Chapter 954: Pentagonal Crater

Chapter 954: Pentagonal Crater

"You think far too highly of me, City Lord Sun. I've only been in these Great Ruins for a short time, just like everyone else, so how could I have possibly gathered all four of the other keys. At the moment, I only have two," E Kuai replied with a smile as he flipped a hand over to produce a pair of crimson keys.

"So that means we only have three keys in total. In that case, how can we open these gates?" Sun Tu asked as his brows furrowed slightly, and Fu Jian and Qin Yuan also turned to E Kuai to hear his answer.

"Rest assured, everyone, all five keys have already been assembled. Fellow Daoist Chen, Fellow Daoist Li, I believe it's time for you to show everyone your keys," E Kuai said with a faint smile.

Everyone immediately turned to Han Li and Chen Yang with surprised expressions upon hearing this.

"I was just about to bring out my keys," Han Li replied with a composed expression, but internally, his mind was racing.

E Kuai had led everyone here without any hesitation, seemingly completely unconcerned about the prospect of having insufficient keys, and that had already tipped Han Li off the possibility that he was somehow able to find out who was carrying the other keys and how many they had in their possession.

With that in mind, Han Li pulled out two keys from the front of his robe, while Chen Yang also revealed the single key in his possession.

"So the two of you had three keys all along! As expected, City Lord E always has everything under control," Sun Tu praised with a faint smile.

Chen Yang took an apologetic glance at Sun Tu, then cupped his fist in a salute toward E Kuai as he said, "These keys are extremely important, so Fellow Daoist Li and I have been holding onto them this entire time for safekeeping purposes."

"It's fine. The Puppet City cultivators are still yet to make an appearance, so it's better to be safe than sorry," E Kuai replied with a dismissive wave.

"Thank you for your understanding, City Lord E," Chen Yang said with a relieved expression.

"Seeing as all five keys have already been assembled, then hurry up and stop wasting everyone's time!" Fu Jian harrumphed coldly while glowering at Chen Yang and Han Li with a disdainful expression.

"Hold on, I have something to say before we open the gates," Han Li suddenly said.

"Li Feiyu, you're nothing more than a mere gladiator of Green Goat City, so just keep your mouth shut and hand over your keys! There's no place for you to speak here!" Fu Jian sneered.

"It's fine, let's hear what Fellow Daoist Li has to say," E Kuai said.

"Thank you, City Lord E. I just wanted to ask how we're going to split the treasures in the restricted area among ourselves," Han Li said with a smile, and everyone immediately fell silent upon hearing this.

"City Lord E has already said that everyone gets a share of the treasures in the restricted area, and that they'll be split evenly among everyone," Fu Jian said.

Han Li turned to Fu Jian with a derisive sneer upon hearing this.

Shao Ying also turned to him with a disdainful expression as he scoffed, "Fellow Daoist Fu Jian, you haven't made any contributions on the way here, yet you want to get the same split of treasures as City Lord E? How incredibly optimistic of you!"

"I was only relaying what City Lord E had said earlier! If you think this method of distribution is inappropriate, then you can make your own suggestion, Fellow Daoist Shao," Fu Jian countered with a furious and embarrassed expression.

In the next instant, the crimson rune vanished into the stone gates, and all of the crimson patterns on the gates faded away.

The gates then swung open inward, revealing a wide and dark passageway.

"Let's go," E Kuai said as he led the way inside, and everyone else immediately followed along.

After everyone had stepped into the palace, a burst of rumbling rang out from behind them as the stone gates swung shut again.

With E Kuai leading the way, everyone made their way through the passageway before arriving on a plaza.

The entire area was shrouded in darkness, but right at this moment, a series of giant orbs began to light up on the ceiling overhead, much like stars on a dark night sky.

Han Li looked up and was greeted by the sight of radiant starlight cascading down from above alongside bursts of starpower fluctuations that spread in all directions.

Immediately thereafter, a flame lit up on each of the two walls on either side in the distance, then spread over the entire length of the walls as lines of fire, illuminating everything within the area.

The white stone plaza that everyone was standing on wasn't very large, and there was a line of railing no more than a thousand feet up ahead.

Everyone strode over to the railing to discover that there was a bottomless black abyss on the other side, out of which gusts of cold wind were blowing incessantly.

At the center of the railing were three stone arch bridges that were each over a hundred feet wide and roughly a thousand feet in length, leading all the way to a giant circular white altar.

The altar was over ten thousand feet in radius, and it was also surrounded by white railing, giving it the appearance of a lone, circular mountain standing at the center of the abyss.

E Kuai led everyone down the middle stone arch bridge onto the altar, and as soon as everyone set foot onto the altar, they were stunned by the unimaginably formidable bloodline aura that suddenly swept over them.

Only then did Han Li notice that there was a pentagonal crater at the center of the altar, and that was where the incredibly powerful bloodline aura was coming.

Standing on each of the five corners of the pentagonal crater was a strange-looking black scaled beast stone statue. They resembled incredibly rotund toads, each with a pair of wings on their backs. Their necks were disproportionately thin and long compared with their bodies, and connected to each neck was a giant lizard-like head that extended out into the air above the crater.

Han Li's brows furrowed slightly at the sight of these stone statues, wary of the possibility that they could be puppets that could spring to life at any moment.

Right as everyone was hanging back, unsure of how to proceed, E Kuai strode over to the edge of the pentagonal crater on his own, and only then did everyone else hurriedly follow along.

Han Li peered down into the crater to discover that was an enormous pond of blood, and there was an unfathomable volume of blood inside that was undulating like the tide, while a layer of dense crimson mist was present over its surface.

However, regardless of how violently the blood in the pond and the crimson mist above it churned and surged, both remained strictly within the confines of the crater.

What was even more surprising to Han Li was that among the churning waves of blood, he could make out pieces of white bones that were as translucent as jade, all of which were giving off tremendous bloodline auras.