Blocked by this path, she then stuck to the nearby ground, intending to speed up and float across.
However, she had only drifted a short distance closer to the altar when her vision blurred, and she saw that the distance between herself and the opposite side had widened again, returning to the distance she had initially moved, as if she had never actually left the altar at all.
Space folding?
Upon realizing that he couldn't get any closer by drifting over, Wen Jing didn't hesitate and immediately landed on the ground, then crawled over on all six legs.
However, after walking only halfway, the scene before her changed again.
I was still teleported back to the starting point!
Pale flames erupted from his body, and his attribute points continued to drop.
A hint of anxiety had just surfaced when Wen Jing dismissed it. There was no use in being anxious; the important thing now was to find a solution to the problem.
wrong.
If the altar was truly unapproachable, then she shouldn't have gone forward a bit and then turned back.
She recalled the content of the Introduction to the Ancient Wilderness class. Because of the 'unrecordability' of the Ancient Wilderness times, there was no specific experience to summarize when faced with traces of civilization in the Ancient Wilderness. The key points mentioned by the tutor were: observe more and understand more.
Did she overlook something?
Wen Jing then carefully examined the altar again, searching for any clues he might have missed.
This was also because Wen Jing's past experiences had led him to view the Ancient Wilderness world as an 'animal world,' where encountering enemies meant war and encountering treasures meant seizing them. Now, switching to a more civilized way of thinking, he quickly discovered the clues—
There are many indistinct lines on the ground of the altar.
I hadn't noticed it before because the pale white flames obscured my vision, the Shadow Wolf was outside, and crucially, I hadn't shifted my focus.
After realizing that he couldn't see anything too close, Wen Jing floated upwards again, found a suitable distance, and kept adjusting the angle to observe the lines on the ground once more.
She quickly identified what the lines formed...
Chapter 43
The lines on the altar floor were actually rows of neatly arranged little figures.
The lines are primitive and simple, without facial features, but the shape clearly outlines the head, torso, and limbs.
If only one person were to look at it, they would absolutely not mistake it for any other animal.
The traces of Ancient Wilderness civilization were actually 'human footprints'.
However, what is common knowledge in this world is that all kinds of Ancient Wilderness life forms may exist, but there are no humans.
Even those Awakened cannot appear in the Ancient Wilderness in human form.
After a brief moment of distraction, Wen Jing forced his attention back to the line drawing figure itself.
Each little figure is making a movement, and the movements of the adjacent little figures are somewhat similar yet different.
If we look at them together... comic books?
She realized something, quickly memorized everything on the ground, and then landed back on the ground.
The next moment, the little insect stood upright, folded its two legs together, and began to resemble a human.
Raise your hand, swing your leg, twist your waist...
She mimicked the movements of the little figures on the ground, moving forward step by step, even adjusting her position to align with the figures.
If it were any other Wilderness Body without limbs or unable to stand upright, even if they had this idea, they couldn't put it into practice. For example, if they were to use Shadow Wolf, their hind legs wouldn't be able to maintain balance and movement for an extended period of time.
But the Wen Jing is different.
"Click..."
A subtle, crisp sound came from her body. She even managed to perform movements that reptiles could never do, such as raising her front hand high and arching her back hand backward. She forcefully twisted and manipulated herself using the Gravity Silk to complete these actions!
Thus, these movements designed for humans were presented in a continuous sequence by a small insect, forming a primitive dance.
Half a meter, one meter...
They have reached the distance at which spatial folding occurred previously.
Wen Jing continued moving, and the scene before him remained unchanged.
Stepping with ritualistic dance steps, this time she simply and easily crossed the distance that had previously prevented her from getting close.
It worked!
By performing the ' Sacrificial Dance ', you can approach the altar!
And so, as the blue flames flickered, a strange scene unfolded—
Outside the altar, wolf heads swarmed, circling endlessly;
Inside the altar, tiny insects wriggled and danced.
As time ticked by, the distance between the two continued to widen.
Finally, Wen Jing arrived at the edge of the altar.
On the stone tray above, there was that burning blue flame.
At this point, the dance instructions have disappeared.
The moment Wen Jing was extremely nervous.
If she gets to this point and is 'deported' again because she has no dance, she won't have time to start over.
Because at this point, the attribute points she had painstakingly accumulated had been proportionally reduced to one-third of what they used to be.
Life: 8.64
Strength: 8.64
Speed: 2.34
Spirit: 5.14
Not only were her attribute points decreasing, but she could also clearly feel that the functions of the various organs she had evolved were beginning to malfunction.
The clarity of the compound eyes decreases, the sensory range of the antennae shrinks, and the body's strength and speed all decline...
She now clearly realized that this pale flame was not actually harming her, but rather stripping away and reducing her evolutionary abilities; perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a ' Degeneration Curse '.
Fortunately, the altar seemed to be the end of the trial, Wen Jing was not teleported back.
Without delay, since the Gravity Silk couldn't stick to the altar, she quickly climbed upwards using all six legs.
The light drew ever closer until Wen Jing leaped over the 'horizon' above and reached the edge of the tray.
A large ball of blue flame finally appeared within her reach; it had no temperature, no sound, no mass, only light.
But then she realized that there was something else inside the burning flame.
Now that she had a comparison, she realized that the thing in the flames was the one that had truly attracted her all along.
But how do we deal with this blue flame?
Since no gravity was detected in the area where the flames were located, Wen Jing tentatively released a Gravity Silk in the direction behind the flames.
"Hiss..."
As before, the Gravity Silk vaporized and disappeared immediately after being released.
It appears that Gravity Silk cannot be used within the altar's area.
Wen Jing could only grit his teeth and use his remaining energy to create an Energy Shield for himself before attempting to break into the flames.
The blue flames seemed to exist on a completely different spatial plane from the Energy Shield, penetrating it without hindrance and reaching the pale flames on her body.
"Boom!"
As if doused with gasoline, the pale white flames on her body suddenly flared up high.
The surge in the Degeneration Curse resulted in a doubling of the drop in all of the body's attributes.
In an instant, Wen Jing's various attributes dropped from one-third to one-quarter.
The little insect opened and closed its mouthparts, 'laughing'.
Things have come to this...
The next moment, instead of retreating, the little insect charged forward, rushing into the blue flames at its fastest speed.
What happens if a tiny spark falls into the surface of gasoline?
She didn't know.
Wen Jing didn't even look at how his attribute points were decreasing rapidly. He just endured extreme weakness, used his last bit of energy to 'build a bridge' for himself with his Energy-Shaping Weapon, and recklessly approached the target in the center of the blue flames.
Even if it means death, I want her to see what's inside!
Amidst the twisting flames and shadows, Wen Jing's body was visibly degenerating.
The antennae shortened and reverted to their original whiskers, the compound eyes disappeared and reverted to two pits, the Gravity Silk Gland on the tail shrank... all the organs that had evolved one by one were returning to their original state.
Even after she exhausted every last bit of energy, she still couldn't reach her goal.
Is it really over?
Just then, the insect instinctively curled its abdomen, and a hidden organ inside its body activated, bursting forth with elasticity—
Tail end of the bullet.
This was Wen Jing's first ability, and this was only the second time she had used it.
But at that moment, that seemingly insignificant jump changed everything.
Wen Jing finally arrived and 'saw' what was at the center of the flames.
Even though her compound eyes have completely degenerated, strangely enough, she still sees them, as if she were doing it directly on a mental level.
The object in the center of the flame was an irregularly shaped, yellowish bone fragment, the origin of which was unclear.
On the bone fragment, a character shimmered with light was engraved.
All blue flames originated from that text.
At this moment, Wen Jing had arrived at a place that no longer belonged to the material realm, because she, who should have been exhausted, suddenly moved with ease according to her will, and carried out the strongest will that had always resided in her mind—
Eat it!
"Click, click..."
Tiny insects gnawed at the words that shimmered with light.
A miraculous thing happened: her fragile mouthparts actually began to slowly devour the characters that were embedded in the hard bone fragments.
One bite, two bites, three bites...
On a material level, the small silver-gray insect that had been motionless in the center of the blue flame began to change.
Its abdomen swelled up, compound eyes and antennae grew back on its head, its body grew larger, and even the color of its exoskeleton Mimicry the blue of flames.
All the abilities that had previously degenerated have returned!
Then, one of her legs moved, and her body 'woke up'.
Previously, she was left with only the instinct to eat, but after consuming a small portion of the text on the bone fragment, she regained more of her thoughts and mental state.