"This altar..."
As Ye Ling focused his attention on the damaged altar, he suddenly noticed a dark light flash beneath it, swiftly carrying something away.
In the blink of an eye, the dark light vanished into the horizon, completely gone, having fled with great speed.
"What was that?"
Ye Ling looked in the direction where the light had disappeared, his eyes narrowing slightly, a sharp glint flashing within them.
He could feel that the entity that had just fled was carrying an extremely vast amount of energy!
"That guy seemed to have been hiding in the rampant black energy all along, and his aura was somewhat similar to the black energy of the outer realms. If I hadn't walked closer, I probably wouldn't have easily detected that dark light..."
"During that time, that guy was using the black energy swirling around Yuan Xiao Long to hide beneath the altar, as if he was doing something... Could that guy's existence... be the true meaning behind Yuan Xiao Long being sealed beneath the altar?"
Realizing that someone had been hiding beneath the altar all along, Ye Ling felt as if he had found a breakthrough. Just as he was about to pursue the fleeing dark light, he suddenly had a change of heart and stopped.
Ye Ling looked at Chu, who was dozing on his shoulder, and asked, "Did you remember the aura of that thing that just escaped?"
Chu yawned and pointed in a direction, saying, "Of course I remembered. It ran that way."
"Can you help me catch it?" Ye Ling asked again.
Hearing Ye Ling's request, Chu immediately perked up, stood up from Ye Ling's shoulder, and said, "Friend, do you need my help?"
Ye Ling nodded with a smile, "Yes, I need help now."
Chu said seriously, "Since my friend needs help, then I should lend a hand, right?"
"Yes, friends need to help each other like this." Ye Ling said, coaxing Chu with a smile, his face as thick as a city wall!
However, Ye Ling's trick, which was obvious to anyone, was something Chu fell for completely. He nodded excitedly, "Okay! I'll go help chase after the target right away!"
"Then I'll trouble you." Ye Ling smiled, completely handing the matter over to Chu.
In reality, it would have been easy for Ye Ling to capture the escaping entity.
However, Ye Ling suddenly remembered that Chu possessed the ability to track and locate auras.
Chu's ultimate ability was much more convenient than his own methods. With such a powerful helper, Ye Ling was too lazy to do it himself.
More importantly, Chu was a creature that could not be defined by rules.
Ye Ling had not yet fully understood Chu's origin or its purpose.
To Ye Ling, Chu's danger level was completely uncontrollable. Furthermore, the Heavenly Dao had desperately wanted to eliminate Chu, warning that Chu possessed world-destroying power, which had made Ye Ling inherently wary of Chu.
Even though Chu was as pure as a blank sheet of paper now and easily deceived, no one could guarantee that this was Chu's true nature.
Whether Chu would "blacken" in the future was always an unknown.
For such a dangerous entity, if Ye Ling did not treat it seriously, it would be akin to gambling with the safety of the entire universe!
It was precisely for these reasons that, in Ye Ling's opinion, understanding Chu's origin was even more important than understanding the third party's arrangements in Buzhou Mountain!
Now that Chu had agreed to help, it not only saved Ye Ling some trouble, but Ye Ling could also further test Chu's upper limits of strength, just in case.
This way, Ye Ling was naturally happy to oblige.
As Chu jumped off Ye Ling's shoulder and chased after the escaping entity, Ye Ling refocused his attention on the damaged altar.
The fact that the escaping entity was willing to risk exposure and cause trouble under Ye Ling's nose indicated that there was something very important within the altar, something worth the risk of its life!
Otherwise, given its aura's similarity to the black energy of the outer realms, if it had fully concealed itself, Ye Ling might not have been able to detect its presence!
"That guy was in a bit of a hurry when he fled. Perhaps there are still some clues left in this altar..." Ye Ling stood at the edge of the altar, scanning the space beneath it with his divine sense, searching for clues.
Yuan Xiao Long, standing beside him, saw that Ye Ling seemed very interested in the space it had occupied and couldn't help but muster up the courage to ask Ye Ling, "My lord, are you looking for something?"
Ye Ling glanced at Yuan Xiao Long, then pulled it over, making it look at the pitch-black space below, and asked, "Is there any difference between the space beneath this altar and when you were here before?"
"Difference?"
Hearing Ye Ling's words, Yuan Xiao Long was first stunned, then carefully observed the altar below and murmured, "It seems a bit different..."
"How is it different?"
Yuan Xiao Long muttered, "In the space where I was before, there were many profoundly mysterious runes on the surrounding stone walls. Now, those runes are all gone."
"Runes?"
Hearing Yuan Xiao Long's words, Ye Ling's heart stirred. He immediately drew a few runes in the air that he had seen in the Nine Heavens Realm and asked Yuan Xiao Long, "Are the runes you saw like this?"
Ye Ling had witnessed the runes of the Creator God.
Each of those runes contained unimaginable power. Even though Ye Ling had tried his best to remember those runes at the time, he could only remember a few, and he only remembered their form, not their essence.
Seeing the runes Ye Ling drew, Yuan Xiao Long slapped its head, "It's this one! Although what you drew is much uglier than the ones on the wall, I can be sure that the runes on the wall before were exactly like the ones you drew!"
"It's this kind of rune!"
Hearing Yuan Xiao Long's words, a sharp glint flashed in Ye Ling's eyes!
These runes were equivalent to the power of the Creator God.
And the appearance of these runes in Buzhou Mountain could not have been carved by the Creator Gods.
In this world, apart from Ye Ling and Ye You, who might possess this rune power, only outer realm powerhouses who had seized the power of many inheritors could master rune power.
It was highly likely that the runes on Buzhou Mountain were carved by the Shadow Hall using the power of outer realm powerhouses.
This would also explain why Yuan Xiao Long was surrounded by a large amount of black energy from the outer realms.
Regardless of why the Shadow Hall carved runes in Buzhou Mountain, Yuan Xiao Long, as one of the Twelve Pillars of the Shadow Hall, represented that it must have been doing something for the Shadow Hall here.
At least, that was the case on the surface.
Coupled with a strange creature hiding beneath this altar, and the fact that all the runes beneath the altar disappeared after it fled...
If all these things were connected, it was easy to associate them with the goal of the third party.
On the surface, they seemed to be helping the Shadow Hall complete its arrangements, but in reality, they were coveting the power possessed by the Shadow Hall, yet had no opportunity to steal it.
And with Ye Ling's appearance here, all the incidents involving the Shadow Hall in Buzhou Mountain... this pot of black could be completely thrown onto Ye Ling!
This way, the third party would not only steal the Shadow Hall's power but also use Ye Ling's presence in Buzhou Mountain to seize the Shadow Hall's power, allowing them to escape perfectly from this chaos!
"Not only to kick the Shadow Hall out of the game to seize the key, but also to use my presence in Buzhou Mountain to seize the Shadow Hall's power... This hidden third party... is dancing on the tip of a knife!"
Ye Ling murmured, a hint of a smile flashing in his eyes, his lips curling slightly.
"Interesting..."