Chapter 704 The Divine Shrine
Ding Hao said nothing.
Although his released Divine Senses had not detected any creatures nearby, there was indeed a sense of danger that seemed to be slowly encroaching, like a silent ghost.
“Old man, why are you so suspicious? I didn’t detect anything!” Evil Moon, the full-time nanny, did not quite believe Tianshu.
Before its voice died away…
A streak of black lightning suddenly shot out from a crack in the nearby shattered wall, pouncing on the white tigress.
This attack was so sudden, it was like a ghost appearing.
Ding Hao pointed out two fingers, and a cold brilliance shot out to intercept it.
There was a burst of Icing Qi in the air. The moment that black shadow was touched by the cold brilliance, it froze into ice crystals, falling to the ground.
Almost at the same time, hundreds of streaming black light shot out of that crack in the shattered wall, rus.h.i.+ng toward them like a flurry of swords.
Ding Hao’s figure flashed, and he immediately punched the ground before the white tigress could do anything.
An impregnable ice wall instantly emerged from the ground, blocking in front of them.
Bam, bam, bam!
There were a series of explosions. Numerous black shadows crashed into the ice wall.
However, these raindrop-like shadows were extremely agile. When those in front hit the ice wall, the ones behind immediately bypa.s.sed the ice wall at an incredible speed, and continued with their attack.
Ding Hao snorted coldly, and crystalline snowflakes suddenly appeared around him, whistling and shooting over. They were as dense as those raindrops, looking like flying arrows all over the sky.
“Ping, ping, ping, ping!!”
The shooting ice crystal snowflakes immediately nailed the countless black shadows to the ice wall, not missing even one.
This was a real test of eyesight and power control. In an instant, he steered the ice crystals to nail nearly a hundred random flying shadows. Ding Hao could not have done that using his brutal strength alone, unless his control of power had reached an advanced level.
“What’s that?”
Uncle Tianshu went over to have a look at those black shadows nailed to the ice wall.
These black shadows were actually monsters the size of a finger. They seemed to be some poisonous bees, but with six pairs of wings on their tiny bodies. Completely black, as though dyed with ink, there were minuscule scales packed densely on them. Their heads occupied about half their bodies, covered with larger scales, with no eyes in them.
These scales opened to reveal miniscule black teeth resembling needle tips below, looking extremely sinister and horrific.
Although nailed to the ice wall, many of these strange insects were still alive. They struggled madly, with screams that pierced one’s eardrums.
“What powerful teeth!”
Uncle Tianshu directed a Qi dagger to one of these undead insects, and the minuscule teeth under a scale bit instantly like a phantom. Soundlessly, half of the sword tip had disappeared into its mouth.
Like chewing a piece of tofu.
What a savage little fellow.
Even Ding Hao was shocked.
It was a magical dagger, comparable to refined steel. Yet this dagger had been bitten into pieces almost instantaneously! If it had bitten a human, it would break even the physical strength of a Martial Emperor in a moment.
Ding Hao’s heart skipped a beat. He took out a strange dead bug and squeezed it hard. He felt like he was pinching refined steel. He had to exert 30% of his strength to crush it.
The physical strength of this strange bug was incredible.
Comparable to a top-grade magical weapon.
“What kind of a monster is this?” Ding Hao found it a little horrific. This little creature was like a Man-eating Ant. If thousands of these strange insects were to form an army, it would definitely be enough to trouble even a Martial Sage expert.
The most incredible fact was that they could actually dodge his Divine Senses and launch a sneak attack without making a sound.
While he was thinking, Uncle Tianshu suddenly caught all these strange bugs nailed to the ice wall and put them into his black pot.
“What are you doing?” Ding Hao was baffled.
“Heh heh, I have a feeling these little creatures will be very tasty once cooked.” The coa.r.s.e-looking old man had a dazzling smile on his face.
Ding Hao and Evil Moon pretended to retch at the same time.
“These insects are like dung… are they really edible?”
“You mean this old fella eats everything?”
They continued their journey.
At last, the sounds of fighting could be heard from the front.
However, by the time Ding Hao and others arrived, the outcome of the battle had already been decided.
On the ground, there were many severed limbs covered with blood. There were also some Demon Auras lingering in the air. On these severed limbs, tiny black shadows were wriggling—the same strange black insects they had seen before. Like maggots, they instantly devoured these severed limbs, leaving not even a trace of their hair or clothes.
This scene was totally bizarre, horrifically b.l.o.o.d.y to the extreme.
These strange bugs were fierce and savage, making one shudder with fear.
A few unlucky superiors at the Demon Royal Realm must have been detected and besieged by these strange insects. After a fierce fight, they were finally killed. Every one of them died, ending up as the food of these strange bugs.
Sensing the arrival of Ding Hao and his companions, these strange insects suddenly buzzed, turning into a looming black cloud enveloping the sky and the sun. They surrounded them.
Ding Hao opened his mouth and spat out red flames. A large number of these strange black insects were burned into ashes in that instant. This was the first time that he had tried activating the blood essence of the Bi Fang. It had fearsome power indeed, able to incinerate these strange insects almost immediately.
“Hey! Stop, stop, stop, don’t burn them. You’re wasting these wonderful bugs!” Uncle Tianshu shouted distressedly, “My delicacies, my appetizing food, come quickly into my pot!”
He waved the black pot, desperately trapping these strange black bugs in.
The black pot, which seemed only half a meter in diameter, was like a bottomless pit, releasing a terrible suction force and drawing these strange insects continuously in. In the end, these strange black insects looked like they were simply flying into the pot of their own accord.
Within a short period of time, tens of thousands of these strange black bugs had entered the black pot.
Obviously, these strange black bugs were quite intelligent. Sensing that they could not win, they finally dispersed with a boom, vanis.h.i.+ng into the surrounding shattered walls and disappearing completely.
“Hey, don’t go! Hurry and come into my pot…” Uncle Tianshu was still not satisfied, mumbling and chasing after them.
They continued their journey. They had quite unconsciously gone deep into the Sacred Hall ruins, and saw many marks of battles. Ding Hao estimated that at least 40 or 50 masters of the Human and the Demon Clans must have died, bitten by those strange black bugs in the maze with broken walls.
Finally, they walked out of the maze. There was a huge square before them, so vast that they could not see its farthest extent at a glance. It was quite incredible. It was difficult to imagine such a place as existing in the forest.
Ding Hao felt that he was quite lucky.
If he had not followed Tianshu, he would have been lost in this maze with broken walls.
He was now certain that many experts must be trapped in this maze.
Probably only less than half of them had managed to walk out of it.
There was a huge square in front of them.
The square was paved with golden blocks of stones, simple and elegant, extending all the way to the horizon.
There would be a Golden Dragon Pillar every few hundred meters, s.h.i.+mmering with golden light, so dazzling that it seemed cast out of gold. It was so high that it towered into the clouds, with no one able to see its top. Each Dragon Pillar was of a different shape. Some were Humans, others Demons, all vivid and lifelike, as if G.o.ds and Devils from the Archean Period had descended on this boundless square.
“How could there be such a vast square? It’s so strange. This must be some kind of s.p.a.ce formation, isn’t it?”
Ding Hao wondered to himself.
“This must be the 108 Devils Square. Legend has it that the Sacred Hall once constructed this ancient battlefield. These Towering Golden Dragon Pillars were once used to imprison the souls of 108 peerless experts from the Divine Central Continent…” Tianshu studied the map in his hand and said thoughtfully.
Ding Hao walked toward the nearest Towering Golden Dragon Pillar.
To his surprise, Ding Hao strode forward and could not reach the Dragon Pillar. It had looked only 50 or 60 meters away.
A figure flashed past him. He found Uncle Tianshu standing stationary in front of that Dragon Pillar.
“Hahaha, the speed of this square is reversed. The slower you walk, the faster you move…” Uncle Tianshu chuckled heartily.
Ding Hao was stunned and slackened his pace.
Sure enough, the next moment, the Towering Golden Dragon Pillar drew closer and closer to him.
“This should be some reversal in the power of the rules?”
Ding Hao took a deep breath, utterly shocked.
It was really hard to believe these ruins doing that.
“Could the Sacred Hall reverse the power of the rules in those days? This is a magical power that only G.o.d-level existences can execute. If the Sacred Hall was once under a Deity’s command, it couldn’t have been destroyed so easily by the Green Wood War G.o.d of the Central Regions. So is the legend true?”
Ding Hao was secretly shocked.
The legend might not necessarily be true. The truth seemed lost to the dust of history.
No one could say what terrible catastrophe had befallen Sacred Hall, once a super force.
“Let’s go. We mustn’t stay here any longer. If we keep delaying our journey, all the treasures in the ruins will be s.n.a.t.c.hed away by the others. We won’t even have the tiniest morsel…” After failing to put the Towering Golden Dragon Pillar into the black pot, Uncle Tianshu was peeved. He immediately urged them to leave at once.
Ding Hao could only stop examining the Towering Golden Dragon Pillar and continue their journey.
They moved as fast as lightning, yet they looked like they were just taking a leisurely walk.
It took them about half a day to cross the square.
They saw no one else along the way.
In the end, there was an endless stretch of opulent jade-like buildings ahead of them. The extended golden corridors, water pavilions, rockeries and stone pavilions, as well as the magnificent deity statues of the Sacred Hall, all seemed from a distance to be towering from the earth into the heavens, like some divine shrine.
It was like a thoroughly astounding scene from a dream.