"Big brother, so many giant skeletons!~"
Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, Qiao Ying, and Wu Ye Lin walked in a large space reinforced with steel and concrete. Xiao Xiao couldn't help but exclaim.
"Indeed!"
Ye Feng nodded. "A fierce battle took place here... Bullet holes are everywhere... Layers of Gatling shell casings cover the ground..."
"And the ones who attacked the Giant City Sanctuary, or whatever else it was, didn't seem to use guns or artillery!"
"Judging by the bullet holes and explosion marks at the scene, all the bullets were fired almost simultaneously in the same direction, with no instances of friendly fire or crossfire!"
Wu Ye Lin chimed in, her voice filled with surprise.
"The dead giants were almost all pierced directly through their vital areas like chests and heads by some kind of weapon. Their skeletons also bear numerous marks of animal bites..."
"The teeth marks on these giant skeletons... are all sorts of mixed... not from just one animal, but seemingly from some kind of beast horde..."
Ye Feng paused before a broken thigh bone, observing it for a moment, and spoke.
"The entire mountain seems to have been hollowed out, with internal spaces over ten meters high and plenty of open space around... Was this to allow the giants to fight?"
"There's no sign of anyone having been here for a long time... Lights, wires, all sorts of mess... But the fuel in the armored vehicle's tank is still there... and the guns and ammunition haven't been touched!"
Wu Ye Lin collected some supplies into her spatial fragment bracelet as she walked.
"Big brother, there's a round thing here... it looks like what we saw not long ago, the kind that quickly grows monsters..."
At this moment, Xiao Xiao's voice reached Ye Feng's ears.
"Hmm? A round thing? Grows monsters quickly?"
Ye Feng frowned slightly and walked quickly towards Xiao Xiao. He found Xiao Xiao poking a small round object in the dirt with a small wooden stick.
Inside the small round object was a large mass of yellowish-red, embryo-like material.
"This thing... is it the same kind of round object that Keleji threw out? Keleji has been here..."
Seeing this, Ye Feng muttered to himself.
"Crack!~"
Suddenly, a crisp sound like shattering glass was heard. It was the shell of the round object that Xiao Xiao was poking that cracked.
"Bang!~ Crack!~"
"Gurgle!~ Gurgle!~"
The moment the outer shell of the small round object cracked, it almost exploded entirely. The embryonic mass inside multiplied at an extremely rapid pace, deforming...
"Caw!~ Caw!"
In no time, the embryo from the small round object had grown into a large monster with an alligator's head, a wolf's claws, and an elephant's legs, walking upright.
"It really is Keleji's monster ball!~!"
Seeing the less than a meter tall monster in front of him, whose name he couldn't even guess, Ye Feng was somewhat bewildered.
"Caw!~ Caw!"
At this moment, the monster with an alligator's head, a wolf's claws, and an elephant's legs, walking upright, let out a strange cry and lunged towards Xiao Xiao.
"Whoosh! Boom!~"
Xiao Xiao instantly unleashed a flaming arrow that pierced directly through the monster's chest. The monster let out a few pained cries and, within a few breaths, collapsed on the ground, motionless...
"Ye Feng, look over here!"
At this moment, Qiao Ying's voice carried from afar. Ye Feng immediately strode over.
"Is this the claw mark of some kind of monster?"
Seeing the large indentation on the wall that Qiao Ying pointed to, Ye Feng frowned slightly.
"The monster that left this claw mark had three fingers, each with extremely sharp, curved talons. Coupled with the sinister aura of this claw mark... it's likely the work of a Hellhound!"
Qiao Ying's expression was quite solemn.
"Hellhound? It went in this direction?"
Ye Feng glanced at a dark passage ahead, then turned to Wu Ye Lin. "Lin, can you tell me about Divine Pattern Stones?"
"This..."
Wu Ye Lin glanced at Qiao Ying, then looked at Ye Feng with a questioning gaze. Seeing Ye Feng nod, she slowly began, "I don't know much about Divine Pattern Stones either. I only heard from my grandfather that there might be such a thing in the Giant Ruins!"
"According to my grandfather, this Contract Emblem will react when you get within a certain range of a Divine Pattern Stone!"
As she spoke, Wu Ye Lin's hand flashed, and a golden emblem appeared in her hand, engraved with peculiar runes.
"Contract Emblem? Wait... these runes..."
Ye Feng was observing the Contract Emblem in Wu Ye Lin's hand when his expression suddenly changed. He found the runes on the Contract Emblem somewhat familiar...
"These runes... there's no mistake, they are the runes from the Spirit Suppressing Formation recorded in the Seed of Fire Codex!"
"Only half of it... and the direction is off..."
Ye Feng was greatly surprised, because according to Leng Yue's previous explanation, the Spirit Suppressing Formation was something used to deal with the so-called gods...
"Lin?"
Ye Feng paused slightly. "Has your Adventurer's Guild encountered any particularly powerful enemies?"
"This..."
Upon hearing this, Wu Ye Lin's brows furrowed tightly. "Although Grandpa didn't say, I can feel... Grandpa might have encountered a very troublesome enemy... Finding the Divine Pattern Stone is very important to him!"
"The night before we came to the Giant Ruins, Grandpa specifically gave me a letter. He told me to open it only if I couldn't find the Divine Pattern Stone, or if the hope of obtaining it was slim, and that I absolutely had to follow what was written in the letter!"
As her voice fell, Wu Ye Lin's hand flashed, and a beautifully packaged letter, akin to a gift, appeared in her hand.
"Is that so..."
Ye Feng glanced again at the Contract Emblem in Wu Ye Lin's hand, then said to her, "Lin, let's go find the Divine Pattern Stone!~"
"Ah!~? Oh, okay!"
Wu Ye Lin was slightly taken aback, then nodded happily.
After all, it would certainly be very difficult for Liu Laotou and Lei Jian alone to search for the Divine Pattern Stone...
...
Afterward, Ye Feng, Xiao Xiao, Qiao Ying, and Wu Ye Lin moved quickly through the maze-like Giant Ruins.
At this moment, Ye Feng was quite interested in this so-called Divine Pattern Stone.
After all, the Spirit Suppressing Formation was something that could be used against gods, and even after reading the Seed of Fire Codex several times, he still had many unclear points about it. Finding the Divine Pattern Stone might help him understand it better...
"Ah!~"
"Run! There are monsters!"
"Run in that direction, there's light there, there are people!"
"Ah~"
Ye Feng and his group were walking with flashlights when suddenly, a series of piercing screams came from ahead, accompanied by heavy breathing and the sound of rapid footsteps.
"Ah!~"
"Run!"
"Help!"
...
Soon, several disheveled figures, covered in wounds, appeared in Ye Feng and his companions' line of sight. They were the adventurer teams who had entered the Giant Ruins earlier.
...