199: Chapter 199 Enemies Meet on a Narrow Road

On the left side, on the bone slope, a sudden roar erupted.

Han Xiao slashed through a half-protruding dragon bone with his blade; bone fragments and black stones rolled down together, the noise was astonishing.

The dozen or so Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards guarding the periphery of the altar turned their heads almost simultaneously, their scarlet slit pupils locking onto him.

"Come!"

Han Xiao didn't retreat but advanced, his battle blade held horizontally, his entire figure anchored to the edge of the bone slope like a nail.

As the first two Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards lunged, he twisted his waist and swung his blade. The blade light swept across the ground, first slicing through their front claws, then shaving off the dragon patterns on their chests. The first monster hissed and flipped over, but the second one stepped on its companion's corpse and continued to pounce.

"Damn it, there are so many."

The man with black wristguards cursed lowly, smashing down with his warhammer, sending an Mutated Bone Beast charging from the side stumbling half a step. It was only half a step, though; the Mutated Bone Beast, half white bone and half rotten flesh, was absurdly tough. After taking the hammer blow, only its chest bone cracked, and it backhanded a claw toward his face.

"Don't get tangled in the fight, draw them away!" Han Xiao shouted.

Their mission was to drag this group of things away from the altar's periphery.

The right side exploded simultaneously.

The Middle-aged Man darted along the bone wall, his short blade continuously cutting at the exposed bone joints and thin spots of gravel along the path, creating a continuous series of crisp sounds.

Gu Yunting followed behind, gritting his teeth while running, throwing out spirit blades to forcibly divert several Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards that had already noticed the center path.

"I knew my big mouth would kill me sooner or later!" He cursed, then turned and roared:

"Come on, you bastards! Don't you want to eat people?!"

The effect was surprisingly good.

Several Mutated Bone Beasts roared and turned around, their heavy footsteps shaking the ground, chasing straight toward the right side.

In front of the altar, the beast herd was indeed torn open with two gaps.

"Now is the time." Ji Wuchen whispered.

Lin Mo took a step forward, his whole body pressed extremely low, almost skimming forward along the bone path. Ji Wuchen followed closely behind him, his eyes fixed on the complex and intersecting bone patterns on the ground, his speaking speed extremely fast:

"Don't step on the third curved pattern on the left; that's a Sha-Gathering node."

"Jump over that broken bone ahead; there's a bone trap pit underneath."

"Front right, half a step!"

Lin Mo didn't ask a single question, doing as told.

The two moved extremely fast, approaching the first circle of bone patterns on the altar's periphery in the blink of an eye.

It was at this moment that the Giant Guardian Beast at the very depths slowly raised its head, those scarlet slit pupils falling on Lin Mo and Ji Wuchen.

The next second, a nearly tangible pressure crashed down!

Lin Mo's footsteps sank violently, his shoulders feeling like they were pressed down by a mountain, even his breathing stagnated for a moment. Ji Wuchen's face turned pale, his knees almost giving way on the spot.

"Dragon Might... it has locked on." He gritted his teeth and said.

"Hold on."

Lin Mo shouted lowly, instantly activating the Awakening of Insects Entry. The Qi and blood in his body rolled like thunder, forcibly pushing back the heavy feeling pressing into his bone joints by a sliver.

Cannot stop.

If they stopped, the openings created on the left and right sides would be wasted.

"Where is the Formation Eye?" Lin Mo asked.

Ji Wuchen wiped the blood oozing from the corner of his mouth, quickly scanning the connection point between the ground and the altar, his pupils shrinking.

"The Formation Eye for the first layer of Sha-Gathering isn't on the ground; it's on the bone pillars!"

On the periphery of the altar, there were four dark golden bone pillars as thick as a person, originally mostly covered by black mist; if one didn't look closely, one would almost think they were just wreckage. Looking carefully now, the surfaces of the bone pillars were carved with extremely fine grooves, and black mist and Evil Qi were flowing along the grooves toward the center of the altar.

"Break it?" Lin Mo asked.

"Can't break all of them." Ji Wuchen said urgently, "Breaking them all will directly alert the fire protection array in the innermost layer. Break two first, disrupt the flow, and let the formation mess itself up."

"Which two?"

"Southeast and due north!"

Lin Mo's figure shifted, first pouncing on the southeast bone pillar.

Just as he approached within three zhang of the bone pillar, three Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards suddenly darted out from the black mist, clearly re-attracted by the commotion in the center path, opening their mouths to bite.

"Get lost!"

Lin Mo didn't dodge or evade, smashing his fist right into the face of the first one. The fist force penetrated, and the skull exploded on the spot. The second one pounced from the side; he raised his elbow to shatter its lower jaw, then took advantage of the momentum to twist his body and kick hard at the dragon pattern on the third one's chest.

Bang!

The third one flew sideways, but the first two weren't dead yet, their broken bodies twitching as they crawled on the ground.

"These things are truly disgusting." Ji Wuchen panted, having already rushed to the front of the bone pillar, his fingers sticking to the surface grooves, quickly feeling around.

"Here! The bone pattern recoil point!"

Lin Mo didn't say a word, his five fingers curled like a hammer, smashing down hard at that point.

Crack!

A long crack appeared on the surface of the bone pillar.

The black Evil Qi originally flowing toward the altar stagnated instantly, then surged back as if out of control, and the entire area of outer bone patterns flickered along with it.

In the distance, several Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards chasing Han Xiao suddenly stopped in unison, as if half a beat of their actions had been drawn away.

"It works!" Ji Wuchen's eyes lit up, "Go to the due north one!"

But just as they turned, a low roar came from the depths of the altar.

The Giant Guardian Beast finally made a move.

It still didn't leave the deepest core circle, just raised a foreclaw and slapped it down heavily.

Boom!

The entire bone path seemed to be hit by an invisible giant hammer, and dozens of pale bone spurs suddenly erupted from under Lin Mo's feet!

"Back up!" Ji Wuchen gasped.

Lin Mo reacted extremely fast, twisting his body forcefully, leaping two steps away before the bone spurs could close in, but the outside of his lower leg was still grazed by one, instantly opening a bloody wound.

A burning pain surged up.

That wasn't an ordinary wound; the bone spurs were mixed with thick Evil Qi, as if trying to drill into his flesh and blood.

Lin Mo's eyes turned cold, his internal Qi and blood surged, forcibly suppressing that Evil Qi.

"It can use the formation to attack." Ji Wuchen's voice was heavy, "We can't stay in one place for too long!"

"Then move faster."

Lin Mo didn't even look at the wound, kicked off, and lunged straight at the due north bone pillar.

At the same time, the left side was already full of danger.

Han Xiao slashed back an Mutated Bone Beast, but his shoulder was swept by the tail bone of another Dragon-blood Corpse Lizard, and he slammed into a broken bone, a sweetness rising in his throat.

"Han Xiao!" The man with black wristguards roared, swinging his warhammer to smash away the pursuers.

"I'm fine!" Han Xiao gritted his teeth and climbed up, spitting out blood foam, and instead laughed out loud.

"They are in chaos! Keep pulling them!"

He also saw it.

Ever since Lin Mo cracked the first bone pillar, the beast herd had shown obvious short-term chaos.

The encirclement, which was originally as airtight as a net, now began to have delays and misalignments.

This meant the center path gamble was correct.

On the right, Gu Yunting was in an even more sorry state, almost crawling and rolling as he fled between the bone slopes, not forgetting to curse as he did: "If I ever say I'm suitable for this job again, I'm a dog!"

The Middle-aged Man grabbed him by the collar, dragging him away from the claws of a bone beast, and backhanded his short blade into the bone beast's knee joint.

"Don't stop, keep shouting." He said in a deep voice.

Gu Yunting was stunned: "Huh?"

"Your shouting is indeed useful."

Gu Yunting: "..."

He didn't know if this was a compliment or an insult.

In front of the due north bone pillar, Ji Wuchen was already sweating on his forehead.

"Hurry! This one is connected deeper to the altar; we must break in from the second section!"

Lin Mo pressed a palm against the bone pillar and could clearly feel that there was some kind of "pulse" flowing inside, expanding and contracting, faintly resonating with the dragon marrow fire seed in the center of the altar.

This wasn't a dead object.

At least, not entirely.

"Back away."

Ji Wuchen immediately retreated.

Lin Mo took a deep breath, the Awakening of Insects Entry fully activated, golden-red light patterns on his fist shining layer by layer, and he smashed a fist down toward the second section!

Boom—!

The entire bone pillar shook violently.

The cracks didn't spread rapidly like the first one, but stalemated for a moment, and then a vibration similar to a dragon's roar came from inside. The force of the counter-shock went straight up Lin Mo's arm, numbing his shoulder bone.

"Absurdly tough." Lin Mo's eyes darkened.

"Do it again!" Ji Wuchen shouted urgently!

Lin Mo didn't hesitate at all, stabilized his footing, and threw a second punch even harder.

Bang!

This time, the due north bone pillar collapsed violently from the middle, large pieces of bone splashing everywhere. The flow of black Evil Qi surging inside was completely unbalanced, and the first layer of bone patterns on the altar's periphery instantly turned into a mess, the black light that originally flowed clockwise suddenly surging back in reverse.

Hum—

The entire formation area emitted a low tremor.

The next moment, all the guardian beasts were stabbed by something at the same time, roaring madly.

They were in chaos.

The most obvious were those Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards, whose scarlet eyes began to scan indiscriminately; some even lunged directly at the Mutated Bone Beasts beside them, as if they had lost even the basic traction.

"It's done!" Ji Wuchen breathed rapidly.

But his expression didn't relax; instead, it became even uglier.

Because deeper in the altar, the blood-gold crystal core on the chest of the Giant Guardian Beast was lighting up bit by bit.

It wasn't disrupted.

Or rather, it was completely enraged.

"The second layer of trapping spirits will backlash soon." Ji Wuchen whispered, "It's going to personally deal with us."

Lin Mo raised his head, looking at the behemoth that had finally begun to move forward, but the corners of his mouth slowly curled up.

"That just means."

"We've stepped on its sore spot."

And just at this moment, from the black mist further away on the altar's periphery, a set of extremely subtle but very rhythmic footsteps suddenly came.

The Middle-aged Man noticed it first, turned his head sharply, his eyes instantly turning cold.

"Not good, the West Federation people have snuck in."

At the edge of the black mist, the footsteps grew closer.

Soon, a dozen figures slowly emerged from behind the bone slope.

All in gray-white combat armor, with the West Federation Temple emblem engraved on their chests. The person in front wore a short gold-trimmed cape and held a slender sacrificial blade, his eyes as cold and sinister as a snake.

Clearly, this wasn't the frontal team that had been blocked outside by Lin Mo earlier.

As soon as Gu Yunting saw that combat armor, his expression changed immediately.

"These bastards are really like ghosts."

Han Xiao spat out a mouthful of blood-stained saliva and sneered: "Just in time, saves us from having to go out and find them later."

But that West Federation dark team clearly didn't intend to fight them to the death immediately.

The leading Short-caped Man only glanced at the chaotic beast herd and the altar bone array, and his gaze instantly locked onto the blood-gold dragon marrow fire seed in the center, a flash of uncontrollable greed appearing in his eyes.

"It really is here."

His voice wasn't loud, but it carried an irrepressible excitement.

"Hold them off."

"The rest, follow me to take the fire seed."

As soon as the order was given, the dark team immediately split into several people, pouncing straight toward Han Xiao and the Middle-aged Man's side, while the remaining people took advantage of the beast herd's chaos and actually forced their way into the center path of the altar.

"Want to pick the peaches?" Gu Yunting was anxious on the spot, "How can they be so shameless!"

Ji Wuchen's expression also turned ugly.

"Can't let them touch the fire seed."

"Nonsense." Lin Mo's gaze was icy, but his voice was unusually calm, "When did I ever say I was letting them?"

As he spoke, he had already looked at the bone patterns on the altar floor again.

The first layer of Sha-Gathering was already in chaos.

But the real trouble was the second layer of trapping spirits.

If this layer wasn't broken, the Giant Guardian Beast could still use the formation to suppress the entire field, and whoever touched the dragon marrow fire seed first would immediately become the center of all killing intent.

Including those idiots from the West Federation.

"Ji Wuchen." Lin Mo said lowly.

"I'm here."

"Where is the second layer's Formation Eye?"

Ji Wuchen squatted down halfway, his eyes quickly sweeping over the flow of those crazily changing bone patterns, the veins on his forehead slightly tightened.

"The trapping spirits array isn't fixed."

"After the first layer is messed up, it's filling the gaps itself."

He spoke faster and faster, clearly his brain was already working to its limit.

"It's too late to dismantle it directly; we can only borrow its own backlash."

Lin Mo's eyes moved: "Speak human."

Ji Wuchen pointed to the front left of the altar, then quickly pointed to the back right.

"Those two bone pattern nodes are locking each other; originally, it was to stabilize the flow of trapping spirits."

"But once the first layer is in chaos, there's an extra reverse-surge line between them."

"As long as someone forcefully steps in, the trapping spirits array will think something is trying to break into the core and will spontaneously draw formation power to suppress it."

"By then, the other end will open up."

Gu Yunting listened, his scalp tingling: "You mean... someone has to be bait?"

"Not bait, a formation lure." Ji Wuchen's voice was low.

"Simply put, still bait!" Gu Yunting couldn't help but curse.

Lin Mo had already understood.

This method was very risky.

But it was also the fastest.

And now on the field, there happened to be a batch of suckers who delivered themselves to the door.

He slowly raised his head, looking at the West Federation dark team that was approaching the core of the altar along the bone patterns, and the corners of his mouth suddenly lifted in a very faint arc.

"Since they are so anxious to snatch it."

"Then let them try first."

Ji Wuchen was stunned, then his eyes lit up as well.

"You want to borrow them to trigger the formation?"

"Yeah."

Lin Mo's voice was calm, but his eyes carried a hint of coldness.

"Don't they want to pick the peaches?"

"Then let them step on the pit for us first."

Gu Yunting listened and was stunned, then almost laughed out loud: "Damn, this works too?"

"Why wouldn't it." Lin Mo said calmly, "They are seeking their own death."

After speaking, he turned his head sharply, looking at the Middle-aged Man who was still maneuvering on the right.

"We retreat, let them go in first!"

The Middle-aged Man was stunned at first, then immediately understood Lin Mo's meaning, and without hesitation, withdrew his momentum and retreated.

Han Xiao's side, also under Lin Mo's reminder, deliberately lured the few entangled Dragon-blood Corpse Lizards on the left to the outside, forcibly making a small, seemingly "safe" gap for the West Federation dark team.

That dark team clearly didn't expect the other side to suddenly give way.

The leading Short-caped Man's eyes flashed, then he sneered.

"You guys are sensible."

Gu Yunting almost couldn't help but curse on the spot.

Sensible your granddaddy.

In a moment, you'll know what true sensibility is.

"Hurry!" The Short-caped Man shouted lowly, bringing two subordinates to step forcefully onto the bone pattern line on the front left of the altar.

Almost at the same moment, Ji Wuchen whispered:

"They fell for it."

Hum—

The entire second layer of the trapping spirits array suddenly lit up.

The dark golden bone patterns around the altar that were originally wandering in chaos, as if suddenly awakened, instantly erupted with blinding white light.

The Short-caped Man's expression changed drastically.

"What?!"

But it was too late.

The bone pattern line under his feet seemed to come alive, suddenly tightening, and immediately after, a terrifying heavy pressure smashed down from all directions!

Bang!

The leading West Federation saint didn't even have time to scream, his knees burst on the spot, his whole body was pressed down into the ground, and his bones creaked.