"I'm not too sure... but with Hua Xin's abilities, if he wanted to... he probably could!" Bing replied with a grave expression.
"Things aren't that simple..." Ye Feng narrowed his eyes slightly. "The goblins Lin Ba Sen brought... Hua Xin drawing so much metal from underground... even the deaths of Illidari and Phata... the six hound ghosts of the underworld, they were all part of Tu Xuan's plan..."
"We have to take down Tu Xuan first!" Ye Feng's eyes sharpened, and he gripped his Tang dao, charging rapidly towards Tu Xuan, only to be intercepted by Lin Ba Sen, who rushed forward.
"This guy..." Ye Feng was quite surprised, as Lin Ba Sen actually possessed spatial energy too... kAnshu伍.ξà
"Whoosh!"
"Clang! Clang~ Crack!"
"Bang! Clang~!"
A strange rune-inscribed wooden sword appeared in Lin Ba Sen's hand, and he engaged Ye Feng in a fierce battle. Using the spatial energy barrier and the assistance of the surrounding clay figures, he trapped Ye Feng within a massive clay pit...
"Bang~! Rumble!~"
"Hiss~ Whoosh! Rumble!~"
The ground trembled violently, and various metals erupted from the earth. Large amounts of buildings, their rebar extracted by Hua Xin's arcane energy manipulation, melted in the air along with the metals surging from the ground, converging, and solidifying...
"Bang! Rumble!~"
As Ye Feng and the others were locked in combat with the clay figures, another massive tremor shook the earth, kicking up a storm of dust and debris...
When the dust and sandstorm that obscured their vision finally dissipated, Ye Feng and his companions found a towering platform-like structure before them, resembling some kind of altar.
The sun had already risen, casting its rays directly upon the altar. Patterns immediately materialized on the altar's surface, depicting scenes of brutal slaughter: beheadings, dismemberment, evisceration, heart removal, skinning...
For some inexplicable reason, as Ye Feng gazed upon the cruel depictions of slaughter on the altar, he felt as if he were there... surrounded by the sounds of frantic killing, roars, and screams... even his nostrils filled with the potent stench of blood...
Gradually, Ye Feng's eyes turned red, and an inexplicable surge of berserk killing intent welled up within him...
At that very instant, a cool sensation on Ye Feng's shoulder brought him back from his daze...
"Qiao... Qiao Ying?"
Ye Feng was somewhat surprised, as the cool sensation was precisely Qiao Ying's angelic power.
"Ye... Ye Feng..."
Qiao Ying's face was pale. She looked at the altar structure created by Hua Xin in the distance, swallowing hard. "That thing... is likely the legendary Valar Altar..."
"Valar Altar? What is that?" Ye Feng asked Qiao Ying after slicing off two Level Five Golden clay figures with a single strike.
"An altar of Ares, the god of war, one of the twelve main gods... it's covered in scenes of slaughter... Anyone who sees it, be it human or animal, will fall into a frenzy... with only one thought in their minds: to kill... to kill everything..."
Qiao Ying's voice was filled with apprehension. As she spoke, she glanced towards Shui Ling and Li Shu in the distance. Originally, they had been on the defensive, guarding by Bing's side, but now their eyes were bloodshot, and they were actively attacking the clay figures with increasing ferocity. They even seemed willing to sustain injuries just to attack the clay figures...
"Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, be careful! Don't stare at the slaughter depictions on the Valar Altar!"
After speaking, Qiao Ying flickered, destroying two clay figures, and quickly went to Bing's side, injecting her angelic power into him, then to Shui Ling and Li Shu...
As Shui Ling regained his senses, his eyes narrowed, and he pushed his hands forward. The water vapor within dozens of clay figures instantly detached, condensing into a massive circular water jutsu around him.
"Ye Feng, over there!"
At this moment, Qiao Ying pointed to the corpses of the Hellhound, Ou Fa and Mo Fa, which Ye Feng had just killed. Faint wisps of reddish-gray matter were surfacing on the corpses, being absorbed by the Valar Altar. And not just Ou Fa and Mo Fa, killed by Ye Feng, but also the bodies of Illidari and Phata, whose chests were pierced and hearts crushed by Tu Xuan, were also emanating faint wisps of reddish-gray matter, being absorbed by the Valar Altar...
"So this was Tu Xuan's goal in suddenly attacking and killing Illidari and Phata... that guy deliberately let me kill Ou Fa and Mo Fa..."
"The Valar Altar that Tu Xuan created needs the reddish-gray substance from the six hound ghosts of the underworld!" Ye Feng's expression turned grim.
"Hoo!~ Buzz buzz!~"
"Keng keng klang!~"
"Buzz!"
After the Valar Altar absorbed the faint wisps of reddish matter from the corpses of the six hound ghosts, it emitted a series of muffled, oppressive tremors, within which could be heard the sounds of clashing metal...
"Kill!"
"Charge!"
"Kill them all!"
"Quack quack~ Hee hee! Ha!"
"Quack quack!~"
As soon as the sounds from the Valar Altar subsided, Ye Feng heard earth-shattering war cries, goblin shrieks, and various screams from his surroundings... Even just through the sound, Ye Feng could discern the frenzied emotions of the attackers...
"Ye Feng... the war horn just sounded by the Valar Altar has likely plunged most of the people in the City of Arcane into a killing frenzy..." Qiao Ying said with a solemn expression, listening to the various sounds from their surroundings.
"What does Tu Xuan want to do?" Ye Feng narrowed his eyes, his expression grave.
"He created this Valar Altar not to help the goblins slaughter humans... In fact, due to the war horn, humans have become more brutal, and have killed more goblins..."
"Of course, there's more infighting among humans... Tu Xuan seems to... purely desire more bloodshed?" Qiao Ying frowned deeply.
"This Valar Altar wasn't created by Tu Xuan, but by Hua Xin... The Valar has a spatial energy barrier protecting it... Hua Xin also has spatial energy fluctuations on him... and Lin Ba Sen, who summoned the goblins, also does..."
Ye Feng turned to Bing. "Did Hua Xin and Lin Ba Sen master this kind of spatial energy before?"
"Impossible!" Before Bing could speak, Shui Ling interjected, "Spatial energy is a power of another level, known as divine power. If Hua Xin and Lin Ba Sen had mastered this power long ago, I wouldn't even be ranked among the Five Elites of the Arcane!"
"Perhaps only the City Lord could possibly... or there's some method... to surpass these two!" Shui Ling's expression was very grim.
"Mm-hmm! Teacher Shui Ling is right!" Bing nodded quickly in agreement.
"Big brother, look!"
At this moment, Xiao Xiao exclaimed, "A lot of red mist is drifting over... it looks like blood..."
"This..." Looking at the blood mist drifting from all directions, Ye Feng frowned.
...