Return to the Altar

"Well done, but I have a mission for you now."

After briefly praising Fei Que, Zhou Xu quickly got to the point.

"These five were originally responsible for gathering supplies, but from now on, they will also be temporarily assigned to your hunting team. Everything has been prepared for them. Take them to the adjacent area and teach them."

Fei Que had a command potential capped at four stars, so Zhou Xu intended to give him some tasks to train him.

Fei Que, on the other hand, didn't think much of it. He would simply follow his leader's orders.

Within a limited area, placing too many traps would just be a waste.

Currently, they were new to the area, and their exploration of the Black Forest was limited to the outer regions. Therefore, a large number of traps were concentrated in two relatively limited areas on the outskirts.

In the coming days, they would find opportunities to explore deeper. Once the map was opened up, the range where their hunting team could deploy traps would naturally expand.

[Further exploration of this Black Forest should gradually begin in the next two days...]

After summoning Fei Que and making simple arrangements for personnel changes, Zhou Xu also made some appropriate adjustments to his grand plan in his mind.

Then, he looked up to confirm the sun's position.

[There are still about two to three hours until sunset.]

Thinking of this, Zhou Xu turned to look at Dashan.

"Dashan, you and the others come with me to the Altar to take a look."

Since they had time, the Altar wasn't too far from their current location.

The only concern was potential danger, which was why he needed to bring Dashan and the other five as bodyguards.

They set off immediately. After moving a certain distance, on this barren, desolate land, Zhou Xu saw the Altar, built from stones, from afar.

As he got closer, he couldn't tell if it was his imagination, but the Altar seemed much more dilapidated.

Taking a few steps onto the Altar, the stones under his feet felt somewhat loose.

Standing in the center of the Altar, this was where he had been summoned. At the same time, he remembered that there were many strange symbols drawn on the Altar.

However, now, all these symbols were gone.

[What's going on?]

With doubts in his heart, Zhou Xu squatted down and brushed away the dust on the Altar with his hand, trying to find traces of the symbols, but to no avail.

"Dashan, were the symbols on the Altar drawn by you guys back then?"

Hearing the question, Dashan quickly shook his head.

"They were already on the Altar."

[The symbols that were originally on the Altar are now gone. Does this mean that the Altar exhausted its power after summoning me?]

Just as he was thinking this, Zhou Xu soon noticed that on the edge of the Altar, a few stones were falling off with a 'clatter'.

With no time to think, Zhou Xu, who saw this scene, instinctively felt a sense of foreboding and immediately rushed off the Altar.

Almost at the same time, the entire Altar collapsed with a roar, turning into a pile of rubble.

Looking back at the pile of rubble, Zhou Xu let out a long sigh.

[Based on the current understanding, the symbols on the Altar were most likely True Words.]

[And according to Dashan, these Altars were created by the Old Gods, but the Old Gods have long since died, even becoming a legend. That must have been a very long time ago.]

[For such a long time, such a simple Altar could be maintained because of the power of the True Words. Once the power of the True Words was exhausted and it lost its sustaining force, the Altar would naturally disintegrate.]

Originally, Zhou Xu had wanted to come and study the secrets of the Altar. Now that the Altar had collapsed, he naturally had no reason to stay there any longer.

After all, they had come here while bearing a certain degree of risk.

However, just as Zhou Xu was about to call Dashan and the others and turn to leave, an idea flashed through his mind.

[Wait a minute, why not give it a try?]

As the thought in his mind changed, a few difficult and ancient tones came out of his mouth.

[Eye of Insight.]

Instantly, the world before Zhou Xu's eyes became clearer. Even a grain of sand dancing in the wind was so distinct.

Clearly, the Eye of Insight could do more than just view people's panels.

In addition to passively enhancing his vision and perception, when actively activated, the improvement in vision and perception undoubtedly became even stronger!

Under this state, he immediately spotted a faint silver light faintly penetrating from the pile of rubble.

"Come help!"

As he shouted, Zhou Xu quickly ran over to dig.

"It's here, dig here!"

During this process, although Dashan and the others didn't know what was going on, since their leader had given the order, they had nothing to say and all started digging.

The Altar itself was not very large. With everyone's combined efforts, the rubble on top was quickly cleared away.

Zhou Xu's gaze fell on a stone about the size of a fist.

Dashan and the others didn't seem to notice the faint silver light emanating from the stone, but he, relying on the Eye of Insight, had spotted it!

At the same time, he noticed an ancient character on the relatively flat surface of the stone, one that looked like it would vanish completely in the next second!

[True Word?]

At that moment, Zhou Xu's heart rate quickened slightly. With an adjustment of his breath, he tentatively reached out towards the ball of light.

Upon getting close enough, the silver ball of light transformed into a wisp of silver light and merged into his palm.

In that instant, a character appeared in his mind, a sensation identical to when he had absorbed the [Eye of Insight] before.

During this process, he also clearly understood the meaning represented by this character.

If the [Eye of Insight] was a complete word, then this character was a single word, with the rest of its parts missing.

And this word, perhaps due to a trace of power accidentally left behind by the Old Gods who created this Altar, still existed and hadn't vanished with his arrival.

Translating it into characters they could understand, the word corresponding to this True Word should be 'Transmit'.

[Was the Altar originally inscribed with True Words like 'Teleport'?]

The thought flashed through his mind, and he decided to try it.

The next second, the ancient syllable uttered from his mouth...

[Transmit]

At that moment, he vaguely sensed a subtle energy fluctuation, but it quickly disappeared.

Zhou Xu let out a long sigh, having obtained his result.

[This is likely because the True Word is incomplete. A complete True Word is needed to unleash its corresponding power.]

Update delivered, thanks for the tips from 'Feng Mu Chen', 'Nai He Shi Tian Ya', 'Hua Lou Du Jiao Xi', 'Xiao Cang Sheng 9527'!