Return to the Altar

"Nicely done. But I have a task for you now."

After giving Fei Que a brief word of praise, Zhou Xu quickly got to the point.

"The five of them were originally responsible for gathering supplies, but from now on, they'll temporarily be assigned to the hunting team under your command. Everything has already been prepared for them. Take them to the neighboring area and teach them the ropes."

Fei Que had a four-star leadership cap, so Zhou Xu deliberately wanted to give him some tasks to train him.

Fei Que, however, hadn't thought that far. Since their chief had given the order, he would simply carry it out.

Setting too many traps within a limited area would only be a waste.

They had only just arrived, and their exploration of the Black Forest was still limited to the outer region. As a result, most of the traps were concentrated in two relatively restricted areas on the outskirts.

Over the next few days, once they found opportunities to gradually explore deeper and opened up more of the map, the hunting team's trap deployment range would naturally expand along with it.

The follow-up exploration of the Black Forest should gradually get underway over the next day or two...

After calling Fei Que over and making the necessary personnel arrangements, Zhou Xu also made some appropriate adjustments to his grand plans for what came next.

Then he raised his head and checked the sun's position.

There should still be two or three hours before sunset.

With that thought, Zhou Xu turned to Dashan.

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

He happened to have the time, and the altar wasn't too far away.

The only thing he had to worry about was whether there would be any danger, which was why he needed to bring Dashan and the other four as bodyguards.

They set off at once. After traveling a certain distance, Zhou Xu saw the altar built from piled stones from far away across the barren, bare land.

Once he got closer, he couldn't help wondering if it was merely his imagination, but the altar seemed to have fallen into much worse disrepair.

After taking a few steps onto the altar, he felt the stones beneath his feet loosen slightly.

Standing in the center of the altar, he remembered that this was where he had been summoned. He also remembered that many strange symbols had been drawn across its surface.

Yet now, all those symbols had disappeared.

What happened?

With doubts filling his mind, Zhou Xu crouched down and brushed away the sand and dust on the altar, trying to find traces of the symbols. He found nothing.

"Dashan, were the symbols on the altar drawn by you people back then?"

At the question, Dashan quickly shook his head.

"They were already there when the altar was built."

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

As he was thinking this, Zhou Xu soon noticed several stones at the edge of the altar falling with a steady clatter, clatter.

There was no time to think. Seeing this, Zhou Xu instinctively sensed that something was wrong and sprang off the altar in a single stride.

Almost at the exact same moment, the entire altar collapsed with a thunderous crash, turning into a heap of ruins.

Looking back at the rubble, Zhou Xu slowly let out a long breath.

Judging from what I know so far, the symbols on the altar were most likely true words.

According to Dashan, these altars were built by the Old Gods. But the Old Gods died long ago and had even become legends. That means an enormous amount of time has already passed.

For an altar this crude to survive for so long, it must have been sustained by the power of true words. Once that power was exhausted and it lost the force maintaining it, the altar naturally fell apart.

Zhou Xu had originally come here to study the secrets of the altar. Now that it had collapsed, there was naturally no reason for him to stay.

After all, the few of them had taken a certain degree of risk coming here.

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

Wait. Why not give it a try?

As his thoughts shifted, several obscure, ancient tones emerged from his mouth.

Eye of Insight.

In an instant, the world before Zhou Xu's eyes became even clearer. Even a grain of sand dancing in the wind was distinct.

Clearly, the Eye of Insight wasn't only useful for viewing someone's status panel.

Besides passively enhancing his vision and perceptive ability, actively activating it undoubtedly made that enhancement even stronger!

In this state, he immediately caught sight of a faint silver glow barely piercing through the pile of broken stones.

"Come help me!"

As he shouted, Zhou Xu hurried over and started digging.

"It's here! Dig this spot open!"

Although Dashan and the others had no idea what was going on, their chief had given the order. They had nothing to say, so they all began digging.

The altar itself wasn't particularly large. With everyone working together, the broken stones covering it were soon completely cleared away.

Zhou Xu's gaze fell on a fist-sized stone.

Dashan and the others seemed unable to see the faint silver light emanating from it, but with the Eye of Insight, Zhou Xu caught it clearly!

At the same time, he noticed an ancient character on the stone's fairly smooth surface, one that looked as though it would vanish completely in the next moment.

True word?

At that moment, Zhou Xu's heartbeat quickened slightly. After adjusting his breathing, he tentatively reached toward the glowing mass.

Once he drew close enough, the silver light instantly transformed into a thread of radiance and sank into his palm.

In that instant, a character surged into his mind. The sensation was exactly the same as when he had absorbed the Eye of Insight before.

During the process, he also clearly understood what the character represented.

If the Eye of Insight was a complete word, then this character was only a single character; the other parts were already missing.

As for this character, perhaps because the Old God who had created the altar had accidentally left behind a sliver of extra power, it still remained instead of vanishing because of his arrival.

Converted into words they could understand, the character corresponding to this true word should be "transmit."

Had the altar originally been inscribed with true words such as "teleport"?

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

The next second, the ancient sound emerged from his mouth...

Transmit.

At that moment, he vaguely sensed a faint fluctuation of energy, but it soon cut off.

Having obtained his result, Zhou Xu let out a long breath.

This is probably because the true word is incomplete. It needs to be whole before it can unleash its corresponding power.

The update is here. Thanks for the generous tips from "Feng Muchen," "Why Must It Be the End of the World," "Solitary Drama in the Painted Tower," and "Laughing at All Under Heaven 9527"!