticed something was wrong.

The common folk walked around the stone pillars only to suddenly lose focus in their eyes, their whole being like an empty shell, then headed in a certain direction.

Cousin originally was exploring where the mechanism might be hidden, but after searching for a long time, couldn’t find any trace, stomped a few times on the ground then also walked absent-mindedly towards another side.

Yi Xian and Coconut were equally entranced.

"Wake up! Han Yu."

The Artifact Spirit, after confirming the strangeness around, urgently shouted out loud, becoming more anxious.

Because at this moment, Han Yu’s foot was about to step onto the altar’s steps, and who knows what could happen once up there.

Seeing that the shout was in vain, the Artifact Spirit anxiously hopped over to Ping’s side, using its tiny hands to shake the bottle vigorously.

"If you don’t cooperate, everyone here is going to die."

After which, the bottle indeed shook due to its shaking, and the whole Sea of Consciousness suddenly churned like cloud and sea turbulence.

Feeling the bursts of stabbing pain in the mind, Han Yu finally regained complete consciousness, realizing he had already taken a step up, about to lift his foot again, he nervously withdrew quickly.

Upon looking back, he found the others in a similar state, hurriedly rushing over to shake them awake one by one.

"What happened to me?"

The common folk, upon waking, still looked bewildered.

He remembered he was looking around for valuable stuff?

Then Cousin, waking up with a clearer mind than the common folk, went pale.

"Was I bewitched?"

Han Yu didn’t answer him but looked towards Yi Xian and Coconut, the two with the lowest cultivation in the group, worrying they might have been affected the most.

Thankfully, everyone seemed to be affected similarly, as Yi Xian and Coconut didn’t show any abnormalities upon waking up.

Instead, Yi Xian suddenly exclaimed, with a look of surprise.

"I think I understand."

He quickly scribbled again with his hand to confirm, then promptly spoke up.

"These runes mean confinement."

Pointing to all the stone pillars within the Earth Palace, his expression was peculiar, because such an explanation was indeed outrageous.

Each rune on the stone pillars actually meant the same thing: Confine!

Confinement!

It’s downright exaggerated to use so many confining Tao Patterns, as if afraid of people escaping once they come in?

Intending to suppress them alive until death?

"There’s no reason, to go through such effort, why bother with suppression, a large-scale killing array or mechanism would suffice."

As a Mo Family member, with the ancestral experience of occasionally outsourcing tombs, Cousin felt that the array here was too unconventional.

Han Yu pondered, "Could it be not to suppress those who come in."

If not to suppress the people coming in, what else could it be suppressing?

Han Yu silently looked at the Great Cauldron bound tightly by four Dragon Capturing Pillars, and the rest were astonished.

Such an inference seemed rather far-fetched, suppressing a Great Cauldron?

No, not suppressing a Great Cauldron, perhaps it is trying to suppress the power of the ritual altar.

Han Yu had faced such a thing before, deeply aware that the Great Cauldron was the core of the entire ritual altar, and since the Cauldron was locked, the whole altar must be confined.

"I..."

The ordinary person suddenly spoke unnaturally, then awkwardly raised his right hand. After opening his palm, there was a small golden bronze ring.

Not only him, but Cousin also felt something strange in the palm of his right hand, and after opening it, there was an identical item.

Could this thing be something they snatched from somewhere after losing consciousness just now?

When something unusual happens, there must be evil!

"Withdraw!"

Upon seeing the item, Han Yu immediately turned around to leave without a second word.

The unusual behavior of the crowd just now must be linked to the ritual altar.

The Judge merely drew a counterfeit that nearly killed him. Now that a genuine one appeared, if anything went wrong here, let alone whether the ordinary person and Cousin could leave with people, it’s unknown if they could even escape themselves.

Damn curiosity killed the cat, this kind of thing should have been examined and then decisively left.

After taking one last look at the altar, Han Yu felt incredibly unlucky.

The group, having no doubts, saw Han Yu’s grim expression and quickly followed him, retreating. But just as they hadn’t returned to the passageway, a wisp of ghostly blue flame suddenly ignited on the Great Cauldron in the center of the ritual altar.

The origin of this flame was bizarre; the moment it lit up, it didn’t provide any warmth but instead made the entire Earth Palace even eerier.

Meanwhile, the stone pillars throughout the Earth Palace simultaneously emitted a faint glow, and runes began to light up one after another.

The few people looked dumbfounded, and Han Yu urgently shouted.

"Don’t just stand there! Hurry up and move."

While retreating towards the passageway, Yi Xian and Coconut bumped right into each other at the exit, where an invisible barrier suddenly isolated the passageway.

The ordinary person hurriedly pulled the two aside, striking the barrier with a surge of True Essence, but it seemed to vanish without a trace like mud flowing into the sea.

Unconvinced, he mobilized all his True Essence, and simultaneously attacked with two daggers, striking like a thunderbolt.

But the result was merely a ripple in the void, once again becoming formless.

"Let me!"

Han Yu stepped forward, unleashing a full-power Wind Thunder Fist towards the barrier.

Boom!

A loud bang shook the whole Earth Palace, causing dust to cascade down.

Yet the barrier remained unmoving, leaving Han Yu somewhat astonished.

It actually blocked it so easily!

He then, unwilling, prepared to throw another punch.

"Don’t!"

Cousin suddenly called out urgently.

His sharp eyes noticed that after Han Yu’s blow, the glow of the stone pillars dimmed significantly.

Damn, has this altar become sentient or something?

Understanding something, Cousin’s face turned grim.

First, using him and the ordinary person to trigger the array.

Now using them to deplete the power of the array.

"I now truly believe these things are suppressing that altar. It’s trying to use your hand to exhaust the power suppressing it, and if you keep striking, the seal might break."

Cousin’s tone was urgent.

If Han Yu continued to weaken this power, wouldn’t it mean step by step breaking the altar’s confinement?

"But that’s not right! This power can be consumed by Han Yu; how can it still suppress that altar?"

The ordinary person looked puzzled.

"I might be able to guess."

Han Yu cautiously eyed the altar. Back then, the fake altar could already channel its power through the Dragon Capturing Pillars, and now those four Dragon Capturing Pillars were more complete and real. If the suppressive forces were directed into the four Pillars, it wouldn’t be difficult.

"And I guess only the location of the altar is the main target of the array’s suppression."

"Then what do we do? Without breaking this barrier, we can’t get out."

The ordinary person spoke with a bitter face, wishing he hadn’t unearthed such a troublesome thing.

"I’ll try the Earth Escape Technique."

Han Yu furrowed his brow, summoning the Earth Series Energy from his Sea of Consciousness. But although he performed the Earth Escape Skill, his feet remained unmoved.

This Trapping Array was unexpectedly airtight, for he clearly felt the energy beneath his feet was always separated by a layer from the ground below.

Swoosh!

At this point, an eerie wind gusted from all sides of the Earth Palace, and the flame atop the Great Cauldron suddenly soared to a height of three feet.

"What’s that?"

Coconut covered her mouth fearfully, worried she might scream out loud, and with a trembling hand, pointed toward the Great Cauldron...